I Built an Amazon KDP Business with AI! (Step-by-Step)

Summary

In this video, the speaker demonstrates starting an Amazon KDP business from scratch. They cover finding a niche and creating a winning product, such as activity books for kids, emphasizing the importance of year-round selling potential. The speaker shows how to use paid tools like Book Beam and free tools like DS Amazon Quick View to identify profitable niches with low competition. They highlight a scissor skills activity book as a promising product, detailing the design process using Canva and Midjourney. The video concludes with tips on designing engaging, varied content and preparing the book for publishing on Amazon.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Starting an Amazon KDP business involves creating a product that can outperform competitors in a chosen niche.
• 🎨 Even without design skills, the speaker offers solutions and guidance for creating a product.
• 🔍 Finding a niche and a winning product is crucial, with examples given such as recipe books for cooking niches or activity books for educational ones.
• 📈 The chosen niche should have year-round sales potential and offer opportunities for multiple products to generate passive income.
• 📚 The speaker prefers the activity books niche due to its consistent demand and high potential for profit.
• 🤔 Realistic expectations are advised, with the understanding that high-earning numbers are not immediate and require growth.
• 🔑 The importance of low competition and high search volume is highlighted for a successful product launch.
• 🔍 Two methods for finding and verifying a winning niche are presented: a paid tool called BookBeam and a free Chrome extension called DS Amazon Quick View.
• 🎨 The design process is detailed, with the speaker choosing to create a colored scissor skills book to stand out in a market dominated by black and white options.
• 📝 A three-level structure for the book is proposed, with increasing difficulty and complexity in design to cater to different skill levels.
• 🛠 The use of Canva and other tools like Midjourney and Photopea is demonstrated for creating and editing the book's content and cover.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video script?

The main focus of the video script is to guide the viewer through the process of starting an Amazon KDP business from scratch, including finding a niche, designing a product, and standing out in the market.

Why is it important to choose a niche that sells all year round?

Choosing a niche that sells all year round ensures consistent passive income and reduces the risk of seasonal fluctuations in sales.

What is an example of a product idea in the cooking niche?

An example of a product idea in the cooking niche is a recipe book.

How does the speaker suggest verifying a winning product on Amazon?

The speaker suggests using a Chrome extension to check the BSR (Best Seller Rank) of products on Amazon, which helps in verifying a winning product.

What is the significance of a low BSR in the context of the script?

A low BSR signifies higher sales volume, indicating that the product is in high demand and potentially a successful choice for the Amazon KDP business.

What is the 'Scissor Skills Activity Book' and why was it chosen as a product?

The 'Scissor Skills Activity Book' is an educational product designed to help kids develop their cutting skills. It was chosen due to its low competition and high search volume in the market.

What are the two methods the speaker mentions for finding and verifying a winning niche?

The two methods mentioned are a paid method using the tool 'Book Beam' and a free method using the 'DS Amazon Quick View' Chrome extension.

Why is it suggested to create a colored version of the scissor skills book?

Creating a colored version of the scissor skills book is suggested to stand out from the competition, as most existing books in the category are in black and white.

What platform does the speaker use to design the book?

The speaker uses Canva to design the book, which is a popular online graphic design platform.

How does the speaker plan to structure the scissor skills book to offer variety?

The speaker plans to structure the book with three different levels of difficulty, starting with simple lines and graphics, moving to different shapes, and finally adding full-page graphics.

What tool does the speaker use to generate images for the book design?

The speaker uses a tool called 'Mid Journey' to generate the images for the book design.

How does the speaker address the issue of boring and simple designs in the scissor skills book?

The speaker addresses this by planning to add more variety and complexity in the designs across different levels of the book, as well as using full-page graphics in the final level.

What is the process for creating a cutting line around an image using the 'Photo P' website?

The process involves uploading the image, using the magic wand tool to select and delete the white background, expanding the selection around the object, and then creating a cutting line with the pen tool by making the fill transparent and the stroke black with a dashed border style.

What is the final step in the design process after creating the book pages and cover?

The final step is exporting the images as PNG files and adding them to the Canva design, followed by repeating the process for all images in the book.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Starting an Amazon KDP Business: Finding a Niche and Product

The speaker embarks on a journey to start a new Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) business, offering a comprehensive guide for beginners. They emphasize the importance of selecting a niche with year-round selling potential and multiple product opportunities for passive income. Examples are given, such as recipe books for cooking niches or activity books for educational sectors. The speaker shares their preference for the activity books niche due to its trending nature and demonstrates how to use tools like Book Beam and the DS Amazon Quick View Chrome extension to find and verify a winning product. They also discuss the challenges of high competition in popular niches like coloring books and how to identify sub-niches with lower competition and higher demand.

05:02

🎨 Designing a Standout Scissor Skills Activity Book

The speaker details the process of designing a scissor skills activity book to stand out in a competitive market. They propose a three-level structure to cater to different skill levels of children, starting with simple lines and basic graphics, progressing to shapes like circles and triangles, and culminating with full-page graphics. The design process involves using Canva for layout and Mid journey for generating images. The speaker also addresses common complaints about the lack of variety and boring designs in existing books and shares a step-by-step guide on creating engaging cutting lines using Photopea. The final part of the summary includes the design of the book cover and an invitation to watch another video for instructions on publishing the book on Amazon.

Keywords

💡Amazon KDP

Amazon KDP, which stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, is a platform that allows authors and publishers to make their books available for the Kindle and in print. In the context of the video, it is the starting point for the business venture, where the creator intends to publish a book to compete with existing products in the market. The script mentions starting an 'Amazon KDP business from scratch,' indicating the use of this platform to self-publish and sell books.

💡Niche

A niche refers to a specific segment of the market that has distinct needs or preferences, which the speaker emphasizes as crucial for finding a winning product. In the video, the creator discusses choosing a niche such as cooking, mental health, or educational books to target with the new product, highlighting the importance of selecting a niche that sells consistently throughout the year.

💡Winning Product

A winning product is one that is successful in the market, often due to its unique selling proposition or its ability to meet a specific demand. The video script talks about finding a winning product within a chosen niche, using the example of an activity book in the 'activity books niche,' which is estimated to earn a significant income, indicating its success.

💡Passive Income

Passive income is money earned with little to no effort by the recipient, often resulting from a one-time action such as creating a product that continues to sell over time. The script mentions the desire for 'consistent passive income' from multiple products within a chosen niche, suggesting the goal of creating a revenue stream that requires minimal ongoing effort.

💡Scissor Skills Activity Book

A scissor skills activity book is a type of educational material designed to help children develop their cutting abilities. The video script identifies this as a potential product due to low competition and high search volume, making it a promising choice for the Amazon KDP business venture.

💡Competition

Competition refers to the rivalry among sellers trying to attract the same group of buyers. The video discusses the high competition in the coloring book market, with over 70,000 results, and contrasts it with the lower competition found in the scissor skills activity book niche, which is more favorable for a new entrant.

💡BSR (Best Seller Rank)

BSR, or Best Seller Rank, is a number assigned by Amazon to products, indicating their sales rank within a particular category. A lower BSR means higher sales volume. In the script, the creator uses BSR to evaluate the success of potential products, aiming to find books with a BSR below 100,000 as an indicator of good demand.

💡Design Skills

Design skills refer to the ability to create visually appealing and effective designs, which is important for creating a product that stands out. The video reassures viewers without design skills that they are 'covered,' implying that the creator will provide guidance on how to design a product that can compete in the market.

💡Canva

Canva is an online graphic design platform used to create visual content such as logos, posters, and social media graphics. In the video, Canva is mentioned as the tool the creator uses to design the pages of the scissor skills activity book, emphasizing its utility in the design process.

💡Photopea

Photopea is a web-based image editor that supports various file formats, including PSD, which is used for advanced image manipulation. The script describes using Photopea to create cutting lines around images for the activity book, demonstrating its role in the detailed design process.

💡Book Cover Design

The book cover design is the visual artwork on the front of a book, which is crucial for attracting potential readers. The video script mentions that the creator spent time designing the book cover, creating two versions that include elements from the book and the book's title, highlighting the importance of an appealing cover in the marketing of the book.

Highlights

Starting an Amazon KDP business from scratch with a focus on designing a competitive product.

No design skills? The tutorial covers everything needed to succeed in product design.

Choosing a niche and a winning product is crucial for consistent passive income.

Example niches include cooking, mental health, and educational books with activity books being a trending choice.

Activity books niche is highlighted for its potential and consistent demand.

The importance of realistic expectations and understanding market dynamics for new KDP products.

Avoiding overly competitive niches like coloring books with 70,000+ results.

Researching and identifying a less competitive niche with high search volume, such as scissor skills activity books.

Using BookBeam's Niche Finder tool for a paid method to find high-selling books with low competition.

Free method using the DS Amazon Quick View Chrome extension to assess competition and sales.

Finding sub-niches within a broader niche to identify less competitive areas.

Verifying a niche's profitability by looking for books with a BSR of 100,000 and below.

Investing time or money to find a winning niche based on personal preference.

Designing a scissor skills book with a unique approach to stand out in the market.

Creating different levels of difficulty in the activity book to cater to various age groups.

Using Canva for book design and incorporating user-friendly elements like dashed lines and scissor icons.

Addressing common complaints from negative reviews to improve product design.

Utilizing Midjourney to generate images for the activity book.

Using Photopea to create cutting lines around images for a more engaging design.

Designing a book cover that reflects elements from the book for better market appeal.

Finalizing the book design and offering guidance on publishing on Amazon KDP.

Transcripts

so today I've decided to start a new

Amazon KDP business from scratch and I

will show you everything literally

everything you don't know how to design

a product that will beat your

competitor's at don't worry you'll learn

that or maybe you have no design skills

Don't Panic I've got you covered so

let's get started we must first find a

niche and a winning product in that

Niche so for example if you choose the

cooking Niche a product idea would be a

recipe book if you choose mental health

you can design a gratitude journal or if

you go with educational books you can

create activity books for kids as an

example however no matter what Niche you

choose it must be selling all year round

and have multiple products that bring in

consistent passive income I personally

love the activity books niche as it's

always trending and has lots of

potential for example this activity book

was published 23 days ago and it's

estimated to earn between $500 to $1,000

per day which is crazy and if we look

here we can see it's independently

published which means it's a KDP product

and it's not the only one as there are

so many successful books in this Niche

but I want you to have realistic

expectations and understand that these

numbers are not what you should expect

when you start so I could actually go

with coloring books like these listings

but as you can see there are over 70,000

results for coloring books which makes

makes it very competitive so I did more

research and found this scissor skills

activity book which is an educational

book designed to help kids develop their

cutting skills and if we look for

scissor skills books we will notice low

competition and high search volume I

also found different products that are

doing well in this Niche which is

promising so I actually think this is a

great product to go with plus I have

some ideas on how we can stand out from

other books but first let's take a step

back and show you how to find and verify

a winning Niche I'll show you a paid

method and a free method and after that

we will Design our scissor skills book

so starting with the paid option my

favorite tool is book beam and what I

usually do here is Select The Niche

Finder now inside The Niche Finder there

is this preset menu and here I like to

use the new high selling books filter

using this will give you a list of newly

published books that are selling well

and I recommend adjusting the number of

ratings to a maximum of 50 to narrow

down the competition even further so

right now you will see the book BSR

monthly sales and royalties which is how

much money it's making plus if you use

the Chrome extension and go to Amazon

you will be able to see how much each

product is making which is great for

verifying a winning product so clearly

this tool could save you hours of

research but let's say you'd rather

invest your time instead of money and

want a free option so here's what you

can do first download this free Chrome

extension called DS Amazon quick view

after that go to Amazon and search for a

broad topic related to your interest for

example coloring books you need to look

at the number of results ideally you

want fewer than 1,000 results to

indicate lower competition but right now

we have over 70,000 so what should we do

well here's what I would recommend

scroll through the listings and find sub

niches within your Niche for example

stress relief coloring book is a sub

Niche food and drinks food and snacks

Cosmetics these are all sub niches

within the coloring books Niche so let's

say you like the idea of food and snacks

simply search for that and check the

results like you did before so as you

can see this time we only have around

700 results which is below the 1,000 we

are aiming for now this is great but we

must also check if this need is actually

making money and here's where the Chrome

extension comes in handy because using

the extension you will be able to see

the BSR of the products and your aim

here will be to find at least 5 to 10

books with a BSR of 100,000 and below a

lower BSR means higher sales so books

with a BSR below 100,000 indicate good

demand in our case I found this one with

a 400 BSR another with 68,000 one with

38,000 and and a couple more with very

good bsrs so this is definitely a

positive sign and this Niche could be a

winner worth trying so it's your choice

now you either invest your money to save

time or invest your time to save money

but right now let's invest our time

designing our product and making it

stand out one thing I've noticed about

scissor skills books is that most if not

all are in white and black so if we

create a colored version we might

actually stand out and one more thing I

noticed by analyzing the negative

reviews is the lack of variety with

people complaining about the designs

being boring and very simple and here's

where I came up with the following

structure I'm planning to create three

different levels level one will have

simple lines and some graphics to warm

up in level two we'll make it a bit more

challenging by adding different shapes

like circles and triangles and in the

final level We'll add actual Graphics

that fill up the entire page and don't

worry I will EXP explain how to create

all of these so I started by heading to

canva and creating a new design

measuring 8.5x 11 in if you're not sure

about the size of your book you can open

a competitor's listing and check their

book size right here after that I went

to Mid journey and generated the images

for level one and I use prompts such as

a minimalistic cute cat icon in Kawaii

style isolated on a white background and

then I started the actual design process

I first first added this shape stretched

it to fit our template and made it

transparent then I clicked here on

Border style and added this dashed line

border to create this cool looking frame

after that I uploaded the animal

Graphics we created and placed them next

to each other and to create the cutting

lines we just need to go to elements

then shapes and choose this dashed line

right here then flip it place it under

the graphic and adjust it to the desired

length and to make it more interesting

I've added this scissor icon and this

headline at the top and just like that

we have the first page ready I then

created the second and third Pages it's

pretty much the same process the only

thing changing is the cutting pattern

and it's very important to add blank

pages after the cutting page so that

when kids cut the design nothing will be

affected on the following page now as

for level two it's also simple you start

by adding a shape like this circle for

example then change the color and add a

dashed border Style and finally

duplicate the shape as much as you like

and now let's move on to the final level

which requires some extra work you start

by generating the images just like

before and here on the side you can see

the prompt formula I've used and after

generating the images head to this free

website called photo we will use Photo P

to create the cutting line around the

image start by uploading your first

image then select the magic wand tool

from here after that click on the white

background and delete it to have your

image isolated on its own and now it's

time to create the cutting line so first

select the magic wand tool again and

click anywhere in the background then

right click on your mouse and select

inverse and this will make a selection

around the object only then right click

again on your mouse hover over modify

and select the expand option I'm going

to set that to 30 but this depends on

your image now you will notice that the

selection has expanded around the design

after that go to the right hand menu and

click on paths and choose this option

right here at the bottom and you should

notice that the selection turned blue

you are almost done now from the toolbar

select the pen tool and click on shape

at the top then using this menu click on

shape make the fill transparent and the

stroke black and increase the Border

width to your liking finally change the

Border type to dashed lines and just

like that your design should be ready so

now export the image as a PNG and add it

to the other designs on canva just as

you can see and repeat the same process

for all of the images in your book after

that I spent some time designing the

book cover and managed to create two

versions as you can see they only

include some elements from the book and

the book name nothing special so at this

point I had my book completely ready and

in my opinion it turned out very good

and and if you want to know how to

publish your book on Amazon you can

watch this video thanks for watching