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Writing a book is easier said than done, and that’s not even the hardest part. Not only will you have to write your books, but you’ll also have to promote them to an eager audience that you build over time.

Your work routine will make or break your career as an author, and regardless of what you write about, productivity is a key skill to master. If you want to write more books and boost your sales in the process, incorporate these 7 productivity tips into your workflow. 

#1: Write First Thing In The Morning To Build Momentum

When you wake up, you have the most momentum. Nothing crazy has happened yet and the meetings and other activities are usually clumped together later in the day.

It’s important to wake up and start writing because this will provide you with momentum for the rest of the day. The way you conduct yourself in the first hour of the day plays a large role in what your entire day looks like.

Writing first thing in the morning makes it easier to stay focused and continue writing throughout the day. 

#2: Write With Zero Distractions

When you are writing, remove distractions from your environment. Make sure your phone is in a different room and your Wi-Fi is off.

These are two of the most common distractions that can derail any writing routine. The next time you get distracted during a writing session, take a mental note of what distracted you. Then, figure out how you can remove that distraction during your next writing session.

You might have to write in an isolated room in the house and let your family know that you’re writing at a certain timeframe. You can make more progress with 30 minutes of concentrated effort than with 2 hours of distracted effort.

#3: Listen To Music While You Write

Music can help you tune out the other noises around you and make for a great writing session. It’s best to listen to music without words as the purpose of this music isn’t for you to jam to your favorite song. 

The purpose of this music is to just help you stay focused. Find a certain theme you like, put on the headphones, and tunnel vision your way through your next writing session.

#4: Outline Your Book In Detail Before You Start

Every minute of preparation saves about 10 minutes of time. Preparation helps you know the direction of your book. Not knowing the direction of your writing risks falling into a stop and go routine.

In a stop and go routine, you write until you don’t know where to proceed. You stop, gather your thoughts, and then go until you have to stop again.

This inefficient writing approach can chew away at your time and leave you with very few words added to your book. Taking 15-30 minutes to outline your book from start to finish will save you a lot of time in the long run.

#5: Do Keyword Research Before Writing Your Book

Productivity for authors isn’t just about writing your book from start to finish. Productivity also includes book marketing and ensuring your content reaches more readers. 

Before you start writing a book, do some keyword research to increase the odds of your book being a success. Some keywords have lower competition and higher demand than others, and it’s important to find specific keywords that give you a better chance on the Amazon algorithm. 

You don’t want to spend hours writing a book that goes on to get no sales. Keyword research prior to writing the book helps you to avoid this dilemma. 

You can use a resource like Publisher Rocket to do detailed keyword research so your next book is a winner.

#6: Repurpose Your Content 

In between writing and promoting your books, you also have to produce free content. The free content helps you build your brand and attract potential readers.

Many authors struggle with writing their books and producing free content. One of those two tasks usually gets discarded and you end up with books that don’t get enough sales or free content that doesn’t lead people to a high converting offer.

Content repurposing is the game changer that allows you to write books and produce free content simultaneously. You can take passages from your books and turn them into blog posts. You can create videos and use the edited transcriptions in your book. 

Repurposing your content allows you to get more mileage with the same content, and it will mightily help you on your quest to becoming a full-time writer.

#7: Grow Your Email List To Scale Your Marketing

Marketing your book to an email list of 10,000 people produces very different results if you only have 1,000 people on your email list (assuming both email lists had equal engagement percentages).

The dream scenario for any author is to have an eager audience you can easily reach with a single email. This is the scaled version of book marketing that allows you to do less work to get more book sales.

Every author should strive to grow their email list and make it a top priority. Including a call-to-action at the start of your book offering a free resource in exchange for an email address, mentioning a free opt-in page at the backend of your book, and partnering with fellow authors are some of the many ways to grow your email list.

Email list growth is the best way to grow your audience and get more book sales. 

Want to learn how to make a full-time income as a writer? Get your copy of How To Become A Full-Time Writer today.

Earning your first dollar as a writer is a magical experience. It’s the first step to realizing the goal of becoming a full-time writer and getting paid for your content.

It’s not soon after this experience you’ll start looking for ways to diversify your income. Rather than heavily lean on one income stream, you’ll want a few income streams as solid back-ups.

Having multiple income streams also makes it easier to become a full-time writer. But what are some of the different income streams we can choose from? Here are 5 popular income streams for writers.

#1: Write Books

It’s easier than ever before to write your own book. You can self-publish your book through Kindle Direct Publishing and start collecting royalties. Each book can earn sales through the royalties and direct readers to other parts of your business.

Some authors use their books to promote their products and services, turning a reader into a $1,000/mo client.

Before you write a book, set some goals for that book. What do you want the finished book to do for your career? Some authors make a full-time income just from the book royalties. Having a business model at the backend of your book speeds up the process to becoming a full-time writer, but some authors do just fine with the royalties.

#2: Write Medium Articles

I started writing Medium articles in 2020, and it didn’t take long for me to realize what I had been missing out on.

Medium rewards quality content and allows you to get paid just for writing articles. Medium has many paying members, and they distribute some of those proceeds with the writers. 

Some people make 5-figures each month from Medium, and although that’s the exception rather than the rule, reaching $100 per month on the platform is very doable. In my first month of taking Medium seriously, I earned a little over $300 and the earnings have gone up from there.

The best way to grow on Medium’s platform is to look at popular content in your space. Use other people’s content as your model for creating content that caters to Medium readers. I pay $5 each month for Medium’s Premium membership for researching purposes, and it’s helped me come up with great writing ideas.

#3: Include Calls To Action In Your Content

I hinted at this strategy when talking about self publishing, and it’s an important strategy to incorporate for all of your content. At the end of my blog posts, I tend to promote one of my books.

On Medium, I almost always promote my YouTube channel as I want traffic to bounce around from platform to platform.

When you come up with article ideas, think about how you can connect them with your business. Part of the reason I wrote this article is because I have a few books designed to help writers grow their platforms and create more content (you can see my books here).

If you write about a topic often, create products around those topics. You can create training courses, books, services, coaching, merchandise, and other products around the topics you cover in your writing. 

#4: Write For Others

Not only can you make money writing content for your own platform, but you can also make money writing content for others. Many business owners understand the importance of creating new content but don’t have enough time to create new content.

You can list your services on Fiverr and submit applications for writing jobs on UpWork. As you get paid by other people to write for them, you can have a bigger safety net as you write content for your own brand.

Over the long term, it’s better to make a full-time income writing for yourself than writing for others. That’s because other people can change their minds about hiring you for additional work, and there’s a cap to your earning potential since you’re trading time for money.

#5: Copywriting

Copywriting is a writing skill that helps you sell products. Some business owners will pay a high price for the right copywriter, but even if you don’t write other people’s copy, you should develop this skill.

It will help you sell more books and get more clients. If you are serious about becoming a full-time writer, you should definitely buy a book on copywriting such as How To Write Copy That Sells.

Copywriting in its simplest form is understanding who your potential customers are and writing a product description that keeps them in mind. There are various nuances to copywriting, but that’s the basic sense of what this writing skill entails.

Want to learn how to make a full-time income as a writer? Get your copy of How To Become A Full-Time Writer today.

Writing a book is a big effort. Hours of planning, crafting new content, refining your work, optimizing your book for success, and then finally, hitting the publish button.

But that’s not where the work ends. In fact, it’s where the work begins.

To reach readers, you must market your book. No one will just stumble upon your book and grab their copy. You have to become your own advocate and share your book with the masses.

The book launch is one of the most important phases of any book’s life. To make your first or next book launch a success, include these 5 elements into your plan.

#1: Build Up A Street Team

Every bestseller is promoted by a team. It’s never just the author alone. Full-time authors understand the importance of building up a team of promoters otherwise known as a street team.

This team’s job is to help promote your book to their audiences and leave a review for your book when it comes out on Amazon.

But how do you find people for your street team?

Start with people in your audience. If you don’t have many followers, reach out to family and friends. Some people will be happy to help you because they like you already.

Many street team organizers sweeten the pot with some extras. A free copy of the book, merchandise, personalized videos, quick consultations, an exclusive training course, and coaching calls are some of the ways authors sweeten the pot for people who join their street teams.

You can offer as many incentives or as few incentives as you desire. Put all of the members of your street team in the same Facebook Group and the same email list so it’s easier to communicate with everyone.

#2: Fire Up The Social Media Posts

You should promote your book on social media. We all know the power of social media and how it can immediately put us in front of an audience, but what does book promotion on social media look like?

Rather than announce your book to the world on its launch date, start before that.

Talk about your book writing journey in multiple posts leading up to publication. This will give your followers an inside scoop of what’s happening behind the scenes.

As your book gets closer to launch, and you’re deciding on a book cover, post some of the potential book covers and let your social media followers decide. Present at least 3 different covers and ask them to leave a comment with their preferred book cover.

Getting this feedback on your cover design will help you pick a book cover that will convert more potential readers into buyers.

#3: Connect Your Books Together

Nothing sells your existing books as well as writing a new book. Readers who come across your books for the first time will see the other books in your catalog and be intrigued.

Writing books around a similar topic or writing series are two great ways to achieve this objective.

Not only will your new book drive traction to your older books, but your older books will set the foundation for increased sales of your new book.

Most full-time authors have published many books that all drive traffic to each other. You should use the back of your book to let readers know about your existing books. This is your chance to turn a reader into a returning customer.

#4: Create Free Content That Directs People To Your Book

Don’t create content just for the sake of creating it. Use your free content to achieve an objective.

Most of my blog posts include a book at the bottom. For this blog post, you’ll see how I talk about The Wealthy Author towards the end. That’s the go-to book for anyone who wants to be a successful author.

Getting more intentional about your free content turns every new blog post, video, and podcast episode into a selling opportunity. You still provide free content that is focused more on providing value than selling, but including a call-to-action in each piece of content builds your audience’s awareness of your books.

Some authors take their existing blog posts and include them in the book. These blog posts can then be edited to include a blurb about your book at the very end.

#5: Get Media Appearances

Securing media appearances leading up to your book launch will put you in front of a larger audience. To get media appearances that match up with your book launch day, you have to reach out to the media well in advance.

It will take time for people to respond to your message, invite you on their platforms, and then publish your piece.

When reaching out, don’t make it about yourself. Make it about how you can provide value to the audience with a special angle or insight.

Furthermore, don’t discount the smaller fish in the pond such as local media, podcasts, and blogs in your industry. When most people think of getting media appearances, they think of Forbes and NBC.

The smaller media outlets often have more targeted audiences which can drastically help your book sales.

Want to learn how to become a successful author? Organizing a book launch is just one piece of puzzle. Discover all of the moving parts and how you can become a successful author by grabbing your copy of The Wealthy Author today.

YouTube is one of the best platforms to boost your discoverability. You can get in front of a new audience and direct them to your website and offers. Ever since I incorporated YouTube into my digital strategy, it’s become a critical platform for my future plans.

When most people think about gaining traction on YouTube, they think about creating viral videos that suddenly take off on the algorithm. While viral videos involve a combination of luck, skill, and timing, it is possible to statistically increase your chances of creating a viral video.

In the case of a viral video, we are talking about a video that does dramatically better than your other videos.

At a little over 2,000 views, my Airbnb IPO video didn’t exactly go viral in the traditional sense, but it dramatically outperformed all of my other videos to date.

As you get better at creating videos like this one that dramatically outperform your prior videos, you’ll eventually create viral hits that get over 1 million views.

I haven’t created a video yet that hit 1 million views, but it’s definitely in the cards within the next few years.

But how can we increase our odds of coming up with video ideas that become viral hits? Follow these strategies when coming up with future ideas.

Look At The News In Your Industry

News spreads like wildfire. Anytime you go on Twitter and see the trending topics, it’s always about the news nowadays.

News items in your industry are extraordinarily popular in the moment, but if you cover the news too late, it can fade into the background.

If you look at the Airbnb IPO video, you’ll notice that the views shoot up the first 3 days and then fall relatively flat the rest of the way. That’s because the video was very news oriented.

I was sharing my thoughts about a heavily anticipated IPO. Now that Airbnb is a publicly traded company under the ticker ABNB, people are looking more for Airbnb stock analysis than pre-IPO thoughts.

This isn’t evergreen content like the blog post you’re reading today, but they help build momentum. You’ll get a surge of new viewers who will engage with your future content.

Combine Your Content With The Current Season

At any given moment, we are rapidly approaching a holiday. Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s Day, April Fool’s Day, and Memorial Day are some of the many holidays and special occasions in a given year.

You can ride seasonal traffic by talking about how these holidays apply to your industry. Anything from stocks to buy before Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day gardening decorations, and how to sell more romance novels near Valentine’s Day are some of the many ways you can incorporate a season into your content.

Riding seasonal events with your content is a great way to gain momentum.

Get Inspiration From Current Viral Videos

I wasn’t the first one to talk about the upcoming Airbnb IPO. I saw other YouTubers talk about Airbnb and get additional traction for their videos.

This was part of the inspiration for me to create the Airbnb IPO video. If videos about specific stocks perform well, I do research on the company, form an opinion, and then create my own video.

When a video becomes viral, you have to ride on it quickly. Creating and publishing a video on the same day as the viral hit will give you far more traction than if you publish the video 1-2 days later.

Viral videos are less about video quality and more about timing. If you view yourself as a reporter who reports on real-time news within your niche, you’ll gain momentum quicker and eventually produce a viral hit.

Want To Decode YouTube?

Going viral on YouTube is great, but what about making money? If you only rely on Google Adsense, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

I recently wrote a book called YouTube Decoded that explores how to create videos that gain visibility and turn your viewers into customers.

Grab your copy of YouTube Decoded here.

Have you been wondering how to break into the profession of buying and selling businesses? It’s a lucrative niche and thousands of professionals all over the world make a full-time living helping owners sell their companies. Still, becoming a business broker is an unusual career choice because most colleges and universities don’t teach the needed skills or encourage students to enter the field. In many ways, however, the work closely resembles working as a real estate agent for sellers. The necessary skills are similar, but there are enough differences to make business brokers stand out as uniquely qualified pros in their own right. Nearly everyone who helps company owners market their firms to potential buyers has a college or graduate degree, possesses keen sales skills, specializes in a particular area, and relies on accountants to arrive at specific selling prices. If this exciting career field appeals to you, the following items represent the bare minimum factors for success.

Get the Right Education

Like top real estate agents, professionals who sell businesses tend to have solid educational credentials. A college degree in business, with a major in marketing or finance, is an ideal start. If you have not yet completed college, do so as soon as possible, even if you have to earn an online degree or go to night school. The smartest way to pay for higher education is with a private student loan. Not only will you be able to cover all our education costs, you’ll have the advantage of competitive interest rates and reasonable payback periods. Having a degree helps with just about any career field but is particularly essential for those who want to enter this competitive field.

Brush Up on Sales Skills

You are selling companies for a living, regardless of what label you put on this profession. Unlike typical family homes, expensive cars, and other things people sell, companies can come with huge price tags. It’s not unusual, for instance, to broker deals in excess of a million dollars. That means you need to be an excellent sales person. Consider taking specialized training or boot camps for sales pros. They’re worth the fee in most cases and nearly always help you sharpen your skills.

Use Accountants to Help with Evaluation

Unless you are a CPA, hire a pro who can assist you with putting accurate price tags on the companies you sell. Real estate agents use appraisers and you should too. The difference being that your appraiser needs a different set of skills in order to set an exact value on the entity in question.

Negotiate Commissions Before Attempting to Sell

There’s a wide range of commission charges, but most get somewhere between 5 and 20 percent of the sales price, which is paid by the seller. The buyer never knows how much of a cut you get for making the deal happen, but they usually assume it’s around 10 percent (and they’re often correct). The main thing to remember about your price is that it needs to be negotiated and put in writing before you do any work. Don’t feel as if you need to charge the same percentage on every deal because some will take much more time and effort than others. Be flexible, be fair, and always put the numbers in writing.

Many content creators look around for strategies they can use to crank out more content in a shorter amount of time.

The more content you can produce, the more assets you have for your brand.

It’s no wonder some creatives get as close as they can to daily content on multiple platforms.

During an interview with John Lee Dumas, he discussed how he batches his content production back when he produced daily episodes. Basically, he does all 30 interviews for his podcast over a 2-day period and gets interviewed on 20 podcasts on one day. This approach gives him 27 days to focus on other tasks for his content brand.

Ever since JLD mentioned the content batching method, I’ve noticed more and more people mention it. This is similar to when you buy a new car model and suddenly notice many of those car models on the road (there’s even a name for this phenomena. It’s called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon in case you’re in the mood for a new trivia question).

All you may know about content batching is that JLD does it, but it’s the secret to consistently creating valuable content with ease. Notice how JLD only spends two days each month interviewing people for his EOFire episodes. He also only spends one day getting interviewed for other podcasts.

While he takes on the herculean mission to consistently publishing one new episode every day, he’s only working towards this herculean mission for two days each month. If you could grind for two days and then have all of your content completed and scheduled for that month, would you do it? And since most people don’t publish daily podcast episodes or daily content in general, the content batching process is easier for most of us.

If you write one blog post every other week and choose two days of the month to write 10 blog posts per day, you’ve got content scheduled for almost the entire year (I only recommend this approach if you have a solid promotional calendar in place, and even then you should leave some holes so you can insert new blog posts in case there’s breaking news in your industry. For some niches, every day presents big news).

To get started with your content batching plan, choose a day of the week you’ll conduct your content batching. For instance, you can choose Tuesdays to batch your content. You can also choose to exclusively batch your content on the first Tuesday of the month. The options available for your content batching are dependent on your schedule and the time you can commit to crafting valuable content.

This is a small section from my book Content Marketing Secrets. If you want to learn how to create, promote, and optimize, your content for growth and revenue, you’ll want to grab your copy.

Get your copy of Content Marketing Secrets