In 1996, I met this young man, Dexter Godfrey, at a real estate training conference in Virginia Beach. Over the years we became friends. Real friends. BEST friends! I’ve been in his wedding. My wife and I are the Godparents of his son, H.J. We spend holidays together… vacation together.

But I have to tell you… you can know someone for years and not realize their talent and their growth. The simple message is powerful and fun – BUT, the real thing I want you to see is the growth of my friend. You see the finished product – I see the journey successfully completed and a new journey now beginning. It’s what brought a tear to my eye today. I’m so proud to see him living his dream… and I’d encourage you to do the same.

Find a mentor – take action – and live your dreams!

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Dexter Feb 12 Training

When it comes to making money with ebooks, there are 3 types of ebook authors, only one of whom is geared for long-term success. If you’re serious about making money with ebooks moving forward, take a hard look at the ebook path you choose – because once you start down the road, it’s hard to turn back.

The ‘Opportunist’

The opportunist is the kind of ebook author who isn’t really an author. The Opportunist is the person who buys all the latest courses on how to use resell rights products on Kindle and “game” the system. They do very little research on their topic, buy the cheapest PLR they can find, and generally just throw a bunch of crap “against the wall” to see what sticks.

The opportunist could actually make some real money early on in the Kindle world (or in the Clickbank world) just by being in the mix with a ton of ebook topics that might sell. Since they have very little skin in the ebook game in terms of time, money or effort, their returns seemed like the “windfall” every opportunist looks for. Unfortunately, with increased competition and better filters on Amazon, this strategy is no longer a good idea, no matter what the “gurus” tell you.

The “Writer / Artist”

This is the person who is VERY impressed with their own abilities. They obsess over every detail and come out with an ebook about once a year. They are quick to offer “help” to others (solicited or not) in the form of self-important advice. They are also quick to point out any problem they see in the work of others and how “they don’t make those mistakes in their writing.” They honestly believe they are taking the high road and look down their noses at anyone who makes real money, even big-name authors. This person is insecure and will never make any real money or impact on anyone beyond a small group of people unfortunate enough to fall into their orbit.

The “Realist”

Realist is defined as “a person who tends to view or represent things as they really are.” The realistic ebook author understands a few very important facts. First, good enough is good enough. They realize you can spend an eternity getting things just right, or you can spend a reasonable time finishing your ebook and then get on with it.

Second, the realistic ebook author knows nothing happens without consistent, intelligent promotion. Yes, you can “set it and forget it” when it comes to Amazon Kindle, but you still need to do the right things up front to set the stage for success with Amazon. Just because it’s listed, doesn’t mean it will sell.

Third, the realist knows that customer satisfaction is the key to repeat sales. Even if you hire out some or all of your content creation, you must ensure your ebooks are of sufficient quality that someone who bought one would be eager to buy another one from you. The realist knows that future riches with ebooks will come as the result of steady, intelligent, and diligent effort.

However, if you really want to simplify the ebook business you can boil it down to just two types of authors.

#1 – Selling Authors. These are people who actively research, create, and market their ebooks. In other words, a selling author actively promotes their ebooks rather than depending on something or someone else to do it all for them.

#2 – Non-selling authors. These ebook authors basically get it created, put it up for sale and walk away (if they ever get it done at all). Though it is possible now to make money without active promotion using Amazon Kindle, you still must put out consistent effort in creating a steady flow of new content.

By the way, if you really want to write and publish ebooks for HUGE profit margins, this is what selling authors do http://www.7dayebook.com

Kindle Riches Lie – Part 2

The report I published a little while back on “The Kindle Riches Lie” caused quite a stir (http://www.brandedfreereports.com/jump/t). In fact, I’ve seen more than a few people scramble to “adjust” their position on this issue now that the cat is out of the bag. But, after being in direct contact with the folks at Amazon, I think the problem for anyone who uses PLR or Public Domain is about to get a whole lot worse. In fact, it’s going to get downright nasty sooner than later.

You can read the rules I’m about to share with you at https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2TOZW0SV7IR1U, however, I’m going to read between the lines for you and explain what I think it REALLY means to you as an ebook publisher. Though these thoughts represent my opinion based on research and emails with Amazon, I feel very confident sharing these thoughts with you about what I think Amazon is likely to do in the near future.

NOTE: Like it or not, the customers who buy your Kindle book are NOT your customers – they are Amazon’s customers. Remember: Amazon’s objective is to make their customers happy with every Kindle purchase they make. Anything that jeopardizes that customer experience or happiness will be eliminated sooner or later.

Content Guidelines

Your books and other content (such as book titles, cover art and product descriptions) must adhere to these content guidelines. We reserve the right to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate and to choose not to offer it. We may also terminate your participation in the KDP program if you don’t adhere to these content guidelines.

The operative sentence here is “We reserve the right to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate and to choose not to offer it.” If Amazon doesn’t like your ebook for any reason, they’ll delete it. End of story!

Pornography
We don’t accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.

Offensive Content
What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect.?

These don’t really require much explanation. If your mom or your 3^rd grade teacher would be embarrassed by it, Amazon doesn’t want it. There are plenty of other places online you can sell offensive stuff.

Illegal and Infringing Content
We take violations of laws and proprietary rights very seriously. It is your responsibility to ensure that your content doesn’t violate laws or copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights. Just because content is freely available does not mean you are free to copy and sell it.

This one is for the idiots who think they can just scrape anything and then publish it. This includes people who “spin” other people’s content using software or low-cost “re-writing” services.

These next two are where we get into what should scare the crap out of anyone who is selling, wants to sell, or teaches others to sell public domain, PLR (private label rights), resale rights, or any other NON-original content on Amazon Kindle.

Public Domain and Other Non-Exclusive Content
Some types of content, such as public domain content, may be free to use by anyone, or may be licensed for use by more than one party.? We may choose not to sell a book if its content is undifferentiated or barely undifferentiated from one or more other books.?

Amazon Kindle doesn’t want you to publish public domain works and, though they may have them in the Kindle Store now, they really don’t want more. So the chances of you adding “Huckleberry Finn” to the Kindle Store, let alone making sales, are slim. Plus, if they get a complaint about a specific book or publishers, they’ll latch onto your catalog of books and sniff out any other duplicate content they can find. All it takes is one complaint for them to launch a review of your account.

Sure, you might get by with some PLR or public domain content for a while, but they’ll catch you sooner or later. And the only thing worse than not making money is making money and then having it snatched away from you.

Poor Customer Experience
We don’t accept books that provide a poor customer experience.? Examples include poorly formatted books and books with misleading titles, cover art or product descriptions.? We reserve the right to determine whether content provides a poor customer experience.

Here’s the one that really gives them the power to slam down on PLR and public domain. Let’s be honest: most PLR and public domain ebooks are absolute crap. The people who put them up do a crap job of formatting them or editing them. Amazon does NOT want someone buying a Kindle book, realizing it’s crap, getting a refund, and then writing off the whole Kindle experience as crap.

On a side note, I think this will eventually extend to original ebooks in the form of overall quality control. Ebooks outsourced to low-rent ghost writers for whom English is a 5^th language will get rooted out also. It’s not hard for Amazon to scan a book looking for inappropriate language, spelling errors, poor grammar, and more. Though they may not get kicked automatically, these ebooks will most likely get tagged for human review. At that point, a person with minimal skills could read some of the ebook and label it as a “poor customer experience” for one of many reasons – not the least of which that the ebook just plain sucks.

Amazon has probably already established some baseline level of readability and quality for ebooks – much like a Google Quality Score – and when that score falls below a certain level, they’ll kick out the ebook from Kindle (or at least have a human review). However, rather than Google just slapping you, Amazon will probably offer a list of suggestions to improve the ebook. For the serious writer, this will be a blueprint for improvement. For the “Kindle eBook Sweat Shop” owner, it spells the death knell for getting by with crappy ebooks.

Shutdown Email from Amazon

Now, let’s clarify even further with an excerpt from an email that was forwarded to me by someone who had their entire Kindle catalogue shut down after following the advice of one of these Kindle gurus who taught that it was okay to use content from Wikipedia, government websites, and other sites with “free to use” content. This person estimates they put in at least 100 hours of work into following this advice and getting their Kindle books posted.

“We’ve reviewed the information you provided and are upholding our decision to remove your books from sale on the Kindle Store. These books closely match content that is freely available on the web and we are not confident that you hold exclusive publishing rights. Licenses for master resale or private label rights (PLR) are two examples of “non-exclusive” publishing rights. This type of content can create a poor customer experience, and is not accepted.”

There it is in black and white directly from Amazon Kindle’s customer service. Read it again before we finish up here. Two parts stick out like a sore thumb. #1 any “content that is freely available on the web” and you don’t have exclusive publishing rights. #2 master resale or PLR are two examples mentioned by name. Anything like that – no matter what you want to call it – has no place in the Kindle Store and Amazon is going to do whatever it takes to root it out and prevent it from getting into the catalog in the future.

Next, I believe they will start grading the quality of every ebook, even if it?s 100% original content, to make sure it meets some basic standards of readability.

Bottom line: Do you want to make money on Kindle? Get really good at creating and promoting original ebook content. End of story!

By the way, if you really want to get started writing and publishing your own outrageously profitable Kindle ebooks, this is what the top ebook authors (or those who want to be) do http://7dayebook.com/kindle-ebook-in-7-days/