Create If Writing

One big piece of launching that I don't see a lot of people talking about is how to judge the success of your book promotions, specifically your paid promotions. This is part of a series on how I moved from making under $100/month self-publishing on Amazon to consistently over four-figures a month within a year. 

One of the investments I made as I launched my pen name last year was paid book promotions. I dabbled in Facebook ads and AMS ads, but the main bulk of my spending was in email promotions. These sites have built up email lists full of readers and send emails out to those readers with your book in them.

Email sells books and I've seen a good return from this! However, it's not that simple. I'm going to share tips on how to tell if your book promotions are actually successful. 

Before I get there, it's important to note that many of the sites have requirements. You may need a certain number of reviews and your book may need to be discounted to a certain degree. 

• For more details on paid promotions, you can check out this post: Launching Part 3: Paid Promotions

All of these sites are not the same! Just because a site costs a lot doesn't mean that it will have the best results. 

• Look for genre-specific lists
• Sign up for the email lists-- does it truncate the email?
• Ask other authors in your genre
• Realize that established isn't always better
• They should have responsive customer service

If you don't note how the sales work, you may not realize which sites to use again and which ones to avoid. 

• Try doing one per day
• Make note if you also have a newsletter swap that day
• When you start out, it's best not to run FB or other ads at the same time
• Track it over time and by book title (ex: billionaire vs other books)

It's often not a dollar for dollar thing. If I spend $25 on a promotion, I would love to make $25 back, but sometimes it's more complex. 

• Other book sales that week
• Sales over a few days' time
• Pagereads over that week (if you're in KU)
• Ranking on Amazon, which gets you more visibility & organic sales
• Email list sign-ups that week
• One sale might turn into a READER, not just a sale

When it comes to paid promotions, these email list promotions have been very successful for me, but I've seen them fluctuate over time per book. I'm not going to stop tracking the sales, because I don't want to waste my money! 

Other things you need to consider:

• If your book cover doesn't look professional and/or fit the genre, you won't make sales.
• If you only have ONE book, you won't have a backlist to help you make more sales from the promotion.
• If your book is not part of a series, you won't make as many other sales from the promotion.
• If your book is part of a series that has to be read in order and is NOT the first book, you won't have as much success. 

I hope that this helps you not waste your time and your MONEY on paid promotions. If you aren't sure where to find these sites, you can check out these lists:

• Reedsy's list of Book Promotion Sites
• Kindlepreneur's list of Book Promotion Sites

• How to Sell Books on Amazon
• How to Use Newsletter Swaps
• A Simple Book Launch Framework
• The Create If Writing Facebook Group

This post follows my post about publishing successfully on Amazon. Newsletter swaps have been hugely important in my success and this post will walk you through how to promote your book with newsletter swaps. 

Find the full shownotes: http://createifwriting.com/153

Join the community: http://createifwriting.com/community 

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Newsletter swaps are an effective promotional tool where authors send their audience an email promoting another author's book, in exchange for that author promoting them in return. The trade doesn't always (or even usually) take place on the same exact day, but the authors set up the swap for when they have new releases, sales, or just a book they want to promote. 

This is an effective marketing tool and a great way to network and build rapport within your niche and community. I'll continue to stand by email as a selling tool and when you can leverage the power of another person's audience, you can grow your own. I've also made great connections and done other collaborations with authors in my niche after connecting in Facebook groups. 

• Facebook groups by GENRE
• Story Origin 
• Paid and free services if you Google

My personal preference is to find these in Facebook groups. It becomes about community and networking, not just piggy-backing off someone else's platform. We all want success for each other. 

You also build trust there and know who you are dealing with. This is important because you are putting those people before your audience. You don't want to break trust with your readers. If I send something to my clean romance group that isn't clean, I'm going to get angry emails. My readers will stop trusting me. 

I would recommend signing up for some author lists first to see what they send. Get an idea and then consider what YOU want to send. Do you want to have a close relationship with your readers? Do you ONLY want to give book recommendations without being very personal? Plan out what you want this too look like. 

Get clean links from Amazon or wherever you are sending. That means that they stop after the ASIN and don't have a ton of extra gunk on the end. Also, it's against Amazon terms of service to use affiliate links in email and they also don't want you to mention the price, because so often it changes. 

• More reading: Important Rules for the Amazon Associates Program

Typically you'll pull the book cover image and maybe a quick blurb, but different authors handle this in different ways. If I've read the book, I'll often give a brief, personal review. I've found that it can help increase the clicks. 

Be familiar with the books you send. Maybe you don't read each book, but check out the author and their other books. Use the Look Inside feature. I've sometimes found books that were engaging in poor practices like book stuffing, which violates Amazon's terms of service, or ones that were supposed to be clean and had content that wasn't clean even within what I read in the Look Inside feature. 

Give before you get. When you're starting out, you may not have a big list. Maybe you don't have completed books. Start your list. Ask to send for people. Maybe at first they don't need to reciprocate. You're still building goodwill with those other authors in your genre.

Send books that will cultivate the right kind of audience. You are building a personal author brand and want to attract the kinds of readers who love your book. Send books that are going to attract and keep the kinds of readers you want.

Rarely go outside your genre. Every so often, it's okay to test the waters with a different kind of book. But it needs to stay within the bounds that keep that audience you're cultivating. I could send a Christian devotional to my clean romance list. Some would love it. I would never send books with adult content. 

Keep track so that you're trustworthy. I don't always send other authors the link to my newsletter. I like the buddy system and usually know the people I'm swapping with. Sometimes it's nice to get that, but overall, it takes time and I never click. But it's a good idea to ask what the expectation is! Some people use a spreadsheet to keep track and some make people sign up with a google form to swap. You can click to Save a Facebook post, which will help you if you have set up your swaps in a group. 

Don't send too many books. This looks different for everyone, but I wouldn't send more than four. Some only send two. It's a good idea to be up front where possible or as people ask with those numbers, like your list size or how many books are in each email. More books = less clicks. 

Be genuine. No matter how personal your emails are, you should always remember that even when you are sending for other people, you are building your author brand. People don't respond as well to straight sales pitches, but are more likely to buy from word of mouth. As in, PERSONALLY. If you only send emails with books to buy and nothing personal at all, you are wasting an opportunity to connect with your readers. Find even small ways to be personal and genuine in your emails. 

Start building your list! It can be a slow process, but it's very worth it in the end. Read my post on growing your email list to help you with this. Get in some swaps groups and see how they work, who is in there, and what people are sending. Then, start giving before you ask for something in return. 

I've found good success pairing newsletter swaps with other paid email promotion services. It's free (other than the costs to start up a list) and has benefits beyond just book sales as you connect with other authors in your community. 

For the official show notes: http://createifwriting.com/152

To sign up for my weekly email: http://createifwriting.com/quickfix 

This post will be a deep dive into the strategies I utilized in 2018 to go from under $100 a month to making solid four figures every month self publishing on Amazon. My goal is to be as transparent as possible and give you the strategies and tips you'll need to find success! 

Caveat: There is no ONE way. These are things that worked for me. If you don't have a well-written book, chances are you will not succeed self publishing on Amazon or anywhere else.

If you are interested in self publishing on Amazon, it's a great time to be writing! There are so many more resources and tools out there to help you. But that can also mean a lot of time wasted researching, testing, and trying things.

I spent the last year testing, trying, and self publishing. I'm happy to say that within that year, I've made huge strides and learned a lot that I wanted to share. This post will be an overview of the strategies I employed and I'll do a deeper dive on each piece in a separate post.

Before we get into the strategies, I want to make this clear: You are unlikely to find success with a poorly written book, a bad cover, and an unclear genre. These are necessities! Sometimes you might get away with one of those, but all three are massively important.

While we can all point to books that are poorly written and still find success, your goal should be to write a book that resonates with readers. Sometimes books with poor writing style or grammar do well because the story resonates with readers. But books that well well are books that connect with an audience. Start here: write the very best book you can.

Without a solid book cover that looks professional and like the other books in your genre, your book will not sell. No matter how good the inside of the book is, people are turned off by bad covers. This is simply reality. The faster you understand that and stop fighting against it, the better off you'll be.

Good resources for affordable covers: 

• Go On Write
• German Creative on Fiverr

If you try to tell someone about your book and say something like, "It's kind of like a sci-fi thriller, with a little romantic comedy and fantasy mixed in," then YOU ARE IN TROUBLE. Books in a genre may have elements of another genre (like a sci fi book that has a romantic storyline in it), but to do well with your marketing efforts, you really need to be very clear on your genre.

• If you haven't checked out my post on Niching Down, this would be a great place to start!

Once you've got a well-written book, a solid cover, and a clear genre, it's time to think about self publishing and marketing your book. 

I tried a lot of things in 2018, but these are the main things that led to success with self-publishing. I'll go into more detail on each in future episodes and posts, but for now, here are the top things I did. (Again, AFTER writing good books, having solid covers, and being clear on my genre.) The first three are related to writing and craft and the second three are related to marketing.

• Published quickly (about a book every six weeks starting in May)
• Writing in a series
• Writing in a hot trope
• Consistently grew my newsletter
• Set up newsletter swaps with other authors in my genre
• Paid for promotions through other email newsletters

Other than the two on the list, those three main things ALL deal with email! Email is and always will be my foundation for what I do.

I did not know that I could write so fast. This will NOT be for everyone! But I will say that if you don't think it's you, don't put a mindset block on writing quickly. My very first book ever took two years to write. The first clean romance book I wrote took three months. My second clean romance book took two months and my third took two weeks.

I'll address this more in a future episode, but as a note, writing quickly does NOT mean poor writing. The structure of sweet romance is fairly simple and the books are short, around 50k words. This makes it fairly easy to write them more quickly. I also find a cohesiveness in my books that I write faster. Whether a book is written quickly or slowly, you should consider hiring a proofreader! There will be mistakes either way.

Again, writing quickly isn't for everyone. But whenever I release a new book, I see spikes in the sales of my other books. Writing quickly and publishing quickly on Amazon can be a great marketing tactic in and of itself. You may not realize that you have a quick writer inside of you--I for sure didn't! Don't feel that you have to do this, but don't think that you can't just because you haven't yet.

To get the most out of your books, consider writing in a series. This gives readers a clear path on what to read next. If they find and love you, they may just go out and read ALL your other books. (I've done this for authors!)

If you're writing in romance, the series have to be tied in some way that's NOT leaving readers with cliffhangers. My series are tied by theme or location or have secondary characters becoming primary characters in other books.

For MOST genres, series should be read in order. Know your genre and plan a series within those genre expectations. It will impact your continued sales as you publish.

Trends come and go! If you can latch onto a trend that is hot and write quickly enough to get books out there, you may find more success. Billionaires have been hot in clean romance for the past year or two and I've found that my billionaire books outsell my other books something like five to one. Or more.

Traditional publishing doesn't always have this luxury, as books are finished years in advance. So if you see that vampire books are going wild again, you won't have time to get a traditionally published vampire book out in time. But you might be able to get in there if you are self publishing on Amazon.

• Tip: I use K-lytics and am an affiliate for their deep dives into what's selling on Amazon! Find out more HERE. I also use Rocket to identify keywords that people are searching for on Amazon. I'm an affiliate for that as well and you can check it out HERE.

Because I know that email sells books, I put money and time into growing an engaged list of subscribers. I used free promotions where I gave away short stories or whole books through Bookfunnel, Book Cave, and Story Origin, and I also paid for promotions with Booksweeps and AuthorsXP that connected me with readers in my genre.

I spent time crafting my emails and promoting engagement with my readers. Some weeks I get something like thirty replies to my emails! The goal is not just numbers, but to connect with readers who buy books and love YOUR books.

As far as social media, I barely did much. I started Twitter, then never went there. I also have a Facebook page, mostly for running ads (and the occasional post) and have started a Facebook readers' group.

With having a solid list comes swapping spots in newsletters with other authors. Essentially, they share for you when you have a book coming out (or on sale) and you return the favor when they have a launch or book on sale.

The best way I've found this to work is by networking in newsletter swaps Facebook groups by genre. Make sure you are clear on your genre! Sometimes I'll see books in the clean romance swap group that aren't clean or aren't romance. This works best when you are super clear on what you're writing and what you're sharing with your readers.

There are a ton of sites out there who will happily take your money and send your book to their thousands of email subscribers who buy books. These are NOT all created equal and can run anywhere from $50-200. I'm excited to break down more about how to choose the right ones in a later post, but for now, you can check out these resources on finding sites like this:

• Free and Paid Book Submission Sites from Reedsy
• 100+ Book Promotion Sites from Kindlepreneur

Successful self-publishing on Amazon requires a plan. It also requires being willing to pay attention to what's working, doubling down on the things that do work and backing off on the things that don't.

• See my post on how I changed the title of my book mid-launch!

I kept spreadsheets of book promotions sites that worked so I could track my expenses and stop using sites that didn't work. I pivoted and shifted when things weren't going well. I networked with other authors, asked for feedback, and studied what other authors did.

Was it hard? Yes and no. Often the things I did were simple, but took a lot of time.

While you're going to struggle to find success with a poorly-written book, writing a good book does not equal good sales. Just self publishing a book on Amazon likely will not result in sales!

I've talked before about launch failures, but I have a very real-time example of how you can pivot mid-launch. You'll learn why I changed my book title and cover ten days into my launch and why you need to be willing to let your darlings die. 

Here are the four things you need to do in order to gauge your launch's success and pivot if it's not working: 

• Evaluate your launch
• Identify what's not working
• Ask others for feedback 
• Pivot as quickly as you can

My launch hasn't been working. I would have been happy about the numbers a year ago, but I shared in my post on Niching Down how I made $9k last month with my launch. I tracked my sales and promos and ran the same kinds of sales and promos this time, but found I'm making about a third of the income. There's a problem. 

When I looked, my first thought was that the title was off. I debated on the title, which was The Rock Star's Scheming Bride. The book was the first in a multi-author series, so I had to fit the trope (brides) and the title (The _____'s ______ Bride).

I wasn't super clear on the trope to begin with, so felt a little shaky on that. Then the word scheming mostly has negative connotations and I hoped the cover of the book with a very sweet and cute-looking bride, plus the content, would offset that. 

I looked at reviews and emails I've gotten about the book and noticed several people saying that the book wasn't what they expected. I was getting five star reviews, more than any of my other books, but something was off with the sales vs the responses of those who read the book. That got me thinking that the word scheming needed to change. 

Other things that I can't know: maybe the book last month sold so well because it was a billionaire book and they sell better for me. Maybe it was the fact that I ran some Facebook ads. Maybe January is a better sales month. Some things are variables and unknowns, so you just do the best you can. 

Before making a change, I asked in a critique group. People agreed about the word scheming, but also pointed out that there was a lack of clarity and cohesion with the cover, title, trope, and blurb. The cover looked more like a fake marriage trope, but the blurb said nothing about marriage at all. 

I felt stuck. I enlisted one author's help privately, asking for her feedback. One thing she said to me was that I shouldn't risk my own launch just to help support the group. This helped me realize that I needed to ask the other group members if I could cut my book from the series and rename it. 

Note: I don't recommend backing out of commitments. My book was the first in the series, so it didn't impact anything in the series. It might have been worse for another series or circumstance. In another group I'm in for a multi-author series, we worked hard to get a series page (Amazon doesn't like giving them to multi-authors) and then one author pulled down her book and now we lost our series page. No one is mad, but it was disappointing. So if you're working with a group,  you DO need to stick to your goals, but also you should do your best to keep good relationships. 

This meant getting over the fact that I liked my cover as it was. It meant asking the group if I could leave and hiring another cover designer who could hopefully finish up before the next paid promotions I have. My hope was to update the manuscript and the cover in a few hours so that I could submit to Amazon and hopefully have them accept changes in time. Then I emailed all the paid promotion sites with the new info and made a note in the newsletter swap groups I've been in so that people there know there is a new title. 

It was exhausting. I hope it will be worth it and honestly think it will be. I have a whole series idea that can go with this book that I can work on later.  

This is one of the reasons I love being an indie. I can decide, ten days into my launch, that I need to change a huge thing and then CHANGE IT. The hard thing is that you can't always track it. Did my launch last month do better because it was a billionaire book? Because I ran some ads? Because I maybe had newsletter swaps with people who had larger lists? 

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When you niche down in your writing, you can increase your productivity AND your profits! 

For a full slideshow and more on this, check out the full shownotes at http://createifwriting.com/150

In this post and podcast episode, I'm sharing two equal and opposite errors: over-investing (and in the wrong places) AND not investing any money but thinking that you can make money. 

*mostly specific to writing and being an indie author, but this will also apply and I'll share some examples from blogging and platform-building as well

I hear and see both of these mistakes a LOT in various Facebook groups where people share that they have spent sometimes thousands of dollars and have not made any money. Or maybe they JUST made that money back, but no profit. I also see people who are frustrated that they aren't making strides, but will say that they have NO money to invest to help make those strides. 

We need to invest. Period. (Well, assuming that you're doing more than a hobby!) If you are trying to bring in income or if you are building a business and being professional, you will have to make some investments. That does NOT mean you have to go crazy! We have to find the right places to invest and then invest wisely, invest over time, and continue to invest where it makes sense. 

LISTEN TO EPISODE 148 - Over-Investing and Under-Investing

People say you need to invest when you start up and I agree--there will be some costs. But your success will NOT match dollar for dollar what you put in, especially if you put it in the wrong places. I've seen multiple posts lately from people talking about how they've put in literally thousands of dollars into blogging or writing books and aren't seeing any return. 

• Make sure you have a solid product first - beta readers, ask for advice from others, if there's a cheap coach who will do a session with you ($100 or less), free call with Jim Kukral, ask in a FB group. If you run ads on a book and the cover is terrible, you're setting your money on fire. 
• Make sure you ask the right people - this is hard. Go to a FB group and everyone has a different opinion and you don't know who to trust. Look at book rankings. Look at social proof- the numbers. See if others have given reviews of their product or services, etc. I see people all the time giving advice, but then in another thread they'll say they are struggling. 
• Make sure you aren't just buying everything - I feel like we should all go in with a little bootstrapping. You're learning as you go and if you invest like crazy up front, you'll be burning your money because you haven't honed your voice, your brand, your product. My books got good last year by book four. Yeah, I liked the first three. But they don't sell as well, get as good reviews, and weren't as solidly written to the market. Invest a little up front, then as you get better and see where that ROI is, then invest more. 
• Make sure you aren't just doing what everyone else does - I hired out AMS ads and paid a ton of money for two months-- and did not see enough return. There isn't a high enough margin in AMS ads to pay someone $200 a month, no matter how many ads they are running. Other people did it, I knew I should invest in ads, so I did it. Did not pay off. I knew it was a test and I did it for two months, then stopped. Made more money the next month, spent less. 
• Make sure your goal isn't just to spend the most to make less profit - I hear people talking about how much they made. Gross or net? And yes, I get confused and had to google these so I didn't sound like an idiot. Gross is the total, net is after expenses what you keep. Some people claiming these giant amounts also have expenses. So they may say, "I made 20k last month." But then they'll say, "I spent 12k." Still positive! Don't want to downplay that. But when it comes to throwing down money, that makes me nervous. I want to scale up, but at what cost? I'll make just over 8k this month and my expenses are under $1k. I'd rather be there, even though that other person and I made the same amount. Are you chasing a number? A status? So you can say you made x amount? Be practical. 

A helpful post might be:  Six Questions to Ask Before You Invest

As people start out, they often will say that they don't have money to spend. Bootstrapping is a reality for many! You have little to work with and you're trying to stretch it. That's okay! But sometimes people say they have NOTHING or are unwilling to spend some at the beginning to build something that is lasting. Investments made at the beginning sometimes take time to bring in a return. 

• Invest, but wisely - I know that email sells. I know that I don't run amazing FB ads YET. So the best bet for investing in my books' marketing is in email newsletter services like Robin Reads, E Reader News Today, etc. They do the work, they have the audience, no learning curve. If you have to learn it or test it to get it to work, wait a bit. Maybe don't START with FB ads. 
• Don't complain if you can't invest - We all can't invest, but don't complain about your lack of profit if you aren't. Books that you throw up on Amazon won't just sell. Typically. Newsletter swaps are free, so if you can't pay for ads, partner with other authors. Build a community. Help each other out for free. 
• Invest so it hurts - Author Jami Albright wanted to launch her first two books with the right covers. She couldn't afford them. She literally sold plasma to pay for the covers and editing. And her two books made (gross) $50k in one year and allowed her to quit her day job. 
• Invest realizing there is ROI - I hear authors a lot saying they can't afford to pay for the email promos I talked about. I can't NOT afford them. I did less at the beginning when I had less money. This past time, I tracked the results. Not only did every one (except for one) make more money that day than I spent, it was often double or triple. Plus it increased my rankings and visibility in Amazon. 

Invest believing in yourself - If you want to do these things professionally, you have to invest something. Maybe it's not a ton. But SOMETHING. And if you don't, it's a hobby. Sometimes you'll invest and it's still a hobby because you want it to be. I pay for some things because I like them, not because they're paying my bills. If you want to get serious, you DO have to spend money. 

Go back to Stop Wasting Your Money to make sure you are making the right choices where it comes to invest! 

To conclude: Can't spend money thinking that every dollar will be two dollars back. Can't not spend money and think you'll make money. 

Confession: I'm going to talk about how to cut your wasted time in this post. As in, how you can STOP WASTING SO MUCH STINKING TIME. But I'm not great with some parts of this. I'll share exactly which ones, but I hope I'll give you some other perspectives on wasted time as well. 

Last year (2018) I declared that it was the Year of the Emma Empire. I wanted to use the things I've learned over the years about marketing, email lists, and everything else to launch a fiction pen name and do amazing things.

Happily, I reached my goal of having a $5k month of book sales by December 2018. (It was actually $6k in November!!) January isn't over yet, but I'm on track to blow my goal of $10k in a month of book sales out of the water already.

Yes, I plan to talk more about this whole journey with you! (And yes, I'm grinning like an idiot and doing all the happy dances and completely disbelieving that I'm doing this.) 

But for now, I want to focus in on how thinking about time helped me accomplish these goals. And it's probably not what you think!

Many people think first of time-tracking apps and the like when they think about how to identify and cut wasted time. For me, I start with a more big-picture view. It relates in some ways to another post and podcast episode where I talk about How to Cut Down on Your Business Expenses.

When it comes to waste, it starts with ROI.

People compare time and money, saying your time IS money. So think of it that way! Consider your time as an investment. Where are you investing AND seeing a return? Those places are where you want to continue investing and perhaps invest MORE time.

As for cutting down on time, it's the flip side of that question. Where are you investing time and seeing NOTHING in return?

Remember that the return doesn't just mean money. It could be that you have joy. Or more time. Here are the questions I posed in the post on cutting your business expenses with a few tweaks.

• Does it bring in money?
• Does it save me time or make more time?
• Does it bring me joy?
• Can I do without it?
• Does the amount of time spent bring forth a comparable result?

These questions can help you determine the ROI for some of your activities. Because we aren't always the best judges of our time, I'll link to some great apps and ideas that members of my community suggested.

When I went to the 20Booksto50k writing conference in Vegas last fall, I kept hearing one thing again and again: double down on where you are finding success. I don't think that's the exact wording and it wasn't a theme of the conference, but it's what I heard and what I needed to hear.

For my Emma Empire, I had planned to switch genres and launch a new pen name in early 2019. But seeing my income rise and then explode, I kept hearing that I needed to stick with what was working and keep my focus there. At LEAST for a little longer. In essence, I need to earn the stability and the time to shift my focus without a loss of my current trajectory.

When you have something that's working well, double down. Drop what you need to drop to make that a priority. Stop chasing the butterflies and shiny objects. Stick with what works.

That is very simplistic advice, but I know I need to remind myself of this. I know that it works. On a large and small scale.

Thinking about this convinced me to keep writing sweet romance and not switch to YA spy novels. (Though I'm writing those in my "spare" time.) But in an even more focused way, when I realized that my billionaire books were outselling my beach novels, I shelved the other books (even ones I'd outlined) to double down on the series that was working well.

And THAT'S how I'm breaking my goals into the new year.

I confessed in the beginning that apps and the like are really not my thing. I know they are useful, but I can't make myself use them. Maybe I'll try in 2019. We'll see.

But my community shared a few things that helped them focus their time.

• Rescue Time

Roland Denzel from Eat Move Live 352 recommends this app, which helps you identify where you are spending time on your computer. He pays for the upgrade, which does fancy things like sends warnings when he has been doing time-wasting things and will allow him to block certain things to stay on task.

• Toggl

Sarah Merchant from Work a Day Services uses this app to track how many hours she spends on tasks for herself and her clients. This one has a free and paid version as well.

• Atracker

Community member Melody Hansen utilizes this for personal and client work to plug in where she spends her time. It helps break it down by category and sends you a report at the end of the month showing what you did where.

• F.lux

Suzy Oakley likes F.lux, which is not a time-tracking app, but one that dims your computer screen based on the light you're in. She sets it to alert her and change the screen color when it's time to go to bed.

• Fresh Books

When it comes to tracking time and expenses, Catherine Turner from Path to the Bestseller List uses Fresh Books to track her time, both billable and non-billable.

A non-app option I want to recommend is Amy Lynn Andrews' book, Tell Your Time. I have this bad boy for years and though it's been a while since I've read it, I love the practical and uplifting way Andrews handles this! The subtitle is How to Manage Your Schedule So You Can Live Free. That about sums it up. :)

When it comes to cutting your wasted time, it's a pretty simple process. Now you need to DO IT.

• Identify where you are actually spending time
• Identify the ROI of where you are spending your time (remember ROI is more than just income!)
• Cut out, adjust, schedule, delete, or whatever action you need to focus on the tasks that have ROI

Sure, that SOUNDS simple. Now how about actually DOING the work?

I'll say that this process hurts. It hurt me several times last year to set aside things like this podcast. (Which I might do again this year at some point.) I cut out A LOT of things. Some I missed. Some I didn't. Some I should cut and just am not doing it. This process doesn't always feel good.

And, depending on your goals, you don't have to be so cutthroat. Maybe you have some areas where you just chill and those matter to your mental or emotional health or happiness, but might look like a waste on a time-tracker. My goals last year were laser focused and so were my cuts. If you aren't trying to reach a really tough goal, you can have a little more room for flex.

Do you have particular apps or time-tracking tools to help you cut wasted time?

This post on how to cut down on your business expenses is a great one at the start of the year, but really ANY TIME. We'll walk through how to identify the things you need to stop paying for, pronto!

Do you realize how many things you pay for when it comes to your creative business?

I think I know. Until I do an audit and realize that I am paying for SO MANY things I forgot about or don't use. Here is a simple method that I use to cut back on those expenses to stop the bleeding and stop wasting my own money! 

The first thing you have to do is figure out what you're paying for. I'm mostly going to focus on recurring costs here. If you want to look at what different things you're paying for each month, that's a really different kind of evaluation. The recurring costs are a good and easy place to start! 

How to Find Out What You're Paying for:

• Check Paypal recurring payments (my recurring payments don't show up, but you can try this)
• Check your bank automated withdrawals
• Check your credit card
• List out all of your paid tools that are recurring, not one-time
• Look at whatever you spent the last few months on your business (non-recurring)

Once you've got them all, make a big list somewhere. (Or a spreadsheet, if you're that kind of person.) Then break down the costs in the same way. You can break it down so that you see how much they each cost monthly or annually, but make it even. (As in, don't look at one in annual and one in monthly, as that doesn't make sense.) Now it's time for the deep, soul work. 

Ask these questions about each recurring cost: 

• Does it bring in money?
• Does it save me time?
• Does it bring me joy?
• Can I do without it?
• Do I have another tool that does the same thing?
• When is the last time I used it?

You don't have to have a positive answer to one or all if you want to keep something. But these are the kinds of questions that will help you evaluate. I may keep something that brings me joy but no income. I may cut something that saves me time because my budget changed and I can do without it. 

If you can't measure what it's bringing you, haven't used it in a while, and don't plan to use it again, cut it out! Even if it's a $4/month thing.

You might consider keeping something that you don't use or that isn't helping IF If you have upcoming goals and you WILL use it. Or if you think you might use it and the price will go up if you leave, then come back later. If you're going to keep something for this last reason, make sure you're not justifying to yourself. 

Whatever you keep, make a plan to USE it. If you are keeping a scheduling app for Pinterest, plan out when in your week you'll use it. Really make these things you pay for work FOR YOU. Otherwise, cut them!

I'm a super clutter-y person and it feels so amazing to get rid of these things! I've been cutting down on some major expenses and it's fabulous. I hope you can do the same and feel the same!

Check out my annual planner! 

Or sign up for the Digital Detox, a quick and fast email series with a small actionable decluttering item.

In this post I want to talk about something super fundamental that's sometimes overlooked. And it's simple! Let's dive into how to keep your audience happy.

If you want to build an audience of raving fans, it can seem daunting at times. Do this! Do that! Post here! Write this kind of thing! 

But when it comes down to the foundation, it's REALLY simple: set up expectations with your readers and then keep them. This means building trust and keeping trust. It's like you are creating a contract with your audience, even in things like your email sign-up forms when you tell people you will send every week.  

This boils down to setting up and keeping expectations, but there are multiple ways you may be doing this or NEED to do this. 

• What you SAY - The most common way to set expectations is when you explicitly tell people what you're going to do. Ex: when people sign up for an email list, book descriptions, your blog tagline
• What you DO - Your actions set the expectations. Ex: how often do you post on the blog, publish a book, send an email. 
• What people HEAR/UNDERSTAND - You may not realize that you are communicating something other than what you think, so it's a good idea to get an outside perspective. Ex: book covers, your tagline, BIG things. (Don't do this with every blog post! But good idea with bigger things or as you start out.) 
• What people SEE - You may not realize how much your visuals impact expectations. Ex: book covers, how your blog looks, images you choose to use

• As much as you can, tell your readers what to expect up front. Be clear and up front about who you are and what you do. Surprises are only good when they are GOOD, like a free book. It's not a good surprise to get emails every day for your product launch when people expected only weekly emails.
• As much as you can, keep to your word. Life happens and people understand that. But whenever possible, stick to your word. Which means... 
• As much as you can, don't set up expectations you can't keep or that you hate! If you don't like sending weekly emails, DON'T START. If you aren't sure you could keep up a weekly podcast, DON'T COMMIT TO THAT! Set realistic and sustainable goals. 

This may seem very simple and obvious, but there are so many small ways we could all do this better!

When we are clear with expectations and then commit to following through, we build trust with our audience and end up with raving fans. 

I missed out on some big platforms and news in the first in this series, so here are more updates you need to know that happened in 2018 and will impact your 2019!

When I started this series, it was meant to be one post. Ha! There have already been updates since I posted. That's why it's so stinking hard to keep up with social media updates!

My advice from the first post still holds: if you don't want to PERSONALLY keep up, follow other people who will keep up FOR YOU. Choose the few platforms you want to focus on, choose an expert, and subscribe to their email list. Or read something like Social Media Today so you can get more broad updates.

I mean, but really, you'll get a lot from me each week in the Quick Fix, my Friday email with news, tools, trends, tips, and updates.

I need to apologize to Pinterest. It is my #1 traffic driver on my blogs. And...I don't pin. I don't hang out. I don't keep up. That's the very cool thing about Pinterest: you can kind of autopilot it. Because it's more of a search engine than a social place, you don't have to like and comment on a giant stream of people's activities. It's just...ideas. Much more timeless. That doesn't mean you can just ignore it, which is what I've been doing.

Sorry, Pinterest!

Here are some big updates from this year that are good to know! Oh, and if you want to connect there, I have a Create If Writing board that's fabulous and has the content from this site.

• Pinterest Communities - This is really new and I'm not sure how it will be utilized. So far, I can't even join a community. And you can't see them or make them until you're IN one...so it's kind of like Fight Club? Anyway. Here's a great post about them. I think it could have potential, but if I have a pretty solid understanding of Pinterest and can't actually get IN a community, there is an issue. READ/LISTEN TO MORE ABOUT PINTEREST COMMUNITIES.
• Pinterest Carousel Pins - Because so many people just scroll through Pinterest, I'm not sure about how these carousel pins, which can have multiple images and links will work. Will Pinterest users really go for these? Unsure. Here's how to test if you have early access. 
• Lots more little updates - I found this fabulous post from Anastasia Blogger that has a summary of all the things that have changed on Pinterest this year. READ IT. 
• SmartLoop comes to Tailwind - Tailwind is the only scheduler I use and pay for that works with Pinterest and Instagram. They added a feature that's much like Board Booster's old one that will let you set up pins that will pin again. FIND OUT MORE.  (*If you want to try Tailwind, this is my affiliate link! It's super easy to use and has great features.) 
• Group boards aren't working so well - This isn't super new, but the group boards that once worked so well (with thousands of pinners) DON'T. Pinterest didn't want to give them priority as they were spammy. Work on having your own quality boards with keywords. Dump the big ones that have no relevance.

YOU GUYS. If you aren't using Pinterest, it's not too late to start. And don't get all eye-roll-y on me. It's the easiest platform to use. You don't have to talk to people or play a game. You share great content with relevant keywords in the descriptions. The end.

I mean, of course, there's more to it, but essentially, you're putting your content directly into a giant search engine. No follow-for-follow mess or follow-unfollow or whatever else. Even with a small following, your pins can be found and drive traffic to your site.

More resources: 

• Pinterest for Authors (guest post I did for Jane Friedman)
• Pinterest Tips

I had to dive deep into my resources for this one. I pay ZERO attention to YouTube. I love the idea...but I don't have the time. With all the video out there, YouTube is still a crazy-amazing platform if that's the kind of content you want to create!

• YouTube Studio - This is essentially a new dashboard for creators that will have a brief look at analytics, suggestions, and a place to see YouTube news and updates. (You can see in this screenshot that I'm not big over in the 'Tube...except my one video that's been viewed 50,000 times on painting walls. For real. Too bad I don't blog about that.) 

• YouTube Premieres - This is a new features that allows you and your audience watch a video together. That sounds kinda fun! And...kinda like the new feature on Facebook where you can have a watch party. How about that! READ MORE ABOUT PREMIERES.
• YouTube Stories - This is a features just like those other features on those other platforms. Except... it's only for the elite with over 10k subscribers. MORE HERE.
• YouTube is making its original content free...with ads - YouTube tried the subscription model like Netflix, but decided to scratch that in favor of having its videos come out from behind the paywall (so I can FINALLY watch the new Karate Kid!) but with ads. FIND OUT MORE.

I love that last one. You know why? Because YouTube is huge. But they still experimented with a model that's working for others. And when it didn't work, they went back to their strengths. It shows a wisdom to try, but to know when to double-down on what you already do well.

Instagram cracks down on fake accounts - The cheer was heard 'round the world as Instagram cracked down on fake accounts and some of the smarmier practices. READ MORE.

Instagram requires a biz account for many third-party tools now - As of December 2018, Instagram will finally fully shift their API (which started earlier this year). What this means for those of you who, like me, don't know what API stands for, it means that if you want to schedule and post from Tailwind or Hootsuite or another tool, you need your Instagram account to be a business account. The switch is free and almost painless. Your engagement might disagree, as mine dropped when I switched.

For Podcasters, Libsyn integrates with Pandora - Y'all. I don't have this yet, but for podcasters using Libsyn for their media hosting, you can get your podcast on Pandora, which I believe is the largest audio streaming platform PERIOD. I'm a huge fan of Libsyn and would highly recommend them for podcasters for reasons like this one. They care about podcasters and go out to get features that matter. READ MORE.

LinkedIn is doing some things (like thinking really hard about a stories-like feature) and Snapchat is making new spectacles, but I don't really care. At all.

My first tip for keeping up is that you should FOCUS. Unless you have a job that requires you pay attention to ALL social media, stop trying! I feel totally okay that I had to spend time googling "YouTube new features 2018" to write this post.

Pick the few platforms you care about and just do that work. The end. Don't worry about Instagram if you don't use it. If you think you MIGHT use it, don't worry now. Worry when you want to use it. The platform will change if you're looking now, planning for then.

I've found more and more as I go on that all the social media activity I strived to gain means very little. I mean, I have almost 10k Twitter followers. That was a huge goal years ago! But...it doesn't DO anything for me.

What DOES work? Relationships. Those could happen on social. They happen for me in the Facebook group. And on my email list. Those two together are like my magic. Find your magic! The thing that you enjoy that DOES something for you. Then just do that and don't feel at all guilty that you ignore everything else. Okay? Great. Glad we got that squared away.

If you really like knowing what's up, visit a site like Social Media Today once a week and just scan the headlines. It's fabulous and easy. You'll impress your friends. (Maybe.)