Ghostwriting and self-publishing startup in earnest today

Today is the first day of my new life. That may sound a little dramatic but that is exactly what it is. I finished my employment in Sunday, the kids were off school yesterday so today marks the start of my solely self-employed life. I find it a refreshing change already! I am now a writer. As regular readers of this blog will know-

I started out looking to set up my own estate agency.

I have fallen into writing for myself and others.

The estate agency idea is firmly on the back-burner today, but will come through in some of the other things I do because I still write an estate agency blog, I have an estate agency/real estate gig on fiverr and I will be writing a guide on how to set up your own estate agency.

This blog will now take the form of something that informs readers about my progress, something that informs you about other startups and products that might be useful to you.

So with the start today I have planned out my next ten books so that I know what I will be able to produce over the next few weeks. The reason that I have done this is do that I don't have any downtime. My main source of income initially will be to write for others. This is so I can gain immediate income from producing things got other people. I am paid up front for this work and I don' t have to wait for sales. This puts me in a position where I can warm straight away. But I can't guarantee that I can fill every minute of every day with this. There will be times where I don't have anything to write for anyone else. In those times I will write got myself, add to my portfolio and give myself a chance of long-term income.

Today will also see three telephone calls-

• The inland revenue to register as self-employed
• The tax credit people with a change in my circumstances
• A charity called Tax Assist to see if they can help me with my accounts

I'll let you know how all of these went on the next blog entry.

In the meantime check out my books that are already available-

The next book is almost ready - and I'm starting on the project after that!

I've finished draft one of the content for my next book. It's a book about writing a book! It will talk through the process of writing a top selling non-fiction book. What I have left to do is-

• Edit the content
• Add any extras, such as illustrations or charts
• Get the cover designed
• Publish
• Market the book

It's exciting stuff!

I've started the brainstorming for the next project and it will be entitled something like the following-

I'll show you how to become an estate agent

I want to produce a book, a MOOC (massive online open course), a support consultancy, a website and an app.

From here I think that I will be able to provide support for both startup estate agencies and marketing ideas for established agents. I will also make available a set of documents for estate agents-

• Contracts
• Letters
• Invoices
• Prospecting letters

These will be available to be bought singly or as a pack. Each document will be set up as both an administrative tool and a marketing tool.

As with all of the writing projects I've been doing, once the content is produced then it just sits there awaiting purchase. There will be annual reviews and updates (possibly more frequently than this for the MOOC) but essentially the work is done.

I've always wanted to have a set income coming through that frees me up to do other things and along with everything else I've written, this feels like it's getting there.

See how I'm using mass blogging sites, multiple blogs and social media to grow an audience

-152

I've been looking at different ways to increase the views on my blogs this week. The amount of people that read my right blogs is relatively low, in terms of the big online sites and I want to grow real views and clicks for three main reasons-

1- to have people view my estate agency blog that are interested in estate agency. This will increase my traffic for any blog on estate agency on my own website when the business is set up.

http://eaboost.blogspot.co.uk/

2- to have people interested in the Spennymoor property market as a ready-made audience for when I open up an estate agency in the town.

http://spennyproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

3- to have good click figures for potential buyers when it comes to selling my fiverr gigs to people who want exposure for whatever they are selling.

See my fiverr profile here-  https://uk.fiverr.com/homeestates

The ways that I have started to look at this include mass-blogging sites, featuring the blog wording on other sites and trying to increase my social media following.

Mass-blogging sites

The idea with these is that it takes my single blog on its own site and puts on a site that people will visit to read blogs. The plus side is that my blog suddenly appears somewhere that readers are expecting a blog. The down side is that I'm now faced with the competition of hundreds, thousands of other blogs.

Some of the sites I have tried include-

• Blogarama
• BlogFlux
• Super Blog Directory
• Blog Listing
• Bloggio

Basically you out in your blog RSS feed details and it will automatically feed any new entries to the respective sites.

It's only been around ten days but I can't really report any great increase in my readership as a result of this so far. I'm sure that in time it will add readers as my blogs gain traction but I don't think that it will change the world for me. I'm sure that every click counts when it comes to content and content marketing though, and I'm happy that I've done it.

Featuring the words on other sites

I've set up Wordpress sites of each of my blogs so the wording can be found in more than one place.

For the estate agency blog I've also uploaded some of my blog posts on an estate agency networking site. These for me are about establishing a presence and increasing networking. Apart from the links within the text, there's no actual prompt to read the initial Blogger blog in any of these. So my concern is that it may dilute rather than increase the readership. These are an even newer development than the mass blogging sites so I'll have to keep you posted in my progress here.

Increasing my social media following

I've been trying to naturally grow thew following I have for all of my Twitter accounts. Each account focusses on a different area of interest and I'm looking to quadruple the amount of followers I have on each. I am doing this by trying to follow people who have a similar interest and that tend to follow people that follow them. I'm determining this by the amount of followers and followed they have - if the figures are roughly similar then I believe that there's a good chance of being followed back. I'm trying to stay aware of Twitter's rules and they will block any accounts that routinely follow hundreds of people sat once. I'm following people with similar interests and only 15-50 per day at the most.

I find that Twitter gives me the best traction for my blogs on social media, although I maintain Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr accounts and sometimes upload my blog posts to LinkedIn.

As usual, I'll keep you updated with any progress or otherwise that I make.

Onwards and upwards!

A bit of everything has been happening all at once this week

-150

A bit of everything has been happening all at once this week. It's one of those occasions where I don't really know which way to turn so I've turned all ways at once! Let me explain-

Work

I've been offered the chance to  step up to the next level until after Christmas. It means going full-time for a few months and this impacting on the available time I have to do other things. But I've  accepted the offer in the basis that many of the other things I do at this time of year will start to tail off.

Fiverr

I came home to 4,500 words of fiverr writing on Friday night. It's mice to get regular sales on fiverr and it means that my gig explanations are hitting the right notes. I'm relatively new to fiverr and I'm finding out that Friday afternoon seems to be the time for buyers to instruct you. About 60% of my gigs have been commissioned on a Friday afternoon. I set aside two hours on Saturday morning to complete the gigs and I've had the first drafts sent off for approval.

Mystery shopping

This does really start to tail away at this time of the year when retailers really want to concentrate on serving customers and making money.

http://mysteryshopperblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/its-time-to-start-mystery-shopping-now.html

There have been a couple of mystery shops and a gambling success but few and far between-

http://mysteryshopperblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/see-how-quick-mystery-shopping-trip.html

Book sales

I've been using my blogs to promote my books more and more recently, especially-

The Mystery Shop Blog - http://mysteryshopperblog.blogspot.co.uk/

How to Sell Your Home - http://how-to-sell-a-home.blogspot.co.uk/

I'm finding that books sales are steady and that interest in the blogs is increasing well at the moment. From here I hope to produce a solid regular income for when the business opens.

homeestates

Fiverr

Seller

I am a writer - I write all the time. I have several blogs, have written three books (so far) and I just love writing. I will write positive reviews or articles or mention you in my blogs in clear English. I'm new to Fiverr but I'm incredibly passionate about what it can empower.

See how the half-term time off didn't stop all the startup planning

-137

It's half-term week and roughly-speaking a week off from many parts of the startup planning. I've not switched off completely and sitting as a passenger in some car journeys along with other spare time gives me the chance to write a few blog posts, tweet some marketing links and check my fiverr gigs. It's important to keep an active present with things like this and most of my gigs offer services that I can produce in less than half an hour on my smartphone. Even if I need to conduct some research then a smartphone can take care of that. In fact, there's little that I can't produce at short notice.

I think that a slow build of what I do is the way forward. I've written and self-published several books now and I'm starting to sell my writing services more on fiverr. And writing is something that I really enjoy. If writing my books brings in a good income and writing for others can supplement that whilst I'm running an estate agency then I'll be very happy.

But it's getting to that next level that is taking that time. My reviews on fiverr have all been five star and my clients have been incredibly happy with my writing. I need to be able to turn a few gigs every now and again into several high-paying jobs a week. With my trust levels at their highest, I promote my gigs in my blogs and on Twitter to keep up the exposure levels. It's gaining exposure that will help to keep things moving on.

And it's research into this marketing exposure that's at the front of the thoughts in this blog. I have started to look at different ways if getting my blog exposed to a larger audience. For example, I've applied to have my mystery shop blog featured on the blogs section of mumsnet. Also my estate agency blog is featured on real-estate network. It's by having these extra outlets that I feel I can get my work noticed. By having my work noticed I can get more readers, more orders, more happy customers and the cycle continues. And that's how the theory goes.

A short blog today, but keeping the thought processes moving and the words flowing will always help.

I'm starting to resurface back into the world after the eye operation

-110

I'm starting to resurface back into the world after the eye operation and the recovery period. After the operation and the recovery period I've been finding that even the simplest of tasks leaves me tired - until today.

I've re-started my gigs in fiverr, with the hope that they bring in some income that I re-spend on fiverr itself. There's a vast array of items that I can see myself spending credit on, and some others that are interesting as well-

• I will ghostwrite, proofread and edit your ebooks and kindle books
• I will write a 500 word introduction for your book or ebook
• I will illustrate your book
• I will design a Sensational Book or Kindle eBook Cover
• I will advertise your book or bookish product on my book blog
• I will add PERMANENT Facebook likes
• I will post PERMANENT Amazon review 
• I will write about your site in my Real Estate Site

There's a wide array of things to be ordered on Fiverr, and probably a whole host of other things that I haven't even come across yet.

During my time on the Fiverr website I've done a few Gigs that I've been really interested in, and I'll share a bit of detail with you on the latest one. I have explained how the website works on recent past blog posts, so I won't go into too much detail there. And also to say that I won't be giving updates on every Fiverr Gig I conduct but in the early days it's been quite interesting.

The below blog link is a sponsored link through Fiverr, where the producers of the product wanted more exposure for their products and to create some back links for their Etsy shop-

http://inofftheblogpost.blogspot.com/2015/09/so-your-child-wants-to-be-footballer.html

The products themselves are great, but it was thinking about how to frame them into the context of who is reading my blog on football, and who is likely to buy the products when they've read the blog. I worked on the different angles available to me and then decided hat they aspirational aspect was probably the best way to go, as it is still too early to go heavy on the Christmas theme.

In all, I'm very pleased with the way it went and the fact that I'm resurfacing onto online life, if not the real world quite yet.

The products can be found at -

https://www.etsy.com/listing/247211206/personalized-christmas-stocking-custom?ref=shop_home_active_3

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBusyElfWorkshop?ref=hdr_shop_menu

homeestates

Fiverr

Seller

I am a writer - I write all the time. I have several blogs, have written three books (so far) and I just love writing. I will write positive reviews or articles or mention you in my blogs in clear English. I'm new to Fiverr but I'm incredibly passionate about what it can empower.

My first fiverr gig - Mannys Sauces

-100

I've completed my first gig for fiverr this week and I absolutely loved it. The gig was producing two blog entries and a testimonial for Mannys Sauces - an exciting new venture by the guy who originally founded Nandos in South Africa many years ago.

The idea behind the blogs is that they fitted the narrative of my existing blogs but mentioned heavily the products of Mannys Sauces and provided a platform for the products to gain more exposure. And I'm pleased with the results-

http://inofftheblogpost.blogspot.com/2015/09/whats-best-food-to-go-with-football.html

The first blog entry is related to football and I decided to look at how food and football mix. The blog was about the perfect good to go with football and Mannys Sauces fitted this bill with their mix of spice and flavour. It's a similar way to how curry is eaten when watching the football - with friends and a few cans of beer. My football blog is read by the type of demographic that would enjoy the product.

The second entry is on my retail blog and talks about two things - buying from a UK business and getting to know a product or brand on the ground level. My retail blog is read by independent retailers that may want to stock the sauce and by people in larger retailers that may want to get onto a product that may become very big very quickly.

http://mytimeinretail.blogspot.com/2015/09/shop-local-is-about-spending-with.html

The idea is they both of these blogs and the surrounding social media marketing will give the brand and products some exposure. The other piece I wrote for Manny is a testimonial piece for his own use. It's related heavily to the product but I believe that it is a positive article that can be used in different strands of his marketing strategy.

Overall in pleased with the work and already looking forward to the next gig.

homeestates

Fiverr

Seller

I am a writer - I write all the time. I have several blogs, have written three books (so far) and I just love writing. I will write positive reviews or articles or mention you in my blogs in clear English. I'm new to Fiverr but I'm incredibly passionate about what it can empower.

Fiverr and RawShorts

-93

I've been back on the serendipity trail (blog) this week and I've found two great little sites that are helping me to earn money and self-publicise the work that I have been doing recently.

The sites that I am referring to are www.rawshorts.com and www.fiverr.com and I've found both sites to be a real help in moving forward with marketing.

I've mentioned before about using fiverr to get the covers designed for my Kindle ebooks and I find that for a medium such as the Kindle ebook, the designers come up with suitable fast designs that meet my needs. The things that fiverr offers are huge - from flyers, posters and banner ads to copywriting, translation and proofreading. There are thousands and thousands of people on there offering services for small and medium businesses. It's worth checking it out.

One of the people offering services is me! And I'm offering blog mentions on my football, retail and estate agency blogs or positive professional reviews on a website of the buyers choosing. The concept is simple - find a service you need, pay $5 to the seller and then receive the service in a couple of days.

My offering can be found at https://uk.fiverr.com/homeestates

Check it out!

The other website that I found on one of my meandering serendipity trips is RawShorts. This has a series of templates of short animated promotional videos for yout to edit and make into something that you can use yourself. The videos can be uploaded to YouTube and from there you can download the MP4 file and use it where you need it.

I have produced the video below to advertise my blog service on fiverr.com.



There are loads of videos to choose from and then you can edit away to add your own logo, own wording and own images to make it look like something that was made just for your brand. Again, I recommend that you try it out.

The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s1dOfqflec

homeestates

Fiverr

Seller

I am a writer - I write all the time. I have several blogs, have written three books (so far) and I just love writing. I will write positive reviews or articles or mention you in my blogs in clear English. I'm new to Fiverr but I'm incredibly passionate about what it can empower.

Photographs, reviews, fiverr and some serious editing are improving my Kindle book

-47

I've been looking to increase the income from my first Kindle ebook by improving it in several ways.

How to sell your house: What estate agents don't tell you by Steven Thompson

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I5HOJAM/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_etaRvb3QK3CFG

These changes are coming before I finish my second ebook on the related topic of and then a combined book of The income I receive from this has been modest but steady, and I want to extend this to help when I eventually open my estate agency and have to rely on other income for a short while.

I've looked at the book and the changes I think were needed and the details are below-

Addition of photographs

The book itself flowed quite well in the way it was written but the newer version, to be released soon, will have some stock photos added to the text to break up the words and provide a link between the chapters. They are simple stock images that provide visual clues to the text and make it more easily readable.

Top tips boxes

I found that throughout the text I was highlighting really good ideas of how to make the most out of the process of selling your home. The ideas tended to get lost in the text as there were over 5,000 words. I came across the idea of adding boxes marked with the heading "TOP TIP." This enables the reader to spot the things to make the big changes. In short, it really highlights the really good ideas.

Reviews

I've started the process of emsing people a copy if the book so that they can give me a review. The Amazon reviews help potential buyers to make their decision in terms of whether to buy something. I've started to contact the top reviewers on Amazon with a copy of the book with a request to read and review. Hopefully this will add to the interest in the book and some reviews (hopefully positive) will tempt people to buy or borrow.

A new cover

I decided that the original cover that I designed myself on Microsoft Publisher didn't really stand up to the competition. It looked homemade. During one of my serendipity trips on the internet I found a website called fiverr.com. (See blog - http://245daystogo.blogspot.com/2015/06/stumbling-across-ideas-and-answers-when.html .) The website brings together designers and people who need quick basic designs - all for the princely sum of $5.

My designer came up with the following design first-

Obviously with a website that crosses large parts of the world, there can be small issues with communication. With fiverr, the designers have rules they post in the site when you instruct them to produce work for you. My designer allows one alteration to the design and if you're still not happy after that they refund your money. I asked for a revision to change the notes at the bottom of the picture to UK sterling pound notes as the book is mainly aimed at the UK market.

And this is the final design. The new design is uploaded to the book's profile on the Amazon page. The new design shows another change, albeit sort-term. There are many books called 'How To Sell Your House' on Amazon already, so I've decided initially to make this Kindle book titled 'How To Sell Your Home' to differentiate. The next step will be, however, to order another Kindle book cover and add the title the second time, so it's listed under both 'house' and 'home' on the Amazon website. I hope that this will enable me to reach both search terms.