It sounds kind of silly but writing a book by hand is as useful today as it was 3000 years ago. Better, in fact, because now we use paper and pencils or self-feeding pens. Three thousand years ago they used tablets and chisels or animal skins and quill pens.

And as silly as it sounds writing by hand has a number of advantages.

It’s a skill that most of us have practiced for most of our lives. It’s a skill that takes very little in the way of resources — a notebook or pad and a pencil or pen. It’s very inexpensive — literally only a couple of bucks. And it can be done anywhere — the waiting room of a doctor’s office, a local coffee shop, a local park.

Really it only has three disadvantages. If your writing is anything like mine, going back and actually reading it may prove problematic. Which is why in order to do anything with the manuscript you need to reformat or convert it to a computer-based form. Finally, in order to edit it you need also need to convert it to another form.

But there is an advantage that you might not think of. Because it is so hard to change and fix things, you will be less likely to go back. So getting the writing done is more likely. And getting lost in the editing maze is unlikely.

Then with a little thought, you can use the conversion process to perform your first verbal  (non-structural) edit. And every edit helps!

Keep Learning and Keep Earning

Glen Ford

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So far we’ve kind of concentrated on getting the words out there. But we haven’t really talked about the physical task of getting words on paper. We’re going to do that this week and next.

There are five main ways for you to get words on paper:

1. Hand write
2. Type (computer)
3. Use a secretary
4. Speak & Transcribe
5. Speak, Record, Transcribe

Each of these will be discussed in (blog-level) detail over the next few days.

Sooo enjoy your reading … and keep in touch …. and please,please comment! I’d really love to know if anyone is really out there!

Keep Learning and Keep Earning

Glen Ford

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Okay, so far you have a seminar or webinar that you’ve recorded. You’ve turned it into a DVD which you’re selling for $47-97. You’ve transcribed it as a report which you’re going to give away as a bonus. And you’ve converted the seminar to audo only and put it on to a CD or mp3 as a podcast. Now you’ve got your giveaway or a monthly bonus for your continuity program.

But I also mentioned (two weeks ago ( oh Great Bubblefuzz — I am so falling behind!) . that there was a fourth product you could create.

The fourth information product is an interview.

Listen to the presentation. Write down a series of questions whose answers are in the seminar. Then edit the mp3 (or audio) to make your seminar sound like you are answering the questions. Then get someone (a partner or JV or just about anyone reallly) to act as an interviewer.

All you need to do is record the two of you making the introductory chit-chat and concluding chit chat. You know the one that goes “Hello and Welcome to <your name>. Thank you for joining us today.” “My pleasure”. and so on. It will also help if you record some mid-interview joking around to break up the interview.

Then get your interviewer to ask the questions. Edit it all together and voila! You have an interview.

You may find you need to add some transitions to make your “PowerPoint Responses” sound like you’re answering a question but you’ll find that many of the questions can be answered directly from the recording.

Use it as your giveaway or as another benefit.

Have Fun! Keep Learning! And Get Earning!

Glen

Okay, so far you have a seminar or webinar that you’ve recorded. You’ve turned it into a DVD which you’re selling for $47-97. You’ve transcribed it as a report which you’re going to give away as a bonus. And you’ve converted the seminar to audo only and put it on to a CD or mp3 as a podcast. Now you’ve got your giveaway or a monthly bonus for your continuity program.

But I also mentioned (two weeks ago ( oh Great Bubblefuzz — I am so falling behind!) . that there was a fourth product you could create.

The fourth information product is an interview.

Listen to the presentation. Write down a series of questions whose answers are in the seminar. Then edit the mp3 (or audio) to make your seminar sound like you are answering the questions. Then get someone (a partner or JV or just about anyone reallly) to act as an interviewer.

All you need to do is record the two of you making the introductory chit-chat and concluding chit chat. You know the one that goes “Hello and Welcome to <your name>. Thank you for joining us today.” “My pleasure”. and so on. It will also help if you record some mid-interview joking around to break up the interview.

Then get your interviewer to ask the questions. Edit it all together and voila! You have an interview.

You may find you need to add some transitions to make your “PowerPoint Responses” sound like you’re answering a question but you’ll find that many of the questions can be answered directly from the recording.

Use it as your giveaway or as another benefit.

Have Fun! Keep Learning! And Get Earning!

Glen

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I’m really not selling anything here … trust me I don’t have a backup product. In fact, I don’t even have an opt-in on this page. This is just something that I feel strongly about ….

What is it?

If you sell information products; if you are consultant.; or if you are in the service industry you need to know about Expert Marketing.

What is it? (I’m gettin there, I’m getting there ….)

It’s selling your expertise – not a product, not a relationship – your expertise. Sound familiar. If you are in info products it better be. If you are a consultant or service provider it should be.

It’s how you get to be the one to call!

Am I trying to sell something here — Nope!

I just got the webinar on this up and working in TrainingNOW’s free section. If you’d like to see this free introduction on Expert Marketing: Becoming the one to call just click. There isn’t even an opt-in!

(See I’m really not trying to sell anything … except maybe becoming a better entrepreneur!)

Just looking for your success

Glen Ford

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Sorry I didn’t manage to post the next few articles on How to Write Your Ebook related topics. It’s been quite some week.

Let’s see now … I finished the website to sell my book. It’s up now. Have a look at our Writing Ebooks course & book site That includes the new LearningCreators banner which you can see at the top of this blog.

I also finished the front cover and formatting for my eBook “How to Write Your Own How To Ebook in 24 Hours or Less”. I actually also finished the back cover … but managed to have a computer crash and lost it.

I filmed, edited and uploaded the first two lessons of the Writing Ebooks course plus connected it to the html.

Why? Because I started receiving the first of the requests to view the course.Several of them.

Which is nice to see but means I had to send out the course invitations ASAP.

Oh, yes. I also had a contract for copy (editing, rewritting and writting blogs) for a website.

And to make things more interesting — this was Grand Lodge week. So it was a short week as I was off with my masonic brothers making merry and electing officers.

Next week it’s back to real life once again!

Just looking for a little success

Glen Ford

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Last time I told you not to believe people when they suggest you should use a transcription to create your entry product — your ebook. And I gave you a whole bunch of reasons for not doing.

Now, I want to be very clear we are talking about transcribing a seminar here. Next week we’ll explore some of the alternative methods of writing ebooks. And transcription will raise its ugly head once again … but nicely!

But when should you use a transcription of a Seminar?

In a single sentence — when you want to add value without adding content.

Huh??? Okay, let me illustrate. Say you have a 2 hour seminar you’ve recorded.  And you want to release it as a stand alone product. Cool. Copy it to DVD and then use someone like www.kunaki.com to package and distribute it. Fine you’ve now got a medium priced backend product. Worth say between $47and $97.

But you need to make the DVD more valuable. Either to make the price easier to swallow or to increase the price. Now you could add a whole bunch of bonuses. Which is the usual technique. But what if you don’t have any bonuses related to the product? And for whatever reason you don’t want to add content.  (Trust me, there are lots of reasons to avoid it). How can you add without adding. Quick way is to transcribe the DVD. A little bit of editing and formatiing and you have a bonus.

Now, you’ve got 3 products from a single source. What’s the third? Record only the audio, re-edit it to remove the dead air and put it into an mp3. There you are 1 product and 2 bonuses. All from the same source.

Of course, you could go one step further …. (gotta get you back on Friday somehow!!).

Have Fun! Keep Learning! And Get Earning!

Glen

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One of the techniques to create ebooks that seems to be widely suggested is to put on a seminar, record it and then transcribe the result as an ebook.

The biggest problem with this technique is that it is high risk. You see when you put on a seminar you typically change and leave things off. After all a seminar is a living thing. No one is perfect and you simply can’t remember everything you have to say. Even with notes, you can guarantee that you’ll lose items, put them out of order and generally make mistakes.

In addition, the structure of a seminar is slightly (very slightly) different from that of a book. Once the transcription is created you’ll need to make sometimes very major modifications to force fit the result into a book form. That is why most of the suggestions include the recommendtion when writing ebooks this way to use the transcription as a base (effectively a first draft).

Now ask yourself one final question …. have you ever given a 1/2 day seminar? Do you realize how much work is involved? That’s what you’ll have to do to fill up a 20,000 word ebook. Even professionals add filler to half day sessions (called practice sessions). It’s just to hard to keep your audience alert otherwise. And of course, practice sessions don’t count to your word count.

I’m not saying that transcriptions aren’t a great idea for creating product. But when someone says that you can build your ebook business based on transcribing seminars you need to realize that they are simplifying.

Leave your transcriptions for filling in your product line. You need to build your ebook business by writing ebooks not by transcribing. At least for one attempt at ebook writing. Your main product.

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Yup … just go here for a free course on writing ebooks.

Yes I said FREE! … no charge, nada, not one red cent.

The bad news is 1) it runs over several weeks so you need to leave your email address, and 2) you get to listen to me (which isn’t that bad!) and even worse look at me (okay now that is pushing it… try not to eat beforehand! )

In this course, I will reveal the COMPLETE system I used to write a full 60 + page book in under 24 hours. That’s right less than 3 day’s work!

This is the first of our offerings where we show you a system that helps you build information products (i.e. learning content) quickly, easily and effectively!

So go there and get your free course on How to Write Ebooks & Information Products..

Go NOW! Sign up! Go. Now… Now!

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