An up and coming side gig that more and more people are interested in is selling low or no-content books on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (or Amazon KDP for short). And the beauty of doing so is that you can never run out of ways to improve your strategies for making more money. 

If you know how to optimize your listing, then this can be a pretty profitable side hustle that could even turn into an actual business.

If you aren’t optimizing your listings with popular keywords (see also ‘What Are Broad Keywords In Amazon? How To Use Them To Your Advantage‘), then you’re not going to see the benefits though, and might not feel as positive about the whole thing. 

If that’s the case, don’t worry! We can help you figure out the top performing keywords in some of the biggest niches on Amazon KDP to help you improve your strategies. 

In order to properly understand what’s going on, it’s going to be important to divide these top-performing keywords into category-related keywords and niche-related keywords.

This way, you as a seller are going to be able to understand the information in front of you in a much more organized way. 

What Is Low To No-Content Publishing?

Just in case you’re not familiar with the concept of low to no-content publishing on Amazon KDP (see also ‘9 Best Online Self Publishing Alternatives To Amazon KDP‘), let me explain. 

A low or no-content book is going to be something like a notebook, or a journal (see also ‘Are Low Content Books Profitable? [What You Need To Know!]‘). Some people even make coloring books and calendars that can be sold online.

All you have to do is create your designs and build them into a book – there are sites online that can show you how to do that. 

You have complete control over whether you make journals (see also ‘How To Sell Journals On Amazon KDP‘), planners, puzzle books or any variety of other things. However, there is definitely a hierarchy of what sells better, so let’s figure out what that is. 

Category-Related Keywords

If you look at insights like the ones found on Book Bolt, we can figure out what kind of product sells better, or at least shows up more often on the best-sellers list. 

For example, we can see that the word “coloring” has been used over 230 times among the top-selling products, whilst guest was used 143 times. Other popular keywords found were “log”, “music”, and “activity”. 

What Does This Tell Us?

From these insights, we can see that how you title your products is going to make a big difference.

For example, listing something as a “coloring book” is going to be better for your sales than calling it a “drawing book” or “activity book”, even if that is technically more accurate.

This doesn’t mean that a drawing book or an activity book won’t do well, but in order for it to see the same selling power as a coloring book, you’ll need to combine it with a trendy niche in order to make it easy for buyers on Amazon KDP to find it (see also ‘The Ultimate Guide To Trim Size, Bleed And Margins On Amazon KDP‘). 

Niche Related Keywords

In order to get a solid understanding of what buyers are looking for, we need to look at the keywords that are being searched for more often, and what niches they’re interested in.

For example, Mouse, gift, and summer are the top searched for niche-related keywords on Amazon KDP (see also ‘All You Need To Know About Taxes And Amazon KDP‘). Following closely behind are Unicorns, dog, and babies.

This shows us the kind of products that people are looking for and how frequently they’re searching for specific items. 

What Are The Top Niches On KDP?

Other than the specific types of product, you’ll also want to investigate the sort of niches that are popular.

Narrowing down exactly what it is that you’re selling will help you reach higher sales because you’ll be able to target more specific groups of people who are really interested in products related to what they’re interested in. 

So, with that in mind, what are the most popular niches? 

Holidays, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter, typically rank pretty high. As do movies and franchises like The Avengers or Batman (comic book stuff is incredibly popular with the majority of demographics).

Targeting special events will also help you rank high, think baby showers, birthdays, anniversaries etc. 

The only ones here that you won’t be able to target are the comic book related or movie niches.

This is because the last thing you want is to be hit with a cease and desist for copyright infringement. Anything out of the public domain is off-limits for this kind of thing. 

Combining Niche And Category Specific Keywords

Now that you have a solid understanding of what performs well, we can consider how to combine these two forms of keywords to optimize your listings. 

The Holiday Related niche is typically linked with keywords related to Easter, Halloween, and Santa. Coloring books relating to these keywords always do well as parents search for extra non-screen related activities to keep their kids entertained. 

Age/Sex related niches go in order of women’s, men’s, kids, then babies. These are the most popular search terms, so targeting women with your products is more likely to get you higher sales. 

Keep in mind that what the most popular keywords are is going to change throughout the year. You’re more likely to see Easter and Bunny pop up in March/April top keywords lists, but Santa will probably remain popular throughout the year as people always have Christmas on their minds. 

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking to make a quick buck then low to no-content publishing is the way to go. Stay aware of your niches and what demographics you want to target.

Be sure that your design is something sweet and simple that will catch the attention of buyers searching with keywords.

A bunny notebook will never go wrong, neither will a Santa coloring book. Have fun creating your art and selling it through Amazon KDP (see also ‘How Hard Is It To Sell On Amazon KDP? Pros And Cons‘).