Publishing Life isn’t too different from most eCommerce courses.
Sure, their marketing makes some great promise you haven’t heard from the other eCommerce gurus, but at the end of the day, no magic bullet overcomes the massive pitfalls of this business model.
Let’s get something clear:
There is NOTHING passive about eCommerce, no matter how well most course creators sell the dream.
If you want that travel-the-world-making-money-while-you-sleep-laptop-lifestyle, eCommerce isn’t for you.
To run a successful eCommerce business, you need to constantly look for new products.
Scouring the internet for hot trends and trying to find the next fidget spinner will take hours out of your day.
Not to mention, it’s not enough to just have the hot new product…
You also need to get the customers.
That means ads…
Lots and lots of ads…
Testing, tweaking, targeting, spending thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars before breaking even.
Not to mention, Facebook hates eCommerce, meaning one of your top traffic sources could shut you down at any time.
All of this leads to a very stressful life, not a lot of money, and a lot of time wasted.
Time that could be better spent so you can actually live the life you want.
Now, what if there was a way you could build a passive income stream that’s actually passive?
An income stream that doesn’t require:
- Physical Products
- Low Margins
- Long Wait Times
- Angry Customers
- Thousands of dollars testing different ad campaigns
An income stream that brings in consistent revenues every single month (from a couple thousand dollars to well over $10,000)?
An income stream you could actually build in your spare time, and grow as large or as small as you want to, without having to spend hours a day running ads, researching products, and trying not to get banned by whatever platforms you’re using?
If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, check out Digital Real Estate.
This is nothing like eCommerce, and that’s probably a good thing.
However, if you’d still like to know more about Publishing Life, keep reading.
Overview
Publishing.com is yet another course from the Mikkelsen Twins on through the online business model of making money publishing books. While the fresh name may be a way of escaping negative reviews, it is worth noting that this online book publishing program covers global print publishing.
But is there more to the Publishing Life “free training”? And Is self publishing worth it worth it after all the costs are paid?
Let’s dive in and find out.
What Is Publishing.com?
Publishing Life, or Publishing. com, basically functions as an introduction to the Mikkelsen Twins’ series of Amazon audiobook courses.
It’s offered as a free webinar that pitches you their much more expensive Audiobook Income Academy at the end.
You might be confused by all these different brand names. I don’t blame you…but just remember: they’re all the same thing.
AIA 2.0, popularly known as Audiobook Income Academy, is a passive income-generating online business concept that shows people how to become Amazon publishers via…you guessed it: audiobooks.
Some believe it’s a scam and point out that the Mikkelsen Twins have been banned from Amazon many times, while others say it’s helped them achieve financial freedom. It’s tough to know whether positive reviews are legit in a world full of fake ones.
The twin brothers invented the term “ghost audio” as part of their pitch to entice more people to attend their free webinar training on the publishinglife.com website.
On their landing page, you may also find some exaggerated claims of quick money with little to no work. This is just a bunch of hype meant to get you to sign up for their webinar.
What Is Ghost Audio?
The Mikkelsen twins define ghost audio as hiring ghostwriters to create content for you and then distributing it as your own on sites like Amazon in the form of eBooks, audiobooks, and physical books. You outsource the job while generating passive income. The Mikkelsen twins refer to this as “ghost audio.”
After they started making YouTube videos on their experiences with self-publishing, AIA was created. They now make millions of dollars selling courses. The Mikkelsen twins’ net worth is estimated to be three million dollars each.
But can this all still work after Amazon has cracked down over the years?
Who Are The Mikkelsen Twins?
Rasmus and Christian Mikkelsen are twin brothers who have published over 150 books on Amazon and are recognized pioneers in the Amazon book (kindle) publishing and audiobook industry.
PublishingLife was launched in March 2020, but their story began much earlier. Rasmus and Christian Mikkelsen, the founders, attended community college in New Jersey, delivering Chinese food four days a week…not exactly living the dream.
They knew that if they did nothing and just followed in the footsteps of everyone else, they’d soon be spending 40 hours a week in an office cubicle, confined to one location on the planet and working hard to make someone else rich and happy.
The mere thought of asking for permission to take a break from work was enough to persuade them that this was the wrong path to take.
They understood that the world was meant to be explored. Life should be filled with unforgettable experiences and emotions rather than being spent working on meaningless tasks for a paycheck.
It was clear that being their own boss and creating something that could run entirely online was the only way to have complete freedom and control in life.
To start this Mikkelsen Twins review off Rasmus and Christian spent the next few years trying, failing, and eventually creating the exact life they had imagined.
They’ve since lived all over the world in Hawaii, Bali, Mexico, and Spain. They have visited every bucket list travel destination imaginable, including the Maldives, Japan, Santorini, Egypt, Italy, and Cuba, thanks to Amazon digital publishing.
They are so grateful for the positive impact that book publishing has had on their lives that they can’t put it into words. To them, a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment can only be achieved by making a positive impact on the lives of others.
All of this, and they’re only getting started.
Rasmus and Christian realized in March 2020 that their job was too big for just two people, so they founded Publishing Life .com (which now redirects to Publishing.com), a group of people who share the same goal: to help as many people achieve the same life-changing amounts of freedom and happiness through Amazon book publishing.
So far, they’ve had a lot of success, but they say they’re only scratching the surface. They are working on several projects to reach out to more people and help them on a more personal level.
Online work is constantly evolving, so they prioritize staying up-to-date with the best educational resources available.
Their students have earned a total of $20 million in supposed earnings to date. According to Rasmus, this opportunity provides a lifetime of freedom and the ability to travel the world while making money. Aside from real estate and the stock market, he claims that this is one of the most successful businesses to start that may provide you with passive income.
What’s Inside The Mikkelsen Twins’ Program?
Inside AIA 2.0, you’ll find a 7-module course that will teach you everything you need to know about this online business and how to make money by publishing on Amazon.
There is a supplementary course that teaches you how to expand outside of Amazon and approach other platforms for increased exposure and income.
You will also have access to a private Facebook community where all other members may share resources, four one-on-one calls with an AIA 2.0 coach, weekly live group sessions every Monday, Done for You materials, and 21 templates.
Essentially, it’s an online training course which shows you how to get started with self publishing.
Let’s take a look at each module and discover what’s included in Audio Income Academy.
Module 1: The Transformation
Module one begins with an overview of everything you’ll be learning inside AIA 2.0. Following that is mindset training to assist in mentally preparing you for what is to come.
You’ll be learning how to develop an internet business, which means you’ll have to start forming new daily routines that will propel you forward.
This implies you’ll have to create a new identity, which is what lesson 3 of module one is all about.
The final session will provide you with a to-do list for the first week of your new online business’s launch.
Module 2: Launching Your Online Publishing Business
This module contains eight lessons. The first focuses on teaching you the essentials of running an online publishing business.
It’s intended to give you a thorough understanding of how everything works. Creating a firm foundation is a critical first step.
You’ll also learn about the numbers you should expect to generate in the coming months, how to choose the perfect initial topic for your first book, and how the Mikkelsen twins’ journey began.
Then, you’ll be exposed to a handful of ways you can use to accelerate your own path to success, followed by a few lectures on managing your money and the fundamentals of accounting.
Module 3: How To Write Your First Book
There are seven lessons in this course that will teach you everything you need to know about your potential customers, how to build your publishing brand, how to master the art of creating an outline for a good book, how to choose a winning title, how to be a good copywriter, and how to acquire ghostwritten books.
All of these factors are critical to your online success as an Amazon publisher. To clarify, becoming a publisher is one of ways to generate money with Amazon. If that’s what you’re looking for, you may look into some alternative ways to use the platform, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Audio Income Academy is solely dedicated to book publication. Even if you’ve never written anything before, you’ll learn how to delegate a large portion of the hard work.
Module 4: Passive Systems And Automations
This session focuses on outsourcing and automating your marketing promotion through the use of email.
You’ll be exposed to the fundamentals of developing an email list, captivating your readers, and receiving some done-for-you email sequences that you can begin delivering to your list.
It’s critical to realize that everyone in this course will have access to the same email marketing copy that you do.
That’s why, in the long run, it’s probably best if you change the emails a little. The module’s final lesson is about creating outstanding descriptions that catch readers in, followed by a to-do list.
Module 5: Launch Week
Everything up to this point has been preparing you for this moment. It’s time to put your books on the internet. Before doing that, you must perform a manual quality control check to ensure that everything is in working order for a successful launch.
Putting everything online is only the first step. After that, it’s time to establish yourself as an industry authority, which is what lesson 5 of this module is all about.
Module 6: Amazon Ads And Audiobook Conversion
Before you begin your first campaign, you will learn how to target certain keywords and correctly optimize your advertising in this lesson.
If you wait for people to discover your books on Amazon, it can take a long time before you make any sales.
That is why you must be willing to spend money on advertising (this could be a deal breaker for you as this is one of those “hidden additional costs”). That is the focus of the first half of this module, followed by converting your ebooks to audiobooks.
This can provide you with another way to create passive revenue online while also giving your potential customers more opportunities to consume your material.
Lesson six provides an introduction to ACX, an Amazon-powered audiobook editing tool. Then you’ll learn about getting narrated, Audible reviews, and how to turn all of that information into actionable actions toward online success.
Module 7: Next-Level Publishing
This session will show you how to scale and grow your business. The first lesson is about demonstrating the various methods for expanding and covering all you will study in Module 7.
Lesson two teaches you everything you need to know about becoming omnipresent and having a presence on several platforms simultaneously.
Lessons three and four address global print publishing with IngramSpark, and lessons five through eight cover various ways to scale your business, such as Facebook ads, website construction, and lead magnets.
Is Publishing Life A Scam?
So, is Publishinglife.com a scam?
Not technically.
You can make money with this program, but it’s definitely not as easy as Mikkelsen Twins makes it sound.
There’s a ton of work to be done upfront, no real guarantee of success, and – most importantly – you need to do a ton of volume to make any real money.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with front-loading the work and making the money later.
But if you’re grinding it out for 3 months, $3-5k in the hole on ads (because that whole “get started with $5 a day” thing is total BS) and then your reward is 15% profit on a $12 product (which comes out to $1.80), it’s not really worth it.
What if, instead, you could do that same 3 months of work (in your spare time), and your reward was a $500 to $2,000 payment that came in every single month?
And what if you actually didn’t need to wait 3 months? What if you could get started today and have your first payment in a week?
And what if you could double it next week?
Well, that’s the power of Digital Real Estate.
And, unlike eCommerce, you can legitimately do this from anywhere. It’s a true lifestyle business.
Your laptop and an internet connection is all you need.
Some of the most successful students in this program run their entire 6-figure businesses from:
- A camper in the middle of the woods
- A beach chair on the water in Mexico
- A small villa in Greece
They’re able to travel around, living their lives first, and focusing on their income second.
Because even if they stop working for an extended period of time, the money keeps coming in.
So adventure, memories, and experience are the top priority.
And they never have to worry about how to pay for the next trip, or consider asking for time off.
If this sounds more like the type of life you want to lead, just click here to find out more about Digital Real Estate.
How Much Does Publishing.com Cost?
It used to be $997, but the Mikkelsen twins have raised AIA’s price to $1,997, which may be paid in three $797 installments.
If you pay in three consecutive months, your investment will rise to $2,391. If you can’t afford to pay for your membership right now, AIA 2.0 urges you to apply for PayPal credit.
It also appears that they have jumped on the AI craze, charging $6000 for one of their latest offerings.
Watch out for the upsells!
The Mikkelsen Twins’ Refund Policy
Yes, you have a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee for 24 hours. After the 24-hour period, you have 180 days to make a profit or get your money back. Audiobook Income Academy 2.0 provides a “profit guarantee” under the following conditions:
- You must watch all of the video lessons from Week 1 to Week 6.
- You must attend two one-on-one coaching calls.
- You must publish one audiobook and have it available on Audible.
You have 180 days to complete all of this, and if you haven’t made at least $5,000 by then, the Mikkelsen twins will refund your money plus $1,000.
I’ve read one of the Mikkelsen Twins reviews from a student, though: he said that one customer service guy cut him off during a refund call and that the “twins from Publishing life pretend to be helpful but they are not.”
He basically thinks Publishing Life pretend to actually help with refunds.
Are There Alternatives To Publishing Life?
Yes, there are plenty of eCommerce programs and resources to choose from if you want to pursue this new business model. Here are just a few:
What Is My Top Recommendation For Making Money Online In 2023?
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 Real Estate 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 Real Estate 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 Real Estate 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.
This is only possible if you have an income stream that’s not tied to your time.
2) You Own & Control EVERYTHING: With eCommerce, you don’t really own anything. You have no control over the quality of products. You don’t even own the products because they go straight from the supplier to the customer.
Yes, if you’ve got a Shopify store, you technically own that. But if every ad platform suits you down, you’ve got a store with no customers. Which is literally worthless.
With Digital Real Estate, you own 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 Real Estate 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) No Inventory: Ok, so technically you don’t have to worry about inventory since you’re not filling up your garage or a warehouse with products.
But, you still have all the headaches of selling physical products business.
Since most eCommerce products come from China, you already have a 2-3 week wait time from when a customer places an order.
But right now, with global supply chain issues, your customers would be lucky to get anything in less than a month.
Imagine finally landing your first customer after months of experimenting, and then getting hit with a refund request or chargeback because they had to wait 6 weeks to get their order.
With Digital Real Estate, a 100% online business, you never even have to think about that risk.
5) 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 eCommerce, you’d have to double your inventory, your profit margins, OR your average order value. And, guaranteed that’s a lot harder than a few clicks and a few minutes of your life.
6) Make Money Helping Real People: This part is what makes it all worth it. 99.9% of the time, eCommerce provides no value to anyone but the seller.
In a lot of cases, it has the impact of a negative review on the customer because of poor product quality and an overall bad experience (i.e. waiting 6 weeks to get your order).
And that makes it pretty hard to sleep at night.
But with Digital Real Estate, you’re actually helping people by solving your clients’ biggest problem:
Small, local businesses need more customers, and with Digital Real Estate, 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 website owner who’s using that money to put food on the table for their family, start a community college fund for their kids, or take care of a sick parent.
Once you see how Digital Real Estate 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 Publishinglife.com 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 Real Estate.
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 Real Estate.
