Posts tagged reason

Lessons Learned #8 – Work to Live Not Live To Work!

Oct14
2009 5 Comments

Written by Help Desk

Whenever you start a major project there is a tendency to want to concentrate on it. Especially when it’s running behind!

But remember your reasons for getting into the IM eBiz. Words like freedom, spending time with the family, money probably will come up. Words like working all night long probably don’t.

Don’t forget to schedule time for the important things in life. Your family. Relaxation. Giving back.

Don’t lose sight of the important things in life while rushing to resolve the immediate things.

Lesson Learned #7:

You’ve got other things to do too!

Don’t spend all your time on work. Remember when creating (and recreating) the schedule that you need to spend time on other things. Things that are more important.

Posted in Building an eBiz - Tagged family, IM, Learn, Learned, Lesson, Lessons, lessons learned, Project, time, word, work

Lessons Learned #5 – A Second Point of View

Oct07
2009 7 Comments

Written by Help Desk

Due to reasons beyond our control, much of this conversion ended up on my shoulders.

Ignore the amount of work involved. Yes, it would have been nice and we would have been up sooner with less pain. But that’s not the big advantage of working with a partner.

The big advantage is having a second pair of eyes.

You’ll notice that I’ve said several times that there are a lot of very talented web designers out there. Yeah, well they’re all producing multiple great designs.

Quite frankly, there is an embarassment of riches out there for free or almost free! The problem is choosing which design(s) to use as the base – and how to tweak the design. That’s where a partner is most useful.

Start by creating a list of designs that you like. Let your partner go through the list and select out the designs that they like. Then repeat until you are down to one design. One trick is to drop 1/3 of the designs each time. So let’s say you start with 12 designs. Your partner would pick the 8 designs they like the best. Then you would pick the 6 designs you like best. And so on.

There are also a number of other decisions that are helped by a second point of view — from structure to widgets to other software. Having a partner to discuss problems, and arbitrary decisions is invaluable.

A business partner is best, but even if you don’t have a business partner, a spouse or trusted friend is better than trying to go it alone.

Lesson Learned #4:

Two Heads Are Better Than One

Don’t overestimate the value of a second point of view.

There will be many times that you will become overwhelmed with the number of choices available to you.

Some of those choices are mostly arbitrary or esthetic in nature.

And yet, you still need to make the best choice you can.

That’s when a partner is invaluable. Someone to argue with you over a solution. To make choices based on their esthetics. To just be someone other than yourself.

Posted in Building an eBiz - Tagged bit, business, designer, how to, IM, Learned, Lesson, Lessons, lessons learned, lot, Part, point, software, solution, time, tweak, web, work

Lessons Learned #2 – Quality in WordPress Themes #1

Sep30
2009 14 Comments

Written by Help Desk

Okay. It’s no secret that I’ve long decried the quality of tools available to the P/C programmer.

But after this last bit of nonsense I’m not sure who is to blame. The tool manufacturers, the people who work for them or their customers!

Now I’m not the world’s best art director. My wife, the artist, would probably argue that I can’t match socks let alone colour schemes. Successfully I might add. I’ve been married for 18 years — she always wins arguments like that

But what I am is reasonably capable as a web developer (aka programmer).

So when we converted to WordPress I made the (wise ????) decision that I wasn’t going to design my own theme. I would go looking for a theme that looked good and then tweak it to have the sidebars & widgets that I needed & wanted. Should only take an hour or so right? WRONG!

What I found when I went looking is that there are a lot of really skilled web designers out there. Some real artists.

And not a blasted one of them can program!

Virtually every theme I liked had at least one major flaw. I can’t tell you how many theme’s I checked where the menu didn’t work. And that’s not counting the number where they didn’t even try to get it to work! (Yo … Note to artists … the reason WordPress allows a structure with pages is that multiple levels are a pretty common technique for organizing what you’re doing).

Of course, every once in a while I ran into a theme that worked well. It was obvious that another developer had put it together. Very obvious. But it was well structured. The only problem is that spending three days trying to understand “pea, pea, where’s the pea?” style coding just doesn’t turn me on anymore. Some day I”ll figure out how to change the framework to display the way I want … but don’t hold your breath.

I could go on with other examples but I won’t.

So what does all this come down to?

Lesson Learned #1:

Find a theme you like and then just live within it’s limitations.

At least initially. Just get the site up with the basic theme as given. Trying to tweak a theme is a study in frustration. Don’t worry about being unique. Don’t worry about it having all the elements you need. Just get it up as written. Do the best you can. Then AFTER you’ve got it up, if you’ve got the time. You can always try to improve/tweak/fix it later.

Posted in Building an eBiz - Tagged artist, bit, book, Building an eBiz, Change, course, designer, developer, heck, how to, IM, Learned, Lessons, lot, nonsense, programmer, Quality, secret, site, technique, theme, Themes, time, tool, tweak, web, word, WordPress, work, Write a "how to" book

2 Reasons To Write How To Books Part 2 – Publishing Your Book

Sep11
2009 2 Comments

Written by Help Desk

The second major reason to write how to books is because you want to sell them. There’s two major ways you can sell how to books.

The first is the traditional method. You can sell your book to a traditional publishing house (Random, McGraw Hill etc). I don’t have the space in a blog to discuss that technique in depth. However, the basic process is to:

Build a list of agents who are currently looking for authors
Create a package (letter, outline & 2 chapters) to sell the agent
Mail out the package to the agents
Follow up as appropriate
Repeat 1-4 until successful (or you get feedback saying you’re wasting your time)
Create a detailed package to sell the publisher
Send the package to the agent
Let the agent do their job

Once the agent is successful, then you need to think about promoting your book.

The second way to sell is to self-publish. Now there are several ways to do this (including imitating traditional publishing) but the best method is as part of a information products business. Effectively, your book becomes one in a set of products which teach the customer or client a particular skill.

You’ll find as you try this that a real book is a big credibility boost. Yeah, sure you can get little PLR eBooks for $7. But a real book (100-200 pages) or ebook (60 pages) will get you both recognition and a good return. The problem, of course, is that video is both easier and more effective. However, it doesn’t carry the same cache. So when you design your product funnel you’ll want to fit a book in there somewhere if only to boost your credibility.

Now here’s the good news. All that work you put into learning our system is transferable. It works for any media you choose to put your course into. Of course, there are differences — which is why we recommend starting with a new content map for every media. It’s also why we teach the whole system in media based chunks. But the basic technique and process is the same no matter the media.

So get out there … get learning and get earning!

Glen Ford

Posted in Building an eBiz, Creating Information Products, Write a "how to" book - Tagged agent, blog, book, business, course, credibility, depth, Glen Ford, Hill, house, how to, IM, McGraw, method, package, Part, process, Publishing, Random, space, system, technique, time, work, Write

2 Reasons To Write How To Books Part 1 – A Book As A Modern Business Card

Sep09
2009 3 Comments

Written by Help Desk

A little while back I posted a blog entry with a link to a free webinar on Expert Marketing. But I never really explained why it was important.

There are many reasons you might want to write how to books. But from a business viewpoint there are two key ones:

Making money by selling the book
Making money by giving away the book

We’ll deal with the first tomorrow. Today I want to talk about giving the book away.

One of the concepts that bricks and mortar businesses find hard to understand with internet business is the concept of freemiums.

There are three things that you can sell with any business. You can sell the product or service, you can sell your relationship with the customer or you can sell your expertise. (If you want more information check out this free webinar on Expert Marketing – not even an opt-in).
I’m not going to get into it but while the first two are possible on the internet only selling expertise really fits the media. After all people can’t see or touch the product over the internet. As for relationship — it’s hard to convince someone that you’re their local neighbourhood supplier from another continent!

But convincing potential customers that you really know what you’re doing is easy. All you have to do is give them a sample. A freemium! Think grocery store samples. But rather than selling the product you’re selling the ability to identify a solution — your expertise.

Books are perfect for this. They’re high perceived value, they explain points of view, and if done well can impress.

For a bricks & mortar business they can be a great introduction. But don’t just think business card. Think resume. Think salesman.

A free book costing less than $10 can easily generate thousands of dollars in business. How? By convincing your client that you are the one to call!

Posted in Building an eBiz, Creating Information Products, Write a "how to" book - Tagged blog, book, business, heck, how to, IM, LearningCreators, Part, point, training, TrainingNOW, web, Write

When Do You Want to Transcribe A Seminar?

Jul08
2009 4 Comments

Written by Help Desk

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

Posted in Building an eBiz, Creating Information Products, Write a "how to" book - Tagged bit, book, course, IM, lot, method, package, technique, time, Write a "how to" book

Why Create ebooks? Part 1

Jun18
2009 3 Comments

Written by Help Desk

There are alot of great reasons for writing an ebook.

First off, it helps to establish your credibility. After all, if you didn’t know your subject you’d never be able to fill up 60+ pages with information.
Second, it gives you a product with perceived value. We’re all used to having to pay for non-fictiion books. And we’re used to books being widely priced … anywhere from $10.95 to $100. So paying a premium doesn’t reflect badly.
Third, they can be made to look professional with very little work. Note that I’m not talking about writing the book. I’m talking about editing and formatiing it. Making the finished work look professional. Making a video professional is difficult and can be expensive.
Fourth, they do not have to be physical to be valued. A DVD is valued but not a video. They are freely available on YouTube. A CD is valued but not an mpeg. An ebook is valued almost as much as a self-published book.
Fifth, they are almost pure profit. The cost of development even if ghost written is quite reasonable.

The truth is that, ebooks rely very heavily on the perceived value of their near cousins the commercial non-fiction book. A commercial non-fiction book is a very expensive proposition. Publishers do not like losing money on them. So as consumers we automatically believe that if they’ve published it, the book must be of value.

A well designed self-published book or ebook can borrow on that reputation.