Not everyone will have a marketing budget at the start. Some will start ads later, once their books start making a bit of $$. In this case, you need persistence and time. And a lot of work and a lot of effort. It means learning, failing, and adjusting. Persistence is key. #KDP
Making less than $1k/mo on KDP?
Find this book topic:
• No trademark
• Under 1k search results
• 2 self-publishers < 10k BSR
• 5 self-publishers < 100k BSR
When you find it pls tell me so I can publish a book on it too
Well December is pretty much done. But this one book is a monster.
It's 5 years old and just had it's best Q4
Never forget what what is possible with Amazon KDP
In the last 4 years, I've built a 7-figure SaaS portfolio - fully bootstrapped.
Here are 8 lessons I wish I knew earlier:
→ *Build a SaaS factory*
You think I created 5 products? Think again... It's more than 15 in total. You just didn't hear about most of them, cause they didn't make the cut.
Create a small SaaS factory. Make it easy for yourself to push a lot of small products to test the waters.
→ *Build on the side and give it time*
The average Micro SaaS/Indie product takes 9 months to reach the first $1,000 MRR.
If this is your game, don't go "all-in" and quit your job or fire your freelance clients. Build on the side and give it time to slowly pick up.
→ *Don't delegate the "hard" things*
You often hear people say you should delegate the things you're weak at. But that's the lazy solution...
Get your hands dirty first! Pick it up, even though it's hard. Do it yourself for a while, then delegate. It will work 10x better when you understand what you're delegating.
→ *Delegate tasks, not responsibilities*
Big companies and fast-growth startups might disagree on this - but as a bootstrapper, don't delegate entire areas of responsibilities unless you're delegating to a founding member!
E.g. you should delegate specific marketing tasks and operations. You should not delegate "marketing" as a whole.
→ *Hire fast, fire fast*
Upwork and Fiverr is a talent pool! You can find great contractors here.
But unfortunately, there can be long in between.
Don't waste time on lengthy screening and interview processes. Get people onboard - let them show you what they got. If they don't perform, get them out! Fast.
→ *Don't be afraid of running ads*
Indie creators and solopreneurs believe ads are for big companies with huge budgets.
It couldn't be further from the truth!
You can outcompete many of your big competitors simply by having great ad creatives (spoiler, most big companies' creatives suck 😉)
→ *Use AI*
Don't outsource decisions. AI isn't good enough for that yet. But do outsource repetitive, closed-scope work whenever you can. AI can do amazing things with good-quality inputs.
→ *Stay sane*
If you're in this game, it's very easy to get consumed by it.
Your Stripe dashboard becomes a slot machine...
Take time out to rest. Get exercise. Eat healthy. Spend time with your family and friends.
Remind yourself that you're not on a big mission to change the world. You're doing this to become free and independent. Remember to enjoy that 😊
It was roughly a year ago that looking at this guy doing $50k a day really opened my eyes to what’s possible on KDP. There’s also some sci fi author that made 8 figures (!!) from kickstarter launching his secret books
Only 12 more days of advertising left (this is for print books. If you’re on KU then probably a different story).
Then turn off the ads (or dramatically lower CPC bids).
Even if you don’t turn off the ads, there’s not much traffic so those ads won’t be spending too much anyway