Selling My First Book via Amazon
- Thread starter charlie.simm
- Start date
I'll be interviewed on several domaining-related sites but I'm already well-known in that niche, so the net benefit won't be huge. Domaining sites (including DomainingTips) may very well end up generating more than the 500 first week sales I've mentioned but I'm going with 500 to be on the pessimistic side.
I should get busy and book interviews on non-domaining sites.
My target audience will be people who earn a living online in one way or another (the book is not about making money online, it'll just be very relevant to those who do): freelancers, gay webmasters, bitcoin investors and so on.
Unfortunately, I'm no longer as connected with people from outside the domaining world as I used to be.
Maybe you guys can help.
If you own a good affiliate marketing/seo/freelancing/whatever blog or website or know someone who does, maybe we can work something out. Perhaps an interview right after the launch or a post about the launch in exchange for a DomainingTips blogroll link, a post about one of your own projects on DomainingTips, an interview on DomainingTips or something along those lines.
I'm open to suggestions.
Need a bigger audience Jake, I've pretty much been comfortably sitting in my own little corner of the Internet (the domaining industry) over the past couple of years and ended up losing touch with everything else.
Don't get me wrong, DomainingTips is awesome and so is having a voice, even if it's only heard by a very small audience (the domaining industry is very small and as far as One Minute Economics is concerned, lettuce.b.cereal, it's still in its infancy) but I do have to take things to the next level. Or lose my sanity trying.
I see.
I ask for two reasons. First, that's a huge investment. Second, I've heard that bestseller status (NYT, WSJ, USA Today) doesn't carry much weight in terms of juicing book sales.
But if you're planning to hit the speaker circuit and/or move into higher-priced courses, the investment would have a better chance of earning out.
Anyway, I was curious. Thanks for clarifying.
I agree 100%, the short-term benefits are pretty much in "meh" territory. In the long run though, the bestseller thingy will open a lot of doors IMO. The occasional speaking gig, perhaps an interview which would have been out of your league otherwise and all that.
Just one clarification regarding the cost dimension. While it's true that my online marketing skills are a bit rusty, I still consider myself a reasonably good marketer, so I definitely don't intend to simply throw $20k into a black hole. If I don't at the very least break even, I'd be very disappointed.
Oh and before I forget: I already booked some sweet newsletter ad deals for the launch week, do you guys have any suggestions for me?
Again, my target audience consists of pretty much anyone who earns a living online in one way or another: affiliate marketers, freelancers, domainers, bitcoin investors and so on.
Any newsletter recommendations?
Don't really visit many non-domaining sites these days, so I'm not quite sure what's hot and what not. I'm mainly looking for legit sites with solid newsletters. A good SEO newsletter, a good affiliate marketing one and so on. Open to suggestions.
Again, my target audience consists of pretty much anyone who earns a living online in one way or another: affiliate marketers, freelancers, domainers, bitcoin investors and so on.
Any newsletter recommendations?
Don't really visit many non-domaining sites these days, so I'm not quite sure what's hot and what not. I'm mainly looking for legit sites with solid newsletters. A good SEO newsletter, a good affiliate marketing one and so on. Open to suggestions.
Agree...Buy a ton of copies like every other author does to get to best sellers.
Get free publicity.
If book is good, sit back.
If not, sit back and cry.
LOL
Are any of you guys active Redditors, lots of karma and all that?
Maybe you can help me promote my "One Minute Economics" videos, I'd gladly pay if the results are good. Holla.
Maybe you can help me promote my "One Minute Economics" videos, I'd gladly pay if the results are good. Holla.
Well, the channel ended up doing ok-ish on Reddit.
None of the videos went spectacularly viral but some did well.
For example, my bitcoin video ended up on page one of /r/bitcoin (180k-ish members), /r/btc/, /r/cryptocurrency and most importantly /r/videos (11 million members!). It went from 100 or so views to 5,500+ in a couple of days, not exactly amazing but decent nonetheless.
I'm now at 311 subs and while it's not something I get a boner about, I feel the channel is on the right track.
I'm now posting two videos per week: one on Tuesday and one on Saturday. Time to get serious about this channel!
Not sure how interested you guys are in my progress.
If you like this thread and want me to keep updating it, let me know and I'll do it.
None of the videos went spectacularly viral but some did well.
For example, my bitcoin video ended up on page one of /r/bitcoin (180k-ish members), /r/btc/, /r/cryptocurrency and most importantly /r/videos (11 million members!). It went from 100 or so views to 5,500+ in a couple of days, not exactly amazing but decent nonetheless.
I'm now at 311 subs and while it's not something I get a boner about, I feel the channel is on the right track.
I'm now posting two videos per week: one on Tuesday and one on Saturday. Time to get serious about this channel!
Not sure how interested you guys are in my progress.
If you like this thread and want me to keep updating it, let me know and I'll do it.
Will do
I've published a video about the actual Brexit process (so about how the United Kingdom will most likely be leaving the EU) an hour or so ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_osTPkdJxM
Please like/comment/subscribe and share it on social media if you found it useful.
I hope it will do well on Reddit. I won't be posting many current event-related videos on the channel (at least not during the first year) but when something as important as the Brexit occurs, I'll do my best to make a video about it.
Heh, I sure woke up to some good news
Yesterday, the latest video on my One Minute Economics channel started doing well on Reddit, on the huge /r/videos subreddit (about 11 million members). It's still there, on page 2.
Here's the video btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkZcdCDJJg
Before that happened, I was sitting at 370-371 subscribers and was optimistic that I might get close to 400 thanks to Reddit.
Well, I went to bed and woke up to a whopping 465 subs
I have done well on /r/videos before with my bitcoin video but it seems this video (which explained what pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes are) generated a LOT more subscribers for the same number of views.
The only two explanations I can think of:
1) they found the video more interesting than the bitcoin one
2) I'm now posting two times per week, so the channel looks more active
Definitely the best 24 hours the channel has had... by far.
Yesterday, the latest video on my One Minute Economics channel started doing well on Reddit, on the huge /r/videos subreddit (about 11 million members). It's still there, on page 2.
Here's the video btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkZcdCDJJg
Before that happened, I was sitting at 370-371 subscribers and was optimistic that I might get close to 400 thanks to Reddit.
Well, I went to bed and woke up to a whopping 465 subs
I have done well on /r/videos before with my bitcoin video but it seems this video (which explained what pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes are) generated a LOT more subscribers for the same number of views.
The only two explanations I can think of:
1) they found the video more interesting than the bitcoin one
2) I'm now posting two times per week, so the channel looks more active
Definitely the best 24 hours the channel has had... by far.
Great news: the book is *finally* 100% ready!
The "official" launch is still a couple of months (most likely) away though.
I want to give some of you guys free copies, PM me if you want one.
The "official" launch is still a couple of months (most likely) away though.
I want to give some of you guys free copies, PM me if you want one.
Thanks Jake, I'll keep you guys posted
Here's where most of the traffic will come from during launch week:
1) my own platform (DomainingTips.com + contest + maybe a sale here and there from the One Minute Economics YouTube channel which is currently at ~600 subs and growing nicely, won't be of *that* much help though + other domaining sites/blogs), this is basically the "free traffic" dimension of my launch
2) paid newsletter advertising and some banner advertising (although I've chosen to focus more on newsletter advertising), I've negotiated some of the spots back when this thread was started and kept working on this dimension since then, constantly looking for decent advertising deals
3) BookBub (if they accept me) and other book newsletters (lots of 'em)
4) Facebook ads
My goal is generating 10k sales during the week in question.
About 50% of my budget will be spent on #1, roughly 20% on #3 if BookBub accepts me or less if it doesn't and the rest on FB ads.
Well, the One Minute Economics channel now has over 600 subscribers, my best guess is that it'll be hovering around the 1,000 mark once we get close to the launch week.
Not sure whether or not it's going to generate sales, I for one am not counting on many but who knows!
I do have a few enthusiastic viewers, some of them said they'll be recommending/promoting the channel, I have no idea what's going to happen. Either way, my plan as far as the channel is concerned is this: at the very beginning of the big week, I'll publish a video which says something along the lines of "One Minute Economics Needs Your Help This Week!"... it's going to be a one-minute video, just like the others and I'll explain that running the channel requires a lot of hard work, that the channel won't be able to sustain itself without book sales and so on. And, of course, I'll explain what my book is about.
Common sense stuff.
Most of the viewers probably won't care. Some might find the book itself interesting enough to justify the purchase. Some might not be interested in the book but will buy it just to support the channel. And some will be like "the book topic is kind of interesting and I kind of wanna support the channel, so ok!"... but again, most of my subscribers probably won't care. I have to be realistic.
Not sure whether or not it's going to generate sales, I for one am not counting on many but who knows!
I do have a few enthusiastic viewers, some of them said they'll be recommending/promoting the channel, I have no idea what's going to happen. Either way, my plan as far as the channel is concerned is this: at the very beginning of the big week, I'll publish a video which says something along the lines of "One Minute Economics Needs Your Help This Week!"... it's going to be a one-minute video, just like the others and I'll explain that running the channel requires a lot of hard work, that the channel won't be able to sustain itself without book sales and so on. And, of course, I'll explain what my book is about.
Common sense stuff.
Most of the viewers probably won't care. Some might find the book itself interesting enough to justify the purchase. Some might not be interested in the book but will buy it just to support the channel. And some will be like "the book topic is kind of interesting and I kind of wanna support the channel, so ok!"... but again, most of my subscribers probably won't care. I have to be realistic.
Well, I've managed to break my previous Reddit "record" (100 YouTube subscribers in ~24 hours) by attracting ~150 subs over a 24-hour period with my video about derivatives.
The main difference between this situation and the other one is this: for my previous record, I've done very well on just ONE huge subreddit (/r/videos, with 11 million members, genuinely huge) whereas the derivatives video did well on several smaller subreddits.
It definitely adds up, especially since you can get good placement on the smaller subreddits. I end up on position #1 of page #1 on smaller subreddits relatively frequently, whereas my best performance on /r/videos has been the last position (#25) of page one. Now, of course, I could receive insane amounts of traffic by hitting position #1 of page #1 on /r/videos (easily hundreds of subs, possibly 500+) but that's easier said than done and therefore, if I were to aim for consistency, targeting smaller subreddits kind of makes more sense.
The channel now has close to 800 subs, so "the big 1k" is close.
That's it for now, will post in this thread again when I have something new/meaningful to report.
The main difference between this situation and the other one is this: for my previous record, I've done very well on just ONE huge subreddit (/r/videos, with 11 million members, genuinely huge) whereas the derivatives video did well on several smaller subreddits.
It definitely adds up, especially since you can get good placement on the smaller subreddits. I end up on position #1 of page #1 on smaller subreddits relatively frequently, whereas my best performance on /r/videos has been the last position (#25) of page one. Now, of course, I could receive insane amounts of traffic by hitting position #1 of page #1 on /r/videos (easily hundreds of subs, possibly 500+) but that's easier said than done and therefore, if I were to aim for consistency, targeting smaller subreddits kind of makes more sense.
The channel now has close to 800 subs, so "the big 1k" is close.
That's it for now, will post in this thread again when I have something new/meaningful to report.
Here we are, 8 days later, and I've hit 1,000 YouTube subscribers!!!
I have to say, Reddit has been good to me over the past month or so, will be interesting to see what happens next. I think attracting another 1,000 YouTube subscribers within 45 days is an achievable goal, I'll do my best to make that happen.
I have to say, Reddit has been good to me over the past month or so, will be interesting to see what happens next. I think attracting another 1,000 YouTube subscribers within 45 days is an achievable goal, I'll do my best to make that happen.