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Kindle Publishing,  Make Money,  Make Money Online

7 Reasons Why Kindle Publishing Gets Harder Over Time

Today I want to answer that question. Here I’ll share 8 reasons why it’s harder to get a new Kindle publishing business off the ground. Then I’ll discuss why I still think self-publishing on the Amazon platform is the best way to get started earning money online.

 

 

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7 Reasons Why It Gets Harder To Earn Money With Kindle

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1- Competition Increases

This is a no-brainer, but I’ll explain anyway.

As time goes on, more people become aware of opportunities, jump in, and flood the market.

Competition increases, and it gets harder to achieve the same result based on the sheer principle of more people doing the same thing you are.

To illustrate the main point behind this, I’m actually giving away one of my very first keywords. Polyamory.

You can steal this keyword if you want… you won’t make much money lol. It’s not that great.

But the point is, if you go to the Kindle section on Amazon and type in “polyamory”, you will see there are over 1,000 results. Doesn’t sound that bad, right?

 

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That means if you publish a book on that topic today, you compete with 1,000 other books.

But back in February of 2016 when I chose this topic, there were only 330 results!

I ranked number 2 for that term for a long time because it was just so easy to beat out the competition!

Even with such a crappy keyword I still earned about $25 per month just through the Kindle platform alone (not counting audio and paperback formats).

Think about that increase.

In just 2 years, competition tripled. For a crappy topic.

It gets even worse for really good, profitable topics.

So, you can imagine why it’s harder to make money publishing now that there are so many more books yours have to compete with.

 

Why Is Self-Publishing Still Recommended If It’s Competitive?

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Even though competition is increasing, I still think self-publishing is the best way to make money online in the beginning. Because look, the fact of the matter is everything gets more competitive over time.

Getting into college. Applying for jobs. Bidding to purchase a house. Opening a restaurant. Starting a blog.

That’s just how LIFE is.

Things ALWAYS get harder, not easier.

So yes, it’s harder to start Kindle publishing now than it was in 2016. But in 2016 it was harder than 2014.

I can tell you right now that in 2018-2019 it’s going to be a hell of a lot easier to get started than it will be in 2020 or beyond. So, if you think this is something you would ever want to take advantage of?

Do it now.

 

2- It’s Harder To Acquire Social Proof

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The second reason it’s harder to make money with Kindle publishing now than in earlier years is that it’s become more challenging to acquire social proof.

Social proof is easily visible confirmation that your product is worth buying.

In this industry, the easiest way to get social proof is by getting tons of glowing, 5-star reviews on your book.

Think about how you shop online.

If you see one product that has an overall 4.6-star rating and 50 glowing reviews, and another similar product that has a 3.5-star rating and 10 mediocre reviews, which do you buy?

Right.

 

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There are many ways to get glowing reviews for your book (many are covered in the self-publishing course I officially recommend). But it’s become a lot harder over the years.

Why?

Well, one of the most popular ways to get reviews back in the day was by exchanging reviews with other publishers. This is known as “swapping”.

If you and I are both publishers and we have new books. You send me a copy of yours, I send you a copy of mine. We read the books and a few days later leave reviews stating our opinions on the products.

While it was in the “gray area” of whether or not it was okay with Amazon a couple years ago, today it’s officially a no-no.

It was the fastest, easiest, most affordable way to get reviews though. And it worked very well until people got hip to the cash cow Kindle publishing was.

They flooded the platform with hordes of awful books, swapped hundreds of fake reviews, and Amazon got mad! So… buh-bye.

Now some people still do swap, but it’s a LOT harder to get away with it. And even harder to stay above board because…

 

3- Amazon Deletes Reviews

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Yup. Amazon now actually goes through periods of removing reviews.

So yes, you can still get plenty of reviews rather quickly via swapping and it WILL provide the social proof you need to bump you to the top of search results, but you may not stay there for long.

I personally do not swap on the Kindle platform.  The course I recommend shows other ways of acquiring real, quality reviews and it’s advised you use only those methods. But I IS possible to still succeed.

 

Why Is Kindle Publishing Still Worth Trying, Then?

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While it takes a bit longer to collect reviews using these methods, the good news is your competition also has an uphill battle!

And even better news is that most of them simply won’t do it.

The fact of the matter is most people don’t succeed because they are LAZY. They don’t want to do the work.

I always say you have to work for somebody.

Either you’re going to work for yourself on your own dreams or you’re going to work for somebody else helping to fulfill theirs, but if you want to eat, you’ll work somewhere.

The ones who are willing to work hard for themselves become the employers of those who don’t.

 

…But This Is ONE-TIME Work!

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But the beauty of this is that it is ONE-TIME work!

Once the work here is done, it’s done.

It’s more work in the beginning but once you rank your book and get it selling well, you don’t have to keep working to reap the reward.

You get to wake up every morning to new sales that you didn’t work for yesterday, because you worked hard many weeks, months (or in my case YEARS) ago.

It’s true freedom.

So yeah. It’s harder. It’s more work nowadays, but it’s still the best way to make money online because it’s one of the few things that become truly passive eventually.

Set it up, then forget it.

You just have to set it up right.

 

4- Quality Of Books Must Be Higher

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So, thanks to the lovely increase in competition, it’s become imperative that books be of better quality.

This, my friend, is a good thing. We want to send high-quality material out into the world, right?

The problem with this is that quality is often pre-determined by things that don’t necessarily matter. Like the number of pages.

Sometimes you don’t need 100 pages to teach someone something.

Take a look at blog posts, for example.

A really, really good blog post can teach you something amazing in 2,000 words. An average conversion rate is 300 words per page, so that would be the equivalent of just 6 pages!

Now, of course, you don’t expect to go buy a 6-page book. But back in the day you could publish a 20-30 page book and do very well.

Today you need at least 12,000 words to even start. That’s around 40 pages. And that’s the low end. You really may need even more than that.

And again, it’s social proof. People equate length with quality.

Even if your 10-page book has all the answers to life’s greatest questions, if someone’s 60-100 page book has less quality content but just “looks” better, you lose!

 

Why This Isn’t A Huge Problem

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Though it’s harder because you need better quality books to perform well, this is not bad because truly GOOD content is evergreen. Meaning it’s long-lasting.

Being forced to produce better products means more longevity and passive income.

Having been in the Kindle game for 2.5 years now, I’ve also been forced to increase my quality.

I can say that my longer, more detailed, “meatier” books outperform the shorter, easier ones over the long-term by far. They get natural reviews from real Amazon customers because they are just *good*.

And overall that’s what I’m after. I want long-term stability.

I still recommend Kindle publishing as the best way to get your feet wet making money online because even though it takes a little longer to get rolling, having an extensive library of quality evergreen products on the biggest online platform in the world is a powerful money-making machine.

My really good books hold up to competition extremely well.

My top seller was released in the first half of 2017 and hundreds of new books have been published since. I’ve done zero maintenance on that book and it still ranks on page one of search results.

It’s good. The people who buy that book truly enjoy it, leave good reviews, and go on to buy other books from that same pen name.

Think about your last shift at work?

What was it like? What work did you do?

Is there any part of that work that you did yesterday that you will get paid for 2 years from now?

How likely is it that the next time you go to work, you’ll have to do the same thing to earn your paycheck?

Work once, and never again.

It’s the smart way.

 

5- You Must Use All Platforms For Max Results

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One of the benefits of creating content for Kindle is that you can also repurpose that content. You can sell the e-book, but also convert it into paperback and audio formats. So, for one book you create, you actually get at least three income sources from it. Maybe more.

A couple of years ago it was helpful but not really necessary to release on all 3 platforms. You could make a killing just on Kindle. Paperback was meh. Audio was even more meh.

Now Kindle is so saturated, you must use all 3 platforms. This takes more time and money, so it is a downside.

 

Why Still Publish Through This Challenge?

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It’s not that big of a deal because being pushed to get your content out there on more platforms is actually a GOOD thing.

For me, some of my books earn pathetically little on Kindle, but I get paperback sales through the roof!

Others I get nothing on paperback or Kindle, but my best selling book consistently earns $1,200 every month in audio sales.

Had I been so comfortable with great Kindle earnings, I would never have branched out into other platforms.

In fact, I started publishing in 2016 and didn’t release my first paperback or audiobook for 8 months. Which, coincidentally, is the time my business really began to grow.

Create one book and sell the same content multiple ways. It’s actually a good thing.

Get started building your library of books today and in 2 years you could get monthly direct deposits from THREE sources PER book.

Get with it.

 

7- It’s More Expensive To Outsource Tasks

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Finally, one of the biggest reasons that it’s harder is that it’s just more expensive to outsource tasks to contractors.

And honestly, for the most part, that’s 100% of this business.

That’s what makes it so easy to get started, but it’s also more expensive now than it used to be.

You pay a ghostwriter to write your book. Use Fiverr to get book covers made. You hire Kindle virtual assistants to promote your book and help get reviews. You hire voice actors to narrate your books so you can sell the audio.

All these people and services were less expensive a few years ago.

 

Why This Isn’t A Deal Breaker

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While this isn’t much fun, it shouldn’t be a deal breaker. Because that’s just the way everything is.

Don’t you hope to get an annual raise at your job every year?

It’s no different for contractors.

But this should not be a deal breaker because once again, it’s more expensive now than it was a couple years ago. But it’s definitely cheaper now than it will be in a few more years!

And speaking from experience when you’re starting a new business you’re going to generally spend both time and money.

Even with these changes, if you have a decent amount of seed money to invest in getting your books created, you will STILL spend far less time and money and have a much higher chance of succeeding at any other business.

Since you’re outsourcing the writing, cover design, and promotion, your time and workload is basically spent delegating. You’re not really doing much of anything.

You’re spending money getting things done, yes, but it’s nowhere near the money you’d spend starting a brick-and-mortar business where you have to purchase inventory and pay the lease on your storefront.

There are cheaper online businesses, like starting a profitable blog. But blogging takes time to see returns.

You can see returns on your Kindle investment in a matter of days or weeks. You’re not going to get that with a blog.

 

Should You Start Kindle Publishing?

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Based on what you’ve read, do you think Kindle publishing is the right move for you?

I’ll say that yes, it gets harder and harder as time goes by, but the way I see it is the next 2 years are going to pass by whether you take action or not.

If it’s something you’re interested in there’s no point in waiting.

You have a great chance at success now, and I believe you still will later.

 

The Best Choice I Ever Made

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But one of the best choices I ever made was to just jump in with this Kindle course and crank out some books!

I made many mistakes along the way, but now I own over 100 titles across 3 platforms and do not HAVE to work a single day in life!

I walked away from my corporate job and now my days consist of caring for my home and family, and running a blog where I get to talk about my passions and share my knowledge and growth with the world.

 

Kindle Makes Everything You Do After Much Easier

Blogging takes a long time to make money, and it’s an easier road if you have funds to invest in training courses and software.

I enjoy an easier ride because of Kindle publishing. I get to buy whatever courses I need, whatever software I want, and have unlimited time to work on my new passion project.

Maybe you would want to start a different business next. Or take a year off, traveling. Or do some volunteer work. Heck… maybe you just want to lounge around in your underwear all day playing video games, who cares?

But the point is Kindle publishing can make ALL your dreams come true and set you up for a future of financial freedom in ways you never imagined.

But it doesn’t work unless YOU do.

Click here to get started now with K Money Mastery.

You won’t regret it.

 

MORE KINDLE PUBLISHING IDEAS:

10 Kindle Publishing Tips & Tricks To SKYROCKET Your Earning Potential

How I Quit My Job After Just 18 Months Of Kindle Publishing

9 Reasons Why Kindle Publishing Is The BEST Way To Make Money Online

7 Reasons Why Kindle Publishing Gets Harder Over Time