So, if you’re not feeling chatty, I’m going to cut right to the chase and tell you I’m posting because I’m teaching a 4 week online workshop about productivity and getting stuff done for writers which starts on Feb 5th, the details of which you can find here. 

I’ve always taught writing workshops in person but this is the first year I’m branching out and teaching some classes online. This one is offered via message board but I’m also planning on doing some Zoom, streaming or even email courses once I feel the situation out. I’m hoping if there’s enough interest I can expand it to other more Whine Seller adjacent topics so drop a comment if there’s a topic you’d be interested in seeing me run.

Even if you’re not interested in this class, if you could do me a solid and share the link to my blog post with your various socials, I’d really appreciate it!

So, now that we have dispensed with the news portion of this post, how’s everyone been? The last few years have been kinda crazy, huh?

Me? Well, I had my requisite existential crisis and breakdown I think we all had during lockdown. I’ve been kind of gradually picking up the scrambled bits of my life and trying to figure out how they all fit together again. Somehow I have much much less time than I used to and I don’t know if it’s the kids being older and higher maintenance or if it’s because I just keep adding more to my workload but it’s made me realize I can’t really keep doing everything I was doing pre-lockdown and I need to rethink some things.

In the immediate, the creative half of my life has taken more of a focus and I’ve gone from pivoting from writing plays to writing for streaming at the start of lockdown to expanding into entirely new genres and pen names which is an adventure… but takes up a lot of the time I used to have for writing about e-commerce.

Blogging has also become an awkward thing because of the specter of AI. I used to use this blog as a way to test out material I would later put in books and also just blog my books post by post but until we have some kind of protections against AI scraping and author’s rights to consent to having their materials used in data training, it’s really not a great idea for me to do that. So it limits what I can post here because I can’t just queue up a bunch of excerpts from my books like I used to.

A quagmire, honestly.

I’ve been spending far less time on social media than I did in The Before Times. A good thing in the big picture because it’s freed up a lot of time for other projects and pursuits (I’m teaching myself digital art in my desperate attempt to find a hobby I can’t monetize and it’s been a ton of fun!). But also a bad thing because I’m not really connected to the wider eBay and selling community like I used to be. I sometimes miss having that water cooler to log into every day, even as I don’t miss doomscrolling and the endless onslaught of too much news in my face every day.

But the biggest takeaway from the last few years has been that I need to prioritize what I’m doing if I’m going to continue to wear this many hats (my workshop is going to touch on this a lot, honestly). So that means admitting that the days when I could blog here three times a week are behind me and that I’ll have to become one of those people who just blogs randomly when I have something to rant about. At least until AI legislation gets its act together and I can share bits of my books here without fear again.

But for now, know I haven’t died and I certainly haven’t forgotten about all of you. I’m still selling, still whining, and still doing way too many things at once. And still shilling my wares so if you want to learn how I manage all these different aspects of my life and still write over a million words a year, well i have a workshop for that. 😉

With many of us being given the option of working at home nowadays, it’s safe to say that we are looking at the state of our home offices more carefully. That said, if you’re unsure of how your home office measures up, see these tips on how to design a professional-looking office to welcome clients and customers.

Make sure there is ample free-flowing air

If you are going to be having clients over often for in-person visits, then it’s best to make sure there is ample free-flowing air within the space. For example, if you have an HVAC system, then be sure to have it maintained regularly. Specifically, you should make sure that the air filters are dust-free so that the air conditioning works optimally. Also, if you have the option to, installing a UV light within your HVAC system is an effective way to eliminate certain viruses that may be floating in the air.

In addition to having a functioning HVAC system that works well when you need it to, you could also try placing a few fans in the area so that the air circulates freely. Also, be sure to open all doors and windows and let in as much natural light as possible as this will not only ensure that there is sufficient ventilation, but it will also make it appear lighter and brighter and give the illusion that it’s also bigger if your home office is on the smaller side.

Masks are still effective

If you are going to be hosting in-person visits more often than not, then you may still want to request that masks be worn at all times. Not only will you be helping to prevent the spread of any type of airborne disease, but it will also show your clients that you care about their safety too.

Encourage the use of non-contact devices

The threat of COVID-19 is still real. Therefore, in order to minimize human-to-human contact, it may be a good idea to use contactless devices as much as possible. For example, send electronic invoices to clients instead of billing manually, allow clients the option to pay via EFT or by card with a tap-and-go system, and allow them the option to sign electronically if you can. 

Make sure your home office looks the best it can

As much as safety is still a priority, so is making sure your home office looks the best it can for in-person as well as virtual meetings. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure that there is enough lighting in the background and that the lighting is bright enough so that they can see you clearly on video. Furthermore, it’s vital to ensure that your home office is tidy and orderly so that it creates a favorable impression on your clients. Also, if you are making any renovations to your home office, take before-and-after pictures to document these changes if you decide to sell one day, as these changes could influence the appraisal value of your home significantly.

In summary, your home office should be a positive reflection of your business. Therefore, it should be a professional-looking workplace whether you’re hosting clients in person or holding virtual meetings.

Image via Pexels

Finding freelance work is the first step to making passive income. Make sure you search both within and outside of your network for opportunities. Be open-minded and creative in how you approach clients so that you don’t limit your options.

Assessing Your Marketable Skills

Figuring out which skills you have to offer and whether or not they are in high demand is a crucial first step. You can use sites like Fiverr to gauge the value of your services. What you’re looking for is an idea of how much people are willing to pay for your services.

Types of Available Freelancing Jobs

Once you’ve done this assessment, you’ll be able to choose which skills to offer and what types of projects best suit your abilities. If you have a skill that’s in high demand, such as data entry or customer service, but need help finding client work, consider a freelancing platform like Upwork or find an agency that will represent you exclusively.

Paying Taxes as a Freelancer

It’s important to know how taxes work as a freelancer. Essentially, you are self-employed. You’re responsible for paying your own Social Security and Medicare taxes. Moreover, it’s up to you to pay the entire amount, which can be tricky if your income isn’t steady or predictable.

What You Need to Know About Starting Your Own Business

Running your own business can provide you with flexibility in terms of work hours, location, and more. But if you’re considering starting your own business, you’ll want to be prepared for the costs associated with it. The first question to ask yourself is whether or not you should incorporate your business. You may want to hire a specialty service to take care of the specifics for you. This will allow you to focus on things like raising capital to start your business.

Why LLCs and Corporations Need a Registered Agent

If you plan on freelancing for a living, it’s important to understand the requirements of your state when it comes to registering a company or forming an LLC or corporation. For example, in some states, LLCs are required to have a registered agent. This is the person who receives service of process for lawsuits against the company. It’s also the person who serves as an address of record for legal documents, such as contracts and deeds.

As a freelancer, this means you will need to appoint a registered agent as part of taking care of your business entity needs. If you’re looking for help with these services, there are many companies that offer this type of service, including Zenbusiness.

A registered agent can provide more than just service of process; they can assist with all aspects of incorporating your freelance business and allow you to focus on what matters most: running your business.

How to Collect Payments from Clients

You can make payment collections easier by simplifying your payment process for your clients. Be sure to set expectations and deadlines for payments, as this will set a precedent in your freelancing business. Consider using an invoice template to make your business look official. The best invoice template will allow you to include your brand logo and other information.

Image via Pexels

Once upon a time, I used to work for a popular self-publishing company and reading this book I kept thinking of dozens of writers I worked with in those days that needed to be walloped over the head with the information in My Publishing Imprint. You would not believe what I saw in those days, people using another random person’s name as the name of their publishing imprint without so much as asking permission. Authors that tried to publish their books under an imprint name of a famous publisher to trick their readers into thinking it was traditionally published who were shocked, SHOCKED that wasn’t a thing you could just do. And, less egregiously but still just as wrong, people who literally just made up a random name for their publishing imprint without doing anything at all to register or secure the use of it first.

Self-publishing is a business and, like the formation of any business, has its own share of paperwork. You cannot “pants” the formation of a company on the fly like you can craft a story. Before you embark on your self-publishing journey there are considerations, registrations and legislations you’ll need to make. The number of i’s to dot and t’s to cross can be overwhelming but the good news is that My Publishing Imprint gives you a quick and easy to read guide to all of them and serves as a helpful checklist for getting your publishing business off on the right foot.

From the big picture choices like choosing an imprint name and the branding considerations of doing so to registering as a business (which people always have this confused idea is a thing to be avoided for tax reasons when the opposite is true as it protects you!), to the book by book matters of ISBNs and individual publishing and distribution options, it’s a short book but a very useful one as it gives you the crash course you need to get your publishing business set up and set up correctly.

Whether you’re just starting out… or starting to suspect you may not be doing this right… it’s well worth picking up to help you double-check that you’ve got all the details of your publishing business right!

SendFox

There’s a new email marketing platform in town called SendFox. From the people behind AppSumo, SendFox is brandy new and offering an amazing introductory offer: for $49, you can get their pro plan for life. This deal comes with up to 5,000 subscribers and, since the free plan spots you 3,000 subscribers to begin with, you end up with 8,000 total after the deal. (Need more? You can also stack the discounted packages, adding additional batches of 5,000 subscribers on as needed to meet your needs.)

No monthly fee ever, just a single one-time charge.

I was intrigued.

I currently use MailChimp to manage four mailing lists. I originally signed up for MailChimp when I was dipping my toes into email marketing for the simple reason that it was what everyone was using and I knew it would integrate easily just about everywhere (which it does). Because I don’t do as much email marketing as I should, I have never used even a fraction of the features they offer and that makes their interface a little overwhelming when what I actually need it for is fairly simple.

But MailChimp isn’t cheap and you’re looking at a minimum of $9.99 a month if you’ve got more than 2,000 people on your list or want access to some of their more advanced features and that cost only goes up the bigger your list is. That may not seem like much until you think about that charge coming in every single month for the entire lifetime of your business. It adds up! There’s also really no good way to do a drip or extended scheduled campaign on MailChimp unless you’re on a top tier plan.

So while I don’t dislike MailChimp, I don’t really like it all that much either and not having that monthly fee eating into my profits sure would be nice. The allure of paying a single fee, which was less than half a single year of MailChimp’s lowest plan, was great so I decided to give SendFox a try.

What I like about SendFox

• One time fee. I said that above but it bares repeating. Paying one (small) lump sum and then never having to pay for my email marketing again? Love it!
• One time $10 upgrade for every additional 1,000 subscribers. I am not sure if this is part of their introductory deal or a lifetime thing but, as your list of contacts grow, instead of getting bumped into a higher tier and having to pay even more every month for the life of your email list, you only pay a one time fee of $10 every time you need to add on another 1,000 subscribers. That sure makes growth a little less painful on the wallet!
• Email addresses only count once, no matter how many lists they are on. This is a big one for me because those four mailing lists I mentioned? They have a lot of overlap. And if one of you belonged to The Whine Seller mailing list and my fiction mailing list and my new play notification list (which many of you do and I love you for it!)… MailChimp counted that as three emails towards my quota even though it was all the exact same contact info. But no matter how many lists an address appears on, SendFox only counts it once and I really like that.
• Very simple interface. That’s partially because there really isn’t that much there yet in the way of features but, if you’re just an author or artist running a smaller kind of business, it’s a lot easier to just find what you need without being overwhelmed by options you don’t.
• Easy automation options. They give you two very simple automation options: RSS and Drip-style Automations.
  • With the first, input any RSS feed and SendFox will automatically create an email template from every new feed item. I can see this being incredibly useful if you want to email your list the minute you post a new blog post, video or podcast episode. Or hook your product feed up to it and subscribers will get an email every time you list a new product in your store. Hard to make it much easier than that!
  • Automations let you set up more complicated scheduled email campaigns. It’s set up to do a Drip-style Welcome and then follow-up push emails and even gives you some templates to make setting your own up very simple but you could also very easily modify this system to use it to deliver something like a free several week course or newsletter. I certainly found this whole process much easier than when I tried to do the same on MailChimp!

What I don’t like about SendFox

• Very limited subscriber data. SendFox only allows you to input a subscriber’s First Name, Last Name and Email. That’s it and I can see it being plenty for a lot of businesses and artists but, for me, it’s not enough. My email list of producers that have done my plays, for example, includes their full address, the name of their organization (because I often have more than one contact in a single production company) and what plays of mine they have performed. Not only did this make it easy for me to target subscribers from a certain production company or just in a specific geographical region, it also allowed me to both tailor my emails to exactly what play they did and include that data in my merge fields to personalize the email. In moving my subscribers to SendFox, now all that extra data and the targeting it offered me is just gone.
• Lists are unwieldy, would work better with tags or segments. Remember what I said above about how you can include the same email address on multiple lists and it only counts once? That’s good from a subscriber count standpoint but the actual list system itself is downright silly. The only way you can organize your subscribers is through lists and it’s not as simple as checking off a list of subscribers and assigning them like you would in MailChimp. No, every time you want to include a subscriber on a list, you have to re-add them to that list. As in, literally upload that contact info again to create that segment. So if I have a person who has performed my play Goosed! and wants to be notified of new play opportunities and also signed up manually, I have to upload that same subscriber three times to get them on all three of those lists. That’s really ridiculous and unwieldy already even with my small lists. I can’t imagine how people with massive lists manage. It would be so much easier to be able to just tag individual subscribers with as many things as you needed upon upload as MailChimp lets you do.
• No good way to view all subscribers. You can view everyone in any given list… but that’s it. If you want to see every single person on your list, there is no way to view that. It’s annoying.
• Bare bones email creation. Their email creation window doesn’t have many more features than your standard email program does. A standard WYSIWYG editor to do basic HTML, the ability to merge in the sender’s name and email, your social links and… that’s it. No templates or anything fancy. And, in a lot of ways, this is a plus. Studies show that plain emails often yield as many conversions as fancy formatted ones anyway and it’s a heck of a lot easier to compose an email than dealing with MailChimp where sometimes you backspace a typo and the whole font changes on half of it and you’re sitting there like, “Good lord, what just happened?” and you gotta redo everything and waste time getting it look normal again. I will not miss that. But I do miss little things like being able to add my latest blog posts with a click or make a recurring banner ad for the side of the message.

(I didn’t send a message to my list yet so I can’t speak to the stats and whatever else they offer after send.)

New and (to be) Improved?

Not gonna to lie, once I poked around in SendFox, a lot of my enthusiasm for it waned. That said, they are less than a year old and I would expect them to start adding features and tweaking things as they go. Hopefully, most of the issues above will disappear as they develop and refine the project.

So is their special introduction deal worth it? It’s hard to say. Depending on your business, SendFox might be exactly what you need right now, particularly if your list isn’t complicated. If you’re an indie author, an artist or a small business owner who just needs to get messages out to fans, customers, and readers, it’s probably ideal for you.

For me, if they give us better ways to organize our lists and include more subscriber data in the coming weeks, that would be enough for me to say emphatically, yes, it is absolutely worth it. But, as the service is right now, it doesn’t meet any of my needs so it’s useless to me. Maybe I will be able to look back in a year’s time and say, wow, they really improved this and I’m so glad I got in on the ground floor with that great price! Or they might never develop it more than it is right now and I will have wasted $49 dollars. Unfortunately, the return window to get your money back is only 60 days so it’s a gamble: do you buy now to lock in that limited time introductory price and trust they’ll work the kinks out later? Or do you look at it at face value and say I can’t use this as it is now so it’s not worth it at any price?

For me, because SendFox is backed by AppSumo, I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and stick around. The good thing about this lifetime upgrade is that I can always come back to this service later when they (hopefully) developed something that better fits my needs. And I really do hope they come through because I would love to never have to pay a monthly fee for my mail marketing ever again.

(Why does every email marketing service have to be like [Word Related to Mail] [Random Animal]. MailChimp. SendFox. What’s next? EnvelopeWalrus? StampSloth? PostalSlug? When will the madness end, I ask you?)

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and movie deals. Like all sustainable side hustles, it can be a risk: self-publishing isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme, and most indie authors won’t be writing the next Fifty Shades. But with a dose of diligence and some research savvy, you can score a healthy secondary income stream by writing a book — all without having to deal with the gatekeepers at traditional publishing houses.

You don’t have to be the next Shakespeare, or even the next Sally Rooney. But if you’re a self-starter with a knack for clear writing, you might very well turn your ambitions to conquering KDP (or another marketplace of your choice). For all you aspiring indie authors, here are 6 tips for turning self-publishing into a side hustle.

Make sure there’s a market for your idea before you start writing

Maybe you’ve been sheltering the Joycean seed of a novel inside your head, an aggressively anti-commercial masterpiece worthy of college-seminar debates. If you want to, write it. Let it loose on the world and, hey, maybe it will become the next Ulysses.

But if you want to approach self-publishing as a business venture, and not an art project, you’ll want to pay more attention to market trends than your inner muse. No matter how effortlessly you speed-write, it takes time and energy to produce a book. Don’t invest yours into an idea with limited sales potential.

Think you’ve got something with skyscraping commercial appeal? Time to scope out the competition. Get to know the Kindle store, paying special attention to the books that clawed their way up to the top of your genre.

Say you’re seeing nothing remotely resembling your idea. Either you’ve stumbled on the El Dorado of untapped ebook niches or — more likely — you’ve got something with low demand.

But if you find proof that there’s a market, start thinking through how your book will fit into that commercial landscape. Get to know the titles you’re competing with, until you’re able to articulate how yours adds value to that niche. How will your book be better than all the others in the fray?

Choose your categories strategically

Unlike, say, “full-stack web developer” or “management consultant,” writer isn’t exactly a job title that screams wealth. But self-publishing companies and self-publishing platforms like KDP have made it easier than ever to profit from a book — and a lot of that has to do with strategic marketing.

Spend some time browsing the Kindle store and you’ll quickly pick up on the importance of categories. With more than 10,000 of them onsite, they go beyond mere genre. Categories range from the generic (like “Nonfiction” or “Science Fiction & Fantasy”) to the hyperspecific (like “Matrices” or “Norse & Viking Myth & Legend”).

The millions of potential book-buyers on Amazon browse the site by these categories, making them a useful tool for reader discovery. Even more importantly for your purposes, the site itself uses them to organize its bestsellers lists — one of the biggest factors powering its infamous algorithms.

Amazon’s algorithms get their fair share of hush-hush speculation. But they’re not inscrutable alien deities. Their goal is simple: to promote the books that have the best shot of actually selling.

As a result, the algorithms favor titles that already have a strong sales history — leading to a catch-22 where you need to have sales to make sales. This sounds like bad news for new authors. But, luckily, you can front-load the work of snagging an algorithm-bait sales rank: just be strategic when you’re choosing your book’s categories.

Every author who self-publishes through Amazon can select two categories for their book right through the KDP dashboard. Post-publication, you can contact Amazon directly to add up to 8 more. The categories you choose can hold heavy sway over your eventual sales because, of course, some are much bigger than others.

Compare “Military Science Fiction” — overstuffed at 20,000 titles — to the comparatively wide-open, 5000-strong “Galactic Empire.” If you’ve got a premise that can comfortably slot into both, go for the one where you can more easily compete.

Don’t skimp on the cover

Readers are told not to judge a book by its cover. But if you want to make money through self-publishing, you can’t afford to take this sentiment to heart: book-browsers on Amazon absolutely will judge your book by its cover.

Not to say that they’re all superficial art snobs. It’s just that the Kindle marketplace is so glutted, readers have to keep their eyes peeled for any tells that a book is worth their time. A professional-looking cover is just that: it signals that you invested in your book — that you put time and care into giving readers a high-quality experience.

Remember, you’re not just competing with other indie authors here. The full design firepower of Random House and Penguin are also duking it out with you on the Amazon marketplace. To compete with these industry juggernauts, you need to make sure your book cover looks professionally done — even if you designed it yourself.

Spend some time studying the top books in your category. What do their covers have in common? Beyond high production values, you’ll likely see some motifs cropping up again and again. Among thrillers, that’s bold color palettes and stark, sans serif typography. Romance, on the other hand, is all about the shirtless heartthrobs.

You might be tempted to ditch these visual cliches in an effort to make your book stand out. But that would be a mistake. A unique cover isn’t as good as a cover that communicates effectively with book-buyers, and that’s what these conventions are designed to do.

Don’t think of your cover art as, well, art: it’s advertising. It exists to show would-be readers that they’ve found what they’re looking for in your book.

Launch your book with some reviews at the ready

Reviews don’t directly play into how much the Amazon algorithms like you. But they have a huge impact on your ability to turn browsers into buyers. And your sales record, as you know, does affect the algorithms.

To sell books, you’ll need to leverage social proof — evidence that your book is already popular. The best way to do that? Snagging some reviews.

Your cover draws in readers, and your blurb whets their appetite for your writing and expertise. Reviews, though, give you powerful street cred. They’re proof that actual people liked your book — and liked it enough they went out of their way to praise you.

How can you make sure you’ve got a few of these all important reviews? Before your book is set to go live, start sweeping the internet for book bloggers who tend to review similar works. You can start off thinking in terms of genre — not sending your self-help book to a hard sci-fi review is a good start. But to maximize your odds of scoring those reviews, try to be more precise in how you characterize your book.

Come up with some comp titles — established book similar to your own. Is your YA romance more like The Fault in Our Stars, or To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before? Where does your epic fantasy fall in the LOTR to ASOIAF scale? This gets beyond genre, to your book’s overall message and underlying vibe. After all, two titles in the same genre can be polar opposites in other ways, and a reviewer who loves melodrama might not appreciate hilarity — or vice versa.

Once you’ve identified some reviewers who seem like a good fit for your book, it’s time to start pitching. Reach out to them and explain why they should be interested in your book. Try to namecheck some comp titles to prove you’ve done your homework. Above all, keep it short, sweet, and individualized — you don’t want to sound like you’re spamming them.

There’s no shame in clickbait

The book description on your product page will be most readers’ first point of contact with your writing. Of course you want to draw them in with rigorous content and elegant prose — work that’s representative of your work as a whole. But let’s be honest: your blurb should also be about 200% more clickbait-y than the book itself.

Your blurb should absolutely tell readers what they should expect — but not in a way that sounds like a Wikipedia entry. Think of it as a verbal extension of your cover art: a punchy ad that plays to genre conventions, with the goal of drawing the right sort of reader.

Instead of a blow-by-blow outline, go for keywords indicative of your genre and style. Who are your target readers? Is it a spine-chilling tale about a “serial killer”? A fitness program founded on “sustainable lifestyle change”? A compelling “queer romance”?

Now’s also a great time to quote some of the positive reviews you cultivated before your book launch. Distill them down to a hooky, memorable pull-quote, and pop them into the first — or last — sentences of your blurb. There’s no better clickbait than a glowing endorsement.

Tell your friends not to mass-order your book — seriously

Indie authors publishing on Amazon have a tendency to freak out over their Also Boughts. If you spend any time shopping the site, you’ve definitely seen them. They pop up under labels like “frequently bought together” and “customers who viewed this item also viewed,” and they’re supposed to show items related to the one you’re browsing.

Why are Also Boughts important if you want to make money by self-publishing? They represent how Amazon sees the connections between your book and other books. And these matter because they figure hugely into the site’s algorithmically generated recommendations.

Say you’ve written a Gen Z-friendly personal finance guide and launched it on Amazon. Something weird happens, and the site starts lumping it in with early modern poetry collections. Any time someone browses The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne or Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death’s Duel, there’s your book, hanging out inexplicably in the Also Boughts.

This is horrible news for you. Amazon will start blasting your book out to Donne scholars and Milton fans. Will some of these folks be interested in your take on early-stage investment for digital natives? Maybe — if you’re really lucky.

But most of these metaphysical poetry junkies will see your book in their email inboxes or on-site feeds, and they’ll scroll right past it. What happens next? Amazon determines it should stop recommending your book at all. No one wants to buy it, so it must be bad, right?

Here’s how to prevent this: keep your Also Boughts “clean.” This means aggressively targeting only the people who read in your category. So tell your friends and family not to mass-order your book. If they want to read it, don’t direct them to Amazon — send them a copy with a personalized note.

All these tips will have you well on your way to side-hustle paradise, and who knows? In a year or two, maybe you’ll be writing your own book on how to make money from self-publishing; now that would be the meta cherry on top.

Desiree Villena is a writer with Reedsy, a platform that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best publishing professionals. She’s very passionate about indie publishing and helping authors reach their dreams! In her spare time, Desiree enjoys reading fiction and writing short stories.

Ever done some shopping on your cell phone? Who am I kidding, of course you have! Smartphones have completely changed the ecommerce landscape over the last few years and sellers who ignore that are doing so at their peril. Here’s a guest post from Karthik Reddy, Community Manager at  Webmastersjury.org on just how much mobile devices have changed the way people shop!

The number of monetary transactions done on mobile devices is increasing. A research carried out by experts at jobsinmarketing.io showed that in the second quarter of 2018, 62% of ecommerce traffic was generated on mobile devices.

Shoppers are switching to mcommerce as it offers convenience, flexibility, and security. More and more businesses are also making their websites mobile-friendly so they can tap into the number of users who shop via their mobile phones. In this article, we will talk about the effects that mobile devices have on ecommerce today.

Change in Consumer Shopping Behavior

These days, it is no longer necessary for shoppers to use a desktop computer or laptop to look for different products on various shopping platforms. Almost all ecommerce websites are now mobile-friendly and easy to access using a mobile phone. Shoppers are no longer limited by location when shopping online, as it can now be easily done anywhere and anytime via mobile devices.

Change in Ecommerce Shopping Platforms

With more and more online sales coming from mobile devices, ecommerce companies are beginning to optimize their websites, so they are easily navigable on smartphones and tablets. Also, more accessible payment platforms are being introduced, aiding a shopper’s purchase journey.

Brand Favoritism

One of the reasons why Amazon is a favorite brand when it comes to online shopping is because of the seamless mobile shopping experience it provides to shoppers. Users often shop online because they have limited free time. Also, online shopping is a quicker and a lot more convenient way of shopping compared to traditional shopping. For that reason, brands with mobile-optimized websites capable of displaying products that consumers need are likely to make sales. Also, if mobile shoppers favor a brand, they will likely continue to buy its products.

Check out the infographic below to further understand the effects of mobile devices on ecommerce. 

I am always kind of skeptical of books that talk about writing speed and have exclamation points in their title because it always feels slightly snake-oily but I also feel like, a whole bunch of books into my writing career, it still takes me too dang long to finish a book so I decided to give this one a try. Dan Janal was kind enough to send me a free copy of Write Your Book in a Flash: The Paint-by-Numbers System to Write the Book of Your Dreams—FAST! for review on this site but it’s one of those books that I would have absolutely read and recommended even if I had paid full price.

This is a book for non-fiction writers, mostly of the How-To or business type book variety, about how to prepare to write a book and all the things you can do ahead of time to make it easier when you actually sit down to write. I feel obligated to lead with that information because I agree with several reviewers that the phrase “book of your dreams” in the title makes it sounds like it could be for fiction when that is not the case (as the description makes clear but still).

I really liked this book. And I absolutely have no qualms about recommending it to anyone who wants to write a non-fiction book. It’s easy to read, full of useful tips and really does make the process of writing your book that much easier.

Here’s what I like about this book.

• I like that, right from the start, it manages your expectations, giving you an understanding of all the reasons you might want to try your hand at writing a non-fiction book that have nothing to do with becoming a filthy rich bestselling author (because writing… well, let’s just say there are better ways to get rich).
• I like that it truly does simplify down the process of brainstorming and outlining your book and even structuring your chapters to make it, if not exactly paint by numbers, a much clearer and less painless process.
• I like that it gives you tips for actually getting through the writing of the book itself and, failing that, educates you on what to expect if you decide that the actual writing isn’t for you and you’d rather get a ghostwriter or other developmental assistance.

My favorite tip? The one about naming all your chapters by riffing off an extended metaphor (which Dan Janal refers to as your favorite hobby). I’ve used that one several times since I read the book and it really does work as the perfect gimmick to tie everything together.

I like a book that keeps it short and doesn’t waste your time. With the exception of the last section, which is an extended advertisement for the author’s writing services, there’s no wasted space and the author gets right to the point.

Overall, a quick and easy to read guide that is exactly what you need to build the roadmap that will help you write that book once and for all!

While trying to figure this out myself, I stumbled upon this great infographic that breaks it all down. Turns out, sites can breakout with engaging traffic at any length, statistically, it’s longer, more involved, evergreen content that brings in traffic, subscribers and conversions.

You can read more about it in greater detail at the bottom of this great post from Capsicum Mediaworks who created the infographic.

The Book Review Companion is a simple, straightforward guide to the importance of getting reviews for your book with tips and suggestions on how to do so. It’s short but that’s because it doesn’t waste your time getting to the point. The author’s tone is friendly and clear and the advice given is easy enough, though the implementation is harder and more work than it may seem on the page. Chasing down reviews is WORK but Wogahn gives you a great foundation of how and where to start focusing your efforts so that work is going to the right place.

If you’re just starting with self-publishing, this is a great book to read before you go into your final publications and marketing stages (any later and you’ll just want to kick yourself for not getting started with this stuff earlier!). From everything to seeking out book bloggers to leveraging your existing contacts for blurbs and other advanced reviews, there’s plenty of tips for indie authors of every level to pick-up within. For the price, you really can’t go wrong!

FYI, in the same author’s Book Reviewer Yellow Pages (which I also own), there is a section about the importance of getting reviews for your book and some tips for seeking those out and The Book Review Companion is essentially an expanded excerpt of that content. While there’s value to having this info collected in a volume all its own and it does go into much greater detail in this volume, if you own the other title, understand that a lot of this book is repeated from there.

I was given a free copy of this book for the purposes of review but I also bought a copy because I can appreciate the irony of having to seek out reviews… for a book about seeking out reviews.

That was partially because there’s no consistency in my reading habits. I may blow through ten books I know you’d like in a month and then not ready anything else relevant to this blog for the rest of the year. Do people want book reviews if they only come out on a regular schedule or are you happy to just hear about a cool book whenever I randomly happen upon one?

It’s also partially because I didn’t want the pressure of being considered a book blogger, especially because so few book bloggers review the kind of non-memoir, business adjacent non-fiction that is relevant to us over here at The Whine Seller. Not to mention the reviews themselves. If I’m posting reviews on my blog, do they have to sound all intelligent and professional instead of the kind of informal, brief thing I’d say about a book on Goodreads?

It just seemed like a lot of extra trouble I didn’t want to take on.

But, oddly enough, I somehow got on a list of book bloggers anyhow and now I regularly get authors reaching out with ARCs and asking me if I’ll review their book. And after enough of these books came in that actually did look like the kind of book I’d dig anyway, I finally decided to say, ok, sure. Let’s start doing book reviews on The Whine Seller.

You’re going to start seeing these pop up in dribs and drabs on the site in the next few weeks. And then? Well, whenever I have a book that’s worth sharing, I’ll share it!

As a reader, here’s what I can promise you about these book reviews…

• I will never post anything other than my HONEST review. In other words, if a book sucks, I’m going to just say that it sucks. So you can trust that if I say I liked something… I really did like it. I want you to be able to know you can trust that you are getting my real opinion.
• While some reviews will be of books I bought myself or got from my library, some I may get for free from the author. I will try to always specify which is which in the review itself.
• I will also be posting my reviews on sites like Goodreads, Amazon, etc. in most cases but those reviews will appear under my real name, not T. W. Seller. This is just to keep my life simpler because I already have way too many accounts to keep track of.
• Last, but certainly not least, if you can think of a book I’d like or that’s relevant to what we talk about on this site, please recommend it, even if it’s been out for a while. I may not have a chance to immediately check it out but I will add it to my TBR pile if it looks like something I’d dig.

To that end, here are some guidelines to follow if you’d like to submit your book for me to review…

• I will consider books on any of the following topics: productivity, time management, selling online, marketing, book promotion, intermediate to advanced self-publishing topics, writing how-to or business non-ficiton, working from home, eBay, Etsy, and basically anything else I write about regularly on this site. (And if you’ve got a book that doesn’t match what I blog about here but does match what we talk about on Unpublishable Pennings, note that when you send it and I’ll still consider it!) Sorry but absolutely NO fiction or memoir!
• While new and upcoming indie or traditional books are preferred, I’m happy to consider any book that’s relevant to my interests, even if it’s been out a while. I also welcome books of any length, though you’ve got a better chance of me reading it if it’s short ’cause I’m very short on time these days. Format wise, I’m happy with paperback or eBook, whatever works best for you.
• Understand that, if you send me your book, I will never post anything other than my HONEST review. That means it may be negative. Make your peace with that now or please don’t send it. I’m not out to crush any dreams here (keep in mind, I’m an author too!) but I’m not going to lie to my readers just to flufferize anyone’s ego.
• Please do not just send me your book unsolicited. You are welcome to email me a pitch for your book and, if I’m interested, I’ll let you know.
• If you need your book review posted by a specific date, let me know up front so I can see if I will have time to read the book by then. If not, understand that I will get to it when I get to it and if you are rude about that or harass me, you’re done.
• Please don’t spam me in a deluded effort to get me to buy your book or advertise for you. There is a big difference between a professional query to solicit a review and aggressively demanding I help you sell your book when you’re a literal stranger to me.
• Whenever possible, I will post reviews on my blog as well as Goodreads and Amazon.
• Lastly, please only offer books that are polished and publication-ready. That means edited, formatted correctly, ready for prime-time. If I wanted to read an error-ridden mess of misspellings and grammar mistakes I will read my OWN writing, thank you very much! 😉

Last, but not least, I’m doing this to provide value to The Whine Seller readers, by directing them to cool books they may not have heard of otherwise and to give lesser-known authors a chance to get their books out in the open. In other words, I’m doing it to be nice without any expectation of profit so I’d appreciate everyone’s kindness and patience during the whole process. I already have a whole stinkin’ lot on my plate and, while it may not be advisable to add something else on, I’m hopeful this could be a cool thing if we let it be.

Now, let’s get reading!

The more people who recognize your brand and what you do, the more likely they’ll be to purchase from you. But with all of the opportunities that the digital marketplace provides, it also makes it easier for competitors to poach or persuade potential buyers to purchase from them instead of you.

In order to be your target market’s first choice, you have to offer up a listing that speaks to their wants and needs on different levels. The physical need your product or service fills may be the most obvious but you should also aim to capture their emotional needs as well. You may be thinking, “how can something like paper towels fill an emotional need?”

First look at what paper towels do, they clean things up. Who is your target market? Perhaps parents in their late-20s to early 40s? Parents’ priority is keeping their kids healthy and happy. If these paper towels can help keep their kids safe from germs and helps them clean messes more efficiently — then these towels are filling the emotional need of being seen as a good parent and keeping their kids healthy. Now you have a surface-level and deeper, emotional tie to include in your listing.

Check out these online listing tips from Hanna Kielar ForSaleByOwner below to help you write more effective listings and help you beat out your competition:

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The new Whine Seller mailing list will be about selling online, working form home and e-commerce. (If you still want to hear about my fiction and plays, you’ll have to join my other list.) But The Whine Seller list is getting an announcement before the end of the month that won’t go out publicly until the new year so, if you want in on the big news, make sure you’re signed up.

I’m also planning on turning the new list into a regular newsletter (always free and it would never be more than monthly, right now I’m thinking more like quarterly) and anyone on the mailing list will get a chance to shape exactly what kind of content the mailing list will feature so getting on that list early is your best chance of voting for what you want. So, sign up for the mailing list so we can stay in touch the way you want to.

This time of year is BANANAS for me so that’s all I’ve got at the moment but stay tuned for more as we move into the new year. As always, thanks for sticking with me and I look forward to what we can all do together in the future!

Today we’re going to take about… the ones that got away. No, no, not that cutie in your 10th grade history class! Instead, Karlie Kramer of Fundera.com is here to talk about shopping cart abandonment! 

Did you know that three-quarters of all online retail purchases are abandoned before they’re completed? Shopping cart abandonment is frustrating yet common, and virtually all online stores face it at one point or another — no matter what ecommerce platform they’re using.

Shopping cart abandonment is a hard pill to swallow, because these shoppers showed that they intended to make a purchase, but never did. However, there are a few things you can do as a business to prevent the loss of a sale proactively. Abandonment is highest on mobile devices, so mobile optimization is imperative. You can also offer incentives to get your customers to return back to their carts to complete a purchase by using reminder emails, which generally get a good 45% open rate. 
To learn more about how to stop shopping cart abandonment, check out the infographic below: