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Writing a book isn’t enough #2

Jul29
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by Help Desk

One of the basic rules of internet marketing is that you need traffic. Everything starts with the traffic. It’s like a bricks and mortar store. If people don’t come into the store it really doesn’t matter how good your product is, how competitive it is or anything else. Without the foot traffic you aren’t going to sell anything.

And it’s no different over the internet.

In order to have an audience — readers, course attendees etc. — you need the traffic. After all, not everyone who investigates what you offer is going to want to listen/read/watch it. You need enough people passing by in order to get enough people to stick around.

So how do you do that?

One of the best techniques is Article Marketing. Many traffic techniques drive traffic to your site. But it’s often the wrong type of traffic. And that just chews up bandwidth and money. Article Marketing drives high quality traffic — traffic that sticks around and eventually buys.

Now, I’m no slacker when it comes to Article Marketing. But I’m also not the number one author on EzineArticles.com. My coach, Sean Mize is.

I’ve arranged with Sean to make his 6 MP3 audio series Article Marketing Advanced available to you. It will show you how to write articles that drive traffic that sticks, where to post your articles, and much, much more. You can find more information here.

Posted in Announcements, Building an eBiz, Creating Audio Products, Creating Information Products, Creating Video Products, Write a "how to" book - Tagged article, article marketing, audience, Audio, Author, bandwidth, book, bricks, bricks and mortar, coach, course attendees, EzineArticles, foot traffic, format, high quality, how to, information, internet marketing, LearningCreators, money, mortar store, Quality, quality traffic, Sean Mize, traffic traffic, writing a book

Creating Information Products But Which One? Part 4 – Cost

Feb01
2010 4 Comments

Written by Help Desk

Sorry folks, but Thursday and Friday turned out to be busier than I could handle. So this article just ended up being a wee might late. Sorry about that!

So far we’ve been kind of working up to one third of the decision matrix for identifying which information product you should create … Specifically the cost.

To a large extent I can’t tell you what the cost will be.

You see as I hinted at in the last posts, you need to answer the question for yourself.

Generally speaking the relationship between writing, video, live/slideshow, and audio are:

Text book (300+ pgs) = 1 week live seminar = 6 hrs finished Video = 12 hrs finished audio
Executive book (100-200 pgs) = 1 day live seminar = 1.5 hrs finished Video = 3 hrs finished audio
Article = 1-1/2 hour live seminar/webinar = 1/4 hr finished Video = 1/2 hr finished audio

HOWEVER, your own comparison will vary. First because you may be more or less comfortable speaking or writing. Writing is a very private task and as a result doesn’t take a great deal of practice to become comfortable. (It does take a lot of practice to become capable but that can’t happen until you are comfortable). Speaking – public or otherwise – does require a great deal of practice before you become comfortable.

To make matters worse speaking to a crowd is much easier than speaking to a camera. A crowd gives you feedback and energy. A camera gives you nothing. So practice for one doesn’t help you with practice for the other. In fact, practice for the crowd is more a matter of becoming confident and comfortable. Practice for the camera is a matter of becoming able to generate your own energy.

Then comes the matter of repurposing and other techniques such as interviews. It might seem that there is little extra cost involved in repurposing (e.g. video to audio to transcription), but as we’ll see in the next post, the costs are much higher than one will be told.

So all I can tell you is that you need to determine how much it will cost YOU to create the product in the various forms. Just remember to include all the costs including preparation, production and post production.

Posted in Creating Information Products - Tagged article, book, cost, Creating, Creating Information Products, Custom, Day, decision matrix, Don, ebook, effort, end, fact, format, Friday, gurus, hand, hour, IM, info, information, information product, information products, kind, meaning, order, Part, peak, presentation, problem, Quality, rate, repurposing, reputation, slideshow, source, Step, technique, text, time, transcription, turn, value, video, web, week, work, wr, writing

Writing A How To Book: Selecting a Writing System: Determining Your Needs

Jan08
2010 2 Comments

Written by Help Desk

How to Select A How to Book Writing System: Determining Your Needs

Video 2 of 4

So you realize you need some form of system in order to write how to books efficiently and effectively. Great. You could just try writing until you discover your preferred system. But you’ll have to fail at writing eBooks several times first. Or you could go out and buy a system.

But what type of system do you need?

The first step in choosing a system is to answer that question. In this video we help you understand your needs by creating a framework.

Writing fits somewhere along one of three dimensions:

Organizational Base (aka Time or Fact Base)
Organizational Flexibility (aka Structured or Unstructured)
Complexity ( aka Simple/Complex)

Writing is organized either on a Time basis or on a Fact basis for the reader.

Not all writing, however, is equally bound by the base organization. Time based writing, for example, can run from time-line focused (structured to the base) to a sequential focus (still time but the base is no longer the central focus of the structure).

As the writing moves from structured (by the base) to unstructured (by the base), the writer has both more flexibility and the need to examine and select a structure for presentation. In other words, if your writing is structured time based (e.g. fiction) then you must select a time based structure. Your system will need to reflect that. On the other hand if your writing is unstructured fact based (e.g. a collection of recipes) you will need to determine what structure you will present to the reader. Usually, this will be a fact based structure. The key is that it is imposed and therefore your system will not require an imposed structure.

The final dimension is that of complexity. As your writing becomes simpler – e.g. blogs or short articles – the need for structure reduces. As the writing becomes more complex (i.e. books) the need for structure increases.

Posted in Write a "how to" book - Tagged base, basis, book, complexity, fact, Fact Base, Flexibility, focus, need, order, Organizational Base, reader, Selecting, structure, system, time, type

Writing How To Books – Final Thoughts

Dec04
2009 10 Comments

Written by Help Desk

So over the last two weeks I’ve talked about the four types of books and why the Content Mapping System works for them – or doesn’t.

While the system isn’t a panacea and it doesn’t work for all books, it does work in most cases for how to books and why to books. In short, most non-fiction.

This is true because most non-fiction books are fact based regardless of their organization. Even if they are a simple collection, they still need to be organized. If they are a how to, they still need to be organized. So it doesn’t matter if they are sequential, fact-based or collections, they are still a set of facts that need to be organized. And the best system to do that is the Content Mapping System you can find here in video form (for free) or here in book form (not free).

A minor exception to the above rule is sequential based books. With sequential or process based books you need to add pretty pictures. In other words, flow or process diagrams. But the basic Content Map system works quite well and does allow for adding this type of information. (Yes, believe it or not it is a function of the tool. We don’t talk about it very much but it is part of the proper use of the tool.)

The major exception to the above are time based books. These are histories, (auto-)biographies and fiction. Because they are time based they need a tool which is time based … in other words a time chart based system. Sorry but the Content Mapping system just isn’t the right system for those books.

A couple of final comments.

First, an historical analysis is not a time based book. It is primarily a fact based book. Having said that you may want to use a time chart to help document the occurence of the actions which you are analysing. This leads to the second comment.

The system allows you to use pictures and diagrams when they communicate the information better than words. Don’t be afraid to use them! After all a picture is worth a thousand words. This also applies within your book. Sometimes words are not the best tools to communicate with. Sometimes pictures are. Never be afraid of diagrams. And don’t forget to use boxes … those little quick fact summary boxes you see in some books or at the side of articles. They help to seperate the book and to emphasize key facts.

So enjoy the Content Mapping System and learn to write books in less than 24 hours. Just remember that the system doesn’t work for all books, just non-fiction. It works great for how to books!

Enjoy, learn & get earning.

Glen Ford
& the LearningCreators team

Posted in Write a "how to" book - Tagged analysis, argument, based books, biographies, book, brain, brainstorming, Building an eBiz, business, collection, collections, complete system, course, Creating Information Products, Diagram, ebook, exception, fact, Fiction, fiction book, flow, histories, how to, internet marketers, map, Mapping, mapping system, method, non fiction books, occurence, organization, presentation, presenting information, pretty pictures, process, semantic network, sequential, set, structure, summary, system, technique, time chart, tool, Use, Write, Write a "how to" book, writing, writing hints, writing how to books

Writing How To Books – Collections

Dec03
2009 16 Comments

Written by Help Desk

The fourth and final type of book is the collection.

What is a collection type book?

A collection type book is a collection of facts presented in a book format. Uhh… Okay, try this recipe books are collections. So are shopping catalogs. So are 50 best & 100 best and 500 best … add your own noun (dogs/cats/cars/boats/pirates … every one of those have been used).

In short it’s a bunch of short articles gathered together and presented as a book.

So what is the best way to organize such a book? Well, actually you have a choice.

One technique is to take a bunch of 4×6 index cards, write the title on the top, and then any facts. Then sort the cards. Viola!

Hey, it works! Elegant it ain’t and with a couple of major weaknesses.

A much better technique is the Content Map system. Start by filling out the Focus section at the top but do it on two sheets.

The first sheet will be the template for each of your articles. Remember that your collection book can be thought of as a series of articles collected and organized into a cohesive form. Now create the structure for your article. All the regular rules about arguments and presenting information apply. With one exception. The number of “chapters” doesn’t have to be exactly five plus two. You still need an intro and a conclusion and you shouldn’t have more than nine total. But the actual number of “chapters” can be whatever makes sense to you. Each of these “chapters” will become a section or paragraph for the book. The final step is to estimate how big (in words) each of these “articles” will be on average. You may find you want to write up a few “articles” to help estimate the average size.

Now take the second sheet. This will be your book itself. Just follow the usual steps for designing your book. However, when you write a topic which is an article, don’t bother to write up anything below the topic. Just mark it with a big “A”. Get fancy, put a circle around it if you wish! When you finish you’ll have the structure for your book. Estimating involves mixing the usual technique with the values you calculated above.

From there just follow the rest of the system.

So does the Content Map system work? Yup!

Posted in Write a "how to" book - Tagged argument, brain, brainstorming, business, collections, conclusion, creative brain, debating sense, ebook, fiction book, flow, histories, how to, index cards, internet marketers, map, Mapping, non fiction books, noun, paragraph, pirates, presentation, presenting information, recipe books, semantic network, Sequence, sequential, shopping catalogs, Use, Write a "how to" book, writing hints, writing how to books

Writing How To Books – Sequence Based Books

Dec01
2009 20 Comments

Written by Help Desk

So far we’ve talked about two types of books – fact and time based. Our system works for one but not for the other. Well, actually yes it will work for both — but it’s not the best technique for the other and I only want you to use the best system!

Now, when I first thought about creating a system I believed there were only those two types.

I was wrong!

Yup, I admit it. There are two types that I don’t usually write.

Today I’m going to discuss sequence based books and tomorrow I’ll talk about collections.

So what is a sequence based book? Well, first of all, it probably doesn’t really exist in it’s pure state. It is a presentation, however, which appears frequently in technical writing.

So what is it already?

It’s a process based presentation; in other words, a how to book dealing with details. Which is why it seldom exists in pure form. Why? Because even technical manuals need to deal with summaries and explanations. It’s a book which is organized to presentt:

Step One – do this
Step Two – do this other thing
Step Three – when you finish do another bit
Step Four – if you haven’t finished go back and repeat step one.
and so on and so on and so on.

Quite frankly, words are seldom the best way to present process or sequential based information. Flow diagrams are a much better way of describing that information and should be included whenever you are describing a sequence.

So obviously the Content Mapping system isn ‘t the best way to design this type of book right? Wrong!

Remember my comment on sequential books not existing in pure form? Typically you find a sequential sausage being buried (literally) in a fact based corn roll. Can you tell I haven’t had supper yet? Ah, corn dogs … oops back to books.

The trick is that the majority of the book’s organization is argument or fact based with sections being sequential based. Therefore the Content Map system is the best way to design the whole book. Where sequential elements appear they can be documented either on a seperate sheet or in a spare blank part of the map sheet. The sequence diagram can then be referenced within the content map.

This is the same technique I used when writing How To Write Your Own How To Book in 24 Hours or Less. I sketched the process in one corner of the map and then used a topic tag (actually a group of them) which referenced the sketch.

So is the Content Map the best method for sequential books? Yes, because most sequential books are actually fact based books with sequential pieces.

However, the sequential pieces are best described using a flow diagram. And that applies to both designing and in presenting within the book.

After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.