[Chelle]

Excellent question! All MailerLite accounts under the Growing Business or Advanced plan can sell digital products, recurrent subscriptions, and paid newsletters with Stripe.

So it’s the (minimum) $9 per month subscription level for that feature, I’m afraid.

[Chelle]

We’re SO happy that it was helpful! It is so funny how they’re all different, isn’t it?

When I used Mailerlite, I had to setup a Zapier.com zap to let me know when I had a subscriber…

[Chelle]

Some of the voices don’t have it yet, but they’re coming soon!

[Chelle]

YIKES.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve uploaded a new video that fixes it. Let me know if you’re still having an issue!

Thanks,
Chelle

[Chelle]

Hi Amy!
Thanks for letting us know — looks like we had a couple of bad exported final videos. I’ve re-uploaded them all and you shouldn’t have any other issues! If I didn’t squish all the bugs, let me know!

Thanks!

[Chelle]

I’m glad it helped!

[Chelle]

Hello!
Most of the features will *not* work with the free WordPress.com platform. They keep that sucker locked down and you can’t add your own plugins, which is great if you don’t want to mess with things, but terrible if you’re getting serious about using your website for more than just a brochure/business card.

I love Namecheap- but DO NOT go with the WordPress Hosting (it seems like that would be what you want, but it’s not. It’s a glorified version of WordPress.com hosting with their name slapped on it… )

Instead, you can go with this: https://www.namecheap.com/hosting/shared/

You pay $25.88 per YEAR for hosting, and you get one-click installation of WordPress in a version that you can fully control.

The very good news is that the next Author Tech Summit in January will have sessions on WordPress Websites, including how to build your own and tweak things like this to your heart’s content.

[Chelle]

I recorded a quick video response:

https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/video/11093493?key=7cddec6397bd2db38ecdfc5a3f0fc51e

Do you have access to Google Search Console? It used to be called Webmaster Tools. It’s Google’s way of verifying that you own your website. It might be that your webmaster set it up (and you might need to ask for access) or you might need to set it up once and then you can claim the Knowledge Panel.

In either case, since the panel is driven by your website, be sure your books are in there using the schema!

[Chelle]

I would say start with your followers first — that’s a healthy list. I think that a lot of discovery happens within the app itself, as well. Other campaigns similar to yours will naturally lead potential backers to your campaign.

Have you listened to Russell and Monica’s podcast? It launched recently and they have a lot of suggestions for getting in front of your ideal audience.

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/56caa679-7396-4b1e-87b7-a897d2569a8d/episodes/fb046ffc-524f-45cf-bcc9-d44b427e39dc/kickstart-your-book-sales-podcast-how-to-level-up-your-campaigns-to-5-800-with-kickstarter-veteran-jack-holder

They also have a ton of free resources here: ttp://kickstartyourbooksales.com/free

[Chelle]

It would be classified as income, yes. And you’d get a 1099-K from Stripe, who is taking the payments. Depending on how you file taxes, it would either be considered personal income (and you would file the forms to offset that as a self-employed individual) or you would include it as business income if you have a Corporation or LLC.

From their site: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/taxes
Creators who have passed over the thresholds established by the IRS (currently $20,000 in gross volume per year and 200 or more transactions) will receive a form 1099-K from our payment processor, Stripe, in January following the year in which their project was successfully funded.

[Chelle]

I wouldn’t host with WordPress.com, even with their paid hosting. It’s challenging to use because they restrict everything, and you’ll find that they nickel and dime you to death.

I would also not use NameCheap WordPress Hosting because it’s a “white labeled” version of WordPress.com. It’s called EasyHosting and they restrict and limit the plugins and themes just like WordPress.com does.

I would go with Namecheap shared hosting, which does come with email boxes attached to your domain name from the start — you will be offered different upsells (Microsoft 365 email, Google Workspace Email) — don’t take them. Just use the shared hosting email boxes that come with the $25 per year hosting.

Jetpack is (in my opinion) not worth any amount of money. It has more features than you need, and it slows down sites to the point of frustration. The company that started WordPress bought them and they’ve tossed in a host of extra things that didn’t fit anywhere else and so it’s become what we like to call bloatware. It’s not useful.

So, Namecheap shared hosting is my preference for most authors. It’s easy, it’s less restrictive, but it also gives you some protection from bad guys since Namecheap is paying attention.

Hope that helps — let me know if you have more questions! These are great ones!

[Chelle]

Definitely see if you’re able to connect your website using Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console/about

Then you’ll have more options for edits.. And, also be sure that you’ve got your books in your website with the schema set so it will start to autopopulate.