Author Tips

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Hot tips for Story Origin, the powerful author platform for book promotion

Image source: Story Origin

Today, I am writing a detailed introduction to STORY ORIGIN, the author platform that has long changed the way I do book promotion. And I am including my hottest tips!

Story Origin has everything an author needs for their book marketing – landing pages for reader magnets to garner new subscribers, newsletter swaps and group promotions with other authors, goal trackers for writing progress, landing pages for ARCs to find new beta readers and reviewers, and more! I am about to include my hottest tips from my own experience with Story Origin in the past two years, so stick around even if you’re already using it. Who knows? You may gain a new idea or two for your own promotions!

Let’s face it. Being an indie author is hard work. Having organizational skills is a must in order to succeed. Still, it seems that no matter how organized we are, finding time for the mountain of tasks that await us each day is always a challenge. We all could use a little help, but few of us can afford a virtual assistant. This is why, for most of us, promoting becomes a tedious task.

Let me tell you something. I used to be one of those authors. Promotion to me had become an aversion. I could only manage doing major promotion 3-4 times a year tops. I’d spend money on ads that didn’t pay off, and also paid to participate in group promotions with other authors, but they often didn’t result in any significant ROI either.

And then came Story Origin. And just like that, I started to promote without any hassle, because this brilliant author platform helped me organize everything swiftly, saving me hours of work. And I saw a rise in my sales too. The features of Story Origin cover all you need! Before we start, here is a short glossary of the terms Story Origin uses. You could ignore it for now, but it may come in handy  if and when you sign up, in order to understand what each term means:

GLOSSARY

‘Campaign’ = this is your newsletter. You add a new campaign on Story Origin for every newsletter you will be sending out.

‘Mailing list’ = This is just the description of your newsletter. You only register it once.

‘Universal book link’ (UBL) = your book’s Amazon link. You register it once for each book, add any Amazon affiliate tags you may have, and you’re done.

‘Reader magnet’ – a free book that you put up on Story Origin to garner new subscribers.

‘Tracking link’ – this is the unique link that Story Origin assigns to you every time you are to promote a book of another author or a group promotion. This link will be visible to the corresponding authors so they can see how many clicks they gained from your effort.

‘Archive link’ – this is the link to your newsletter. After sending it out (with Madmimi, Mailerlite, or whatever), you are encouraged to go in your ‘campaign’ page and put the archive link in there. This allows the authors who swapped with you to see your newsletter. I always publicize my archive links as I appreciate other authors allowing me to have a look in their newsletters too, if I want to.

Story Origin’s founder and developer is Evan Gow from the USA, who is very nice and friendly – always readily available to help if you have a question or if you stumble upon a technical issue (the latter is very rare). Of course, there’s also an online tutorial, which I didn’t have to use, simply because Story Origin is self-intuitive and thus easy to learn. From the moment you sign up, there’s a fair amount of ‘hand-holding’ on the platform. I’ll also do my best in the following paragraphs to show you how to start!

SETTING UP YOUR MAILING LIST
The first thing you do on Story Origin is set up your mailing list. This is just a description of your newsletter and you only register it once. Here, I have to stress that Story Origin is simply the place where you organize your newsletters. You still get to create the newsletters where you normally do, like MailChimp, AWeber, MailerLite etc.

SETTING UP YOUR FIRST NEWSLETTER (CAMPAIGN)
After you’ve created your ‘mailing list’, Story Origin will prompt you to set up your first newsletter (It’s called a ‘campaign’). You don’t have to choose a frequency for it. You can create the next ones whenever you’re ready. This, in itself, is the best benefit I have reaped from Story Origin. By having to decide on my next newsletter date early on so I can apply for swaps and group promotions, my mind soon got used to thinking far ahead. I never knew before when my next newsletter was coming. Now, I know from one month, even two months in advance, what my newsletter dates will be. And I soon got greedy and found myself sending out two newsletters per month, filling each one to the brim with even 20 swapped books and 4-6 group promo banners!

Did I get punished for my greediness? Not really. Quite the opposite.

What I got was wonderful spikes in my book sales in the USA, something I’d never seen before, as I used to sell mostly in the UK. I even had up to 1,000 KENP spikes on days I did no promo and hence could only attribute these to newsletters of authors I swapped with or group promotions running. What I also got from using Story Origin was sales in many different books in my back list at the same time – books that hardly sold any more. And that’s because every month, thanks to the group promotions, I can promote many books at the same time. I am sure you know how much work it is to do this on your own. But with Story Origin, all you have to do, is register the books in different group promotions, put the banners in your newsletter and tweet about them individually a couple of times. That’s it. And what do you get for this little trouble? While the group promotions run, that’s 2-4 weeks usually, you get sales without having to do a thing from day to day. Great, huh?

HOW TO LOOK FOR GROUP PROMOTIONS
From your Author Dashboard, take the option ‘Browse group promotions’.


Group promotions can be generic, like… ‘May Romance Sale’ , ‘Beach Reads For a Buck’, or very particular, like… ‘Characters With Protective Instincts’, ‘Love Found in Unusual Places’. Your books don’t have to be discounted (only rarely they do). Make sure to read the rules of each promo to the letter, though, and stick to your commitments. Slowly, you’ll build a good reputation, which means the same group promo organizers will accept your books for their promotions again and again.

Note: When you apply to a group promotion, you’re allowed to put in a little note. If you share your newsletters wide on your social media or on your blog, say it in the notes. If you have a large following on, say, Twitter, and are willing to share the promo there, make sure to mention this too. Some organizers also pose questions to answer in the notes, so make sure to answer them all clearly. Most of the time, they’ll ask you to clarify something, like the heat level of your romance, or to confirm that your book will be on KDP Select for the duration of the promotion.

Before you hit the button to apply to the group promotion, make sure to go to the very bottom of the page and check how many authors have already applied. The more you see on there, the better, obviously. Though, if it’s early on, you may see only a few, but the list may get longer later on.

Make sure to also choose ‘Preview’ to see what the landing page of the group promotion looks like. For me, the banner is very important. If it’s not appealing to the eye, chances are the promotion won’t be successful. One last criterion for me, is how many books the group promotion organizer accepts. Some accept more than one books. So submit them all in one go. I always give high priority to those accepting 3-4 books, for obvious reasons!

So! When you check out a group promotion, these are the important questions to ask:

  • Does it suit my audience? (e.g. don’t go for a steamy book promo if you write clean romance)

  • How many other authors are in this promo?

  • How many books do they accept per author?

  • What does the banner look like?

Check all four points before you decide. This way, you’ll make the best decisions for your books!

YOUR UNIQUE TRACKING LINK
This is the one thing you must not miss! Very important! Make sure to always use in your newsletter the specific tracking link Story Origin assigned to you for each book and group promotion you have committed to feature. This way, the other authors will be able to see how many clicks their book or promo got from your newsletter. And, this is the only way you can prove you’ve kept your end of the bargain. See this detail from my last campaign page:

The campaign page lists–among other things–the books and group promotions that are to be featured in that newsletter. As you can see, each has their own tracking link. You can see how many clicks each one got in this particular newsletter. The authors and organizers also get access to this information so they can check if I fulfilled my obligations to them.

Similarly, on the campaign page, you also get to see how many clicks YOUR books got in the other authors’ newsletters.

HOT TIP #1: On the day of your newsletter, or anytime before that, when you wish to finalize the content, you have to ‘mark the slots full’ and also delete all the pending requests for swaps you made to other authors that never got accepted. If you don’t do that, and if you don’t check your campaign page one last time before sending out your newsletter, you may have a last minute entry you don’t get to notice and thus will not honour with a slot.

HOT TIP #2: If you have registered Amazon affiliate links in your UBLs (Universal Book Links), you need to click on ADD in the campaign page for every book and group promo. This adds your Amazon affiliate link to them. When people click to get to Amazon and buy, you get a small fee. In the above image, it says ‘UPDATE’ instead of ‘ADD’ because I had already added my affiliate links for each book. However, please note it’s not a good idea to add your affiliate link if the book will be FREE on Amazon when you send out your newsletter. I check prices of all books on the day I send out my newsletter, partly for that very reason 🙂

HOT TIP #3: If your book is going to be FREE or 99c on specific dates, go to your Author Dashboard, then to the option ‘Newsletter Swaps’, and leave a note for every author who will feature your book during the days of your promo. Something like this: “Please note my book will be FREE March 20-22. Thank you!” The sooner you do it before their newsletter goes out, the better their chance to see your note on their campaign page, before they get to put their newsletter together. Who knows? They might give your book a top slot to highlight the FREE or 99c offer!

IMPORTANT: After you’ve sent out your newsletter, you need to go back to your campaign page and add your newsletter link (it’s called an ‘archive link’). This way, other authors and the group promotion organizers will be able to view your newsletter. They’ll need to check that you featured their book or group promotion, for example, if your tracking link shows 0 clicks. It’s fine if you put it in the newsletter and it got no clicks, of course. In any case, for me, posting the archive link is common courtesy (if not the mark of a true professional) and I strongly suggest that you provide it.

HOW TO LOOK FOR NEWLETTER SWAPS
From your Author Dashboard, take the option ‘Browse newsletter swaps’.
To look for suitable swaps, you can narrow down the search by using tags that relate to your own work. If you write about witches, angels, or ghosts, use these words as tags. Or use genres, for example, ‘paranormal’, ‘romance’, ‘clean’ etc. When you swap, you swap books that will take readers to Amazon (these are marked as ‘UBL’, i.e. ‘universal book link’) or Reader Magnets or Review Copies. The last two are freebies authors put up on Story Origin. You can cross-swap among these things, no problem. Anything goes, as long as both authors are happy.

Personally, I swap similar things. I think it’s only fair, for example, to ask an author to feature my reader magnet only if I offer to do the same for them (since I’ll be getting some of their subscribers to sign up to my newsletter).

Reader Magnets and Review Copies are books that the authors have uploaded on Story Origin as freebies to get new subscribers or reviewers respectively. The FREE books are offered in three formats: PDF, EPUB and MOBI (PDF is optional, the other two obligatory).

HOT TIP #4:
Amazon no longer provides authors with MOBI files in the bookshelf. You can make your own MOBI by downloading Kindle Previewer from your KDP Bookshelf. Open the app and open your manuscript (word or epub format) then choose EXPORT to export your book in mobi format. This procedure won’t add a cover to your mobi, but what you can do is create a Word file with the cover on the first page, and use that to make your mobi. Then your cover will be a part of the book 🙂

READER MAGNETS
If you have a reader magnet to swap in order to garner new subscribers, your best bet is to pick reader magnets to apply for a swap. The author you apply to will be more likely to accept your reader magnet if they’re looking to promote their own too. To promote your reader magnet more effectively, I advise you to also enter it in the ‘Giveaway’ group promotions.

This worked like a charm for me: I uploaded an ARC copy of my book “Running Haunted” as a reader magnet when it was on preorder on Amazon (but not in KDP Select yet – otherwise I’d be breaking Amazon’s exclusivity rule). I then promoted it for at least two months on Story Origin, both in swaps and giveaway group promotions. I got nearly 900 subscribers (a CSV file download) and it cost me sweet nothing!

Obviously, you don’t have to use your preorder as a reader magnet. You can create a short read, perhaps, to put perma on Story Origin for that purpose. Choose a genre that will attract the readers likely to love your novels. Personally, I don’t swap with reader magnets that are incomplete books (samples). All my reader magnets are complete books. I think it’s only fair (and courteous) to do that in exchange for a reader’s email. Besides, readers are more inclined to sign up if you offer the whole story.

IMPORTANT: All your associated swaps and group promotions must run their course fully before you delete your reader magnet from Story Origin. That includes the newsletter dates of the authors who are featuring your reader magnet, obviously. And only after everything has run its course you may register your preorder book on KDP Select, let us not forget, as Amazon demands exclusivity for all kindle books registered on KDP Select. So double-check your dates when you set up swaps and enter promotions for reader magnets (or review copies.)

THE ONLY FAULT I FOUND WITH STORY ORIGIN: Deleting a reader magnet will delete the record of all associated swaps i.e. the tracking link for your reader magnet and the one of every author’s book it got swapped with. It will result in you not being able to honor any future swaps with other authors associated with this reader magnet. Plus, you won’t be able to see the full history of your stats. A way around this would be to mark the reader magnet as ‘unavailable’ instead of deleting it from Story Origin. Speaking from (unfortunate) experience, I highly recommend you do not delete a reader magnet.

REVIEW COPIES
I haven’t used this feature yet, but from what I can tell, the platform does all the work once again, collecting the readers’ details and distributing your book to them. And you get to screen every single application! Story Origin shows you each reader’s review history on Amazon so you can decide if you’re accepting their application or not. Both reader magnets and review copies are available in MOBI, EPUB and PDF on Story Origin. It is obligatory to upload your book in EPUB and MOBI format. PDF is optional.

Earlier in this post, I gave you a tip on how to get a MOBI for your book. Here are free online converters that work for me to convert books to PDF and EPUB:

WORD to PDF converter: https://www.freepdfconvert.com/
PDF to EPUB: https://www.zamzar.com/convert/pdf-to-epub/

Once you’ve grown familiar with Story Origin, it’s worth checking out all the other options on your author dashboard. You’ll find, among other things, a beta reader feature, goal trackers for your writing and editing progress, as well as great stats from its powerful database.

 I hope this information has given you a good idea of what awaits you on Story Origin, if only you give it a try!

GO HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT STORY ORIGIN, SEE THE PRICING OPTIONS, AND SIGN UP!

I am on the Standard plan, which is paid (it costs me $10 per month), but I get my money back, just with my earnings from the Amazon Affiliate tags embedded in my universal links. It all adds up considering all the swaps and group promotions I feature in each newsletter.

If you prefer to start with the FREE plan, please note, it will NOT allow you to do newsletter swaps or participate in group promotions, or to create reader magnets in order to garner new subscribers.

Some of the things you CAN do on a FREE account: You can use goal trackers, create universal links for your Amazon books with your Amazon affiliate links embedded, and you can also create landing pages to give your readers free books. But, this is not the reader magnet feature. It’s called ‘Direct Downloads’ and won’t allow you to collect email addresses. It’s just a landing page to give away a free book in MOBI, PDF and EPUB format.

VISIT STORY ORIGIN NOW AND SEE ALL THE FEATURES YOU CAN GET ON A FREE ACCOUNT

Whether you prefer to find your feet with a FREE account first or to jump straight to a paid plan so you can do swaps and participate in group promotions right off the bat, I urge you to try this wonderful platform.

If you write paranormal, fantasy, humorous, or contemporary romance, I hope to see you there and collaborate with you!

Interested to see how my newsletter looks like with Story Origin’s group promotion banners and swaps?

Go here to see one of my newsletters from March 2022

A note about my own newsletter here, and my ‘strategy’ with Story Origin, which may help you:

I spoke about my ‘greediness’ earlier in the post. Because I feature 20+ books and 4-6 banners of group promotions in every issue. But, let me tell you something. Not only does this ‘greediness’ work, but I have zero ‘shame’ for it as well. Why? Because despite featuring a lot of books, most of them get clicks in double figures. See some of the click stats from my newsletter of March 25, for example:

That’s a higher click performance than the ones I see in many other authors’ newsletters who only feature a couple of books in their newsletters. So what’s the harm in featuring a lot of books then? I mention this here, because I see a few authors on Story Origin ban those who feature more than a couple of swaps! And yet, when I check their past stats I see really poor figures… (Yes, past stats are visible in Story Origin for all authors so you can check them before you attempt a swap with them. Nice, huh?)

So, obviously, I have a different opinion. And that is because I feel it is not about how many books you feature – but about your efforts to market the newsletter. Authors have better chances to see their books get double figure clicks in my newsletter among 20+ other books than they have in a short newsletter of another author who won’t do much after sending out their newsletter.

I send mine out again to those who don’t open it a couple of days later. And I also share each one widely via my two blogs and social media. One of my blogs is accessible via Goodreads where I have a couple thousand friends. It all adds up!

So, bear my logic in mind, if you use Story Origin… Do not shy away from authors, like me, who feature many books. If you check the stats of an author and most books are getting clicks in double figures (or triple figures if the book is FREE) then their newsletter is a good bet!

This sums up my introduction to Story Origin, and I wish you all good luck with it, if you try it. For me, it’s long become the best way I know to market books. Other than giving me a steady trickle in sales, KENPs and Amazon Affiliate earnings, it has also given me a place where I can get organized, and that, in itself, is golden.

I hope you have found some value in my tips and advice, enough to be inspired to try this awesome platform for yourself. I wish you success! You are welcome to comment below if you have a question or wish to share your own experience.

DISCLAIMER: This post uses an affiliate link. It means Effrosyni Moschoudi will earn a commission for any resulting paid plan subscriptions on Story Origin. This will not affect the price paid on the platform.

 

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A quick guide to Story Origin, an indispensable new app for indie authors!

Story Origin app for indie authors

If you’re an indie author, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard your fellow indies rave about Story Origin by now. But how much do you know about this cool app that quickly became the shiny, new kid on the block in the indie world?

You’ve probably heard that it’s in beta (hence absolutely FREE!) at the moment, but did you know that other than being the go-to place for newsletter swaps and group promotions, you can also use Story Origin to get reviewers and new subscribers with minimal involvement on your part?

For the past four months, I’ve been testing Story Origin heavily and, in the process, my sales and subscriber count saw new heights. I’ve written a post to share the good news and packed it with my best tips to make sure you get not just acquainted with the app but also savvy in no time!

HEAD OVER HERE TO READ MY POST ON THE EXCELLENT BLOG OF FELLOW AUTHOR, NICHOLAS C. ROSSIS.

Enjoy discovering Story Origin and reaping the many benefits! I sure feel blessed to have been tipped off to use it by a fellow author!

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY… SHARING IS CARING! Tweet this to spread some love:

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Are you a new author? Check out Effrosyni’s best tips and author resources!

 

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Did you enjoy this post? GO HERE to follow this blog and get to see all our future posts! To grab “Facets of Love” for FREE, go here! Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. Are you an author? Check out our FREE promo tips & resources here.

 

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For authors: Publisher Rocket makes book marketing as easy as a-b-c

 

Today, I am pleased to feature an article by Dave Chesson (aka the Kindlepreneur), the creator of the awesome app, Publisher Rocket (formerly known as KDP Rocket). This incredible tool makes book marketing as easy as a-b-c with its powerful features for keyword research, competitor analysis and even Amazon Ads!  And it only keeps evolving with new exciting features all the time. Check out Dave Chesson’s article below and see what Publisher Rocket can do for you.

As it did for me, I know it can make a difference in your everyday marketing and research. Make sure to scroll all the way down for my review of the earlier version of the app, KDP Rocket. It’s unmissable for new users as it contains a plethora of insider tips!

AN INTRODUCTION TO PUBLISHER ROCKET

by Dave Chesson  

When it comes to publishing on Amazon, there are plenty of things to think about–keywords, categories, AMS ads… The list goes on. But your publishing life doesn’t have to be so hard. As a matter of fact, you can make the process much, much simpler. But how? Publisher Rocket. Formerly known as KDP Rocket, this program has helped thousands of authors from first time self-publishers to the likes of Orson Scott Card and Pat Flynn. So how does Publisher Rocket work? And is it the right option for you?

The Basics of Publisher Rocket

What is Publisher Rocket? It’s a downloadable software (available for both Mac and Windows) that helps you shine a light into the inner machinations of Amazon.com. There are 4 key pieces of information that you need to know to help make your Amazon experience successful:

  • What phrases are actually being searched by Amazon buyers
  • The psychology of how readers choose to buy books
  • How much money they are spending on certain niches and topics
  • Comparative data of your closest competitors

And Publisher Rocket can actually give you this information! Here’s how: Publisher Rocket communicates directly with Amazon’s API to perform data pulls. The program provides you with actual information from real Amazon shoppers. Pretty cool if you ask me. This is accomplished by 4 different search functions.

  1. Keyword Search
  2. Competition Analyzer
  3. Category Search
  4. AMS Keyword Search

Keyword Search

Establishing your Amazon keywords is considered by experts to be one of the most vital parts of being successful on Amazon. Publisher Rocket’s keyword feature provides you with the ability to help achieve your full keyword potential. First, enter your idea into Rocket’s Keyword Search bar. After clicking “Go Get Em Rocket!”, within seconds you will be provided with a list of relevant keywords for your topic. But it’s not just keywords, it’s data as well. Here’s what each search provides besides keywords:

  • Number of competitors
  • Monthly earnings for that respective keyword
  • Google searches per month
  • Estimated Amazon searches per month
  • Competitive score

But what should you do with all that data? Just select whichever is available? No. You do need to properly interpret the results. You see, you’re looking for a good balance between the variables. Best case scenario: High search volume, low competitive score, and good earnings. You won’t always find perfect keywords that match all three conditions. But you can get closer. And this real data is subject to change over time. So find your best keywords now and adjust later. Keywords aren’t necessarily a one time set. But therein lies the beauty of Rocket. Since the whole process of actually searching takes only seconds, keeping up with your keyword selections is made that much easier.

Category Search Feature

Categories are another important thing you need to consider as a self-publisher. These are the groupings in which Amazon will register your book on their website. Do not overlook the importance of this. How are readers supposed to find your cozy mystery novel if it’s placed in the cookbook categories? But here’s the thing. Some categories can give your book a better chance of becoming a bestseller. And that accolade alone can help you sell more books! So how do you know which categories are the best for your work? Once again, Publisher Rocket has you covered. The software comes with access to the entire database of Amazon categories and accompanying data–like the ABSR (Amazon Best Seller Rating) for both the #1 and #25 book in your category. Rocket also calculates just how many books you need to sell to rank #1 or #25. This can come in super handy when adjusting your marketing strategies.

Competition Analyzer Feature

One of the absolute biggest advantages to Publisher Rocket is their Competition Analyzer. This feature allocates all of the pertinent information you need to properly gauge your competitors. (What it won’t show you is your competitors’ actual keyword selections. While this may seem like a bummer, imagine how you would feel if Amazon gave away your keyword selections.)

In order to use this tool, just type your topic into the Competition Analyzer, and Rocket does the rest. Here’s the data that Publisher Rocket provides with each search:

  • The Title
  • Author
  • Age of Book (in days)
  • The ABSR
  • Whether or not there is a Keyword in the Title
  • Keyword in Subtitle
  • Estimated Daily Sales
  • Estimated Monthly Sales
  • And a link to each book’s sales page

Now, the three features I’ve covered so far are awesome for a standard listing on Amazon. But what if you want to take your marketing to the next level with AMS ads?

AMS Keyword Search Feature

Ads are a great way to target keywords your book isn’t ranking for organically. For example, your new sci-fi novel will almost certainly never reach the first page for the term “Star Wars book,” but with the help of an AMS ad, you can pay to get in front of those people in one of the sponsored spots at the top. Publisher Rocket can provide you with great AMS keyword suggestions via its AMS Keyword Search feature. You’ll get keywords, book titles, author names, ASINs, and much more! For that sci-fi novel, you could discover keyword opportunities such as “books like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” or “best sci-fi series” — all through one easy search. Not only that, but the creator of Publisher Rocket–Dave Chesson–has created a free AMS course for those looking to get into paid Amazon advertisement that shows you the ropes with step-by-step video tutorials.

Is Publisher Rocket Right for Me?

In my opinion, if you’re going to self-publish on Amazon.com… Then this program is right for you. Seriously. There’s an old saying that goes, “Time is money.” Every hour that Rocket can save you during your self-publishing process is absolutely worth it. And aside from the actual functionality of the program, Rocket has a top-notch support team to help guide you through any twists and turns you may experience. And if you aren’t satisfied for any reason, take advantage of Rocket’s 30 Day, No Questions Asked, Money Back Guarantee. It’s really a no-brainer for those looking for a secret advantage in their Amazon Publishing. However, notice I said Amazon.com earlier. For other Amazon marketplaces (outside the U.S.), you’ll just have to wait. That’s my biggest gripe about this program. I do understand that building international reach takes time, but it would be awesome if every self-publisher worldwide had access to this incredible tool. But there is good news in the distance, though. Publisher Rocket is working on a version for the German market. So more good things are coming soon!  

Check out Publisher Rocket

Check out Dave Chesson’s FREE seminar on Amazon ads!

Check out  Effrosyni’s review of the app from January 2018 (an earlier version called KDP Rocket). It’s very useful for new users. Plenty of insider tips!

While you’re on my site, you may want to check out this page where I’ve crammed in plenty of author resources! Something useful is waiting for you there, without a doubt 🙂

 

Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means that the admin of this site may earn affiliate fees from any resulting sales.

 

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY… SHARING IS CARING! Tweet this to spread some love:

#Authors This app will make a difference in your #bookmarketing #indieauthor Share on X

Summer love and a mysterious haunting in Corfu… Only $0.99 for a limited time!

Check it out!

NEW RELEASE BESTSELLER! 370 pages of Corfu summer bliss! This beach romance will make you fall in love… Choose between the paperback , the box set or 4 kindle episodes!Did you enjoy this post? GO HERE to follow this blog and get to see all our future posts! To grab “Facets of Love” for FREE, go here! Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. Are you an author? Check out our FREE promo tips & resources here.

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The best author event is here!

indie author resources marketing

Hello! Other than the usual posts I issue on this blog about books and Greek stuff, I occasionally share here the odd tip or resource for my fellow authors as well. Today is such an occasion, BUT: What I have for you today, my fellow indies, is only what has GOT to be the biggest and best author event of 2018! 

THE INDIE AUTHOR SUPERBUNDLE is out there for grabs, and it contains nearly $5,000 worth of books, courses, and coupons for authors. 

It also contains services! A FREE custom book cover design, Amazon ad campaigns set up and running for your book for a month, even more free book promotion, and tons more. No joke.  

And how much does the superbundle cost, I hear you say?

Well, you won’t believe it but it’s true: a small donation only! $50 is the suggested figure here but, knowing how hard it is for authors around the world these days, the organizers of the event will still grant access to the superbundle for as little as $20!

Best of all, whatever your donation, 25% of it goes to Pencils of Promise, a charity that builds schools for extremely impoverished children in Ghana, Guatemala, and Laos. 

This is TRULY a no-brainer, guys. Make a donation, give the gift of education to underprivileged children, and give YOURSELF a gift worth nearly $5,000 today. 

This event is brought to you by GiveGrow. Click below to check out all the details!

author marketing services free books

LET’S GIVE AND GROW!

 But hurry! The superbundle is only available till April 6!

 

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Author, how much are you paying for your mailing list service?

Today, I am blogging for my fellow authors again, to talk about mailing list services. I have a brilliant solution to suggest to those of you who have their own website; it will give you total freedom and, chances are, will cost you a lot less than you’re paying right now to maintain your mailing list and to send out newsletters.

My experience with mailing list services in the past has been quite bad, and I am guessing I’m not the only one. So I hope this post helps and enlightens somehow.

In the past, I have tried Mailchimp, Madmimi and Sendgrid. I have also researched a couple other solutions and finally realized that the best way to save money in mailing list services is to:

a) Team up with other authors in order to cut costs.

b) Use a WordPress plugin to create newsletters on my own site, as opposed to using a third-party one. This provides total freedom from third-party policies. Mailchimp can get quite jumpy, for instance, if you get a high unsubscribe count in a newsletter. Trust me, you don’t want the hassle a stressy email from Mailchimp brings.

The above realizations led me to use the WordPress plugin MailPoet on this website (last year) and it has proven to be a wonderful, easy-to-use piece of software. Here is a sample of my automated welcome newsletter, and a run-of-the-mill newsletter too. Click or tap to enlarge the images:

Colors and text size are adjustable. The only thing you cannot do is have text beside an image. But, as you can see, it works well with the text under the image, and you can place them in 1, 2 or even 3 columns.

Like all mail services, MailPoet allows users to set up autoresponders, and actually offers two different types:

a) ‘Welcome emails’, which are sent out automatically when a new subscriber signs up to a list (and in other intervals too, if you wish, after the sign up)

AND

b) ‘Post Notifications’. Now, this is brilliant. I use this to send automated post notifications to my blog followers. As soon as I publish a new post, the email goes out to them; it contains a short teaser that prompts them to check out the post. All I had to do was create a separate list on MailPoet for ‘blog followers’ then a corresponding form to get new blog follows. I used to use the most basic (and unfathomable) Google Feedburner for my post notifications, but gone are those days. This autoresponder works like magic!

The best news:

MailPoet costs the same no matter the total of your subscribers! Yes, that’s right. No more worrying that your list is growing too fast to afford it on Mailchimp or whatever.

One drawback only: If you use your own site to send out the newsletters, it’s a certainty many of your emails will bounce or be marked as spam. I took this treacherous path for a few months and it caused nightmares I could very well draw from to write a techy horror novel 😛

So, to use MailPoet effectively, and to enjoy both the freedom and the affordability it promises, you have to send your emails via either MailPoet itself or another site.

I hear you… “Oh! Not for me then” … “Geez, I’m not tech-savvy”… “Forget it, I could never do all that.”

I’ll have you know my reaction was the same initially, but this is where the aforementioned ‘teaming up with other authors’ bit came in!

So here’s what helped me and ended all my mail sending problems for good:

An author friend who uses Mailpoet and is a website developer too, offered a collaboration to cut costs for us both. I was happy to try it. He installed MailPoet on my site and routed my emails via Sendgrid.

As a result, my emails stopped bouncing and, what’s more, my annual costs for both services together are now only $160. That’s less than $14 per month.

And I thought Mad Mimi was cheap. Yeah, right.

More good news for you:

My trusted friend and I are looking for more authors to jump in so the costs per person can be cut down even further. It’s all legal, of course. We are using a 4-site license for MailPoet at the moment but we hope to move to a higher license plan in future which means the costs will be cut down considerably if we get enough authors to join us. You won’t have to deal with anyone else, except for my author friend, who will be setting things up on your site for you. No extra charge for the installation and, even though the software is very straightforward, he will be happy to assist with any questions you may have at first.

Mailpoet is as easy as Mailchimp… if not easier. So basically, if you know how to use this, you’ll be fine. For me, who found it hard to fathom Mad Mimi and had to email them numerous times to get answers to my questions about this and that… MailPoet turned out to be a breeze, despite my initial reservations to try yet another new platform. Just like the case had been with Mailchimp, though, MailPoet was all self-explanatory; I set up forms and welcome newsletters easily and went live in no time.

So how does that sound? If you’re fed up with having to pay ridiculous amounts for your mail list, do drop me a line and I’ll answer any further questions you may have.

As I stated earlier, if you decide to join my author friend and me, he will set you up for free on your site. All part of being on the team. So no tech knowledge is required here.

That said, you will need to export your subscriber lists from your existing service (i.e. into CSV files), then create a list to import them into Mailpoet. If you’ve done this before, it’s easy on MailPoet too. Self-explanatory stuff.

For me, MailPoet is a dream come true. I hope you will discover it too!

Interested to see what it looks like? Check out MailPoet’s site and a brilliant demo, HERE

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A report on KDP Rocket: How to rank high in Amazon searches

Are you an Amazon author? Struggling to find the right keywords that will enhance your book’s visibility in Amazon searches or in your AMS campaigns? Well, I wrote this post today just for you and it’s a must-see!

In 2017 I purchased KDP Rocket, a magical piece of software that helped me find keywords for my books that actually worked! KDP Rocket truly opened my eyes about what people type every month on Amazon by the thousands. Most of these keywords I’d never have guessed in a million years.

Thanks to this app that’s built by The Kindlepreneur (Dave Chesson) and his team of software engineering geeks, my books now come up in searches for many popular keywords in their niches – something I used to only dream about.

Is this something you’d like for your books too? Well, help’s here. Today, I am going to take you by the hand and show you what KDP Rocket can do for you. In detail. You’ll see all its fantastic search modules and then I’ll let you decide how indispensable it is.

Okay, I hear you…

WHAT DO I NEED IT FOR?

KDP Rocket can find you the best keywords!

WHAT KEYWORDS?

Well, at first, it used to help only with the 7 keywords in the KDP bookshelf but, since a recent upgrade, it now provides a multitude of keywords for AMS Campaigns too with the click of a button. In seconds.

Plus, KDP Rocket helps you identify and research your competition too.

To be exact, KDP Rocket is your best companion for three different kinds of searches: keyword searches, competition searches, and AMS keyword searches. The app’s main screen reflects this clearly:

Let’s start with Idea Search. This is what you’ll use to choose the best 7 keywords in your KDP bookshelf.

Let’s say your book is in the Mystery genre. Let’s type a relevant keyword like ‘mystery books’ and see what happens.

KDP Rocket - Idea Searches screen

KDP Rocket – Idea Searches screen

 

Whoa! In just a few seconds, KDP Rocket came up with juicy details for the particular keyword, but also for similar ones that Amazon customers search for.

Bonus: With this app you get to see keywords you’d never have imagined existed, and often, they’re extremely popular too.

Now, let me explain in detail this screen for you:

Number of Competitors shows how many books are ranking on Amazon for a particular keyword. Ok. Now let me tell you something really interesting: You would think that the higher the number of competitors the harder the competition would be, right? Yeah, I thought the same. And yet, Dave Chesson tells me that this can’t be further from the truth. Actually, this number is so misleading, Dave didn’t even think it deserved a place in the app but it only got in because his beta testers preferred it to show.

So, what matters here is not the number of competitors, but how easy the keyword makes it to rank among the top 5. This can be easy with a lot of competitors, and hard with a lot fewer. So, take this number for what it is, i.e., just a number for your info, and don’t let it daunt you. To see what actually measures how competitive the keyword is, I refer you to the ‘Competitive Score’ below.

Average Monthly Earnings shows you the total of revenue for all the books that rank for this keyword. This does not include paperback sales. It does include ebook sales and KENPs but to what ratio only Amazon knows.

Note: Dave is working on an awesome addition to this! Later this year, KDP Rocket will have a toggle switch for ebook vs paperback sales. This will allow users to flip the switch in order to see the revenue for ebook AND paperback sales separately!

Google Searches & Estimated Amazon Searches: KDP Rocket lets you know how many people type a certain keyword per month on Amazon and also on Google. This way you get a general feel of the popularity of genres/niches among the general public too. Nifty, huh?

Competitive Score: This is the nitty-gritty of the process, the real juice! A number above 70 means the competition is hard and the keyword should be avoided. A number below 35 suggests the competition is easy and your book will have a good chance to rank high in searches (if you choose this keyword to be among your seven). Remember, ‘Number of Competitors’ does not matter – THIS does!

 

Please note that Amazon doesn’t allow the use of the word ‘kindle’ in keywords for your bookshelf. KDP Rocket lists keywords with this word because people use it in searches. But don’t try to use these – Amazon will email you demanding that you remove the specific word.

While on the subject of keyword research: You will find that whether you use singular or plural form you will get the same results in your search. e.g. ‘mystery book’ vs ‘mystery books’. This is also the case when you change the order of the words in any way. For example ‘mystery books murder’ and ‘murder mystery books’ will produce the same results.

Ok. Back to the last image (inserting it again here for your convenience.)

You will notice that on the right of the lines some say ‘Analyze’, and others say ‘Check Competition’.

When you search for a keyword, all lines initially say ‘Analyze’ on the right, and only mention part of the data. Only when you hit ‘Analyze’ on a line it gives you the ‘Average monthly earnings’ and the ‘Competitive Score’. It also changes the word ‘Analyze’ to ‘Check Competition’ so you can follow with that step in your research.

As you can see in the above screen, ‘Mystery Books for Boys Aged 12-14’ is a keyword worth looking into more closely. You probably wouldn’t have guessed it without KDP Rocket, and yet, people ask for this 266 times per month. The total revenue related to searches for this keyword amounts up to $6,719 and the competition is low – i.e. the Competitive Score is only 25. Needless to say, for every keyword you choose, relevance/honesty is key or else you’ll be looking for trouble. So here you won’t choose this keyword, no matter how precious, unless your book actually targets this age group.

As you probably realize by now, KDP Rocket also comes in handy in the research you will do BEFORE you write your next book. This is so you can find in advance a niche with easy-to-beat competition that has a high demand and great revenue possibilities at the same time. Use it to choose the title/subtitle of your next book to reap the same benefit!

Back to our research. Once you’ve found a keyword that looks good on KDP Rocket, the next step is to hit ‘Check Competition’ on the right of the relevant line. The next screen will show you in detail the bestselling books and authors for that keyword, their earnings, their book covers, how old the books are, and even the categories the authors have chosen for them!

To protect the authors’ anonymity I will not show you the competitors’ screen for any of the above mystery-related keywords. If you hit ‘Check Competition’, this is what the screen looks like for another, random keyword:

KDP Rocket - Competition Searches screen

KDP Rocket – Competition Searches screen

 

Keyword, books and authors are not displayed above as I just explained, but you can see, among other things, the daily and monthly earnings of each competitor (book and author). If you choose a line, the book cover shows up below in the square where it says ‘Select a competitor to view more stats’.

ABSR = Amazon Best Seller Rank

Bonus: This screen also helps you identify what type of book cover is selling best for the specific keyword or genre!

Furthermore, if you hit ‘Unleash the Categories’ in that screen, KDP Rocket shows you the categories this specific book is ranking in on Amazon.

If you click on ‘Check it Out’, you are taken to the actual product page of the book on Amazon US.

Ok. Back to the main screen.

So far, we’ve covered how to find keywords (Idea Search) for your KDP bookshelf and how to research the competition (Competitor Search).

Time to show you the latest addition to KDP Rocket – AMS Keyword Search.

Again, I can hear some of you wondering…

WHY DO I NEED THIS FEATURE? CAN’T I USE FOR MY AMS CAMPAIGNS THE SAME KEYWORDS THAT I GOT FROM MY IDEA SEARCH?

The answer is, yes, you can use them, but for AMS campaigns you can use and SHOULD use, a lot more.

Let me explain: As you know, there are several restrictions to the kind of keywords you can use in your bookshelf. For one, you are not allowed to mention other books or authors.

Amazon Ads is a whole different ball game though. Here, mentioning the competition is a MUST if you want to stand a chance in the game.

Take a look at the below screen. Note that I am using the tab for AMS Keyword searches.

I typed the keyword ‘Angel romance’ and I got 9 pages of results. This is the first page:

KDP Rocket - AMS Keyword Searches screen

KDP Rocket – AMS Keyword Searches screen

 

See? Not only did I get relevant recommended keywords, but I also got names of competitive books (and their authors) for this keyword. KDP Rocket picks up the actual bestsellers, which means these are the books mostly requested during searches for this keyword.

So… If you add these author and book names as keywords in your AMS campaigns, you’ll be in for much better chances of your ad getting some eyeballs and clicks.

All features of KDP Rocket are easy to use. The app will save you hours of work with your Amazon Campaigns and even makes it easy to copy your keywords onto them. Just download the data from your KDP Rocket into a CSV file (see later in this post.)

Back to the main screen. And as you can see it looks different now!!! Well, you won’t believe what just happened. I was planning to publish this post today (having worked on it for a couple days) and, lo and behold, a new automatic upgrade just came in for KDP Rocket! You can spot the new addition in the screenshot – and this is what the brand new feature, Category Hunter, will show you :

    • Relevant and niche categories for your book

 

    • The Amazon bestseller rank of the #1 and #20 books for that category today

 

  • How many books you’d need to sell today to be the #1 bestseller (or #20) in that category

All of that with a click of a button. Let me show you an example – back to ‘mystery books’:

The first line tells us that to rank at #1 in this category you must sell 1,697 books today – not easy. To be in the top 20 though, 106 books are enough, which may be easy to do if you’re running a KCD promo, for example. This screen also shows you the ABSR (Amazon bestseller rank) of #1 in this category (ABSR 54) and of #20 (ABSR 1281).

If you click on ‘Check it Out’ you’ll be taken to the bestseller list for this category on Amazon so you can check out the books. You’ll also be able to identify the full category name (as you can see above not all of it is showing in the first line).

Oh! And to facilitate your research to the max, the columns are clickable. Click on one and you get the data sorted by that column. Click again on the same column so the numbers can be sorted the other way round (higher to lower numbers and vice versa).

The other lines above show categories that make it easier to rank in the top 20, as you can see. In the third line, for example, KDP Rocket reveals that it’s enough to sell 143 books to hit #1 today in this category. With just 27 sales you get to be #20, and so forth.

I hope you will agree that this is an excellent tool to pick your categories with so you can hit the bestseller lists. Hitting #1 adds prestige to your new releases especially and helps immensely with sales, in my own experience. I’ll also add that making your book a bestseller with the right category is easier to do when your book is priced $0.99, be it during a new release or a KCD promo.

KDP ROCKET EXTRAS

Every screen on KDP Rocket has two buttons at the bottom:

Export: This option stores the data in a CSV file (opens with Excel). Download and work with it at your leisure.

Video Tutorial: This option takes you to a webpage where you can learn the basics on how to use KDP Rocket. You’ll also find there a couple of Youtube videos with great tips and case studies.

Make sure to scroll all the way down for more hot tips!!!

 

I hope this post gives you a good idea of what KDP Rocket can do. For me, it’s indispensable. And in case you’re unsure, let me say that I know how hard it is to find time to learn something new… But I’ll tell you this: it took me less than half an hour to know my way around KDP Rocket since opening it the first time, and all I had to do was watch a couple of videos on the aforementioned tutorial page. Chances are you won’t even need to do that, though, and that’s because this post practically serves as a user’s guide in a way. So, if you’ve been following the information I’ve shared here, you’re practically ready to use the app.

MORE GOOD NEWS:

The newsletters I receive from Dave Chesson often contain the instruction to upgrade to the next version – that is always easy to do and it takes seconds. I have never had any technical problems with the app (unlike another, supposedly reliable keyword-finding software that I purchased earlier on… It proved to be of little value to me and had more bugs than my vegetable patch in high summer!)

Dave and his crew keep working diligently on any minor bugs that come up. Every upgrade seems to make the software better and better, with new exciting features added to it every few months.

Are you interested to hear more? Want to see an awesome introduction video on KDP Rocket?

 

GO HERE TO CHECK IT OUT

 

 

Please note:

 

Other than KDP Rocket, Dave Chesson has also created a FREE training course where he shows you, step-by-step, how to set up and monitor your AMS campaigns. The course mentions KDP Rocket, but he provides instructions on how to do the work manually throughout the course without the use of the app.

KDP Rocket saves you hours in the process of setting up and monitoring your AMS Campaigns, but it’s certainly not a must.

GO HERE TO CHECK OUT DAVE CHESSON’s FREE COURSE ON AMS CAMPAIGNS

  

HOT TIP!

To test how your book comes up in Amazon searches and have results you can trust, you need to use Google Chrome and open an ‘incognito window’ to do it.

This is so your search does not take under consideration your browsing history… If you access Amazon from your normal browser window (be it in Chrome or Firefox etc), chances are it will show your book in searches because you’ve been visiting your product page a lot, and not so much because its keywords are great. So take no chances and get results you can trust.

To open an incognito window in Google Chrome, click on the three dots on the top right of the screen (see above image). Then, go to Amazon, and search for your keywords. If your book comes up, congrats! You can trust that result 100%.

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission from any resulting KDP Rocket sales. If you have found this post useful and decided to purchase the app, please consider supporting me by using the link in this post to do so. This will allow me to continue to blog and serve the indie community. Thank you.

 

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Run your Amazon campaigns through BookAds

Today, I am blogging for my fellow authors to share an awesome tip! If you take my advice you’ll save hours and hours of your precious time and, hopefully, earn some more money from your books too!

I don’t know about you but the months of September-October always find me in a state of mild depression, mainly because I keep feeling that time is running out and I haven’t even started on projects I was supposed to have finished by now.

Two are the projects I mind the most that I haven’t been working on:

a) Writing a new novel

b) Mastering AMS campaigns after following the mind-blowing free training course by the Kindlepreneur.

I had the best intentions to work on both this year but, sadly, life got in the way.

And here I am, in mid-October, having just issued a short story collection instead of a novel (because I felt compelled to offer some kind of new content to my readers this year the way I’ve been doing so far), and now it’s high time I wrote that new book that’s well overdue. The other day, I was getting frustrated thinking that for the foreseeable future AMS campaigns would remain uncharted territory for me… when an email came to offer me a wonderful solution.

The email was from Matt Stone, aka Buck Flogging, a highly successful entrepreneur whom I’ve presented in this post along with a couple of his free resources.

So, anyway, Matt has just started a new site where he and his associates, having mastered AMS campaigns, offer authors the chance to sit back and watch as they run their AMS campaigns for them!

Being well informed about the giving nature and the high marketing skills of Matt Stone, for me, the decision to sign up for this service was a no brainer.

Note: When an author signs up for this service, they grant access to BookAds from their AMS campaigns dashboard, but without sharing the password. The author only invites BookAds to become an ‘editor’ for their AMS campaigns. This is done from the AMS dashboard. In this case, a team member from Bookads gains access to the author’s AMS dashboard and only that – they cannot see the KDP Bookshelf/Reports, for example.

Just think of all the time this could save you in your daily work schedule… allowing you to write instead, or to do other kinds of marketing that you actually enjoy or feel confident with.

Check out BookAds and see what you think. From what it says on the site, their customers are making more money than what they spend. This could be the case for anyone whose book looks good on the product page (i.e. has the right average star rating, number of reviews etc).

Since the site is new, Matt is offering this service at the low price of $49 per month for a limited time only, and he’s going to take on a small number of customers at first. I hope you will get to be one of them.

Clarification: The monthly cost for you will be the $49 fee PLUS the charges you will receive from Amazon for the running of the campaign. The site mentions a recommended minimum daily budget of $10. And even though a simple calculation may suggest that you’re looking at a monthly Amazon cost of $300, in reality it won’t be anywhere near that according to Brian Berni who runs the campaigns for the customers of BookAds. When I asked about the total Amazon costs I’d be likely to pay, saying that I wouldn’t be happy to spend more than $100 per month at first, he gave me this answer (that put my mind at ease) and I quote it here verbatim to help you decide:

The daily spend is an average. It is very very very unlikely you’ll be spending that much in a day. In fact, almost impossible. That’s because if I see you are (and not making a positive ROI), I would pause the campaigns that are costing you too much. If, on the other hand, you’re spending more than 10$/day but making 20, I’m sure you’ll agree that’s a different story 🙂

The budgets you see in the campaigns are an absolute maximum the ads can reach, after which they will cut off. As per above, this NEVER happens. I’ve done hundreds (if not thousands) of campaigns, and I’ve never seen an ad go through its entire daily budget. Especially since we typically bid very low. 

The amount you see for those 2-3 campaigns (100$) is the minimum required by Amazon for that type of ad (Product Display). The same as above applies. I’ve never seen any ad even get close to that. Some ads spend around 20$ in their ENTIRE lifetime (6 months). 

 

How to apply for the service:

The application procedure is quick and the screens take you through the 3 steps effortlessly: First, you set up the monthly payment via Paypal or whatever, then you are diverted to a quick video that shows you how to invite BookAds as an editor to your AMS dashboard and, last, lower on the same screen, you fill in the entry form with the details of the book you wish to promote. Done. And you can cancel the service at any time.

Note: The above link to BookAds contains an affiliate link, which means if you sign up for this service I will earn a little commission. This doesn’t affect the fee you pay. Thanks in advance if you use my link to sign up!

In my book, time is precious… and all indie authors suffer from not having enough of it. For me, delegating tasks to people more skilled than me is a huge time-saver as well as the practice of any entrepreneur worth his salt (both Henry Ford and Thomas Edison spring to mind here). I am getting excited as I write these lines, thinking that by putting my trust in someone more skilled than me I can save precious hours of my time AND be in for a chance to make more money than I did before.

Here’s the link to BookAds again… I am off to write my novel now… Thank you, Matt Stone!

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Author, participate in a huge event and get paid!

 

Thrilled to spread the word today about a huge event that I am participating in and, for the first time ever, expecting to be paid for my time and trouble. You, what? I hear you say. You see, this is not your average authors event. As you may have heard in my recent post FREE AUTHOR RESOURCES AND A NEW MINDSET FOR SUCCESS (and if you haven’t, I strongly recommend you check it out), I have recently got into affiliate marketing. I made that decision as part of my plan to grow my budding (and struggling) business in a dedicated manner from now on. As I’m excited to try this new angle, I feel compelled to write and tell you all about it. And I am excited, because:

a) The prospect of expanding my business with a new source of income for little work feels like a bonus, whether it trickles or flows for a while!

b) I have been following the person behind this event for almost a year now – that’s Matt Stone (AKA Buck Flogging) and I believe in him. I know he knows his onions. The fact he earns 6 figures per month is a proof of that, if anything. His past events have been huge successes so I know this one will be too. My decision to join forces with him when he invited me to was both an honor and a no brainer.

Matt Stone is the mastermind behind BuckBooks, ArchangelInk, Digital Freedom Academy and many other successful sites, including the one I recently signed up with as an affiliate, which is QuitN6 (Quit your job in 6 months). The site is dedicated to teaching online entrepreneurs everything they need to know so they can build their business from scratch, then grow their mailing list so they can start earning some serious $$$. But don’t let the sound of $$$ set off any scammer alerts in your head. I can assure you that Matt’s methods involve nothing but hard work and dedication, as well as a burning desire to help others succeed.

 

But I digress. Back to the specific event. As you can see, it involves a freebie. This is the incentive for the online entrepreneurs (authors included, of course!) to sign up to Matt’s mailing list.

Matt has got an army of dedicated affiliates ready to spread the word about the book.

So what is the incentive for me to sign up as an affiliate too, I hear you say?

Simple.

Matt will pitch a paid product to the new subscribers in July, and every affiliate will be earning a commission for purchases made by the people they’d brought to the landing page. The traffic each affiliate brings will have been tracked automatically.

As I said, this is new to me and I am very excited. Seeing that I don’t have many entrepreneurs but mostly fiction readers on my mailing list, I cannot blast out an announcement about the event via my newsletter. So instead, just before the event starts I will blog it here, then tweet the living daylights out of it to get entrepreneurs to sign up during the four days that the event will run (June 26-29). This is all I will have to do. Then I’ll sit back and wait for July when hopefully I will be receiving a nice little sum that I wouldn’t have earned otherwise.

Here’s the truth: Over and over again, I have been working my butt off doing promo for days, and 9 out of 10 my ROI is negative. And this leaves me feeling bummed every time. But not this time. Even if a single $ comes in for half an hour’s work to join forces with an entrepreneur as phenomenal as Matt Stone I’ll be sitting pretty.

So there you go. This entails zero cost, half an hour’s work, if that, and you’ll be in with a chance to win Paypal cash without any risk involved. I am sure you will agree this is a non brainer.

Consider this post my cordial invitation to you to sign up as an affiliate today. Added bonus: As an affiliate, you will be able to email the author directly and get a copy of the book for your own reading pleasure too!

If you choose not to go down the affiliate marketing route, you can still get your hands on the freebie.  I have read it and it has some gems in it, especially towards the end! To get your copy, just sign up for Matt’s mailing list when the event is live.

I will be blogging about it near the time so this will serve as a reminder for you. See, I got you covered either way 😉

However,  if you have a strong point to use to your advantage, I hope you will choose to participate as an affiliate. When I say strong point I mean either or both of these things:

a) A mailing list that contains only indie authors or entrepreneurs of any niche

b) A large Twitter following so you can blast the message out continuously. As I said, this is my only option and I got nothing to lose to try it!

CLICK HERE NOW TO SIGN UP AS AN AFFILIATE FOR THE EVENT

 

PLEASE NOTE!

Upon signing up, you will receive the link to your affiliate dashboard and your sign on details. When you get to your dashboard, make sure to change the tab to the FREE IBI BOOK. This page will show your affiliate links for the specific event. One is for the landing page you will be promoting, the other is to refer other affiliates to the event (the way I am doing now to spread the word!). These two links are unique to each person as you realize, so make sure to use your own and not mine, otherwise you’ll be giving me your precious commission and that won’t do 😉

Before I go: If you are an author, you may want to sign up to my mailing list just for indies, HERE. Every time I publish a post for authors I email it to this list. There are other benefits to sign up and you can find out all the details on the same page. Believe me, you do not want to miss a thing!

CLICK HERE NOW TO SIGN UP AS AN AFFILIATE FOR THE EVENT

 

SPREAD THE WORD WITH A TWEET:

Author, participate in a huge event and get paid! #authors #ASMSG #marketing Share on X

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&nb

by

Everything you need to know about AMS campaigns

Thrilled to post this awesome tip for authors today! Those who follow my blog have often heard me rave here about Dave Chesson aka The Kindlepreneur for his indispensable blog and his out-of-the-box thinking.

Dave has created a fantastic tool for authors called KDP Rocket (update: relaunched in 2019 with the name “PUBLISHER ROCKET” and new great features!) The app has worked wonders for my keyword research, increasing remarkably my books’ visibility in Amazon searches. Now, Dave has gone and done it again by creating a 100% FREE online course where he reveals to authors a step-by-step guide to master AMS campaigns!

Any indie author worth his salt knows that AMS campaigns are currently the best way to increase book sales on Amazon. But if you’re anything like me you’ve been trying again and again to make money with these campaigns to no avail. “Yeah, why is that?” I hear you say.

This is simply because the hidden knowledge bestselling authors have been applying to make money on Amazon have been evading the rest of us.

Well, that was then… and this is NOW!

Last week I followed Dave’s FREE course which took me 2-3 hours to do, but don’t let that put you off! I did it effortlessly, and in my own time, as the course allows you to stop and pick up another time from where you’ve left off.

The course presumes you’re an absolute beginner so it starts from square one by explaining AMS campaigns and how to set them up. Even if you feel you could start at a later point, I strongly advise you don’t skip the early parts. I found a pearl of wisdom or two there myself!

 

The FREE course includes mentions to Dave’s app, KDP Rocket (PUBLISHER ROCKET) simply because it is the Alpha and the Omega of indispensable tools for keyword research on Amazon; both for the 7 keywords allowed per book on the KDP bookshelf, as well as for the long list of keywords authors are allowed to add in their Amazon ads.

Please note:

You do not need KDP Rocket (PUBLISHER ROCKET) to apply Dave’s pearls of wisdom and to increase your sales with AMS campaigns. However, using the app WILL save you hours and hours of time. This is because it can and will produce hundreds of suitable keywords for your book in a matter of minutes, including the titles of the bestselling books similar to yours!

“But… it’s not allowed to use other authors’ names and books,” some of you may say. Well, did you know that the rules that apply in Amazon ad campaigns are different to those in KDP? And yes, it is allowed and advisable to use the competition as keywords in your Amazon ads!

Dave recommends to start with 5-7 basic keywords that best describe your book. They must be popular but not too competitive.

From there, with the FREE course you will be able to expand your keyword list, finding hundreds more for your Amazon ads that can attract the right readers to your product page. The course will tell you exactly where to go to Amazon to get them!

I hope you will check out Dave’s FREE course and give it the attention it well deserves! With it, I am sure you will experience firsthand all the WOW and the A-HA moments I had while taking it.

Oh! While you’re on my site, you may want to check out this page where I’ve crammed in plenty of author resources!  Something useful is waiting for you there, without a doubt 🙂

 

If you haven’t already, check out Dave Chesson’s awesome FREE course now!

Yes! I want to increase my sales!

 

 

Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means that the admin of this site may earn affiliate fees from any resulting sales.

 

 

SPREAD THE WORD WITH A TWEET:

#Author, check out this FREE seminar for your Amazon ads! #writers #indieauthors Share on X

 

 

Did you enjoy this post? Type your email in the ‘follow this blog’ window on the right sidebar and get to see all our future posts!

 

Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. For our news, free books & exclusive giveaways join our newsletter! Sample Effrosyni’s work for FREE here! Are you an author? Check out our FREE promo tips & resources here.