Hi everyone! I’m getting really excited the more I learn about the Kindle publishing world – not just from Geoff but from some of the resources he’s sharing inside the Kindling course. The Marshall Plan PDF and finding John Locke and his course, for instance.

I love that Geoff and John are basically the same type of mindset as I am in the marketing world – so it’s becoming easy for me to see where I went wrong all those years in fiction. I’m kind of annoyed because I did some bookmarks of things I wanted to discuss from John’s book in my Kindle but I’m a dummy with my Kindle so I found my bookmark and I’m not sure how to get it to take me to the page.

LOL! Maybe I’ll figure it out later. Anyway, he has an EXCELLENT business plan literally outlined for you on how he promoted his way (basically free) to the 1 million club on Kindle.

Update: 

I did want to let y’all know that I had a question for Geoff about whether or not we had to include a hyperlinked TOC of the chapters in fiction novels, and he said no. I know whenever I read my Kindle, it takes me right back to where I was before. Today is a big section in Geoff’s course, so I might divide it up into two – we’ll see how it goes!

Kindling 2.0

This page has a little note to us at the top but I think it’s an outline of what’s on the left sidebar so let’s go there.

Create – Connect – Collect

Here we have an image that shows us the layout of what he wants us to remember, then a video and then some text. The video is just over 2 minutes. The middle C is where I see people going wrong on EVERY FREAKING THING IN MARKETING!!!!! They want mass volume.

WHY do you think top gurus tell me that my tiny list of about 9k converts higher than those w/100k lists? It’s because of that middle C. I like what Geoff has to say about it. And really, let me say this – if you’re not interested in that middle C, then go get a job. You don’t belong in marketing, on Kindle, etc. John Locke is HUGE into this, too.

You should see the tiny list size he has. It’s laughable. But he makes it work. The 8th bullet point is something Locke talks about with fiction, while Geoff is addressing non fiction. It actually is the opposite in fiction to some degree.

More Money

Again there’s an image, a video and text. The video is a little under 4 minutes long.  He discusses the 3 ways you can make more money and the pros and cons of each.

Connect

Image, video, text. The video is a little over 4 minutes.The one thing I just don’t like that he does is Blogger blogs. I just have a preference for WordPress on my own domain.  And I know you can get your own domain on Blogger – I just don’t like using Blogger. I just don’t.

LOVE bullet point #2 – it’s SO true but why do people ignore it? I see it all the time in marketing in general. This is why the churn and burn idiots never have a long-lasting success. How many times have you seen people write something in the comments here about having been here for years? They email me all the time. It’s because of this connection.

By the way I was thinking about doing fiction under my maiden name (and even bought the domain) but I’m not going to. I’m going to plunk a fiction book category at the top of this blog and have my fiction listed right on my home page with my Non fiction. Why not?

Choose

Same formula as before. The video is under 3 minutes. The 4th bullet point is important for those of us focusing on money.  This is general info and I liked the previous detailed tutorials he had more. This is kind of a repeat.

Category/Genre

Same formula. Again, I liked the initial training he had on this. I hope he doesn’t replace the previous training with this because the other seemed more detailed. I say that because he mentioned eventually replacing the original Kindling training with Kindling 2.0 and I like what’s in the original. This video is just under 4 minutes.

Genre

Same formula. Again, I liked the previous training. This seems repetitive so I’m not sure how he’s planning to lay it all out in the end. I think maybe I was thinking Kindling 2.0 was what comes AFTER Kindling 1.0 – like stuff that happens after the initial work, the next part of your journey, so this is stuff from before, picking genres and categories, etc. The video is a little over 3 minutes long.

Category

Same formula. The video is just over 2 minutes. Same thoughts as above.

Assets

Same formula. This is about what you’ve got and what you can do. The video is just over 2 minutes long.

Liabilities

Same formula and I LOVE the red text at the bottom. The video is over 3 minutes long.

What You Can’t Do

Okay so my phone rings, my sister is calling and she puts me on hold so I grab my Kindle and then I’m completely and utterly lost in the remainder oh John Locke’s book. Can’t put the damn thing down and I LOVE his ethics, his attitude and the loving way he connects to his online friends – he mirrors what I do with my list. This video is just over 22 minutes (has image and text too). Same kind of advice as before. It’s all good advice, just  repetitive to what I already learned earlier.

What You Haven’t Got

I don’t recall hearing this advice yet in the training  and it’s really sage advice. People never think this way – ESPECIALLY desperate, broke people. And it’s a shame because this is how you DO become successful.

Potential

Okay we see a really neat snapshot of non fiction versus fiction potential in four major areas for our business efforts. There is a 5+ minute video. I like this section.

Blogging

Lots of text, a video and text. I know he stresses Blogger and I’m following his advice for my vegetarian book on Kindle but I still HATE using Blogger. It annoys the shit out of me. I will stick to WordPress for all my Kindle stuff.

The video is about 3 minutes long. Motivating you to get the blog ball rolling, which I agree with.

Blogger Profile

If you ARE going to be using blogger and not multiple domains on WordPress like I am, then you NEED to watch this approximate 2 minute video to get instructions on how to keep your pen names separate.

Custom Domains

Oops! He posted a Blogger video and when you click play it says the video has bee removed by the owner. So this needs revamping.

Domain Names

Okay one thing I did just do is look up my name’s blogspot URL. Damned if I hadn’t grabbed it years ago and put up some pathetic article promoting my PLR store. LOL So I just deleted that entry and will house my fiction here.

Okay been piddling with my Blogger blog for a bit now, redoing my settings. Might be nice to separate it from here. Actually…here’s what I plan to do! I’ll use that as a blog for the fiction if I wind up being okay with it a teeny bit, using Geoff and John Locke’s advice of minimal posting. And I’ll kind of just house my fiction there a bit and also have a page on here for it. Not sure how it’ll all unfold for sure yet.

He has advice for “what if this happens” in your domain search – wow! Something I didn’t expect but good insight. Very good insight into the balance of branding and quality.

Super Simple Format

He’s going into the free option of Googledocs. The video is a little over 5 minutes. I don’t use Googledocs but if you do, you’ll find this helpful!

Collections

This is all text and a good explanation about putting your series into a collection. I know Paula Seymour did this and I hope to do it with both my business series and my fiction trilogy I’m working on.

He does some simple math that helps explain it better

Final Thoughts

Geoff’s membership is amazing, and I certainly should not have an opinion here – but really, have you ever known that to stop me? I feel that Kindling 2.0 should be the more advanced stuff, not a redo of what’s already there. He already has a fantastic explanation of Kindling in part 1 – nothing’s dated, everything’s inspiring – it’s PERFECT as is.

So Kindling 2.0 should be scrapped except the parts I mentioned here that I liked or learned new stuff in – and Kindling 2.0 should be more the promotional aspect of it all In My Opinion.

Things I know people want to know are things like – Promos – how do you set them up and how do you maximize them? Twitter or Blogging – Locke and Geoff have both mentioned these and Geoff says how to get your blog going, but while I know what I want to say, I know for a fact many of you wont have a clue what to write about – especially with fiction!

Even I feel shaky with a fiction blog, like I don’t know what I’m supposed to put on there. Locke mentioned that he did posts as himself and as his character – should we? He mentions contests and promotions. No clue about this. Naming a character contest or something? LOL! What kind of stuff do you blog about for fiction fans?

This is stuff not covered, so I’m going to have to go find it myself and I’ll share tips, too. Because there is an emphasis on branding and quality, and I think Geoff does a stellar job of stressing ethics and quality and how to do good work, I think Kindling 2.0 should be more about the branding.

He gets us tot he part where we find an idea/niche/genre – and shows us how simple it is to get it on there, etc. So now promoting it is where it’s all at.

Again, he’s the one who developed a stellar course here – not me – so my $0.02 is worth about 1/4 of that in all honesty – it’s just my opinion. I clicked on the Update link at the top and it looks like he IS developing some great new things, like: Facebook promo tutorial, Tricktion Advertising and more.

Oh wait! Scrolling down, he’s added lots of stuff since I last logged in. I think. I get confused and when I cleared my cookies the other day it wiped out my red links so I need to go through my PDF and make a file of what sections I’ve read so if I click on the Update link and see something, I can quickly know whether or not I’ve been to that. Geoff’s good about saying if something’s been updated or new.

Okay that’s it for today! He kinda swayed me to the Blogger in some respect. I don’t like my Vegetarian layout but this older one I had set up, I like.

Here’s my first fiction post: What I Hope My Stories Do.

I have no clue if I’m on the right track with what I should be writing. But I’ll do it my way.

Tiff

Find Part 1 Here

Find Part 14 Here

 

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