Irritable
Male
Syndrome
 

7 Little Known Secrets For Making Money and Saving the World on SCRIBD


When a friend first told me about “Scribd” I didn’t quite get it. Although I use the internet, mostly for research, reading, and e-mail, I’m not very savvy about networking and “new technologies.” But when he told me you could easily upload just about anything—books, e-books, articles, research studies—to Scribd and sell them in the Scribd store, he got my attention.

I’m a writer, researcher, and psychotherapist and have been helping men and the women who love them for more than 40 years. I am founder of www.MenAlive.com, where I share information about male menopause, irritable male syndrome, male-type depression, and how to have successful relationships of all kinds. I’ve written 8 books including international best-sellers Male Menopause and The Irritable Male Syndrome.

Making money as a writer isn’t easy. Every time I write a book, I’m sure that it will sell a million copies. But the odds are against me. According to industry statistics there were 1.25 million books published last year. Of that number 850,000 sold fewer than 99 copies for the year. Only 1.2% of the total new titles sold over 1 million copies (Think Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Grisham).

I do sell more than 99 copies a year and you can find me in most bookstores including Amazon. But when I sell something on Amazon, I may make 8% of the $20 cover price. And I have to give 15% of that to my agent. And I have to wait 6 months until I get my next royalty check. But, listen to this. Selling on Scribd, I make 80% of everything I sell and I get paid immediately.

You can’t believe how excited I was when I got my first e-mail from Scribd telling me that someone had purchased one of my e-booklets. I had uploaded it, just a few hours previously.

The e-mail said, “Your document “Six Simple Ways to Cure Depression: What Men and Women Need to Know” has been purchased for $1.99. The total earnings to date for this document is $1.34.” Now $1.34 may not seem like much, but it was my first sale and I was proud. Selling something you’ve written, hours after you’ve written it, is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. I’ve gotten many more notices like this one and each one is a source of excitement and joy.

But wait, there’s more. Not only do I get quick cash from selling e-books and articles in the Scribd store, but I also get a chance to try out new ideas and see what people find most interesting. I wrote a two page summary of some research I was doing on relationship addictions. I titled it: Is It Love or Love Addiction? Within a week after posting, it has been read by over 1,000 people. My power point summary of a study I conducted on depression, Male vs. Female Depression: Why Men Act Out and Women Act In has gotten 642 reads in the last week.

Within two months after I joined I have developed a following of more than 2,000 people. Each time I post a new article or make a comment, they receive my post. It’s a great way to reach people who want to know more about the things I’m writing about. It’s also a great way for me to learn about other people’s work that relates to my own.

Here are the 7 Steps I followed. I’m still learning as I go, but wanted you to have the benefit of my experiences so far.

Learn about Scribd.

Like learning most things, I started with a Google search. The first link I checked was http://www.scribd.com/about where I got a quick summary from the Scribd site.

Scribd (It rhymes with "ad libbed.") began with a simple observation — that the desire for self-expression through the written word is as old as humanity itself. But even with the proliferation of blogs and other self-publishing tools, there was no easy way for average people to publish to a readership of millions. Scribd founders Jared Friedman and Trip Adler felt that everyone should be able to share what they know.

Today, Scribd is the largest social publishing company in the world — the website where more than 60 million people each month discover and share original writings and documents. Scribd’s vision is to liberate the written word — to turn everyone into a publisher and create the best possible reading experience on the web and mobile platforms.

With Scribd’s iPaper document reader, anyone can easily upload and immediately share their original works on Scribd.com or any other website. iPaper transforms "print" files like PDF, Word or PowerPoint into web document — with all the fonts, layout and artwork that makes your document unique.

Your work can be shared with Scribd's community of passionate readers, and because your document is indexed for search engine optimization, your screenplay, novel or even sheet music and recipes can be discovered by the world. At Scribd, we built a technology that’s broken barriers to traditional publishing and in the process also built one of the largest readerships in the world.

Look around and sign up.

Go to www.Scribd.com and check it out. You're free to browse Scribd and read as many documents as you like without an account, but if you want to download an e-book or leave a comment, you'll need to sign up and log in. But no worries - sign up is absolutely free! All you need is a valid email address.

Create a public profile.

This is how people will learn about who you are, how to reach you, and what your interests are. Upload a good picture. Write a biography that highlights your work. Provide website information. And describe your personal interests. As you get more involved with Scribd, your profile page aggregates information about you, your activity, and your documents. Here your readers can see and reply to your comments, favorites, and recent publications.

I check out my profile page every day ( www.scribd.com/JedDiamondPhD ). I can see at a glance what things I’ve recently posted and how many people have read the articles and e-books I’ve uploaded. Today I see that my last article, Love Addictions for Women Only (and the Men Who Truly Want to Understand), has been read by 99 people since it was posted 4 days ago.

Upload helpful information to share with people.

When I looked at all the files I had stored on my computer I found had some pretty interesting and helpful information. I had research studies, e-books, articles, blog posts, power point presentations. I found that uploading was amazingly easy. Every page on Scrib has a tab that says, “Upload.” When you click on the tab, it asks if you want to “upload to share” or “upload to sell.” I’ve done both. I want people to have information that will be helpful. If I can give it away that’s great. If I decide to put a price and sell it, that’s fine as well.

It’s easy to search your computer and upload the files you want. You can even upload multiple files at once. Once uploaded you can write a description and pick “tag words” so that it is easy to find. If you’re selling your document, you write in the retail price as well as the sale price (and Scribd automatically calculates how much a person will save and posts that on the books sales page). If you’re not sure what price to set, Scribd will suggest a price based on what others are charging.

Enjoy your Scribd home.

The old saying, there’s no place like home, is true. Your “home page” is your window to the world of Scribd. From here I can manage my documents. I can see how many new people have subscribed to the Jed Diamond, Ph.D community (So far 38 new people have joined). It also tells me that as of today 2,038 people have subscribed.

I learned that there have been 8100 reads of my various documents since I joined Scribd. This has been in less than two months. It still amazes me that so many people read what I have written so quickly. Since I have a modest desire to help people and save the world, I feel good when I see that number go up each day.

I posted a chapter from my new book, As Civilization Sinks: Making the Transition to a Better World and in quick order 200 people had read it. Introducing people to my new material helps me get information out quickly and also builds an advance readership. My other book project, Mr. Mean: Saving Yourself and Rescuing Your Relationship from the Irritable Male Syndrome is also generating interest and comments on Scribd.

I can also check my “stats” from my home page. For those of us who like immediate reinforcement (and who doesn’t) clicking on stats tells me how many people have viewed my documents each day. Yesterday it was 385. Today it is 772. Each day it varies, but generally it keeps going up as more people hear about my work and share their interest with others.

Make connections with others in the Scribd community and other social networks.

One of the most interesting and useful aspects of Scrib is the ease at which we can connect with others in the community. Clicking on the “Community” link takes me to a host of interesting people and organizations. Some of the most popular are MIT Press, The World Bank, World Economic Forum, Harvard Press, Lonely Planet, Berrett-Kohler, and Simon & Schuster. But there are also regular people like you and me who have something to say and want to use Scribd to reach out to the world.

You can learn about who they are, what they’re doing, what resources they have available on Scribd. You can subscribe to their feed and learn about their latest ideas and the things they think are important. It’s a great way to expand your focus and see where your work connects with what others are doing.

There are also hundreds of groups you can join where like-minded people share resources, ask questions, post comments, and learn about new and interesting subjects. Groups are small micro-communities dedicated to documents and discussions around a particular topic, user, publication, or event. Any user can create a group, and there's no limit to the number of groups users can create. I created a group for people interested in Male Menopause and Irritable Male Syndrome. I joined groups on Men’s Health, Psychology, E-Medical Books and Articles, Health & Fitness, Personal Development, and Developing Small Businesses.

Ever wished you could publish a document online and have it automatically shared across all your social networks? With Scribd’s new social networking integration, you can publish to Scribd, Twitter, and (soon) Facebook with a single click. It’s a great way to get your ideas out the those who want to know them. You can automatically sync your Scribd and Twitter profile settings. Choose whether to tweet every time you publish a document, every time you scribble, or both.

Explore the wide world of Scribd

Some people like to stay within the bounds of what they know. Others like to explore new worlds. If you’re an explorer like me you want to see what else is going on outside the bounds of our own experience. Who knows I might get an idea for my next book or entrepreneurial enterprise. Today, Scribd is featuring the following: Basic Handbook of Human Rights, Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, Blacksmithing Basics, and Religions View Religions.

I can also search the following categories: Books, Brochures & Catalogues, Business & Law, Creative Writing, How-to-Guides and Manuals, Illustrations & Maps,

Magazines & Newspapers, Presentations & Slide Shows, Puzzles & Games, Recipes & Menus, Research, Resumes & CVs, School Work, Sheet Music & Lyrics, Spreadsheets, and the Scribd store.

Put these steps together and you have a plan for success. If you have something useful to share with the world (and yes, I believe everyone does), this is the place for you. The community draws 50 million people a month and this is growing every day. Come join the fun.

©2010 Jed Diamond

See Books, IssuesSuicide

*    *    *

Wealth can't buy health, but health can buy wealth. - Henry David Thoreau

 

Jed Diamond is the internationally best-selling author of nine books including Male Menopause, The Irritable Male Syndrome: Managing. The 4 Key Causes of Depression and Aggression. and Mr. Mean: Saving Your Relationship from the Irritable Male Syndrome. His upcoming book, Tapping Power: A Man’s Guide to Eliminating Pain, Stress, Anger, Depression and Other Ills Using the Revolutionary Tools of Energy Psychology will be available next year. For over 38 years he has been a leader in the field of men's health. He is a member of the International Scientific Board of the World Congress on Men’s Health and has been on the Board of Advisors of the Men’s Health Network since its founding in 1992. His work has been featured in major newspapers throughout the United States including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. He has been featured on more than 1,000 radio and T.V. programs including The View with Barbara Walters, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, CBS, NBC, and Fox News, To Tell the Truth, Extra, Leeza, Geraldo, and Joan Rivers. He also did a nationally televised special on Male Menopause for PBS. He looks forward to your feedback. E-Mail. You can visit his website at www.menalive.com



Contact Us | Disclaimer | Privacy Statement
Menstuff® Directory
Menstuff® is a registered trademark of Gordon Clay
©1996-2023, Gordon Clay