It’s another Expert Briefs, where I ask really smart business owners to answer your burning questions.

If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the undies to see them all –>

This week I asked our panel of experts …

“What's your biggest tip to make money selling your content on the Kindle?”

Let's see what they had to say…

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Connie Ragen Green of Huge Profits Tiny List says:

My best tip for selling my content on the Kindle is to always have a professionally designed cover created for your book. I've tried it both ways – with a quickly put together and a professional one – and have been able to sell four times as many books with the one that looks better. It turns out we really do judge a book by its cover!

I have also chosen titles and content that fit my brand online. For example, I am an expert in the areas of affiliate marketing and article marketing, so it just made sense for me to offer books on Kindle that discuss those topics in detail. It also makes sense for someone who has just met me to start out by reading my books and then decide if they want to go further with me.

-> Check out Connie's books on the Kindle: Connie Green on the Kindle

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Rachel Rofe of Kinstant Formatter (Fast Kindle Ebook Formatting Software) says:

I am not sure about “biggest tip” as there are so many variables, but one thing I would say is  to make sure to put content on there that's actually in demand.

You can check sales rankings for similar books. I like to go with books that have a sales ranking of 20,000 or better. Those usually let me know that something will sell well.

Also, make sure to format your book correctly! I have sadly gotten too many negative reviews in my life because I unknowingly formatted poorly.

-> Check out Rachel's software for formatting your Kindle books here.

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Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur and The Pumpkin Plan says:

If you self-publish a book or other content for Kindle, price test to find your sweet spot.

If you have high enough volume (e.g. move 20 to 50 units or more a day), you can get good information on how well your product sells within a week.

Every week try a new price point to find what gets the most sales at the highest price. You may be surprised by what you find.

-> Check out Mike's books on the Kindle: Mike Michalowicz on the Kindle

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Marnie Pehrson of Amazon Best-Seller Book Launch says:

My most consistently bestselling book on Kindle is a Civil War romance entitled “Angel and the Enemy.” I believe one thing that plays a major role in the success of this book over my 20 other titles is that I mentioned it in the signature line of all my Amazon reviews.

By going to https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp you can see your Amazon reviews and edit your profile. When you go to the Edit Your Profile link, you can edit the signature spot to mention your book. For example, I have mine set to “Bestselling author of Angel and the Enemy.” As a result, any time I review a book or product it attributes it to “Marnie Pehrson, bestselling author of Angel and The Enemy.” My name links over to the profile which I've filled out fully with my web site for my books and a bio.

As I review other people's books that are in the same genre as mine, this helps build links and traffic back to my books. Also be sure to set up your author profile in Author Central and add all of your titles to it. You can even feed your blogs and videos into this profile.

Another factor that contributes to Kindle sales of “Angel and the Enemy” is the price. I did an initial promo on the ebook several months ago, offering it for 99 cents. This spurred initial sales and rankings. Then I raised the price to $2.99 which is still on the economical side. At this price I'm able to clear the 70% revenue share.

-> If you want to learn Marnie's methods for becoming a Best Seller, be sure to check out Amazon Best-Seller Book Launch here.

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Kristen Eckstein of Finish Writing Your Book Fast: Book Writing for Procrastinators says:

My biggest tip would be to protect yourself from negative reviews. Whether you use Kindle books for lead generation or an additional stream of income, you're at risk for negative reviews if you don't treat your Kindle books with some special care:

Editing – make sure your content is readable. If it's transcribed from an interview, state that early on in the introduction or first few pages of the eBook. We read differently than we speak, so this tells the brain it's OK to read a “messy” conversation. If your eBook is written material, editing is just as important as in print format.

Formatting – if your eBook contains any bullet points or graphics, hire a professional eBook programmer. I've seen many negative reviews simply because the content – however great it was – could not be easily read. If you want your eBook to read clean and clear and reflect on your status as an expert, don't skimp on the programming.

Cover design – a cover image is the first thing people will see in search results online. It's the last thing they'll notice. If you skimp and throw up trash for your cover, you're saying to the world you're not a quality service or product provider. It doesn't matter how good the content inside is, if the cover is crappy it's a direct reflection on your quality as an expert.

Remember that you can't easily get rid of negative reviews on Amazon. One review on such a highly trafficked site as Amazon can damage your reputation as an expert. If you don't manage a few things right up front, you will have a lot of damage control to do later. And you probably won't be attracting the quality customers you want. Kindle books are “easy,” but it's not easy to do them right and get high level results!

-> Check out Kristen's books on the Kindle: Kristen Eckstein on the Kindle

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Kathleen Gage of Secrets to Making your Kindle Book a Best Seller Overnight says:

“Bestselling author.”

It has a nice ring to it, but unfortunately many authors will never know what it feels like to be a bestseller.

In years past becoming a bestseller was much more complex and unlikely than it is today.

In today’s world of online books stores and digital delivery, becoming an online bestseller is much easier than many people realize.

The benefits of being a bestseller are market reach, visibility, expert status position and revenue generating opportunities both directly and indirectly.

Directly is obviously from the sale of the book. Indirectly is anything you do on the backend. The backend can generate hundreds, thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars in revenue.

I have coordinated dozens upon dozens of book launches that were very time consuming, costly and enough to at times, make me want to pull my hair out.

Enter Kindle. With the Kindle platform you can take your book to bestseller status in record time. The first time I tried the process my book hit #1 in several categories within eight hours.

Basically what you do is offer the book for a low price and when people buy within a specified period of time they get a super bonus. It can be another ebook, a teleseminar or a webinar.

Offer a bonus that has extremely high perceived value and is easy for you to deliver. Also consider something that positions you as an expert.

With my book, 101 Ways to Get Your Foot in the Door, I offered a one hour teleseminar to anyone who purchased the book within a 48 hour period.

Not only did I have hundreds of buyers, I made 75% of each book that was sold. In addition, I was able to introduce buyers to my other products and services when they attended the teleseminar.

Here are the steps:

• Publish your book on Kindle
• Give it 72 hours to propagate
• Set up a simple landing page announcing the bonus you are offering
• Add the direct link to your Kindle book on the landing page
• Give buyers 24 – 48 hours to purchase your book in order to receive the bonus
• Once they buy they return to the landing page to input their name, email address and order number
• Market your launch
• Rinse and repeat with other books

Of course, you do have to have some idea of how to market. There are ample ways you can do this including a solo message to your opt-in subscribers, postings in social networks, video, media releases, and timely interviews.

As I mentioned, there are many ways to make money on the backend. This is a completely different conversation. But with what I have outlined above, not only do you position your book, you generate revenue from sales and you build your opt-in subscriber list.

How’s that for a fun way to grow your business?

-> If you want to learn to become an Amazon Best Seller from Kathleen, be sure to check out Kathleen’s “Secrets to Becoming a Kindle Bestseller” program here.

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Susanne Myers of Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

You can pull both your twitter feed and your blog feed into your author page and thus share all that content with people browsing the Amazon Website.

As people come across your book and your author page, they may or may not end up buying one of your books or reports, but even if they don’t, they may end up reading your blog (and hopefully signing up for your list). The best part… once you have one book up on kindle and take a few minutes to set up your author page, there’s no extra work involved in capturing that extra traffic.

-> Check out Susanne's books on the Kindle: Susanne Myers on the Kindle

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Willie Crawford of 20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online says:

My biggest Kindle tip is to choose your title very carefully, making  sure that you target your most important keyword phrases. If you want to target more than one related keyword phrase, consider writing more than one short ebook on the topic, each targeting different keywords.

It is important that you produce a top quality ebook but I don't think that length matters much. People prefer short ebooks that give them the information they are seeking quickly.

-> Check out Willie's books on the Kindle: Willie Crawford on the Kindle

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Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Well GEEZ. My friends are good!!! Aren't they?! 🙂

ok. What's left that hasn't been said?

Four things come to mind.

1. Never Use PLR.
I don't believe that anyone mentioned this, but be sure to never use PLR to create your Kindle books – unless you're simply using it as an idea-generation method. Amazon is not interested (at all) in having duplicate content on their site, so be sure to only include content that is original to you when uploading your books.

2. It's your FIRST book.
Don't put all of your eggs in one basket, all your hopes and dreams on one book. Publishing on the Kindle is easy and fun. Upload multiple books to see what happens. You never know what will sell. So, try not to obsess over one book and pin your success on that. Plan for it to be your “first” book, instead.

3. You Don't Need to Start from Scratch.
Look around at the content that you've already created. Don't think of this as “another” thing to do and start from scratch. If you've written popular blog posts, bundle them up by topic and voila! You're published without doing much work at all.

4. Remember that Marketing is Important, Too!
While, of course, you want to publish helpful, valuable, rockin' content… remember also that your Kindle book is a marketing piece for you. Don't forget to include information about you and your website in your book so that people can find out where they can get MORE of you!

-> Check out my books on the Kindle: Nicole Dean on the Kindle

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Recommended Resources for ALL Levels.

Beginners –

Already tried to format your ebooks, but just need some software to make it easy?

• Check out Rachel's software: Kinstant Formatter (Fast Kindle Ebook Formatting Software)

Intermediate and Advanced –

You're on the Kindle, but don't know how to increase sales? Check out –

• Kathleen Gage's “Secrets to Making your Kindle Book a Best Seller Overnight” course
• Marnie Pehrson's “Amazon Best-Seller Book Launch” course

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All right, guys and gals. We have a stellar panel today. Got questions? Ask them. 🙂 Got comments? Share them. We're all ears.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean