Two Products In Two Days
May 19, 2008
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I’m here in Las Vegas today with my friend Fred Gleeck. I came in yesterday and had fun around Vegas. I love some of the hiking areas around here such as the Red Rock Canyon (the photo at the bottom from a previous trip here).
If you don’t know Fred, he has been developing information products for niches for 17+ years. He’s created close to 500 products for himself and his clients. And he’s generated close to $10 million dollars from the sales of these products.
As you might expect, he knows quite a bit about creating and selling information products.
What am I doing at his house?
We’re creating two new information products…2 new products in 2 days.
As you know I highly recommend you become a prolific product developer.
How long did it take you to create your last product?
Beginners often have one non-completed project after another because they take too long to finish their first project. They lose interest. And they go in another direction before the first project is ever done.
If that describes you, break the cycle now. Once you start a project, finish the project. Get it out there and tested. If it produces, expand on it. If it fails, test some other options with it. But let the market tell you instead of quitting half way through! Even the more experienced marketers fall into this trap.
Too often we go for perfection instead of producing a good product we can add to later.
Is that an excuse to put out garbage? NO! I didn’t say put out any old thing to your customers. I know there may be some product experts who tell you to do this, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Do the best job you can on the product, but don’t wait for perfection. It never comes. There will always be something you can improve. That’s why software always has a 1.0 version, 2.0, 2.5, etc. on down the list. They’re working to improve it based on the feedback they get from their customers.
I’ve never put out a perfect product. I don’t sell any perfect products. They don’t exist. Perfection isn’t possible because all products are made by people, and we’re all flawed. The products are right for some people, but they’re never right for everyone.
How are Fred and I doing 2 products in 2 days?
Today Fred interviews me about 35 Ways to Instantly Boost Your Internet Results. He will be asking me about all the little secrets I share with my coaching clients to help them boost their traffic, conversion, and sales. The intent is to share tips you can use immediately to improve your results online.
Day two I’m interviewing Fred about…you guessed it…how to create a million dollars or more in information marketing profits even when you’re not an expert. Since Fred has done hundreds of interview products like this, he is the perfect expert to reveal his entire system.
He’s sharing how to choose the right experts, what equipment to use for professional interviews, how to come up with the right questions, being comfortable during the interview, how to package it, and how to earn multiple streams of income from every interview.
All in all, he’s sharing how you can use interviewing to:
- Create Products Using Other People’s Information
- Sell Them Using Other People’s Lists
- Build Lifelong Relationships and JVs
For each of these interviews, we put together a simple interview outline. I’m likely to have them transcribed as well to provide customers with both a written and audio option. A bonus or two will likely be added to each. Yet, each of the primary products is being done in 1 day.
You might be expecting me to offer you these products for sale here. Nope. I could offer a pre-order option for them, but that’s not the point of this post.
I’m sharing this information with you because I don’t just want to tell you what to do. Instead, I’m sharing with you what I’m doing. You’re seeing an X-ray of what is going on inside my own business. In addition to these two products, I have a plan for several more upcoming projects that are based off of interviews as well.
Why don’t you challenge yourself to put together a new product within the next 7 days?
If you’re not an expert on the subject, find one to interview. If you are an expert, use Camtasia Studio to record your computer screen or a Powerpoint presentation. Get your first product up and running. It won’t be perfect. It may or may not become a big seller. But it gives you the experience of being a product developer.
And you’re then ahead of 99% of the other internet marketers who are still “just starting out.”
Popularity: 40% [?]
7 Step Easy Writing System
May 1, 2008
You or someone who works with you will have to write.
No matter how much you may dislike the idea of writing, someone will have to write for your company sooner or later. You can either do it yourself, or hire someone else to do it. There are writing specialists you can hire, but you’re better off being able to write at least some of the content yourself.
I’ve covered this system before on this blog, but it’s vital to your online career. That’s why it’s worth a review now. Follow this system for writing. And if I convince you of nothing else, QUIT editing while you write. Write first. Edit later.
The good news is you can follow this system. If someone like me who hated English could learn how to write for the web, then you can do it too. Most people like to talk, but they’re terrified of writing. You may tense up the moment the word writing is used.
I want to change your mindset. Don’t think of it as writing. Think of it as talking on paper. Write just as if you were talking to your best friend. And don’t worry if you make a mistake!
You will make mistakes. That’s why the first copy of anything written is called a rough draft. It’s rough. It has bad grammar. It has spelling mistakes. It doesn’t make perfect sense. You’ll edit it later. The key is to sit down and write it in the first place. That’s the hard part.
You can do it…if you just think of writing as talking. Just let it come up as the words come in your head. It takes practice, and you’ll also find yourself editing a lot at first. But you have to get started somewhere. Here’s my simple seven step writing system…
Step One – Choose a Hot Topic.
If you’ve been doing your homework up till now, you’ve studied a lot of the problems in your client’s lives. Your article can easily be a solution to one of those problems. If you find a lot of clients are asking the same questions when they first come to you, write answers to those questions.
Another good tool is to keep your eyes on the news and what everyone is writing about. What is the big news of the day? What is really getting people talking? Take note and participate in the ongoing discussion with your own article.
Step Two - Silence the Ghosts.
When you first sit down to write you’ll hear your 5th grade teacher Mrs. Sourpuss in your head screaming at you. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, participles, OH MY! You’ll remember the misery of high school book reports…along with the poor grades you had on them.
You’ll hear someone in your past telling you why you’ll never be able to write. You’ll recall the day someone made fun of something you wrote. Tell everyone in your head to shut up and leave you alone. It’s time to write.
Step Three – Create an Enticing Title.
The title of your article is your headline. It has to reach out and grab people’s attention. It has to force them to want more. One of my favorite title formulas is, “7 Ways to Benefit…” This is where you tell your reader you’re giving them steps to accomplish whatever benefit they want.
Here are some examples: “7 Ways to Generate More Traffic Instantly,” “3 Insider Secrets to Saving Money On Taxes,” and “5 Steps to Building Your Own Birdhouse.”
Step Four - Outline it.
It doesn’t have to be a perfect outline. Just research the subject and make a few notes on a spare sheet of paper. Or put them on index cards. The point is to find and record the main information you want to use. Write down 3 steps, or 7 steps, or whatever basic outline you want to use.
When you do your writing, just look back on your notes and make sure to include all the important information.
Step Five - Write like you talk.
Sit down and write as quickly as you can. Don’t think over your words. Don’t go back and edit your mistakes. Just write. The reason most people never write is because they’re so concerned about mistakes they never do anything. Forget about it!
Like Nike says, “Just do it.” Write just like you’re talking to a friend. Spill it out. Don’t wait. Don’t go back and read what you’ve written. Just go…and finish writing on the subject as quick as possible.
Step Six- Take a break.
You’ve earned it. Take a break from your work and do something else. Go to a movie. Spend time with your family. This period could last 1 hour to 3 weeks…whatever you have time for. Work on a different project in between.
You’re letting your mind rest on the subject so you can come back to your work with renewed enthusiasm. Plus, you’ll come up with ideas during this period about what you forgot to say.
Step Seven - Edit it.
Read through it line by line. Edit it for grammar and use your spell check. Add in extra notes where needed. Delete lines where you simply repeat yourself needlessly. Hand it to a friend and have them read it to you out loud. Look for every place they stumble. Fix it until it is a nice flowing river. If it sounds like “writing,” then edit it. Keep working on it until it sounds like conversation. Make it simple, easy to understand, and useful.
This is the one time you get to talk…and go back to make sure you say the right words. This is where you take many of your rambling thoughts on the rough draft and polish them into diamonds.
Brandable eBook Note: I promised I would have my new ebook ready for branding, “Live the Internet Lifestyle…Retire Young and Wealthy.” You can sign up as an affiliate and brand this new ebook along with “10 Key Strategies to Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life” by clicking here…
Popularity: 47% [?]
Are You A Prolific Product Developer?
April 11, 2008
You’re not likely to get rich from one product. If you want to produce a REAL Internet Lifestyle, you need to develop multiple products. When you have a dozen or more products all making money for you automatically every single month, that’s when you have a stable business churning out all the money you need to live the lifestyle you choose.
That’s why you must focus on projects that are quick and easy to develop. Instead of writing an encyclopedia of a 300 page ebook, put together a 40 page ebook report. You may respond, “But I can’t cover everything in that amount of space!”
Good. You’re not supposed to cover everything. Your goal as a product developer is to help your customers get to their desired result (the solution of their problem) in the quickest and most direct route.
Do an outline of the steps it takes to reach the end goal. Then sit down and write. Don’t edit. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t surf the web. Don’t check your email. Block off time to just write. I’ve created many of my ebook products over a weekend where I just blocked off to write during that period. You write for 30 to 60 minutes. Then take a 5 to 10 minute break. Do this writing and break cycle over and over again until finished.
Take a few days out as a break to rest your mind before coming back to edit what you’ve written. The reason so many new writers (and old ones as well) take so long to write is because they allow themselves to be interrupted or they try to edit while writing. Eliminate these distractions and watch your productivity soar.
But writing an information product is only ONE way to create your product quickly. Often it’s not even the best way. Let’s cover 7 quick product creation methods to help you become a prolific product developer.
1. Write It
If you’re going to write, follow the model above. Write the outline. Then block off time to just write like a madman (or woman). Later come back and edit your work. Then for absolute best results, read it out loud or have someone else read it out loud to you.
While video is quickly becoming the most powerful way to share your message online, there still are a number of potential customers who prefer written material. So while you see me focusing more and more on video, you’ll still see some written products coming out.
2. Use Voice Recognition
Are you a slow typist? Or do you have trouble writing in a natural voice without sounding like a college text book? If either of those are the case, you can use voice recognition software to speak your product into a written form. I’ve helped quite a few business owners who couldn’t get into writing create fantastic ebooks through voice recognition (and the best part is you can use it for your rough drafts of emails and sales letters as well).
The program I recommend for this is Dragon Naturally Speaking. Pick up the newest version which I think is number 9 at the time of this writing. You’ll go through a training process for the program to recognize your voice, but you’ll quickly get up to speed with speaking out your product. You could call this type of software the great equalizer.
You’ll do some major editing on what you write this way, but that’s true irregardless of how you get your thoughts out into written form. Write first. Then edit. If that rule from above is one you never seem to follow, that’s another reason to try out this software.
3. Public Domain
Instead of creating your product completely from scratch, use public domain materials or even private label materials as a launch pad. For example, I created an extremely profitable ebook called Scientific Internet Advertising. The foundation of the material was Claude Hopkins, “Scientific Advertising.” That’s one of the classics highly recommended by top marketing experts such as Jay Abraham.
The copyright on the original book had long expired which meant you could give it away, sell it, or do whatever with it. I took all the original text and simply wrote an add-on for each chapter about how to apply what he taught to the Internet. While anyone could give away the original book freely, my modified version is protected by copyright laws.
Go spend a little time at http://www.gutenberg.org looking through all the materials they have available. Not everything there is public domain, so be careful to read any of the licenses included. Another great source for public domain materials are items produced by the US government.
For example, need some photos for your project? Check through all the links the US government provides here:
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml
Not everything is completely royalty free, but the majority of these photos are.
What about private label products? Do a search on private label products and you’ll find thousands of products sold with these rights. You can then take those products, modify them, and produce a new product out of them. The big concern here is that most private label materials are next to worthless. They’re low cost productions with poor writing and even worse information. So be careful when buying anything that comes with private label rights, but they can be a good starting point for your own project.
4. Do an Interview
What if you can’t write and you’re not even an expert on the subject you want to cover? Find an expert and interview them. In the real estate field they talk about using other people’s money. In the information business, you can even use other people’s information by interviewing them.
Find several top experts on your topic and contact them. Create a series of 8 to 12 questions your research has said your market wants to hear. If you’ve never done this before, you’re about to be surprised at just how easy it is to secure interviews with some individuals. Book authors are often the most open by the way as they’re used to doing interviews to promote their books.
How do you record the interview? Just go down to your local Radio Shack or another electronics dealer. Ask for a phone recording set-up. This will give you the basic tool you need to get started. Or you can go fully digital like I have on my recent interviews. I’m now using http://www.skype.com software combined with http://www.powergramo.com to do my phone call and recording. This way it’s all recorded digitally on my computer.
5. Teleseminar or Webinar
If you set-up a teleseminar or webinar, you can get paid BEFORE you create your product. I’ve done both one time calls and a series of calls. The beauty of both models is you get paid…and you create a product to sell. For example, I’ve done single calls for free…and for as low as $19.95. I’ve also done a call where we charged $37 and gave all the money from the call to charity.
I’ve also done longer series combined in with weekly assignments and personal feedback for $397 to $1,997 depending on how many calls were involved and the subject (4 to 12 calls).
You’ll have your full outline ready before you sell the series, but you can create and expand on the material each week before the call (or webinar). In addition, doing a question and answer session at the end of each call will add even more value to your finished product.
Another advantage I’ve found to this method is now I’m actually required to get my product done on time. It’s very easy to let life get in the way when your product needs to be done. That’s not possible when you’ve scheduled and sold a teleseminar. Now you have to have the information done by that date. No more procrastination allowed…
6. Record a Camtasia Video
How did we even run an internet business before Camtasia? If you haven’t tried out this software, do so now. You can download a free trial here:
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
If what you’re teaching can be demonstrated on the computer, this software is perfect. OR you can also use it to create a video of any Powerpoint presentation. Did you notice how my online videos at http://www.internetlifestylesystem.com were Powerpoint videos? Now you know how I did it.
They even have a complete learning center to show you how to get the most from your Camtasia videos, including such tactics as running a live quiz inside your presentation. Check out their training here:
http://www.techsmith.com/learn/default.asp
7. Follow an Expert With a Camcorder
Camtasia allows you to record what you’re doing on screen, but what if you want to teach something that isn’t done on a computer? Buy a camcorder and microphone. I definitely don’t want to cover specific types to buy here, because the way technology is moving my recommendation could be out of date by next week.
Now take your little camcorder, separate mic, and tripod to follow around an expert for the day. Maybe you’re doing a DVD on gardening. Show exactly what they do in each step. Or it could be basketball. Show close-ups of the shot process. If it’s a real estate investor, just follow them around with your camcorder all day.
It could be a “Day in the Life of a _______.” What would people pay to get behind the scenes of a successful real estate investor, day trader, or professional speaker? You’ll end up recording more than you can use, but you can edit all the boring parts out later.
Bonus Method: Notice what I didn’t talk about here? I didn’t even mention that you could outsource the product creation as one of the possibilities. ANY of the methods above could be outsourced by hiring someone else to do it for you. Spend a little time exploring over at http://www.elance.com to see all the different projects being posted.
Popularity: 38% [?]
Unique Article Marketing Software
April 2, 2008
Steven Lohrenz released a article marketing software program in the past few days.
I own several article marketing software programs and have mentioned them in the past. But my biggest complaint with all the programs I own has been the fact they have to run from my own computer. If I want to email out articles to specific publishers it is running on my system through my ISP.
As you may already know, many ISPs don’t like you sending a large volume of email from your computer.
Steven finally came up with a solution that allows you to send out your articles from your web server. There are two other features I really love about his program.
It allows you to submit unique articles to thousands of publishers. You can load in all the publishers you want to contact. Then load in several variations of your article. It will automatically create unique articles out of your variations to avoid the duplicate content filters on some of the search engines.
In addition, you can automatically schedule when your articles will be sent out. For example, you could login to the system and schedule for one article to be sent out each week for the next month. Set it up today and they will automatically go out on the schedule you created. It’s set and forget.
OK…what’s the price for this software?
Right now other article submission programs that don’t do as much cost $19.95 up to $347, but Steven is doing something special.
For now, the software is free. But who knows how long it will stay that way?
Why is he giving it away free? The first reason he’s doing this is because the basic foundation of what he created came from an open source program which he modified to add in his additional code for creating unique articles. In addition, he sells other software programs and training tools (including an online video series on how to get the most from article submissions) which he knows you’ll be interested in once you see what this does for free.
I should mention also that I found the software to have one major weakness. It can be a little difficult to install. If you’re a non-techie you’re going to want to hire someone else to install it for you. So that adds a cost to using this program.
Here’s where you can pick up this software for free (and check out his other offers):
http://www.uniquearticlemarketing.com
Popularity: 27% [?]
30 eBook Authoring Tips
March 10, 2008
Jimmy Brown did it again. He recently released another free ebook that’s jam packed with 30 tips for ebook authors (you could also use these tips when creating other types of information products such as CDs, DVDs, and membership sites).
In this free ebook, Jimmy gives you:
- 5 Topics to Write About.
- 7 Ways to Do Your Research.
- 7 Ways to Organize Your Information.
- 4 Tips for Staying Motivated.
- 7 Methods for Overcoming Writer’s Block
To download your copy, simply right click on this link and choose “save target as”…
Read my previous post about Jimmy Brown to see my full endorsement of him and 3 additional free ebooks…
Popularity: 28% [?]
3 Simple Ways to Create Your First Project
December 19, 2007
You’ve probably heard me say it before, “Just do it.” Get started today. Take action. Do something!
You may be wondering what in the world should you start doing! Start a blog. Write an article. Generate some traffic.
But even more important, create your first product. Get it out there and get some experience with marketing online.
You’re not planning for a home run project on your first time up to bat. Just go for that single base hit. I’ve made the mistake in the past of trying to put together encyclopedia type projects which cover every aspect of a topic. That’s not what customers want. They want a simple solution and step-by-step system to reach their goals in the shortest time possible. They don’t even want a full book on the topic. The quicker and easier you can provide the information, the better it is.
You’ve seen me talk about selling high ticket items. They’re key to taking your business to the next level of profits, but they are not where most people start on their very first project. For your very first project, the primary goal is to do something simple that you can get done quickly.
Below are 3 types of projects that make sense for your first time:
1. Write a short report.
Publishing a book is a long time consuming process. I have two published books available at Amazon.com. They both took a lot longer to write and a lot longer to publish than any beginner needs to follow for their first product. Don’t write a book for your first product! Don’t even write a “full ebook” for your first product.
Write a short 10 to 30 page report about the subject instead of a longer work. Give it a low lead generating price (such as $9.95, $10, or $19.95). Sell it on Clickbank.com or through Paypal.com (you don’t need a merchant account). You can also run it on eBay or Amazon’s new Kindle program.
You can write this length of report in a day…or at most 2 days. Then you can pull out an article or two as excerpts from the report for promotional purposes. Are you going to make a fortune from this product? Nope. That’s not it’s goal. The goal is to get you started in a market and start building a customer list.
2. Record an Interview
Can’t write a 10 to 30 page report that gives people a step-by-step system? Maybe you’re not the expert on the subject. In that case, simply find the expert to interview.
If you’ve never done an interview before, you’ll likely be shocked at just how willing many experts are to taking you up on your request. As long as you allow them to promote their new book or their product, they’re ready and willing to do the interview with you.
Here are a few simple tools to do your interview. Use Skype to make the phone call. Then record using Powergramo. The paid version of this software even allows you to record on two different channels so you can fix the volume levels. To edit the interview, you can use the free Audacity software.
Once you’ve produced your interview, you could sell it digitally just like the report above, or you can turn it into a CD using Kunaki. For $1.60 per copy they will duplicate your CD and they even have template designs to get your first product up quickly.
3. Produce a DVD
This is more complicated than writing a report or producing an audio, but it’s not that much more complicated when you use the right tools. If the product you want to create is on anything computer related (online marketing, software program tutorials, ebay, etc.), you can use Camtasia Studio to produce the product. You can download their 30 day trial here.
Once you’ve produced the videos, I recommend Sony DVD Architect which is part of Vegas Movie Studio. It allows you to put together a DVD with menus that you can then upload to Kunaki for duplication (only $1.60 per copy).
There you have it…3 ways to create your first product quickly. If you’d like to go into deeper detail about how to profit from your own information business, check out my Information Marketing Mastery product here…
Popularity: 28% [?]
5 Reasons to Write a Book Today
April 3, 2007
You should write a book. It just may not be for the reasons you think.
The quickest way to get started in the information business is by doing an audio interview. Do a quick outline or put together a few questions. Find an expert. Record an hour interview. You now have a product. No more than 2 hours were invested in the process…and a minimum amount of money (a simple phone recording device can get you started).
A book takes at least a week to write, and you have to pay for a well designed cover to sell it. Yet, I still recommend a portion of my clients create a book. Why?
It’s simple really. Becoming an author provides you with immediate benefits that are hard to compete with in any other way.
1. Improve Credibility for Consultants and Coaches
If you’re currently doing any consulting or coaching, having your own book separates you from the competition. Would you rather hire the consultant who studied all these books…or the author of the books they studied?
Instead of simply giving someone your business card or a brochure, you can hand them your book. You’re the expert. While most people won’t “read” your book, it now goes on their shelf with other books they’ve purchased. It makes them feel better just having it.
2. Increase Fees
Want to increase your fees? Publish a book. This one goes right along with number one. You’ve improved your credibility, so you can now raise your rates. This includes consulting, coaching, and speaking fees. You’re a busy author (doing publicity campaigns and more). Your time is valuable.
You’ll also run into less price resistance as an author. It seems miraculous, but your perceived value in the eyes of your clients has now went up. You’re an author…and your “expert” fees seem more reasonable now.
3. Generate Publicity
Send out review copies. Do radio talk shows. The media is starved for good interviews. You now have something to talk about in your new book (I recommend creating your book with publicity in mind from the beginning).
Not very many people will listen to an interview and hire you to consult with them. They will buy your low cost book and be added to your customer list. Then you can follow up on them with all your higher profit items on the backend.
4. Backend Sales
A book is a perfect entry point in your product funnel. Let’s say you sell DVDs, home study courses, and even do workshops. Your higher price point items might require an endorsement from a trusted source or someone to speak to them on the phone. The book simply has be offered as a solution to a problem they’re having. It’s an easy sale.
You can then have upsells and other offers throughout the book. Don’t turn the entire book into a sales letter. DO offer items that solve their problems. The book can be a doorway into your other product offers.
5. Deepen Your Knowledge Base
Even if you never sold a copy, a book can still be profitable to you. It requires you sit down and organize your thoughts. You have to outline. You have to study your subject more in depth. You’ll have a broader base of knowledge and skill when you’re finished with your book.
To put it simply…writing a book will help you grow. It will stretch you. You’ll come out of it with greater knowledge, experience, and value to give to others.
Find Out More
If you’d like to know more about creating your own book and information publishing business, go to:
http://www.publishingseminar.com.
I’m teaming up with 3 other business building experts to help you grow your income as an author or publisher. Fred Gleeck will show you how to build your information funnel, hold your own seminars, and increase your speaking income. John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, will cover how to generate the most retail sales of your books. Bob Bly will cover book ideas and the advantages of traditional publishing versus self-publishing.
It all happens on May 29th and 30th. Reserve your seat today…
http://www.publishingseminar.com
Popularity: 18% [?]
How to Publish a Book
March 27, 2007
Would you like to publish your own print book? If so, here’s a quick rundown of how I did it personally….including the tools I used.
I have two books currently in print…both using the exact same system.
Book one is “Internet Integrity: The Truth About How ANY Business Can Increase Profits Online.”
This covers the step-by-step system I used to build my online business including the 10 deadly online marketing mistakes, my 15 step copywriting system, and the exact email strategy I used to produce $96,250 in email sales in 72 hours.
It also has two special chapters. The first covers how any local business can use the Internet to increase their profits. The second one tells you how to get started today even if you don’t have any products or services to sell. Check out its reviews and order on Amazon….
Book two is “Financial Freedom: A Step-By-Step Practical Guide for Walking in God’s Blessings.”
I regularly minister in churches, and this covers the spiritual growth my wife and I experienced that helped create our success. Very few Christians walk in financial freedom, and this is a guide to help them get there. It also deals with a lot of the misconceptions and poor doctrine about money that many churches preach.
Also available on Amazon.com…
How to Publish Your Book
My books are available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and can be ordered by any bookstore through Ingram. Yet, I never ship out a single book to any of them. I have my own Amazon Advantage account for example, but I don’t deal or sell any books through it (I used it for CDs and DVDs I offer).
My print-on-demand book printer takes care of the distribution of the books to all these sellers. Here’s how I’ve done it…
I have written all my books myself. You can hire ghostwriters, and they do an excellent job. I like to write though, so I don’t outsource this part at all. The editing was done by Julie, my wife. If you don’t have someone extremely good with English available, you could hire this out to a worker from http://www.elance.com or hire an English Major or Journalism student from a local community college.
My covers were designed by:
http://www.alphaadvertising.com/covers/
Don’t skimp on your cover. There’s that old saying, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Yet, that’s how most people DO judge your book. Most self-published books have horrible cover design. They look self-published, and that’s definitely not something I wanted for my books. Can you pay less? Yes. Should you? Not in my opinion. Alpha did a great job on my books and came up with most of the potential designs.
Get your ISBN Numbers at:
http://www.isbn.org
The book printer I use requires you to have your own ISBN number when you come to them (they require everything to be print ready). You can purchase 10 ISBN for $240. I had my book cover designer put the ISBN and bar code on the back cover of the book for me.
My Print-On-Demand Book Printer is:
http://www.lightningsource.com
I first found them when I considered going with another print-on-demand publisher that shall remain nameless here. This other publisher charged $2,000 upfront to do your cover, ISBN, and get your book in print. Then they paid you like $2 a book sold…chump change. While doing some searches, I found Lightningsource was their real printer. Go to their links page…and scroll down to Author Services. You’ll see almost every print-on-demand publisher. Interesting, isn’t it?
With Lightningsource, I’m paying $4.20 for my Internet Integrity book at 220 pages and $4.74 for Financial Freedom for 256 pages. This is per book. I could get it cheaper if I wanted to purchase a high volume, but I don’t want inventory sitting around.
When a book sells on Amazon, they take care of it. They only charge for the book printing. The whole difference between the wholesale price and the book printing fee is my royalty. They then send out the royalty checks quarterly. They handle book orders from retailers. They don’t sell directly to the public.
If you want a little easier solution and someone who can handle direct customer orders also, http://www.lulu.com is an option. They’re quite a bit more expensive, but they’re a little easier to use when you’re setting up. I include a 318 page coil bound manual with my Information Marketing Mastery product at http://www.myinfomastery.com. It was printed by Lulu because I wanted the coil binding since it’s a workbook, and Lightningsource didn’t offer this.
Popularity: 39% [?]
Do Clients Pay Attention to Your Emails?
February 20, 2007
I constantly hear people moaning about just how hard it is to get people to open their emails. If they’re a client of mine, I take a look at a few of their emails. Almost without fail, the ones who complain the loudest and moan the longest about their email problems are people who deliver emails I definitely wouldn’t be reading either.
Just yesterday I went through all my Internet marketing newsletters again and unsubscribed from a large group of them. For each one I looked through several back issues…specifically looking for value in them.
Many of them had no real value. All they included was one promotional piece after another. Why would I want to subscribe to that? Why would anyone want to subscribe to that?
What is most surprising is that many of these email publishers were also information sellers. Producing a little good content in their newsletter would be no more difficult than including an excerpt from one of their products.
Were the ones I was reading doing this? Nope. It as just one hyped up email after another. No content. No value. No reason to keep reading. Thank you. I have enough advertising in my box.
What about the Last Time I Did a Large Group of Unsubscribes?
You’ll notice I said I went through the newsletters and unsubscribed again. When was the last time and what caused it?
The last large group of unsubscribes occured during the last big one day promotional event. I received more than a dozen emails that all essentially said the same thing. They all talked about how wonderful and profit producing product A was. What was most annoying to me was it was obvious most them had only seen the promotional videos for the product. They had never studied the product themselves.
So I removed myself from every single list where they published the normal information about the product launch. The only ones I stayed on were the ones where they gave their opinion about the product…and they really honestly tried to explain how they felt about it themselves.
Remember, people want content and they want an honest voice.
They don’t want a parrot.
If all you say is exactly like everyone else, why should anyone listen to you? They can read this person’s newsletter instead. Inject personality. Inject emotion. Be yourself in your newsletter. Tell them how you personally feel about it.
For a long time I’ve told people to write their emails like they are writing to a friend. Let me ask you this. How do you feel about friends you only see when they want something? I’m sure you’ve had a few friends like that in your life. You don’t see them for months. When they do show up, it’s because they need money or help. You may help them for a while.
The question is just how strong is your relationship becoming as this happens time and time again. Think about that the next time you send an email.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Write First…Edit Later
May 18, 2006
I promised to share with you the biggest mistake new writers make today. It’s the mistake which turns a short writing process into a full day drudgery. And it’s also a problem which isn’t limited only to new writers. Experienced writers go through periods of time where it weighs them down.
I’m talking about editing at the same time you’re writing. If you try to edit while you’re doing your first rough draft of any article, white paper, or book, you’re going to slow down the whole process to a snail’s pace. Writing and editing are a completely separate process, and you have to treat them as such.
When you sit down to write, you must write. Don’t worry about being perfect. Don’t worry about making mistakes. Just do it. Write. You’ll do your editing later in the process. You might end up cutting out several paragraphs from the beginning of your writing when you get to editing. It doesn’t matter. In fact, when I’m training people on doing copywriting, it’s normal for us to cut out the first few paragraphs or even their whole first page. It’s almost as if they’re going through a warm-up process in getting started.
So sit down and write. That’s the key. Don’t go back and edit. Don’t sit there and contemplate what you’ll say next. The more you can just write or type your thoughts out as they come to you, the easier the whole project will be. Don’t allow yourself to rethink what you wrote at this point. Don’t stop to go back and make changes yet. Just write it until it’s finished.
Once you’re finished, now you can take a break from it for a while. Give yourself some time off. Relax and do something else to occupy your mind. My best ideas have almost always come to me while i was doing something other than working (playing a game, seeing a movie, taking a shower, etc.).
Have you ever experienced a conversation with someone where you don’t seem to get your point across? Of course you have. In most cases the perfect words come to you later on that day and you just wish you had said such-and-such. Writing is your opportunity to do this. You write as if you’re in a private conversation with someone. Then you take a break from writing and your subconcious gets to work on the project. Now you get the opportunity to go back in and reword your piece. You can’t take back words that come out of your mouth, but you can sure edit your writing before it’s published.
The best results occur for me when I take a day between the writing and the editing process. When I come back to my article I’m refreshed and often have a new perspective on it. It’s easy to go through and make the first several changes from things that came to mind in the past day. I then read it outloud. Someone else reads it outloud to me. Anywhere that it just doesn’t sound right is modified and edited. In a future postings, I’ll explain more about the overall editing process.
The one key principle here is that you must separate writing from editing. It’s that tendency in us to perfect something that holds you back in writing. It’s also the fear of making a mistake. What if you don’t write it correctly? What if it doesn’t sound right? Public speaking is the number one fear of the average person. They’re afraid they may appear foolish in front of an audience. This same fear invades our writing at times.
The simple solution to it is to tell yourself you will edit it before it goes out. What you write today is not what will be published. It is called a rough draft because it’s rough and needs some polishing. You have to get over your fear and get started. Just do it and edit it later.
Popularity: 23% [?]
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