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The free guidebook as an ebook, the email pop-up and welcome emails, and selling the guidebook on Amazon

Last updated: Saturday 17 October 2026, 7:55pm Pacific (wording only; the research is from Wednesday night, 14 October).

This page answers three sets of questions from Wednesday: how to send our free Longevity Guidebook as an ebook without it getting passed around, when the email sign-up pop-up should show and what the welcome emails should say, and how to price and set up the guidebook on Amazon. The short version is good news: our ebook file is already the right kind, the experts mostly back the plan for the pop-up and emails, and Claude can do about three quarters of the Amazon setup.

Where to answer: every choice on this page that's still open is in the brief's Questions for you, with the choices to tap and one Send button.

Added Thursday 15 October 2026, 7:14am Pacific: the guidebook rebuild finished at 12:20am Thursday: 374 pages in paperback, 375 in the free edition, no blank pages, and the copyright lines at the back. Read the free edition (PDF, 11 MB).

This was research only. Nothing live changed: the pop-up and welcome emails weren't touched, and nothing was set up or signed into on Amazon.

The guidebook as an ebook

We give the guidebook away free to people who join our email list. These answers cover which file to send, how to stop it being shared, and how people read it on a Kindle or an iPad.

Which ebook format is best?

Short answer: an EPUB that reflows to fit any screen, with a PDF as the backup for anyone who wants fixed pages. Ours is already that kind of EPUB (16.2 MB), so there's nothing to redo.

Can we skip blank pages and put the copyright page at the back?

Short answer: yes to both. Amazon requires no blank pages and no copyright page at the front, in the ebook or the paperback.

Can we send it in a protected format, so it can't just be passed around, and still have it read on Kindle and iPad?

Short answer: yes, though not with a lock. The locks that could protect a free file from our site (Adobe, Readium LCP, Locklizard) don't open on a Kindle.

The better route is BookFunnel ($200 a year), connected to Klaviyo, our email system. Only people on our list can download the book, and every copy carries their email address, so a leaked copy names whoever leaked it. It reads on every Kindle and on iPad, with no special app or account.

How a new subscriber gets it on a Kindle: they sign up on the pop-up, tap "Get your free guidebook" (on the thank-you step or in the first welcome email), type the same email on our BookFunnel page, and choose Kindle. On an Android phone, the BookFunnel app sends it straight to their Kindle.

Anywhere else, they upload it at amazon.com/sendtokindle, or approve their own address in Amazon's settings and forward BookFunnel's email to their @kindle.com address. It lands in their Kindle library in 5 to 10 minutes, on every device on that account.

On an iPad: the same first steps, then Apple Books. It opens in color and works offline, and anyone who wants fixed pages can take the stamped PDF.

Before launch: BookFunnel's help pages say EPUBs on restricted download pages are watermarked. We'd still test the PDF stamp, check that a brand-new subscriber passes the Klaviyo list check at once (double opt-in delays adding people), and do one run on a Kindle and one on an iPad.

Nothing gets set up until you and Nick say so.

Where the free ebook and Amazon meet: to keep giving the full book away free, the Kindle edition has to stay out of KDP Select (Amazon's exclusive program). Select's rule: "During the 90-day enrollment period, the Kindle eBook can only be distributed through KDP and public libraries."

Our site counts as distribution, and only a 10% sample is allowed anywhere else. Staying out of Select gives up Kindle Unlimited, free promotion days, Countdown Deals and the 70% royalty in Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India.

Keep Amazon's copy protection (DRM) on the Kindle edition, since buyers of unprotected Kindle books can now download them as EPUB or PDF. And keep the free copy on our own site only, since Amazon may match "a third party's price".

The choices (in the brief's Questions):

Sources:

The email pop-up and welcome emails

A panel of 15 outside experts (email marketers, usability researchers, a deliverability pair and ecommerce founders) answered five questions about how we sign people up from our Meta ad landing pages and what we send them next. The aim is more first orders from the people our ads bring in, without hurting the pages' sales.

These answers build on the setup chosen Wednesday evening: on the Meta ad landing pages, the pop-up offers only the free guidebook; on the rest of the site, it offers 15% off plus the free guidebook.

When should the pop-up show on the Meta ad landing pages, without hurting sales?

Short answer: not on a timer alone. Show it once the visitor scrolls past the top of the page into the proof, and no sooner than 12 seconds after they land (or the median time engaged visitors spend there, once we check it).

Where the experts landed: 2 agree (the two usability researchers), 2 disagree, and 11 had no opinion on timing. A checkout research firm would wait several minutes or skip the pop-up; an ecommerce founder would show it on arrival, plus a second pop-up when someone goes to leave.

The choice: recommended, show it after the visitor scrolls past the top, 12 seconds at the earliest. Other choices: 12 seconds after landing; on arrival plus a pop-up when someone goes to leave; or no pop-up, with the guidebook offered on the page itself.

Should each ad angle get its own welcome emails?

Each ad makes one main pitch (its angle), for example the lab test results or winter immunity. The question was whether the emails that follow a sign-up should carry on that pitch.

Short answer: not a whole series per angle. Split only the first two emails by where people signed up: ad page sign-ups get emails that carry on their ad's pitch, and site sign-ups get their own two, with no angle. After that, everyone gets the same series.

Where the experts landed: 8 agree, 2 disagree in part, 5 had no opinion. The two email copywriters who disagree want the angle in every welcome email, not just the first two.

The choice: recommended, the angle in the first two emails only. Other choice: the angle in every welcome email.

What should the first welcome email lead with: the free guidebook, the ad's pitch, or both?

Short answer: both, for ad page sign-ups, which is what you leaned toward. The subject and first line name the guidebook and tie it to their ad's pitch, with one download button high up, a short block on why it matters to them, and no code.

Site sign-ups get the guidebook button first and the 15% code (OPUS15) just below it, stated plainly but not as the headline, with no angle.

Where the experts landed: 9 agree, nobody disagrees, 6 had no opinion. On the site email, only one member (an email agency founder) would put the code first.

The choice (site sign-ups' first email): recommended, the guidebook first with the code just below. Other choice: the code first.

Should people who engage more get more emails?

The idea: send more to people who click, visit and shop, and less to people who don't, since Apple's Mail app hides who really opens emails.

Short answer: yes. Send more to people who engage and less to the quiet ones, judged on clicks, site visits, carts, orders and replies, never on opens.

We don't do this today. Only the abandoned-cart emails send more, to people who got further toward buying.

Where the experts landed: 10 agree, nobody disagrees, 5 had no opinion. On daily emails they split: 4 for, with conditions (two email agency founders and two deliverability experts); 4 cautious or against (a retention expert, an email researcher and both usability research firms); and one ecommerce founder backs daily emails in a sign-up's first week.

The choice: recommended, send the engaged group more, with the stop rules above. Other choice: daily emails for every new sign-up's first 7 days.

Should an ad page sign-up who got only the guidebook, and hasn't bought, get the 15% code later?

This one came out of the pop-up setup itself: someone who signs up on an ad page gets the free guidebook but no discount code.

Short answer: yes, once: in welcome email 3 or 4 (day 3 or 5 after sign-up), only to people who haven't bought, with a reason for the offer and a real deadline. Never in the first email.

Where the experts landed: 4 yes (two email specialists, an ecommerce founder and a direct-to-consumer growth advisor), 1 disagrees in part, 10 had no opinion. A customer retention expert would send the code only when someone's behavior points to price, since a shopper back on the same product page three times "may need proof more than they need 10% off". One of the yes votes would save it for a last call around day 10 to 13, to people who've stopped clicking or visiting.

The choice: recommended, send the code once, in email 3 or 4. Other choices: one last-call code around day 10 to 13; a code only when someone's behavior points to price; or no code for ad page sign-ups.

Sources:

The guidebook on Amazon

We plan to sell the guidebook on Amazon as a paperback and a Kindle ebook, through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon's self-publishing service). These answers cover who does the setup, the prices and what each copy pays us.

How much of the Amazon setup can Claude do?

Short answer: about three quarters of it. You or Nick would do the parts tied to a person or that can't be undone: the sign-in and two-step codes, the tax interview, the bank account, any ID check, the free ISBN, ordering and approving the proof copy, and pressing Publish.

Nothing has been started, and nothing starts until you and Nick say so.

The choice: recommended, you or Nick type it in from the fill-in sheet. Other choice: Claude types it in through your signed-in Chrome.

What should the paperback cost, and how many pages is it?

Short answer: $24.99, the price picked on 13 October. After the rebuild the paperback is 374 pages (6 x 9 inches, standard color), and at $24.99 each copy pays us $4.45.

The choice: recommended, $24.99. Other choices: $29.99 or $27.99.

What should the Kindle ebook cost?

Short answer: $9.99, which pays us about $5.29 a copy on Amazon's 70% royalty plan. $12.99, the top price on that plan, pays about $7.39.

The choice: recommended, $9.99. Other choices: $12.99; or $9.99 with the pictures shrunk to about 10 MB ($5.94 a copy), which looks visibly worse.

Can we give a free Kindle book with a first purchase of our supplements on Amazon?

Short answer: no. Amazon has no way to attach a free book to a purchase of our supplements, first-time or not.

The closest idea is a card in the box with a prepaid Kindle gift link. That's unconfirmed, so someone would need to ask Amazon Seller Support first.

The choice: recommended, nothing inside Amazon for now, and our social handle alone on the packaging. Other choices: ask Amazon Seller Support about gift links on a box card, then test it on one product; or a card pointing to our site (against Amazon's written rule).

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