Sunday, April 26, 2009

How I Became a #1 Amazon Bestseller!

When I first signed up for the Amazon.com Bestseller Campaign course, I created a list of affirmations for myself. I knew that this course would take months of dedication and hours of concentrated work. Many people said that it was very difficult to reach the #1 position, and that even so, why spend so much money on a course that would probably only lead to a few hundred sales, at best? But I kept affirming to myself, "I am a #1 Amazon.com bestselling author!"

So, I kept on collecting bonus gifts, and reaching out to JV partners month after month, personalizing each and every note, keeping in touch with everyone regularly to make sure that I established a good relationship with them, and hopefully ensure that they would come through with their promise of mailing for me on that day-as the secret to an Amazon.com bestseller campaign is to get a bunch of people to buy your book on a certain day, by offering them an incentive such as free bonus gifts. ((Finally, the big day came ... and the server crashed! I had 101 partners mailing out to their lists, over a million eyeballs-and the link didn't work! I was devastated! But due to the dedication and help of a team of amazing technical support people, I was able to move the campaign over to another server, and by 2:30 p.m. ET the campaign was back up and running. I kept saying my affirmations.

I reached #15 that day, in the Family Relationships category. It was a slight disappointment, because the folks teaching the class almost guaranteed a top ten spot. I chalked it up to the server crash. But I kept affirming. The next month, I heard back from Dr. Laura that she had chosen The Daughter-in-Law Rules to feature on her show as book of the week-and I was overwhelmed when the book catapulted up to #5! ((But I had my goals-I know I'm stubborn, but I still believed that I could make it to the #1 spot! So I kept saying my affirmations, over and over: "I am a #1 Amazon.com bestselling author!"

I was poking around Amazon one day, and realized that there was a category under Home and Garden, called Wedding Showers. I checked it out and it seemed as if the competition wasn't as steep there, and even more appropriate for my book! So I wrote to Amazon, and had The DIL Rules switched from Family Relationships to Wedding Showers. I kept writing to bloggers, asking them if they would be so kind to post about the DIL Rules. I kept the affirmation going.

On Monday, November 3, the DIL Rules hit #1 in Wedding Showers on Amazon.com! I did a little victory dance all day long! This was a yearlong process, and although I could have given up or quit, I kept on affirming.

Never give up on your dreams! Keep saying those affirmations and YOU WILL SUCCEED!

Please visit Sally "The Mother-in-Law Manager"
Shields, speaker and author of The Daughter-in-Law Rules on the web at http://www.thedilrules.com/ for contest giveaways, free bonus gifts,The DIL Rules newsletter, 44 Top Tips Cheat Sheet, free music ... and more!

Fighting In Gods Name

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