Amazon Working On Bigger Kindle, Apple May Sell Smaller iPad

This surely is a great sign, one it is a step in the right direction to compete with the iPad.  In my opinion the Kindle is a consumption device where users can purchase and consume content such as videos, ebooks and apps.  With a large Kindle Fire device while it won’t be as portable I could see people buying one of these to have around the house to watch video etc.. then have on of the current 7 inch Kindle Fires for travel use.

Publishers Weekly has published the Top Books of 2012(so far). Since we are primarily interested in the Kindle Top 20 here is the list (source Publishers Weekly):

Believe it or not, reading can make writing easier.  I read fiction, non fiction, biographies and blogs.  Anything really. You will be surprised on what can spark ideas that you can use later as part of your writing.

Without going on and on here is a list of blogs I like to read:

1) A Newbie’s Guide To Publishing by JA Konrath – If you have been around the self publishing world long enough you can’t help be see this blog mentioned over and over. There is a reason for this there is a ton of information that covers just about everything about writing and publishing from someone who spends a ton of time doing just that.

2) E Pub Manifesto – This blog is rarely updated these days but many of the older posts are classics, you can follow the journey from relative self publishing newbie to someone who was able to quit their corporate job and focus on writing full time.  With this transition there is a lot of information shared that can be tremendously helpful for those people just getting started today.

3) Tracey Writes Books – This is a monthly updated blog by Tracey Edwards. Tracey was a best selling traditional published author who has jumped ship to self publishing.  Tracey is a modestly successful self publisher whose collections of books and income continues to grow month after month and it is exciting she is taking us along from the ride.

The market is large, growing and looking for content.  By publishing your first Kindle book, that you can either sell or give away allows you to promote your brand or drive traffic to your social media sites(Facebook, Twitter etc..) or back to your companies’ website.

Important Tips To Ensure Your Kindle Book Is A Success

Keep the self promotion to a minimum, remember the people are downloading your book to be entertained or learn something about the topic, not to be sold to.  It is common practice to have a small promotional section at the beginning or end.  But with some creative tactics you can promote your business while also benefiting the customer.  For example, when you are explaining something about your topic you can send them back to your blog to a relevant article that might dig deeper into the topic or provide additional reading.  This will benefit the user, as well as get them back to your blog and exposed to your other content.

1. The Cover Means A Lot! – If there is one thing that can determine the success or failure of a Kindle book it is the cover graphic, people are very visual, when they go looking for a new Kindle book to download they often will search for a topic in the search box and scan the covers for what looks appealing.  There are two methods that you should test here. If all the covers in the category of your niche are dark colors try a bright color that will make your book stand out, the other option is to blend in color wise with the other books in your category, but catch readers with a snappy title or image on the cover.

2. Think about creating a series of shorter books covering your topic of choice.  The first book can be given away and feed people back to your site and the second book in your series(which isn’t free). This will give you constant promotion for both your websites, books and social media outlets.

3. Get a syndicate setup, partner with a handful of authors of books in your niche where at the end you include a recommended resources section and include their titles, while they do the same for you.

Also consider forming an author mastermind group, many people are narrow minded and thing these people are purely competitors. In reality most people who buy Kindle books on a topic buy more than one book on a topic they are interested  in.  Why does this happen?  Often the main reason is Kindle books are relatively cheap, easy to download, with no shipping fees for the customer.

If you are looking for a dead simple way to promote your website one of the best things you can do is seek out any number of the websites in your industry that are looking for content and offer them a high quality article.  With this article you can place an author bio box where you link back to your website.

This serves multiple benefits that include spreading knowledge of your brand, getting direct traffic from your article as well as helping your site gain authority in the search engines.

Ideally all guest posts should be on sites that are directly related to your industry, or a tangent of your industry. For example if your site is about weightloss getting your article published on a health related site could be considered a good match.

Try to avoid many of the article sites on the internet. Ezinearticles.com for instance gets some search engine traffic, but overall the content on the site is poor at best and you don’t want your brand associated with that.

In the short term you should hope to get at least one guest posting gig per month(12 over the course of a year).  If you can get more then go for it, it can’t hurt, but aim for at least 12.  If you cannot find opportunities within your direct niche then branch out to other niches but keep them as related as possible.

Finally put good quality on your website, it is a lot easier to get a website owner to agree to accepting your article and your promotional link if the site that is getting linked to is professional looking and has good quality content.

Lastly, if you can’t find guest posting opportunities right away do not worry, set out to build some relationships with website owners, often they are getting multiple guest posting requests each week so if you get to know them they are more likely to say yes, when approached about guest posting.

Another article you might be interested in is on marketing your business.

Step#1 – Social Media Can Be Your Best Friend Or Your Worst Enemy

A properly optimized social media campaign can do wonders for your business. It can produce word of mouth marketing at its finest.  At a minimum your business should be on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in that order.  Google+ in my opinion has a 50/50 should of being popular. A lot of people have a Google+ account but they do not seem to use it that much, but Google is making a big push to make it relevant so it just might succeed.

I wouldn’t recommend going from no social media presence to signing up for Twitter, Facebook and Google+ all at once.  This can split your time between the three and cause all three to do very little for your business. Initially I would recommend setting up a Facebook account and work on getting enough people to “like” your Facebook page.  Once you get some information out on the page and around 100 followers you can move on to Twitter, then Google+.

Be aware though if you mess up social media can work against you.  Each angry customer can come to your Facebook page to complain for all your other customers to see, or they can complain about your company to all of their friends instantly.  If you do come across a negative opinion about your company do not argue back and fourth with the social media user.  Make a short to the point post that you are sorry they had a bad experience and that you will be messaging them privately to discuss the matter further.

It is easy to get into a back and fourth chatter which can really spiral out of control and make your business end up looking worse off. Be keeping the discussion more private it gives you a chance to win back the customer and provide good customer service.

Step #2 – There Is No Substitute For Good Customer Service

By providing high quality customer service you are able to get customers talking about how great your business is, either by calling up a friend or reverting to social media. Either way is an opportunity for someone to pass on how much they like your business and tell their friends why they should check it out.

Step #3 – Cross Promote With Related But Not Competing Businesses

For example, if you run a car wash you could partner with a local auto parts business so you hand each customer a leaflet advertising the auto parts store and they do the same for your car wash.  You are helping each other succeed, but you are not direct competitors of each other.