Selling on My Website vs. Amazon: What I Learned After 29 Books Sold

As someone who left the 9-to-5 to build a digital business, I’ve spent years experimenting with how to sell products.

My latest venture, The Corporate Dropout, is a book that shares my journey and strategies for transitioning into solopreneurship.

Now that it’s out in the wild, I’m tackling the all important question: What’s the best way to sell it?

Currently, it's available on both marketplaces (like ​Amazon​) and directly through my own website.

Each approach has its merits and drawbacks, but what excites me most is how I can use both together to grow my audience and my business.

The Case for Marketplaces

Marketplaces like Amazon provide access to millions of potential buyers, making them an attractive option for anyone launching a product.

Ready-Made Audience
Marketplaces give you instant exposure. On Amazon, my book can appear in search results or get recommended alongside other books in my niche. This built-in audience is a goldmine for discoverability.

Ease of Use
Platforms handle logistics, from payment processing to order fulfillment. That means less time worrying about shipping and more time creating.

Social Proof
Reviews on Amazon are powerful. A few five-star ratings can create momentum and validate your work in the eyes of potential buyers.

The Case for Selling Direct

Selling direct means hosting your product on your website and handling transactions yourself. It’s a strategy that requires more effort upfront but offers long-term benefits.

Full Control
On my website, I craft the entire customer experience, from visuals to messaging. This helps build my personal brand as a go-to resource for corporate dropouts.

Higher Profits
Selling on a marketplace comes at a cost. Platforms take a significant cut of each sale, meaning I earn less per book compared to selling direct. Without platform fees, I keep more revenue per sale. For example:

• Amazon KDP: 17 orders generated $66.83 in royalties, or about $3.93 per book.

• Website: 8 orders generated (12 books) $270, or about $22.50 per book.

This means I’m earning nearly 6x more per book when sold directly, even with smaller order volume.

Stronger Relationships
I don’t own the customer relationship when I sell through Amazon. I can’t follow up or offer additional resources unless buyers take the extra step to find me elsewhere. When someone buys directly from me, I gain their email address. That means I can follow up with valuable content, nurture trust, and offer them future products or services.

The Challenge

Traffic Generation
Selling direct requires driving people to my website. That means investing in marketing—SEO, social media, email campaigns, and sometimes ads. For many corporate dropouts, this is a steep but worthwhile learning curve, one that I had to learn myself.

Logistics
Managing payments, orders, and fulfillment adds complexity. For digital products, it’s seamless; for physical books, there’s more to juggle.

Building Trust
Some customers feel safer purchasing from a familiar marketplace. Overcoming this trust barrier requires a polished website, testimonials, and a clear value proposition.

How to Bridge the Gap

One of the biggest challenges of selling through marketplaces is the lack of direct access to your customers. While platforms like Amazon are fantastic for discoverability, they don’t allow you to build a deeper relationship with your readers. That’s where strategic efforts to "bridge the gap" come into play—bringing marketplace buyers into your email list and broader ecosystem.

Here are the strategies I plan to implement to make this happen:

1. Offer Exclusive Bonuses
   Inside The Corporate Dropout, I’ll include a call-to-action inviting readers to claim a free bonus—like a toolkit with resources, worksheets, and exercises that expand on the book’s lessons. To access this bonus, readers will visit a dedicated landing page and join my email list.

   Example: “Want to go deeper? Download your free Corporate Dropout Toolkit at [thecorporatedropout.co/toolkit].”

2. Add QR Codes
   Including a QR code in the book makes it easy for readers to access a signup page with just a quick scan. This minimizes friction and is especially useful for driving signups from readers on mobile devices.

3. Create a Dedicated “Readers Only” Page
   A short, memorable URL (e.g., thecorporatedropout.co/readers) will lead to an exclusive section for book buyers. This page can offer downloadable bonuses, video content, or community invitations, gated by an email opt-in.

4. Engage Through Reviews
   Encouraging readers to leave reviews on Amazon not only builds credibility but also creates an opportunity to thank reviewers in your book’s follow-up emails. I’ll use these interactions to guide readers to my website for additional resources.

5. Leverage Post-Purchase Follow-Ups
   If the marketplace allows any form of post-purchase communication, I’ll use it to thank buyers and provide a link to claim their exclusive bonus. While marketplaces like Amazon have strict rules about direct communication, they often allow indirect engagement that drives readers toward your ecosystem.

The Plan Moving Forward

I haven’t implemented these strategies yet, but I’m excited to start experimenting. Each of these methods is designed to create a win-win: providing readers with more value while building the foundation of a sustainable, direct relationship with my audience.