Summary

Christina Piccoli decided to scrap her planned ebook due to content duplication and instead repurposed it into a free bonus for her existing ebook, aligning with her motto of keeping work fun and simple.

Abstract

Christina Piccoli had planned to release a new paid ebook by February 16, but while working on it, she realized that much of the content was already available for free in her previous guide on starting a mini newsletter. After considering the effort required to recreate the guide, the ethics of charging for free content, and her commitment to simplicity and fun, she chose to abandon the project. Instead, she condensed the chapters, linked to the existing guide, and included the content as a complimentary addition to her "Medium Money: A Simple Guide to Writing Articles That Pay You" ebook. This decision was made to avoid redundant work and to maintain her integrity by not charging for content she had already provided at no cost.

Opinions

The author believes in the importance of not duplicating work unnecessarily.
She values providing value without repeating content that is already freely available.
The author prioritizes keeping her work fun and simple, which guided her decision to pivot from her original plan.
She sees the repurposing of the content as a win-win situation for both her and her audience.
The author acknowledges that while there was potential to earn more money with the new ebook, it would not have been aligned with her values or worth the effort.
She remains committed to creating new products that solve different problems in the future.

A Failed Experiment (But a Good Lesson)

And I turned it into something else…

Image created by the author in Midjourney.

My goal was to have my next paid product experiment up by Friday, February 16.

But as I was working on it, I discovered a problem.

My next ebook started fine.

I had a working title and a vision for where I was going with it:

I had my chapters semi-nailed down and a clear goal of what I wanted the book to help with:

I even created a funny acronym! I loved the idea of showing people how to “promote their MEN.”

However, I got to Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 and discovered where my problem was.

Everything from Chapter 3 on was already done.

I wrote all of that information in a step-by-step how-to guide here:

How to Start Your Own Mini Newsletter (A Step-by-Step Guide)

Note: These instructions will be for ConvertKit.

medium.com

So I asked myself 3 questions:

Do I really want to recreate this guide, knowing how much work went into it the first time?
Do I want to charge people for it when it’s already free on Medium?
Is this keeping in line with my motto (keep it fun) and my promise (keep it simple)?

The answer was no to everything.

This paid product has been scrapped.

But…

I turned it into something else

I had a goal, and I didn’t hit it. In that sense, this was a failure.

But, if something doesn’t make sense, why continue with it?

My aim isn’t to duplicate my work and make things harder. My aim is to simplify earning some extra income online. (And showing you how to do the same).

But all is not lost.

I ended up reducing the chapters, and linking to the how-to guide in Chapter 4:

And it’s now included as a free bonus with my Medium Money: A Simple Guide to Writing Articles That Pay You ebook.

I think this is a win-win.

Final Thoughts

Could I have made some extra money with the ebook? Probably. Would it have been worth it? I don’t think so.

It would have been a lot of duplicate work, and I would have felt bad charging for it when I already give it away for free.

When the time is right, I’ll come up with another product to help solve a different problem.

In the meantime, I’ll still keep busy working on paid product experiment #3 and these two Medium goals.

About the Author

Hey! I’m Christina, an introverted book nerd on the outside, and a raging metalhead on the inside. 🤘 I’m a married mom to two teenagers (and 3 cats and a dog). I love Vegas 🎰, the band Chevelle 🎸, and murder mysteries 📖.

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