Audiobook Income Academy Review (2024 Update): Decent Online Course For Making Money Online?

TLDR – What’s the Audiobook Income Academy All About?

With the Audiobook Income Academy, you’re learning all about how to make money online by publishing audiobooks.

Most of us love audiobooks. We listen to our favorite authors while we’re taking the kids to school, putting in the hours in the gym, or just out enjoying the fresh air. But is there so much money to be made from this?

The Mikkelsen twins certainly think so. Rasmus and Christian Mikkelsen are the minds behind the Audiobook Income Academy, and these guys seem to making a great living from publishing, and from teaching people about creating audiobooks too.

The trouble is, they might be making it seem a bit easier than it actually is. The market is super saturated, and it’s really hard to get noticed. Making a poor quality audiobook and then setting up a few ads just isn’t going to cut it.

It’s like heading to that perfect little restaurant on the bay while you’re on vacation – the one your friend told you about five years ago and said it was the best kept secret in town. Only, by the time you get there, every influencer on the planet has posted it all over their socials and there’s a queue around the block. The restaurant’s still great, but you missed out on that special experience.

There’s also the cost of actually publishing audiobooks to think about.

1. You’ll need to pay for a ghostwriter. This could be several thousand dollars.
2. You’ll need a narrator too, and that might be several hundred dollars an hour for a good candidate.
3. And what about cover design? Budget a few hundred dollars for that too!

I don’t hate the self publishing business model. I just worry that some users are being sold a route to financial freedom that might not exist. They spend a small fortune to get their book published on Amazon, and they make way less money than they expected.

People who self publish generally have a story they want to tell, or wisdom they want to share. They do it because they love writing and they want to get their words out there. They might become success stories, and they might make a ton of money, but this is always secondary.

If you’re just looking to make some money, I’d actually recommend a different model. Something I’ve personally seen people score big wins with is Digital Leasing.

Digital Leasing works on a local lead generation model. You create you own webpage, which generates leads for the local businesses in your area.

We’re talking highly qualified leads – people who need services and need them right now. These leads are super easy for your clients to convert, and they’ll pay you good money for them.

All the control stays with you. You own the website, and you own all the leads you generate. You basically lease this lead generation asset out to your clients.

This is great way to generate semi-passive income, and I’ve seen this local lead generation model work time and time again.

Yes, you might be able to make some money from audiobook publishing, but there’s a whole lot of work involved, a whole lot of risk, and you’re just not in control. Digital Leasing gives you back your time, gives you back that control, and gives you some healthy profit margins at the same time.

Follow this link and get started with your first digital rental property. Once you’ve set up that first property, it’s easy to optimize your income by creating more, targeting different niches in your area or in other locations.

Who is Audiobook Income Academy For, and Who is it NOT For?

So audiobook publishing can be a great way to share your ideas with the general public, and you might even make some money. But it’s not going to work for everyone. So who is Audiobook Income Academy actually for, and who is it NOT for?

Who It’s For…

Audiobook Income Academy might be a good fit for you, if…

• You’ve already got some great self publishing ideas – I’m not sure you can teach all of this across a seven week course. I think you’ll already need some good ideas that you want to bring to the world.
• You’re willing to invest big money upfront – Writing, narration, designing, listing, advertising… it all costs money. You need to be willing to invest if you want to make this a success.
• You’re not worried about the risk of publishing in a saturated market – Even after you’ve invested all that money, you could still find that your book is a flop. If this is the case, you might lose, big time!

Who It’s NOT For…

The Audiobook Income Academy course probably isn’t going to be for you if…

• You’re just looking for a way to make money – Self publishing just isn’t stable enough to guarantee you a good return. Unless you’ve got big ideas and big stories you are desperate to share, you might want to try another method.
• You’re looking for a good work/life balance – It’s a whole lot of work to create and promote an audiobook. This is certainly not passive income.
• You’re worried about bad reviews for the gurus – The Mikkelsen twins have received some negative reviews for this program, and other programs from their Publishing Life group. If you see this as a red flag, you might want to stay away.

The 1,000 FT View on the Mikkelsen Twins, Publishing Life, and Audiobook Income Academy

OK, let’s get some perspective here. In the 1,000 FT view, we take a step back and discover more about what these gurus offer.

The Audiobook Income Academy Business Model

The Audiobook Income Academy business model works like this:

1. You find a niche for your audiobook. Basically, you decide what kind of audiobook to produce, and who to target.
2. You create your audiobook. You either write and produce it yourself, or you use freelance writers, narrators, producers, designers, and other professionals to get it over the line.
3. You launch your audiobook on Amazon. From here, you use Amazon ads and other promotional tools to bring your book to the world.
4. You get paid whenever someone buys your audiobook. The book is listed on Amazon and should start making you money.

All of this seems great. You’ve probably bought a load of audiobooks in the past, and you might have seen blogposts, articles and podcasts recommending their favorite audio titles. There must be a heck of a lot of money in this game, right?

Well, potentially. But there are some downsides to consider.

1. As this Reddit user says, most niches are already pretty oversubscribed, and it’s hard to make your voice heard.
2. It can be really, really hard to make an audiobook! You either spend months or years writing a book, or you spend a whole pile of money finding someone else to do it for you.
3. Amazon selling is tough too. There are selling fees, a high level of competition, and the changing Amazon ad and search algorithms to worry about.
4. You’ll need to sell a huge amount of copies just to break even. This is what I meant about doing it for the love of it… if you want to see the rewards in your own lifetime, self publishing isn’t the best.

How Much Does Audiobook Income Academy Cost?

So how much will the Audiobook Income Academy cost you?

The seven module course is $1,497, delivered over seven weeks of study.

However, there’s lots of extras that the Mikkelsen twins will offer you along the way. And yeah, each one comes at an additional cost.

These include things like a list of audiobook niches for $1,997 – helping you to find a good angle for launching your own publishing products. You’ll also get a “Social Media Accelerator” for $997, and – confusingly – a $500 contribution to your first audiobook, priced at, yes, $500.

In total, these extras come to $34,321.

And this is before you’ve even created your audiobook.

One Reddit user said they were told it would cost about $500 to get someone to write the manuscript for them. Something about this seems very, very off…

1. Data from Reedsy suggests ghostwriter costs of between $3,500 and $42,000! That 500 bucks isn’t going to go far.
2. Upwork say that it’s $28 an hour on average for beginner narrators, around $79 for intermediates, and $480 for advanced pros!
3. Reedsy data also put book design projects in the $500 to $800 range. You’ll need to put in a lot of money upfront just to create your book.

When did you last buy an audiobook for more than $10? You’ll have to sell a whole lot of books to make your money back.

How is Audiobook Income Academy Different?

Audiobook Income Academy is different to some of the other courses out there in the self publishing world.

Take Low Content Publishing, for example. The course focuses on a Kindle direct publishing, or KDP model, teaching users to knock out short books quickly and easily, ready for purchase.

While part of the Mikkelsen twins’ course does focus on low content options, this is only one section of a wider program. The Mikkelsen twins also work exclusively with audiobooks.

But what about the other audiobook courses out there? One of the most popular options is Amazon’s own Audible course. This is where the e-commerce giant offer support for authors and creators seeking to make it big with audiobooks. Scribd also offers its own support to authors in a similar way.

These options is very time consuming when compared with the Mikkelsen twins’ course. They are for people with their own book. Audiobook Income Academy is very different, because it’s supposed to be helping you ‘game the system’, knocking out audiobooks fast and with minimal effort.

I actually think this is where the Mikkelsen twins’ course has a bit of an identity crisis, and ends up being the worst of both worlds.

If you’re an author or creator looking bring your audiobooks to the masses, this isn’t really the course for you – there’s too much of a focus on low content options and ghostwriter partners. If you’re just out to make some money online, it’s not for you either – there are much better options out there for doing that.

The Mikkelsen Twins Review – Who are these Self Publishing Business Model Gurus?

The Mikkelsen twins are Christian and Rasmus, two self publishing moguls who run Publishing Life. It’s Publishing Life that operates the Audiobook Income Academy program.

These guys make a pretty impressive sales pitch, but who are they exactly?

Christian and Rasmus were born in New Jersey in 1995. Aged 18, they headed to Denmark for a couple of years, and it sounds like they had a great time in Europe. In 2015, though, they were back in the Garden State and ready to roll.

The brothers enrolled at college, delivered Chinese food around the neighborhood, and tried their hands at dropshipping and other business models. They also studied self publishing on Stephan James’ Project Life Mastery course, and this proved to be a bit of a gamechanger.

Hitting a sweet $60,000 from their audiobooks, they decided to drop out of college. Everything was going great, then they violated Amazon’s contract policies by using AI. Bad move – both brothers got their accounts shut down.

But that didn’t stop them. They opened the first Audiobook Income Academy in September that same year, making $53,000 from their first 100 students.

In 2019, the twins overhauled their course in a big way, and the Audiobook Income Academy 2.0 program was born.

Things have changed in the last few years. AI isn’t quite so frowned upon as it once was, and now the twins are even offering their own AI Publishing Academy course.

After years of getting “email address invalid” whenever they tried to log in, it seems Amazon has now reversed their decision, and the Mikkelsen twins’ account is active once again. You can even buy one of the books they ordered, direct from Amazon. Christian and Rasmus are back.

What About the Audiobook Impact Academy Reviews – Is there a Scam?

The way I view it…

I DON’T think that Publishing Life is a scam.

I DO think that the Mikkelsen twins’ course is legit.

But I just don’t think making it big in this industry is quite as easy as the twins say it is. Yes, I’m sure there have been plenty of success stories, but it’s really hard to knock out your own audiobooks ready for purchase. I don’t think this course is a sure-fire route to good income, and especially not a route to making passive income.

Some Audiobook Impact Academy reviews I found have come right out and said they think the program is a scam. Others have talked about a difficult refund policy and money back guarantee – although it should be said this reviewer did end up getting a full refund.

Then there are the major red flags you might have noticed in the last section… the banned accounts.

It seems the brothers got both their Kindle Direct Publishing (KBP) and their Amazon Connect Exchange (ACX) accounts banned.

It’s actually pretty easy to get your KDP account blocked, which is another reason why Amazon publishing is not the best way to make money.

But the ACX problem is more of a worry. This suggests that the twins kept on doing a whole load of wrong things until Amazon just had enough. Their accounts seem to be back up now, but it’s natural to feel just a little concerned about this history, especially if you’re going to be spending thousands of dollars with the twins.

And… about those thousands of dollars. I actually don’t think the course fee is too bad, but you need to be getting good value in return. Basically, you need to be getting an easy to follow, step by step route to making money online – a route that you can’t find anywhere else.

The trouble with the Mikkelsen twins’ program is that lots of reviewers seem to think you can find this stuff elsewhere. Remember, the basic course fee doesn’t include live coaching – that’s quite a lot more. You might find yourself paying for the course, only to learn the kind of stuff you could have discovered by watching Youtube videos.

So no… to be clear, I don’t think there’s a scam here. I think the Mikkelsen twins have done well from audiobooks, and they have some good insight to share. I just think the twins might be overselling their course, and maybe the days of making it big with this kind of publishing is over.

Just remember, even after you’ve paid for the course, you still need to cover the startup costs of your publishing empire. You might find yourself in the hole big time before you start making money – if you ever start making money.

My Personal Opinion on Audiobook Income Academy

I’ve checked out plenty of these schemes for online money making, and I know a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t.

So where does Audiobook Income Academy fit in?

Before I give you my personal opinion, let’s take a look at what I’m basing this on. Here’s what I want to see from a course like this:

1. Great Information – You’ve got to be getting really great information that you can’t find anywhere else, either for the same amount of money or cheaper.
2. Solid Returns – You need to be getting a great return on your investment.
3. Freedom to Live Your Life – Passive income is always the dream, or at least as close to passive income as you can possibly get.

Can You Build a Successful Publishing Business with Audiobook Income Academy?

The “can” is doing a lot of work in this question. Yeah, I’m sure you “can” build a successful publishing business. There are probably a few success stories out there. But “will” you be one of these success stories? Probably not.

Here’s why I just can’t stick the Brittney seal of approval on this one:

1. Not Too Sure About That Information – The twins have a lot to offer, but it seems much of the info in the basic course is available from YouTube videos and other free sources. I’d be hoping for a bit more.
2. The Ship Has Sailed On Audiobook Publishing – Maybe there was once a ton of money to be made here, but I don’t think your own earnings will hit those heights. We’re all just arriving too late to the Amazon party.
3. It’s Loads of Work to Produce and Market an Audiobook! – Even with AI, even with a ghostwriter, even with a freelance narrator, it’s going to take loads of time, money and effort to create your audiobook. You might end up putting in a ton of work and getting nothing in return.

In other words – no, I don’t think the Mikkelsen twins are running a scam. But… no, I don’t think this program is going to make you money either.

I think there’s another option that’s a far better fit for most of us. I’d recommend checking out Digital Leasing. This is a local lead generation business model that puts you in the driver’s seat – you own the leads, you own the website that generates those leads, you own everything.

How it works is like this. You set up your website in an urgent niche like emergency dentistry, or plumbing repairs. You start generating super hot leads who will convert on the spot. You sell these leads to your clients, and they happily pay you top dollar.

I’ve seen people have big successes with this, living their dream lifestyle as they make money.

What would you do if you could win your time back?

Maybe you’d finally take that Caribbean cruise you’ve always talked about. Perhaps you’d soak up the culture and history of Europe like you always dreamed. Or it could be you’d just spend some more time with the people who mean the most to you.

With Digital Leasing, you can do whatever you want to do. And you’ll be helping out local businesses at the same time. It’s win-win.

I’m super impressed with how these guys go about teaching their students. They are really nice dudes, and they make sure everything is nice and easy to follow. I’ve got to give a big thumbs up to this one.

Hit the link here to check Digital Leasing out for yourself.

What’s Inside the Audiobook Income Academy Course?

What do you get in the Audiobook Income Academy 2.0? Let’s have a look under the hood.

Module #1: Millionaire Mindset

The first module is not really about audiobooks at all. It’s about mindset – getting in the kind of headspace you need to be successful.

Module #2: Picking Your Niche

Now you’re really getting into the audiobook business. In this module, you’ll learn about selecting a profitable type of book to market to your audience.

Module #3: Creating Your Audiobook

This module is perhaps the most technical part of the course, and this is where you’ll discover how to craft the audiobooks themselves.

This includes:

• Outlining
• Dividing the book into chapters and tracks
• Working with copywriters
• Recording, editing and mixing
• Listing the book with Amazon
• Promoting the audiobook

Module #4: Growing Your Audience

This module is all about making sure that audiobook finds a paying audience. The twins cover things like sales funnels, lead magnets, social media promotion and email threads here.

Module #5: Launch Week

It’s those first few days after your audiobook launch that are the most important, and in Module 5 you’ll learn all about this. You’ll discover how to market that book in the right way to start generating revenue right off the bat.

Module #6: Audiobook Promotion

Marketing doesn’t stop just because the Launch Week is over. In the sixth module, you’ll be looking at paid promotion for your audiobooks.

Module #7: Next Level Publishing

In the final module, the twins look into Amazon Ads in even more depth, and explore how you can stay on top of Amazon’s changing algorithms.

Extra Content

This is just the basic course layout. There’s a bunch of extra content 5oo, like a list of top publishing niches, 1-on-1 mention calls, and group calls, but these are going to cost you more.

I broke this down in the cost section, but you can expect to pay almost $35,000 for the course plus all the extras.

My Audiobook Income Academy Review – The Conclusion

I’ll keep it pretty brief in the conclusion – I don’t think this course is going to be the right choice for most people.

If you’ve got some exciting ideas that you want to turn into audiobooks, this might work. But if your ideas don’t fit into the twins’ “profitable niches”, or if the audiobooks take too long to produce, you’ll probably end up abandoning these ideas anyway.

If you’re just looking for a way to make money, this probably isn’t going to work. I think the days of raking in the big bucks from quick audiobook publishing are over, the market is saturated, and the costs are just too great.

So what are the alternatives? You could check out some of my other reviews, like this one for Product Testing USA where you can receive free physical products.

Or, even better… you could check out something that people are having real successes with…

My #1 Way for Making Money Online

Our review team has spent months researching, reviewing, and vetting dozens of business models and thousands of programs.

While there may be no “perfect business”, the research IS conclusive:

Digital Leasing is the #1 online business model for those just starting out.

Whether you’ve never made a dollar online, or you’ve been in this space for a while but never really “made it,” Digital Leasing is for you.

Why?

1) It’s Flexible: got an hour a day? You can do this. Ready to drop everything else and dive in full time? You can do this. Yes, the more time you put in, the faster you see results. But even with a little time each day, you can move the needle in a Digital Leasing business.

And because this system is so flexible, you don’t have to constantly be working to make more money. It’s called PASSIVE INCOME because if you stop working, the money doesn’t.

Imagine taking 3 months off to just tour around Europe, rent a cabin in the woods to write a book, hike the Appalachian Trail, or live on the beach and surf all day.

Unless you’re writing endless low quality audiobooks in that cabin, this lifestyle is pretty much impossible from AIA. With full time Amazon publishing, don’t expect to have much time left over at the end of the working day.

2) You Own & Control EVERYTHING: With an ad agency, you don’t really own anything. You’re a hired gun for clients, and entirely at their mercy.

Audiobook Income Academy is similar – you’re not really in control, your account could get blocked, and if your books don’t sell, you’ve had it.

With Digital Leasing (a passive income stream), you own all the assets, which means you have all the power and all the control.

3) Little To No Startup Costs: It’s possible to get into Digital Leasing with zero dollars upfront. Because, using the strategies outlined in this program, you can get a client to pay you BEFORE spending a penny out of your own pocket…even before you do any work.

Even without getting paid in advance, you can have your first Digital Rental Property up, running, and generating profits for less than $100.

4) Easy To Duplicate: Ok, here’s the best part: once you have your first Digital Rental Property up and running, you can literally DOUBLE your income with a few clicks, a couple keystrokes, and a single phone call (and you don’t actually need the phone call).

Remember: each Digital Rental Property is worth $500 to $2,000 a month in semi-passive income (over 95% profit). Every time you decide to create another one and increase your income, it gets easier.

Because you have more knowledge, more experience, more results, and more momentum.

If you wanted to double your income with AIA you’d better get busy writing double the number of books, or charging twice as much for them! That’s going to be a whole lot harder than a few clicks and a few minutes of your life.

5) Make Money Helping Real People: This part is what makes it all worth it. With Digital Leasing, you’re actually helping people by solving your clients’ biggest problem:

Small, local business owners need more customers, and with Digital Leasing, you are unleashing a flood of happy, paying customers for these businesses.

You make money by helping them make money.

Not a big, faceless corporation either…a small business owner who’s using that money to put food on the table for their family, start a college fund for their kids, or take care of a sick parent. Once you see how Digital Leasing makes a real impact in the lives of real people, you’ll sleep like a baby with a big smile on your face.

Now, the choice is yours. You could continue browsing, looking at opportunities like the Audiobook Income Academy course which could one day make you money.

You could continue researching, never making a decision.

OR, you could take a look inside, consider what you really want, and join a program that makes your dreams a reality. At the same time, joining a community of over 2,000 successful students that are living life on their own terms thanks to Digital Leasing.

A consistent, reliable, semi-passive stream of income that doesn’t depend on you or your time to keep producing profits.

All while genuinely helping real people who are grateful and happy to pay for it.

If this sounds more like what you want out of life (or if you just want some nice side income), click here to learn more about Digital Leasing.