Truth be Told
When I started this website, it was called daodatravel, I thought it would somehow become the best travel blog and I would make money from affiliate marketing.
However, it turned out that I didn't like reviewing hotels I've never been to. It didn't feel meaningful. It felt like work. Because I wasn't passionate about it, I stopped doing it.
Then I turned this into leonandlife. I thought I could create an education blog - more like a whatever I wanted blog - and actually just get better at writing, sharing insightful knowledge.
Somewhere in middle, I got tied up in the fact that no one would probably read these posts. I got caught up in making my KPI views, which I shouldn't have because I wanted to write for myself.
Then life got in the way. Whether it was work or leisure, I just wasn't self-aware enough to have anything to share with the world at large. And I stopped posting yet again.
It turns out that I'd much rather play games, watch dramas and movies and read than writing...even when writing is actually what gives clarity on what I really want to do.
I think writing allows me to answer my own questions. Maybe the clarity from answering my own questions will help me go to where I want to go.
So here goes nothing.
- The 10X Journalling Exercise
Right now, I am doing Amazon KDP. My goal from doing this is to get to $1,500 a month in profit before book costs in six months starting today. The 10X journalling exercise asks how can I get to $15,000 a month in profit in 6 months before book costs.
My original plan was to publish around 6 books (ebook, audiobook and paperback) which cost $1000 each. I planned for each book to pay itself back in 3-4 months which is what would give me $250 in sales per book. For a paperback priced at 14.95 with around 130 pages...this would give me a royalty of $6.50. This would mean that I need about 39 sales a month to make $250 just from paperback. This means I need to aim for a BSR of above 120,000 in paperback for each book I do.
Understanding that I will still receive sales from Kindle, ACX and bundles - I consider all of this additional revenue used to cover promotion costs.
Since it is unreasonable to reach $15,000 in 6 months by replicating this process x10 because it would require me to publish 10 books a month, I should focus on publishing higher-quality books that will have higher BSRs. However, only books with BSRs of under 10,000 make $2,500 a month. That's too difficult to hit.
Even making half of what would need a BSR below 20,000...which isn't realistic. It seems the best choice for me moving forward is to price the books profitably and publish as many books as I can as quickly as possible without compromising quality...
To make $15,000 a month, I need 30 books to rank consistently under 70,000 BSR for paperback. Each book would then be making $500 a month sans Kindle and ACX sales.
Main focuses need to be placed on the cover, title, and content to make the book enduring...This means I need to figure out why competitors are selling well and replicate the process.
To get to this milestone in one year, I need to publish 2-3 HQ books a month in profitable niches and keywords that are already ranking sub 70,000. To combat the quality of ghostwriters, I need a super-specific outline to match the quality of existing products.
Set Goals:
- Publish 2 HQ books per month in one niche until there are no more profitable keywords