Announcing the results of 3 years of research: a PDF that will only be sold to 200 people, then it will be no longer available. The PDF is titled, “Top of Amazon for $5: Influencing Amazon Search“. What does it offer? It provides explicit descriptions, screenshots, and instructions for an amazing way to get your product to the top of Amazon search results. This is a very big secret that will only benefit 200 people; will you be one of them?
This book is no longer available.
This method is not limited to books: it works for all products found on Amazon, and can be used on any Amazon site worldwide. Get your product in front of the millions of visitors to Amazon every day by appearing in the top 3 of the search results! Once you learn it, you can continue to use it as often as you need. This information will be shared with only 200 people to maximize the benefit for those lucky individuals. Don’t miss out.
The PDF describes a method that will not cost anything, but is most effective with a small further investment of a few dollars. It’s tested and proven to take a small investment in time and, optionally, money to rise in the search results on Amazon. There is also a 30 day money-back guarantee if you don’t find the document clear and easy to follow.
Note: While this document can be applied internationally, it has the strongest value if you are U.S. based.
Act now, or before you know it, the 200 copies will be gone forever.
Did you know that besides books, magazines, and newspapers, the Amazon Kindle can also subscribe to blogs? From some of the most popular blogs on the web to smaller websites, you can have the content delivered directly to your Kindle. More importantly, for NovelRank authors, you can have your book or author blog available for your fans and readers, direct to their Kindle!
Yes, Amazon charges a small monthly fee ($1.99) to the Kindle user to subscribe to your blog, but 70% of the revenue is shared directly to the blog’s creator (that’s you). So, besides providing a service to your fans, you also are generating a little more revenue for all that brilliant blog content! Excited? Time to learn more.
It’s really easy actually. Head to the Kindle Publishing for blogs page. You can’t simply use your Amazon account, and will have to create a new account. You can use the same email address as your Amazon account, but you will need a different password (I don’t know why, it just does). Once your account is created and you confirm your email address by clicking the link that is sent to your email inbox, you will be logged into your new account!
Click the ‘Your Blogs’ link in the top-right and add a blog. You will need the RSS feed to your blog, fill out some info, and provide some screenshots, but the entire process should take less than 15 minutes. Once your blog is added, it takes less than 24 hours before it is added to Amazon, and less than 72 hours before it is available in searches on Amazon.com. Then, tell people!
If you want to see an example, or you are a Kindle user and want to do a 14-day sample, you can get the NovelRank blog on the Kindle! I wish I could make it free or $0.99, but Amazon is currently setting the prices.
As of this morning, March 8th, Amazon has announced that they are closing Amazon Affiliate accounts for Colorado residents in reaction to a new state sales tax law enacted on February 24, 2010. While users may not be aware, I’m a Colorado resident, and the Amazon Affiliate program is how NovelRank survives as a free service for authors to track their sales rank. The program pays a small percentage fee to me when anyone purchases any product on Amazon when clicking through NovelRank book links to Amazon pages. This costs the buyer nothing at all.
Amazon Affiliate payments were covering the website hosting costs for running the service for a total cost of $348 a year, but did not cover the 217+ hours I have spent building and improving NovelRank. I LOVE doing NovelRank, but this is really really bad as the hosting costs are now an out-of-pocket financial cost for me. I’m scrambling to try and get around this (or hope that Colorado law makers repeal the law and thus Amazon reinstates the Associates account). Till then, thank you to the two individuals who have donated directly to support NovelRank, and if you are able and wish to, a small donation would go a long way in allowing NovelRank to continue serving you (I have a lot of books to giveaway!).
Sincerely,
Mario Lurig
Creator, NovelRank
The full email I received this morning:
Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:
We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.
We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.
There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.
You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the General Assembly [ http://www.leg.state.co.us/Clics/CLICS2010A/csl.nsf/directory?openframeset= ] and to Governor Ritter [ http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovRitter/GOVR/1177024890452 ], who signed the bill.
Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.
We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.
Best Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team
Update: March 9, 2010 10:04 AM
According to WSJ about $35 million was generated for the 4,200 affiliates in Colorado. Estimated $1.62 million then in lost state tax revenue for a ‘projected’ $5 million from the new law.
Update: March 12, 2010 7:14 AM
No movement from Colorado Legislature. NovelRank isn’t going away, even if it is out-of-pocket, it will be here for at least the rest of 2010. I’m working with family to move affiliate revenue to one of them in the state of Florida. It’s a ridiculous burden, but it will work. Thanks for the kind emails and the donations that have been made.
When you walk into a bookstore, you have the ability to pick up a book, open the cover, and read through as many pages as you wish so you can make a purchasing decision. Sure, you read the back cover first, and maybe that was enough, but at least you have the option. When marketing your book for its potential readers, you want to give them the ability to preview the book as well, so they can decide to purchase a copy for themselves.
There are three main methods for providing a book preview, and while all of these seem to compete, it is important to be aware that each one provides a different avenue to expose your audience to your book. In sheer marketing terms, using all of these options would be a beneficial use of your time. Finally, be aware that every one of these options are completely free.
Book Preview with BookBuzzr
BookBuzzr.com offers authors a Flash based book preview that not only has the feeling of physically turning pages, but it allows extraneous, author added details about the book to be included with the embedded widget. Furthermore, there is an extensive list of sharing options for social networking, blogging websites, and email, with a detailed list of instructions for each site.
BookBuzzr even allows you to use the micro-blogging website Twitter to let your followers know whenever your book was viewed. Secondary to that, the BookBuzzr account on Twitter promotes authors and books that are found on BookBuzzr as just an additional benefit for their authors. Going even farther, the fReado (parent of BookBuzzr) website offers listing and rankings for books that have been popular on the website, called their Movers and Shakers.
You can setup your account directly on BookBuzzr.com. You decide how many pages and which pages will be visible to your users, so you can share as much or as little as you wish. This is clearly the most advanced book preview widget available for free today.
Book Preview with Google Books
Everybody knows Google, and if you are searching for certain topics, Google Book Search will provide three books relevant to the search at the bottom of the page. If your book isn’t added to Google Book Search, its odds of appearing in this search are greatly reduced. Of course, Google offers an additional Book Preview widget. There are a few steps you should go through, starting with adding your book to Google Books and configuring all your settings, including custom purchase links, images, and page preview (with optional download). Once the book is setup, you will want to create the preview widget through their book preview wizard.
The Google widget can be configured as a button or a full embedded view. It is HTML based so it doesn’t require Flash to be installed, though the browsing is completely linear and not natural to how a buyer would browse a book in a store. There is an additional benefit of Table of Contents scanning, which makes the table of contents clickable within the preview, taking you directly to the appropriate page within the preview. Like BookBuzzr, this can be used to embed your book preview into your author or book’s website.
Book Preview with Amazon Look Inside
Amazon offers its Look Inside feature to any author or publisher who has their book listed on Amazon.com. Unlike the previous two options however, it is only available on Amazon.com. There is no embeddable widget. The preview is built into the page itself, triggered by clicking on the book’s cover image. Amazon offers a full FAQ for using and setting up Look Inside for your book. While this service won’t provide any additional marketing for your book, it will provide browsing of a small portion of your book for organic Amazon.com visitors to your book’s Amazon page. Be advised that every Amazon domain is different, and thus setting up Look Inside on Amazon.com will not carry over to Amazon.co.uk, and so forth.
Amazon SalesRank is the ranking (lower is better) of a book on Amazon.com and is updated hourly by Amazon. NovelRank tracks these changes and notes when a book has sold.
Announcing the results of 3 years of research: a PDF that will only be sold to 200 people, then it will be no longer available. The PDF is titled, “Top of Amazon for $5: Influencing Amazon Search“. What does it offer? It provides explicit descriptions, screenshots, and instructions for an amazing way to get your product to the top of Amazon search results. This is a very big secret that will only benefit 200 people; will you be one of them?
