I felt it important to write this post, as I don’t want my results to suggest to others that low content publishing is easy money, (which some may presume from looking at income reports).
The landscape on KDP has definitely changed and it is more saturated than it once was.
Some claim is it oversaturated and basically impossible for newbies to make money – but I certainly do not believe that’s the case whatsoever.
What I do agree with is that it is certainly much harder to get started as a complete beginner on kdp now – in comparison to a couple of years ago.
For example; a couple of years ago – you may still have a chance to make great sales, even with zero design experience.
But similarly, people were still saying it was hard to publish books on Amazon and that it was oversaturated many years ago.
I remember back in 2015, when I started a blog, people were saying back then it was impossible to make money with a blog and that anyone new would find it practically impossible.
Imagine all the successful blogs that have appeared during that time and succeeded.
Even back then in 2015, people claimed YouTube was getting oversaturated………… You get the idea. People always say things are oversaturated.
But similarly, you will always find examples of brand new people coming in and building a business in these areas that are oversaturated and guess what…. that continues to happen year after year.
Also, the fact I published books in the last six months in niches I had not been in previously, yet started to generate sales, also says to me this isn’t just for people coming in years ago.
You may take inspiration from Lisa Irby, who recently shared how she’s been making sales with low content – having only just started.
Sure, she has experience with Merch and finding niches and will be clued up with keywords and so on, she is going to have design experience.
But I have always said, that you will have the BEST chance of finding success if you already have experience in these fields.
That said, I have had comments from people who just started at the end of 2021 and are making great progress so far as well, without all that experience.
I will go over some factors that will definitely make it harder for you to get started with KDP and also, some ways that you have definitely got an advantage – in a moment.
Is It Wrong To Encourage Someone To Try KDP?
Is it wrong to encourage someone to try an opportunity… If it potentially has a low chance of success?
I really cannot be the judge of every individuals chance of success who happens to read this blog post, or watch a YouTube video…..
There are various factors involved in that and it’s going to be up to you to decide whether it’s worth your time focusing on.
However, do I think that just people someone may have a low chance of succeeding in something – I shouldn’t encourage them to do it?
No. Definitely not at all.
The reason I say this… Is that I’ve tried many things that I have only had limited to no success with and I don’t see those things as wasted ventures at all.
Far from it!!
I’ve learnt something and gained something from everything I have put effort into in my life and there are aspects to them all that were rewarding in some way.
I don’t just think it was all a waste of time.
Frankly, it’s this mentality that holds people back in life from trying ANYTHING!!!
They think to themselves… Ah, this may not work.
Why bother trying this for several months and then just getting nothing in return.
I won’t bother.
These are the types of people who go looking for get-rich-quick type opportunities.
They don’t want to spend the time figuring out if something works for them, because they want results YESTERDAY.
Well, I can assure you that in order to be successful at anything you will almost always have to work for a long time with minimal results.
I did this various times before I found KDP and I don’t regret any of that. You end up learning so much on the way that you just don’t even think about.
As an example; I spent a lot of time on Merch By Amazon. I saw income reports online, I was inspired and I gave it a good go.
But I struggled with it. I reached $100 online with it, but then dwindling sales, (and interest) made me put less effort into it and my input into that whole thing started to slide.
Through doing Merch and watching videos, I heard about KDP.
I’d also improved some of my design skills while I was doing Merch, I’d learnt more about keywords, more about niches and about print on demand in general.
So, do I think all the effort I put into merch was just a whole waste of time?
Obviously no.
It led me on to KDP and that’s what has worked recently for me and was something I enjoyed more.
There are many other examples I could give you and I do think how you perceive these things can really effect you.
Over time, my mindset has changed. I started looking for ways to make money online years ago and I expected to make it quick.
Now, I see things very differently.
What Will Make KDP EASY?
There is no easy route in my opinion.
Some people may think that by uploading thousands of books to kdp, this is the easy route.
They spend limited time on the interior, (maybe just download a pre made one) and then have various variations on the same cover.
It doesn’t take much effort, but if you want to talk about time wasting – this is it.
Hey, you may have learnt how to upload a book quickly to kdp, but not much else.
On the other hand, if you take your time and actually learn about keyword research and niche research and take your time over designing the cover, (or outsource it) then you will be saving yourself time in the long run.
Also, you will actually be learning skills that can help you in other ventures online, (even if KDP doesn’t turn out to be the one for you).
Will Most People Fail With KDP?
This is obviously impossible for me to answer in reality because I have no idea how many people try and create books on KDP vs the amount of people making a part-time or full time income.
If you’re talking about building a full time income on KDP, then of course I imagine most will not get to that level.
But why?
Well, who does or doesn’t succeed is going to be really variable and their chances of success are going to be determined by their experience, or their perseverance and willingness to learn and grow.
So, on the one hand…
You may have someone going into it who has design experience, who has knowledge of keyword and niche research, maybe they’ve had success elsewhere, (e.g. Merch by amazon and print on demand)… Then I believe their chance of success is going to be relatively high.
On the other hand someone; who is really determined to learn all the skills themselves from scratch, isn’t in a rush, is prepared to take many months or years growing and may eventually earn an income with KDP… Still, I think this person has a relatively high chance of success.
By contrast, someone with zero design skills, no knowledge about keyword/niche research, limited patience to learn new things, someone who has no real desire to learn the skills you need to make money with KDP…. I believe a lot of those people have a very small chance of making money on kdp.
Also, people who are quite negative from the get-go.
For example; people who think the only people on kdp that have success started years ago, (literally this has been said of any venture where you make money online…. people said it years ago and still say it now).
Basically, if you go into something with the mindset that it’s not going to be possible for you… What chance to you reckon you will make it work?
Look, I’m not of the belief that your beliefs will always control your reality …
But I do think your beliefs will naturally influence the actions you take.
So, it’s likely if you already believe something is a bit of a lost cause, you aren’t going to go all in on that opportunity.
Concluding Remarks…
How difficult KDP is to make money with is completely variable depending on many factors and there are definitely no guarantees.
I wouldn’t personally recommend anyone do it purely to make money alone – I would say that you should have some interest in creating books.
Because if you don’t enjoy any aspect of it, you’re unlikely to want to learn about it, unlikely to want to improve and even more unlikely to stick with it in the long term.
How have you found KDP so far… Did you find success quite quickly, or has it taken time?
Let me know in the comments!
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