As one who is just about to publish his 2nd eBook (for money!), none of this resonated with me.

Granted I write for the tech industry; Developers may be more willing to pay for good, specific content that solve day-to-day issues for them.

Newsletters, blogs and book are all great for audience and (personal) brand building. To the point of some naysayers: The time it takes isn't drastic, but it does take some persistence.

"So far, I con­sider Prac­ti­cal Ty­pog­ra­phy to be a suc­cess­ful ex­per­i­ment in web-based book pub­lish­ing."

...who needs to experiment? People are making money on eBooks. Period - https://leanpub.com/bestsellers_lifetime.