Going To The Next Level Through Writing A Book And Starting A Podcast

By Cheval John

Photo courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti

Photo courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti


Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Affiliate and I receive a commission for each book I recommend.

I decided to try to gain more book sales for my first book, “8 Things You Need To Do Before Quitting Your Job” by putting it on Sweet Free Books site after I saw success with running a campaign on there with my second book “8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn.” You will see the results below.

The first book is still on sale for .99 cents on Amazon.

Without further ado, here is the article.

You have started a new business and are looking to gain new customers or clients.

Whether it is a sports nutrition company, being a baseball trainer, a public relations consultant, etc., you want to set yourself apart from the crowd.

You have heard the many advice on starting a blog to grow your audience.

Though that is a great idea, which I am a strong proponent of blogging, you will be in competition with other people because the blogosphere is really oversaturated with about 450 million blogs in every niche.

Two ideas that can help you to stand out and add more power to your blog is starting a podcast and write a book.

I will explain further.

Podcasts have been around for about a decade.

However, they have been exploding at record pace and recently, they were 1 billion downloads on iTunes.

Another thing to keep notice of in podcasting is that Apple came out with the New Carplay system last year, which allows a person to connect their iPhone to their dashboard of their car.

The Apple Carplay is set to be in about 50% of cars this year which will allow any podcaster to reach a huge audience.

One more thing to keep notice of is that they are about 300,000 podcasts in the world.

So that is ample opportunity for anyone to get out their message and separate themselves from the competition.

Another great way for an entrepreneur/solopreneur to stand out from the crowd is to write a book.

The reason why this is important is because not many people write books.

According to this 2011 article by Publishing Perspectives, about 200 million Americans dreams of writing a book.

However, not many follow through.

They might see the plenty obstacles like gaining the attention of a literary agent who can pitch your book proposal to publishers.

However, many can circumnavigate this by self-publishing.

And self-publishing has become more popular thank to platforms like Amazon’s Createspace.

Now that is good news for anyone because they can get their message out to the world.

And the point that you have written a book will elevate you to another level because people will see you as an expert.

What if you want to get the word out about your book and stand out from an estimated 4 million ebooks on Amazon.

One of the ways to stand out is running promotionals on discounted book sites.

The ones that are really great are Buck Books and Book Bub.

The criteria to run a campaign on Buck Books is that your book must either be 100 pages or have over 10,000 words.

I have seen people who ran their book campaigns on Buck Books gained Amazon-Best Seller Status including No.1 in different categories.

Before I show you how running a book campaign on these discounted sites helps an author, let me explain something that I have learned while taking a Self-Publishing Success Academy class from the teachers, Kimanzi Constable and Jimmy Burgess and I am paraphrasing.

Amazon wants a person to become a best-selling author because it will help drive more business to their site and help them to make money in addition to you making money.

The way how a person become an Amazon best-selling author is to have their book ranked in the top 100 overall.

Though you might think that you can’t get your book in the top 100 overall, their is good news.

If your book is ranked in the top 100 in any category that you choose to feature your book, you will have become a best-selling author.

And Amazon update their best-selling author’s list every hour.

The interesting thing is that even if you don’t sell a whole lot of books overall, the point that your book sold enough at a certain time will allow you to achieve the Amazon Best-Selling status.

Now that you know a little bit about achieving the Amazon Best-Selling Status, here is how Beau Henderson became an Amazon No.1 best-selling author.

Mr. Henderson ran a campaign on Buck Books for his book, “The Rich Life: Ten Investments For True Wealth” and it made the No.1 Amazon Best-Seller in three categories.

That distinction of being a No.1 Amazon Best-Selling Author will always give Mr. Henderson the opportunity to gain even more clients and take his business, The Rich Life Group to another level.

Now if you have written a book that is less than 100 pages, then there is an alternative to Buck Books.

It is called Sweet Free Books.

Sweet Free Books has books ranging from romance to non-fiction.

If you are accepted to run a book campaign on there, you would have to pay $5 dollars to run the campaign.

That is really cheap.

Also, you will have to change the price of your book on Amazon to either free or .99 cents days before the campaign hit live on Sweet Free Books.

I know this because I ran my second book, “8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn” on Sweet Free Books and I forgot the first time to change the price on Amazon before the campaign ran.

However, I did not make the above mistake again and as a result, I became an Amazon Best-Seller in the Small Business and Business and Money Categories.

I will be very honest, I did not sell thousands of books.

However, I sold just enough to achieve the Amazon Best-Selling author status.

Here is the results below.

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,415 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
o #70 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Entrepreneurship & Small Business > Small Business
o #100 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 90 minutes (44-64 pages) > Business & Money

As you can see, it was 70th in Small Business and 100th in Business and Money.

At one point, the book was 78th at the 3 p.m. hour on February 8th in the top 100 in the Small Business category:

Amazon Best Sellers
Our most popular products based on sales. Updated hourly.
Best Sellers in Small Business
• Top 100 Paid

74.

Decide: Work Smarter, Reduce Your Str…
by Steve McClatchy
4.8 out of 5 stars (116)
Kindle Edition
$10.99
75.

Black Hole Focus: How Intelligent Peo…
by Isaiah Hankel
4.9 out of 5 stars (117)
Kindle Edition
$13.99
76.

Start Your Own Business, Sixth Editio…
by Inc The Staff of Entrepreneur Media
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
Kindle Edition
$14.72
77.

Local Online Marketing: Small Busines…
by Claude Whitacre
4.8 out of 5 stars (44)
Kindle Edition
$2.99
78.

8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Le…
by Cheval John
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
Kindle Edition
$0.99
79.

Turning Memories Into Cash: a step by…
by Kathy Moore
4.9 out of 5 stars (11)
Kindle Edition
$2.99

Then it dropped to 95th in the top 100 at the 5 p.m. hour before dropping out completely:

Amazon Best Sellers
Our most popular products based on sales. Updated hourly.
Best Sellers in Small Business
• Top 100 Paid

92.

Local Online Marketing: Small Busines…
by Claude Whitacre
4.8 out of 5 stars (44)
Kindle Edition
$2.99
93.

El Emprendedor que llevas dentro (Spa…
by Alvaro Mendoza
4.4 out of 5 stars (12)
Kindle Edition
$6.99
94.

The Way to Wealth: Advice, Hints, and…
by Benjamin Franklin
2.5 out of 5 stars (2)
Kindle Edition
$2.51

95.

8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Le…
by Cheval John
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
Kindle Edition
$0.99
96.

Turning Memories Into Cash: a step by…
by Kathy Moore
4.9 out of 5 stars (11)
Kindle Edition
$2.99
97.

The Virtual Assistant Solution: Come…
by Michael Hyatt
4.3 out of 5 stars (63)
Kindle Edition

So you have seen how you can stand out from the crowd by writing a book and starting a podcast in addition to blogging.

The only question now is what are you waiting for.

About Cheval John

Cheval John is the Founder and CEO of Vallano Media, LLC, a marketing agency which helps small to mid-sized businesses use social media correctly to build a loyal following and in the process become more profitable. Cheval is also the host of "What's The Word?" a podcast about finding out what inspires people to choose their respective careers and how social media impacted their lives and business. He is the author of two books including the Amazon Best-Seller, "8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn." He has spoken at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio and at Social Media Day Houston 2017 about topics around live streaming and podcasting. Cheval has been featured in media outlets including Ebony Magazine, Social Media Today and Forbes. He was named a Houston Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer (2016 and 2017) and a Twitter Top 50 Influencer by Onalytica in 2018.

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