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Mark R. Morris Jr. Powered by Blogger.

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Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Today is  day three of the challenge and I managed to accomplish a little. I got the second podcast episode up today, with some strategy for IFTTT automated syndication networks to spread your blog traffic across the web with every single post! Go check out the specific strategy for IFTT and a link to an applet  building tutorial, here.



Following the strategy outlined in this post, you will create over 800 backlinks from your blog per year, or, blog  daily and increase that to over 5000! just by posting on your blog! That's right, one time set up, and forget the rest.

So, day three didn't go exactly as planned, but we are gaining some momentum, I got over 60 new Twitter followers, and was added to four large lists yesterday, just through sharing this challenge.

So, I need your votes on the Gumroad.com or Payhip.com platforms to sell from. For now, I'm on Gumroad with the podcast, because the platform offers me the ability to add a file for each episode, and you can access the whole archive just by leaving an email to sign up.

In addition to the Twitter followers, we gained a few likes on our Facebook page, which is here. Please take a moment to go like it and comment. Thanks!

So, we are on our way and tomorrow I'll share some blog numbers so far and more on the IFTTT network building !
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
60 day challenge, day 2 was a success! The first episode of the Indie Pub Academy podcast is up and ready for download here! It was a bit of a learning curve, since I've never produced a podcast before. I do however, have a ton of audio engineering experience from my theater days, so it all came out in the end.



I really wanted to get it up on Youtube

In fact, this was my plan, from the beginning but I had a tough time finding a video editor that would do what I wanted, that I could afford on my zero budget. So, after spending the afternoon dinking around trying to solve this problem, I finally came to the realization that it wasn't a problem and I needed to launch it from one of the platforms I'm considering for the challenge, so, there it is folks, ready for download.

I've set the cost to $0+

As the show progresses, I will probably add a price to access the archive, so get in early and you'll get the premium stuff for free once we get going. If you find the information helpful, or would like to support our quest, please contribute generously, every penny helps.

So, here's what's next

Next on my agenda  for the next day or so will be setting up a syndication network for the Indie Pub Academy blog using a tool called IFTTT.com . If you've never hear of it, you should really take a look. Not only is it free, it is the single most powerful automation tool online, and that is no exaggeration.


For our purposes, I'll be setting up some relays to broadcast every post from the Indie Pub Academy blog into several dozen other platforms. I'll set up some repeater blogs, a few bookmarking sites, and some social media automation as well, so don't miss it! You'll learn a lot.

By the way, if you'd like to read one of my books, they are on sale for Christmas! $0+ pricing on all volumes on my Payhip store, so check it out!

If you ever have publishing, or writing questions, please leave me a comment, and don't forget to vote, Gumroad.com or Pahyhip.com for the 60 day challenge platform? Every comment will be entered to win a free membership in Indie Pub Academy when we go premium, so start talking!

Monday, December 5, 2016
I'm frustrated. Amazon is a cool site, don't get me wrong, but when it comes to selling books, there are some serious drawbacks and other platforms can help fix them.



  1. Low commission, the best you EVER get is 70%, and that's if it sells on Amazon, and it's priced right!
  2. No analytics, so you have no clue how well your offers are converting, no traffic numbers, equals flying blind. 
  3. No contact information, your buyers are really Amazon's buyers, unless you convert them to a mailing list. 
  4. Changes are complicated, discounts are limited, and giveaways are extremely controlled. 
So, I am launching a new challenge. I want to take my books and sell 60 copies a day on a platform other than Amazon. The first thing I'm going to do is choose a platform. I've narrowed it down to two choices, and I'd love your opinion!

  1. Payhip.com, instant commissions, earn 90% on every sale, super simple uploading and changes, price changes, give aways, coupons, affiliates and more. 
  2. Gumroad.com commissions paid weekly, more advanced interface, with product selections based on keywords, and a market place where they share your content with shoppers. 
So, which one would you choose, and why? Leave me a comment, today is Tuesday, by Monday I need to decide which one I'm going to use, so add your comment and find me on Facebook to talk more about it.

For more details of the challenge, my rules, what part you can play, and more, check out my latest post on Indie Pub Academy.
Thursday, December 1, 2016


When it comes to Indie Publishing, you have got to find a way to stand out from the crowd, really make people pay attention. We live in a post-consumer age now, and we are really on the edge of developing an almost entirely attention driven economy, where those that have, get more and those that have no audience, shrivel up and blow away! 



It’s not about talent, or substance, it’s about style. It’s about making people want to  be a part of something. Involving them in an “experience!” right? So, in book marketing, how do you achieve that? Well, in my searching recently, I stumbled across this Indie Pub genius, who calls themselves “Future You” and has put out one book so far, “A Message From Your Future Self”.
 
It’s going viral!
The last I checked, the social media tools I use said over 15,000 people had shared or liked it so far, and the number keeps going up. Well, when I saw it, it was on a friend’s Twitter and I asked her what was in it,   but she would not tell me. So, finally, I broke down and bought it. 

Here’s what I learned!
First, I’m not going to tell you what’s in it, it’s inspirational, that’s all I’ll say, and it was a really great little read. But, I’m going to play Future You’s game and go along with it, for now. Why? Because I like what they’re doing and they are standing out from the crowd with something unique. There are no sales pitches, nothing to keep this chain going, just a simple, inspirational book. 

They got under my skin!
I went to bed, and started thinking about it again. I wish I could show you the order page,  but I didn’t screen capture it, it must have been three in the morning when I broke down and ordered this book and I’m glad I did. It really did speak to me, but mostly for the simplicity of the marketing the boldness of the message!

Kudos to Future You!
Well done, whoever you are, and if you get the book, and find out, don’t tell me. Of course, if it was really my future self sending a message back, I’ll know eventually, right? LOL