In episode 30 of Micro Entrepreneur: the magic of thinking small, I had a great time speaking with Steve Scott, an author and entrepreneur who has written over 40+ books on Internet Marketing, Self-Publishing and Productivity, including his most successful books Habit Stacking and The Daily Entrepreneur. We talked about his business model and also his successful internet marketing history that eventually led him to his self-publishing career.

Listen below or go to iTunes or Stitcher to Subscribe and download it to your smart phone



Book recommendation

The book that I recommend in the intro is Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less by Greg McKeown. Brilliant for creating more focus and acheving more. Click here to check it out on Amazon.

This week's guest

As well as his books and self-publishing advice, Steve also has a podcast called:

Self-Publishing Questions (SPQ)

Steve says:-

Currently, there are a lot of great podcasts about self-publishing. Most typically run for 30 to 60 minutes and focus on interviews with successful authors. Mine has a different format with:

More episodes—three to seven days each week.
Shorter length—five to 10 minutes in length.
Each episode features one question from a listener.
Knowledge experts (who know more than me about specific topics) “guest record” an episode.
Accountability episodes that focus on helping authors get results with their businesses.
In essence, the podcast focusses entirely on the problems you experience with the self-publishing process. As an example, if you’re familiar with “Ask Pat” or “Money Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips,” then you’ve seen evidence of how shorter podcasts can provide lots of actionable information.

What we covered in the show:

How he struggled in the first couple of years
How his 'email-list' produced his first steady income via ezine articles and affiliates
His business model is based on taking one topic and then diving in 'inch wide and a mile deep'
The challenge of staying on topic and focussing on what the promise is, by using 'outlining' as your guide
The sweet-spot for Steve is 20k to 30k words - and how he works with a partner to speed the process up
He sets aside up to 4 hours a day when he's really motivated and then gets into email etc. later in the day
How his writing takes priority over everything else
Why he publishes his income reports - and the value of transparency
About his breakthrough book Habit Stacking
The model he uses when first launching a book - 'poll the people who follow you' - 'ask the audience what they want to learn about as you're writing
He focusses on Amazon - at the moment (even though it's all eggs in one basket)
He uses more of a roll-out than a big 'one-off launch' strategy - timed in sequence - pushing people over to Amazon over a steady period of time which then lets the algorithms kick in
Build your own platform with true fans who know, like and trust you
Use the high energy point of your day on the 2 or 3 things that will really drive your business
Develop the habit framework instead of the task you think needs to be done, so the habit becomes ingrained
Whether it's more valuable to create a mini-book rather than long blog posts
How he writes 6-8 books per year
What makes him comfortable that he has something new to say
His plans for 2015-16