Colleen’s niche in IBD nutrition resources has resulted in $2,400 in sales. Learn how carving a niche for your materials leads to success!
Welcome to the WellResourced InnovatoRD Series! Meet Colleen Webb, fellow dietitian who specializes in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) nutrition and treatment. Her WellResourced store consists of dedicated IBD resources to help your clients manage this complex gastrointestinal condition.
You might wonder whether Colleen has found success on WellResourced given her narrow niche – is it worth it for RDs with specialized practice areas to create educational materials for others?
Our answer is YES YES YES. Colleen is a perfect example of an exemplary clinician in a highly specialized niche with a talent for creating sought-after resources. With just seven items in her store at this time, she has accumulated more than $2,000 in sales.
We’d say she’s putting her resources to work!
Disclosure: contains affiliate links. As an affiliate, WellResourced earns a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.
Get to Know Colleen: Gut Health Dietitian
Read more from Colleen about her path to becoming an IBD RD:
For starters, when I was in college, I flip-flopped between majors before settling on finance so I could study abroad in London…
We love this, Colleen – way to make the most of your college experience! Now why can’t we get more nutrition study abroad experiences – Italy, anyone? Back to Colleen:
…while there, I was inspired to consider how I might incorporate my interests—food, fitness, health, helping others — into a future career. Upon my return, I pursued nutrition courses and my degree in nutrition to become a registered dietitian.
There is no special certification to become an IBD RD, nor are there many educational opportunities. But my IBD clinical patients in my first place of employment needed nutrition support. That’s why I created the nutrition education program for patients and providers at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.
"Many RDs want to counsel IBD patients but may hesitate due to lack of clinical experience."
Most of what we learn as RDs, we learn from our patients. I am one of those RDs – and I was fortunate to work in a setting where I counseled thousands of IBD patients. And that inspired me to create a program for RDs who want to learn more! The Ultimate Online Training Education for Registered Dietitians Treating IBD Patients is approved for 10 CEUs for RDs!
Colleen’s clinical experience and expertise in this niche has led to her success on WellResourced.
Colleen’s Niche Content on WellResourced.com
Wellresourced.com provides resources for dietitians – by dietitians. Colleen’s resources fill a need for dietitians who may not specialize in gut health but who want to support clients who present with GI issues.
Colleen shares:
Until recently, we’ve known very little about the relationship between food, nutrition and IBD.
Common sense told us they’re all connected, but we lacked research to make evidence-based recommendations to our patients. Fortunately, the excitement around the gut microbiome and its impact on human health has generated lots of interest around this topic, so we’re learning much more about how food affects disease onset and progression.
What’s super exciting as an RD is that we are in the best position to communicate this research to our patients in the way of actionable advice. I love seeing my patients improve their lives via dietary changes — it’s one of the most rewarding parts of my job.
Colleen’s clinical experience and expertise in this niche has led to her success on WellResourced.
Colleen creates comprehensive guides for RDs to help them address common nutritional concerns in IBD patients. These guides lean into Colleen’s extensive clinical experience and helps you – RDs who want to more confidently counsel patients with IBD – with more know-how to do so. Besides sharing the latest research and case studies, these guides include takeaways for you to use in practice, such as handouts with meal plans.
Yes, meal plans! We know your patients ask for them. Colleen knows this, too.
Part of Colleen’s strategy for successful selling is her generous offering of freebies that support her sales of premium items. Take, for example, the IBD Nutrition: Nutrition Assessment Form, which has been downloaded nearly 500 times! Another popular free guide is her RDN Guide to Popular Diets for IBD (350+ sales).
Colleen’s more premium products include The IBD Nutrition Starter Kit for RDs and Eating with IBD: The Essentials ebook. Her masterpiece is her online course that we mentioned earlier, The Ultimate Online Education for Registered Dietitians Treating IBD Patients – get in on this one if you need training to better counsel your GI clients.
In less than 2 years, Colleen’s IBD Nutrition Starter Kit on wellresourced.com has 30+ sales with total earnings of more than $1,200. You can make your niche work for you, too.
Take our free training and learn how to get started with digital products.
Selling Smart – Colleen’s Approach
In addition to offering freebies to drive traffic to and interest in her custom, premium products, Colleen shares how her ideas come to life:
"I keep a record of questions I get from my patients and RDs about IBD nutrition. My thought is, if a couple of people ask me the same question, then it’s worth creating a digital piece that contains practical takeaways. ”
“Once I have my topic(s), I write freely about everything I think might be useful to include. Then I edit and edit and edit. I never want my audience to work hard to understand my content — my goal is to create an easy learning experience. Frequently, this means fewer words and more visuals.”
We heard similar advice about providing MORE VISUALS in our previous Success Story, featuring Brittaney Berendsen, RD. RDs, take note! Visuals are a huge draw!
Colleen continues:
When I first started working with IBD patients, I thought, “Oh no, they know more than I do!” They would ask me about foods, supplements and therapies I’d never heard of because I was focusing solely on the well-established research.
That’s important, but I quickly learned I needed to stay up to date with a variety of trends — new food fads, the latest nutrition news articles, what was trending on social media, etc. I had to read what my patients were reading.
By doing this, I explore topics I know they’ll ask me about, dig deeper into the literature, ask better questions and experiment with new recipes. It’s a constant learning process.
I’ve learned people want to buy what I’m selling. Discovering that was a huge win because it pushed me to create my course.
I learned there was a tremendous interest in IBD nutrition and other RDs are turning to me for information. I’ve generated more than $2,300 in sales on WellResourced by selling reasonably-priced guidebooks, and WellResourced has directed many RDs to my website where they’ve purchased my course.
Final Thoughts
We love that WellResourced is helping drive traffic to your site and your channels, Colleen! Any last advice for RD readers?
Yes – if you find yourself answering the same questions time and again when working with patients or colleagues, create a product that answers them. No matter what niche you specialize in. Then, sell it on WellResourced. You have nothing to lose.
Has Colleen’s story inspired you? If so, take the next step – become an wellresourced.com vendor today.
