self-publishing is dead Amazon is way too saturated that's what a lot of people believe and they're not wrong Amazon KP has gotten crazy competitive there's a book for literally everything and ads are expensive and barely work so why am I still doing this for a living simple because when it comes to self-publishing almost no one knows how to think how to sell the box if you search for courses on YouTube to learn how to sell your book books on Amazon everyone says the same thing pay for sound keyword research software find profitable niches and winning
keywords optimize your title and cover to sell organically run test ad campaigns optimize them and boom sell hundreds of copies that's basically 99% of YouTube videos about self-publishing in a Nal spoiler alert that formula doesn't work anymore or at least there are way better ways to go about it that no one's talking about in this video I'm going to open your mind and get you see this business from a totally new angle let's get started what I'm about to tell you is the biggest mistake that almost every beginner in self-publishing makes people think that to
succeed in this business all you need to do is to use the tools that Amazon provides so they go as far as adding A+ content to to their product page and maybe running some Amazon ads but here's the truth if you really want to start making money with Amazon KDP you need to open your eyes just like any entrepreneur or freelancer selling their products or services online the mistake is thinking that self-publishing is some completely different kind of business model sure it has advantages Amazon's reputation and the fact that you don't have to handle production
shipping payments or returns but don't let these perks hold you back instead use them as motivation to leverage tools outside of Amazon and create a well thought out marketing strategy another thing that people don't realize is that the extreme competition in Amazon's book Market is due to the super low quality of the average product so if you want to start earning on KDP you you need to focus on two key things putting care into every detail of your book to make it stand out and creating a marketing strategy that's more advanced and effective than your
competitors it might sound complicated but really it's just about building certain skills and having the drive to apply them consistently over time but what are the things that make your book a potential bestseller there are specific factors you need to understand to make your book successful first stop basing your ideas purly on keyword research if you want to come up with ideas that track readers you need to solve a specific problem people unless you're already a well-known author aren't just looking for interesting books to read especially with non-fiction they're looking for a solution to a
problem but more precisely they want you to sell down a transform what drives readers to buy a book is the dream of transforming some aspect of their life from negative to positive in a reasonable time frame and with minimal effort so when brainstorming for your next book start by understanding your buyer Persona the typical traits of your ideal client identify their pain points which represent their negative starting point and offer them the dream of escaping that situation this is crucial for any product not only books on KDP to translate this idea into an actual book
that catches attention and sells focus on the title and the cover the title should Express this transformation from a negative state to the desired outcome emphasizing ease or speed in achieving this result for example something like from a pinpoint to the end result in just 5 minutes a day I know you're worried about keywords because everyone tells you they're essential just make sure you Naturally Fit One Main keyword into the title the one that performs best in your keyword search then use a subtitle to incorporate one to three other important keywords the second key factor
is the cover and here's the hard truth you can't make a professional looking cover in just 5 minutes on canva the same goes for the books interior nothing done in that short amount of time will look professional and the results speak for themselves if the cover isn't medical easly designed your book won't sell because it will look low quality to potential buyers and if the interior lacks attention to detail like well-designed images spacing or layouts it will lead to negative reviews returns and dissatisfied readers I know it sounds great to think you could create a
book in just one day but the reality is that it won't get you anywhere you need to develop the ability to create high quality professional products otherwise you'll have to pay someone else to do it but in my honest opinion learning to do these things yourself will benefit you tremendously in the long run Outsourcing everything won't guarantee quality it won't teach you anything and it will waste your money I started creating my covers myself reinvested my money in an iPad to draw custom images on procreate and T myself a ton of useful skills this wasn't
wasted time but useful knowledge that helps me in multiple areas even outside of self-publishing why do I advise against relying on Amazon ads it's not that I think Amazon ads are totally useless in fact I use them for some of my my own books but you shouldn't just assume that ads are the only path to success or that you have to spend money to make money when I started I wasn't using Amazon ads for two reasons first I didn't even know they existed and second I didn't want to waste my money without fully understanding what
I was doing I'd recommend you take a similar approach there are tons of ways to build a more complex marketing strategy Beyond just Amazon ads for example don't assume that Facebook or Tik Tok ads are any less effective but in this video I want to show you some of the free tools I personally use to sell my books because I believe people often underestimate the opportunities they have without spending a single Dollar on Advertising the first strategy is my secret weapon because it helped me make my first $100,000 in my first year as a self-publisher
starting from zero I know it can be hard to shift your mindset from thinking of self-publishing as passive income to putting in active effort for way better results but trust me it's 100% worth it what I'm talking about is content marketing which means creating videos and photos on social media to organically sell your book let's get into some details which platforms I use to mark Market my books the one I started with and still think is the best for selling books is Tik Tok it lets you target a specific audience that's interested in what you're
selling and the best part going viral doesn't depend on having a lot of followers instead Tik tok's algorithm makes your video viral based on how it performs with a small test audience of around 300 people if you're interested I created a free guide on how to maximize your chances of going viral on Tik Tok you can find it in the first link in the description but like I said I don't want you to limit yourself to just one to especially when you're starting out it's smart to test different platforms so you can focus on what
works best later on what works might very depending on the type of book you're selling or even your communication style for instance I use Tik Tok for my me content books because you can show off the books content without even needing to be on camera on the other hand I prefer Instagram for high content books because it's great for explaining Concepts and leading viewers down a sales funnel recently I've been experimenting with Pinterest which has one key Advantage you can upload a photo or a video and Link directly to your Amazon page this works well
even for high content books and you don't necessarily have to post an actual page of the book there are so many free options that can help drive more sales and reviews even when your book is brand new on Amazon hope this gives you some fresh ideas one thing you absolutely need to add to your strategy is mail marketing building Anil list lets you launch new books in the same series successfully and improve what we call the customer lifetime value that's basically the average amount a single person spends on your products over time in simple terms
to collect your reader emails you create a free resource called a lead Magna which they can download in exchange for their email on a dedicated page this page should be placed at the beginning of your book so readers can get extra content for free while you collect their email to keep them updated when a new book in the series drops or even remind them to leave a review although this strategy isn't entirely free because you'll need to pay for services to automate email sending just a few dozen dollars a month can exponentially increase your earnings
moreover many services offer a free trial if you don't exceed a certain number of subscribers to your email list so in essence you can start for free and only upgrade your plan after seeing some results if you want to dive deeper into these and the other topics I just mentioned I've created a nearly 1our video course on YouTube for those who want to start earning seriously through this business model you can find it here as a recommended video or as the second link in the description thanks for watching and I'll see you soon with more
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