Why You Should Consider Becoming an Amazon.com Bestseller
Created By: Sally Shields
Many of you either have a great idea for a book, or you’ve already written one. You may be in the process of self-publishing or have a few hundred of them boxed up in your basement or garage, or sitting on Amazon, ranked in the millions. You’ve given away a few copies to your family and friends. Very nice. Now what?
One strategy is to use Amazon and best seller status to sell more of those books and I’m going to tell you about some the steps I took to get there so that you can apply them to your book.
It's important that everyone knows, contrary to what some people are promoting out there, is that an Amazon campaign isn't going to make you rich or an overnight success. An Amazon Best Seller strategy can help you get publicity and grow your business, but it needs to be a part of your marketing plan, not the whole thing.
However, that said, some campaigns that I have participated in have made people anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, so in the short run, it’s not a bad way to generate some cash, and recoup some of your printing and production costs.
When my book was first published I tried book signings and other traditional book promotion methods but I wasn't selling many books. Nothing worked, and my book was in the 900,000th position.
I heard about an "Almost Zero Cost Bestseller Formula" I also realized while their method was simple in concept, it had to be implemented very carefully and wouldn't work if I unknowingly made even minor mistakes.
But first, let me outline some of the benefits to an Amazon.com bestseller campaign.
1. It builds credibility and prestige. Nothing establishes the credentials of a person more than a bestseller does. Being published alone, is a very substantial thing in people’s eyes because they realize it takes major commitment and dedication to finish. But being a bestseller gives you extra credibility.?
2. When your book is a national bestseller, it generates more interest in your book and boosts its sales. And once a book is a national bestseller, it can always use that designation. In addition, the author, even if he or she never writes another word, can always be called a bestselling author or the author of a national bestselling book. Interestingly, blasts have produced an unexpected secondary benefit— brick-and-mortar sales can increase during blast periods. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people hear about the book through blasts, which helps it gain name recognition and can prove helpful down the line.
3. When your book makes it to the bestseller list, influential members of the book world take notice. The media notices, as do industry insiders such as literary agents, book editors, and foreign rights buyers. The credential of being a bestselling author holds a huge amount of weight. The media loves to use that credential; it gets attached to your name, 'bestselling author Sally Shields.” And speaking of media, ???
4. It will make you a darling of the media. Whenever there is a high profile story going on, you can pitch yourself and you can provide your expertise.
5. It will help you acquire customers, and create hi-favorability among them. You are now perceived as an expert. As you get media, you should frame all articles or mentions and put them up all over your office because you’ll be perceived as a celebrity and can then charge more for your services.
6. You have a much easier time selling your book to organizations and corporations in bulk.
7. You can become a speaker! There are countless organizations who are looking for speakers everyday. And you are much more likely to get booked if you have a bestseller status. You can speak at seminars, workshops, on cruise ships, conventions, churches, universities and teleseminars. A bestselling book gives you expert status. Speaker fees range from free, to the average of $2-5,000/speech, and the higher paid speakers make upwards of $50-100,000 for a keynote speech. Of course you need to understand that you really want to have a desire to give and to teach and not just sell. As an author, you can become a spauther!
So, how many sales does it take to hit best seller status?
Between 100-500 books on a given day will bring you to bestseller status. Even less if you are in a smaller category with less competition. No matter what the category, if you make it to the top 100 list, you are a bestseller, and it is a distinction that you can use forever, for the life of your book. However, most campaigns that I’ve participated in or coached people through have resulted in books hitting the #1, 2 and #3 spots in their category.
So, how does this all work?
In short, the formula involves getting people with big email lists to send out an announcement asking people to buy your book on a given day at Amazon. This method isn't "spamming" because only "opt-in" email lists are used. Even better, because the formula uses email, it costs almost nothing to promote the book!
To motivate people to purchase the book, you promise them a lot of digitally-downloadable "bonus gifts" for when they submitted their Amazon email receipt. For instance, buy a $20 book and you could get $500 of more of extra bonuses—a tremendous incentive to buy the book. These bonus gifts can be found by making relationships with what we call Joint Venture Partners. You can find JV partners by simply googling your keywords, plus the word “Websites.” For example, when I was looking for people to support my campaign for the Daughter-in-Law Rules, I googled, “Mommy Websites” and there were hundreds to choose from. Then, to determine their popularity, you can use a site such as Alexa.com to find out if they have good traffic and a large following. Your JV partners will be thrilled to help promote you, as they are always looking for great content and they will look like a hero for offering such a great value to their list. Plus it will give them an opportunity to grow their list as well, so it’s a win-win for everyone.
E-mail blasts are effective because every hour the big online booksellers calculate the sales rankings for their top 10,000 best-selling books. So, if you generate a flurry of sales within a certain window of time, it can propel a book onto an online bookseller's best-seller list. Once the book makes the list, even if it's just for an hour, the book can legitimately be promoted as a national bestseller.
Contrary to what you may believe, to launch your own successful online email campaign ...
You do NOT need any previous online or marketing experience
You do NOT need to personally be a web designer, internet wizard, an internet marketing expert, or HTML programmer. (I'm not a techie either, you just need to know a good web designer)
You do NOT need your own huge mailing list (actually, you don't need your own mailing list at all)
You do NOT need a fortune in cash (because this formula uses email marketing it's almost free to implement)
You do NOT need to leave the comfort of your home office
You don't even need your own web site!
What you DO NEED is the right guidance from someone who has launched a successful best seller online email campaign AND experienced the high level of success that you desire.
This is where the Amazon Bestseller Mentoring Program comes in. Amazingly enough, online marketing is likely one of the most effective methods for marketing books today ... WHEN it is done right.
