I’ve written a book... and more!

Welcome to a new episode from Productivity Matters. It's been a hugely exciting few weeks and I wanted to share it all with you.

Excitement Level 10 - my first book has been published, via the Kindle Direct Publishing program.

I decided to try this, as my idea for a book came about quite quickly, and I didn't spend months and months writing it. It just flowed.

KDP is free to use, to set up paperback and Kindle editions of the book, and they take a relatively small cut of the sale. In fact, when I looked into it, there are a few ways to make money - so long as the book actually sells, of course.

1. The initial 70% royalty of the ebook
2. The initial 60% royalty of the paperback, after printing costs have been applied
3. A small percentage when anyone reads a page from a Kindle Unlimited download, or from Kindle Lending Library
4. I also get a smaller royalty when someone downloads
5. And, this one surprised me - if I sell the book via my Amazon Affiliate link then I benefit from an additional 4%

As I said, of course, the book needs to sell to gain any of this... so, what are your waiting for :)

Updated Website

I've also been re-building my website, which is due to be launched in the next few weeks.

I've been building it on Wix - which is given a hard time by some, but so far I've been quite happy with how it's gone.

It's very flexible in allowing all sorts of layouts. It's almost there, so watch this space for news of the launch date.

Mailing List

Finally, I've been working on building up my mailing list. Now; this isn't the easiest thing to do.

I've watched countless videos on YouTube about it, and everything leads to giving away freebies - or lead magnets.

Brilliant, I thought - I can do that. And I created a productivity guide to give away. I think it's quite a good guide. It has the basics for managing your to-do list, and other ways to remain productive, as well as short reviews on the apps and services that I use.

I sent emails directly to people I know and asked them if they'd like to know more about this, and those that replied positively, I added them directly to my email management system - more on that in a moment.

Those that said no, I marked as such and left them out.

I'm still working at it; and I've taken to heart the fact that it's not a quick thing to do... need to plod away for some time.

Chatbot

Also (I said I've been busy) I've also been playing with a chatbot creator - Chatfuel.

It's only playing at the moment, but you can now send a message to my Facebook page, and sign up for the productivity guide I mentioned earlier.

Here's the link to the chatbot: Give it a try - https://chatfuel.com/bot/prodmatters

ConvertKit

For my mailing list, I started with Mailchimp; but found the interface to be a little unintuitive; plus, I worked out the cost could become prohibitive in the future, due to the way they count subscribers. So I watched a couple of videos and set up an account with ConvertKit. It is much easier to use; and any questions that I've had have been answered relatively quickly, given the time difference.

ConvertKit allows you to see visual automation sequences, that have allowed me to not only capture subscribers and send them the free guide; but I also launched a mini course, via email, using the sequences - so, all emails are automated; you can see what's been delivered and, more importantly, those that haven't been opened. I set them up to send a week apart, so that I'm not considered spamming!

I actually integrated this with the Chatbot, using Zapier; so whenever someone signs up via the chatbot, they get added to the list in ConvertKit, and the automation in there takes over.

Keeping Busy

1. Keep Buffer full of posts for social media (Twitter and Instagram)
2. Launch the book
3. Update the website and get ready for full launch
4. Write more emails to be sent, via ConvertKit, to my mailing list
5. Create a chatbot, to drive more leads to my mailing list
6. Create new Zaps on Zapier, to manage new leads when they come in from chatbot
7. Write a script for todays show

Now; maybe I should only concentrate on one thing at a time. There's an awful lot of balls to keep in the air!

That's it for this episode.

I'm out of breath just thinking about everything I've been doing.

Links to everything I mentioned are in the show notes.

Thanks very much for listening, and until next time remember - Productivity Matters.

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Blue Yeti Microphone

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