Marlene Roberson — Entrepreneur, Self Publishing Guru, Passive Income Publishing

And it is yet another edition of What's Involved. In fact, it's the last one for this year. I'm gonna be taking a bit of a break from the actual show, not a break in general, 'cause you will still be hearing me on your radio standing in for Tony Blewett, between, well, just from the 21st, I believe until the 1st of January. So I'll see you and chat with you every single morning. But as for What's Involved, we'll be back next year. But before I do that, I wanted to give you guys an opportunity. And I came across somebody that I think is fascinating. And I wanted to have a chat to her. Who is she? My special guest today is a lady by the name of Marlene Robison. And well, before we dive into all the interesting, fun, and exciting bits about this making money online space, let's talk a little bit about Marlene. And your background, Marlene, tell me a little bit about yourself. I wanted to call a baby groomer, so I'm not that young anymore. But in my mind, I'm somewhere in my 30s all the time. And I was always taught when I was young, work hard, study hard, and find a good job, and work for that company, and retire when you're 60 to a wonderful place where you have all the fun in the world.

And I realized, just before I hit my 40th birthday, that, hmm, that's not going to happen anymore. And at that stage, it was also when the internet sort of started becoming a thing, if I can call it that. And I realized, you know, I had enough money for a bus. I was also going to start looking at this thing about making money online. Well, it didn't happen, I can tell you. That's the people, you know, these people who say it happens overnight, it doesn't. It took me 20 years, nearly 20 years, to make it online. So I suppose you could say I'm sort of a long-term, overnight success thing. Anyway, in fact, a long story short, I started in around about 2001, that I started, you know, working as a consultant. So I wasn't working for a bus, but I was still trading hours for money. And that's when I started looking at the internet and looking at this laptop with a laptop, sorry, laptop, the lifestyle that people are talking about. And I started playing around, I started doing affiliate marketing. I tried everything, I bought every program and everything that anyone was telling me, do this, push this button, and you're going to make what's another money for the night on the internet. I tried, nothing worked.

- Okay. - And you still here, you still there. I'm not sure when I should stop or whether I should just carry on with my long story. - No, no, I'm just sitting here and I'm fascinated and I'm thinking to myself, you know, this is a story that I've experienced and I've heard so many times. We call it SOS, or shiny object syndrome, because when you get into this field and when you start to learn and experience a little bit more about internet marketing and making money, you suddenly realize that the only people that are making money are the people that are telling you how to make money. And it's to find a decent bunch of people on the internet that'll help you is very, very difficult. - Absolutely, absolutely. There are so many out there who will just take your money and promise you all these wonderful things and it never happens, you know? Actually tell them for, 'cause we should realize after a while that, you know, if it sounds too good, being true, then it must go less. - Yeah, but we've got this, we've got this little, I don't know, this little thing in our brain when you buy something and you think it's gonna change your life, it releases some dopamine and you feel fabulous and then, you know, shortly afterwards you get buyer's remorse.

But we won't go too deeply into that. - I've had the privilege of being part of something called Society 11, which is an online group and they are an online group of ethical marketers. And I think you and I have in sort of in common, Andy Brocklehurst, who is our internet marketing guru. I've had Andy on the show a couple of times. Love to get him back, love to get him back. But Andy calls a spade a effing shovel. So, you know, he's very direct and very to the point. And these are the, there's a group of guys that are genuinely making some money. But now you said that you were consulting, you were buying all the shiny objects and then you found something that started to work for you. Tell me a little bit about that. - Well, in 2016, my daughter, you know, she's a writer, she's a graphic author, she's very, very hard to even call it that. In 2016, she wrote two fiction books. And I said to her, you know what? I know there's something called Amazon Publishing where you can do your own publishing. Let's put it on there, try and see what happens. And so I started looking around a bit and we put these two books up there and she made a few sales, not much, you know, but enough to make us realize goodness graciousness, but it actually works.

And then around last year, I'm not (indistinct)

after that, I didn't do much. We put the two books up and we left. And then as time went on, you know, and I started realizing that I am so sick and tired of, I only had clones three days a week. So I was mostly semi-retired, if you can call it that. But I still felt, you know, I have no freedom. I can't go anywhere when I want to because I have to be ready to go and see my clients three days a week. And I decided it's seriously fun to start looking for something that I can do where I will have affection, freedom, palm freedom, whatever. And so I started looking back on to this Kindle Direct Publishing. And I started doing more and more research. And I found a number of people who were having success. But they all tell you, you know, it's not something that happens overnight. It is something that you have to be patient with. And I thought, well, patience is my second thing. So I don't mind that. But I was getting very frustrated with all the other things, you know, where you find something and you put so much time into it and nothing ever happened. So when I discovered that the Kindle Publishing exists and people are making money, I started doing a lot of research. And that's when I realized, you know, this is maybe the way to go because you don't need money.

You don't need to buy things. You don't need a whole lot of money to start with. And that was my main thing because I'm such a good client of buying things just to try something. So I started doing research. And that's when I realized, you know, okay, it's all good and well to do this. But if you don't do it the right way, you're not going to get anywhere anyway. So anyway, we started, I then asked my daughter, Michelle to start helping me because, you know, as I say, she's the creative one. You can do covers that are absolutely beautiful. Even in periods, I can help with all of that. But I'm not, I don't have the thoughtiness if I can call it that. Anyway, so I started putting a few books together. The first few I did, I actually did covers myself and that we made sales on those on Tuesday. I'm very surprised. But anyway, so I asked her, you know, and I said to her, I put these books up and I've made a few sales. So I'm thinking if we can do more and have properties and covers then we can do even better. And she said, sure. And actually we realized when she started helping me, you know, she was every few minutes, she would ask me another question and then this and then that and the other.

And I started putting little bits together for her. You know what I'm saying? If you want to do this, do this too. And that's how we basically started. Then in this year, in April, yeah, March, we went into lockdown, was it? In the March? - Yeah. - In April. Sorry, Marlene, I want to get into that, okay? Because I think that part of the story is very, very fascinating. So what we're going to do, when we come back, we'll continue chatting to Marlene Robison, all about her Kindle publishing and what she did and how she did and something called the PIP course. So we'll find out more about that when we come back. You are listening to What's Involved. So good to have you along with us. And we're back with What's Involved. My special guest is Marlene Robison. We're talking about Kindle publishing. So we got to the part of the story, Marlene, where in a roundabout march, and yeah, that was when our lives all changed completely. COVID hit and everything went into lockdown. Most of us who were making money up until that point suddenly stopped. So what did you do? - Well, David, I was in the same position as so many, many people, because all of a sudden, you know, it was always a case of no work, no pay.

So April I sat here and I was thinking to myself, you know, what do I do now? Because I am making money with my Kindle books, but it's not enough to do the lifestyle that I need and do, you know, to have the income that I really want and that I need. So I sat here and I thought to myself, you know, what am I going to do? I need to do something and I need to do it quickly. And this, pushing more books out there, I know in about a year's come, it will pay off really, really well, but for right now, I need to do something else. And that is when someone said to me, you know what, you've done all this research, you know what you're talking about, you put on paper for Michelle so she can use it when she helps you. Why don't you create books? Because you can help people out there who would like to start, who don't know where to start. You know, as I say, everything that I teach in this course, you can find on the internet. But it takes a lot of time to sort of find the real stuff and the stuff that actually helps you and how to do everything and put it together. And that's what I did with the course. As I said, as I said to me, you know, you've got this fountain of knowledge. Why don't you put it into a course and then get people out there, have it.

You help them, you help yourself. And that is basically, excuse me, how passive income publishing course was born. Because then I wrote Michelle in and I said, okay, we're now going to create the course. And we took everything that I put together for her and we made it into this, even if I have to say it myself, I'm creating a beautiful course. And if you start and you finish it and you follow it step by step and you do everything, it will not happen overnight, I must tell people that. You won't make a lot of money overnight, consistently over time, you won't. - This is the thing that fascinates me though, is that with this Kindle publishing or this passive income publishing, as you call it, once the book is done and it's out there, okay. And it's not Kindle, I'm stuck on Kindle. It's, you do this on, where do you do it on? On Kindle. - It's on Amazon. This is the one that we teach. It's not actually, you know, people get confused because you get Kindle digital, which is the eBooks. And then you get Kindle direct publishing, which in our case, it's paperback. So you're actually publishing, and I must mention it because I don't think I have, is what we're doing is low content books. So we aren't asking people to sit down and write the novel or things like that.

So it's low content books, basically books like turtles and planners and things like that, you know, where you have, you give people the opportunity to use the book or their thoughts and the calendars and things like that. And then also activity books and coloring books. So it's on Kindle, on Amazon, Kindle, but it's not, you know, it's not novels and stories. - Okay, fantastic. So let's, we're gonna dive into that. But what I wanted to ask you though is that once it's there and it's published, it's there. And this is where the money will start building up over time because the more of them you get out, they stay there. It's not like they're there for a couple of weeks or whatever and then they're gone. They're there, people can always find them. - They're there forever, ever, ever, ever. Once you put your book up there, it doesn't go away. It is there. And as you know, if you keep on publishing and you start building up the following, as you get new books out, people, if they follow you as an author on Amazon, they get notified, you know, "Oh, this author has brought out a new book," and what happens? They go back and they say, "Oh, I like this," and they buy it. So that is the big aim is, you know, get as many high quality books on there, build the following, and they will keep on buying from you.

You know, if they know what you're producing, it's good quality. - Fantastic stuff. Now, when we talk about low content, you hit on a couple of things there. The colouring in books and the planners and those kind of things. What does it sell for, roughly? I mean, what are we looking for? 'Cause it's all in dollars on Amazon, but I mean, is it a couple of dollars a book? - Mostly, yes. As I say, we think we stick around between seven, let's say $699 to $999, because, you know, people, all the things on the couple of books, people are willing to pay a bit more, say, for activity books and colouring books, your journal planners, things like that, we usually find around about $699 for a, say, a hundred and ten page book. People are willing to pay that. - In those low content books, I mean, we talk about colouring in books, and I mean, obviously for the kids, but there's adult colouring in books as well. - Oh, yes. - When we talk activity books, is these things like word searches and Sudokos and word puzzles and those kinds of things? - That's exactly, yes. And people love it. They absolutely love it. And I tell you now, we found that usually in June, July, August, is a slow period. And with COVID and everything, the lockdowns and everything, we found that this year, during that period, everything just picked up, you know, sales picked up, because more and more people are starting to look for things to keep themselves busy and their kids busy.

So yeah, these activity books and colouring books are very, very, very popular. - Fantastic stuff. We are chatting to my special guest, Marlene Robison. She has just released a course on the interwebs. It's called Passive Income Publishing. We're going to get into all about that and where you can get it and et cetera, et cetera, in just a bit. When we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more about this. This is what's involved. It's great to have you along with us. And we're back with my special guest, Marlene Robison, talking about passive income publishing and doing low content books. So they can be colouring in books, adult colouring in books. They can be those ones with the crosswords and the Sudokus and everything. I know my sister's an absolute sucker for those. If it's got a word search in it or a crossword or something like that, she is there. She absolutely loves them. People say that the adult colouring in books are a great form of therapy. I've never been able to colour in the lines. So I just get very frustrated with it. But once they're up there, do people get those things in a digital format or do they actually order a printed book? - Well, the low content, and because of the nature of the book, it is, I think about, you know, a paperback.

You know, people order it, but the nice thing is you don't, you as an author is not even involved in that process. Because once you've put your book up there, Amazon takes over. You know, and if people start ordering it, they charge you for printing it and sending it out. And you just sit back and collect the royalties. You are not involved in the printing or sending out at all, which is wonderful. - Okay, so you would actually receive a book in the mail or whatever from Amazon, one that you purchased, it would get delivered to you with the beautiful cover and all the things that you can do in it. You talked about royalties there, Marlene. In terms of that, if you're selling a book for, let's say, $7, what sort of profit do you get out of that at the end of the day? So let's say me, as David Watts goes on there, I find some of your stuff, I buy it. What do you get? - Well, David, that also depends on the book itself because they will charge, they charge, let me just get this straight. Up to 100, the smallest book would be 24 pages upwards. So you cannot print a book or have a book printed for less than 24 pages. Amazon will charge you a third page from 24 pages to 108 pages. They charge you exactly the same per page.

Whether your book is 24 pages, 50 pages, whatever, they're gonna charge you the same. So obviously, your printing costs have been quite high if you have a book, say, for 24 pages and you're selling it, you can't sell it for that much because it's only 24 pages. Let's say you sell that for $4.99, but then you have a book of 110 pages, and you sell that for $6.99, you'd think it's about the same in printing costs, but your loyalty ends up to be more. I'm not sure where I'm going to take it with that. - No, no, no, that's fine, we're still with you. - As I say, it's a bit difficult to say because each book is different depending on the pages that you have in there, and then obviously how much you're selling it for. No, that would depend on what Amazon will charge you for printing costs. But just to give you another rough idea, as I say, you don't make massive amounts of royalties per book, but the whole thing is, when you start selling in volume, it all adds up very quickly. - Okay, yes, that makes sense. So now, for people like me who are wanting to make money online, I know in South Africa, particularly, there are many, many people who are looking for other forms of income. I've often spoken about it on the show that we need to have multiple streams of income.

So you've now written a course, and this is, as you said, you did it initially for your daughter, Michelle, so that she could understand it. In terms of the course, does it cover everything from right from the very beginning? So if I've got no clue about how to do digital publishing, and I take your course, and I follow it step by step by step, at the end of the day, will I be able to take a book and put it on Amazon? - Absolutely, I feel it, David, we start, that's why we start from the premise that people don't know anything. So we have the course at seven modules, and the first one, the very first module is all about what is KDP, so people get to know what it is. You know, there are pros and cons, and we tell them that, and we tell them about what exactly are low content books. And we take them through the whole process from there, where they know nothing, to how to do the right research, because like I said, it's not a question of slacking a book together and sticking it up there. You have to do at least do some research and know that you're on the right track when you publish a book. So we teach them the research, the needs research, the keyword research, all of that, and we take them through the process where how to plan their book, how to plan their interior, how to plan their book cover, where to get assets from, and then we take them through the design, you know, process, but software to use.

And exactly, as I say, we really take them by the hand and teach them everything. So even if you know absolutely nothing by the time you've finished with this course, we will, you know, you will be able to prepare the book for publication, get it on there, understand the categories, because that's where a lot of people get very confused, how to pick the best keywords and how to use them effectively. And then the very last, typical last story model is how to set up the KDP account, how to upload and get your, you know, to approve the book. And we take them absolutely by the hand, and I have some other shoulder video training as well. I would say that should be able to, as I follow it step by step from start to finish, they will definitely be able to get them exactly. - It sounds absolutely fantastic. And you did mention earlier on that you're not a youngster, you're, I'm not mistaken, you're 63, and you're able to do this. So people from like, I don't know what, the age of 18 on would be able to do this if they have some computer skills. - Younger, you know what we have one of our members is a black attorney and he bought the books for himself and his wife, mostly. And his little granddaughter, she's 10 years old.

She was watching them and seeing what they're doing and because they got a few journals up on Amazon. And this little girl, as I say, she's 10 years old and she was watching them and she said, you know what, I'm going to draw some pictures. And she started and she put a book together through pictures and just 24 pages and she drew all of these and she's now got her own book on Amazon. So I would say, you know, the kids are so computer savvy nowadays that I suppose it depends on from person to person, but it's anyone from any age, anywhere in the world can do this. - Fantastic stuff. We're going to be wrapping up in just a bit, but when we come back, I'm going to find out about the course and where we can get it and how much it costs and, you know, are there other bits and pieces that we can get along with it to make our lives a little bit easier. So we will talk a little further with Marlene about that. When we come back, this is what's involved. Fantastic having you along with us. I'm excited about this. 'Cause I think, you know, if you've got some spare time rather than sitting wasted in front of the TV or something like that, get into some Kindle digital publishing, man. We'll be back with Marlene Robison in just a bit.

And we're back wrapping it up. So Marlene, the $20 billion question. This course, where do we get it? Number one, and number two, how much does it cost? Talk me through the course. How much, where, those kinds of things. - Okay, so David, I can give you a link if you would like to give it. Because what I thought we'll do for especially our South African listeners, because, you know, we're doing the forcing dollars. So fortunately at this stage, the rank is not too weak against the dollar, but still it's a bit of money. We are selling it for $19.97 on our sales page.

But if South African your listeners go to the following link,

can I say it? - Yes, please. - You want to say it? - Yes, well, I think I've got it. And you've also done something really, really, really cool for them is you've put in a discount as well for us. - That's correct, yes. - Which I think is fantastic. - Yes, I was just thinking, you know, it's Christmas time, let's be generous, let's share, let's give as many people as possible a chance to do this. So yeah, we've added a $10 discount and people can use the link, but they have to use this specific link, otherwise they're not going to get it. - Okay, so I've got the link here. So let me tell you where to go. Are you paying attention? You need to get yourself a pen and paper. If you miss it though, okay? So if you miss this totally, you can just get hold of me. It's David@what'sinvolved.co.za. That's W-A-T-T-S-I-N-V-O-L-V-E-D.co.za. I'll happily pass that on to you, but you've got a pen now, fantastic. So the link that we're looking for is H-T-T-P-S colon forward slash forward slash PIP course,

which is P-I-P-C-O-U-R-S-E dot com forward slash C

as in S-E-E forward slash D-W. I'll give it to you again. It's H-T-T-P-S colon forward slash forward slash PIP course,

which is P-I-P-C-O-U-R-S-E dot com forward slash D-W. Marlene has been very generous. What sort of discount are we getting if we go through to that particular link? - $10. So they can pick it up for $9.97. - That's almost 50% off, Marlene, thank you. That is absolutely fantastic. - Well, it's my pleasure, David. I'm hoping that we can really help people. And what I also just want to say, is should I decide to invest in the course and they get stuck? We are, Michelle and I are absolutely fanatical about our support, so that then we have a support desk. And if anyone gets stuck with anything at any time, they can just hit us up and we will, out of our way to help them and get them sorted out. - Fantastic. And I'm going to sort of make a little admittance to something that I did before I even considered Marlene and the PIP course to put on the show. I've actually gotten the product myself and full disclosure, I haven't used it yet. I fully intend to. My sister is going to be doing that whole part of it. But I wanted to see, because I've had lots of experience with support desks and support people and almost universally, they're really, really bad. So I wanted to see if I could do that.

I want to see if I could get to speak to a real person, not somebody sitting in a foreign country that doesn't understand what I'm speaking about. And so within not even half an hour, I don't think, of me actually sending my mail off and saying, are you a real person? And did I detect a South African accent? Marlene got back to me. And that's where our discussion started. So I can vouch for the fact that they do, in fact, get back to you. Marlene, when we're buying this, if I just buy the $9.99 course, that's going to be enough to get me up and running and get me going. Do you have anything else there that'll help make it easier? Because some of us may be a little lazy. We may need a little bit extra help there. Do you have something like that there as well? Yes, we do have what we call acceleration packages. And the first one is basically just imperious. So we put together a whole lot of imperious, ready to upload. So for those people who really think, I don't feel like doing this, or I don't have time to do this, they can take and compile it into their own books. And off they go, and they have their book ready. And we also have them on another acceleration, as the next one, where we actually have the completed covers.

And they play edit the book, because we actually-- I can't use it as is, but we prefer that people actually go and just make some small changes, make it unique to themselves. And we have a video, a training video, where Michelle shows them how they can take this cover, or these covers, and make it their own on a free editor so they don't have to have something like Photoshop or anything like that. So yes, we're helping people to keep going as quickly as possible. Fantastic. I think that's absolutely, absolutely brilliant. And if I've just got a computer, essentially, can I get going without having to buy fancy software? Because yes, obviously, I'm sure there must be software out there that'll help make it easier. But if I'm on a budget-- and us in South Africa are generally on a very tight budget. So can we do it just with a normal computer? You can. You can. And like you say, there's lots of tools out there that makes life a lot easier. But for the person just starting out, they can do everything for free with just their laptop and their internet connection, and we tell them in the course as well what the free stuff, tools that they can use. So you don't have to-- a lot of people find-- because I've found in the past, you buy a course, and then once you've bought the course, you discover, oh, now I have to spend hundreds to get to actually start using this.

And as I say, we teach them. We show them how they can do everything without having to spend another set. I think that's brilliant. Molly, if I may ask, how successful has the course been for you so far? Have you had a lot of uptake on it? I tell you, David, we were flabbergasted. We launched-- our first launch was in September. We launched on a platform called Davy Zoo, which is one I prefer. And we-- that's absolutely fantastic. We had over 600 sales, over $10,000 in sales. And it was-- it was absolutely-- even my mentor was flabbergasted. Because when I started with this, you know, he said to me, don't you-- you know, as long as you make a bit of money, you'll be fine and everything. And I said, that's why I'm only happy with that. And I tell you, we're in a group as well. And these people, they were absolutely flabbergasted about the success we had with this-- with the course. And we started a Facebook group for the people buying the course, and it's absolutely so wonderful to have people come back to me or send me emails to say, you know, tell me, oh, I just got my Facebook up, and they show you pictures, and it's wonderful. So we're very, very happy and blessed. And it's been going very well.

Brilliant. Now, did you-- were you one of the clever people? Did you ask somebody else to take all of your work and put it into a course form, or did you and Michelle then have to go and learn all the bits about putting a course together as well? We had to-- well, I just decided, you know, we will do it ourselves. So we got someone to teach us, and we put everything from A to Z together ourselves. And no outside help is just with us. Well, maybe that's another product, how to put courses online. I mean, I can see it now. And if you do something like that, we'd certainly love to have a chat to you about it. Can I give out those details one more time, just in case somebody missed it? It is https colon forward slash forward slash pipcourse.com forward slash C, as in S-E-E forward slash D-W. That's going to give you a 50% discount compliment of Marlene and Michelle. And well, all I can say is, Marlene, thank you. You know, it's refreshing to find somebody who is so passionate about what they do. And somebody who can say, yes, I have made money. Yes, I have made money with Kindle Digital Publishing. Because so often, you know, we try these things. You've done it. I've done it. And once the sort of excitement of buying a new product which is going to make you millions of runs overnight, and you realize that it's actually not.

The only person that's the person that's making the money is the person that sold you the hunk of junk in the first place. So I am so, so happy about this. And the fact that you are here in South Africa, based in South Africa, in Hauteng, in fact, for me is even better. Because, you know, it's local people. You guys are making money. The fact that you're earning in dollars is I think something that every single South African would love to do. So to you guys, thank you for taking the time out and having a chat to us on the show. And thank you for your special offer. 50% off that price is really, really a good deal. I hope that you have got all of those details of the PIP course. This is also going to be published as a podcast a little later on. So if you're listening and you've missed it, stick around for the podcast, and I'll have the links in there as well. If you've got any questions in the meantime and you'd like to get hold of me and say, all right, David, send me the link. It's david@whatsinvolved.co.za. That's david@whatsinvolved.co.za. It wraps it up for this edition of What's Involved. But to each and every one of you, thank you for listening. Marlene, to you guys, have a fantastic festive season.

David, thank you so much for having us on here. It was wonderful. I really appreciate the opportunity. And a very, very nice Christmas to you and your family too. Thank you very much. And we'd love to hear back from you if you get a response and you get some additional South Africans that are going to get into the Kindle Digital Publishing. I'd love to hear back from you. So there we go. We'll definitely keep you up to date with it. Fantastic. That was my special guest. Marlene Robison, wraps it up for What's Involved to each and every one of you. Thank you for listening.