How to Sell More Kindle Books On Amazon
Some tricks of the trade
In this edition of the newsletter I want to share some tricks to getting more sales on Amazon Kindle. It isn’t as easy as just publishing your book, you may get a few sales when you have a new release but it doesn’t last. As soon as you drop off the new book list, you disappear into the depths of 20,000,000 books.
They make it sound like Amazon will promote your book for you but that is no more. They want you to buy ads from them to get sponsored listings. Sounds familiar right?
Tech companies make it easy in the beginning to get more people to move to them. The early adopters have a huge headstart. But once the masses show up, the company doesn’t need to promote anyone. They get traffic automatically and switch to only promoting things they make a lot of mone on.
That is why it is so important to get in something on the ground floor. It’s easier on you. You have much better odds.
See you can’t be found in 20 million books unless you have a big name or big following. They can only show so many books on page 1 in a category.
So in order to be successful with a new Kindle book, you need to promote your book yourself.
How to promote your book on Amazon Kindle
Begin with the 7 keywords you get to enter on the details page.
The trick I learned is to never believe keyword tools. You need to actually look at each Amazon page by keyword. Type it in and search. Study what comes up and look for low book counts(competition). Check on Google as well and see what comes up for that keyword phrase. You are looking for a keyword with low competition and some search volume on Google.
There are keyword tools that will give you Amazon keyword searches but I wouldn’t trust the data. Only Amazon knows for sure. You need to find competing books with lots of reviews so you know they are selling. Make a list of 5 and go look at each description and title. What keywords are in there? Make a list and then go search that keyword on Amazon. Does the book show up near the top?
You are looking for a list of 7 keywords your competitors are all using to get to the top of the results. It will take you an afternoon to find these potential keywords, then just plug them in and see what happens. Keep track of your tests and watch the data.
Some will work and some wont. But the keywords in the title and description are a primary way Amazon displays books. Without being obvious stuffing, you should have no problem. Today I actually saw someone with about 12 books on business. He was coming up on tons of keywords because he was keyword stuffing to the extreme. I plan on watching to see how long his books stay up there. Surprising to see Amazon let that go on.
He took one 1000 page book and republished it over and over with loads of keywords in the titles and descriptions. I mean the description was simply 300 keywords and the title had about 12 keyword phrases in it. The only thing he changed was the number of pages in each book.
I did like one thing he did that was smart…
He added “For an overview visit http://domainname” at the top of his description I imagine a lot of people check it out. So I don’t know if his plan is just getting free traffic or not. The website was just a blogspot blog with his books listed. Makes me wonder, I’ll have to keep an eye on it.
So anyway let’s talk about some of the most useful tips I have found for promoting a Kindle book on Amazon.
Use your 7 keywords wisely - do some research
Put keywords you want to rank for in the Title and Description. Just add them in so they read well and communicate benefits if possible.
Benefits should be in your description. What will the reader learn or takeaway immediately?
Promote your kindle just like any other book. Use other platforms like ebook websites, post about your book on Facebook on your profile, pages and as many groups as possible. Offer free copies for reviews. Reviews make a huge difference. Make blog posts, Videos and your own review posts and spread them around the internet.
Chop up the book, take great snippets and sections of the book and spread them around. Don’t be afraid to giveaway some of the best tips. Pass around some pdf’s with sections of your book. People want to know what is inside. They need a reason to buy your book so use different angles - curiosity sells.
Don’t make Amazon exclusive. Publish your book on other places by using Draft2digital.com, PublishDrive, or IngramSpark. Get that book up on Apple, Google and even Barnes and Noble.
Have multiple books - don’t expect a one hit wonder.
Take 2 books and create a box set or bundle offer!
Multiple books in one niche can take over a keyword results page. This also makes you look like more of an authority!
Don’t use Amazons Give It Away For Free for 5 days program when your book is new. They wont promote it during those 5 days at all. It just gets listed on the free book section. Try just giving it away for 2 or 3 days max when your book comes out. It is even better to wait a month or three and then give it away for free. Use your New Book promotion period that they already give you.
Build some links to your book page. By giving your book to some of the big websites to review for you and get them to link to your book.
If your book is great, people should want to share it. Get influencers to promote your book with shoutouts.
Build a website or at least a page that reviews your book.
Make sure you have links in your book that drive readers back to your website to get something fun and cool. Now not many will type in a long crazy url so it is worth spending $10 a year and buying a domain name just for this link. Choose a short easy to remember domain name and just redirect it to the page you want it to send them to. Really easy to do.
Bottom line is if you want a new book to do well, you have to market that book just like any other info product. Basic 101 marketing with promotions, giveaways and make it go viral by being fun and cool. Plan on marketing that book for 6 months if you want great results. Do something every week to move the ball forward.
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Have a great week;
Michael