I see they asked you about writing a book. I've been waiting for you to write the definitive book on SEO.
Have you thought about bypassing a publisher and just producing a PDF and selling it directly? Then the only cost you'd have would to pay for a good editor and the rest would be profit.
I'd gladly pay $50 to learn everything you know about SEO. I'd bet you could sell a couple thousand copies on HN alone. Would that be enough money for it to be worth your while?
Yet some of the most successful consultants have written books on the subject of their expertise.
Somehow I don't think a book would discourage consulting clients. They want him looking at their situation and data with the benefit of everything he's learned since writing the book.
If it gives him a higher profile it might actually result in more consulting gigs.
If it gives him a higher profile it might actually result in more consulting gigs.
So if you take one gram of sodium and add it to a room filled with chlorine gas, you end up with a wee little pile of salt. Pumping more gas into the room does not increase the amount of salt you get, because the sodium is the limiting reagent.
The limiting reagent in the number of consulting gigs I do every year is not the number of people who wish me to consult for them. It is closer to "How many weeks do I want to spend consulting?" That number is about ten to twelve weeks a year. I can fill my dance card at that number without needing to work very hard on getting the word out to new people.
It might make sense if I wanted to scale a consulting business up by hiring employees, training them to be Mini Me, and then closing clients on consulting engagements with fulfillment to be done by the Mini Mes. That is an option. It isn't one which really fits in with my plans for life at the moment.
Your answer to the "why don't you write a book" question was as concise and cogent as can be imagined (a priceless summary of what can make the conventional trade a sucker game for authors) - that said, I can't help but see a book in your future at some point, even if someone has to hog-tie and torture you to give it up. Your public will demand it.
If you have too many customers for the time available, why not increase the price?
And about the book, you can write down a somewhat detailed point-by-point walkthrough and outsource the actual writing of the book. Then sell it as an info product on your website for, say, $150 -- it is easily worth the money, which you get to keep most of and you can A/B test it like crazy.
Heck you could dictate the book while traveling and never have to write a line.
There are, however, three possible upsides you are did not address.
1. The experience of writing what you know down in an organized form is an excellent way of refocusing your thoughts. (OK, you do so much of that anyways that this is not an issue.)
2. An increased demand for your consulting services can result in an increased rate for you.
3. The feedback you might get on a book could make you think of things you have never thought about.
Writing a book is probably not going to increase the high-end demand for Patrick's work, which is where his money is at. He is already turning down work from clueful Patrick-hour investors.
>> closing clients on consulting engagements with fulfillment to be done by the Mini Mes
Your experience was gained over many years. The process of training Mini Mes would start to make the option of writing a book seem attractive by comparison.
Actually if you use software out there that takes the name you use on the credit card to buy the book and puts it on every single page of the PDF it has been proven to be a pretty good deterrent for the bit torrent problem.
This actually pisses me off, a lot. I don't put my ebooks up on torrenting sites or distribute them - but seeing my own email address show up on every page of my ebook means that I'm not going to buy from you again, ever.
To me, there's a distinctive difference between adding a non-audible watermark to a audio file vs. watermarking text with text. I can listen to purchased iTunes music all day long and never even be aware of the watermarking existing, but I can't look at a single page of my [one and only] Packt Publishing ebook without their giant logo, my name, date of purchase and my address being displayed in the footer.
If they wanted to watermark my info into the file to prevent file sharing, that's fine. Printed on every page? Obnoxious. It's another case of legitimate purchases having a disincentive that piracy doesn't. I bought the book, I know I bought the book, I don't need to be reminded 272 times in the process of consuming it.
I do - but having my email embedded into a part of the file that I'm not going to see while I'm regularly using the file isn't a problem. I'm not distributing, and I don't mind that the file's identified to me. Having my email on every single page of the ebook I'm reading is a waste of space that only serves to frustrate me - why is my email there? How does having my email there improve the reading experience? It doesn't.
It might not be as intrusive as annoying DRM, but it still makes reading my ebooks frustrating.
Yes it is probably a good deterrent for most people. The problem is you need something that'll work for everyone. Otherwise one person won't be deterret, will edit out the details, and put it on a torrent site. Then anyone who wants to pirate it, can pirate it.
I didn't know that about Apple, but I would imagine they are not the entity that encouraged such behavior. I'm glad I don't use iTunes at all, and now, I never will use it.
in my opinion, SEO moves way too fast to make it worthwhile to write a book like this as a big one-time project. what's most interesting in SEO are the individual questions which come up along the way.
Have you thought about bypassing a publisher and just producing a PDF and selling it directly? Then the only cost you'd have would to pay for a good editor and the rest would be profit.
I'd gladly pay $50 to learn everything you know about SEO. I'd bet you could sell a couple thousand copies on HN alone. Would that be enough money for it to be worth your while?