The Blog
One question to help you make better choices in life
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As you know, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Wacky Wednesday, and a whole bunch of other cleverly named days are coming up... Each will present you with a plethora of discounted items, from TV's and Furbies, to digital games, music, and software at bargain prices. I am actually a huge fan of this time of year. […]
Target Audience: A Single Question to Help You Find, Market, and Sell to Your Ideal Customer
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I watched the new Steve Jobs movie last week. Spoiler: he invents the iMac. The point of the flick: paint a portrait of the guy that created the iPod, the round, partially-translucent, magenta colored desktop computer, and giant smartphones called iPads. It seems the writer-director combo decided the best way to do this would be to time-travel […]
7 Days to Ultimate Productivity
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This is a guest post by Paul Minors, a productivity expert. Follow him on Twitter. My name is Paul and like you I’m really interested in the idea of self-improvement, productivity and achieving more. I currently work a 9am-5pm job and am building my website and business on the side. I’ve spent the last few […]
10 Reasons Every Author Should Use ConvertKit for Email Marketing
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I think it's pretty common knowledge at this point that if you’re an author who wants to make more than $500 per year, you need a website and an email list. A website is important because it’s the place where your biggest fans can come to find out about your books. More importantly, it’s the place where […]
How to Create a Bestselling Author Website
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Get this: In 2012, 391,000 books were self-published in the US alone. That number increased to more than 458,564 by 2013 (a 17% increase in self-published books year over year). If this pace continues (and it looks to), in 2015 there will be 1,728 books self-published daily, or about one book published every minute. Oh, and […]
The Author's Guide to Building an Email List (and selling more books)
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Fact: 1/3rd of all self-published authors earn less than $500 a year from their publishing efforts. Take that in for a moment… $500. That’s not even enough money to pay for a single month’s rent in most major cities. This makes sense when you consider that 80% of books tracked by Nielson Bookscan sold fewer than […]
When Crowdfunding Fails (in-depth case study)
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Tom's Note: this is a guest post from Matthew Turner, the indomitable author of The Successful Mistake. I don't normally take guest posts, but Matthew's article hit a nerve with me as I've experienced a lot of failures in my life. If you've ever felt like quitting when things get tough, this article is for you. […]
Why Every Artist, Author, and Entrepreneur Should Care about Growth Hacking
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Since its founding in 2009, Uber has grown to be valued at more than $18 billion. It's one of the fastest growing startups in the world. Here's what that looks like, relative to other major tech startups (and their billions in value): If you're not familiar with Uber, they're a ride-sharing company that allows people to easily grab a […]
How to Find Your First 1,000 Customers (a $100 million case study)
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In 1993, Jeff Miller took over as CEO of Documentum, a document management company that had been stagnant at $2 million in revenue for the past several years. This might seem like a good problem to have, except that companies that aren’t growing are usually dying. Something had to change. So Miller started at the beginning - […]
How to Find Your True Calling
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Have you found your true calling? Seriously, have you? I know this question can come off sounding corny... After all, "finding a calling" sounds like something only hippies and hipsters (cousin of hippy) have time to ponder (over cups of latte or green juice, I'm sure). For the rest of us who are trying to […]