Cheers guys!

Hey Leo
Great that you are a living testimonial to your methods.

Hey Darren
Good question!! You bring out some (maybe all) of the best in him with your questions.

Hey Leo
Great answer. I think that the idea of thinking in your readers perspective is a good mine (maybe an old mine, nonetheless still a gold mine) and giving lots of value to your reader should be a (pro)blogger’s holy grail. :p

Hey me to Leo
My one cent advice in return for your gold mine. Why not start a little competition like what Darran did once a while for a cover for your 2nd ebook? Maybe a price of 10% cut of the first 200 ebook plus copies of the 1st and 2nd ebook?

Hey Darren and Leo
Fantastic post. Blogger’s techniques, blogger’s marketing and blogger’s mindset and blogger’s self development all roll into one single post. A post in itself reflecting upon the zeny thingy.

Hey me
yah…. this is a pretty “old” post and I really wanted to comment on this post. Its great.

I had a review of ZenHabits typed up about 2 weeks ago to be posted during my blog opening week, but you beat me to it. Arghhhhh…=)

-Mike

1. Is writing easy for me? It depends. I tend to write very quickly, and instead of writing a rough draft and revising, I tend to revise in my head as I go along. But I’ve been writing professionally for 17 years, as a journalist and freelancer, so I’ve had a lot of practice. But *honest* writing … the kind that comes from the gut and the heart … now, that isn’t easy. I might still do it quickly, but it is gut-wrenching, soul-battering work … I love it, but it takes a lot out of me.

2. Do I repost my original content as guest posts on other blogs? No, never. When I give a guest post to another blogger, I want him to know that I’m giving him new stuff, and the best I could do … if he’s kind enough to give me a guest spot on his blog (and that is a very generous act), I should return that kindness by giving him some awesome, original content. It’s also better marketing, better for SEO purposes (duplicate content on different blogs is frowned upon), and if it’s original, you can point your own readers to the guest post on the other blog, so the guest post send new traffic to both blogs.

3. Ideal length of a post? As many words as it takes to communicate the idea clearly and usefully. Sometimes, you’re communicating an idea that only takes a couple paragraphs. In that case, it would be a waste of your readers’ time to write more. Sometimes, and this is most often the case for me, the idea needs more detailed explanation. For example, it’s easy to tell someone that the keys to losing weight are more exercise and eating fewer calories. But does that do justice to the topic? It would be more useful to give details on how to do each of those things in a practical way. For myself, I find that lists work best (this comment is a list, for example) … they communicate the practical steps/tips for doing something (solving your readers’ problem) in a concise, clear and scannable way.

Also, do you reprint your post in others as guest post rather than write new content?

I find that my posts are so long. I am afraid if I do not give enough detail the posts will seem so empty. What does everyone think is an ideal number of words if there is one. People just have such limited time to read today. Does anyone thing too long of post are harmful? Could I be spending too much time? Leo, do you address this on your blog?

Thoughts?

Darren, between the high profile success of Leo’s ebook and Brian Clark’s Copyblogger ebook released a few weeks ago, I am seeing growing interest from the rest of us on learning exactly what goes into an ebook, such as:

- How it is valuable as a medium as opposed to other ways of communicating with your audience online
- When you know its the right time to write one
- What goes into actually writing process (to be desirable and of maximum relevance to an online audience)
- … and other stylistic touchpoints to keep in mind

These are questions relevant to a “real” book as well, but as everything online comes from a different navigation point, a trusted guide is always desirable. I hope to read more about this in the blogosphere and on Problogger in the near future.

Thanks for bringing us this interview with Leo– good stuff.

Maya Norton
The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy

In one of the 7 ‘Internet Infopreneur Reports’ I give away for free on my site, I deal with the topic of ‘Writing a Book the SMART Way’ – and it is remarkably similar to the approach Leo has taken.

If you’d like to download and read the report for free, here’s the link:

http://www.InternetInfopreneur.com/reports/4.htm

All success
Dr.Mani

How do you find value?

That’s what’s great about Leo’s case study is that he created his ‘platform’ of readers – those passionate about his market – first, then listened to what they were saying which gives him first-hand knowledge on what they see as valuable.

What all of this means of course is – get blogging, create posts that illicit comments, listen to your readers and create your products to answer those questions…

Jeff

It’s the value of the information that the e-Book contains that is important rather than it’s length or e-covers etc.

My first ever e-Book was very recently published and is only 14 pages long. There was nothing more that I could think of to add to it.

The first customer was very happy with their purchase.

You could always give away a free report just to get started.

Just author a PDF file, zip it up and upload to your website. Then provide the URL to that zip file as the download link.

It’s best to zip it up since IE will open it in a browser window, so it might not get downloaded.