$120k in Infoproduct Sales - How to Extend the Long Tail
Tags: creators, reflections
Published: 2021-05-22 21:56:06

---
title: $120k in Infoproduct Sales - How to Extend the Long Tail
published: true
description: 
tags: Creators, Reflections
slug: long-tail-infoproduct
canonical_url: https://www.swyx.io/long-tail-infoproduct
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ophhz5kfehva2xubp6mw.png
---

*This post originated as [an AMA on IndieHackers](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/made-121-326-since-launching-my-book-last-july-63-of-it-after-launch-month-ama-about-long-tail-infoproducts-41b55f5670)*

I [launched the Coding Career Handbook almost a year ago](https://www.indiehackers.com/product/cracking-the-coding-career) and since then have been focusing on long tail revenue, while keeping my day job as a [Part Time Creator](https://www.swyx.io/part-time-creator-manifesto/).

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ophhz5kfehva2xubp6mw.png)

Since launch ([day](https://dev.to/swyx/lessons-and-regrets-from-my-25000-launch-3aaa), [month](https://dev.to/swyx/5-q-a-s-on-writing-and-selling-my-first-book-18d1), [cheatsheet](https://github.com/sw-yx/launch-cheatsheet)) I've been consistently hitting around $1-2k a week in infoproduct revenue, with a high price point ($59 for just the book, $249 for book+community+behind the scenes), and no sales apart from Black Friday.


![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6764957/119191126-d4ac3c80-bab0-11eb-815d-1481c8616aec.png)

## 5 Tips for Long Tails

Off the top of my head these things helped extend the tail:

- **Run a Twitter**. This is definitely extra work and I'm not sure how much sales it helps to drive, but having a [dedicated book twitter](https://twitter.com/Coding_Career) helps me stay current in people's minds without making my main account too spammy. Being tagged on feedback is great for social proof.
- **Run a podcast**. Randall and I [ran a podcast](https://careerchats.transistor.fm/) that helped extend the reach of content we already worked on.
- **Run a paid community**. My [middle tier](https://www.learninpublic.org/#community) is a high signal/low noise Discord + Circle community focused on tech careers and part time creation. Monthly calls and meetups and daily chats helps drive word of mouth.
- **Blog**. 1/4 of my book was [prior blogposts that did well](https://swyx.io/LIP), so appending a shoutout to the top of the post helps drive traffic for people who want to read more.
- **Do podcasts and talks**. I do at least a talk a month and it turns out podcasters like [inviting book authors to chat](https://shoptalkshow.com/432/) - the caveat here is that I've had zero luck cold pitching, [the talks/podcasts I did](https://www.learninpublic.org/) were all already warm/inbound.

I spent about 600 hours writing the book. 

I think creators should spend equal time marketing as they do creating. 

So I probably still have a ways to go, not inclusive of a planned v2 of the book this year.

Let me know what other questions you have!

## Reader Q&A

**Emma**: How do you identify your niche and gauge their interest?

> blog a lot and see what works 🤷‍♂️
>
> a set of good posts = the mvp of a book

**Akcium**: Do you have a newsletter?

> I have [a personal newsletter](https://www.swyx.io/subscribe), but decided not to do a separate book newsletter. 
>
> I probably lost a lot of potential sales that way (bc its a way to extend the relationship if people are noncommittal), but it felt like extra work that I wouldn't enjoy. I'm more of a twitter native.

**Akcium**: Would it be reasonable to make a separate twitter for a ...book?

> I don't actually think *most* people should make a separate twitter. 
>
> I only do it so as to shard my content because it is important that my main twitter not become too self promotional. 
>
> If you are just starting out building an audience, just build one, not two.

**unemployability**: How did you finally settle on those price points?

> hey! yeah so pricing is a weird one - I approached it as a shock therapy exercise since I didn't need the money. You know how @patio11 and @csallen are always telling people to raise prices? i took that as far as I thought I could for a book:
> 
> - Started with presale of $19 and then randomly promised that my presale price was 50% off launch...
> - That means my launch price was $39... and i wanted to make the launch look like a good deal so I said it was 30% off the final price... 
> - That made the final book $59 and I had to put in the work to make sure it was worth that...
> - Then I followed @jhooks' advice to do 1x 2x 5x three tier pricing.
> - Wanted to make the middle tier a nobrainer so I put the community at $40 which is super cheap compared to the book
> - then threw all the value add I could think of into the 5x. goal here was to try to sell a 3-figure thing to internet strangers for the first time... job accomplished.
> 
> Higher prices can always be discounted in future... much harder to raise them. I also have something worth more to offer, when for example, i do a talk at a conference and they want to raffle off something.

**Rob Fitzpatrick** (author of the Mom Test): Happy to see you mention spending a significant amount of time on the creation. So many people in this space seem obsessed with churning stuff out more quickly, whereas I always feel that it's more important to spend whatever time is required to make the end result most valuable.

> Yes! That's what rubs me the wrong way about Daniel's "pump it out in 2 weeks" thing. It's of course great to make your first dollar on the internet, but no customer wants to hear how *little* you worked for their dollar.

**Bhumi**: What is your main distribution channel for the long-tails post "launch" month growth? Is it mainly Twitter? Does your community help with the ongoing growth?

> I listed a few channels above, and word of mouth from community (special shoutout to Tre Tuna from Amazon/Hack Reactor!!) has definitely helped. But I don't check my stats so I don't know what the main contributor was. 
>
> I generally subscribe to the idea that people have to hear about you at least 3-4 times before they decide to buy your stuff so thats why I don't really bother.
>
> Just put out as much as I can given the time limits that i have, and let the cards fall where they may.

**TypeofGraphic**: What advice would you give around starting and growing a community?

> 1. show up every day
> 2. propose relevant topics
> 3. respond promptly when someone engages
> 4. do it for a year

**TypeofGraphic**: If you did it again - another book, another topic maybe. What would you do differently?

> If i did it again, i'd make a short book - like, 100 pages, price it at $9, art design the heck out of it because everyone judges a book by its cover and illustrations. I made the mistake of aiming for the high end when I did my pricing and product and perhaps could have done better just going for reach first.
>
> When you do a book, you can either go for money or go for reach. I naively went for money. Better play is to make first book for reach, so that everyone is HUGELY IMPRESSED, then second book for money.

**manast**: Just one question, how did you grow your Coding_Career twitter? did you have a large audience already in your regular twitter that you managed to engage in your new twitter account, or how did you do it?

> i think i had about 15 or 16k followers when i launched that twitter, its middle sized? idk.
>
> for Coding_Career i think just tweeting focused threads like [this one](https://twitter.com/Coding_Career/status/1395415855303852033 ). I have more dev twitter advice in the book. :)