Web Warrior Tools: Ridiculously Useful Guides to Everything
I’m excited to tell you guys about my new venture: Web Warrior Tools, a site dedicated to publishing ridiculously useful ebook guides to anything you want to do, on the web or even off.
It’s a joint venture between me and my friend Glen Stansberry of the LifeDev blog and the LifeRemix blog network, something we’ve been cooking up for some time now. We’re very excited to share these ebooks with you, as we think you’ll love them.
To start with, we have four excellent ebooks from four wonderful writers:
- Getting Started with Podcasting by Doug Heacock. An awesome guide that is most useful to bloggers like me who would like to reach a whole new audience — iPod users — but don’t know how to start. I really enjoyed this one and plan to do a Zen Habits podcast in the not-too-distant future (once I have a little less on my plate!).
- Secrets to a Healthy Life by K. Stone of Life Learning Today. Stone is a blogging friend of mine who did a great job — the perfect guide for those of you who have been in an unhealthy rut and would like to change your lifestyle.
- The Get Rich Slowly Guide to Roth IRAs by J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly. As I’ve mentioned before, J.D. Roth is one of the inspirations of Zen Habits, and I’m truly honored to be able to feature his new ebook guide on Web Warrior Tools. Now, the Roth IRA wasn’t named after J.D., but as the premier personal finance blogger on the Internet (seriously, check out his blog if you haven’t yet), he sure knows what he’s talking about. If the idea of retirement planning intimidates you, you have to read this guide.
- Email Zen by Scott Young of the Scott H. Young blog. Scott’s been a guest poster here on Zen Habits and is another blogging friend of mine, a great guy and a fountain of useful info.
One of the coolest things about our new site is that through a partnership with Docstoc.com, we’re able to allow you to preview a few chapters from each of the ebooks immediately (seriously, it’s better than Amazon’s preview), right from the site. Go and check them out!
More to Come
But this is just the starting lineup of ebooks. We’ve got several more already written that will be published in the next week or two, and even more coming down the pipe. We’ll be regularly publishing these useful guides, some written by Glen and some written by me and more written by other great writers … so sign up for updates via RSS or Email.
Over the next few months we hope to compile a library of useful tools that you can pick and choose from, for everyone from beginner Web Warriors to advanced. I hope you’ll find this to be an invaluable resource, at a low cost.
Become an Affiliate
For those of you who are bloggers (or have your own website), you might be interested in selling the ebooks we’re offering on Web Warrior Tools … and you’ll be happy to hear that if you sign up as an affiliate, you’ll get a 30% commission on every ebook you sell or every ebook bought from someone referred from your site.
How do you become an affiliate? It’s super easy — just sign up here by filling out a form. You’ll get an url that you can use as a link on your site or in your blog posts, and anyone who clicks on that url and buys an ebook will be logged as a sale for you. At the end of each month, we’ll send you a payment for your commission.
In your blog post, you can tell people about the Web Warrior Tools ebook site in general, or you can do a review on one or more of the ebooks that you like best or that would best appeal to your readers.
Help Spread the Word
Oh, and if you would like to earn some karma today, I’d appreciate it if you would help let people know about WWT by adding it to del.icio.us or StumbleUpon, or Digg through the Digg button below. :) Thanks for your help!
- Posted on 27 May 2008 in Aboutzenhabits, Books, Technology |
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Comments (57)
rj Says:
May 27th, 2008, 19:34 pm
congrats on the new venture!
pavs Says:
May 27th, 2008, 19:43 pm
Looks nice!
Will you guys be accepting ebooks submissions from others?
mark @ mytropicalescape Says:
May 27th, 2008, 19:43 pm
Hey Leo - Great stuff! Best of luck in this venture and I am SURE it will be a huge success.
Dave Turnbull Says:
May 27th, 2008, 19:47 pm
Buying the Email Zen book now. I feel my email is organized quite well (I mainly just try to avoid getting emails), but I’m sure I’ll pick up a couple of tips. :)
Dave Turnbull Says:
May 27th, 2008, 19:48 pm
Uh, just got this error when I tried to download the product “Seller has no file uploaded for this product currently. Please contact the seller at sales [@] webwarriortools.com”
Farfield Says:
May 27th, 2008, 19:49 pm
Congratulations Leo. Good to see something fresh and different happening!
Leo Says:
May 27th, 2008, 19:53 pm
Thanks for all the kind words!
@Dave: looking into this now! There might be a couple small kinks that we’ll smooth out over the next few days. Thanks for your patience!
@pavs: Absolutely! We’re looking for excellent writers … and because we expect to get a lot of writers applying to do ebooks, we will have to pick and choose, so don’t be offended if we can’t accept everyone!
Leo Says:
May 27th, 2008, 19:57 pm
@mark … when you have time, write an ebook for us! :)
Jonathan B. Says:
May 27th, 2008, 20:04 pm
Thanks for the links. I’m looking forward to more. :)
I plan on opening my Roth IRA soon so I’ll be sure to check out J.D.’s guide.
Leo Says:
May 27th, 2008, 20:22 pm
@Dave: Glen fixed the problem and should have emailed you the ebook by now. Thanks for letting me know!
@everyone: I’d love to hear from anyone who buys any of the ebooks — let me know what you think of them!
MoneyEnergy Says:
May 27th, 2008, 20:45 pm
Sounds great - I’ll link to you and sign up as an affiliate. What sorts of books are you looking to publish? Some of my writing might be relevant.
Leo Says:
May 27th, 2008, 20:49 pm
@MoneyEnergy: Thanks! We’re looking for very useful guides to all kinds of stuff — from lifestyle stuff to productivity to technology to finances and business and more.
SpaceAgeSage Says:
May 27th, 2008, 20:56 pm
Leo — looks like a great, fun, and useful site that has your passion fired up. Congratulations on your new venture and adventure!
Dave Turnbull Says:
May 27th, 2008, 21:08 pm
Thanks for your quick response Leo.
I read through Email Zen and it’s quite a nice eBook. It’s basically every email-management guide I’ve read bundled up into an easy to read format, so it works well as a sort of checklist - I can keep going back to it and I make sure I’m being as productive as possible. :)
Looking forward to new releases.
Trixi Says:
May 27th, 2008, 21:48 pm
Um. . . . wondering . . . You say you are offering “five excellent ebooks from five wonderful writers” . . . but I only see four ebook./writers on the list . . .
? ? ?
Laurie Says:
May 27th, 2008, 21:48 pm
Good luck Leo! Sounds like some great resources for small business owers as well. Don’t forget educators! We’re always in the market for great resources!! :O)
Marelisa/Coaxing Creativity Says:
May 27th, 2008, 22:09 pm
I love e-books. There’s nothing like wanting to know how to do something and being able to have the information in your hands that very same night. Information products are definitely the way to go.
Daniel Says:
May 27th, 2008, 22:09 pm
Looks great Leo! I’ll be signing up as an affiliate and snarfing (is that a word? Or just for us former “Thunder Cats” fans?) a few copies for myself in the next few days!
Heidi Says:
May 27th, 2008, 22:11 pm
Thanks for the podcast link - I’ve been thinking about getting into that and now I’m inspired!
Leo Says:
May 27th, 2008, 22:27 pm
@Trixi: Good catch! :) I totally missed that … originally we were going to have five but decided to hold off on one of them … it should be coming out soon! Thanks for the correction — going to make the change now.
@Daniel: snarfing, if it isn’t actually, definitely *should* be a word! :)
@Heidi: Let me know if you do create a podcast! I’d love to hear from you about how the process worked for you.
Ivan Blatter Says:
May 28th, 2008, 2:04 am
Congratulations! Very nice and simple site!
I already bought the “Secrets to a Healthy Life” but I noticed a little problem: I put the book in the cart and continued shopping. After finishing I didn’t found a link or a button back to my cart. If there is one it is hidden very good. :-)
James Says:
May 28th, 2008, 3:50 am
$6 for a 26 pages ebook?? Isn’t that a bit expensive … ?
Would you really buy a traditional, paper book of 26 pages in a book store for $6?
Grace Smith | Postscript5 Says:
May 28th, 2008, 4:04 am
Congrats Leo on the launch! I know its going to be a super success :-)
Toblerone @ Simple Mom Says:
May 28th, 2008, 5:28 am
Ooh, I’m in the process of writing an e-book as we speak, and I think it might be a good fit for your collection. I’ll send it to you when I’m done. (My niche is productivity for home managers, so I think it’s right up your alley…)
Peter Says:
May 28th, 2008, 7:24 am
Snakeoil….I think all that information is free and shared (not sold) to the community on Lifehacker and other places… I guess you need the cash to get of Guam finally?
Marc and Angel Says:
May 28th, 2008, 7:42 am
Sounds like a great project. I’m looking forward to reading / reviewing the final product. I’ll probably sign up as an affiliate and buy a copy for myself. ;-)
Amram Jochabed Says:
May 28th, 2008, 7:44 am
ALL ONE, Leo!
All One or your website is DONE!
Teach the people HOW TO BE … 1, 2, 3 … Moral ABC’s!
One, Two, Code Blue … BLUE for all of you!
All One, All One … without One fun is DONE!
Two, Three, can’t you SEE?
E-books NONE … without All ONE!
Show them Leo. You Know.
ALL ONE!
ALL ONE!
ALL ONE OR NONE!
Leo Says:
May 28th, 2008, 8:33 am
Thanks for the nice comments, everyone!
@James: If the book had valuable information that I needed, yes, I’d totally pay $6 for a book like that. For me it’s not the number of pages but the value of the information.
However, if you’re not happy with the ebook, email me and I’ll refund your money. :) I’m not trying to rip anyone off.
@Peter: I’m not sure if you really could find all the info in any of these ebooks for free, but one thing I’m sure of is that it would probably take you a long time to find every bit of it, and you’d have to sift through a lot of stuff you don’t need. For me, my time is worth more than $6 an hour, so if an author has saved me an hour’s worth of sifting and skimming and searching, it’s worth it (actually, 10 minutes of saved time would be worth it for me).
But again, if anyone is not happy with the ebooks, please let me know and I’ll give you a refund. I’m not trying to sell worthless information that you don’t need. :)
Tess Says:
May 28th, 2008, 8:39 am
Fabulous - the name is really cool and the design is simple and clean. Going to go see which ones to get (all of them???)
Chris Austria Says:
May 28th, 2008, 8:59 am
Good luck with your new venture! I’m going to check it out and see if I can become and affiliate. I’m sure with your following you will become a success.
You reap what you sow.
Ryan McLean Says:
May 28th, 2008, 9:15 am
This sounds like a great joint venture, and due to your already large audience this will make you a fair amount of money.
I think a great post could be to write about how to create friends online which you can partner with. I run a financial blog and I would love to have some friends to work along side and do joint ventures with.
SpaceAgeSage Says:
May 28th, 2008, 11:19 am
RE: Cost
I found in my local bookstore what I thought was a rather odd book in the business section. It was a thin, but large paperback — looked more like a workbook from the outside — but was filled with synonyms. I thought, “Why would I pay for this? Why wouldn’t I just use a free online thesaurus instead?” The more I looked at the book, the more I realized it had meaningful and powerful synonyms I would normally need in most of my writing. No digging required among obscure words, and it was all at my fingertips. Someone in business put a lot of careful thought into the needs of a writer. I didn’t buy it, but I have been hitting myself over the head ever since, and plan to go back and buy this high-dollar book of few pages because I realize it will save me time and make my writing better. The same day, I bought a very short $12.99 book on leadership that took me less than two hours to read, but it changed my life.
Leo is right, it is about usefulness and applicability.
Glen Stansberry Says:
May 28th, 2008, 11:27 am
@Ivan- Sorry about that! I’ve added a “View Cart” button to the header of the site.
Thanks for the great feedback everyone!
Ibrahim Says:
May 28th, 2008, 12:38 pm
Beautiful site Leo, great idea, and I’m sure it will be a great success. I’m excited for you. I’ve already registered as an affiliate, and maybe I’ll even be able to write for the site.
I hope everything is well with you. Thanks for all of your great writing!
Karyl Says:
May 28th, 2008, 12:41 pm
Sounds like a great new site… nice design too. :) Do you think there’s any market for a general “commercial artist’s technique and business skills” eBook? :)
Jonathan B. Says:
May 28th, 2008, 13:10 pm
@James: Every day people spend $5 or more on a crappy meal from McDonalds. I’d gladly pay $6 for a small book that can help me improve my life.
Rick Says:
May 28th, 2008, 15:06 pm
Great new venture, Leo. I’ll take a deeper look this evening and sign-up to assist. Lots of luck!
Rick
Shilpan | successsoul.com Says:
May 28th, 2008, 15:40 pm
Leo -
You’ve shown greatness time and time again. I’ve been reading your responses to few who purposely try to attack you without any other reason than jealousy. In response, you’ve always shown calmness and compassion. I’m drawing a great deal of inspiration from you not because you are such a big success on the blogoshpere but because you are a person with magnanimous heart. Please always keep that trait with you no matter how high you go. Thanks for everything.
Shilpan
Chica Dificil Says:
May 28th, 2008, 18:49 pm
Leo! Great idea. Web Warrior Tools is dope!
Two things:
1) I’m always looking for easy to read and economically priced materials to recommend to my clients who are in the process of making significant life changes (I’m a psychologist). For example, Secrets to a Healthy Life is a great source to use as a form of assigned bibliotherapy on their path to wellness. I hope that more can be published around overall wellness.
2) I have given some of my clients (when appropriate) a link to my blog as it deals with issues related to loss/grief, spirtuality, etc. Client and strangers who have stumbled across my blog have told me how much I promoted healing or support for them. The idea of my material or anyone elses being compiled into a comprehensive but easy to read E-Book in efforts to help people is AWESOME!
Leo Says:
May 28th, 2008, 19:10 pm
I really appreciate everyone’s support — I knew you’d be encouraging! :)
@Karyl: Interesting idea! I’m sure if there are people who want to be commercial artists, there’d be a market for an ebook like that.
@Shilpan: Thanks for the kind words, as usual. I don’t think people are trying to purposely be mean — they’re just being honest, and I really expect to get both good and bad feedback, so it’s not a problem. As for handling criticism with grace, that is my goal, always, so I’m glad if I’m achieving it! :)
@Chica Dificil: I’m so glad that you think you’re clients will appreciate these resources! And thank you for referring them. I hope you’ve signed up to be an affiliate so you can get a commission for your referrals.
As for compiling useful stuff into a reference ebook, you’re right, that’s exactly what we’re shooting for. Glad you share our philosophy!
Ryan McLean Says:
May 28th, 2008, 20:22 pm
I can’t believe you got 183 Diggs so far on this post! That is phenominal…I can only dream of that happening to me at the moment.
I get 30 people a day to my financial blog. I want to have the success you have had.
Eric Says:
May 28th, 2008, 20:35 pm
That’s a beautiful website. I just added it to http://www.drupalmuseum.com
Daniel Says:
May 28th, 2008, 21:22 pm
I love the design, you my friend are absolutely genius. This is something I would be happy to sell on my blog.
Edwin | Fitness Chapter Says:
May 29th, 2008, 2:39 am
Hi Leo,
Congratulations on your new venture. It seems to be a huge success to me! Will definitely be helping you to spread the word.
Edwin
Dance101 Says:
May 29th, 2008, 9:40 am
Congrats on the new venture. You really have been busy. I am still getting my head around ZTD book. Best of luck with the new site.
Leo Says:
May 29th, 2008, 10:18 am
Thanks guys!
@Ryan: What’s a web warrior? Great question! I think most of us are web warriors, or at least have a little web warrior in us — we use the web a lot, and we’ve got a fierceness about us in our exploration of this brave new world. It’s like a wilderness, and we are fighting our way through it, to survive and hopefully to thrive. :)
skyz Says:
May 29th, 2008, 15:55 pm
good timing since last week google open sourced all their web development documents
the directions are there but most of us need a bit of translation / coaching
the internet as it is now reminds me of the pioneers who could pick a piece of virgin land and claim it for their own just by registering their claim and working it
instead of building castles in the air we can build on the web
we are fortunate to be here now
the web provides the greatest range and domain of opportunity ever imho
Zin Says:
May 29th, 2008, 16:44 pm
For a sexy yet tasteful approach to “Zin” check out Zinlightened.com
Zin as in the wine with a touch of Zen
Chris Says:
May 29th, 2008, 19:24 pm
‘Email Zen’ is right up my alley and very timely. The new project is a great idea.
Jack Says:
June 2nd, 2008, 13:12 pm
I believe that sites like these will be the end of the blogosphere that many of
us have grown so accustomed to. Most would agree that the internet is
saturated with blogs of all sorts that seem to talk about the same issues
(it should be no surprise that all those who posted comments on this page
have blogs of their own, and are probably hoping to jump on the e-book selling
bandwagon sooner or later). This is perfectly fine, since all that was wasted
used to be just bandwidth. But now, money is on the line, which changes
everything.
I am no economist, but I can still predict that this system will be
unsucessful. The reason why most of these blogs are successful is not because
the information they contain are ingenious, but simply because it is free, and
hence not scarce. If I don’t lose anything by reading them (except for time,
which isn’t that valuable for most), and have a chance of gaining something,
why would I not do it? The bloggers gained money through revenues, but the
readers did not lose any money.
But then the authors got a little more greedy, and in an attempt to make more
money, they started publishing e-books. At first it seems like the worst case
scenario is that only a few people would buy the e-books, which is not all
that bad since producing them don’t have any manufacturing or distribution
costs anyway. But something else that is much more important than low profits
is at stake: your credibility. The smart readers now have a completely new
problem to think about.
For the bloggers adhering to your scheme, their main website would merely be a
marketing attraction to get visitors to buy the ebooks (like movie trailers).
If an author has a great idea for a post, he would be now be more inclined to
write it up as an e-book, since that would earn him more money than getting ad
revenue through visits. For the astute reader, this means that the free posts
on their web sites are second-grade ideas that weren’t good enough to make it
in an e-book. If, on the other hand, the author chooses to incorporate all of
his ideas as free posts, then the readers who do buy the e-books will have
been ripped off. Whether you call it up-selling or price discrimination, the
the readers always lose. The signal you are giving away is that the stuff that
is on the web page is unimportant, and that people need to pay to get the real
stuff. Is that
I am sorry Leo, but you are helping demolish what precisely made created zen
habits. If I were you, I would stop this business and retain your loyal
reader (or customer?) base. Which makes me think, maybe I should start a blog to
write my thoughts on why blogs are bad…
SpaceAgeSage Says:
June 2nd, 2008, 18:07 pm
Jack,
Blogs like Leo’s are more than words, action items, or ramblings. They are connecting points between writer and people with whom the concepts resonate. They are cathartic healings for those once not allowed to express themselves. They are a gathering place for communities, where opinion and civility matter.
Ebooks or bloggers’ books maybe condensed versions of blog posts or not, but that did not stop me from buying Darren Rowse’s Problogger book. Perhaps I could have followed link after link at his site and read comments to get most of that information for free, but I wanted a handy, all-in-one sourcebook and was willing to pay for it. I also wanted something to show my techie husband so he didn’t have to follow my link hopping either. As a writer, I value the opportunity to write because of a certain benefit that’s called “being paid.” I don’t see a problem with Leo, WWT, or blogs. Leo can take his blog anywhere he wants. Why would you want to try to control him?
Leo Says:
June 3rd, 2008, 21:12 pm
@Jack: I really appreciate your honest feedback, and you raise some interesting issues that I’ve grappled with myself. I’d like to thank you for sharing your thoughts, and also for giving me the opportunity to clarify myself.
First, I should make it clear that Web Warrior Tools is completely separate from Zen Habits. Sure, I will do an occasional post on ZH about a new ebook, but ZH readers are free to skip over them … and the vast majority of my posts will continue to be free articles packed with as much useful information as I can provide.
Second, after giving this a lot of thought (over the past year), I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of ebooks as an economic model. You would be right if a blogger turned his blog into a marketing tool for his ebooks — that would be horrible, and he would lose all his readers. But for my part, and for many bloggers I know, the blog remains a valuable source of information, not at all a marketing tool for ebooks.
I hope my readers don’t feel like I’m just trying to sell my ebooks, as that’s the furthest thing from the truth. I see the ebooks simply as a way to supplement the info I provide on the blog — a way to condense information into an easy-to-read package, to make things convenient and clear for readers, to allow them to spread the info to others if they want easily, without having to search for and provide dozens of links.
Many readers have found my ebooks valuable in these ways, but many more have ignored the ebooks and have just continued reading the free articles I have on my blog (that, again, are mostly free of ebook marketing — the ebook posts are rare for me).
I hope this has clarified things a little. I am in agreement with you, that if a blog becomes simply a marketing tool, it is headed towards death. I don’t want to become that, and I invite you to continue your feedback so that I stay on the right track.
Thanks again Jack!
Colin Says:
June 7th, 2008, 11:39 am
Can an affiliate just choose which books they want to stock to keep in with their own website’s ethos?
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