Teacher Career Change

Create Your Own Work Systems then Productize Your Services to Clone Yourself

Sheila — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 22:00:00 GMT

As I mentioned in this previous post about business and personal systems, it took me years to realize I had to create my own work system once I left the employment world. The first four articles in this series told you how to start creating your own work systems:

Once you are consistently working, I recommended that you productize yourself so you can maximize your reach with these posts:

Here at Teacher Career Change, I want you to have career change options that separate yourself from “selling” your limited time through employment or per project payments. That is why I’ve been sharing what I know about productizing yourself. However, before you can effectively productize yourself, you need to need to find out what works for you.

Teacher Career Change is all about creating lasting change that works. That kind of change comes from within and only from YOU: Your Own Understanding. I call it YOUToolBx.

YOUToolBx Concept Validated by Schools 4.0

YOUToolBx was presented to Schools 4.0 which helps educators reimagine learning. Initially, it was intended for classroom teachers so that they can build “their own set of tools that will help them survive and thrive during the New Normal and beyond.” Read more in the post introducing the 2022 4.0 Fellows, just search for me [Sheila] or my project [YOUToolBx] because they awarded 141 educators with business or non-profit ideas.

YOUToolBx for Teacher Career Changers

Now, I am revising YOUToolBx to help you. Unlike step-by-step programs by some self-proclaimed gurus, it has the following guideposts:

Acknowledge and find YOU
Content versus Process
Decomposition - breaking it apart
Zoom In and Out
Composition - putting it together
Your Toolbox

I used some of these terminologies in past posts and will continue to write about it here at Teacher Career Change. Nevertheless, I need to take some time out from weekly publication to work on YOUToolBx. Please subscribe so you’ll be updated.

Increase Your Profit from your Productized Service by Offering Related Products

Sheila — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 22:00:43 GMT

How can you increase your earning from a productized service? In this post, we will explore how to increase your profit by offering related products that complement your productized service.

Related Products Defined

I asked Google’s version of ChatGPT, called Gemini, to define related products for teachers who productized their services. It gave a fairly good answer as shown below:

In other words, related products are products that complement your main offering. Let’s apply this concept to our Teaching Money Skills Virtual Coaching offer that we discussed in the last post.

Related Products Applied

The first related product offered is a $17 downloadable PDF version of the Money Skills lesson plan. It also acts as a sample product prospective clients can try before signing up for virtual coaching. If the client opts for coaching first, the lesson plan is offered for free.

Another related product are lesson extensions. Did you see the red and white number 1 on the offer above? It indicates lessons 2, 3 and so on. Then I can offer all those lessons as a curriculum bundle. Other related offers can be:

blank hundred boards and ten frames
coin manipulatives or stickers
practice worksheets
money coloring books
money skills games

I can go on and on. However, the most important step is to start offering your expertise as a productized service then ask the following questions:

How did my clients or students use my offer?
What items did they use to apply my product?
Can I create those items and productize them?

Next, we will put everything discussed in this series on how to productize and systemize your own work system.

Productized Service for Teachers you can Easily Duplicate

Sheila — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 22:01:13 GMT

In our last post, I showed you how to easily find an expertise to productize. I broke down my own expertise as a SPED teacher and zeroed in on “HS Math + Life Skills.” In this post, I will show you how I was able to transform this idea into a productized offer using a FREE platform.

Repackaging Expertise to a Marketable Product

Investopedia defined productize as “the process of developing or altering a process, idea, skill, or service to make it marketable for sale to the public.” In order to productize my expertise on teaching HS Math and Life Skills to children with special needs, I looked at my previous lessons and I remembered how I used ten-frames and a hundred board to teach Money concepts as shown below.

I realized I can offer the same lesson to younger students to widen my market. Thus, I repackaged it to a 30-page downloadable product called “Helping Teachers and Parents teach Money Skills” and offered virtual coaching as shown below or at https://teachercareerchange.gumroad.com/l/money-skills-coaching01.

I used Gumroad, a free platform for online sellers, to create the landing page above. It has no monthly fee and has all the essential elements we need to productize:

Offer on a Landing Page
Payment System
Delivery System

Offer on a Landing Page

I offered virtual coaching to help teachers and parents teach money skills. I admit, it is not yet fully productized because I am still exchanging my minutes for pay. However, after a few calls, I will be able to find out what are the common questions. Then, I can create a “how-to” video that they can watch so it will be asynchronous instead.

Payment System

Your landing page should always have a payment system. Gumroad processes the payment and get a small percentage as a fee for using their platform. If you want to use other platforms, make sure it has a payment system.

Delivery

Lastly, there should be an automatic delivery system of your product. Once your customer pays, they expect to receive something. In the landing page, I specified that they will receive:

a sign-up calendar link to schedule virtual coaching
a short survey on your child's current level
a 20-minute one-on-one virtual lesson for your child
a 10-minute follow-up with you on how to teach the lesson

The first two items are automized. Gumroad will show a calendar link I created from an app called TidyCal which has a free version. I used the paid version which I got for a one time fee of $29.

I connected TidyCal with my Google Calendar and chose what days and times I want to offer. For this coaching, I chose Sunday nights and Monday mornings. Once a client signs up, TidyCal will:

schedule a video conference using Google Meet which is also free.
automatically ask the client to answer a short survey

If you are not used to Google Meet, there is an option to use Zoom instead of Google Meet. After a few video calls, I plan to record a video and offer it instead of a synchronous coaching so it will be fully productized—not offering minutes for pay which limits your earning potential because your time is limited. In that case, the client will get a YouTube video link that will not be available in public. Next, we’ll discuss how to increase your earning by offering related products.

How to Start to Productize Yourself

Sheila — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 22:00:20 GMT

Last week, I explained the benefits of productizing yourself to escape the limits of per-hour or per-project earning. In this post, I will share one easy way to start productizing yourself:

pick an area of expertise
break it apart
pick one area of your expertise or combine some of them
repackage it as a productized service.

Above is a graphical version of the steps for all my visual readers. Let’s dive in.

Sample Expertise: K12 Special Education

I was a classroom special education teacher in an urban public school district. If I were to break apart what I know to successfully teach students with special needs, I can easily fill numerous pages. However, I’ll just list 15 of them:

Knowledge of Differentiated Instruction
Understanding of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)
Skills in Behavior Management
Proficiency in Assistive Technology
Ability to Develop Social Skills Programs
Experience with Inclusion and Mainstreaming
Understanding of Disability Laws and Regulations
Ability to Foster Student Independence
Ability to Implement Positive Behavioral Interventions
Experience with Adaptive Physical Education
Experience with Math Instruction for Special Needs
Proficiency in Life Skills Instruction
Understanding of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
Expertise in Assessment and Evaluation
Knowledge of Transition Planning
Share

Select One or Combine Some

I taught HS Math to students who barely multiply two digits so numbers 11 and 12 in the list above is dear to my heart. Thus, I am interested to combine what I know in teaching HS Math + Life Skills. I will ask myself:

What Math lessons did I prepare that have elements of life skills instructions?
Do I have real world Math lessons that my students enjoy?
How can I improve those lessons?

Repackage to Productize

Once I zero in on WHAT I want to productize, I need to decide on how I can package what I know as a productized service. Here are a few ideas:

I can create Math Life Skills worksheets
I can teach other Special Education teachers how to integrate Life Skills in standardized Math lessons
I can make a Life Skills curriculum
I can record myself teaching Real Word Math Skills for students with special needs
I can self-publish a workbook on Math Life Skills

See, you only need to pick a small area of your expertise to productize yourself. However, thinking about it is different from doing it. Next, I will tell you how I can productize (from offer to payment system) my Math Life Skills teaching service that you can easily duplicate.

Productize to Clone Yourself and Earn beyond Hourly Pay

Sheila — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 22:00:00 GMT

When I was a HS inclusion SPED teacher, I felt the need to clone myself. I needed to support a lot of students in different classrooms but there is only one of me. Now, there is a way to clone myself and earn beyond hourly or per-project pay. That way is called “productize.”

What is Productize?

We usually earn money by selling either our time (employment) or products. Productize mixes both where you take a specific skill or knowledge, then you package it into a marketable product that can be bought again and again. I asked my free virtual assistant, ChatGPT, to “Give me a chart where different types of teachers can productize specific skills, knowledge and expertise. Make columns with teacher type, expertise, productized offer.” Below is what it produced where I boxed the productized offer in red so you’ll easily see them:

Can you see how you can productize your expertise? All you need to do is to:

select one of your expertise - if you don’t know, think about what your work colleagues ask you always like editing their lesson plans, creating slides, etc.
create a product from your expertise: workbook, lesson plans, online courses, guidebooks, etc.
put it in a selling platform where you can sell it, preferably without any fees like Teachers Pay Teachers, Etsy, Gumroad, Amazon KDP etc.

Productize to free yourself from per-hour limits

If you are employed, you are paid per hour. Even though you increase your per-hour-pay, it still be limited by the number of human hours you can offer. When you productize yourself, you are not bound by time. Here are other benefits of productizing yourself:

Scalability - you can reach more people without physically being with them. Your books, online courses, guidebooks, etc. will reach more students instead of you going to their classes or homes. Basically, you are “cloning” your expertise through your productized items.
Efficiency - productized services usually use templates and systemized workflows. For example, if you teach reading for non-readers, you would have created general steps that others can follow.
Potential for Increased Revenue - because you are not limited by time, your productized offer can be bought again and again by people anytime.
Streamlined Client Interaction - productized services bring clarity on deliverables and limit client interaction to what you selected to offer. Sometimes, if you are a consultant, boundaries might easily be overlooked.

Next, I will tell you how you can easily start productizing your services.

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Can AI Help Build you Advance your Business even if You are a Non-Tech Person?

Sheila — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 22:00:00 GMT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now being used by students and teachers. One AI app that educators use (and supposedly love) is Magic School that has more than 60 generative AI features. It made me wonder, are there AI apps for teacher career changers like us that that will help us be more productive and systemize our emerging business or new career? I used ChatGPT to jumpstart the research.

My Position in the use of AI

Before we delve in this topic, I want to clarify my position about Artificial Intelligence. I think it is a great tool but it is just that: a tool that will help us be more productive, save time and minimize expenses. I do not want it to think or write for me. I tried making ChatGPT write something and I ended up using more time to edit it. I learned to use it as my free virtual assistant instead by giving it a specific role (assistant) and task (research). Let me show you how I use it.

Q & A about AI Productivity Apps

My first question specified the following:

role - virtual assistant
task - research AI Apps and make a table (App Name, Website, price)
topic - AI apps that help build productivity and create work systems

Below is what it gave me in a few seconds. Notice that it created the table for me because I specifically asked for it.

Additional Information

Once I saw the table, I realized the function of each app is missing. So I asked ChatGPT to add it in another column. It produced the revised table in seconds. If I have a human assistant, it will take longer and an additional 1 or 2 hours payment.

Do the Thinking Yourself

It is fun to let AI help in brainstorming and arranging data in a table. However, if you look at the table above, it is really not helpful if you do not know where to start and unclear with your goals. My goal in this post is to help you find out if AI can help you create a productive work system. The above tables lack that information so let me use another AI-driven app where I asked it to produce an infographic on “How can a new businessman create productive work system using AI.” Below is one of twelve infographic templates that it produced for me.

Begin with Listing Tasks

I agree with the infographic created by my graphics app: begin with listing all your business tasks. If that is too big for you, list all the tasks you do for projects or services you do. For example, if you create online newsletters like me, the tasks may be:

brainstorming
researching
drafting
creating post graphics or pictures
writing
editing

Once you have the tasks, find out if there are AI apps that can help you with some of the tasks. For me, I used the following AI apps as of this writing:

brainstorming and researching - ChatGPT and previously Google Bard (which is now Gemini)
drafting - none
creating post graphics or pictures - sometimes SketchWow (I usually compose all my final graphics)
writing - none
editing - I should start using my apps more especially Prowriting

There is a learning curve in using all the apps so please consider if you have the time and interest to learn it.

It is all about Comfort Level

In the end, it is all about your comfort level and ease of use of AI apps. If it is easier for you to have an actual assistant, go for it. However, take a look at the list of AI productivity apps in the first table. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are listed there. I am sure you have been using both or have been exposed to them. AI applications help us work faster at less cost. But again, it is up to you. Next, we will talk about the advantages of productizing your services.

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Five Simple Actions that Makes You Move Forward and get Unstuck

Sheila — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 23:00:00 GMT

It is so easy to just not post nor do any kind of work for I am suffering from jet lag and lack of sleep. In the past, I will just let myself sleep and not do any work. I did that two years ago and got stuck. This time, I know how to make myself move and start working. In this post, I will share five simple actions that made me move forward and got me unstuck.

I just arrived from Asia to figure out if I can be a full time digital nomad and geoarbitrage my way to a lower cost of living while earning in dollars or any other currency. I apologize for missing my regular post schedule and will systemize my work and travel schedule better next time. However, my travel gave me a fresh perspective and more practical ideas to share with you in the near future.

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#01 - Behavior Chain

Behavior chain or chaining is a powerful special education technique for students. Teachers simplify a complex task by dividing it into smaller steps that lead from one task to another until the whole project is completed. I started using this on myself when I was neglecting exercise. I asked: what is the simplest task that will make me exercise at home? It was putting on my running shoes. Effective. Later, I did a simple behavior chain to start working:

go to my standing desk
turn on my computer
open the software I use to start designing or writing

These tasks are simple yet it helps me move forward and start working.

#02 - Two-Minute Timer

Now that I am in front of the computer, it is also easy to do nothing else. If I felt stuck again, I get my phone timer and give myself two-minutes to just start writing or designing. Before those minutes are up, I am on the flow.

#03 - Personal Work Structure or Process

It is better if you have a personal work structure or process. Please refer to my post about differentiating process and content tasks. Your work structure helps you create products and/or content. If you don’t have one, it is better for you to create one. For instance, I am highly visual. I can write content after I designed my post graphics. Thus, my work structure to finish an online newsletter post is to:

visualize my content through designing post graphics
outline
write and publish

I use a similar work structure while creating educational materials and other media. However, ideas flow constantly in my mind. I capture it by typing it on an app that syncs on all my apple tech. I also have a work system on how to filter and decide what I will do with those ideas.

#04 - Deciding the Day Before

Having a lot of ideas will get you stuck unless you decide in advance what to do next. When I was teaching, I never went to school without knowing what my students will do for the day. Now, before I go to sleep, I decide what to do next day. It helps me get going the moment I start working. If you will decide what to do during the day, it might cost you precious minutes and get stuck.

#05 - Having Deadlines (and value of online newsletters)

Lastly, deadlines have this magic effect on people to get moving. But they are self-made deadlines, you can easily move it. One advantage of having a weekly online newsletter is that you are committed to write something for your subscribers. Moreover, it makes you think, filter and distill important concepts swimming in your mind. And hopefully, it will help others too. I will talk about the possibility of increasing productivity using AI (Artificial Intelligence) even if you are a non-tech person next.

Differentiate Your Work Tasks to Move Forward

Sheila — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 10:00:00 GMT

So now you regularly show up in your home office. Great! Now, observe yourself. WHAT do you do? I hate to tell you but checking email and researching for ideas do not move you towards your goal. Only content or product creation will help you move forward. In this post, I will help you differentiate your work into process and content tasks so you can start creating.

Busy Work

Admit it. As classroom teachers, we sometimes give busy work to students. But do you know that many entrepreneurs do a lot of busy work and call it actual work? Let me list some of those tasks:

checking emails
answering queries from social media
researching for new ideas
finding design inspiration

All these tasks might be connected to your industry, but they are NOT actual work that move you towards your goal unless they are part of your work system. I know. For months, I told myself I am working but my income says otherwise. Work that moves you forward helps you earn more. I started to earn more only when I differentiated process and content tasks. Let me explain.

Process versus Content

When I was a special education teacher, I had to figure out different ways to help my students learn. I knew WHAT they should learn. That is the lesson content. I have to figure out HOW they can learn the lesson. Similarly, entrepreneurs, consultants and other business people need to produce products and services. That is WHAT they offer. HOW they deliver, design and create those products and services is a different matter. In other words, you have to create your own work process in order to free yourself and produce something you can earn from. Remember:

Process = HOW you create products and services. It is a personal system you create in order to quickly and efficiently produce something you can earn from.
Content = WHAT you create. It is your unique service (in-person or online) or product (digital or physical).

This is the reason why here at Teacher Career Change, we have Systems Sundays and Creative Wednesdays. I found out that you have to know and implement both in order to reach your work goals.

Begin with the End in Mind

So how do you start identifying and differentiating tasks? Well, start with your end goal but make it achievable. For example, you want to create a reading curriculum. That might be too big if you are just starting. Ask yourself: what part of the reading curriculum I wanted to create can I do in a week? Maybe you can easily create a lesson on how to teach digraphs. Start with that. Then list all the tasks involved. Just list. Afterwards, mark all content (WHAT to create) tasks. Highlight with a different color all process (HOW) tasks. Examples of process tasks are:

establishing an online store like signing-up for a Teachers Pay Teachers account.
finding out acceptable image sizes for your product’s digital covers
deciding what software to use

Do you see what kind of tasks they are? Process tasks do not exactly help you produce something to sell. They help you systemize a personal work system. Sometimes, we lie to ourselves that they are part of our work. In a sense, they are. But they only help us establish a way to sell and create. They are not the tasks that help us earn more. Next week, I will share how I created a work system that helped me get unstuck from busy work tasks.

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The Need for Consistency to Succeed especially when You are Building Your own Business

Sheila — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 23:00:00 GMT

I am on the road right now. My work routines were hampered by jet lag and tiredness. I was about to give up when I noticed the saying on my mug: success is the sum of all small efforts repeated day in and day out. Well, I don’t think we should work ourselves to death but it is true. The key to personal and work success is doing it step-by-step consistently.

Planners didn’t work for me

For years, I tried a lot of paper and digital planners. It didn’t work. Why? I tend to list a lot of tasks that I do not have the energy to do. It just frustrated me more. Then I joined a group of women entrepreneurs who work together during a zoom call. We all said what we plan to do then proceeded to do our work while each of our cameras were on. It gave accountability and I loved it. However, the organizers were in a different time zone that did not work for me so I had to stop doing it. Nevertheless, it helped me create a routine of having a single goal and “showing up” consistently.

Show up for work even though you are the boss

I was tired after teaching all day. If you are a teacher, you know what I mean. It is really a don’t-talk-to-me-I-need-to-collapse-on-the-sofa-tired. But I was committed to build my business and leave employment so I went to my computer and turned it on. Then, I opened a software to start creating designs for my online store. I didn’t say I went to the computer to design. My body was too tired to do that. I told myself to get up and go to the computer. That was an easier task. Once I “showed up” for work, it was easier to open the software. Then it flowed. I was able to move forward a small task for my business. Then I allowed myself to collapse on my bed.

Create a work system that works for YOU

What worked for me might not work for you. Believe me. I read a lot of productivity books and listened to gurus. I learned a few tricks but it was generally a waste of time and money. Your situation is different from mine. Your goals, responsibilities and “free” time are unique to you. I can only share with you what worked for me and the general lesson I learned: you have to do it step-by-step consistently in a time-frame that works for you. Even if you only work on your business for 15 minutes a day, it will still be relevant if you do it consistently and towards your goal. Everything must be done with [Y]our [O]wn [U]nderstanding or YOU. However, not all tasks move your forward to your goal. Next week, I will help you figure out what type of tasks to do during your work routines.

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🧳 Side note: I do want to be consistent especially on my publication schedule but I forgot I was on a different time zone. I published this post on a Saturday, EST. It should have gone out Sunday for our System Sunday series.

Create Your own Work System Series

Sheila — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:00:31 GMT

Here at Teacher Career Change, we do Creative Wednesdays and System Sundays. We do this to jumpstart and accelerate your career change. Last week, we finished the KDP Print on Demand series about creating your own low-content books. Thus, we will now switch to System Sundays and talk about establishing your own work systems. We'll cover the following topics starting this coming Sunday:

Overcoming 3 Common Challenges when Starting a POD Low-Content Book Business

Sheila — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 23:00:19 GMT

Once you self-published your own low-content book via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), you entered the POD business. In this post, I will discuss three common challenges encountered by newbies and how to overcome them. If you just found this series, please see the rest of the POD posts below:

1 - Ignoring Trademark Issues

Yes, you created your low-content book from scratch. Yes, you used a royalty-free image. But what if you were inspired with a popular phrase your students kept on saying and inadvertently used it in one of your journal prompts? What if you inserted an emoji that you usually use for text. Well, some phrases, emojis and images cannot be used. You should know if the phrase you used in your low-content book is owned by somebody else. How? Do a trademark search at this link then plug in the phrase you intend to use. To show you how, I googled for “popular sayings today” and picked “lowkey.”

As you can see above, the phrase is owned by a number of businesses or individuals. Even if your search did not yield anythings, it is safer to google the phrase and see if a business is already using it. If you need help in using the US Trademark database, find their official FAQ here.

2 - Overlooking Niche Research

Have you heard the phrase: “the riches are in the niches”? Actually, there is less money in the niches but it is easier to dominate it. Why? Less competition. When you have more competition, there is more money but it is likely you will not get any of it. So what do you do now? You have to balance niching down with the potential to earn in that market. The easiest way to show you what I meant is by using one of my favorite apps, Publisher Rocket when I searched for “blank writing journal” keywords.

Disclaimer: I use affiliate links for products and/or services I truly love and recommend.

Look at the screenshot above. The number of competitors are less than a thousand except for the last one with 245 competitors. Now look at the estimated Amazon searches. The more searches but less competitors, the easier it is to earn from that niche. Publisher Rocket makes it easy for you to decide by giving a “competitive score” where 1 is the easiest and 100 the hardest. If you do not want to use a paid app, just niche down and test that niche. For example:

blank writing journal ➡ blank writing journal for kids
blank writing journal for kids ➡ blank writing journal for homeschooled kids
blank writing journal for homeschooled kids ➡ blank writing journal for homeschooled PreK kids

You can niche down or up, based on your expertise or your low-content book idea.

3 - Overthinking and being Stuck

Lastly, do not overthink it. Force yourself to stop at a certain day or time and start self-publishing your low-content book. The more you think about it, the more you might question your actions and be stuck. I know. I was also stuck. That is why in the next series, I will share how I created my own work systems that made me act, accomplish and start replacing my previous salary on my own terms.

How to Start Earning More Passive Income via Amazon KDP Royalties

Sheila — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 23:00:31 GMT

After learning how to list your first low-content book, how can you start earning more passive income via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)? As in everything, you ultimately reap what you sow. Let me explain, using a planting and harvesting metaphor, how we can increase our royalties from KDP Before we talk about harvesting, let us count the cost and the opportunities being given to us.

Cost of POD versus Traditional Business

When you self-publish low-content books via Amazon KDP, you are entering the print-on-demand (POD) business. Traditionally, publishing books cost a lot. With POD books, Amazon is shouldering most of the cost. Look at the table below to see what resources are given to you for free by the KDP platform.

In other words, you do not have to invest on printing equipment, office and inventory space, personnel and other traditional costs. You do not even have to pay an Amazon KDP membership fee for it is free to join. Your investment is minimal (compared to traditional business) but it takes time, effort and determination to earn. With this larger perspective, let us look at the earning percentage Amazon gives its self-publishers.

KDP: A Field Where we can Sow

Going back to our sowing and reaping metaphor, look at KDP as a field we are invited to sow our seeds. Here are what we will get:

ability to sell our low-content book via Amazon.com and their international counterparts (10 or more countries)
use of their on-demand printing equipment
absence of storage cost
access to marketing and advertising tools like Author listing and Amazon Ads
and more

I discussed book royalty as a passive income in the third post of this series. Now let’s look at the KDP royalty structure.

The screenshots above show the potential royalty for one book. Remember, you are NOT investing any printing cost or inventory. Your book will be printed only when somebody orders it - that’s the essence of print-on-demand books. However, you have to consider KDP costs and put it aside. The example above shows the printing cost of a sample project I showed before. If we price it at $10, we will only get $2.96 per book which might seem small at first. Yet unlike classroom teaching or any other type of hourly work, your bulk effort for this book is already done. Yes, you might want to improve its listing or market it, but the main work for this book is finished. Look at it as a seed you can multiply:

10 books sold = $29.60
100 books sold = $296
1000 books sold = $2,960

It might take months or even years, but it has the potential to bear fruit. If it failed to generate income, it is time to create more books with a goal.

Realistic Earning Goal

Remember our post on how to list and self-publish your first KDP low-content book? We broke them down into smaller steps. We will do that again with a starter question: how much do you want to earn from low-content books? Then, we will work backwards. So let’s start with a nice round number of $2000 per month. If we earn only $2 per book, that means we have to sell 1000 books. What does this look per week and per day?

to earn $2000 per month, you need to sell 1,000 books ($2 royalty)
1000 divided by 4 weeks = 250 books per week
250 divided by 7 days (remember, people buy 24/7) = 35 books per day

At first, selling 35 books per day seems impossible if you are selling only one low-content book. So, we’ll increase the number of low-content books we sell. Let’s assume that our book only sells once a month (but will likely sell a lot more), that means you have to produce 34 other books, increase your selling price, and/or market your book. In other words, you have to sow more seeds and nurture your POD field.

Filter, Choose then Create More LCBs

How do you increase the number of low-content books in your KDP bookshelf without stressing yourself? Find what is selling at Amazon that you already have or can easily produce. I showed you how to find Amazon keywords in a past post. Do it again. This time use words that you use at work. I was a SPED teacher so I looked for IEP planners, behavior charts and Math help. I am sure you have more. Then, look at the digital or print files you already have and convert them to simple low-content books. If you want to work faster, consider 3rd Party KDP tools I described in a previous post.

Bigger Picture: Use it to Promote Your Services/Career

If you want to earn more faster, offer services then create low-content books that will promote them. Here are some ideas:

student planner to promote your private tutorials
blank journals that complement your speaking engagements
complimentary notebooks for your Professional Development courses
co-teaching planner for inclusion or resource speakers
daily journals for counselors

Giving out low-content books is better than handling out calling cards that they can easily throw away. Make sure that you put your contact details somewhere in the book. We’ll wrap up this series next week and talk about how to overcome three common challenges when starting a POD low-content book business.

Can we use AI Tools at Amazon KDP?

Sheila — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 23:00:18 GMT

Can you use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create and/or list your low-content book at Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)? In this post we will let Amazon KDP itself answer this question. But first, why should we talk about AI in this series? Because Amazon included a question about it during the KDP listing and submission process. Let me show you where.

Amazon KDP asks about AI during KDP Submission

In our last post, I gave you an overview on how to list your first KDP low content book where I simplified the process using KDP’s three tabs. In the second tab, after you submit the book cover, Amazon asks: “Did you use AI tools in creating texts, images, and/or translations in your book?” It notes that Amazon is “collecting information about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in creating content.” See the picture below for more details.

I am not here to convince you to use AI. I just want you to be aware of this new question in the listing process. Personally, I do not know what Amazon will do with this data so I do not use AI to generate anything for KDP self-publication. But I do like using AI as my virtual assistant or productivity tool. Let me explain using Amazon’s Content Guidelines about AI.

AI Generated vs AI Assisted

Amazon wrote in its content guidelines that, “we REQUIRE [emphasis added] you to inform us of AI-generated content (text, images, or translations) when you publish a new book or make edits to and republish an existing book through KDP. AI-generated images include cover and interior images and artwork.” Generative AI is supposed to create new content after being given a prompt. However, it might not be truly “new” as New York Times contends when it sued ChatGPT. It is a new arena and Amazon wants to know if your content is AI generated.

On the other hand, Amazon does not require you to inform them if you used AI to assist you. The defined AI-assisted as follows: “If you created the content yourself, and used AI-based tools to edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve that content (whether text or images), then it is considered ‘AI-assisted’ and not ‘AI-generated.’ ” The key phrase is “you created the content yourself.” They added that if you used AI as a brainstorming tool, that is considered “AI-Assisted” as well.

Amazon and AI

Amazon is not against Artificial Intelligence. One of its sector, Amazon Web Services (AWS) recommends Generative AI to different businesses and offers Amazon Bedrock which they say is “the easiest way to build and scale generative AI applications with foundation models.” What I do know is that Amazon is great in collecting data and makes data-driven decisions.

AI-Assisted Tools for KDP

So what tools can you use to assist you in making your original content better? Well, I ask Bard, Google’s “conversational AI tool” which you can “collaborate with” in order to “brainstorm ideas, spark creativity, and accelerate productivity.” Below is what I asked Bard and its answer.

Some of the tools Bard mentioned may not be considered as AI tools by others. For instance, I used Grammarly and ProWritingAid before to edit my drafts but I never saw it as an AI tool. Maybe they are. Or not. But they definitely shorten the editing process. In our next post, we will talk about how to start earning more passive income via Amazon KDP royalties.

How to List your First Low-Content Book without being Frustrated

Sheila — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 23:00:00 GMT

How did you help your kids or students finish big projects? I don’t know about you, but I broke them down into smaller tasks. In this post, I will help you break down the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) listing process so you’ll be able to list your first low-content book without being overwhelmed or frustrated.

Start from the End

You are not finished listing your print-on-demand book until you see a KDP pop-up screen saying “Your paperback has been submitted” (see the screenshot on the first graphics). How do you reach that in your KDP account? Well you go through three KDP tabs:

Paperback Details [text]- where you put the book title, author, description, keywords, etc.
Paperback Content [PDF files] - where you upload your PDF interior file and PDF Cover for your low-content book
Paperback Rights and Pricing

See the three tabs on the screenshots below. And no, you will NOT see these screenshots after signing-in your KDP account. You see this after you choose what kind of book you want to create. For our purposes, click on “paperback” then you’ll see the three tabs above.

Tab #1 - Text or Practical Answers

You cannot go to the next tab until you encode all essential information that KDP wants. To show you, I tried to go to the second tab without entering any text; it gave me the information the first tab needs before allowing any user to go forward:

your publishing rights - if you own the copyright (you created it) or if it is public domain
choose a book category - remember the sample product we used to find keywords in a previous post? Well, we can use it to get inspiration on what book categories we can use for our writing journal low-content book. Find it at Amazon (or something similar) then go down the page and look for “product details.” The book categories are the ones circled below. By the way, if it is “independently published” it is probably a print-on-demand book.

last name - the author’s name or brand name of your book; note that it only asked for the last name so test the system if you can leave the first name blank.
book title and description - we discussed how to use keywords on these in a previous post

The rest of the questions are easy to answer. However, make sure to fill out the keywords section so that your book will be easier to find.

Tab #2 - PDF Files and Print Options

Aside from choosing your print options, the second tab is where you upload the following files:

the “manuscript” or inside pages PDF file; just in case you need a recap, please review:
1. how we easily designed our inside pages
2. how we expanded a 1-page design into 120 pages
the book cover - please review how we created our first cover on this post

Caution: Overcoming Preview Mishaps

It is on Tab # 2 where a lot of first timers get frustrated. Why? Because KDP will ask you to preview and approve it before going to the next tab. The simplest way to prevent frustration is to create from templates as I repeatedly said in this series. Use a KDP Book Cover Calculator before creating your cover. Use manuscript or inside pages templates before creating your first design. If there are still issues, breathe and do it again. It might be a margin error. Just move the design. You’ll learn as you do it.

Tab #3 - Pricing

The last tab is the easiest to answer: pricing. If I were you, I will just put an initial price and order your author copies (after it is published) to celebrate your first book. You can go back and change the price afterwards. The important thing is to learn the process and begin your passive income stream. Once you experience earning your first dollar, it is up to you to learn and sow more to multiply your passive income harvest. We’ll discuss the use of Artificial Intelligence in KDP in the next post then how to increase the number of print-on-demand books to generate more income. Subscribe so you’ll not miss a post.

How to Create your First KDP Cover for your Amazon Low-Content Book

Sheila — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 23:00:00 GMT

Creating your first Kindle book cover for self-publication might get you stuck, especially when you tend to be a perfectionist. I was a perfectionist before. Result? I got stuck and my projects do not move forward unless I have a deadline. Well, when you want to build passive income, you have to move forward and just do it. You have to start. In this post, I will share three keys to help you move forward and create your first low-content book cover.

This is the 10th of 14 posts about creating low content books to start a passive income stream for teachers and other career changers.

Key #1 - Use Templates

Start with a template with the right size, margins and book spine. Many first time cover designers get frustrated when Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) reject their covers because of sizing and margin issues. Remember, you are creating a print-on-demand book. That means, Amazon KDP will print your book according to pre-set standards. Use the KDP Print Cover Calculator to generate a free template for your book.

Key # 2 - Use Your Keywords

In a previous post, I asked you to find target keywords. Use those now to create your book title and cover concept. Don’t overthink it. If your keyword is “writing practice for kids PreK” make a simple title from that phrase then create a cover concept. Remember, you are not entering an art contest. You are learning how to create a cover that will attract your target buyer. Offhand, here are my ideas from our sample target keyword:

writing lines with a pencil
emphasis on the word “writing practice” - bigger, bolder; the rest of the title are smaller
“PreK” prominent on the upper right portion of the cover

Designing is simply guiding the reader’s eyes to convey a message. We use text sizes, color and images to emphasize the message we want to convey: buy this writing practice paperback. Don’t overwhelm their eyes by cluttering the cover.

Key # 3 - Start and Use What You Have

The most important key is to start and use what you have. Don’t focus on what you don’t have (skill, apps, hardware). If you know how to browse, click and type text, you can learn how to do a print-on-demand LCB cover. Here is how to start. Log-in your KDP account and click create paperback. You’ll see 3 tabs on the top. Answer the questions on the 1st tab (you can go back and change it) so you can go to the 2nd tab. See the picture below for details.

After you find the “print options” you’ll see the different book dimensions and paper setting. I chose the biggest one which is as big as an ordinary bond paper. The “interior” pages are the writing lines PDF we generated in the previous post. Underneath is the “book cover” portion. You can create your own or use KDP’s Cover Creator. KDP already published a detailed instruction with pictures and video, so just click on that link. I can give you other ways to generate a cover, but I do not want to overwhelm you. I just want you to start your self-publication journey and move on to your next low-content book upload. Why? Because the more books you “sow,” the better your passive income “harvest” you’ll get. In the next posts we will learn:

how to list your first KDP print-on-demand paperback “notebook” on Amazon
if we can use AI Tools when creating and listing KDP books for self-publication
how to find and decide what to publish next to increase your LCB passive income
recap the steps to self-publish low-content books at Amazon KDP
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How to Increase Your LCB Pages for KDP

Sheila — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 23:00:39 GMT

Can you publish a 120-page paperback via Amazon if you only designed a page or two? Yes you can if you will publish a Low-Content book (LCB). In this post, I will show you how to expand the one-page Google Slide design we finished in the previous post into a 120-page low-content book inside pages for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). First, let us review how Amazon defines a low-content book.

KDP Definition of LCB

KDP defines LCB as a “…book [that] has minimal or no content on the interior pages. Low-content books are generally repetitive, and designed to be filled in by the user.” That means we can reproduce the writing lines we designed in the last post into multiple pages. In this case, let me propose 120 pages for our paperback “notebook” or 60 leaves.

From One Page to 120+ Pages

Instead of telling you how to do it, let me show it to you instead. Below is a short video where I duplicated and expanded our initial google slide from 1 to 2, to 4, to 8, to 16, to 32 and on to more than 120 pages. Then, I deleted the extra pages and downloaded it as a PDF file.

Other Interior Pages

What if you want to create other types of inside pages quickly? Well, there are third party apps that you can use. I use Tangent Templates and Book Bolt. Read my previous post about using free and paid templates to create KDP interior pages to know more about it. But try to not be overwhelmed with a lot of choices. What’s important is for you to create and publish your first low-content book with minimal cost. In the next posts we will learn:

how to create your first KDP Book Cover for your LCB
how to list your first KDP print-on-demand paperback “notebook” on Amazon
if we can use AI Tools when creating and listing KDP books for self-publication
how to find and decide what to publish next to increase your LCB passive income
recap the steps to self-publish low-content books at Amazon KDP

Easily Design Your First KDP Low-Content Book

Sheila — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 23:00:00 GMT

When I was in the classroom, I dislike "teaching to the test." For my readers unfamiliar to the term, it means you focus on helping your students pass the standardized test. But hear me my co-teachers, there is some value on this method when figuring out how to successfully start your passive income through self-publishing low content books. Let me tell you why: designing with the the end in mind will not overwhelm you and minimize mistakes. It will help you start your passive income via self-publishing simple items. In this post, we will plan the design of our interior pages using the target keyword you chose based on last week’s post and the Amazon listing requirements. For those who are new to this series please review the other posts about this topic listed below.

Design with your Target Keyword

We ended our post last week by choosing an Amazon target keyword which is “writing practice for kids.” The phrase simply means a writing tablet or a primary notebook. If you are a primary or SPED teacher, it is likely that you created simple lined paper for your students. That is all it is. Lined paper. Plain lines or the one with a dotted line in the middle. But do not start designing yet. Let’s design with the end product in mind: successful listing of our book based on the listing requirements.

Be Guided with the Listing Requirements

By now, you should have signed-up for a KDP Account, in not, go ahead and create one. If you need help, read KDP’s guidelines on how to set one up. Once you have your account, click on create a paperback; most low-content books are paperbacks. Some can be hardbound. But your first LCB, let’s choose paperback.

Next, you will see three tabs. You will not be able to go to the paperback content or 2nd tab until you put some text on all required spaces. Don’t worry about those text now. We need to focus on items that will affect our design decisions only.

On the 1st tab (Paperback Details) it is important to check the two items shown above. You will see them just above the Keywords. The items are:

low-content book - we are creating a writing practice notebook
large-print book - we will use large fonts which is easier to read by kids

On the second tab, we need to decide our LCB’s size and paper. It is better to pick the largest size which is 8.5 x 11 inches. You can pick another size if you want. We will be choosing “with bleed” which just means some of our graphics can go to the margin edges.

Start Designing

Now you have a guide to start your basic interior page design:

create an 8.5 x 11 Google Slide or Power Point file
create your writing practice lines

You’ll see how I did it above with a list of steps using Google Slide. I am sure you can design better writing lines than me. Just imagine what your student needs and then make those writing lines. Next week I will show you how to make that single writing page into a 120-page (60 leaves) low-content book.

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Find Amazon Keywords before Creating your PDF Book Interiors for LCB

Sheila — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 23:00:00 GMT

In the last post, I shared with you why it is better to upload PDF files when you self-publish at Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). In this post, I will share with you many season Amazon sellers do before listing any product: find keywords.

Start with Keywords

People go to Google to search. When they go to Amazon, they are there to buy. You should know what words they are using to search for things they buy. This will help you jumpstart your success in self-publishing low-content books. Let’s start with a simple lined notebook that we will publish as a paperback.

Go to amazon.com and check the zip code. Change it to where your target market are or leave it as it is. In my example above, when I typed “writing” and waited for a few seconds, amazon helped me find products by giving writing search phrases. I picked “writing practice for kids” and re-typed it. Amazon responded by giving me more keywords. Now I have an idea what Amazon buyers are searching for.

Dig Deeper

From the keyword lists, pick one and look at the products. Find something that looks like a low-content book. For our purposes, I found these two items.

I know some of you are English teachers. Please set aside grammar for a while and look at the book title in a different light. Look at it as Amazon search terms that attract buyers. You will see that all parts of the low-content book listings:

book title
book sub-title
author and/or publisher (in this case it was not used as a keyword but sometimes, Amazon sellers use their target keywords as author too)
book description

All parts of the Amazon listing help your self-published book to be found. Even the customer reviews help in the Amazon search algorithm.

Your Assignment

Now that you know how to find keywords, list them. For experienced Amazon sellers, there are other factors like competition score, sales etc. But for our series’ purposes, let’s keep it simple. Just find a list of keywords you want to target. In the next post, we will use those keywords to design our book interiors.

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For those who want to know more about Amazon keywords and other available tools, see my previous post where I discussed Publisher Rocket, Book Bolt and KDP Spy Pro. These apps make keyword search easier and faster.

Disclaimer: I use affiliate links for products and/or services I truly love and recommend.

Teachers: Start Creating LCB using Free or Available Software

Sheila — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 23:00:48 GMT

Let’s begin with the end in mind. What do we need to self-publish low-content books via Amazon's KDP? We need many things but all of it points to creating PDFs which stands for Portable Document Format. In this post, I will:

discuss why it is better to submit PDFs even though Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) accepts other formats
advantages of PDFs
how to easily create PDFs using free or easily available software

But first, make sure you went through last's weeks post and now have an idea on what teaching material you have that can be converted into a low-content book.

File Formats KDP Accepts

KDP’s Paperback Submission Guidelines specified that if your manuscript has “no bleed” meaning, text and graphics stay inside the margins and do not extend to the edges of the printed paper, you can upload PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML, or TXT files. Here are what they are and their advantages and disadvantages for KDP uploading:

As you can see, PDF preserves the formatting of your file. The others have limited or have formatting issues. PDF, on the other hand, lacks the “flowable” ability needed for eBooks. However, we are making paperbacks so that is not an issue.

Why choose PDFs for LCBs

If your book “bleeds” or have elements that spill over the margins to the edges of the page, KDP Guidelines revealed that it. only accepts PDF. Why? Well, look again at the table above. PDFs preserves its layout. It doesn’t matter if you print or view it in another computer or tablet, it looks the same. Here are other advantages of using PDFs:

Fonts Embedded - PDFs show the fonts you use even though those fonts are not installed in the viewer’s computers or tablets
Compressed - KDP accepts only files that are 650MB or less. PDFs has the ability to compress or lessen the file size of your work even though you put high-resolution images. Even though you compress it, it does not significantly lessen its visual quality.
Text and Image Integration - PDFs seamlessly integrates the text and images used in your design and preserves it formatting.
Ease of Creation - You can easily create PDFs with your favorite software by using the “save as PDF” command.

Now let’s answer the question: How do I design low-content books? Well, start with the list I gave in this post and we will go from there.

Use Google Slides or PowerPoint

Have you tried using MS Word to design something? It can, somewhat, but it is limited for it is primarily for word processing. Here’s the secret: use something that gives you the freedom to drop and drag images, text and other design elements. Use PowerPoint or Google Slides which you can use for free. Don’t limit it for presentations only. Use it to create low-content books and the first step is changing its size to your paperback size. The biggest size we can use for low-content books designed to write on is 8.5 x 11 inches so let’s use that. Here are the steps:

If you are comfortable using other softwares, just use the “save as PDF” command to create your PDF. If you are using a Mac, there is an option in the print command to save as PDF.

Digging Deeper

I hope I ignited and inspired you on how to start this low-content book self-publication journey. However, as teachers, we know that showing how to do it is better than just tell it. I am creating a 30-day LCB Creation Challenge Course where I will show screencasts on how to do simple designs among other things - more details to come. Next week, I will tell you how I decide what low-content book to decide through Amazon keyword search. Subscribe for free so you’ll be updated.

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Teaching Materials You can Convert into Income-Generating Low-Content Books via KDP

Sheila — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 23:00:00 GMT

Teachers are sitting on a gold mine and are not using it to create an income stream. I am talking about educational materials and forms you created in the course of managing your classroom. In this post, I will ignite your imagination on WHAT among the materials you created, and now sit in your computer hard drive, can be converted into income generating low-content books. First, if you haven't seen the other posts in this series, please take time to see them:

Now we’re ready to find out, WHAT, among your digital and paper teaching files, can be converted into income-generating low-content books.

Low-Content Books as Defined by Amazon

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) defines low-content books to have “minimal or no content on the interior pages. Low-content books are generally repetitive, and designed to be filled in by the user.” Did you get that? Let me repeat it:

minimal or no content - as in minimal text or just lined books
repetitive - what you have on one page can be repeated in other pages
to be filled by the user - you write, draw or color the pages

It is basically a book that you can let your students do an assigned task, fill-in or write on. Did this just strike your imagination? Look at the short video of this low-content book if you want to visualize it. KDP added that low-content books “ does not typically include activity books, such as puzzle books or coloring books, which generally do not feature repetitive content on each page. Again, did you get that? Activity books, puzzles and coloring books are NOT low-content books. You do not need to create a Math Workbook, nor a Word Search Activity book to publish a low-content book. You can create those, but it will take time. It will be better to create books with minimal content while you are starting to learn self-publishing at KDP. You can create your other masterpieces later if you want. Here are Amazon’s examples of low-content versus other kinds of books:

The first example are notebooks. Notebooks! That means simple lined-books. But what if you created special lined notebooks for Math computation? What about for students who needed wide lines, margins or with arrows? You can self-publish that! The second example is planner. I am sure you have a lesson plan template. What about a day planner for your student? Even though you only designed one page, you can convert that into a 120-page paperback as I showed in this post.

LCB Starter List for Teachers

One of Amazon’s LCB example is a log book which can look like this hospital guest book. It is just a paperback converted into a notebook where guests can write messages while the patient is resting. Here is an example of an ELA Interactive Notebook which is just a collection of lined pages plus an blank Table of Contents. I am sure you have so much more in your teaching files. Here is an initial list of teaching materials that you can convert into low-content books:

Behavior Observation Logbook
Self-Monitoring Behavior Logbook
Timeout Log
Room Timeout Log
Parent Communication Log
Homework Log
Individualized Behavior Plan Notes
Behavior Incident Report Notebook
End-of-the-Day Reflection
Hallway Behavior Chart
Token Economy Chart
ABC (Antecedent - Behavior- Consequence) Chart
Peer Monitoring Chart
Group Behavior Chart
Birthday and other Celebrations Log
Field Trip Permission Log
Parent Meeting Notebook
Tutoring Sign-Up Sheets
Club Notebook
Classroom Materials Log In/Out
Book Review Sheets
Blank Handwriting Notebooks
Graphing Notebook
Blank Math Computation Sheets
Reflective Teaching Journal

If you don’t have any of these, you can easily make one. I prepared a free PDF download for paid subscribers that look like the one below. It has a list of log books, charts, and templates teachers usually create in the classroom. For only $6 a month, paid subscribers will get links to free useful lists and other resources like the one below. You will also get 30 to 40 percent discount codes on coming Teacher Career Change courses. Free subscribers, on the other hand, will continue to get informational posts weekly. In our next post, I will show you how you can start creating and designing LCB even though you do not have expensive softwares.