The book: http://amzn.com/B00RJE688I

Accounting_Illustrated_Dictionary_Cover

The Free Promotion

Stats year to date: 1/18/2015
Kindle paid rank: #91,931
Paid / Kindle unlimited downloads: 10 / 8
Reviews: 2
Countries: USA, Japan, England, Germany
Average / Total Royalty: $1.77 / $16.92
30 day site sessions / organic search: 56 / 3
Subscribers: 73
Promo emails sent: 150
Apps reviews for cards / games: 21 / 6

The Accounting Illustrated Dictionary by John Gillingham, CPA, Illustrated by Courtney Quirin, will be available. Kindle books can be downloaded and viewed on practically any computer or smart phone. Thanks to everyone who has contributed their time to download the book and write a review. It means so much to me.

Summary Update and the Grind

Downloads and reviews have been steady as we work up to the free promotion date. Interestingly I have had reviews from friends not appearing on Amazon. My guess is that reviews from people who do not have an established history of reviewing are getting hidden due to amazon’s algorithm. The importance of reviews and social proof cannot be underestimated enough. Successful online entrepreneur Ryan Moran estimates that it takes at least twenty-five reviews to reach a sort of critical mass for a product to sell itself. The product launch and gaining of initial customers is what he refers to as “the Grind” where family, friends, and paid advertising starts the momentum.

The Grind

Asking people for things without providing value is not a good life or business strategy. Therefore my paid soft launch has only been promoted to those very close to me or with long standing reciprocal working relationships. In order to further foster growth I am offering as much information in the form of free content via the blog, tutoring, audio, lessons, downloads, and now the book. But if the world can’t find Accounting Play, then no value is provided.

SEO and organic search

If users cannot find the value, then value cannot be provided. Google and search engines have various techniques they employ to categorize and rank valuable content. SEO, search engine optimization, is the general term to refer to improving a website so that people can find it. Type “learn accounting” into Google and there are millions of results, referred to as organic search. In order to rank at the top, Google must find value in the site, which is a secret algorithm that combines back-linking, valuable content, and links from authoritative sources. Instead of employing any scammy techniques, I have concluded that Google is actually doing a good job finding valuable sites and therefore I must diligently work to provide more value on AccountingPlay.com.

Casting the value net for SEO and traffic

My strategy for driving traffic is to cast out as much free valuable information as possible through diverse high volume channels. This means that Accounting Play is offering up information across social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Content channels include: blog, iOS apps, podcast, Kindle, You Tube, and email marketing. All channels represent buckets setup that have a long way to be filled, but are synergistic. Example, the new app promotes the old app, website, and offers subscribers to sign up. The app can drive traffic to the site and vice versa. Part of this value will also be engaging others to interview and link to – another cornerstone of SEO strategy.

Paid advertising and the grind

After two years of grind I have enough useful tools to promote via paid advertisement, so long as there is a synergistic relationship between different offerings. There is no point to drive paid traffic to a website that doesn’t convert to a sale or larger strategy. In my 10,000 free download goal I have dedicated a $100 advertisement budget to drive traffic to Amazon and the site. Primarily this has been purchased on Fiverr in the form of tweets, free kindle book sites, and facebook groups. The main goal with the promo is to get the book out of the grind, but boosting reviews and traffic. A surge in downloads should hopefully do just that and I will report on the results.

Thank You and Lessons Learned

Thanks so much for your continual support on this journey. I have learned a ton of lessons from the process of taking digital products to market and want to share them. Please check back often and contact me with any questions.