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Creating Information Products But Which One? Part 4 – Cost
53 years ago
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. :sad: 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.
Writing A How To Book: Selecting a Writing System: Determining Your Needs
23 years ago
by Glen
in Write a "how to" book
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.
Lessons Learned #6 – Shizzle Happens
33 years ago
by Glen
in Building an eBiz
One of the problems with being a Project Manager is that I’m supposed to know how to organize tasks so that they get done. That includes a healthy dose of “”what happens if”. Known formally as Risk Management. Known informally as, “How am I going to get myself out of it when the effluvium hits the rotary air handling device?”
Of course, for a client I would never dream of doing even the smallest project without at least a minimal bit of project management.
For myself it’s another story entirely.
Which is what went wrong with this project.
Now, I admit that this project was struck by a somewhat excessive number of shizzle floods (movements ???? Or is that too obvious?). My partner became unavailable just when I needed him. I got sick. My entire family got sick. We ended up taking care of a friend who was recovering (poorly) from an operation. A large number of the templates ended up not working (including this one btw). Conversion was a problem. Things happened without warning and out of order.
As a result this took much longer than I would have expected. Even given that it was a learning experience and with all the problems encountered.
Mind you I might be just expecting too much…..
(BTW … risk is often misunderstood to be a negative. It isn’t. That’s a threat or a potential loss. A risk is the potential for an unexpected situation to occur. The situation could be negative BUT it could also be positive. So finding the perfect solution right off the bat was also a risk. In fact, I discovered the perfect themes right away … except that it wouldn’t work for what we were trying to do. If I could have used them I wouldn’t be writing this series at all! Now I need to figure out how to use them later…)
Lesson Learned #5:
Be Prepared … aka Shizzle happens!
No matter how small the project, it is important to spend some time doing risk management. What could go wrong? How will it impact the project? What can be done to overcome or avoid it? How likely is it to occur?
There are four risk events that appeared in this project:
- What if key people aren’t available, have their time severly restricted or aren’t functioning at peak?
- What happens if secondary people aren’t available, have their time severly restricted or aren’t functioning at peak?
- What happens if software doesn’t work as expected?
- What happens if things occur out of order or sooner than expected?
Learn & Earn!
Glen
