We may receive commissions for affiliate links included in this article. This is a sponsored post. Future Sharks makes no warranties about the statements, facts and/or claims made on this article. These are the opinions of the author. Read our advertising and contributor disclosure here.
In an age where everything depends on the internet, why not use it to your advantage? This question surely crossed the minds of twins Rasmus and Christian Mikkelsen after they started their online business.
Three years ago, the Mikkelsen twins started a small side hustle based on self-publishing and selling books on Amazon, in a way anyone can do it.
This side hustle eventually evolved into a full-fledged online education company called PublishingLife.com that teaches everyday people how to make money by self-publishing books on Amazon and Audible.
These twin entrepreneurs now generate multiple six figures every month online.
More importantly, they have hundreds of successful students now publishing profit-generating books after taking their course, Audiobook Income Academy.
“What makes Amazon businesses so incredible is the direct access you have to Amazon’s millions of daily shoppers,” said Rasmus. “You do not need to go out and pay for advertising when you can use Amazon and Audible to put your books in front of millions of people who are already searching there.”
The business model is simple: find out which topics are in demand and create books for that category.
“If you want to take full advantage of the free traffic on Amazon, create books with high demand and low competition,” said Christian. “This is done with simple market research where you’ll look at any niche/topic on Amazon and Audible to see if other books on that topic are already selling well.”
To this day, the Mikkelsen twins have sold over 100,000 copies of e-books, print books, and audiobooks combined on a massive variety of topics, including home workouts, language learning, business mindset, and many more.
They can write so many books in such a short amount of time that they’re not doing it themselves. They hire ghostwriters from platforms like Upwork to write their books for them.
“There are thousands of freelance writers just waiting for you to approach them with an opportunity to write a book and get paid for it,” Rasmus said. “You agree on a fee for them to write for you, then you get 100% legal ownership of the book they write, and the writer gets paid without having to spend time doing all the other things they don’t like to do like marketing. Win-win!”
The Mikkelsen twins take pride in providing the highest quality writing. They only publish content they’ll be proud to call their own.
“There are no shortcuts in this business,” said Christian. “Any business model or method of making money that does not deliver high quality and valuable solutions to their customers will never last in the long run.”
Christian explained that books published online often live or die by reviews. Amazon’s customer ratings are just as crucial to a self-publishing business as Yelp ratings are to a mom-and-pop store.
A low-quality book will receive bad reviews, which will ultimately spell the downfall of that book.
For this reason, the Mikkelsen twins focus on quality instead of quantity. It would’ve been easy for them to teach pumping out as many books as possible because more books often translate to more sales and money, but only in the short term.
They carefully vet each writer and edit and proofread every book. The entire process often takes up to two months, but they believe it’s well worth it.
“It’s better to create one great product than one five or ten average ones,” said Rasmus.
It’s a great deal for everyone involved. The Mikkelsen twins and ghostwriters make money, while the consumer receives a well-researched and in-depth book for a reasonable price.
So, what’s their secret? How did these twins, with no formal experience, found a successful online business around self-publishing?
The secret ingredient, they say, is commitment.
“This right here is why 99% of people fail to turn a side hustle into the main hustle,” said Rasmus. “It’s this simple. Most never stick with anything long enough to even give it a real chance to work.”
It wasn’t an easy process for them either. Committing to their online business took three years of hard work and dedication until it became what it is today. They tried and failed numerous times before they got it right.
Sir James Dyson famously made over 5,000 failed prototypes over 15 years until he finally created a working vacuum. Thomas Edison similarly claims to have failed 10,000 times before creating the lightbulb.
Yet, failure didn’t stop them from trying again. They knew that giving up would mean their work was all for nothing. The only true failure would be to quit following their dreams.
If there was anything else that made them successful, it’s their desire to help people. All great businesses provide something that consumers want and need. For the Mikkelsen twins, their product is education and training.
“In the end, a successful business is a byproduct of helping people,” said Rasmus. “Be passionate about helping the people you are serving with your books, and income will be a natural byproduct of that.”
Their education company, PublishingLife.com, follows the same concept: Make the best product possible and focus on student results above everything else.
Now the course sells itself with hundreds of highly successful students all over the world.
➡ Looking to get featured on Future Sharks?
