KDP Select: Is it for you?
A few weeks ago, I reported to you that I just launched my new ebook, Reset Your Mindset, on Amazon’s Kindle platform. After applying my magic to the book, I realized that very few sales were coming in. This was really disappointing as the previous times I used this secret ninja technique, I had an immediate surge in sales. Even more disturbing is that ALL of my books were selling at really low rates. One book that was selling as much as 20 copies per day gradually went down and down until one day it went down to ZERO for the first time in over 3 months!
So the other night, I decided to hang out on the Amazon publishing forum and see if other people were having this issue. Sure enough, two days ago another author started a thread saying the same thing. Then others started chiming in. Yes, this was a site-wide problem. 
Now sometimes, Amazon is a little behind in it’s reporting, but when you sell 400 copies of a book one month and the next month you have only sold 8 copies in 2 weeks, you start to ask yourself what’s going on.
The person on the thread questioned whether or not they were being punished by Amazon for not including their book on Amazon’s new KDP Select program. Then it clicked. I was listening to NPR the other day and they were talking about how Amazon was actually selling the new Kindle Fire for a lot less than it is costing them to manufacture and market it. Why? Because if they sell it at a particular price point that will allow more people to purchase it, they can sell a lot of ebooks, apps and other items in their catalog along with it. Buyers will get the sense that their dollar is stretching a lot farther.
The KDP Select program was launched shortly on about the 10th of December (at least that’s when they sent me notification that I’m invited to share in it). If I understand correctly, KDP Select corresponds to the buyer’s program called Amazon Prime, which allows members to get special discounts and even free deals on books that are part of the KDP Select program.
Amazon has allotted $500K/month for the next 13 months for this program. If your book is available for free on KDP, then you get put into a pool to divvy up this $500K depending on however many books you sell during that month. In the example they use, if there are 100,000 books borrowed in the KDP program and 1500 of those borrows are of your book(s), then you get $7,500 for that month. This is POWERFUL! Or at least it has the capacity to be. Your book is still available for regular sales during this time, so it’s not like you’ll lose out.
Now here’s the catch. During the first 90 days that your book is available in the KDP Select program, you are not allowed to make it available for digital download on other places like Barnes and Noble or even your own blog. If that happens, they can shut your account down or at least remove you from the program and you’ll forfeit your earnings. You can, however, have your book available in print including from services like Amazon’s own Createspace platform.
Since I don’t really sell much through any other outlets, I decided to pause those accounts and try to take advantage of KDP Select’s program. If this works, DANG! What a wonderful way to end 2011!
What about you? Have you published on Amazon? Did you enroll in KDP Select? I’d love to hear from you.
Amazon Publishing: How to Publish to Kindle
In my last post, I mentioned how I have just published my new book on Amazon’s Kindle platform. Kindle is quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to make money online.
Think about it. You create content once and you make money for months or even years. This is only going to get better as reading with digital readers is gaining popularity daily. In fact, Amazon is actually losing money with the release of the new Kindle Fire so they can sell more ebooks on the back end. There is no reason to believe that this will not pay off for them — and you!
I don’t care who you are, everybody has a book in them. Traditional book publishing requires you to go through hoops to prove your point and change your content to satisfy some politically correct person in an office who knows nothing about your subject matter. Amazon publishing, on the other hand, allows you to write what you want in the style you want so you get your message across as intended.
The main key to successful publishing on Kindle is to research your subject properly. Most people think that they need to do something that has never been done before. But that’s the complete opposite of what you need. You need to produce books that people are already reading, just in your own voice. Think about it. If you like Italian cooking, do you only buy one Italian cookbook and call it quits? No, you buy every Italian cookbook that looks like it offers you some value. And that’s exactly what you want to do — provide value.
Another thing that people forget is to market their book. Yes, Amazon is one of the most trusted sites in the world, but that doesn’t mean that people will find your book on there. No. You must find ways to network your book. Are there forums related to the subject of your book? Then get on there and start answering people’s questions. When they ask how you know so much, you direct them to your book. Or better yet, just put the link to your book in your signature file!
And finally, don’t think that your book is where the revenue ends. You want to drive people into your sales funnel. Do you have a link to an offer that would get you a little affiliate cash? Do you have a blog, website, email list or Facebook page that you can use to engage your readers in further discussion on your subject matter? Even print books have links for their readers and so should you.
I think everybody should explore Amazon publishing as a way of making money online. Make sure to check it out and let me know what you think.
Let the Keywords Find You!
Internet marketers know that the way to find clients online is to have good keywords in whatever campaign they’re running. As an internet marketer, it is your job to know not only what keywords web surfers are looking for, but which profitable keywords they want. So what does a profitable keyword look like??
Say someone is looking up ‘dogs’, this is very general and they could be looking up anything from general information for school research on dogs to what it’s like to live with a dog. This person is unlikely looking to buy a dog or anything related to dogs.
Next, you might have someone looking up ‘dog accessories’. This is more specific than the previous example and has the potential to be a profitable keyword as someone looking up this phrase is fairly targeted in their search. However while some people would have a specific dog accessory in mind, there are still likely a number of people searching this phrase that are probably just getting ideas on keyword research, perhaps for a gift.
And then you will have someone searching for ‘dog collar’ or even better ‘flea and tick dog collar’. As you can see, these are incredibly specific terms. Most anyone searching either of these terms knows exactly what they’re looking for –especially the latter. Provided that there are a decent number of people searching for these terms (and relatively few websites featuring them), an internet marketer could make a handsome income simply by optimizing their website with either of these terms.
If they find out that a good deal of people are actually searching for ‘Hartz flea and tick dog collar’ (in other words, a brand name), it is clear that those searchers are most definitely in the market to purchase this brand of dog collar now. So in that case, this would be the best keyword to go for.
In the past, people looking to sell products on the internet had to find ideas or seed words with which to start their research. In other words, you’d have to start with a keyword like ‘dog’ and hope that whatever tool you’re using to look for the more profitable keywords would find something that was not only highly targeted, but had little competition. This method certainly works, but it is slow and requires hours and hours of dedication to the project. In my experience, running these searches could take as much as 4 weeks of consistent work to turn up viable keywords that I felt confident in pursuing.
This month, however, a new keyword research tool showed up on the market. It not only gives you keywords quickly, it does so without you having to come up with any seed keywords or ideas. Instead you are given guidelines as to a minimum number of searches you want on keywords per day as well as a maximum number of competitors. You can even tell the program whether or not you want big competitor websites such as amazon.com to show up in the top ten results.
These words can be used for any kind of campaign you want to run whether you’re running
- an e-commerce store
- an affiliate website
- an Adsense campaign
- or an Adwords campaign
But don’t think that means that all the good keywords are taken, there are thousands upon thousands of keywords like this and they are continually updated.
Commission Blueprint 2.0 is Here!!!!
I know some months ago, I told you about Tim and Steve, the guys who restored my faith in mankind. Well, at the end of 2010, they updated their Commission Blueprint program and I’m really excited. Did I tell you how in love with these guys I am? And the sentiment is echoed throughout the blueprint forums. The tactics and tools they offer to customers is way above anything you’d get anywhere else. Brace yourself as your jaw drops to the floor!
Money at your Fingertips
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