Authorpreneur Blueprint: Publishing A Course As A Book (KDP)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

The goal of this section is to explain the Course As A Book (CAAB) model. By the end of this section, you’ll understand why this works, the complete process, be able to choose a topic, and start working on your own outline for your own Course As A Book.

They say that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

And that is very often TRUE! But notice that it says PROBABLY, not ALWAYS.

Yes, sometimes things are NOT “too good to be true”! And I feel with 100% certainty that the information and content that you will learn in this book/course will make you think, “This seems too good to be true!” It’s NOT! It’s SO GOOD and it’s SO TRUE!

Of course, this is all just my opinion, right?

Well, later in this book/course, you’ll see some examples of courses that I have published as books. And YES, this very book that you’re reading right now is an online course that I have published as a book! I’ll admit that it sounds a little bit weird or crazy, but this is the best way (in my opinion) to teach others how they can create their own online courses and publish them as books!

So, why would you want to create an online course and publish it on Amazon as a book? That’s an easy question! Creating, uploading, and selling your own online course is a great way to build an online business around your expertise. Remember, this entire process is designed to lead you to two very desirable results:

1: Helping People: You’re helping people learn more about your topic of expertise, answering their questions, solving their problems, and increasing their knowledge and skillset.

2: Getting Paid: You’ll be financially compensated and rewarded for your knowledge and ability to create online course content that brings value and utility to your customers.

Here’s one of the best parts about all of this: Everything that I teach is completely TESTABLE. You can check every website, screenshot, and video to see if they’re legit. And you can test everything without spending a single dollar.

Another benefit is that to create your own course as a book, you don’t need money; all you need is TIME.

TIME to decide on a topic, TIME to create an outline, TIME to write your course content, TIME to record your course videos, and TIME to publish it online. All of this time is time spent investing in yourself and creating a valuable passive income asset that YOU OWN. (More on this in Chapter 3).

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

This book/course will cover the entire process of choosing your own course topic based on your own personal strengths, talents, skills, interests, and passions and turn it into course content that will not only help people but will also be offered for sale online (both digitally and physically).

But we’re not going to stop there. In addition to this, this book/course also covers how to convert your online course content into book format so that it can sold as a Prime-eligible, print-on-demand, physical book on Amazon (the world’s largest and most trusted marketplace). We’ll even cover the process of launching and marketing your book so that you can start to earn royalties.

Now, as we go through this book/course together, some things are going to start to sound too good to be true and I totally understand. I said it before and it bears repeating: The saying goes, “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” This advice is very accurate, but remember that it says PROBABLY, not ALWAYS. Yes, sometimes things are NOT too good to be true and this is one of those times! It’s GOOD and it’s TRUE.

This typically happens when you are early to a new trend or opportunity, or you realize and see something that 1) most other people just don’t see and 2) you decide to take action.

When it comes to Amazon’s print-on-demand self-publishing platform, KDP, I believe that so many people simply aren’t seeing the scope and scale of this opportunity for a couple of big reasons.

First, they think that writing books is too hard. Well, I guess it’s not the easiest thing in the world, but it’s certainly not difficult in the sense that a normal person can’t spend a little time and figure it out. And remember the feeling that you get when you accomplish something hard? Or difficult? It feels a lot better than when you complete something super easy. Putting in a lot of effort often leads to a real sense of accomplishment.

Second, people believe that they simply are not an author, so this won’t work for them (and they never even get started).

Well, I definitely don’t consider myself to be an author, at least not in the typical sense. And I certainly did not go to school to be a writer. Remember, we’re not writing the next Harry Potter and we’re not trying to be the next Stephen King. We’re simply going to create course content in the form of articles or chapters combined with video explanations and demos (things that anyone can make). We will then format and organize everything into a consumable product (in this case, a book), that will be printed on demand and offered for sale on Amazon.

This is why the Course As A Book model is (in my opinion) the best way to turn useful and valuable information and content into a physical product (book) available on Amazon, with zero costs, zero fulfillment commitments, and zero customer service, all while you are earning royalties on every sale. Being able to offer your course as a physical product on Amazon is a big key to why this works so well. It’s no secret that customers LOVE physical products. They love to buy stuff, they love to get stuff delivered to their homes, and they love to open up those Amazon packages.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Documenting your journey to creating your own Course As A Book is a great way to generate content to post online and gain followers, but also to tease people about the progress and upcoming release of your book.

Another reason that publishing course content as a book is so powerful is the fact that your friends and family will be more excited to hear that you’re publishing a BOOK compared to merely creating an online course. Personally, when I think about an ‘online course’, I think it feels like someone is making a course simply in order to sell it and make money. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that at all, but it comes across much differently than when you tell people that you are writing an actual book.

I think that this bears repeating: when you see the words ‘WRITE A BOOK’, we are not talking about writing a story with characters and a plot. Writing a book in the ‘Course As A Book’ sense means that we are creating useful online course content that will be formatted to be accessed through a book that is printed on demand through Amazon’s KDP program. YOU CAN DO THIS.

To me, writing (or creating) a book sends the message that you have something of value that you want to share with the world and you’re sharing it through the process and effort required to write a book. You’re committing to a task that most people see as daunting or overwhelming.

While it’s true that writing a book can be quite an undertaking, by the end of this book/course, I’m confident that you will be excited to move forward towards the finish line of having your own completed book in your hands with YOUR name on it!

Try not to overthink every single detail. You’re here, reading this book and taking this course because you either 1) want to make money or 2) want to help other people by sharing your own specialized knowledge. Hopefully it’s BOTH! Always remember that there’s nothing wrong with making money when you are providing value to your customers!

CRITICISM

Everyone is a critic and when you put yourself out there, you will be making yourself vulnerable to criticism. Even friends and family members can sometimes offer criticism and advice that you may not want to hear.

Just know the difference between valid criticism and actual hate. Sometimes the feedback that we receive from friends and family (as well as customers) is bogus nonsense and hate. But sometimes it’s completely valid and we should be thankful that they are willing to candidly share things with us that we may not want to hear.

The most common criticism that I personally get about my books is that the information presented could be organized better. This is 100% true and valid! I’m not a professional writer by any means; I just write the same way that I talk. I’m sure a lot of my writing could be edited down to be clearer and more succinct. Maybe I’ll get an editor one day, but for now, I’m OK with my writing and the feedback that it receives. I don’t get upset at a one-star review if the feedback in the review is both true and potentially useful in improving my future writings.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

PASSIVE INCOME

Most people have the wrong idea about passive income. You only get to have passive income if you have (or create) some kind of asset that is able to generate money without you have to exchange your time for that money.

A course can be an asset. A book can be an asset. A ‘course as a book’ can be an asset. There are all kinds of things that you can put in the time and effort to create ONCE that can then be sold over and over again.

However, your labor normally only produces one result. You work, spend your time, and create an item or widget. More effort and labor would be needed to create another widget. With print-on-demand books, you can put in the effort ONE TIME and you then have something that you can sell over and over again. This is similar for digital products such as the course version of your book content. Obviously, selling a digital product over and over again is self-explanatory. For physical products (books), this was normally a process that would involve expenses, storage, and fulfillment (so not exactly completely passive income). But in this book/course, you’ll see how this previous limitation is overcome with the PRINT-ON-DEMAND aspect of KDP.

Most people, at one point or another, have worked a job for which they were paid hourly or given an annual salary. Working hourly is essentially trading your time for money. While an annual salary is similar, it’s tied less directly to the hours worked.

I bring this up because over the years that I have worked with people and shared information about this process, I’ve seen a lot of people get stuck on the difference between their previous understanding of how to ‘make money’ with the model of front-loading the work to create a passive income asset that earns you royalties through licensing your content to Amazon.

Spending the TIME to create a book, course, or other asset that you can sell over and over again is a very different business and income model compared to what most people are used to. That’s OK! As long as you can follow along and understand the differences (and advantages), I’m confident that you’ll quickly become infatuated with earning royalties.

Another reason that I bring this up is due to a common objection and stumbling block that I’ve seen trip up so many people. The thought of spending so much TIME to create something (a book or course) with no promises or guarantees of getting paid or earning a single dollar in profit scares them away from even starting. They are so used to trading their time for money that the thought of spending time working on something without getting paid is just not something that they are willing to do. If someone wants a guarantee, the only guarantee that I can give them would be if they DO NOTHING that they will be in the exact same place this time next year.

I hope that this isn’t you. The part that so many people are forgetting is that they are not working for free for someone else, they are working for free FOR THEMSELVES. And the work that they are doing is designed to pay off with passive income and royalties.

And even if all of the work (the time/hours) that you put in doesn’t lead to the exact payoffs and payouts that you were hoping for and expecting, it’s definitely not time that was completely lost or wasted. You will have still learned a great deal about many subjects (Amazon, print-on-demand, internet marketing, and more) as well as the processes involved. This is all knowledge that will help you succeed with future projects.

I’m confident that if you follow the methods laid out in this book/course, that you will not only learn a great deal about some amazing and innovative business models, but that you’ll actually see some success and sales.

Now, let’s talk about passive income. In this model, working for yourself, for free, is where your passive income will start. It comes from front-loading the work. It comes from taking the time to work for yourself, for free, to build something of value that you can sell again and again.

Don’t you want that? Think about how happy and proud of yourself that you’ll be by the time you’ve created an entire book and course! You’ll have done something that most people will never do and it will be 100% YOURS. All of the sales, LIFETIME SALES, will result in royalty payments made to YOU.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Imposter Syndrome and The Dunning-Kruger Effect

The last thing that I want to cover in this chapter are two psychological factors that can have an influence on people’s ability to truly conceptualize the Course As A Book process and how it relates to creating their own passive income asset.

Over the years, Imposter Syndrome has become a frequent topic in my public content and my private coaching. It’s common. It’s PERVASIVE. And it’s everywhere.

Imposter Syndrome

If you’ve never heard of it, you may think that you don’t have it. But honestly, you probably do suffer from it, even if you don’t realize it. I know that I suffer from it, and I’m going to show you why this is a GOOD THING.

So, what exactly is Imposter Syndrome and how does it affect authors, internet marketers, and online entrepreneurs? The best way that I can describe it is that it is a constant feeling of being “found out” as not being as smart as people seem to think that you are, or that your books, courses, content, or products aren’t as good as they could be (perfectionism) so you feel as though you don’t deserve the credit or accolades that you’re receiving.

Try thinking of it this way: Say that an author writes a book or even just an article on a blog, and they get 5-star reviews on Amazon or flattering comments on their website. Then they start to think, “Yikes, my book isn’t THAT good…” or, “It was just a simple blog post; how can someone say that it really helped them and that it changed their life?”

I don’t know why, but there is something about human psychology that often makes people not want to take the credit, flattery, praise, or adulation for their work and efforts. Something about it makes people uncomfortable and that feeling of discomfort can make people feel like they must be a fraud or that people must not really know the truth about how good their books are or how they aren’t actually that good of a writer.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing and is Amazon’s self-publishing platform for both Kindle and print-on-demand books (both paperback and hardback).

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is, in my opinion, the MOST POWERFUL platform on Amazon. It will bring more success to more people than any other platform offered by Amazon (and there are plenty).

Why? Because it allows anyone, anywhere in the world, to create royalty-generating physical product pages on Amazon (the world’s largest and most trusted marketplace), including multiple international marketplaces, FOR FREE, without ever having to create a website, ship an order, or answer a customer service email.

I published my first book using KDP back in 2011. It was titled Retail Arbitrage and it was basically two books combined into one. It described the business of buying products from retail stores and reselling them on Amazon as well as all of the benefits of using Amazon’s new (at the time) FBA program.

I originally wrote it as one long PDF that answered all of the common questions about FBA that people were posting in online communities as well as asking our support department at ScanPower. It seemed like everyone had the same questions, and I thought that one PDF with all of the questions answered would be a great way get people’s questions answered (and save me from writing out the same answers over and over again).

Once the PDF was finished, I learned about KDP. It seemed easy enough, so I messed around a little bit and was able to get my interior file and my cover file uploaded and approved. Then, all of a sudden, I became a published author!

Cool, I guess. But I honestly only wrote it as a fun little side project while selling on Amazon and working on ScanPower.

This was all early in the history of FBA and third-party selling on Amazon and, by now, I had built up a pretty good reputation online as someone who understood FBA and also enjoyed helping people and answering their questions.

At this same time, there weren’t very many conferences or events specifically for Amazon sellers. A few were starting to be organized, and we would attend and represent ScanPower as a sponsor and vendor. These events were often looking for knowledgeable speakers and presenters. This is when I started to be asked to not only present, but often to be the headline/keynote speaker at these events!

I understand that this was not SOLELY because I had published a book. I truly was well-versed and knowledgeable on the topics of arbitrage and FBA. But I do feel that being a published author with a book (the only book at the time) specifically on the subject matter helped.

It’s easy to see this in hindsight, and I’ll never know exactly how, but it’s safe to say that KDP played an important and powerful role in getting to me where I am today.

I tell you this story as an example of how quickly (and easily) you can elevate yourself as an expert in your field when you manage to publish your own book through KDP. If you want to become a speaker at events in your field, WRITE A BOOK. As a published author, you can quickly position yourself to become a potential presenter.

BONUS EVENT TIP

Have you ever attended an event and wished that you could connect with and get to know one (or more) of the presenters? As an attendee, this can be hard to do, because all of the other attendees want to meet the same presenter.

When you are a speaker or presenter at an event, you instantly gain credibility with THE OTHER PRESENTERS. In my experience, there is almost an ‘instant-friend’ aspect and camaraderie amongst speakers at events.

So, the quickest way (in my opinion) to network with other speakers at industry events is to become a speaker yourself. And the quickest way to become a speaker yourself is to publish your own book with KDP.

Having a KDP account is completely free and you can sign up at https://kdp.amazon.com/

You can use your regular Amazon account that you use to make purchases, or you can use a different email if you feel that keeping things separate would help you stay organized.

It truly is the most perfect business model that I’ve seen over the years (and I’ve seen plenty).

In a nutshell (that’s a weird phrase now I think about it), KDP allows anyone to offer their information, content, stories, etc. as both downloadable, digital products (Kindle books) as well as print-on-demand PHYSICAL BOOKS.

I can’t overstate enough the importance of the physical product nature in all of this. Customers love “stuff”. They like to buy stuff and get stuff delivered to their doors. They also LOVE Amazon and the one-click checkouts, the Prime shipping perks, the simple, no-hassle return policy (when needed), and the trusted product (book) reviews.

It’s so amazing that Amazon has built a platform where authors, writers, and even course creators can create both digital and physical products that are listed for sale on Amazon that are 100% completely HANDS OFF and automated.

When a customer places an order for a KDP book (physical copy), Amazon will take the order, print the book, pack it up, and send it to the customer in Amazon packaging. Then, every month, Amazon will send the creator a direct deposit of all of their ROYALTIES to their bank account.

It’s so simple yet so many people miss the true power of the KDP platform. All you need to do is create a PDF that brings the customer value. Maybe it’s teaching them something new or telling an entertaining story. Whatever it is, once it’s created and live on Amazon, all you have to do next is to market it online. Simply tell people about your book and show them how it will help them solve a problem in their lives. You’re not a salesman; you’re someone who has a product that will help people and solve their problems, so it becomes your duty to tell them about it.

Reply to people on social media who have posted about the exact problem that your book solves. Make YouTube videos demonstrating the value and solutions offered in your book (with a link in the description to buy it on Amazon).

This is FUN marketing! When you have a product (book) that you know will bring value to those who purchase it, you can then spend your time helping people without feeling ‘pushy’.

I’ve talked to hundreds, if not thousands of Amazon sellers, and I’ve asked them this exact question:

If I could give you an Amazon product page where you make $10 or even $100 profit every time that it sells, and the inventory is automatically replenished, and the product details and images were already done for you, what would you pay for this?

The answers are never below $1,000. Amazon sellers know the value of having a profit-generating Amazon product page. And having one that requires no maintenance or inventory replenishment (equivalent to completely outsourced automation), that costs literally ZERO DOLLARS to set up starts to sound too good to be true.

But it’s NOT! If you can create two files (interior file and cover file), then you can upload them to Amazon and you’ll have, FOR FREE, an Amazon product page where you will GET MONEY every time that it sells (and you’ll never have to ship a single order and you’ll never have to talk to a single customer).

Of course, this only works if the interior file that you upload provides VALUE to the customer. And since KDP is for BOOKS, you need to have a file that provides value to the customer when presented in book format.

That’s why I love the ‘Course As A Book’ model because it takes valuable information that has normally been presented in an online course format and puts it into a physical product format (in this case, a book). The customer who wants to learn the information that is in the book now has a product on Amazon that they can purchase that will help them solve their problems.

Remember, as long as you have something valuable to say or teach, then all that you have to do is 1) create the file/product and 2) let people know that it exists (more on that later).

I want to add that it is NOT advisable to share your KDP account login with other people. This advice applies primarily to authors thinking of letting a virtual assistant (VA) access their account to upload book files.

When you click the PUBLISH button at the end of the book-setup process, you are basically entering into an agreement with Amazon that you own (or have the full legal rights to) the content that you are publishing. If your VA makes a mistake (and accidentally uploads copyrighted material), then YOU made the mistake. If your VA or assistant messes up, and your KDP account is suspended or terminated, you cannot just blame your VA and get your account back.

Now you can certainly share your KDP login with your spouse, business partners, or other people that you know and trust. Just be sure that anyone who has access to your account and is publishing content knows the rules and follows them. If anyone is not sure if they should publish something, ASK SOMEONE FIRST and prevent any troubles with your KDP account.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

The Power Of Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is an absolutely HUGE factor of why this Course As A Book model works so well.

Depending on your experience with Amazon as a customer, as a seller, or even as an author, you may already know the importance (and power) of the Amazon Prime program.

For those who may not understand (or simply underestimate) the power of Prime, this section should make it crystal clear why the Amazon Prime program is such an important part of the Course As A Book model.

https://www.amazon.com/amazonprime

Amazon Prime is Amazon’s membership program that gives members some amazing perks on their Amazon orders such as fast, free delivery on millions of items. In fact, if you order frequently from Amazon, being a Prime member can save you more money on shipping fees compared to the cost of your Prime membership (not to mention getting your orders much faster).

Even if you don’t order from Amazon very frequently, the benefits of an Amazon Prime membership extend beyond the shipping benefits.

These fast and free delivery options are available on items that are eligible for Amazon’s Prime shipping program. These items can be more visible on the Amazon website and customers also sort their product search results to see only items that are Prime eligible. Basically, you REALLY want your items to be eligible for Amazon Prime, otherwise you’re going to miss out on a lot of potential orders.

We will touch on this again later in Chapter 29, but it’s important enough to mention here as well. Many Amazon customers will ONLY buy products that are eligible for Amazon Prime shipping options.

Check this out: When customers search for products by keyword on Amazon, they will then see a list of search results. Customers can choose to sort these results by Featured, Price: Low to High, Price: High to Low, Avg. Customer Review, or Newest Arrivals.

When I ask people what they think the most COMMON or frequently used ‘sort’ is for Amazon search results, most people think it’s by Price: Low to High (likely because people like to get a good deal and pay a low price).

But the truth is that there is a different ‘sort’ that Amazon customers use MORE than any of these. And that is to only show search results that are ELIGIBLE FOR AMAZON PRIME.

When Amazon customers check this box, they are essentially signaling to Amazon authors and sellers that if your books or products are not Amazon-Prime eligible, THEY DON’T EVEN WANT TO KNOW THAT YOU EVEN EXIST.

It doesn’t matter how good your books or products are. It doesn’t matter how low your prices are or how many 5-star reviews you have. If your products don’t qualify for Amazon Prime, they won’t be in the revised search results and the customer won’t even see you.

I used to think that most buyers were ‘price buyers’ meaning that the number one factor that they used to make a buying decision was PRICE. The lowest price will get the sale, right?

Turns out, that while price is an important factor to many people when making a buying decision, it’s not always the number one factor. Other things like shipping speed and ease of returns are also important factors to many, many people.

Use yourself as an example: Would you buy from an unknown website with unknown shipping speeds and an ambiguous return policy just to save a couple of bucks? Maybe some people would. Maybe some people would if it was more than just a couple of bucks. However, some people will not, regardless of the difference in price.

The truth is that many online customers go to Amazon FIRST and they ONLY search for items that are Prime eligible. These customers are often willing to pay more for the exact same item because they know exactly what they are getting when they order from Amazon.

Maybe this sounds like you? It definitely sounds like me, so use me as an example. If you want to sell your own books on your own website, you’re going to have a hard time getting me to place an order compared to if your books were on Amazon and Prime eligible.

If you’re a frequent Amazon customer, you’ve probably been surprised at least once when an Amazon package shows up sooner than you expected. How did that make you feel? Did it reinforce your choices to buy from Amazon again? I’m guessing that it made you feel good, and you probably even told someone about your positive experience about how fast Amazon shipped your order.

By now, you can probably already guess what I’m going to say next: YES, your physical KDP books (paperback and hardcover) are 100% ABSOLUTELY eligible for Amazon Prime!

The KDP program would still be amazing without the Prime eligibility, but the fact that KDP authors can have their own books, printed on demand and fulfilled by Amazon, shipping to Amazon’s Prime members/customers FOR FREE is just insane!

I know I’ve said it a hundred times already but I’m going to say it again:

In addition to these shipping benefits of Amazon Prime eligibility, this entire program is also 100% FREE! Put in the work to create a valuable asset and you can have your own product pages on Amazon for Prime-eligible physical products (books) and when orders come in, Amazon will literally do ALL OF THE WORK and send you a check at the end of the month.

This is powerful stuff so don’t sleep on this opportunity!

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

The first ‘Course As A Book’ that I wrote was Online Arbitrage in 2014. At the time, I didn’t really think of it as a ‘Course As A Book’; I just wanted to create a course about the business of sourcing inventory online that you could resell for a profit.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B379312

Having already published books about Amazon through KDP before (I first published Retail Arbitrage in 2011), I decided to release the course content in book format, sort of like a textbook. The benefits of this model seem obvious now, but at the time, I was just trying something new because it seemed like an interesting way to do the project.

Because of the nature of the content, taking screenshots and creating screenshare videos to explain and demonstrate different online arbitrage sourcing methods seemed obvious. But if the videos were listed in the book, wouldn’t everyone be able to access them?

Technically, yes; but I’ve never worried about people stealing content. A thief is going to steal either way and only a thief would want to watch stolen content. People who steal content are not your customers (and neither are the people who would accept access to stolen content), so you are not losing any potential sales. If anything, you want people to see your content one way or another and hopefully become customers in the future (because your content is so good).

Many of the things that I learned while writing/creating the book/course, Online Arbitrage, are included in this book.

For example, as I was finding great examples of online arbitrage deals and converting them into chapters and videos, I would share (tease?) some of the information on social media (especially my active Amazon/FBA Facebook Group).

If you recall, this was the ‘accidental marketing strategy’ that we covered in Chapter 2.

I would post something like, “Just finished another chapter of Online Arbitrage! I recorded a great video about finding an item ranked under 5,000 in toys selling for $70 that I can buy for just $25!”

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was creating a ton of interest and anticipated demand for the release of the book. I wasn’t posting like this specifically for the attention; I simply did this because I was excited about the book and how each great example would really help people with their online arbitrage businesses.

You could think of this as a type of marketing. The documentation and promotional teasing can communicate to your followers the upcoming timeline for the release of your book/course as well as convey your excitement for how it will help your potential customers.

If I was doing this again, I would definitely include some kind of call-to-action or sign-up link for people who were interested in learning more about the book. This way, I could send then email updates directly instead of having to rely on the organic reach on social media. The methods that I would use today are covered in more depth in Chapters 19 and 20.

I also polled the Facebook Group about how I should price the book. Since it was clearly becoming an in-depth, full-featured course about making money online (and much more than ‘just a book’), it would obviously be priced higher than $9.95 or $14.95.

I was surprised at first when people were suggesting the $200-$300 range for a book. I had to keep reminding myself that this was ‘more than a book’; it was an online, money-making course and it was REALLY GOOD, too! I didn’t know exactly how it was going to come together when I started the project, but I did know that I was able to get some amazing examples of sourcing strategies with real-world results.

The book/course was also getting pretty long. By the time it was completed, it was 480 pages (full size, 8.5” x 11” paper) which, at the time, was the largest KDP book that you could publish. It included over 40 unlisted, exclusive videos of demos, walkthroughs, and “real deal” examples that anyone could follow to learn more about online arbitrage.

I ultimately decided to price the book at $299 although the current maximum price that you can set through KDP is now $250. There is a way to charge more than $250 for a KDP book by buying your own Author Copies and then selling them through Amazon’s Seller Central platform (either shipping orders yourself or using Amazon’s FBA program) that we will cover later in Chapter 29).

When the book was finally ready, I announced it on Facebook and shared a link to the Amazon page. In the first month since its release, it sold almost 500 copies (481 to be exact). Priced at $299, Amazon was paying me out a royalty of ~$146/book. Run the numbers and you’ll see that this led to a royalty check for the first month’s sales of over $70,000!

The book reached a sales rank of #885 on all of Amazon. I can’t confirm this, but I believe that Online Arbitrage is the most expensive book to crack the Top 1,000 books on Amazon. An additional piece of information that you can extract here is that it doesn’t take as many book sales as you might think to reach the Top 1,000 sellers on Amazon. And as a bonus, when your book does reach the Top 1,000 bestsellers, you can share this information with your audience on social media as social proof of your book/course.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

I hope that you’re excited and are grasping just how amazing this business model is. To be able to create online course content that can be published on Amazon as a print-on-demand book is simply incredible. I know that I’ve said it before and that I probably sound like a broken record, but you can do all of this FOR FREE. It’s crazy and awesome so let’s move forward and start by choosing a TOPIC and TITLE for your book/course.

Now you can certainly make a course and a book about anything that you want to. If you already know where you want to start, you can skip this entire chapter.

This chapter is primarily for those who have no idea where to start or they think that they could never make an online course or a book that teaches people how to do something or that explains a complex topic. Maybe it’s because they believe that they simply are not an expert, coach, or teacher or that they are not good enough at anything that brings value to other people.

I’m here to tell you (or by the end of this chapter convince you) that, in my experience, everyone is good at something that brings VALUE to other people. Many times, it’s just being able to step back and see things from a different perspective. I hope that by the end of this chapter, you’ll have a better idea of what it takes to become a coach or teacher with an online course and a book and that you’ll have clarity about both your TOPIC and TITLE.

Start here: what do your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers tell you that you are good at?

What problems do you like to solve? What questions do people come to you with? What are you seen as the expert in? What do people tell you that you are good at? Even though many of these sentences end in prepositions, these are the questions that you should be repeatedly asking yourself.

I’ve frequently encountered people who are AMAZINGLY good at something that would bring MASSIVE value to people, but since they also actually enjoyed solving that particular problem, it didn’t occur to them that other people struggled with this thing and had problems that they actually ENJOYED solving.

If you’re still experiencing feelings of self-doubt as if you really aren’t good at anything that other people would find interesting or valuable, try to think about it this way:

Simply based on probability and statistics, even if you were just a RANDOM PERSON, you would NOT be on the far end of the scale or spectrum of people who are literally NOT GOOD AT ANYTHING. Statistically, you’d be somewhere in the middle, and you’d have just as good of odds of being on the high end of expertise as you would be at the low end of expertise.

So, give yourself some credit and don’t psych yourself out of the game by being overly critical of yourself. I assure you that you are good enough at something to provide value to other people. The simple fact that you are here, reading this book/course, means that you realize that you have something to offer this world and that you’re looking for way to make that a reality (and I’m here to help you).

Now it’s still technically possible that you either aren’t good enough at something that brings value to other people OR that you have no desire to write a book or build a course around your current subject of expertise. If this sounds like you, it’s all good; no one has to do anything that they don’t want to do.

But if either of these scenarios sound like YOU, then here is my advice:

Be INTENTIONAL and find a problem that you LOVE solving.

Make sure that it is a problem that other people have.

Spend the next 4-5 YEARS getting REALLY, REALLY GOOD at solving that problem.

Get experience and achieve a mastery-level of understanding.

Then write your book and create your course around offering to solve that problem for other people.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Now that you have gone through the process of choosing a topic for your book/course, it’s time to VALIDATE the topic to see the size of the potential market. I 100% believe that nearly every topic or idea can be turned into a profitable book/course, but it’s also a good idea to have the right expectations as you go into this process.

This is about more than just making sure that the market is ‘big enough’ to be worth spending the time to create your educational content (your book/course), but also to be sure that this is something that you actually want to spend your time creating.

Going through this process and interpreting the results can be tricky. For example, the data for an idea that has no current market because the idea simply isn’t good enough to have a big enough following can look the exact same as an amazing idea that simply hasn’t been brought to market yet because you’re early and it’s about to explode.

If you find yourself in this position, try thinking about it this way:

Does your topic have to do with something that is in a new, emerging market? Is it possible that you are early? A trend setter? First to market?

Or does your topic seem incredibly niche? Or too specific or obscure?

This is why it’s important to share and document your writing, creating, and development process. You can get real-time feedback as you go that can help you guide your work and your processes.

And if you complete your book/course only to launch and find out that the market simply wasn’t what you expected, you will have still learned a ton along that way that you can apply to your next project. This would be the ‘worst case scenario’ but it’s not even that bad because any mistakes that you made along the way won’t be replicated. Failures are learning experiences and every successful person that you can think of has had more failures than you realize. They just failed, learned from it, moved on, and tried again (and you can, too).

With all that said, this chapter will show you some sure-fire ways to test, research, and VALIDATE your topic so that your chances of a successful product and launch will be in your favor.

We’re going to choose some examples and then go through all of the exact same processes that I would go through to research and validate the topic.

Sample topic #1: KNIFE SHARPENING

If you’ve come this far and you have an interest and passion around knives and sharpening knives, you may already have some ideas about the potential market for knives and knife sharpening products and services. You may have already joined some online communities or purchased some books or courses on this topic. If not, and you’re just someone who has always enjoyed the knife world, here are several ways for you to figure out how many people share your interest and would potentially be interested in a course, book, or product that you can create that caters to the knife market.

I choose this topic as an example because even though I’m not personally into knives, knife collecting, and knife sharpening, I am aware that there are many people who are. I’m sure that many of these people are very passionate about this topic and it’s also likely that there are lots of people who want to learn more. So, how big is this market? Is there an opportunity for someone with a passion for knives and knife sharpening to position themselves as a knowledgeable and helpful expert with their own books and courses on the subject?

I don’t know yet but we’re about to find out!

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

There are tons of topics that can be made into an online course (that can then be turned into a book), but I want you to specifically think about the ways that your book/course info can help people FINANCIALLY.

You see, when it comes to marketing your book/course, it will fall into one of three categories:

HEALTH, WEALTH, or RELATIONSHIPS (LOVE)

I am NOT someone who specifically helps people with HEALTH or RELATIONSHIP topics. There are certainly opportunities in those categories (and you may be an amazing and experienced teacher), but it’s my opinion that if you can frame your course material in ways that demonstrate how students will either MAKE or SAVE MONEY with your course, you’ll have some amazing (and easy) ways to promote and market your book.

The Three Step System

When I’m coaching people, I often describe the Course As A Book model as a 5-90-5 system.

5% Having a GOOD product (I’m assuming that your product/book/course is actually good)

90% Marketing (getting people to know/care about it)

5% Making it easy to buy (being on online marketplaces like Amazon)

This is starting to get into that VITAL 90% of the process that entails getting people to KNOW and CARE about you and your product (the marketing). And the first part of this? Getting their ATTENTION! And what better way to get someone’s attention in the WEALTH category than to show them something that can either MAKE or SAVE them MONEY?

Later in Chapter 22, we’ll break down the three-step 5-90-5 system more in depth.

This marketing strategy/mindset can work for other categories as well. For example, if you had a book/course about nutrition and healthy eating habits, you could make a book/course about ‘How To Eat Healthy’. But this title is boring!

When you change the title to reflect how your course will benefit a student and help them in relation to their HEALTH, then you can change the title to ‘The Foolproof Way To Have More Energy And Get More Done With A Balanced and Healthy Diet’.

I suggest finding a way to specifically state the solution to the student’s problem in the title of your course.

Here is an example in the RELATIONSHIP category. Maybe you consider yourself a bit of an expert on coming up with creative dating plans. You could see yourself making a course titled, ’20 Easy And Creative Dates For You And Your Partner’.

But how much better would it be with a title like, ‘Rekindle The Spark and Impress Your Partner With These 20 Ingenious Date Ideas (#7 should be illegal!)’. And when I say ‘better’, I mean EASIER TO MARKET (the 90%).

But enough about topics that I am NOT an expert in; how about an example in the make money/save money space?

I met Brad Colbow in 2016, shortly after Merch By Amazon was launched. For context, Merch By Amazon is a print-on-demand platform that specifically requires uploaded images to be 4500 x 5400 pixel PNG files. On desktop programs like Photoshop, this is easy, but in 2016 there really weren’t many mobile apps that could handle the larger dimensions of 4500 x 5400 pixels.

Lots of people wanted to be able to create designs on their phones and there were a few iPhone apps that would support the larger dimensions, but there didn’t seem to be any compatible Android apps (at the time).

So, I was searching for any Android app that supported the large dimensions and PNG output format. I came across some YouTube video reviews of various Android apps and drawing tablets. They were from a guy named Brad Colbow and he was reviewing various Android art and drawing apps for his YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/thebradcolbow

You see, Brad is an artist, and I am an internet marketer. So, when Brad makes a video that is simply a ‘Review of this new Android drawing app’, I’m looking at that SAME VIDEO with a title of 1) How to MAKE MONEY 2) with Merch By Amazon 3) using this Android Drawing App.

This is not to say that I’m right and Brad is wrong; it just depends on how you want to present and market your courses and content. Brad’s YouTube channel is about digital art, hardware, software, and also some teaching about drawing styles (and much more), but it’s not specifically about ‘making money’.

But you are probably reading this book because you want to make a course and a book with the intention of making money, not because you want to start an artistic YouTube channel, right? If you are interested in that, Brad has some great Udemy courses in addition to the stellar videos on his YouTube channel:

https://www.udemy.com/user/brad-colbow/

The point is that, IN MY OPINION, it is 10,000%+ easier to market a product or course that can demonstrate to students how to either MAKE or SAVE money. I am confident that practically ANY topic can be presented in this way.

Remember the examples about sharpening knives from the previous chapter? Here are some more examples:

Want to teach people how to cook? Great! “Learn How To SAVE XX Dollars Every Week by Learning to Cook Instead of Eating Out (With This Course)!”

“Learn How To Cook And MAKE XX Dollars Every Month With Your Own Ghost Kitchen (With This Course)!”

It even works for video games. “SAVE Hundreds Of Dollars On Your Online Streaming Setup By Following This Simple Course!”

“Learn the Secrets the Pros Use to Level Up Your Streaming Channel and MAKE XX By Attracting Sponsors (With This Course)!”

“Learn How To MAKE XX From Home As An Online Fortnite/Overwatch/Newest Game Coach (With This Course)!”

Want to teach people how to grow their own marijuana? “Learn How To SAVE XX Dollars By Growing Your Own Weed At Home (With This Course)!”

“Did Your State Legalize? This Course Will Show You How People Are MAKING XX Every Month By Hosting Local Q&A Sessions!”

Legally, I can’t really give too many examples of how you can MAKE money with marijuana, but I think you get the idea.

As much as I love KDP and online marketing, I don’t try to be something that I’m not. Can you publish fiction content on KDP? Absolutely! Autobiographies? Sure. But am I the guy to help you market and launch those kinds of books? Nope, not at all.

It’s just my opinion, of course, but publishing content that can be marketed in the WEALTH space is easy enough that anybody can learn to do it. It’s simply a matter of finding and connecting with people on social media who have the problem that your book/course solves. That’s really about it.

You can see that they have a problem because they are literally posting about it on social media. And now you have created something that will help them and solve their problem. All you have to do it tell them about it and demonstrate how it works and it will solve the problem that they have.

This assumes that your book/course is actually good, of course. That’s part of the importance of the Amazon review system. If your book/course is actually GOOD, you’ll earn 5-star reviews that will be trusted by any potential customers viewing your product page on Amazon. If your book/course is not very good, you’re going to end up earning low reviews.

Making and saving money are also simple and clear value propositions. You aren’t trying to fill some kind of hard-to-define need that people may have. Your message is clear and to the point. The information in your book/course can be used in way that can make the customer money or save the customer money.

The customer may purchase your book/course for other reasons. Maybe all that they want to do is learn how to grow weed at home or how to set up an online streaming system. But you were able to get their attention by tying your book/course back to how your book/course will not only teach them how to grow weed or build computers, but also includes the added benefit of helping the customer either make or save money.

Remember, the book/course isn’t necessarily about how to make or save money, but the marketing message behind the book/course can be presented as an additional benefit to learning the content contained within your book/course.

Since 90% of this process is the marketing, this is an important thing to understand and apply to your overall marketing plan. Your marketing plan is about the things that you can do to get people to KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you, as well as to know about your book/course and care enough about it to exchange their money for it by placing an order on Amazon.

You may get lucky and create a book/course on a topic that is getting a lot of search traffic on Amazon without many quality search results. This may lead you to get some sales simply by existing on Amazon through organic search. However, in my opinion, this is not a great long-term strategy. There are too many factors that are completely outside of your control that could disappear at any moment. Amazon doesn’t owe anyone any traffic; your long-term success depends on your ability to market your book/course outside of Amazon. In my experience, the best way to do this is to market your book/course in a way that demonstrates to the customer how your book/course will make or save them MONEY.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

When I published and launched Online Arbitrage as a book in 2014 for $299, a lot of people thought that I was crazy. $300 for a BOOK? Come on; how can a book be worth that much?

Well, in this chapter I’ll show you how you can add massive value to a book that will easily justify the price.

Remember that a book can be so much more than ‘just a book’. It’s not just words on paper, it’s all of the things that a customer gets when they purchase the PRODUCT from Amazon. The simplest way to think of this is that buyers of your book will get access to the things that are in the book, and that can be much more than just ‘words’.

If you are including video content, the access to that content can exclusively come from the pages in the book. Think about UNLISTED YouTube videos or password-protected Vimeo content (just like your seeing in this book).

The only place that those links are shared is within the pages of your book. When customers buy the book, they get access to the exclusive content.

You can also include access to downloadable content. It could be website templates if your book is about building websites or design assets if your book is about teaching graphic design for print-on-demand platforms like Merch By Amazon or KDP book covers.

Your customers can download those assets through Dropbox or Google Drive links that can only be found in the pages of you book.

The biggest value that I ever included was in the first edition of Online Arbitrage where customers could schedule a private 1-hour one-on-one coaching call with me to discuss online arbitrage sourcing strategies. In this specific case, I was offering ACCESS TO ME through the purchase of a book on Amazon. Remember that you can always update your KDP books to add or remove bonuses (or simply adjust the price). Because I moved into other projects, the current edition of Online Arbitrage is now only $99 and no longer includes this bonus.

So, don’t worry about putting out an offer like personal access (or anything that you don’t want to commit to for the rest of your life) because you can always update and change the content of your book in the future.

Here are some insider secrets about my experience of including one-on-one access through a book:

1. Make sure you are charging enough to make it worth your time. You want to be excited to see a call getting booked. If you aren’t excited, you may be charging too little or simply no longer interested in taking the calls (which would mean that it’s probably time to remove that part of your offer).

2. In my experience, only about 5% of the purchasers redeemed their free call. That’s just 1/20. I attribute this low redemption rate to my Online Arbitrage book being very thorough and concise (your redemption rates may vary).

3. After doing hundreds of one-on-one calls with people about online arbitrage, I actually benefitted just as much (if not more) as my students at answering questions and explaining online arbitrage!

Other things that you can give to customers who purchase your book on Amazon (this is just a list of examples; feel free to get creative and add your own):

-Private Facebook Group or Discord access

-Tickets to an online event (through Zoom or Facebook LIVE in a private group),

-Tickets to an in-person event

-Design templates or other digital assets (for websites, social media posts/profiles, book covers, t-shirt designs, etc.)

-Downloadable PDF study guides (or other complimentary content)

-Voxer access for 6 months (or longer or shorter):

https://www.voxer.com/

Remember, when you price your books higher (to reflect the value of the contents), you will be receiving an increased royalty payment for every book sale. This profit, or margin, can then be used towards additional bonuses or incentives that your customers can redeem by following instructions that can only be found in the book.

This could be a printed study guide or even a different book altogether.

You could even offer a second copy of your book for them to give to a friend so that they can take the course together.

You may have some even better ideas about what kinds of value you can provide to your customers through the purchase of your book. If you think of something new that you think might work, TRY IT! You may just stumble onto a new marketing trick that no one has done before.

Here’s another way to look at WHY the CREATIVITY aspect of Amazon’s KDP platform is so powerful:

KDP is NOT the only print-on-demand platform for physical products on Amazon. You may have heard of Merch By Amazon which is very similar to KDP in the fact that you can create and offer physical products for sale, Prime-eligible, on Amazon.com. These products include t-shirts, hoodies, phone cases, Popsockets, and more. When ordered, Amazon will print the products and ship them to the customer.

So why do I stress the importance of being able to provide (INCLUDE) massive value in a KDP book and not with a Merch By Amazon t-shirt?

Because you can only provide so much value through the purchase of a t-shirt. How are you going to offer digital asset downloads or unlisted video content or access to private communities through a t-shirt?

With KDP, you have pages, HUNDREDS of pages, where you can include access to valuable, exclusive content and information including audio and video through external links and QR codes (explained in detail in Chapter 17).

Another problem is that the MAXIMUM price that you can charge for a t-shirt through Merch By Amazon is just $50 (that produces a royalty of under $30).

You simply can’t do the things that you can do with KDP with any other platform. This is why when someone asks me what the most POWERFUL Amazon platform is, I tell them it’s KDP, hands down, no hedge.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Don’t overthink this part! Start by writing down any and all topics that are related to your book/course idea. If your book is about selling on Amazon, you’ll need to explain what Seller Central is, what FBA and MCF stand for (and their differences), how to prepare shipments, and much more. Write them down as they come to you (or type them on a computer) in no particular order (so you don’t forget anything).

Then, you’re going to put them in an order that makes sense. Try to think of your outline as the chapters in a book.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but creating your outline will be, in my opinion, the hardest part of this project. Please don’t let that scare you or make you overthink this part of the project. If this wasn’t the hardest part, something else would be the hardest part. Sometimes, when something is framed as being difficult, people can get the wrong impression and then the task becomes more difficult because of the mere perception of difficulty.

Honestly, the biggest reason that I say the outline is the hardest part is because it’s important and requires the most thinking and consideration. The rest of the book is fairly easy if you just take things step by step and keep making a little bit of progress each day. If you take the time and make the effort to create a quality outline, the rest of the project will go much more smoothly.

So, while I say that making the outline is the hardest part, I just mean that you may end up spending more time on it that you initially realize. This is because the outline will consist of taking everything that you want to teach/convey in your book/course and put it in an order that ANYONE (even a newbie) can go through and gain a clear understanding.

That means that the information needs to be presented in an order that makes sense. You can’t talk casually about something in chapter 4 that you don’t actually explain until chapter 9.

For example, in my book Online Arbitrage, I talk extensively about the price and Amazon sales rank tracking service/website, Keepa.com. Keepa is easily one the most valuable research tools for Amazon sellers doing any kind of arbitrage selling. But if you were a new seller who bought my book, you may have no clue what Keepa is. If I repeatedly referenced Keepa as if you already knew about it (and what it’s used for), you’d be lost and confused. So, before I write chapters and record video where I reference reading Keepa graphs, I’ll need to write a chapter explaining what Keepa is and how sellers can use their data.

This probably seems fairly straightforward (and it is), but I have frequently seen new authors have trouble with this part. Why? Because when you’re an ACTUAL expert in something, it can be difficult to step back and see the topic through the eyes of someone new.

If you find yourself struggling with this part, see if you can find someone who is not familiar with your topic, sit down with them, and try to explain it to them. Takes notes if you have to. This is a great way to get feedback and see the questions that someone new will have about your topic (questions that you forget to ask because you are so familiar with the topic.)

Once you consider your outline to be complete, give yourself a pat on the back! Most people don’t get this far. The next step is to simply start filling in the chapters/sections. Remember that you can always go back and edit or update your outline.

If you’re thinking about this as if the sections of your outline are the chapters of your book, then all that is left is to fill in each chapter, one by one. When you are an actual expert in a topic and have advanced knowledge on the subject, filling in each chapter starts to become really easy! If you find that you’re including too much information or content in a single chapter, consider breaking the topic up into two or more chapters (one for each topic).

Remember, you aren’t tied to your outline; you can update it or change it anytime you like. You can add new chapters if you realize that you left something out, or you might combine two chapters into one. You might even delete a chapter altogether if you later realize that it just doesn’t fit. Just be sure that any updates maintain the order of information being presented so that it makes coherent sense to your students.

At this point in the process, I like to look at my outline (chapters) and consider which parts will benefit from including some video content. Remember, exclusive, unlisted video content that can only be found in your book/course is a great way to add massive value to your book and justify a higher price.

There are really only two different types of videos that I use in my books and courses (but feel free to make whatever kind of videos make the most sense for your topic).

Most of my videos are just me, at my desk, giving a detailed explanation of each chapter. It makes everything about your book/course more personal when your students get to see and hear you. If you don’t want to be on camera for any reason, consider using screen capture software where you explain your topic with images or showing content from different relevant websites. You can also choose to make audio-only content. And if you just want to stick to the written word and don’t want to include any multimedia, that’s OK too!

If you do record yourself on video, it can be a huge benefit to show your students that you are excited and passionate about the topic of your course. I don’t mean you should be overly enthusiastic or appearing fake, but if they can tell that you’re excited about the information, it’s much easier for them to get excited about it as well.

Some of the video content will mirror or overlap with the written content and that’s OK. Some students prefer reading, some prefer audio, and some prefer video. A talking head video can also just be listened to (it doesn’t need to be watched) as there is no specific visual information being conveyed. I try to be sure to tell students when a video’s audio is all that they need so they know that they don’t need to be in front of a screen and that they can choose to listen in the car or while exercising.

In addition to these ‘talking head’ or selfie videos, the second type of video that I use a lot is the screenshare video. These videos make it much easier to convey specific information about a website compared to taking screenshots and describing everything with text.

Coming up in the next section, I’ll show you several websites and programs that you can use to create great-looking screenshare videos.

A third type of video that you may consider using in your book/course is a video demonstrating a skill (like sharpening a knife). I don’t make many videos like this because I primarily deal with digital products and content. If I was expanding the scope of my Online Arbitrage book to include demonstrations of how to prepare inventory to be sent to Amazon and how to pack FBA boxes, then I would set up a camera in order to record the actual process.

You don’t need a fancy camera to make any of these videos. Your smartphone likely has a ‘good enough’ camera and you can buy an inexpensive ring light on Amazon to improve your lighting. You may also want to get a separate microphone to improve your audio quality. There will be more information about equipment later on in Chapter 16.

A good rule to remember is that, if the content or information is good and/or valuable, people will watch a lower-quality video. However, regardless of the content, people will not watch or listen to videos with poor/bad audio. Think about this for yourself; have you ever tried to get through a video or podcast that had bad audio? Probably not, and since microphones are very inexpensive these days, you may want to consider using one to record your video content.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

I hope that Section 1 didn’t overload you with too much information! Depending on your history and experience, some of the things that we’ve covered so far may seem complicated or even counterintuitive. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just take things slow; there is NO RUSH.

In this next section, we’re going to cover the process of creating the content for your course. If you’ve made it this far, you should have already decided on a topic, validated your topic, and created an outline. Don’t worry about getting things perfect at this point; you can always go back and change or update things as you see fit.

If you’ve never created an online course before, then this section will really help you understand the many ways that you can convert the information and knowledge that’s in your head into formats that can be shared online and through the pages of a book. Things like images, screenshots, videos (including screen capture/recordings of both desktop and mobile screens), and even how to use QR codes to provide exclusive (private/unlisted) online video content to people who purchase your book.

The methods listed in this section are not necessarily all-inclusive. These are the ones that I use myself in my books and courses. You may have a new, innovative, and even better ways to turn your information and knowledge into engaging educational content. If you do, great! Use them and, if they work well, let me know about them so that I can use them, too!

By the end of this section, you’ll have everything that you need to get your course content completed (written and recorded), and also formatted as a PDF that can be uploaded to KDP. You’ll also learn how to make your cover file (required before your book can be fully published on Amazon).

KDP JUMPSTART

In this book/course, I outline, describe, and share with you everything that I personally do with KDP. There are likely some things that I could explain more clearly and concisely, so I want to be sure that you know about all of the resources available for KDP authors directly from Amazon.

Amazon/KDP has their very own ‘getting started’ guide called KDP Jumpstart.

The KDP Jumpstart program is a great place to get information directly from Amazon. Over time, some of the information in this book/course will likely become outdated. When you go back to Amazon’s website and the KDP help pages, you’ll know that the information is always up-to-date and accurate.

You can find all of the KDP Jumpstart information here:

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202187740

Depending on the length of your book/course and the scope of your course content, this process might take you longer than you first expected. I’ve made courses and books in under a week, and some have taken months to most of a year. Give yourself patience with this process.

If you want to see what comes next in terms of launching and marketing your book/course, feel free to skip ahead to Section 3 and come back to Section 2 when you’re ready to start creating your course content. Just don’t overthink this or beat yourself up over the amount of time it might take you to fully complete your course content. Remember, you are building a valuable digital asset that is designed to earn you passive income royalties because it brings so much value to other people. Things like this (something of REAL value) TAKES TIME. If it was super easy and didn’t take much time at all then everyone would be doing this.

But they aren’t doing this. It’s too hard for them. It takes too much time for them. It’s not worth the risk for them.

But it’s worth it for you. You know something that they don’t know. You’re investing in yourself and reading this book. They aren’t. You don’t have to read this book, but you’re doing it anyway. You know that the work and effort that you put into this book/course (along with all of the lessons that you’re personally learning throughout this process) are absolutely WORTH IT.

BONUS: The Litmus Test

If you decided to announce your book/course early on social media and let people know about what you’re working on, they may start to ask about your progress as time goes by. You may feel behind (or even anxious) if your progress is slower than what you had originally expected.

Don’t take their questions and curiosity the wrong way. People will be generally interested in your project, especially if they can tell how excited and enthusiastic you are about it.

If you have friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers who are genuinely curious, they will ask about your progress and then encourage you to keep going, to let them know when it’s ready, or even offer to you help you if they can.

If you have people in your life that hear about your project and your progress and start to put you down and say things like, “Are you ever going to finish that thing?”, “You keep talking about it but you’ll probably never get it done.”, or “I knew you’d never actually write a whole book!”, then you need to limit your time and interactions with these people. They are toxic and they will hold you back and hold you down.

Real friends will be interested and offer encouragement. Fake friends are mad at themselves for their own lack of success and will try to keep others around them down so that they don’t feel as though their lack of success is their fault. This is an unfortunate cycle that you can’t break them out of. If they want to change, they have to change themselves. You are responsible for yourself and it’s vitally important that you surround yourself with people who want to support you and see you succeed. You’re not responsible for other people.

People who want to hold others back and hold others down need to be cut out of your life (or at least protect yourself from them with limits and boundaries).

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Now that you have your outline (and yes you can still change it), it’s time to just start filling it in! Sounds simple, right? Well, not everyone works the same way so don’t overthink this part and get yourself stuck because you think that you must do things a certain way. I’ll share the way that I write my books and feel free to use it (or parts of it) or modify it to fit your own unique style.

Once I have my outline done, I try to work on one chapter at a time and fill it in to completion. I don’t do the chapters in any particular order (although you certainly could). As I’m writing, I try to remember the order of the chapters to make sure that they build upon each other and that they don’t introduce new things/themes that won’t make sense without some previous context.

I like to have my outline printed out and on my desk, next to my laptop. This way, I don’t have to repeatedly scroll back to the beginning of my document if I need to doublecheck which chapter is which number. For example, I may mention Amazon Advertising in an early chapter, but I explain it in more depth later in the book. When I do this, I need to know the correct chapter number and my printout saves me precious time (and also prevents me from straying off task). When your manuscript isn’t very long, scrolling back isn’t a big deal. Once you get to 200, 300, or even 400 pages, it can really break your concentration if you have to go all the way back to the beginning (and back again).

Most of my books include access to unlisted/exclusive video content. When I know that a chapter will include a video, I like to put a placeholder image in the chapter to remind me that I still need to record video content. A good strategy is to set aside time to record all of your video content together (or at least record your video content in chunks or blocks of time).

Video hack/tip: if you want your video to look like they were all shot on different days, but you’re recording all of your videos in one day, just get a bunch of shirts or outfits that you can change into in-between videos recordings.

You can, of course, record video content in any order that you choose to, but batching tasks together can often make you more efficient.

I find that, as I’m writing and filling in the written content of my books, that I’ll often remember small details that may have not made it into the book’s outline. I like to keep a blank sheet of paper next to my laptop as I write in order to quickly write things down so that I don’t forget them. I don’t want to scroll and hop around my document in order to put them in right away (before I forget) as I feel this is too much of an interruption. Not only will this break my train of thought, but it can also start to become difficult to find the exact proper place to add something when your document gets to be 100, 200, or 300+ pages long.

I’d rather ‘park’ them on the side and, once I’m finished with the chapter that I’m working on, return to my notes and add in each of the ideas that I had written down. In fact, a lot of writers call this method their “parking lot”. I then cross them off the paper and when there are no more ideas that aren’t crossed off, I can throw the paper out without the worry of missing something or forgetting to add an idea.

Maybe writing complete chapters all at one time isn’t the best method for you. Feel free to start filling in different parts of different sections. All writing is getting you closer to the goal of having a completed book/course so don’t overthink this process. You may even find that you try a few different writing styles and that you change along the way.

If you feel as though your writing is going too slow, just remember that this process can take time. Writing a book is not a quick process and if it was easy, everyone would do it. It’s time-consuming work, but even if you only work little by little, day by day, you’ll eventually get to where you want to go. Writing just a half page per day will get you 180-page book in a year. Or write one page per day and in just six months you’ll have a solid book manuscript.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

If you don’t already have a KDP account, you can create one, absolutely free, at https://kdp.amazon.com/

BOOKSHELF

This is where you will START all of your KDP projects and also where you will see a list of all of your CURRENT KDP projects (both as drafts and as completed and published KDP books on Amazon). You can choose to start a KDP project as a Kindle eBook, as a Paperback, or as a Hardback.

My suggestions is to start each KDP project as a Paperback. Why? First, adding a Kindle version of your book once you have a properly formatted paperback interior file is EASY. It’s not that the paperback file is hard, but the bigger value (in my opinion) is having your book available as a PHYSICAL product on Amazon, not “just as an eBook” (too easy).

Another reason that I want the paperback format is because of the lower cost (compared to hardbacks). You may have already assumed this but adding a hardback version to an existing paperback version is also VERY EASY. You just need a properly formatted cover file (most often just some simple adjustments to your paperback cover file). If you chose a non-standard paperback trim size for your book that is different from the standard hardback trim sizes, you may have to update and reformat your interior file.

Basically, the primary reason (for me) to use KDP is to get the paperback version LIVE on Amazon. Adding the eBook comes next because it is SO EASY and adding the hardback is the last option (if it makes sense to offer a hardback version).

REPORTS

This is where you can run various reports and see the sales of each of your KDP books. You can break your reports down by the different Amazon Marketplaces, formats, titles, and dates. You can also filter by author although I’ve never used this because I only publish under my own name (so I am always the author of record).

You can see all of the orders that include:

Paid Units Ordered (eBook)

Free Units Ordered (eBook)

Amazon Paid Units Shipped (paperback)

Distribution Paid Units Shipped (Paperback)

Amazon Paid Units Shipped (Hardcover)

You will also see the Kindle Edition Normalized Pages

Near the bottom, you will see your Royalties Earned section that will show all of the royalties for your sales from all of the different international Amazon marketplaces.

This report will include all of the sales of Kindle books from each country listed, however not all countries on this list will be offering the physical versions (paperback and hardcover) of your books.

COMMUNITY

These forums are the OFFICIAL community forums for KDP and are moderated by Amazon employees. They can be a great place to ask questions, get updates, and communicate with other KDP authors. KDP has been around for a long time and there are a lot of little things and small details that can trip up new authors. Getting help from long-time and experienced KDP authors can really help new authors overcome the hurdles that they may run into the first time that they publish with KDP.

When posting on the KDP forums, be respectful of people’s time and thankful for their advice.

Tip: depending on your own privacy concerns and if you want to continue to publish anonymously, you can create a username that will let you remain anonymous on these Amazon forums.

MARKETING

You’ll find access to KDP Select under the Marketing tab in your KDP account. When your KDP book is enrolled in KDP Select, you’ll be able to access two of the most powerful promotional tools that are available to KDP authors (Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Book Promotions).

Almost ALL of my books are enrolled in KDP Select and unless there is a GOOD reason to NOT enroll in KDP Select, I’d suggest always enrolling. We’ll cover this is more detail in Chapter 24, but feel free to look around in this section of your KDP account to see what is available. You can’t hurt anything in here and you won’t accidentally run any promotions with your confirmation.

Just a reminder from Chapter 5, when you enroll your books in the KDP Select program, they will also now be eligible for the Kindle Unlimited (KU) program where KU members (who pay $9.99/month) can choose to read your book for free. As the author, you get paid based on page-reads of your books out of the KDP Select Global Fund.

Amazon has much more info about the KDP Select Global Fund and how it works here: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201541130

You can also access Amazon Ads through Amazon’s advertising program specifically for KDP books.

You can also access this area by using your KDP login at https://advertising.amazon.com

Running Amazon ads is outside of the scope of this book/course, but I did want to share one of my favorite things about Amazon’s KDP advertising platform. When running paid ads for your KDP books, you can choose to run ads on an individual ASIN (product page). This means that you could simply search for and find the #1 bestseller or top ten search results in your niche or for a keyword search and then choose to run ads specifically (and only) on those particular product pages. It’s an amazing and powerful way to get your KDP product in front of the correct target audience for your book/course.

You can also access your Author Central page from within the Marketing tab. More about how to specifically use Author Central and your Author Page will be covered in Chapter 25.

A+ CONTENT

This is a fairly NEW option for KDP (at the time of this writing). It allows authors to add additional images and information to their KDP listings. This is an amazing update! Until now, customers would only be able to see the front and back covers of KDP books, so being able to give potential buyers more information about your KDP book is a very welcome update!

To be sure that you are following Amazon’s A+ Content guidelines, be sure to always check for the latest updates directly from Amazon:

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GHL7P99B7AA543CN

RUN A PRICE PROMOTION

The two types of promotions that you can run on your KDP Books (if they are enrolled in KDP Select) can be setup and initiated from within the Marketing tab. Simply choose the type of promotion that you want to run (Kindle Countdown Deals or Free Book Promotion) and you’ll then be able to choose which KDP book you wish to promote on the next screen.

These are the same promotions that can be run from each individual KDP book listing in your KDP Bookshelf (this is where I go to run my promotions).

We go much deeper on the two KDP Price Promotions later in this book in Chapter 24.

The last two sections of the Marketing section of the KDP dashboard are ways for authors to nominate their eBooks for Kindle Deals, Prime Reading, or both. These are new features (at the time of this writing) that I have not yet had a chance to explore, but I’m interested in anything that Amazon provides that can give me additional ways to promote and get increased exposure of my KDP books.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

KDP offers several options when it comes to the types of books that you can publish. When I say ‘types’, I don’t mean things like novels, coloring books, journals, etc. I mean paperback, hardback, digital (Kindle), the various sizes (trim/cover sizes and options), as well as paper/ink options and various page counts.

First, let’s talk about the two types of physical books, paperback and hardback (this chapter doesn’t compare these two types of books to digital Kindle books).

Paperback (or softcover) books will be the most common books published through KDP and I’d suggest to only chose to publish as a hardback book if you have a GOOD REASON to do so. Hardback books are more expensive to print than the equivalent paperback book so this will lead to either less profit for you or higher prices to your customer for the same content (other than having a different type of cover).

This isn’t to say that you should never publish content as a hardback. In fact, you can publish in BOTH formats on the same Amazon product page and then let your customer make the choice for themselves.

Disclaimer: The information and numbers in this chapter are current at the time of their writing. They may change over time, so always be sure to check directly with Amazon’s KDP help pages to make sure you have the most up-to-date and accurate figures.

The differences in book types and lengths are the main things that will affect the COST of your book. The cost will, of course, affect your list price, your royalties per sale, and the cost of your Author Copies (whether you are ordering for yourself or shipping to someone else).

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

I’ve been helping people learn about the amazing opportunities that KDP and self-publishing provide as well as directly coaching people one-on-one for years. During this time, I’ve heard many of the same concerns about the book-writing process.

I try not to label these concerns as ‘excuses’, but they often serve the same purpose as an excuse. They stop people from taking action and moving forward.

One of the biggest (and most common) concerns is the belief that it will just be ‘too hard’ to write a book because books are LONG.

Like we talked about in a previous chapter, KDP books can be as short as 24 pages. Remember, that’s only TWELVE pieces of paper!

That said, I COMPLETELY understand the concern and it’s definitely valid. But I have good news for you! You don’t have to fill every single page in your book with words. You can use images and screenshots to make your book more interesting and appealing while also making it easier to communicate your content with your readers.

And as a second bonus, these images and screenshots also help ‘fill out’ your book’s content. An entire page could be just a single image or an image with a short description of what the image is presenting.

IMAGES

So, where do you get images? Well, a quick Google search for “free images for commercial use” will get you on the right track.

https://www.google.com/search?q=free+images+for+commercial+use

Be sure to read the terms of service of any site that you want to use. If in doubt or if you have specific questions about a site, the best thing to do would be to contact them, explain exactly what you are doing with the images, and get confirmation that you can use the images for your project.

Pixabay.com is a great site to find images that you can use for commercial purposes that are completely free and require no attribution.

https://pixabay.com/

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Screenshare videos are probably my favorite way to create valuable, exclusive, and private video content for people who have purchased my books and courses. A lot of what I teach revolves around Amazon and different strategies for creating and marketing products online. A lot of what I do and what I teach has to do with different websites and programs on my computer. The best way that I’ve found to communicate and demonstrate exactly what I’m trying to convey is to capture that information in the form of a video.

Not every video has to include a screenshare; you can certainly include videos in your book/course that are just YOU, in the video, presenting a topic or explaining a concept. To record these types of videos, a simple tripod and your iPhone or Android phone will do the trick. The main thing to remember here is to NOT overthink this. There are TONS of cameras and microphones available for every budget imaginable.

In this chapter, I’ll show you the equipment and programs that I use to make video content for my books and online courses. If you already have your own equipment and you’re familiar with screenshare software and have made videos like this before, feel free to use what you’ve always used.

If you’re thinking ahead and wondering how on earth do you include VIDEO content in a printed book (something we touched on in Chapter 10), I’ll give you the heads up that the next chapter will cover using QR codes to link to your private, unlisted, or password-protected video content so that only people who have purchased your book/course will be able to access and view the videos.

TIP #1: The more that you can look directly at the camera lens when you record, the better. It helps make a connection with your viewers. One of the reasons that I sometimes wear sunglasses in my videos is so that it appears as though I am looking directly at the camera even though my eyes may be off to the side reading from a video script or just glancing at notes to make sure that I cover everything without leaving out any important details.

TIP #2: You don’t have to be overly enthusiastic but remember that it’s OK to show emotion and excitement in your videos. I don’t suggest that you fake your excitement, but certainly don’t hold back in showing excitement for things that you are excited about! I don’t know how it works, but excitement and emotion can definitely translate through video to your viewers.

They can tell if you’re excited about something and if you’re excited, they’ll be excited! The same thing applies if you are NOT excited about something. Your viewers will be able to tell if you are not excited (or faking excitement) and if you’re not excited, then why should they be excited? I’m assuming that any book or course that you’re creating will be about a topic that you are actually interested in and enjoy, so let that come through in your videos!

SCRIPTS vs. FREESTYLE

If you’ve never recorded a video like this before, you may feel stuck or have a bunch of questions about exactly how to record your videos. Your questions may start with, “Should I read off of a script? Or just start explaining something and see where it goes? What if I leave out something important? What if I mess up?”

All of these questions are valid, but the important thing is to not let them slow you down or prevent you from moving forward.

Personally, I will sometimes write out and use a script and sometimes I just start recording and ‘brain dump’ everything that I know about a specific topic.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Even if you’ve never heard the term ‘QR code’, you’ve probably seen them around. QR stands for Quick Response and is basically an image that can be scanned with your phone’s camera that then instantly takes you to a website, mobile app, or another kind of action is taken on your phone. QR codes can make it quick and easy to access specific information on your phone without having to manually type in long web addresses (like YouTube video links).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

QR codes have been in use for a long time however they caught on more quickly outside of the USA. When Apple released iOS 11 in 2017, they built a QR code reader natively into the iPhone’s camera. This made it a lot easier to scan QR codes with an iPhone without the need to download and use a separate app.

The pandemic of 2020 also advanced the awareness, use, and adoption of QR codes in the USA (and worldwide) as businesses and restaurants looked for ways to transact with customers without direct contact or touching. For example, you may have seen restaurants placing a QR code on their tables for customers to scan to bring up a link to their online menu. When paying the bill, some restaurants are now using QR codes to accept payments by letting customers scan a QR code to complete their checkout through their phone.

With this new, more widespread adoption of QR codes, it’s a great time to use them creatively in your published materials.

It’s also 100% OK to NOT use QR codes! You should not hold up your writing process because you think that you “need” to use QR codes. Just think about it this way: does using QR codes in my book make sense? Does it solve a problem? Does it give a real benefit to the reader? Am I including links that would be difficult for readers to type into a browser? Would it be easier for my readers to access links with a scannable code? If so, great! Use QR codes! If not, don’t overthink it.

However, if you do use QR codes in your books, please be sure to explain to your readers how to use them (like I did at the beginning of this book). While many people will be familiar with how to use QR codes, not everyone will. I suggest including a short explanation and demo near the front of your book if you are including QR codes. I also suggest including an actual link underneath the QR code for readers who prefer regular links.

When I published Online Arbitrage in 2014, I thought that I may be the first person to publish a book using QR codes to link to external content and videos. I later found a book that used QR codes that was published well before 2014 so someone else beat me to it! That being said, it’s still a fairly new and innovative way to include links in printed materials.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

You really only need TWO FILES in order to have a print-on-demand book available on Amazon.

These two files are the interior file and the cover file (image). The dimensions of the cover file will depend on the dimensions of your book. For this reason, I suggest waiting to start designing your cover file until you have a better idea of how long your book will be.

The trim size of the book will obviously affect the size of the cover image file, but it’s the page count that can throw you off if you don’t know how to calculate the dimensions or where to find some downloadable templates. While the size of the book may be fixed at 6” x 9”, the page count will affect the thickness of the book and make the spine of the book bigger. Because the cover file is a single image that wraps around the book from front to back, the thickness of the spine will affect the width dimension of the cover file.

Thankfully, Amazon provides lots of templates that you can use to be sure that your dimensions are correct. Here is the simple and easy KDP cover template generator for PAPERBACK books (you’ll use this one most of the time).

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

It’s just my opinion of course, but having a website is a vital piece when creating a Course As A Book. Your website will serve as a place that YOU CONTROL and where you can share additional information that may not be in the book or that you want to add after your book is published.

It’s also the place where you can grow your email list. Building an email list of website visitors, potential customers, and existing customers is truly the most valuable part of this process. Being able to send emails and contact people is only becoming more and more important.

When I help people get started, I want them to be able to test things without spending money. However, there is no 100% FREE way to have a domain, website, and the ability to collect emails address. I suppose you could try to run everything through a Facebook Page or Instagram account, but then you would be tied to the limitations of their platforms.

I will show you how to get all of these things VERY inexpensively while also having all of the important features to test, validate, build, and grow your online business and presence. When things start to grow, you can always upgrade.

I was an early adopter of Facebook Groups and started the first group for Amazon and FBA. It grew quickly and I would get tons of engagement with anything and everything that I posted. I made the HUGE mistake of thinking this was simply because I was awesome and that my content was simply stunning. Turns out, it was because there was a disproportionate about of attention on Facebook compared to the content that was being produced, so Facebook basically showed my posts to more people because they didn’t have anything else to show them. This gave me a false sense of superiority and made me think that this was just the normal way that Facebook worked and that Facebook would always work this way moving forward.

I was dead wrong! As more people created Facebook Groups, the posts and content would now be shared and shown to the same amount of ‘attention’ on Facebook which meant that my reach and engagement went way down. The big mistake that I made was not collecting email addresses along the way so that I could directly contact people who were interested in what I had to say.

For the foreseeable future, email will serve as most people’s ‘home base’ on the Internet. Social media sites can come and go, but it’s pretty rare that people change their main email address. And as long as you are providing people with interesting and useful content through your email marketing, they’ll keeping opening and reading your emails.

One last thing that I will add about building an email list and what to do with it: Treat it like BUY or DIE. What this means is that people have full control and the option to be on your email list and to open and read your messages. Everyone knows how to click that unsubscribe button.

Now not every email that you send will be selling something, but they can either BUY (open and read or purchase a product) or DIE (unsubscribe). Don’t make it personal if people unsubscribe.

When it comes to building a website, there are basically two parts: the DOMAIN (the .COM) and the WEBSITE (or hosting). I like to always have completely free ways for people to get started, but both of these things will generally cost money. They are both inexpensive and don’t have lifetime commitments or anything, but just be aware that you will need to spend money for this part.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

All the way back in Chapter 2, we talked about ‘documenting your journey/process’ and adding links in your social media posts to websites to collect emails from people who were interested in following along and potentially purchasing your book/course when it was ready.

Well, we want to use a similar strategy within the book in order to build your email list with people who have purchased your book from Amazon.

You will likely be connected in some way to many of the people who buy your book online. They will have heard about your book/course after interacting with you in some way using social media. But some people will discover your book/course for the first time on Amazon. Maybe it’s selling well and is at the top of the best sellers list in your book’s category. Maybe they heard about it indirectly from a friend or in an online group or forum. Or maybe you gave away some books as prizes and this is a way for your winners to connect with you through your email list.

However they heard about it, won it, or if they bought it directly from Amazon, you won’t know about it and they won’t be able to get any updates from you about the book/course unless they have a way to connect with you.

This is why I suggest adding Calls-To-Action (CTAs) directly in your book. You could add a CTA in the introduction of your book to have people join an email list to get alerts any time that you update the book/course. Maybe you set up a private, exclusive, “members only” Facebook Group, Workplace, or Discord server just for people who bought the book. This could be a free community or even a monthly paid membership community.

This type of CTA is a great way to build your email list while also letting your students know about the additional access that they can receive as paying customers.

To place a CTA in your book/course, you can use a link to a landing page that you create using a service like ConvertKit (discussed in Chapter 19) or even just a link to a dedicated Facebook Group. If you use a Facebook Group, I would recommend asking for their email address as one of the questions that all new members have to answer before they can join.

And remember, this is YOUR Facebook Group, so you make the rules. You can choose to make providing you with their email address a REQUIREMENT in order to join your group.

You can also choose to offer people some kind of incentive to encourage them to enter their email address. This could be a downloadable PDF, a study guide, or even a link to a special, unlisted video.

These questions can be set up and edited in the settings section of your Facebook Group.

CONTINUITY PROGRAMS

You may have been thinking that your book/course will be your ultimate, top of the line product or offer, but you don’t have to stop there. Later, in Chapter 23, we’ll talk about something called the Value Ladder and how it can be an important tool to help new customers along the purchase process with free and lower-priced offers that will build confidence and context with your potential customers BEFORE they’re ready to buy your flagship book/course

But once they’ve purchased your book and they’re impressed with the quality and value of your information and content, many of your customers will want MORE.

There are several ways to offer them more at this point, and they all have to do with what level of ACCESS are you willing to give and at what price points are you willing to give that access.

A membership can be a great way to help as many people as you can for the lowest possible price. If you have a group of 500 people paying you $27/month to be in your private Facebook Group community, you can then use Zoom or Facebook LIVE to share new information and important updates about your subject matter. This way, you are able to reach many people (both LIVE and as an instant replay) with just a single video (one -> many). You can also offer to do some rapid-fire question and answer sessions that can create context and connection with members while continuing to demonstrate that you are an actual expert with in-depth knowledge on the subject matter and can answer any questions on the fly.

For those customers or members that want MORE, what they really want is more ACCESS. Access to YOU. So, if a one-to-many approach can be offered at a lower price point (due to technology allowing you to scale your interactions), offers that include additional access (up to and including one-on-one access to you) will come at a much higher price point.

For example, you could offer to host or moderate an inner circle or ‘mastermind’ group where a LIMITED number of members get exclusive access to you (and the mastermind group itself). You could offer these members access to your personal calendar to schedule short meetings with you or you could host weekly online discussions using Zoom. This could be a year-long program or something that happens monthly.

If someone wanted true one-on-one access to you (where you personally mentor and coach someone with their business), the price is going to go UP. Your time is your most valuable asset and, since you have positioned yourself as a true expert with valuable information, your time should not come cheap.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

If you’ve made it this far, CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve come along way and, honestly, most people don’t get this far. If you’re ready to UPLOAD your book files to KDP, then you should currently have TWO FILES ready. The first is your PDF interior file and the second is your KDP cover file.

The process of uploading the two files to KDP is a great example of something that is easier to show you through a video or with images than to describe using text. I promise that uploading the two files is incredibly easy to do, but the first time that you do it, you may feel overwhelmed and worried that you may do something wrong.

Don’t worry! The process is just as easy as I make it out to be and KDP really won’t let you do anything to your account that can’t be easily fixed. Once you’ve uploaded your first book to KDP, I’m confident that you’ll say, “Wow, Chris, that really was just as easy as you said it would be!”

There are three sections to the KDP upload process and there are a lot of data fields to be filled in, but you don’t have to worry about all of them. Until you publish your book and make it LIVE on Amazon, all of the fields in the KDP upload process can be updated or changed. However, some fields can no longer be changed once your book is published and LIVE on Amazon.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

I wanted to include everything that I could to give you the greatest chance at success, so instead of just a book that explains how to convert an online course into book format, this book/course also includes a ton of information about both Launching and Marketing your book and your course.

Just ‘existing’ on the Internet is NOT ENOUGH to get sales these days.

You may have heard the phrase, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door!” This phrase doesn’t make any sense to me. If you build a better mousetrap but NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT, how are they going to beat a path to your door?

They won’t. They don’t know that you even exist and they don’t know where you live, either.

You might have the best information, content, books, videos, and online courses, but if NOBODY knows about them, you’re not going to make any sales.

There are numerous ways to promote your book and leverage all of the benefits of being a published author. As the author, you get access to exclusive promotional tools through Amazon/KDP as well as being able to purchase copies of your books AT COST.

And because your Course As A Book is priced at a premium, you will have MARGIN/PROFIT that you can play with to incentivize sales. Simply calculate your royalty payment, based on the costs of your book compared to your list price. This is how much money you have to play with to incentivize a sale while still remaining profitable.

For example, you could offer to send a free digital copy of your book to anyone who buys the paperback copy. To do this, I would suggest asking buyers to submit their Amazon email receipt or Amazon order ID to you through an online form or simply directly via email.

Is it possible that people may try to scam you and try to get a copy without actually buying from Amazon? Technically, yes; but in my experience, this isn’t anything to worry about. When I offered a one-on-one coaching call to everyone who purchased my Online Arbitrage book, I had buyers send me their Amazon receipt via email. I would check each email to be sure that it looked legit and was an original order. For all of my efforts to protect myself from any potential scammers, NO ONE tried to get anything for free. It would have been better for me to let some scammers through than to spend the time and effort that I did trying to catch any potential scammers.

If you are setting up a website to promote your book (and hopefully collect emails as well), you can offer additional incentives for people who buy your book from Amazon. This is where you can get creative!

What else can you offer to potential buyers of your books? If could be a digital or physical product. It could be something that is offered perpetually or a limited-time offer. It could be a seasonal special or promotion or even a BOGO (buy one, get one free) offer. It could be access to an exclusive Facebook Group or Discord or even ACCESS to you, the author, through private group coaching call or Q&A sessions on Zoom.

When you have margin/profit built into your print-on-demand books, you now have an exact number that you can choose to play with and use to offer incentives (sometimes substantial incentives) to those people who are interested in buying your book through Amazon. Use these incentives as leverage to turn prospects into buyers and sales.

This section is not all-inclusive when it comes to internet marketing, but it will give you some great tips and ideas that you can use right away to grow your social media following and to build your own online reputation.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

So far, the majority of this book/course has been about creating a high-value online course that can also be published as a book. Depending on the type of content, many online courses can sell for hundreds of dollars (or more). If you’re already known as an internet marketer or course creator and you already have an email list, a following on social media, or you currently run your own online group or community, then bringing them a new offer will be a fairly straight-forward process.

But what do you do if you don’t have any of these things? What if you are starting from scratch? How will you get people to buy a book that is priced significantly higher than most other typical books if your potential customers don’t even know who you are?

Well, I’m going to show you!

I often describe the business of entrepreneurship (and Authorpreneurship) as a simple three-step process.

Step 1: Have a GOOD product (I’m assuming that you have a good product, otherwise none of this will work).

Step 2: Get people to KNOW about and CARE about your product (by becoming someone that they know, like, and trust).

Step 3: SELL your product (this is most often done through an online marketplace such as Amazon).

Let’s dive a little deeper…

Step 1: The product that we are creating is an online course and a self-published book. If you’ve never made an online course or written a self-published a book, then this first step may seem difficult or even daunting. I’ll be honest with you; it can be a lot of work, but it’s work for yourself with a great potential payoff. So, while step one may overwhelming at times, it’s not something that is impossible. Just keep working and moving forward until you have your completed product.

Step 1 is ONLY 5% of the three-step equation.

Why is Step 1 so small? Only 5%? Well, I could do Retail Arbitrage and go buy a product off the shelf at Wal-Mart, list it for sale on Amazon or eBay, and BOOM, I have a product for sale. This part is EASY.

Step 3 is also ONLY 5% of the three-step equation.
(Yes, I know I skipped Step 2. Just relax; it will make sense in a minute)

Why is Step 3 so small? Only 5%? It’s because selling your products has honestly never been easier. The Internet allows buyers and sellers to connect through online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace, and sellers can now offer their products for sale to more buyers in more places easier than ever before. Self-published books are printed on demand as orders come into Amazon. And don’t forget about Amazon’s FBA program that offers complete fulfillment services for all types of physical products including handling the entire storage, picking, packing, and shipping (and even customer service and returns). Once your customer is interested and is ready to buy, the ordering and delivery processes have never been easier.

That leaves Step 2 as 90% of the equation!

Step 2 includes advertising, marketing, and generally doing things to get people to know about your product, understand that value proposition of your product, to trust your product, to desire your product, to see that your product will solve a problem in their life and make their lives better, and to be willing to PAY MONEY in exchange for your product.

You have to spend your TIME getting people to KNOW ABOUT your product, to UNDERSTAND your product, to DESIRE your product, and to then PURCHASE your product.

People buy products from people (and companies) that they KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST. If you are bringing a brand new product to market and you don’t tell anyone about it, no one will even know that you exist.

That’s why Step 2 is 90% of the equation.

The good news is that when you have created your very own product (your own book/course), about a topic that you actually enjoy and are knowledgeable about, then it becomes FUN to do Step 2!

Let me explain:

I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years. It’s VERY COMMON for people to not want to market themselves or their products because they feel as though they are being to ‘salesy’, ‘pushy’, or acting like a used-car salesman.

I get it. I understand. But this is different.

You’ve created a product that helps people and solves problems in their lives. Because of this, you should WANT to tell everyone who will listen about your product! Now, the key is that you should be able to clearly differentiate who your product is FOR and also who it is NOT for.

If your product is not a good fit for someone, then you would be acting like a salesman if you were pushing your product on them.

But if your product is a good fit for them, then it becomes your duty and your responsibility to share the product with them. Show them how it works and how it will solve a problem that they have.

Do you know the feeling when you use a new product and it’s just awesome? What do you do when you discover a product makes your life easier or solves a problem that you’ve had?

You tell your friends! You tell your friends to go out and buy a product that isn’t even yours! You have no financial incentive to share the product, but you do so anyways because you want to help the people and you know and since this product helped you, you believe that it can help them too!

How much more should you be wanting and willing to share and promote YOUR OWN PRODUCT when you know that it can (and will) help others?

ACTIVE MARKETING

The first steps are to interact with and create context with your potential customers. You want them to get to KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you. You can do this be creating content to be posted and shared online that helps people by providing valuable insights and answers to questions from someone with knowledge and experience around your topic of expertise.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

If you are just starting out as an Authorpreneur and internet marketer, an additional problem that you may run into when you only have ONE product to offer is that many customers will not be comfortable making an expensive purchase as their FIRST purchase with you without making some kind of smaller purchase (or commitment) first.

This smaller purchase (sometimes even a FREE offer) helps establish TRUST with the customer. You need them to TRUST you and to TRUST that your information and content is as good as you claim it to be and that they will receive a huge amount of value from your products.

Honestly, without a strategy, it would be difficult to have only one high-priced product to sell. It would be difficult because people buy products from people and businesses that they KNOW, LIKE and TRUST. If a potential customer has no idea who you are, then it’s very unlikely that they will be open to purchasing a product with a higher-than-normal price (compared to their price expectations).

Most people would NOT buy this way. Why not? Think about what you would do in the same situation. If someone that you had no context or interaction with all of a sudden pitches you on a high-priced book, what would you do? Have you ever purchased something from an advertisement in one of your social media feeds from the FIRST ADVERTISEMENT that you saw from an advertiser that you’ve never even heard of before? Not likely.

Well, it’s going to be the same thing with your book/course if you only have the ONE product to offer. Potential customers are much more likely to download something for free or purchase a lower-priced product to ‘test the waters’ and see how their experience goes before purchasing something with a higher price point.

In the internet marketing world, this is known as having a VALUE LADDER, where a new potential customer can start their interactions with you at various levels of price (including FREE).

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Amazon has a KDP promotional program called KDP Select that has several incredible benefits (especially if you use them in the ways that I will share with you in this chapter).

When you upload your KDP book files to Amazon, you will have the option to enroll in the KDP Select program. Enrolling in the program is a 90-day commitment that you can either renew or opt out of at the end of the 90 days. Personally, I have all of my books enrolled in KDP Select with auto-renewal turned ON.

The one rule that you should be aware of is that your Kindle book needs to be EXCLUSIVE to Amazon during the 90 days. You can still sell your paperback copies anywhere else that you choose.

Your book will also become part of the Kindle Unlimited program where enrolled readers can read your book for free while you earn a share of the KDP Select Global Fund. These payouts are based on the number of pages that are read by your readers.

The main reason that I want my books enrolled in KDP Select is for their two promotional options that are only available to you if you are enrolled in KDP Select. The first is their Free Book Deal promotion that lets you offer your Kindle book on Amazon 100% for FREE. During the 90-day enrollment period for KDP select, you’ll be able to offer your book for free for five days. They can be five individual days or five straight days. You can make your book free on certain days like Black Friday or Cyber Monday or make it free on your birthday and tell your followers on social media that you have a gift for them.

You may be thinking, “Why would I ever want to offer my book for free on Amazon? Isn’t the goal of this to make some money?” and your concern would make sense.

This is just a strategy that you can choose to use if it makes sense for the plans that you have for your book. I have many books on Amazon at lots of different price points and some books have different purposes than other books. Lower priced books are often for promotion and establishing authority in a niche. Making a book free that normally only makes you ~$1 each time that it sells won’t cost you a lot in lost sales, but by making it free, you can get it into the hands of a lot of people who would normally not purchase your book.

I will make some of my more expensive books free from time to time but always with a specific purpose in mind. For example (and I’ll explain this in more depth later in this chapter), I know that there will be a lot of people who will not purchase my books and courses at full price simply because of the price. Making my books free will remove this barrier and get my content in front of more people. I have confidence that once they see what I’m teaching and how I’m teaching it, that they will want to see what else I’m doing and potentially turn into a customer.

And remember, just because someone has the Kindle version of your book, that doesn’t mean that they won’t still buy the paperback copy. People getting exposure to your content through your free Kindle copies can often turn into sales of your paperback copies. I frequently go back and buy a physical copy of books that I’ve purchased on Audible or Kindle.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

I’ve seen lots of people publish through KDP but very few of them take the time to set up their own Amazon Author Page through Amazon’s Author Central platform. Amazon Author Central is a completely free platform that allows authors to create customizable pages on Amazon featuring their books.

You can log into Author Central at: https://author.amazon.com/

You can also access Author Central from within the MARKETING section of your KDP account:

Having your own Author Page on Amazon comes with several great perks. The first being that you have your own page, ON AMAZON, that showcases who you are as an author with lists and links to your books. Similar to the benefits of having your books listed for sale ON AMAZON and Prime-eligible, having a ‘home base’ for all of your books ON AMAZON compared to your own website or social media accounts gives much more weight and legitimacy to you as the author. Well, at least it’s my opinion that it does.

Another benefit is that you can also create your own CUSTOM Author Page URL (link). It’s likely that I am a fan of this feature more than most authors, but if you recall what we discussed in Chapter 19, I just really like nice, clean, short, simple links. I believe that they can signal a higher level of legitimacy and professionalism and they look really good on business cards (for people who still use them). A short, memorable link can also be used on your social media sites to make it easier for people to remember.

To set your own Author Page URL, simply follow these steps in your Amazon Author Central account:

https://author.amazon.com/help/GRGZ458YRBZBYBDH

Here is what my Amazon Author Page looks like (at the time of this writing).

You can see that my Amazon Author Page custom URL is nice and short and sweet:

https://amazon.com/author/chris

If you want to have a similar URL for your Amazon Author Page, and you have a common name, it’s likely NOT going to be available anymore (sorry!). An alternative could be your first name + last name or your business or website name.

You DON’T have to have any KDP books published in order to create an Amazon Author Page and grab your desired custom URL, so if having a clean, custom URL for your Amazon Author Page is important to you (and your desired name is available), you can go ahead and grab it ahead of time.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Let me start by saying that the things described in this chapter will only work if your book/course/product is actually GOOD and actually provides a lot of value to people.

Forming partnerships and affiliate relationships can be an amazing way to get your book/course in front of other people’s audiences, readers, listeners, subscribers, and members. If you’ve created something that teaches new parents how to save money on expensive baby products, you’d probably want to get it in front of people who read blogs for new parents, listen to podcasts about parenting tips, are members of parenting Facebook Groups, and watch YouTube channels with content for new parents.

So how do you get in front of these groups of people? Well, it’s all about the relationship. You want something from them, so what are you going to give them in return. Too often people only think about themselves and what they can get out of the relationship. Instead, think about what you can GIVE to them that would bring them (and their audiences) massive value.

Here is one way to think about this:

People who run blogs need to constantly come up with things to write and post about. Podcasters are always planning ahead and looking for their next guest. YouTubers and Instagrammers always need new content to post. Facebook Group owners often find themselves with large, engaged groups but have no products to offer their members.

So help them! But help them without the expectation (or guarantee) of getting what you want. If you want to get featured on a blog, write them a great guest blog post. Put MORE effort into it than if you were writing it for your own website. Then GIVE IT THEM for free. If they use it, great! If they don’t, that’s OK, too.

Or contact the host of a podcast and introduce yourself as a fan of the show. You need to actually take the time to listen to an episode or two and let them know something specific that you like about the show. Let them know that you consider yourself a bit of an expert on similar topics and that you’ve written a book on the subject. Offer to send them a copy and start to build a relationship. They may offer to have you on the show themselves, or maybe you offer to be a guest yourself. Maybe you offer to give away several copies of your book to their listeners or subscribers.

This is where you have to be diligent and consistent. Don’t just try a couple or sites or channels and give up if you don’t get the response that you’re looking for. Contact 100 podcasts (big and small) and even if only 10% write back, that’s still TEN PODCASTS that you can get yourself on and get your products in front of their listeners!

Humans love to reciprocate, and when you GIVE first (and your GIVE is actually really good/valuable/useful), people are going to want to reciprocate or return the favor. Maybe they will write up another post about you and your book or maybe they will simply recommend your book to their audience.

In the next few chapters, you’ll learn how you can give away and gift your book to others through Amazon (both digital and physical) for MINIMAL costs. I suggest using these cost advantages in your favor by offering potential partners and/or affiliates copies of your Kindle book as well as physical copies of your book that they can give away or use as prizes for their own audiences.

For example, you could have a $9.99 Kindle book and a $19.99 paperback book, and you’d like to offer ten copies of the Kindle book and five copies of the paperback book to a podcast host to give away to their audience. Or you could make the same offer to an admin of a Facebook Group to give the books away to their members.

The retail price of this giveaway offer is ~$200 (and they can see those prices anchored on Amazon), but since you are the author, you can give them all of this to give away and it would only cost you ~$40. This is due to the promotional strategies that you will learn about in the next few chapters.

What if your book is an in-depth course that you sell for $99 for the Kindle and $200 for the paperback? Giving away ten Kindle books and five paperback copies would have a retail price of almost $2,000! And your costs to give your own copies and content away through Amazon? Still just ~$40.

As the author, you are able to leverage the margin built into your books. The difference between your retail price and your costs as the author can be quite significant (especially when your books are also online courses and priced higher than typical books). This difference in price means that you can giveaway products with a high retail value and very minimal costs to you. Get it?

Maybe it’s just me, but I would much rather spend any kind of marketing budget this way. I would be confident that you would get the most bang for your buck by strategically giving your books away as gifts or prizes to people with ideal audiences. You just have to take the time to reach and form these strategic partnerships.

Everything that you just read can be done basically for free. You can be a guest blogger or a podcast guest without spending any money. If you want to give away your books (both physical and digital), you can do that as well for incredibly low costs (explained in detail in Chapters 28 & 30).

But there’s another way to form strategic partnerships to get exposure for your books.

Affiliates.

Affiliates are people who will promote you or your product (your books) to their audiences. Instead of taking one fee up front like when someone places an advertisement, affiliates receive a percentage (or cut) of each sale that they make of your product.

As the seller, you would set the affiliate up with an exclusive offer or a specific price that’s only available to their audience or members. It could also be a trackable link or an exclusive coupon code that tracks orders and attributes each sale to the affiliate.

If you can track which sales the affiliate is responsible for, then you can gladly pay them an affiliate fee. It’s a great relationship when you never have to worry about spending too much on ads or not seeing an ROI. With affiliates, when they make money (and you have to pay them), YOU also make money so you know that you can always afford to pay them.

I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve seen lots of people get STUCK on exactly how to structure their affiliate program. The problem is that there is no specific ‘right way’ to do this. Depending on what you are selling, different models will make more (or less) sense.

Affiliate relationships can be incredibly valuable because it allows you to form partnerships with people without having to pay upfront for advertising fees that may (or may not) lead to adequate, incremental sales. With affiliate relationships, you only have to send payments when your affiliates make a sale, so you are never ‘upside down’ in terms of revenue.

It’s common for one-time purchases to be split 50/50. If you are new to affiliate marketing, this may sound high. “But I’m giving up HALF of the sale!?” Yup; because you’re getting in front of someone else’s audience that they have built. Remember, these are all INCREMENTAL sales that you would not have made WITHOUT the affiliate. Keep your affiliates happy and they’ll continue to gladly promote your products.

Here are some things to keep in mind when considering setting up an affiliate program (not all of these will perfectly align with KDP books as your products).

Is your product or service a high-ticket or low-ticket item?

25% of a $1,000 product ($250) is a lot more attractive than 25% of a $10 product ($2.50). You would have to sell one hundred times as many $10 products do make the same amount of money as selling just one of the $1,000 products.

How much margin/profit is built into each sale?

Is your product or service a one-time purchase? Or billed monthly?

While this book/course has been primarily focused on print-on-demand books on Amazon through KDP, you can certainly still sell your books directly on your own website, social media channels, or as special editions or packages that include perks like one-on-one mentoring. To sell direct, you can use payment processors like PayPal.com or set up your own payment processing through Stripe.com.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Amazon has their own affiliate program that lets pretty much anyone earn referral fees on items purchased on Amazon through their specific links. Bloggers will often make lists of products or write product reviews and then include an affiliate link back to Amazon where they will earn a small referral fee from Amazon if the customer makes a purchase.

The Amazon Associates program is free to use and you can sign up for your own account here:

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

If you are using the Amazon Associates program, you do need to disclose that your links are affiliate links and that you will receive a small referral fee if they purchase through the links posted on social media or through your website.

­­The simplest, easiest, and MOST BORING way to use the Amazon Associates program would be to suggest that your affiliates create their own Amazon Associates account and then promote your products (books) with their custom tracking links. They will then earn 4.5% (at the time of this writing) on purchases made on Amazon in the Book category through their specific links.

4.5%? Yup, just 4.5%.

It will be difficult (if not impossible) to get a serious affiliate to get excited about promoting someone else’s product(s) to their audiences for just 4.5%. But when your products are printed on demand through KDP, how can an affiliate promote sales in a way that you, the seller, can accurately track so that you can properly make your affiliate payments?

The answer is with a little creative usage of the Amazon Associates program.

ADVANCED Marketing Approach For KDP Authors:

We just covered affiliates and different types of affiliate setups and programs in the previous chapter, and you may already be wondering how on earth can we offer an attractive offer to potential affiliates if our products (our KDP books) are all on Amazon and printed on demand?

How can we offer a 50/50 (or other) royalty split or fixed payouts on products being sold this way?

I’m going to show you how, right now.

The tracking IDs present in Amazon affiliate links allow you to understand where sales and traffic are coming from. You can use different tracking IDs and different links (for the same product), in different places so that you can see where you are getting the best results from.

You can set one tracking ID for your Instagram profile and a different tracking ID that you send out via email. This way, you can see how many sales come from each marketing channel instead of just having one quantity of sales without being sure exactly where each one came from.

Maybe your Instagram efforts are bringing you ZERO results, indicating that you should adopt a different approach. Using individual tracking IDs helps you do this.

So how does any of this apply to being a KDP author?

Give your affiliates their own Amazon Associates link/code that you can track and directly pay them a PREMIUM for copies that they sell through their link. Since the link is exclusive to them, all sales through that link can be properly attributed to them. Using the margin/profit of your book as a guide, you can choose to pay out additional referral fees or other bonuses.

For example, if your royalty payout for your $99 book is $50, you know that you have $49 to play with or offer to affiliates and still be making $1 (or not losing money). You could offer affiliates a $25 Amazon gift card for every book sold through their link. Earning $25 for recommending a $99 product on Amazon is A LOT better than the 4.5% commission on physical books.

You can get as creative as you want to with how to use this tracking ability. You can add additional incentives like if they sell 100 books in a month, they’ll get a $500 bonus or if you sell 200 books in a month, they’ll get an iPad Pro.

This method is actually incredibly simple! Create links for your affiliates with specific Amazon affiliate tracking IDs that are unique to them. As the affiliate manager, you’ll be able to see EXACTLY how many sales come from each specific link.

At the time of this writing, the Amazon Associates program pays out approximately 60 days after the end of month for which they are being paid. For example, Payments for purchases in January are made in late March. Keep this in mind when paying out any affiliates, because returns do happen and to also protect yourself against any potential abuse.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Author Copies is easily one of the best-kept secrets in the world of KDP. Actually, I don’t know if it’s a case of people keeping it a secret or that they simply don’t know about it. Or maybe they are simply underestimating the amazing power of using Author Copies.

KDP has the built-in ability to let authors order their own books, at cost (plus shipping). Most authors use this to buy bulk copies of their own books that they will sell directly themselves. This may be in a bookstore, at a book signing, on their website, or even to sell on Amazon through FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon). While most authors will purchase their books in bulk, you can place orders for as few as one, single book. All that you have to do is change the delivery address in your Amazon cart when checking out and placing your order.

You do have to pay for shipping on Author Copies (they are NOT eligible for Amazon Prime) and the more books that you buy, the better the shipping rate PER BOOK will be.

I made this chart that shows the breakdown of the shipping rates for different quantities of KDP Author Copies (accurate at the time of this writing):

The numbers on this chart are for a 24-to-108-page book printed in black and white ink. This is both the minimum size (24 pages) and the largest size (108 pages) that are priced at the lowest minimum author cost through KDP (currently $2.15).

The important number that I want you to notice is in the first line of this chart, $3.59.

A single Author Copy of your book ships to any USA address for just $3.59 (Alaska and Hawaii are $5.59). I think this price is crazy low (not that I’m complaining). I just want to be sure that you realize the incredibly low costs that Amazon allows us to take advantage of through their KDP program.

This means that the cost to print and ship ONE BOOK of this size (in the USA) is under $6. That’s printing, packaging, and shipping!

Here is another small detail that I think is more important than most people realize: when you send a single Author Copy to someone, it will show up in Amazon packaging! You can be 100% sure they will get it and open it. When something shows up stamped with Media Mail, most people don’t get too excited. But everyone gets excited when they get an Amazon package, even if they don’t remember ordering anything!

Compare the Author Copy process to buying your own books (paying up front), buying packaging and shipping supplies (paying up front), preparing orders (labor costs), and then shipping to your customer in non-Amazon packaging. Even if you ship via USPS Media Mail, your overall costs will be higher than if you just let Amazon do it. And remember that USPS Media Mail is SLOW, so you won’t just be saving time, money, and effort by using Author Copies, but your recipients will be getting their books much faster. I would choose sending books as a trackable Amazon shipment over a non-trackable USPS Media Mail shipment every single time.

All of this still doesn’t even account for the fact that with Author Copies, Amazon is doing ALL OF THE WORK! You can ship Author Copies from the comfort of home with no upfront costs and you can ship to EIGHT DIFFERENT COUNTRIES!

When you choose to send an Author Copy book to someone in the USA, KDP will put the order in your Amazon cart. KDP will use your Amazon.com buyer’s account with the same email address as your KDP account. If you subscribe to Amazon Prime using this account, you’ll notice that Author Copies DO NOT ship with Prime benefits like fast and free shipping.

Sending an Author Copy to someone in another country is also really easy to do. For example, when you choose to send an Author Copy of your book to someone in the UK, KDP will add the item to your cart on the Amazon.co.uk website in an account tied to your same KDP email address. If you’ve never been on an international Amazon site, just use your Amazon.com login (or the same login as your KDP account).

After you click Submit Order in your KDP account, the book will be added to your Amazon.co.uk cart. It may look a little different of have a few different steps, but the checkout process will be similar to making purchases on Amazon.com. The big difference is that you will need to provide Amazon with a UK address for delivery.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

It was originally beyond the scope of this book, but since you now have a source of physical product inventory (your KDP books as Author Copies), I wanted to add some of the more advanced sales and fulfillment strategies that you would only have available through Amazon’s selling platform, Seller Central.

What I’m talking about is purchasing your books in bulk through KDP Author Copies and then either listing them on Amazon as a 3rd-party seller (fulfilling your own orders) or SENDING THEM BACK to Amazon as a shipment of Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) inventory to your Amazon Seller Central account.

Why would you do this? Well, there are several benefits to being able to control a separate source of inventory of your KDP books.

When you sell books through KDP priced higher than typical books (like when you’re publishing online course material as a book), you’ll have enough profit and margin built into each book that you can get creative and offer discounts. As the author and seller, you are able to price your books LOWER than Amazon and still remain profitable. When you complete the setup of your books through KDP, you’ll see the minimum list price that at which Amazon will let you sell your book through KDP. This price will include the production costs, the fulfillment costs, and the Amazon commission/fees. Then, when you set your LIST PRICE, Amazon will calculate your ROYALTY that they will being paying you each and every time that your book sells.

Amazon is ‘stuck’ paying you your royalty payment based on the list price of your book. This means that they have a much higher floor price (lowest price) at which they can sell your book without actually losing money on the transaction.

As a 3rd-party seller on Amazon, and also the author who can purchase copies of your own books AT COST (and not having to pay the author royalty), you can list and sell your own books at prices FAR BELOW Amazon’s prices.

For example, if you have a KDP book that you sell for $99, you could order 100 Author Copies, send them to your FBA account, price them at $49, and then send an email to your list about a special ‘limited quantity’ offer that you have on Amazon. Even with the fees associated with the FBA program, you’ll still be making a profit on your books while, at the same time, getting your books into the hands of 100 more people.

There are several benefits to doing it this way instead of taking direct orders. Your customers will get their orders FASTER (since FBA orders can ship with Prime benefits), and you won’t have to ship 100 separate orders yourself. It’s also easier for the customer since they can purchase on Amazon with a single click instead of placing an order through your website.

As a side note, Amazon does reserve the right to sell your KDP books for whatever price they want. They may even offer to sell your books for prices LOWER than your list price or even lower than your calculated royalty!

Why would they do this? Honestly, I’m not sure.

There are probably some legitimate reasons, but honestly, don’t worry about it. No matter what they sell your books for, they will be paying you your FULL ROYALTY (even if Amazon is losing money on each sale). There isn’t anything that you can do about it, so don’t worry about it; just remember that lower prices can lead to more sales. If Amazon is discounting your books, I’m sure to let my social media followers about it (and be thankful that Amazon is being UNNECESSARILY competitive on price (to your benefit)).

If you’ve been a seller on Amazon and a user of Seller Central before, you may already know that Amazon can be VERY competitive on PRICE (when they are also a seller of an item). So, if you, as the author, also become a 3rd-party seller of your books, Amazon will compete with you on price. Considering what you just learned about Amazon’s FIXED COSTS that they incur on direct sales of your books (including your ROYALTY), you may already realize that you can entice Amazon to lower the price on your KDP books by sending in FBA inventory of your books listed at prices lower than Amazon’s base/fixed costs.

This can make (force?) Amazon to drop their prices on your KDP books to the MINIMUM price that covers the product costs, fulfillment costs, commissions/fees, and YOUR ROYALTY. This can be an awesome boost to the sales of your KDP books because, as a general rule of economics, lower prices will lead to more sales. And since you are earning the same royalties on every sale, you want your KDP books to be offered for the lowest possible prices while maintaining your preset royalty payment.

Amazon knows that they have margin built into books published through KDP and they will often lower prices to attract sales. Amazon’s main goal is to get customers and make sales, not to use KDP book margins as primary profit center.

All of the things I just described can only be done with an Amazon seller account. Having an Amazon seller account has a fixed monthly fee, and each individual transaction will also have their own set of fees.

So far, everything described in this book/course can be done without spending any money. For this reason, I suggest that you don’t try to add the Seller Central strategies from this chapter until you have full confidence in your mastery of the KDP program.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Another way to get your KDP books into people’s hands directly is to use Amazon’s NEW gifting service. This is a great service all by itself, but it’s a DREAM for KDP authors. Let me explain:

With Amazon’s new gift-giving options, KDP authors will be able to send their PHYSICAL books to people as gifts. Just add your book to your Amazon shopping cart in the Amazon mobile app, and then choose to send the item as a gift. Amazon Prime members will see a new option to let the recipient enter their own address for delivery.

One reason that Amazon added this feature is because most of us have email addresses and cell phone numbers for our friends (or someone to whom we would be sending a gift) but often we don’t have their physical address handy or memorized. With this, you don’t need to know their address at all. Just enter their email or cellphone number and Amazon will do the rest.

But this is much more than just a new way to send things to people from Amazon. Not only is this new gift-giving process SUPER EASY, but the items that you send as gifts will also ship via AMAZON PRIME!

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazons-new-mobile-shopping-feature-makes-gifting-convenient

If you’ve been an Amazon customer or a Prime member for any length of time, you probably figured out that you can have Amazon ship orders to other people (not just to your home address). For Amazon Prime members, this was a great way to ship or send Christmas or birthday gifts to friends and family across the country. Getting free shipping on those orders thanks to your Prime membership is a nice benefit.

So how is this new Amazon ‘gift’ program any different?

Here's the thing; Amazon doesn’t really care about sending a few gifts to people outside of your household from time to time, but buying products for other people and using the free shipping benefits of the Amazon Prime program is not exactly what Amazon designed the Prime program for. Yes, you can do it on a smaller scale and no one will care, but you can’t build or scale any kind of delivery system or marketing plan to send out large numbers of orders or gifts this way.

Normally, if you wanted to use Amazon’s catalog of products (including your own KDP books) and their fulfillment network to deliver orders (and you wanted to do it above board and not risk losing your Prime account), you would need to use an Amazon buyer’s account that DOES NOT have Prime benefits. You probably already know where this is going, but this would mean that the items that you ship to other people as gifts from Amazon would NOT have free shipping. This substantially increases the total fulfillment costs of having a product from Amazon’s catalog shipped directly to the recipient.

However, products sent as gifts to recipients this new way will ship for free with Prime benefits! This is an amazing way to get products, including your KDP books, into people’s hands at an absolute MINIMUM cost!

Keep in mind that this is a fairly new Amazon feature (at the time of this writing), and it may expand or may even be removed (I hope not). I was testing some items to see if there is a price MINIMUM in order for items to be eligible for Amazon’s text/email gift-giving options and it appears that the item needs to be sold by Amazon and be priced at $5 or more. It’s likely that FBA inventory from 3rd party sellers could also be included as eligible items.

This $5+ minimum isn’t official or anything and the best way to see if an item has this gift-giving option available is to simply add it to your cart (in the Amazon app).

To summarize, as a KDP author with your own book (where you control the price), you could price your book at $5 and then send out copies of your book to friends, family, and people from your email list as gifts, delivered free with Prime benefits, fully trackable (so you will know when it’s delivered so you can reach out and follow up with people), and delivered in Amazon packaging.

You could still technically do all of this before this gift-giving program existed, however it was not possible to do this in such a simple way and for such a low price.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this program is not intended to be used as order fulfillment. This means that you should not be selling your books or taking orders outside of Amazon that you then turn around and process as a gift.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Amazon has an amazingly powerful way of letting KDP authors promote their Kindle books that most authors either don’t know about or don’t use because they simply don’t realize how POWERFUL it is.

Disclaimer – At the time of this writing, this option only works in the USA although I hope/expect that Amazon will expand this program to other countries in the future. Also, buying Kindle books for other people can only be done from the Amazon.com website (desktop and mobile) but currently not in the Amazon app.

Amazon gives you the ability to buy multiple copies of Kindle books that you can give/gift to other people. If you’re a teacher or business owner, this would be a great way to distribute books to your students or employees. This is a new feature for Kindle books that was previously only available through Amazon Business accounts.

For the self-published KDP author, this is one of the most amazing marketing tools that’s I’ve ever seen! As the author, you set the price of your Kindle books, so the cost for you to send Kindle copies of your books to other people can be as low as $0.99.

Previously, if you wanted to send someone your Kindle book as a gift, you could only purchase one at a time and you’d have to know their email address for Amazon to deliver it to them.

Now, you have two new ways to send someone your Kindle book as a gift:

If you know the email addresses of the people that you want to send Kindle copies to, you can enter them after adding the Kindle copies to your cart. You can add a single email or up to 999 emails at a time. To buy and send more than 999 copies, you just need to place multiple orders.

If you don’t have the email addresses, that’s OK! When you purchase multiple Kindle copies without entering email addresses, Amazon will instead give you unique, individual redemption links that you can then send/give to people.

Personally, I find this feature to be absolutely AMAZING! Removing friction from the buying process or from the gifting/giveaway process makes it so much easier to get your book into people’s hands. Sending someone the official Kindle book from the trusted source, Amazon, makes this so much more meaningful than just sending someone a link to download your PDF.

If you normally list your Kindle books for $0.99 (the minimum list price), then this process should seem fairly self-evident. You now know how you can get individual redemption links for your Kindle books at the minimum cost. Buy them and send them to family, friends, or members of your email list.

But what if your normal list price for your Kindle books is normally HIGHER than $0.99?

Well, you could pay FULL PRICE for your own Kindle books, although this would end up costing you a lot more up front. You would make up some of it on the back end through the royalties that you would earn for those sales (to yourself), but you would still be paying Amazon’s cut/commission in the process. You can run these numbers yourself once you know the royalty payment for your specific books.

So, what’s the best way to be able to buy your own Kindle books for the minimum $0.99 price when your prices are normally higher?

In theory, you could simply adjust the price of your Kindle books down to $0.99 for a short period of time in order to buy your own copies. Then, just raise the price back up after you’ve made your purchase.

There is no reason why this wouldn’t work, but I DO NOT recommend this frequently.

This is because when you change your list price in your KDP account, you will also be changing your ROYALTY. Why would this matter? It’s because Amazon’s customer-facing retail site is different than your KDP account. If you update something on a book in your KDP account, you’ll see that it does not INSTANTLY update on Amazon’s retail website. This delay can potentially cause problems if sales of your Kindle books start coming in before the new royalty calculations have propagated throughout all of Amazon’s systems.

For this reason, I would suggest running a Kindle Countdown Deal where you can temporarily make your book $0.99. During this promotion, place your orders for your Kindle book.

Keep in mind that during this promotion, anyone else can also buy your book for $0.99. There’s nothing that you can do about this but if you always want your Kindle book to be offered and sold at full price, this promotional process would not work for you.

Running a Kindle Countdown Deal is easy to do (we covered it in Chapter 24). Just set your price to $0.99 for 24 hours and make your purchase(s) during that time. To run a Kindle Countdown Deal, your books does need to be regularly priced between 2.99 and $24.99, so doing this would require a temporary price change.

If you are doing this kind of marketing and promotion, I suggest buying a lot of copies that you can use over a longer period of time (instead of just when you need them). This way, you are not constantly adjusting the prices of your Kindle book up and down.

There’s another reason why this is an incredibly powerful marketing tool/method. You’re buying copies of your own book that you can use as gifts for $0.99 each, right? If your book is ALWAYS $0.99, then people will see it as a kind gesture and a nice gift, but they’ll still know that the gift only cost you $0.99.

Now look at this the same way when your Kindle book’s regular price is $2.99, $9.99, $19.99, or even $99. Now, you are giving people a gift that has a retail price on Amazon.com that is much more than the $0.99 cost to you. (Give them the gift AFTER the Prime Promotion is over).

If I sent you a free link to my $0.99 Kindle book, you’d probably be happy and thankful. But how much more would this gift stand out if you saw that my Kindle book normally sells for $19.99 or $99? All of a sudden this gift hits a little different, doesn’t it?

You’re basically able to give away $10, $20, or even $100 ‘gifts’ that are only costing you $1. This is powerful stuff that you can use to both surprise and delight people on social media or through your email list.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Like I mentioned early on in this book, different people prefer different formats to consume content. Some prefer audio, others video, and some prefer books.

When you have created your own book or online course content, it’s completely yours to use anywhere that you choose. I highly recommend taking your book content and mirroring it on online course websites like Udemy.com, Teachable.com, or Skillshare.com (among others).

Check with each site’s Terms Of Service (TOS) to see if they have any exclusivity rules, but most of the time you can upload your course to multiple sites.

You’ll benefit from this by being able to provide people with a digital-only version of your course content. It could be a simple preference or maybe they live in a place where Amazon doesn’t deliver (or the shipping costs are too high).

I suggest providing access to your online version to anyone who purchases the book on Amazon. You can choose differently, but I think that this is a nice benefit to give to those who have already spent their money on the book (especially since it’s the same content, just presented in a different format).

Offering purchasers of your book free access to an online course version of your book is also a great way to build your email list. If they want to gain access, they’ll have to contact you in order to receive instructions on how to do this.

Some online course websites will allow you to give complimentary or free access to anyone that you, as the instructor/creator, choose. Some sites will restrict how often you can give free access (or 100% off coupon codes) to people.

For example, Udemy used to allow unlimited free access codes, but they have since changed their promotional rules and now limit instructors to only offering completely free access to their courses using only three codes each month and those codes are only valid for three days each.

So, what I decided to do was to give free access to my Udemy courses at the beginning of every month. You can create a 100% free code that will last for three days and send it out to everyone in your email list who has registered their purchase of your book. Anyone who signs up in the middle of the month will get access to the digital version at the beginning of the next month.

Of course, you can host your course content anywhere that you choose. One option may be to offer it in an organized Facebook Group or Discord. For example, first you tell your readers where they can find access to the online version of your course content. This can be as simple as sharing a link to a Facebook Group. Then, before people join and gain access, you ask them to email their Amazon purchase receipt to you.

Now you can choose to check receipts and validate each member, but in my experience, people don’t fake this part just to lie and steal your content by getting access to your course without buying the book. Anyone who would do this was never going to buy the book in the first place. I also look at it as if someone who lies their way in may just realize how good my course content is and become a fan who might buy something down the road.

Similar to the social-proof benefits of having an Amazon Author Page (discussed in Chapter 25), having an Instructor Profile on these types of websites can really help you stand out as a course creator.

At the time of this writing, I can post on social media about having “almost 80,000 students” who have taken one (or more) of my online courses on Udemy.

That’s like a football stadium full of people!

I can then link to my Instructor Profile on Udemy for people to verify. You can also grab screenshots of your Udemy reviews to generate images that you can use on social media or even in paid advertisements.

https://www.udemy.com/user/chrisgreen21/

BONUS TIP: Something that I learned while writing this book/course is that if you UNPUBLISH or deactivate any of your courses on Udemy, the review count will go down and only reflect the number of reviews on your active courses (total number of students stays the same).

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

FINAL THOUGHTS - It’s Time To Take Action

As you probably know by now, I’ve been in this game for a long time. I’ve explored dozens of different business models and helped thousands of people do the same. I’ve seen what works as well as what doesn’t work.

But it’s so much more than just knowing what works and what doesn’t work. It’s knowing WHY certain things work and WHY other things don’t work.

It’s knowing the things that prevent people from getting started and stopping people from putting themselves and the value that they offer out there to the world.

I get it; it can be scary to make yourself vulnerable like that. What if you’re not good enough? What if you’re not accepted? What if it doesn’t work the first time?

All of these “what ifs” keep people from achieving their full potential. It’s easier to do nothing because it’s SAFER. Your brain, your subconscious, is trying to keep you safe, but at the expense of the life of happiness and fulfillment that you want and deserve.

In my years of working with one-on-one coaching students, here are the two of the things that come up over and over again.

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MINDSET

I also think that it’s important to give you a reminder of just how hard it can be to change. This is especially true for making BIG changes. Change is often difficult, and depending on your age and worldview, change can be harder for some people than for others.

It’s OK if you feel as though you struggle with this. We all do. I definitely do. So many of the things that I’ve written about in the book/course are things that I had to learn (often the hard way) over the past 15 years as a public figure and an internet marketer. I hope that by sharing my experiences that you can skip many of the learning curves that I went through and also skip all of the mistakes that I made.

Generally, it can often take a traumatic event to really trigger big changes in people’s lives. There are events such as a health scare (heart attack), loss of a loved one or divorce, or financial trouble (bankruptcy). This is unfortunate because it would be nice if people were able to make big changes in their lives WITHOUT having to have anything negative happen to them.

I include this so that you have a better understanding of human psychology. If you feel as though you need to make some big changes in your life, you can try to make them without having to wait for anything negative or traumatic happen to you.

I do have some good news when it comes to things that can truly initiate change in people that doesn’t involve the negative aspects of a traumatic experience and it’s something that I call the ‘celebrity effect’.

This analogy came about while I was practicing throwing a football with my son (he was 12 years old at the time). He was frequently throwing the football side-armed (because it’s easier to throw a spiral), instead of throwing it over the top and keeping the ball high. If you throw it too low, you’ll make it easier for the defense to knock the ball down.

I gave him the same advice, over and over again. Just a few simple words about how to throw a football, “Throw it over the top, like this.”

But it wasn’t sinking in, or at least he wasn’t taking the advice and sticking with it.

Now, we live in the Boston area, so New England Patriots football is pretty much everywhere. At the time, Tom Brady had already won six championships and was widely considered to be the best quarterback of all time.

It occurred to me that if Tom Brady came into our backyard for literally TWELVE SECONDS and told my son to, “Throw it over the top, like this.” and then threw him JUST ONE PASS that my son would then throw like that for the REST OF HIS LIFE.

The advice was the EXACT SAME, but this time it came from someone that my son looked up to as an expert, a sports icon, or a celebrity.

It really hit me that it’s more than just knowing what to do or hearing specific words in a certain order that can make people take the advice seriously and, in a way, change their life. If Tom Brady came to our backyard for just twelve seconds, said seven words, and threw my son a football, that would change the way that my son would see the world and he would throw the ball properly EVERY SINGLE TIME for the rest of his life.

This is the same reason that people pay thousands of dollars to go to a Tony Robbins event. Everything that Tony Robbins says at his events can be found on Google, YouTube, or in an affordable book on Amazon. If you go to the event, you won’t hear anything NEW.

But when you’re at an event with lots of other people around, you’ll hear it in a different way. And if Tony came up to you in the crowd and tells you to your face that you can do something, you’re going to remember it and believe it for the rest of your life.

It’s not the information. It’s not the specific words. Honestly, I don’t even know exactly what “IT” is, but I know that if you hear the right words from the right person at the right time, that your life can literally change in an instant.

So, who is your expert? Your icon? Your celebrity?

If you heard some of the same advice that you’ve read in this book straight from someone that you look up to, would it make you take the advice more seriously? If so, do whatever you can to hack your brain and convince yourself that your ‘celebrity’ is right there, encouraging you and cheering you on! It may sound goofy or corny, but do you want something that works? Or do you want to keep spinning your wheels looking for some magical secret information that will make you successful?

I’m sorry to let you down but there is no magical secret information out there. It’s really just applying hard work to proven methods that can produce results and trying over and over again until you get it right and fit all of the right pieces together.

Now, I know this may sounds crazy (and it definitely sounds crazy TO ME), but maybe I am that person that you need to hear this from.

Maybe it’s going to hit different if you made it this far through a very long book/course. If you are reading this, you have come A LONG WAY. Not many people know everything that YOU NOW KNOW. I am DEAD SERIOUS when I say that you now know incredibly valuable information that most people on earth DO NOT KNOW.

But you have to both REALIZE this as well as actually BELIEVE how powerful this information is. You have to let it sink in that you are actually the one who has the ‘secret information’ that most people spend their whole lives looking for (and never finding).

Earlier in this book/course, I said that I believe that everyone is good enough at something that can bring value to other people and that can be packaged up into a book and an online course. That’s all that you need to be in this business.

And even if you feel as though you aren’t good enough at anything to follow this model, then you at least know how it works. You can then spend the next few years GETTING REALLY, REALLY GOOD at something that you enjoy and that also brings value to other people. Then, just follow the steps laid out in this book.

YOU CAN DO IT. Just DECIDE to take action. Make the choice to invest in yourself. NOW.

BE DONE

You may have heard the phrase, “Done is better than perfect.” This is very true because NOTHING will ever be perfect. So, if you wait until your book or course is perfect, you’ll end up waiting forever and never releasing it to the world.

And the world NEEDS your book and your course! The world NEEDS what you have to offer!

It can be scary to put yourself (and your work) out there. As someone who has published multiple 450+ page books/courses, I know this feeling well. Hitting those UPLOAD and PUBLISH buttons can be stressful and then letting people know that your book/course is LIVE on Amazon means that there is no going back.

Do not let this fear keep you from being DONE. Don’t keep pushing back your potential release date another week or month, because that will just go on forever. It will be scary and even nerve-wracking, but I PROMISE YOU that it will be worth it!

PERFECTION IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD

This is a great video from Casey Neistat about the saying, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” It a similar sentiment to ‘Done is better than perfect’ but with a little bit of a different twist.

If you wait until your book, course, or content is PERFECT, then the world will MISS OUT on all of the GOOD that have to offer. Imagine if all of your favorite authors and content creators didn’t put out any of their books or videos because they weren’t perfect. You’d miss out on all of the enjoyment and value that they can provide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_ESakf05PQ

Remember, NO ONE is perfect, and EVERYONE has the same fear of putting themselves out there. YOU CAN DO THIS!

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

This is a CURATED list of books and YouTube videos on the subjects of business, affiliates, marketing, mindset, and product launches. Links and images in the attached PDF file.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

amazon.com/dp/B09C1NDP2W

amazon.com/dp/1401957900

amazon.com/dp/1737475715

VALIDATION/MINDSET

amazon.com/dp/1949709469

amazon.com/dp/B07BSC3R6Q

amazon.com/dp/B01N9P9O4G

amazon.com/dp/0997082305

amazon.com/dp/1401960464

amazon.com/dp/1401960472

MARKETING/LAUNCHING

amazon.com/dp/1599185059

amazon.com/dp/1605440604

amazon.com/dp/1999523504

amazon.com/dp/0471738948

amazon.com/dp/B08XX82ZJB

amazon.com/dp/1401960235

BUSINESS BOOKS

amazon.com/dp/073521414X

amazon.com/dp/0887307280

amazon.com/dp/0735211299

amazon.com/dp/1591846447

amazon.com/dp/B07Y57WH9H

amazon.com/dp/1885167776

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

https://www.youtube.com/c/DailyStoic

https://www.youtube.com/c/thefuturishere

https://www.youtube.com/c/BetterIdeas

https://www.youtube.com/c/OkDork

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvRcHO5jJ_JKcekLacLMuQ

https://www.youtube.com/c/biaheza

https://www.youtube.com/c/RyanDanielMoran

https://www.youtube.com/c/Vincentc

https://www.youtube.com/c/GrahamStephan

https://www.youtube.com/c/melrobbins

https://www.youtube.com/c/TomBilyeu

https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesJani

https://www.youtube.com/c/garyvee

https://www.youtube.com/c/MarkMansonAuthor

https://www.youtube.com/user/SimonSinek

https://www.youtube.com/c/FunnelHackerTV

https://www.youtube.com/c/timferriss

https://www.youtube.com/c/patflynn

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1eRJNtNsu7UVl_Nbk0qBkA

https://www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneur

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

In July 2021, I went live every day for three weeks and gave detailed explanations and demonstrations of many of the topics presented in the chapters of this book/course. These videos were recorded, and each video includes a Q&A session with a live audience.

This video series is UNLISTED on YouTube and is ONLY accessible through the links provided in this book/course.

See what I did there?

Feel free to use this EXACT SAME METHOD to both create content and to also engage with the people who have shown interest in your book/course. This allows you to demonstrate your knowledge and mastery of your subject matter as well as practice and refine your presentation skills.

BONUS SECRET: By doing this, I GOT BETTER at explaining the Course As A Book concepts that you’ve seen in this book/course. I also got a better understanding of the questions and potential pain points that people may have when learning about this subject for the first time. Having a better understanding of what my students need makes ME a better teacher and this same strategy can also work for YOU. All of this is in addition to the value that these videos brought to those attending the live sessions.

RECORD IT and you can then repurpose that same content in your book/course as additional resources (like I am doing here), bonus content, offered free (in exchange for email) for lead generation, or even just as content marketing on social media.

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)

Give yourself a pat on the back, a high-five, or a fist bump because you are honestly in the MINORITY of people who buys books and courses (especially a long and thorough book/course like this one) and get all the way to the end.

As an author and an online course creator, I get to see behind the scenes, and I can tell you first-hand that MOST PEOPLE don’t get to the end of books and courses. That doesn’t mean that you absolutely must get to the end of a book or a course in order to get the value; many people rightfully get what they need from a book or a course and then get back to the work of applying the new knowledge to their lives and to their businesses.

What is does mean, however, is that you are one of the few to diligently go through all of the content of this book/course and I believe that this is a STRONG indicator of your ability to focus, apply yourself, and achieve success with the business model demonstrated in this book/course.

Please reach out and email me if I can help in any way. Use the subject ‘FINISHED CAAB’ to let me know that you finished the book/course. I do my best to get back to everyone with answers to their questions or to at least point them in the right direction.

CHRIS@AUTHORPRENEUR.COM

(Please refer to the PDF attached to this lecture (under Resources) for the full chapter)