Month: May 2018

Today we will discuss how to publish a kindle book for fun and profit. The inspiration came from two differenr posts. One is “How to Successfully Self-Publish a Kndle eBook” by Jeff Goins on the michealhyatt.com web site. The other is “How to Publish Your Book on Amazon Kindle” by Business Insider. I have published a book on Amazon. It is called “160 Secrets to a Happy Marriage”

Why Publish on Amazon?

Why publish on Amazon?

Here are the reasons that Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin publish only on Amazon.

1. Amazon is the largest “paid serach engine” on the planet. Google searchers do not have their wallets out ready to buy.

2. Amazon dominates the book market.  It offers over 12 million titles altogether.

3. It has a powerful review system that helps you sell more books.

4. Amazon is a  “maketing machine “. After you have sold a certain number of books Amazon refers its customers to your book. Wonderful.

5. Amazon makes it fast and easy to publish.  You can be published in 24-48 hours.

5 Steps to Publishing on Amazon

Step 1. Write

It is obvious you need to write your book before you can publish it. However there are 3 steps to writing a quality book.

1. Vomit Draft

Jeff Goins calls the first rough draft the “vomit’ draft. You are just trying to get it out.

2. Review Draft.

The second draft is checked over and rearranged.  It is edited.

3. Editorial Draftl

The third draft is more refined . It is checked for spelling or grammar errors. Proofreading iis part of this third and possibly final draft.

Step 2 Format and Design

1. Format for Kindle

You can try formatting it yourself using Calibre. But Jeff recommends paying someone to do this for you.

2. Cover Design

If you are on a budget you can use Crowdspring or 99 Designs for designing your cover. Ask for a JPeg file with 1500 pixels on the long side.  The ratio of sides should be 1.6 to 1 as recommended in Amazon’s guidelines.

3. Double Check Everything 

Here is where you ask a freind who knows grammar, story structure, spelling and puncuation to proofread your work.

Step 3 Publish on Amazon

1.You go to kdp.amazon.com and sign in. You will need an Amazon account to do this.

2.Put in your tax information so you can get royalties.

3. First click “Bookshelf” and then click “Add New Title”.

4.Next fill out the form, including “book title, description and keywords you want people to search to find your book.”

5. Next upload your cover file (in JPEG format).

6. Then upload the book file.

7. Now use Amazon’s online viiewer to test your book to make sure it looks right.

8. Now click “Save and Continue” and go to the “Rights and Pricing” page.

9. Choose Worldwide Rights. You want all the rights you can get.

10. Take a 70% royalty rate and choose your price. Just let the international prices adjust based on your U. S. price. Jeff recommends you price at $2.99-9.99. These prices will help maximize your royalty rate.

11. Next click “Save and Publish”

12.You will get an email from Amazon when your book is ready. It can take 24-48 hours but often it takes much less time.. 

I hope this is helpful to you. I will use the last twelve steps next time I publish a Kindle eBook. Please comment below. I would appreciate it if you spread the word on social media. Thanks.

Today I want to talk about steps to increase traffic to your website. You want to increase traffic right? But how do you do this easily? You write more compelling blog headlines. Here are some tips for doing just that. This post was inspired by “5 Easy ways To Increase Website Traffic” by Robert Mening. Here we go increasing website traffic free.

1. Make Lists

“10 ways to write more compelling headlines”

or “5 Easdy Ways to Imcrease Website Traffic”

2. Ask a Question 

“Do you want to increase your website traffic?”

3. Curiosity

Arouse curiosity. “What are the 5 top reasons people don’t make money online?”

4. Create urgency

You have 5 days until X will happen

5. Use power words

317 Power Words Headline Hacks Cheat Sheet This source has a great list of power words that will instantly make you a better writer. Check this one out . I don’t have space or time to list all of them for you. These are by Jon Morrow of Smartblogger.

6. Make the value clear

Make the valuue clear when you right a title.  “Here is the best $20 book you can get free.”

7.Use headline generators

Here is a list of some of the best headline generators:

Sumo Kickass Headline Generator

Inbound Now Blog Title Idea Generator

impact Blog Tittle Generator

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

Portent Conent Idea Generator

SEO Pressor Blog Title Generator

Advanced Maketing institute Headline Analyzer

8. Use templates like these

How X Can Do X  “How college students Can Make Money Fast”

How to Do X Even If (Obstacle) “How to Make Money Investing Even If You Don’t Have Much Money to Invest”

I have listed some of the easy ways to increase website traffic for free. I hope you find this helpful. I think researching and writing this has helped me focus on specific ways to increase website traffic without spending any money.

Please comment on this. I will answer questions that you have too. Thanks for your feedback.

Also please share this on social nedia. Thanks.      

I just discovered the world of freelance blog writing. You can hire a blog writing service to help you write more. Or you might try to work for a blog writing service if you have some experience.

I am interestedf in the possibility of having an experienced writer write some of my blogs. I am only writing a blog once a week since I am working full time . I only have an hour a day to spend on my blog. 

Freelance blog writing could help you rank higher in Google., since you can  have a greater frequency of publication.. This can ultimatle help you make more money. Higher ranking in Google will lead to more traffic. More traffic leads to more money from affiliate marketing.  You can make commissions when you review or recommend products related to the topic of your blog.

Or what if you already have a blog but you are not making momey yet. You could write for others on fiverr or connect with a  company like ContentDevelopmentPros.  They write many blog posts for others . When they write for you, you keep the rights to the blog that is wriitten. They are ghost written so no one needs to know.

Here are some of ithe mportant points about Content Development Pros.

The blogs are original

They use the keywords you want to use.

They use SEO to help your blog rank in Google.

The turnaround ttime is 3 days.

They are ghostwritten so you keep the rights to the blog.

There is no limit to the revisions allowed.

If you want they can put the blog on your website.

They say you can expect 0% mistakes. I assume this means in spelling or punctuation and the like.

The cost is as low as $11.95 per blog post.

You fill out a form where you request a free proposal.

I am so excited to learn about this company. I found another one where the cost was $150 a month for 1 to 10 blogs. That istoo much for me. But the first one is a possibility. I am not sure I will ever use it but I like knowing that it is there if I need it. 

Yes there is a telephone number you can call. There is also live chat so you can ask questions before you send in your free request proposal.

So there is nothing wrong with paying someone to do freelance blog writing for  some of your blog posts. One blogger I know about was writing 5 blogs a week for ten years. He finally decided to pay someone to write some of his blogs. He was having a hard time keeping up the pace. He trained them in how he did his blog. He also said it did not really cost him because one particular post paid off in thousands of a percent of what he paid. Paying some freelancer can be well worth it.

By the way he had ten million visitors in those ten years. His frquency of blogging had something to do with that amazing amount of traffic.

On the other hand some people do not want anyone else to write their blogs. They do very well without paying someone. It is up to you to decide what to do.  To pay or not to pay for freelance blog writing.that is the question.

If you have any comments or questions please comment below. If you like what you read here please use social media to let others know about it. Thanks.

I discovered a great online proofreading course. It is called Proofread Anywhere. The website is proofreadanywhere.com.

Online Proofreading Course Review

It is very complete and helpful. It not only gives you the skills to proofread like a pro, but al;so shows you how to get clients. This is the number 1 ranked proffreading website. The owner is Caitlin Pyle. She has over 10 years experience in proofreading.  She had to overcome some serious challenges. She created this course to make your own journey smoother than hers.

Do You Have What It Takes?

How do you know if you have the ability to be a proofreader? Would you like to make $17 an hour for general proffreading?

1. You need to love reading.  If you don’t love reading you will probably need to do something else.

2. Does it bother you when you see typos in a book or a magazines? If typos bother you, you probably have what it takes to be a successful proofreader.

3. Do misspelled words bother you when you see them online or in a book?

4. Do you dislike your long commute to work? Proofreading can be done from anywhere.

5. Are you fed up with the 9 to 5 routine? If you are then proofreading could be your answer.

What is Proofreading?

Proofreading is about reading texts to detect and mark errors to be corrected.

Proofreading is Not Editing

Editing is about making changes to texts not just detecting errors.  Proofreaders do not make changes to texts but look for errors in spelling or punctuation for example.

Much of this information came from the webinar on the proofreadanywhere website.

What Does a Proofreader Do?

1. A proofreader has to read the document.  This may sound obvious but… it requires s-l-o-w-i-n-g down so that you don’t miss anything.

2. A proofreader must find the errors. This may seem obvious too but therre is more to it than it appears.

3. You must Mark  the errors. You need to  use marks to show where the errors are and what is wrong.

4. You must return the document.  This means getting it back to the client not when you feel like it but when the clients needs it.

Is the Market Saturated?

No. In 2016 there were 75.6 million active blogs . There are also at least 890,524 books published globally in a year according to www.worldometer.info/books/. There is a new book published on Amazon every five minutes This means there is plenty of work for great proofreaders with real skills.

If you  are not willing to invest in your education then you will not succeed as a proofreader, But if you are there is plenty of work.

This is good work for people from college students to reirees. There are many proofreaders in these two groups and other groups for sure.

I think you will find the training offered to be very reasonable for what you get. Most others offer less for a lot more money. One website asks for $189 per year for a small portion of the course.

I would recommend proofreadanywhere to anyone who is serious about getting the skills needed to make money in this field.

Please feel free to comment on this post. I did a lot of work to finish this. i hope you like it. Any questions? I will answer as soon as possible.

Also feel free to mention this post on social media. Thanks in advance.