Posts tagged seminar workshop

Creating Information Products But Which One? Part 7 – Price

Feb08
2010 2 Comments

Written by Help Desk

Okay, we’re almost finished.

So far we’ve covered the cost of producing different types of information product, we’ve covered the reputation value and we’ve covered the training value.

Today we’re going to discuss a type of value we as internet marketers like to discuss … money. Bucks, dollars, lira, pounds, pesos … $$$$$$$ (got the pic?)

So how much is a customer willing to pay for a product?

Frankly, that’s a question that has stumped many a marketer. The answer is typically “more than you thought!”. And there are a number of factors involved. Like, how good your sales copy is, did you position your information product as a system or just a book, are you targetting the affluent or the rest of us … and so forth.

However, once you’ve established a price you should get a relative price that looks along these lines (for comparable amounts of information, well presented and professional in appearance):

Live
Video
Written
Audio

So for example (and these numbers are made up but reasonable), a multi-DVD set which has been repurposed into a book and into an audio set might sell for:

Live Seminar (1 day) $1500
Video (4 DVDs) $297
Audio (4 CDs) $97
Book (200 pgs) $49

Did the relationship surprise you?

It should have … and to be honest it was a bit of a cheat. You see the relationship between live, video and audio is reasonably stable (and in that order). This corresponds to our previous discussion of value in terms of training quality.

However, books have an established market. And the price needs to correspond to that price point which your customer has established in their mind. That’s why the ending dollar amount of $7 is not as key. People are used to the $9 ending point.

So if I redo the prices (still being reasonable and still providing the same information) I might get the following:

Live Seminar (2 hrs) – $250
Video (1 DVD) – $97
Book (60 pages) – $19
Audio (1 CD) – $7

Notice that the relationship between book and audio switch places. Why? Because people expect a book to have a minimum cost which is higher than that of the audio.

Now how much is your information product worth?

In real terms you’ll need to estimate that based on your knowledge of the market. And don’t forget that some products will be worth more to you without a dollar figure. HUH???????

Remember that even FREE live seminar can sometimes make you more money than one you charge for! So when you are predicting the price for the purposes of determining what formats to use for your information products, don’t forget to figure in giveaways. For example, by providing a FREE live seminar you may get a large, interested and active audience (you might not but that’s another issue). Just perfect for background to create a DVD set for you to sell at the back of the room. In this case, the dollar values are all messed up because you traded dollars today for dollars tomorrow.

Similarly, books are often given out as free samples (e.g. opt-in and bonuses) as are MP3s. Once an audio is given out for free, the physical version (a CD) has little if any value. But of course, building a list is often of far more value than the audio.

Despite the difficulty of identifying a price point, the price is a major component of the decision to create an information product in one format or another.

We’ve now finished the discussion of the various elements involved in the decision. It’s now time to discuss the decision itself. Which we’ll do in the next web entry.

Posted in Creating Information Products - Tagged amount, Audio, Building an eBiz, course, Creating Information Products, information product, internet marketers, relationship, reputation, training, Write a "how to" book

Creating Information Products But Which One? Part 6 – Value

Feb05
2010 5 Comments

Written by Help Desk

Man this series has turned into a real book all on its own!

So far we’ve covered the cost of creating your information product, and we’ve covered the reputation value of each type of information product. The next item in our triumvarate of decision is actually two related items. One which we’ll deal with today and one which we’ll deal with next week.

Today we’ll deal with the real value to the customer … or to be more precise the suitability of the media to the job.

There are two old sayings that matter for today’s discussion.

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll remember today. Let me do it and I’ll remember forever”

“I hear what you said.”, “I see what you mean”, “I understand what we did” .

Both of these sayings are correct.

There are three basic learning modes Visual, Verbal, Active. The first two are part of our hardwiring and will change from individual to individual. Most people are visual. They need to see it to understand it. The best way to teach these people is with diagrams.

However, a much lower percentage of people are Verbal. They need words to understand the subject. Frequently, these words need to be on paper in order to be properly understood.

Finally, we all internalize the information when we use it actively.

However, even if we ignore our cognitive biases, as a group, we will learn more when we are shown what to do than if we are told what to do. If we then do it, we will learn and retain the most.

Combine that with the fact that as our participation in the learning process increases our understanding and retention increase.

These latter two points are why our typical breakdown of training is lecture, seminar, workshop.

In a lecture, you have a talking head speaking at the audience who sits back and listens. Information is basically one way. This is good for initial training and basic information.

In a seminar, questions are asked of the audience and a back and forth exploration of the topic occurs (hopefully). Information is two way, and examination and application is encouraged. This is good for developing understanding around the information.

A workshop consists, usually, of hands on application of the information provided in the lecture and the concepts developed in the seminar. It is in this type of instruction that the greatest learning takes place.

Okay, so what does all that have to do with information products?

Basically, it means that you have two types of people. The first group will learn best by seeing diagrams. They will learn best if they have a chance to see you talking especially if they are shown diagrams. The second group (a much smaller group) learn best by reading. For these people books are ideal. However, all of us learn best by doing. So whatever media is used, practice is a key to learning.

So to put it into context …. the best media for training is:

Live workshops
Live seminars
Live speeches (e.g. keynotes) and lectures
Video
Webinars
Books
Audio

Interestingly, Frank Kern posted a blog entry discussing a survey he did on what media people want to be taught in. And his results of what people want is very close to the list above (his survey was simpler than my list).

One of the things we need to do when using one of the non-live techniques is to include some participation. It will increase retention immensely. HOWEVER, in VERY big letters, don’t ask the audience to write this down! It sounds made up and chinzy. Better to say something along the line of “Get out your pen and notepad, ’cause you’ll be getting lots of information and will want to make notes as we go.” No pressure, no phoney fill out this form because I think it will make you stay awake. Having said that, a better technique is to ask the audience to stop the video for a moment and answer a question. Questions such as “What will this get you?” and “How could you use this?” are good for this.

When you design your learning content then the best format for the information product will fall out. Keep in mind however, that there is nothing stopping you from repurposing the information product to create other products either to include with the original or to be sold (usually as a downgrade to the original) or given away as a bonus.

Next up, we’ll talk about the value the customer assigns to the media.

Posted in Creating Information Products - Tagged audience, cognitive biases, combine, Creating Information Products, information product, initial training, lecture seminar, participation, reputation, seminar questions

Creating Information Products But Which One? Part 2 – Types

Jan25
2010 5 Comments

Written by Help Desk

Well, Thursday and Friday was one of those days … or is that were … ah, well you get the idea. It’s been interesting this week.

In any case, I promised you to finish this series. Just not today. Today we’re going to summarize the different types of information products you can create – or more correctly the different formats you can create information products in.

The main formats of information products are:

Written – articles, blogs, books
Live events – seminars, workshops, public speaking
Personal videos
Slideshow videos – webinars, slide shows
Audio – podcasts

The first is obvious given our product – write it. Write yourself a book, or an article or create a blog like this one. Put your thoughts down on paper. Of course, writing a book takes a lot of work. Besides the research, there is organizing, writing, editing and publishing.

The second format is the live event. This can take many forms. Many of those forms are defined by the amount of audience participation. Lecture, seminar, workshop is one common example of a convention based on participation. Generally, the amount of work is directly related to the length of the presentation not the type. Preperation can take an extended amount of time. Generally the minimum is the same amount as the presentation. However, most seminars, lectures, and public speaking will require closer to 10 times the amount of work before the presentation than during. Much of this preparation is involved in writing and then practising the script. After is minimal and limited to review of the presentation and reviewing lessons learned.

The third format is the personal video. What is a personal video – beside the opposite of an impersonal video? A personal video is any video that shows a talking head – a person. Generally, this is a live person as opposed to Max Headroom clones. Some people believe that this involves much less work than writing. But, in reality, they are simply showing their own preferences. A video requires much more preparation than writing. This preparation takes the form of writing a script, and practice speaking before a camera. Many of us who are comfortable speaking before a crowd find the switch to a camera difficult. Why? No audience and therefore no energy flowing from the audience. Once the video is “filmed”, it still needs to be edited (part of the post-production process). An advantage that a video has over live events is that mistakes can be removed. To do this, however, requires extra video be filmed whenever a mistake occurs. Generally, you can expect the effort required to be of the form 4 2 4 where preparation takes 4 times the finished length, filming takes twice the finished length of the information product and post-production takes four times. Meaning a 10 minute information product will take roughly 2 hours from research to ready to post.

The slideshow is the format that many of us are most comfortable with. In many ways it is the most efficient format. Preparation generally takes about twice that of the presentation. However, the more time spent in practice and review the better the presentation. One of the big advantages is the ease of editing out mistakes. Because the screen shows only a static view, it can be edited without the need to (re)film extra. Slideshows can consist of the normal text based powerpoints with voice over or can be a set of photographs with animation and music over.

Finally, the last format is the audio. This is often distributed as an mp3, podcast or CD. Typically, audios are presented in the form of interviews although audio books and recorded speech are certainly possible. Audios need some preparation especially practice. However, post editing is the most effective for this format. All of the video formats limit the amount of editing which is possible since the video and the audio need to synchronize. However, with an audio it is possible to eliminate even the normal dead spots while a person’s words and synchronize.

Most of the above formats can be provided in one of two ways. Either a machine readable form (i.e. delivered via computer) or in physical form. So a book, for example, may be delivered as a downloadable eBook or as a physical paperback or hardcover book. Videos and audios are delivered as either a download (e.g. YouTube) or on a DVD or CD. Live events are the exception since they are experiential.

Next post we’ll talk about the techniques that can be used to create information products.