Kindle Strikes Again! Read this if you are planning to start your kindle business

Thanks for letting us know Afreidman! It's really hard to take a risk in Kindle business.

You're quite correct Ari. Several of the Kindle money making ebooks advocated using spun PLR. It wasn't a business model that I personally bought into, in that specific regard, but I do believe that you can still make money on Kindle.

As you have alluded to, it's a matter of quality over quantity.

If you already have a digital product that is selling well, then it's little hardship to convert that into Kindle format.

There are lots of get rich methods that work short term, if you get in on the act early enough. However, long term, they inevitably result in you getting your adwords/adsense/paypal/ebay/amazon/cpa etc etc accounts banned.

As an aside, I think similar changes may be underfoot with Amazon affiliates. This is another profitable method which is being promoted across the web. The problem, as I see it, is that many of the sites which are being built, add little value to the consumer shopping experience as they simply regurgitate the Amazon info.

Using plugins to pull in Amazon posts may be quick, but what added value are you providing as a website owner?

Anyway, the best advice I can give is to be an ethical marketer and to put yourself in the place of the buyer.

Best of luck

Ari, you learned a valuable lesson and shared it. Thanks. I hope it helps others along the way.

Although you addressed Kindle specifically, the lesson you got can be applied much more widely. As an earlier post said, many get-rich schemes work in the short term. Many will work longer as long as they fly under the radar.

But people get greedy. They scale up. They package the method and sell it.

Those buyers scale it up.

Suddenly, there's a big flash on the radar, and the flack guns are aimed at everyone. I can always tell when those guns go off, because there's always a quick rash of threads ranting how the resource du jour hates the little guy just trying to make a buck. This is followed by a steaming pile of 'is ______ dead' threads.

The thing I like most about this thread is that you explain that you learned a lesson from it all, many people won't! I just hope enough people read this and other topics like it before they buy those Kindle WSOs that are still up.

Not only is this Kindle update great for buyers, I know I bought two of the same book with different titles more than once, but it is great for sellers! Those that actually take the time to create something will find it much easier to make sales now.

Congrats on not losing too much work from this and I'm glad this has helped you get in a better mindset for earning money with IM!

About a few days ago I uploaded my second original novelty ebook on kindle. The first was a PLR which I used to test the submission process. I unpublished the test ebook as soon as I saw how easy it all was and learned how to format the ebook.

I agree with your point not to spam kindle and spammers will get busted, if not now then in time they'll be caught.

Kindle publishing in my opinion should be treated like a real business. It isn't hard to create original quality content this days anyway so why not try to create original work and upload that.

I did that, it didn't took me a lot of time and effort to produce my first kindle ebook and I felt happy and proud after I published my work. A big part of that proud and happy feeling comes with knowing that I didn't cheated Kindle even if I know how.

Thank you to the OP for his idea on how to compete with bestsellers. I will definitely use that idea when I write my next all original ebook for kindle.

~ Thanks!

I wish more people would have the "lightbulb moment" regarding quick hit, smash and grab strategies and just resign themselves to building real busniesses. Congratulations.

What he said.

Sadly... as far as the "upload PLR to Kindle and make easy money" WSO's go... The only money being made by the WSO seller is actually from the WSO, not from what the WSO product tells you to do.

I'm surprised it took Amazon this long to start ridding of PLR stuff. I welcome it.

But don't worry... Those same WSO sellers will have another flavor to sell the masses next week.

They won't actually use what they want to teach you in those WSO products... They just want some instant cash. So they will figure out some new shiny trick and sell that until the following week when they just absolutely promise you that this new 3rd WSO is IT... it can't be beat. Well... at least not until the 4th week when the newest WSO will just downright KILL IT and you'd be an idiot not to buy this WSO... Who doesn't want $4000/day just by clicking 3 simple buttons and saying one "hail mary". It really is THAT EASY you know.

Please Note: I am a seller of a Kindle related course. This post is not a self promotion.

OK, Let me respond here as well. I've read almost every one of the courses, that you have mentioned (And I did a course on it as well). And I've read the PLR methods that are mentioned.

I've also noticed that a lot of people don't change PLR before they upload it, they just upload the same stuff as other people over and over again. Most of the courses that are discussed, tell you to actually modify PLR (and I know of some that talk about unique content, including one of mine). So before you warn everyone not to buy every Kindle course out on the forum, remember that some don't just teach PLR.

I have unique products on Kindle, I also have a resale rights product (That is very HIGH Quality and has no wide distro (limited license) ). And I can tell you that, I feel that if you customize a book, then you should be able to publish it.

Caleb

It seems like the moral of this story is quality control. The same battle that many marketers have been fighting since the net started. Make it your business to provide quality information and you will win over many who push crap.

The wso's are good to read, and learn another stream to market your product.

Just don't fall for all the screen shots and the easy money promises.

I bought a kindle wso, and for the money, it was good to learn how to publish on amazon.

Vj

I'm so glad that you learned a valuable lesson and shared it instead of ranting about how evil Amazon is for deleting junk from their marketplace.

I'll take a stand that goes against what many believe, but that's me--and I like being me.

To me, reworking PLR material (and most people skip the reworking part of it), calling it your own, and putting it up as a WSO, on Kindle or anywhere else is a sign of sloth, laziness, and indicates a desire to come across as an expert when no expertise is present.

Here's a novel idea: Try something for yourself. Modify it. Improve upon it until you are actually making real money with it. Then, and only then--consider offering your expertise through a 100% original publication to the world. I know, I know--that involves a degree of "work" and that is a four letter word with most wanna be marketers.

On almost every one of my digital products, membership sites, courses, etc., I include a clear statement on the sales page guaranteeing that I wrote every word myself and that there isn't a single word of PLR content in it. That means I can't come out with a new WSO every 2-3 days like some do--but it also means that people who have bought from me before are much, much more likely to buy from me again in the future.

And the fact is that in the time it takes to rework a piece of PLR properly, one could likely write a completely original work in less time. If you want to make a few quick sales online you can push almost any piece of crap and do that. But if you want to build a sustainable business and a good reputation to go with it--you're much better off learning how to do something yourself before you scrape and slop together a bunch of fiddle-faddle and claim to be a guru, a demi-god of Internet marketing.

I mean, suppose I were to decide to write a new version of the Bible and claim it was a long lost manuscript found buried in earthen jars in an ancient city. Maybe I throw in a few extra commandments to rework it a bit. I take a few of the original commandments out because I feel they are unreasonable. I then claim to be the second coming of Christ and start selling my "reworked" version on Kindle. How does that sound as a plan?

It's disgusting, just as disgusting as a lot of the reworked twaddle people are uploading there now. Like I said, learn how to do something well, document your techniques and successes and only then offer it to the world. Anything less is insincere and will never get you to the point of having a substantial online presence.

Yeah, I know, that probably pisses people off--the idea of actually creating original content related to their own experiences and knowledge. And maybe I'm wrong, but like I said--that's just me--and I like being me. I can look myself in the mirror and respect what I see every morning. --Mike

I saw this coming many, many months ago. The best way to make money on Amazon's Kindle is by helping Amazon to build their business in an ethical, "High Quality" content driven manner.

The only way it has, does and will continue to work is to upload only the best material that you can write or outsource.

I'm always amazed at how some people will take something like this and think sort term with it... It you upload plr crap, you will only see short term results (i.e. a few months if you are lucky)... But if you upload high quality material that helps Amazon to improve on their buyer's shopping experience, you create a business that can last you a *Very* long time...

Creating a long lasting business selling "High Quality" content for Amazon's kindle platform is VERY easy to do, so why don't more people take this route?

Because as the late Jim Rohn used to say "Its also easy NOT to do"

Ty

There's no replacement for real work - if anyone finds a replacement please let me know!

Like always quality wins. If you have original content in your ebook/site/article then you have no worries on your mind ever !

I believe you can still make money selling ebooks on Kindle. You can't just spin PLR to do it. You are going to have to make your own original ebooks to do it.

If you write up something that is quality though, you can make thousands...been plenty of success stories around the internet regarding people selling their own original ebooks on Kindle and they caught on like wildfire.

The best way to "kill it" on Kindle is to actually offer up some value that's 100% unique to you. In other words you write the whole thing from your experience and perspective... what a concept!

No one will ever get too far "gaming" the system.

All of these "Push Button" or "Make a trillion dollars in 1 day" type of products work their copy so hard they forget to put value in their products... LOL

That's because their is no product...

and so it begins.... just like every other traffic source that gets spammed now its kindles turn.

AND SO IT BEGINS.

I am actually suprised it took so long for it to get this bad LOL. Yes you guys know what I mean.

Kindle was asking for it.

I am not a seller on kindle and probably never will, but I was on there last night and the crap and spam that keep coming through is incredible. Infact its almost wise to turn your head to kindle now. Its being wrecked, and the spammers think they will still get away with selling low quality PLR ebooks written by someone with and IQ of their shoe size.

Say no more!

Anyone publish a magazine successfully on Kindle?

I bought one of these Kindle WSO's and started getting the emails from Amazon a couple of weeks ago.

I kind of felt slimy posting the PLR content. Difference is, I didn't make a dime.

I'm glad you learned this lesson (albeit the hard way), and I'm also glad Kindle has decided to put a stop to all the junk. It is techniques like this that really give IM a bad rap, and make it harder for people who legitimately do the work. Thanks for being honest and sharing your experiences!

im glad this happened because there was too much junk plr there...

I've personally never tried making money with Kindle. I just have too many other things on my mind, and I don't have a kindle of my own (I prefer to read physical books). But it doesn't surprise me that Amazon are cleaning up their marketplace. The Kindle is such a huge part of their business that they would want to keep is as clean as they possibly can lest they lose some of their market share to other e-book readers.

Amazon is definitely cleaning up all of the PLR and crap that was bogging it down and that is a good thing.

Writing your own content and publishing on the Kindle is the way to go but don't stop there...once you have your book on the Kindle the marketing needs to start.

The truth is they don't care squat about their seller, Amazon have long history with terrible seller support even if you are one of the best on their list.

I am sorry but Amazon ship sailed long time ago.

I write PLR reports - sometimes - when I have enough interest and enough to say for it to be actually instructive to the reader in some way and useful for the purchaser, too. I make it informative enough to be educational for the purchaser as well as the end reader.

I would never expect anyone to just load it up on kindle. Makes me wonder if my stuff is on kindle just as I wrote it. It would make me happier to think that people used it as a part of a larger work or to give to people to capture an email or just as a gift for customers - or even just ripped it up for a series of articles.

I give specific rights and as far as that goes, it's none of my business what purchasers do with it as long as they aren't violating rights. It would make me a little sad to see it on kindle, though, after the pains I take to make a quality product. I could have done that with it myself. Maybe next time I will.

Amazon brought on the problem through their own actions. In the early days of Kindle, they desperately needed content, so they could sell Kindles. Originally, they couldn't get authors to put up content because the market space didn't have enough customers to make it worthwhile. They needed to sell more Kindles to make the market big enough for a lot of authors. On the other hand, they had difficulty in attracting purchasers of the Kindle product, because there weren't enough titles available... sort of a catch 22 situation.

In response, they did two major things: First, they published a ton of Public Domain content, and Second, they allowed nearly anything to be published, including identical works. I really mean identical. Same cover, same name, same content, to include typos. After they got nearly a million titles (books) in place, and a crappy reputation for hosting tons of junk, they finally got wise and are now in the cleanup phase.

Can't say I really blame them for the way they built the market, but perhaps they could have sold the product "at cost" to get a wider audience instead of allowing the crap content... Don't know if it would have been as successful, but now, as they clean up, I think the Kindle will be a good platform for what it is, a book reader, and will certainly provide an outlet for a lot of writers that wouldn't otherwise be able to get a mainstream publishing company to print their book.

The problem with a lot of folks is that they seem to all want to become wealthy overnight without any effort. Similarly, they act as if they are an expert after reading a single book on a given topic. I guess they've subscribed to the old medical saw concerning the spread of medical techniques: Watch one, do one, teach one. After over 60 trips around the sun, I've found it takes most people a lot longer than that to become anything near expert enough to teach, or even to write about what they do. Thus, we have books, ebooks, courses and such that are less than optimal, and often rehashed or thinly spun information from authors that barely understand the fundamentals they are writing about, much less expert in their field.

Personally, I've never really seen the "value" in PLR content, except as anecdotal research, but I've not purchased any I would call really high quality either. I prefer to rely on personal experience first, tempered with the latest in available information in researching what has changed over the years, and then writing based on my experiences, not just repackaging someone else's stuff. Without the personal experience, I can't say I'd fully understand what is valuable and what is not, nor would I expect anyone else to do so. That tends to shape my approach to writing, and as a result, it takes me longer to get something complete. At least once done, I can feel I've provided something with a unique perspective that hopefully will be appreciated by others.

Seeing Amazon cleaniing up their library can only help the dinosaurs like me, because I won't have to compete with as much of the repetitive, thinly repackaged stuff that may or may not have any value. Personally, I look forward to the cleanup, and just wish they had started earlier.

It's a little sad that IM is full of "fake it till you make it" claims, and leaving so many people out of pocket, can't really blame Amazon Kindle for doing this

It's nice to see that people's crapdar is starting to go off at individual levels. The big companies have been working hard to rid themselves of crap and hopefully individuals will do the same.

I long for the days I can do a Google search and get mostly relevant results again instead of 1 vaguely relevant result and 9 Joe Crapseller's trying to sell me a two page regurgitated POS.

I hope the same starts to happen for uploaded PLR books on Amazon.com. These lazy scammers don't even bother to change the cover!

The BIG lesson here...

...isn't even about Kindle and PLR. It's about providing quality and value to your customers. If you're not building your business on that, you're not building a long term, sustainable business.

Sorry if this sounds mean... but isn't it obvious that there really are no shortcuts to anything??? It seems that when people try to be lazy or look for ways to not do the work that is required, then eventually it catches up to them.

I applaud your honesty, but really, this seems obvious to me... anything worth doing is worth doing with good intentions, high quality, and genuine effort.

Even if you change everything in the book, its not immune. I had a couple that were full rewrites (with major additions) that got axed last week.

It was no big deal for me, I uploaded them simply as a way to learn how to upload books to sell on the Kindle. I only lost three in the hit, and to be honest I was surprised it took as long as it did for it to happen.

This lesson needs to be filed in the "entry too easy, will be spammed hard within weeks" section.

I have a few of the WSOs mentioned. They served the purpose of showing you just how easy things really are. They spurred me to take action, so they were worth it.

Thanks Afreiman,
this was the best read I've had all week.
Very informative,
your lesson will in turn
help a lot of us out. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the tips but to be fair, it is a good step, i know people are buy selling rights, but if i were amazon, i would do the same

Good read really! Thanks for teaching us what you learnt from personal experience and spending a lot of time. Definitely, Kindle is a place for WRITERS. Uploading PLRs in hope of $$$ won't help anymore.

I totally agree with you that if one should take care while buying WSOs that claims about making money uploading PLR stuff.

Thanks for sharing again.


- Steve

Thank you for the important info i have always wanted to buy a wso and see how that goes but Now i see it may be wiser to write a full book

Could anyone tell me what kind of ebooks would go well on kindle? I have never done kindle ebooks but this looks interesting. I can write, also fiction/novels etc. Just wondering what is proven to sell well.