Case Study: Leo Babauta
Book | The Power of Less
Primary tribes | Zenhabits.net | @zen_habits
Guam-based father of 6, Leo Babauta, spent more than 15 years as a local newspaper writer, before easing his way into the world of online tribes. Starting ZenHabits.net in 2007, his writing style, focus, personal story and commitment to provide tremendous value led to explosive growth. (fair disclosure, like a number of others on this list, Leo’s a friend).
Barely 3 years in, his blog boasts over 130,000 subscribers and millions of views a month. And, he has a rapidly growing twitter following, too.
So when it came time to launch his book, The Power of Less, at the end of 2008, Leo was in a great position to tap into his broad tribes and drive strong book sales.
He did this, in part, by letting blog readers and twitter followers know about the book and recruiting his extended tribe of bloggers to help share the word. But, having already launched an ebook a year or so before, Leo also drew on his experience launching info-products to coordinate a series of “value-added” content items that primed both his tribe and the broader market for the book’s release.