Don’t Stop Searching 0 1 Don’t Stop Searching The Internet is a crazy, busy place. It is filled with infinite possibilities… and connections waiting to be made. I recently self-published an e-book and wondered: how can I get the word out about this? The e-book is titled Pub Theology 101: A Guide to Cultivating Meaningful Conversations at the Pub. It is a resource
Amazon Buys GoodReads, Consolidates ePub Power [INFOGRAPHIC] 4 1 Amazon Buys GoodReads, Consolidates ePub Power [INFOGRAPHIC] If there's one place online that you go to read reviews about books, it's probably Amazon. If there's a second, it's probably GoodReads... which is now also Amazon. Yes, it's true, Amazon recently announced plans to acquire the world's largest book-based social network, 16 million strong. If I were an active member at GoodReads, I'm
Blogging Is Dumb, This Infographic Proves It... 0 4 Blogging Is Dumb, This Infographic Proves It... I'm sure you guy saw Ryan's recent post, entitled "Why Blogging is Dumb." Maybe you even read Bryan Berghoef's tounge-in-cheek rebuttal, "Why Blogging is Smart." Both of these viewpoints are correct... And, obviously, you are reading a blog write now, which means that I'm "blogging." Am I being dumb right now? The answer I'm looking
Don’t Rely On Small Businesses For Online Ads 3 3 Don’t Rely On Small Businesses For Online Ads While more platforms are available for selling local ads than ever before... small businesses still just don’t want to fork over the extra money, says a recent Bloomberg article. Think of all those hyper-local venues – from AOL’s Patch to the Nextdoor site I recently described. There are certainly a slew of models through which
Why Blogging Is Smart 3 2 Why Blogging Is Smart Recently our very own Ryan Deiss wrote a post stating Why Blogging is Dumb. Ironically, it was by way of a blog post that he made such an outrageous claim. It’s actually a very good article, with some great points on how to leverage traffic and make connections without spending your life creating quality content
Your Local Neighborhood Bookstore Is Online 0 2 Your Local Neighborhood Bookstore Is Online If there is still a Mom 'n Pop bookstore in your area, consider yourself one of the few. As ebooks sales increase, so too do the failure of traditional brick and mortar bookstores. Even giants like Barnes & Noble are beginning to shut the doors at many of their locations. The loss of these stores,
Bypass Traditional Publishing Models in Order to Find Your True Audience 10 4 Bypass Traditional Publishing Models in Order to Find Your True Audience Writing the last sentence in your book can leave you feeling victorious. The hard part is over and now it’s time to throw yourself a party, right? Wrong. Writing a book is not the finish line for an author. In fact, it’s almost just the beginning. The most recent success in the novel world is
Inbound Marketing Power 0 2 Inbound Marketing Power Inbound marketing is a way for companies to earn loyalty through providing valuable services or information to consumer instead of simply begging for attention through advertising. Inbound marketing techniques, an increasingly popular way to draw in consumers in this growing social media landscape, range from blogs, podcasts, eNewsletter, eBooks and white papers. Instead of buying
How I Built A High-Growth Online Credibility Company In One Year 6 6 How I Built A High-Growth Online Credibility Company In One Year Most companies are born because of a pressing need. I’ve talked to business owners who needed certain software but couldn’t find it, so they ended up creating the software themselves. As an entrepreneur, my problem was reputation. It’s tough to make a name for yourself in this industry, and there isn’t much help out there
In Amazon We Trust? 1 6 In Amazon We Trust? Last week, Amazon.com announced plans to introduce Amazon Coins — a new way for Kindle users to pay for their purchases — starting in May. Vera Soliman notes that by adding its own centralized payment method, Amazon allows for all currencies to compete for ease of use by customers and developers alike. Apparently others have tried
Promoting Self-Published Books Online [Part 3] 5 3 Promoting Self-Published Books Online [Part 3] It's results time, folks... In Part 3 of this series, I'm going to share how my KDP Selects free promotion went and which promotions that helped me get the most downloads. By the Numbers For starters, let's go over the ephemeral numbers that have since eroded and decayed over time. At the height of my
4 Reasons You Should Sell Your eBooks Directly Via Ganxy 16 6 4 Reasons You Should Sell Your eBooks Directly Via Ganxy When you think about selling an eBook, you usually think about getting it set up on a retailer like Amazon, B&N, or the iBookstore and driving consumers to those sites to make a purchase. But many authors and publishers are discovering that they have another option they can choose instead of, or in addition to,
Promoting Self-Published Books Online [Part 2] - KDP Free Promo 4 2 Promoting Self-Published Books Online [Part 2] - KDP Free Promo If you've read Ryan's book, The Digital Publishing Revolution, then you understand how important Amazon can be for marketing a new book. By signing up for the Kindle Select program, you give up your rights to publish your book outside of Amazon for 90 days at a time... But you gain the opportunity to make
Promoting Self-Published Books Online [Part 1] 8 5 Promoting Self-Published Books Online [Part 1] After listening to Ryan extol the virtues of KDP for so long, I've finally decided to try my hand at self-publishing a Kindle book. Like everyone else, I struggled with questions about what to write about... and doubts that I had the coding/design skills to get it done. For me, it seemed totally logical to
The Problem With eReaders 4 2 The Problem With eReaders As an author, I'm always scanning headlines for news about ebooks, ereaders, etc. And after writing a thread of posts about the "Death of the eReader," I just had to click on a piece in the WSJ entitled "The E-Reader Revolution: Over Just as It Has Begun?" Selfishly, I want to see if the WSJ
Andrew Sullivan To Launch Subscription Site 2 1 Andrew Sullivan To Launch Subscription Site A highly targeted audience can bring huge value for advertisers, and superstar journalist/blogger Andrew Sullivan knows it. That's why he's leaving the Daily Beast and launching his own subscription website -- with memberships starting at $19.99 a month. Actually, it's a $19.99 or pay what you want model, a model that's proving to be successful
Kindle Fire Takes Second Place [POLL] 1 2 Kindle Fire Takes Second Place [POLL] The Kindle Fire is holding a distant second... but a SOLID one, according to the most unscientific polling system imaginable: Twitter search. This poll was conducted by searching Twitter for "First tweet on [fill-in-the-blank tablet]" on Christmas Eve and then counting how many tweets showed up. I told you it wasn't scientific... Still, the results
Netflix Blames Outage On Amazon 0 4 Netflix Blames Outage On Amazon If your business involves streaming massive video files, you're probably familiar with Amazon's hosting services. We use them. So if you noticed any video outages on Christmas Eve... it was Amazon's fault. I doubt that we did, because I don't think that we're part of Amazon's US-East network. But a lot of Netflix users in
Paywalls Pay Off at NYT 0 1 Paywalls Pay Off at NYT The NYT's paywall strategy succeeded to the tune of $91M this year, according to Bloomberg. That's huge proof of concept for a payment model that many people thought would never work. Now, it looks as though the paywall may be part of the answer to the online subscription model... part of it. The paywall, according
Why Self-Publishers Should Get To Know Ganxy 4 2 Why Self-Publishers Should Get To Know Ganxy Until very recently, digital authors had remarkably few allies in their quest to make a living. Basically, Amazon was one of the only friends you could really count on... But that's changing rapidly, thanks to a handful of new marketing resources. One of these is Ganxy, a NY-based startup that makes it easy for ebook
The Death Of The eReader? 11 2 The Death Of The eReader? Analysts are predicting the slow demise of the e-reader. But it's not as controversial as you think... because they're simply being replaced by tablet devices equipped with ereader apps. Last year was most likely the peak for the e-reader; over 23M units were shipped. According to The-Digital-Reader, e-reader shipments are expected to drop like a
Tablet App 'The Daily' Goes In The Burn Pile 1 2 Tablet App 'The Daily' Goes In The Burn Pile If you're an avid reader of 'The Daily,' I've got some bad news... Starting on December 15th, the tablet-only publication will cease to exist. At least, it will cease to exist in its current form. Despite the innovative mission statement that guided The Daily' through its formative (and apparently unprofitable) years, the fairly popular app
The Tables Have Turned For Digital Writers 8 3 The Tables Have Turned For Digital Writers Good news, digital writers, the respectability gap between you and the folks whose work gets publishing in ink has almost completely closed... That's according to the NYT's executive editor, Jill Abramson, who revealed that she has no special place in her heart for print media. Abramson no longer distinguishes between print and online, focusing instead
Kindle Sales Double Over Black Friday Weekend 1 1 Kindle Sales Double Over Black Friday Weekend If you're familiar with Amazon's press releases, you know how much Bezos and Company like to toot their own horn. So does Apple, come to think about it... In fact, press releases from Apple and Amazon read like the lyrics to a hip hop song... each brand taking turns to flaunt all their bling, the
