If you’ve been researching low-content books in the USA recently, you may have noticed that you really can’t find as many low-content books as you used to.
For example; for many keywords, the US & The UK marketplace is showing far less low-content planners for many keywords. But especially the shorter-tail, broad ones.
I imagine the days where you can make 10k off of a single low-contet planner in December are gone. That was a number I was inspired by, when Rachel Harrisun Sund shared her income for December…
(I think it was 2018 or something like that, a long while back!). But this was before I started KDP and it was numbers like that, that convinced me I should give it a go.
In the video linked below, I searched for the same keyword across different platforms and noted the significantly different results.
However, the platform that really stood out is Amazon.com & UK – because both platform appeared to sometimes ignore the search term altogether & show fairly irrelevant results.
I am checking all these platforms in incognito mode. If you search just simply on Amazon, it is going to be biased to your previous searches. If you frequently look at low-content books for example; it’s much more likely to show you these in the results.
Yes, it’s true that everyones individual Amazon will be differerent and more catered to them. But incognito mode is going to be the least biased version we can use to compare platforms as a whole.
So, when I look at a long-tail keyword like funny teacher planner… you can see the US search is dominated by spiral-bound planners, and other non KDP formats.
What’s more, some of these are very low priced! Some as low as $6.99 for a really decent quality book. These are not prices that we can compete with with low content books.
So what exactly is going on?
Well, just like everyone else, of course Amazon are using Ai to help transform the alogorithm.
Amazon is only focused on making money and customer satisfaction. They are showing these particular results because they make them the most money.
It doesn’t matter whether the search results perfectly match what they are searching for because their algorithm will have determined, that the customer will frequently buy something on this page MORE than they will seeing a page of, more than likely, not the best quality and, (now) highly priced low content books.
Now, this is not the case in every country. The other key contenders all show more low content books more than Amazon.com & Amazon UK.
But how long for? My concern is that eventually these other platforms could well follow suit.
Amazon.com (US) Is Suppressing Low-Content More Than Ever
When you run planner-related searches on the US marketplace today, the pattern is consistent:
- Heavy promotion of spiral and hardback formats
- More branded planners
- Far fewer indepenedent paperbacks
- Low-content far less visible in general.
- Amazon ignoring niche specific request and going for less relevant results, (presumably because they still make them more money & other reasons mentioned).
It doesn’t mean low-content is “dead” altogether – But it does mean the US & UK marketplace is often prioritising different products right now.
This is not the case for coloring books however, but the competition for coloring books is rising all the time. It seems that the Ad cost for such books can also be very high.
Other Marketplaces Still Show Independent Books More
The interesting part is what happens when you take the exact same keyword and search it in other Amazon marketplaces.
Amazon Canada:
You find a mix of traditionally published planners/FBA and independently published ones.
There are far more low content books visible by comparison.
Amazon Australia
Very similar to Canada, far more low content books are visible.
Unfortunately though, my sales on these platforms are not comparable to the UK & the USA. For me the UK used to really dominate… But now it’s falling far more in line with the USA.
The Takeaway
If you’re researching planners or other low-content niches:
- You may have better luck researching niches on other platforms
- Cross-check at least a couple of international marketplaces
- Remember that each marketplace has its own algorithm and product mix
- If you originally find the niche on a different marketplace, this doesn’t rule out making sales in the US too.
- While other marketplaces are showcasing low content books right now, that doesn’t mean that their algorithms won’t also shift to behave similarly to the US in the future.
- Ideally, look at creating an additional income outside of KDP
- If you’re only publishing low content, consider experimenting with medium or higher content books.
Amazon is always developing and evolving, but their prime motivation will always be about the bottom line and their customer satisfaction overall.
While it’s a great platform with lots of opportunity, of course it also comes with its own risks too. It is important to keep on top of changes as they occur.
Amazon Merch:
Recently, I have been trying to grow my Amazon Merch account again. After many years or barley adding on there.
After making more of an effort over the last couple of months, I reached my target of making over $100 in November. While that may seem like a small goal, the last time I achieved that was not long after I initially started with Merch.
It’s a very different landscape now & and competitive. But I have been enjoying adding designs again and I do hope that if I persevere, I will be able to make a reasonable additional income.
And as I’ve always said, if you can make $100 online with an opportunity… There is no reason you can’t make $1000…. It’s all a matter of scale.
I will be talking about that more on Substack soon. If you’d like to follow me on Substack, it’s free to sign up and I plan to do a lot more content over there in the future. Check it out here.
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