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Posts tagged web
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.
Lessons Learned #5 – A Second Point of View
83 years ago
by Glen
in Building an eBiz
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.
Lessons Learned #3 – Quality in WordPress Themes #2
113 years ago
by Glen
in Building an eBiz
So I’ve gone looking through all these themes and what do I find?
Lots of really talented web designer/artist types. With zero ability to develop web programs.
I also found (almost) zero theme’s that matched my needs — artistically or functionally.
In fact, the only theme I found that I liked was so limited that I couldn’t use it and couldn’t adapt it – at least not without a major rewrite.
And while it’s nice … it ain’t got that special thang!
So I’m going to end up going through this process all over again. Fortunately, not as extensively.
So what’s the solution?
First break the problem into two parts. After all, it’s going to take two different specialists to solve the problem. The artist/designer to look after the overall graphics look. And the web developer who makes sure all the php and xhtml and other bits and pieces actually work. Especially the menus.
WordPress is very powerful. It’s very flexible. But it does do only one thing and does it in a particular way. There’s only so many choices that make sense. Unless of course you are really creative in your business. And the truth is there’s no point. This is a business tool not a personal toy.
That means that there are perhaps 1/2 dozen different variations on layouts for the WordPress theme. Plus a half dozen or so menu possibilities.
Spend some time, identify the ones you like and will use. For example, all the ones that have a left sidebar are out. Why? Because Google doesn’t like left sidebars. So there’s no point designing one. (Yes, there are exceptions — this is an example only).
You’ll end up with a selection of basic templates. You should also end up with a basic set of requirements/needs. Hire a web developer and have him/her develop a theme for each of those templates you may want to use. You may find that you end up with only one or two templates.
Then hire an artist/designer to design the overall graphical look. Have him design several screens. Don’t forget to include both static web and blog type pages. Once those designs are converted to CSS, you should be able to plug the design into the theme you’ve chosen.
Result. You’ve now got a quality theme with a look that shouts “BUY FROM ME!”
Lesson Learned #2:
If you’re going to do this regularly … spend some money and get some designs done in advance.
It’s a lot easier/faster to get a site up if you don’t have spend time figuring out which theme is best. And then have to test the theme to make sure it actually works.
So better to spend some money. Get a developer to put together a basic framework or three. Keep it flexible. Keep it simple. Make it easy to modify.
Then hire an artist to put together a number of pages for you (meaning colour schemes, background art, and banners. All the graphics you will need).
Then when you start a new business or change an existing one, just select the form, select the theme and put them together.
Nice, easy, simple. In the end cheaper too!
Lessons Learned #2 – Quality in WordPress Themes #1
3 years ago
by Glen
in Building an eBiz
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 :D
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.
We’re BAAACKkkk …. Oh my head!
103 years ago
by Glen
in Building an eBiz
Well, that was fun NOT! :D
So here’s what happened. We originally set up one site — TrainingNOW.ca. It was meant to be a simple brochure type site advertising our company, its services and our courses.
Unfortunately, things change … (bad word, bad, bad, word) … and we realized that a) we needed to sell our training over the web rather than live b) that we needed to sell other products and c) we were trying to sell too much through TrainingNOW.ca.
Cool. No big deal. Sometimes it takes a bit of convincing. A little learning. We’re not all born marketers, after all. ;>
So we set up a couple of new sites (learningcreators.ca, contentcreators.ca) to promote the extra services beyond the actual courses. No big right? Basic brochure sites. (Okay, so we started to …. it’s a work in progress. Work with me here).
Then we realized that LearningCreators should be doing more than just creating learning content or info products for other people. Better to teach people to fish than to do the fishing ourselves! So we set up LearningCreators.com.
That’s where the first of the problems came in. You see we started out by testing the waters using MyBestCopy.com. When it looked like the market was viable, we created the LearningCreators.com site. Including the blog.
The problem was that we went with the basic Doteasy package. Great package. Great price. No complaints at all. (In fact, if you are looking for a webhost go here . You won’t be disappointed).
But one of the things we learned was … in order to improve your SEO ratings you really, really need a blog.
No biggee. We created a blog on MyBestCopy.com. It worked. It drew viewers. Just copy it over and we’re set. Right! Nope.
Try as I might, I couldn’t convince any of the sites that www.LearningCreators.com and apps.LearningCreators.com were the same site (domain). So nothing I did on the blog helped the main opt-in & sales pages.
Meanwhile, we’ve been approached to host the training courses of another company. Great. That’s what TrainingNOW.ca is all about. Publishing training and training materials (e.g. books, DVDs etc.). But that meant we needed to upgrade from the basic Doteasy package to the fancy, dancy, super-special Unlimited plan.
Fine. Couple of headaches but no big woop! Cool so far….
But if we did that then there was no need to use the somewhat limited blog facilities provided by Doteasy for their basic customers. We’d be better off switching to WordPress like everyone told us to.
Silly sods … we believed them!
Sit back, grab a coffee. There’s enough material here to keep this blog alive for a week!
2 Reasons To Write How To Books Part 1 – A Book As A Modern Business Card
33 years ago
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!
Picking up where we left off … A Fourth Information Product …
13 years ago
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
Expert Marketing Webinar
53 years ago
by Glen
in Building an eBiz
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
What a Week! Or how NOT to build an Ebiz
23 years ago
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
Why Create Ebooks …. Part 3 for Internet Marketers and Information Product Sales
53 years ago
So you’re selling information products are you? Or are you an internet marketing genius who’s just realized that selling your own digital products is where the money is?
By now you’ve probably realized just how much work there is in creating information products (in other words how to books and DVDs).
First off, our system we have to create ebooks is part of an overall system to create information products — learning content in non-intertnet marketing (IM) circles. Things such as live seminars, webinars, recorded seminars, interviews, books and articles. Whether they are delivered as traditionally published or self-published, CDs, DVDs, or books. Or delivered as digital products in the form of mp3, Youtube videos and ebooks.
Once you learn writing ebooks with our system, you’ll be able to create any form of information product. Yes, there are differences — that’s why we have a comprehensive course!
So, why is writing an ebook so important?
By writing your own ebooks you gain in x ways:
- It establishes or increases your credibility.
- Books have higher value in your customers’ opinion than other media.
- Who knows more about your niche? You? Or some nameless person you’ll never meet?
- A book can be quickly and easily changed from digital to physical product.
- A book is flexible — give it to your client in the form they want — or both!
- A book doesn’t require you to practice, practice, practice. Great if you get bored easily!
- Customers are used to paying high prices for non-fiction books.
- You’ll own the material — no one else can compete!
And to cap the benefits off … it really doesn’t take any longer to write a book than it does to design, write and practice a seminar with the same information.
Even if you decide only to write one book, even if you hated English in school — you need to write at least one book.
