Information Sells

I just learned how to make this banner from a tutorial by Dave Cross on Photoshop Elements User.

Photoshop Elements is an essential tool, not only for photographers, but for every independent product producer.

If you don’t already own it, take advantage of Adobe’s Christmas Special to get it for $20.00 off, with Free Holiday Shipping , using this link and coupon:

Save $20 on full version of Photoshop Elements 7! Use Coupon Code:HOBBYISTHOLIDAY08

And if you would like to learn more about using Photoshop Elements, check out the CloverCity’s December Newsletter for information on the online Photoshop Elements class Cindy Shebley and I will be doing for in January.

Everyone at Ghost Leg Media - including all our dogs and cats - wishes all of you a Happy Holiday season and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

That sign does not apply to me

Sometimes good customer service means saying, “No.”

We’ve all had clients who demand services we don’t provide - or customers who want products we don’t carry.

The temptation to say, “Yes, I can do that,” “Yes, I can get that,” “Yes, whatever you want,” is strong.

Maybe you can contract out some of the work. Maybe you can rearrange your day. Maybe you can say Yes now and figure out how later.

But what about the clients who you just know will never be happy.

No matter what you offer, they want something else. If you work by the hour, they want a half hour consult. If you charge for phone support, they want unlimited access via email. If you teach Microsoft Office, they expect you to diagnose their WiFi connection problems. If you can recite the whole of Paradise Lost while standing on one leg, they want to see it written out in Sanskrit - in long hand - instead.

These are the clients who will cost you money. Beware of getting entangled.

Only you can set the rules for your business. Don’t allow clients to do it.

Establish firm boundaries as soon as possible - ideally during your first transaction. Then stand firm. Do not let yourself be bullied.

And do not be afraid to say no. Sometimes turning down business is the most profitable thing you can do.

Photo by SeenyaRita Released under Creative Commons License

Shake Up The Future

Would you like to be right about everything, all the time?

Do you want all your assumptions, predictions, and forecasts to come true, every day?

It’s easy. Just do this:

• When you are faced with a new opportunity, run away
• When you need to learn something difficult, don’t do it
  
• When you are challenged to expand your market, predict disaster and cut back instead

It’s the only sure bet I know: if you see no possible way to succeed - you will fail.

And it is true. When you try, you actually might fail.

Maybe you really can’t do it. Maybe the market is saturated, the timing is wrong, the bottom feeders have poisoned the well, and your business plan sucks.

So what?

Try anyway. It’s OK to try and fail.

This is a hard lesson to learn, and for most of us, we will have to learn it over and over, because success doesn’t come quickly or easily or cheaply. We’ve all heard that success comes after hard work - but that’s only half the story. Success almost always comes after repeated failures.

When you find yourself behind the eight ball again, try picking it up and shaking it. Eventually, All Signs Point to Yes.

Photo by 60 in 3 Released under Creative Commons License

Held Together by Bailing Wire and Hope

MacGyver could build a rocket ship out of twine, tape, chewing gum, sealing wax and ingenuity, but that is no way to build a business. If your business is held together with bailing wire, duct tape and hope, now might be the perfect time to invest in yourself.

The tools you need to make information products are on sale - cheap - right now.

Amazon just dropped the price of Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 by $30.00 - from $100 to $65.00.

The price of the Canon VIXIA HV30 MiniDV High Definition Camcorder has fallen below $600 from a list price of $1,000.00 just a few months ago. This (along with the HV20) has been the Camcorder of the Year for the last two years. There is not a better consumer camcorder available for less than $2,500.00.

Digital Juice has been selling Jump Backs (normally $50.00 - now reduced to $25.00) for as low as $3.95 as part of their Daily Specials.

Computer prices are falling daily, and likely to fall even more as manufacturers chase holiday sales. If you are in the market for a notebook, whether you want a powerhouse, desktop replacement or a portable, lightweight netbook, you’ll find them on sale on Black Friday.

If you can’t afford the new camcorder you’ve had your eye on - that’s fine. Budgets are part of business, too. It can be hard in times of economic uncertainty to invest in yourself. The temptation to squeeze just a few more months out of a failing computer, or to get by without upgrading some ancient software, or to pass up a sale on equipment is strong. Now is a bad time to pile up credit card debt.

But it is also a bad time to let your business deteriorate when you could make it grow instead.

Keep a close watch on the deals and discounts that will be popping up over the next month. A wise investment might pay for itself before the credit card bill arrives.

Photo by Brett L. Released under Creative Commons License

Another Great Plan Hits A Snag

There is almost certainly no Chinese proverb or curse that says, “May you live in interesting times,” but the sentiment is no less true for lack of a pedigree. And we are certainly living in interesting, tumultuous, unpredictable times.

Financial uncertainty will probably result in a dismal holiday season for many retailers. However, consumers who haven’t already maxed out their credit cards are going to be tempted by spectacular sales in the coming weeks. High ticket goods are already on sale, at steep discounts. It’s actually a great time to buy.

Gas prices are back down to about $2.00 a gallon (regional differences still abound), making a trip to the mall less costly. Unfortunately, the big box retailer you were planning to buy the deeply discounted, 42″ HDTV from may have committed pre-emptive suicide (why wait until the last minute?) and laid off all its sales staff before Christmas, guaranteeing that all attempts to actually buy anything will end in frustration and failure.

Small, nimble online businesses are better positioned to deal with the chaos and uncertainty of this period than the retail behemoths. Consider this: Best Buy placed its bets and bought its holiday inventory six or more months ago - long before the September crash.

They are locked in. You are not.

You, the resourceful information product producer, are perfectly positioned to give people what they are looking for today.

Right now, people with money to spend are worried. Will they still have jobs next year? How can they build a bit of a hedge against bad times? How can they learn new skills, earn extra income, replace lost savings? You can teach them the skills they need.

Even people with fewer worries about job security are looking for ways to save. One thing we know from experience: when money is tight, people stay home. But they still spend money on hobbies and pass times. You can produce the CDs and DVDs that teach how to play piano or collect coins or go treasure hunting at weekend garage sales.

You can start producing a How To DVD tonight and have it ready to ship on Dec. 1.

Will you be paralyzed, like Circuit City, or will you listen to your market, tune in to what buyers want right now, and begin to make your next profitable product?

Photo by joshua putnam Released under Creative Commons License

Serenity

Whatever it is you do - why do you do it?

Do you create ebooks and DVDs for love of the medium - or to make money?

Do you sell collectibles for love of the market/niche - or to make money?

Do you take photographs for love of artistic expression - or to make money?

It’s true - loving what you do and making money are not mutually exclusive. You can even love to make money. There is no right or wrong answer, but there has to be some answer.

Why do you do it?

What do you want?

How will you know when you succeed?

Does wealth define success? What is wealth? How much is enough? Is there ever enough?

Is security success? Can it be gained? Can it be lost? How will you recognize it?

What is the quality of your life worth? What is your freedom worth? What are your dreams worth?

Did Emily Dickinson fail? Did Rod McKuen succeed?

How will you know when you succeed?

Photo by Today is a good day Released under Creative Commons License

I’ll be interviewed today on The Savvy Seller’s Tips from the Top Podcast.

We’ll be discussing my new eBook, Blogging with WordPress. If you haven’t bought the book yet, but are thinking about it, you should listen to this short (15-20 minute) podcast live today at 11:00 AM PDT, 2 PM EDT.

I’ll be mentioing a special discount code for podcast listeners that will be good today only.

Not So Popular After All

Lately, I keep seeing forums and blog posts where sellers are arguing with buyers.

Where is the profit in that?

What do you get when you win a fight with a customer? An ex-customer. Feel better now?

Do you know the cliche about Customer Service?

Rule #1 The Customer Is Always Right.

Rule #2 Sometimes the customer will be wrong. When this happens, see Rule #1.

This isn’t always an easy model to follow, because sometimes the customer is so wrong you want to smack them upside the head. Sometimes you have a valid reason for doing what you are doing. Sometimes 95% of your customers like what you are doing, you can’t please everyone, and besides, everybody loves you except the jerks.

Please!

Take a deep breath, and repeat: This isn’t a contest. This isn’t about me. The customer is always right.

It’s Not About You

When you create a product, you invest so much of yourself in its creation and success that it can be very hard to disentangle your emotions and your ego. But your business is not about you. Your advertising is not about you. Your product is not about you. You created those products so you could sell them to cranky, selfish strangers.

Love and approval comes from your friends and family. Customers give you money. In return for their money, you give customers:

• A product as good as it can be
• Your full attention
• Your respect

When you don’t want to hear what your customer has to say, when you want to argue, when you are tempted to dismiss their criticism - ask yourself (in these exact words), “Where’s the profit in this?”

Let your customers have the last word. They are very smart. They are buying your products, after all.

Photo by Now and Here Released under Creative Commons License

Not A Great Start

You already know how important first impressions are - but what is the first chance you have to impress your buyer? Is it the sales page? When they receive the package? When they open the box? The first time they pop the DVD in the player?

The old saying is wrong. It’s not that you never get a second chance at a first impression. The truth is, you must make a great first impression over and over again, because there are half a dozen “firsts” for each new product.

It is true - if your sales page is a disaster, that’s the end of that. Your first impression is probably your last. But if you haven’t already built a relationship with the buyer, you’ll have to introduce yourself again at every step along the way. You’ll have to pass the sniff test over and over before you are trusted.

So make every first impression count.

• Take the time to write a good “Thank You For Your Purchase” email and make sure every buyer receives it.
• Create a good-looking, post-pay landing page with more thanks, and other helpful information
• If you are delivering physical products, wrap your package securely.
• Ship in a cardboard box rather than a padded envelope if you are sending anything crushable, breakable, bendable

When your buyer first lays hands on your product, make them hum with anticipation. Look good, look professional. Make your packaging say, “Something great is coming!”

Photo by RadialMonster Released under Creative Commons License

Killed By The Hidden Cost of Support

What goes into the price of your product?

Materials, certainly. Time and labor. If it’s destined for the shelf of a bricks and mortar store, you probably factor in breakage, returns, shelf wear, maybe theft. Overhead.

What else?

One factor, often overlooked by product developers, can turn into a nightmare, chipping away at profits while consuming every spare minute of your day: support.

If you are writing software or offering some sort of technical service, you already know that support can cost more than the product. You either add it into the cost or sell it as a separate product.

But many product developers overlook it entirely, wrongly believing that their product requires no support.

Are you writing an ebook? Are you ready for the anxious, angry emails from buyers who don’t know how to use Acrobat Reader? There are more of them than you’ve ever imagined.

Perhaps you made a data CD with a flash video. What are you going to say to the baffled buyers who somehow disabled their computer’s autorun function and now can’t get your CD to play? And what are you going to do with the Mac user who bought your CD despite the warning in big red letters that said: PC Only, Not Recommended for Macs?

Is your DVD compatible with 8 year old DVD players? Even when it’s inserted upside down?

WRITE A FAQ

All of these scenarios are real. And all of them can turn an otherwise productive day into a complete waste of time and an otherwise profitable project into a financial disaster. However, you can save yourself time, save your customers endless frustration, and head off complaints and returns by writing a FAQ.

As the email questions come in, keep a list. Make special note of the ones you’d never have imagined - then add them to the FAQ.

Don’t be afraid to send a follow up email to your customer asking how your product or sales letter can be improved. You’ve been nose deep in the product for months. You very probably can no longer see the forest for the trees. That’s OK. Just believe your customers when they tell you that telling up from down and right from left on a shiny silver disc is not as easy as you think it is. They paid money - you should pay attention.

Start your FAQ by anticipating some questions, including others that are actually frequently asked, and adding the occasional problem from left field. If a video would offer a better answer, try creating a short video or screencast and posting it on You Tube. Post your FAQ prominently and keep a copy that you can attach to email. If you often find yourself wanting to do a 1 minute demo rather than spending 5 minutes writing an email, look into TechSmith’s Jing.

A good FAQ can save you headaches and save your customers valuable time. If you can prevent a howl of frustration, you’ve already won half the battle of customer service. And you can keep after sale costs down and profit margins up.

Photo by Sean McGrath Released under Creative Commons License

Good Ideas Going Nowhere

Does perfectionism hold you back?

Many product developers struggle with the idea that a new product must be perfect before it is released. Naturally, we all want to be as good as we can be. But there is a difference between doing the best job you can and perfection.

Practice improves performance. Your next product will be better than your last one - and that’s good.

The demand that everything be exactly right before launch generally means that there is no launch.

Of course you want to proofread your ebook before publication. In fact, you should proof it multiple times and even have someone else read and critique it. That shows respect for your readers. Of course you want the audio levels on your DVD to be even, so your audience isn’t suddenly blasted off the couch when the scene changes and the volume spikes into the red zone. That’s common sense. Of course you want your web site to be attractive, easy to navigate, and inviting to buyers. That’s how you’ll make sales.

But - here’s the important thing - those goals are concrete and attainable.

For instance, your ebook doesn’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize winner before you can release it. It just has to be the best you can do right now. If you find grammatical or spelling errors after publication, you can correct them and offer the revised edition to your early buyers for free (they’ll love it!)

Strive to make each product better than the last. Always improve. Never give less than your best. But don’t confuse that with never being good enough. Set realistic expectations, create the best product you can today, release it and move on.

All successful products have one irreducible thing in common - they got off the drawing pad and into the market. Success means taking action.

Photo by JC Olivera Released under Creative Commons License

You Know You Can Do Anything

Outsourcing is today’s buzzword.

If your ability to pay your mortgage has flown to India, outsourcing is a bad word. If you have freed up a few hours a day to spend on growing your business instead of packaging your orders, outsourcing is a good word.

It’s all in the context.

Have you ever said something like, “I tried WordPress, but it was too complicated,” or maybe “I’m not a techie. I need something easy,” or even “I can’t learn that stuff.”

There is a world of difference between saying, “I know a little HTML, but my time is better spent mastering Photoshop than building a web site,” and saying, “I can’t… [blog, draw, do math... fill in the blank] because I’m not [smart enough, tech-savvy enough, good enough ... fill in the self-put-down].

Writers, artists, photographers and other product developers sometimes assume that technology is so far removed from creativity that they will never master it. But the truth is that you don’t have to know everything; you don’t have to master everything; you don’t even have to move beyond a glancing acquaintance with some things. You can certainly outsource the mundane, day-to-day tasks that keep you from your core purpose.

But…

There is always a but…

When you decide to let some stuff slide, be sure that decision is based on what is best for you and your business. What is best and what is easiest are not always the same thing.

Here’s a story I have, sadly, run across too many times. A busy entrepreneur needs a web site with a shopping cart, so they hire someone to create it. That’s reasonable. The business owner takes a quick look at the final product and then turns the day to day operation over to someone else, either the designer or a webmaster. The business owner believes she is “outsourcing” by not getting bogged down in technical details.

Skip ahead a few months or maybe even years, and the entrepreneur decides to change the cart’s payment method, or add a blog to the website, or update the template. The problem is, the entrepreneur was “too busy” to oversee the technical stuff. She may not know the log in ID or the FTP password. In fact, she may not even be the registered owner of the domain or the web site! The business owner, in short, may find herself locked out of her own store because she gave the only set of keys to an ex-employee who left town to join the circus.

That isn’t outsourcing. That’s giving away your power.

The web designer may have tried to get the business person to sign up for the hosting package, only to be told, “You do it, I hate that stuff.” The webmaster may have forwarded the email from the hosting company containing passwords and other account details, and the entrepreneur, faced with a stew of meaningless acronyms, deleted it from an already full-to-bursting inbox.

Eventually, the web designer probably shrugged and said, “It’s not my job to save you from yourself.” The designer is not a villain in this piece.

In the bricks and mortar world, you don’t have to be a locksmith to safeguard the keys to your door. In the online world, you don’t need to be an engineer to run a website.

Whether you are on the street or on the web, knowledge is power. Don’t throw yours away.

Photo by mishox Released under Creative Commons License

Get Ideas from Magazines

The easiest way to sell a product is to find people who have already spent money on something and then sell them a similar item.

But how do you know when people care enough to buy? One sure sign of a passionate interest in a topic is reading about it.

People read about their hobbies to learn more. Even better from a product developer’s viewpoint, they buy magazines (small monetary investment) to not only learn more but to buy more as well (larger investment).

You can find your niche audience and research its habits just buy browsing through a well stocked magazine stand.

Long Tail Research

Don’t just flip through Time or Oprah or Better Homes and Gardens. Look for magazines you’ve never heard of.

If you are selling to home owners, read Sunset, read Organic Gardening, then use them as guides to search out ever more specialized magazines. And don’t just read the articles and look at the display ads, read the classified ads as well. Small businesses that choose not to invest in full color ads market to popular - and profitable - niches through the classifieds that are found in the back pages of many niche magazines.

What specialty products’ popularity can you piggy-back on?

Write With Pride

And yet, many product developers pin their hopes on making a living with ebooks.

Ebooks appeal to product developers and online marketers because the cost of production is so low. Once you create a PDF and set up a sales page, you are done. The same file can be duplicated and downloaded endlessly and automatically, with no further investment of time or money. In essence, every sale is pure profit.

Make Your Mother Proud

Some schmoe in Upper RipOffia claims to be making millions selling ebooks. Of course, his ebook is about how to make millions selling ebooks. It’s another Fleece The Rubes enterprise. Do you want your product in the same bin?

Ebooks have a reputation - deserved or not - for being a scammer’s delight. Very few books that offer solid information are delivered solely as digital downloads. Don’t let the lure of unearned riches turn your next project into junk.

Ask yourself:

• “Would I buy this book?”
• “Would I tell a friend to spend good money on this book?”
• “Will I be proud to say I am the author of this book?”

If you answer no to any of those questions, don’t do it!

Camtasia is a wonderful tool for creating screencasts, but for many product developers or internet retailers, it is overkill. With a hefty $300.00 price tag, you have to really need Camtasia before you buy it. So what do you do if you just need to make a slideshow and post it to your web site, blog, or Facebook page?

There are a surprising number of free tools available. They may lack the polish or flexibility of Camtasia - but they get the job done.

Jing

For short tutorials - especially if demonstrating software or answering user questions is part of your customer service package - it is hard to beat Jing. This small screencasting application is also made by TechSmith. There are versions for both Windows and the Mac, and - perhaps most surprisingly - it comes with 2 GB of free storage at Screencast.com. If you are just getting your feet wet with screencasting, this is a great place to start.

Photo Story 3

If you want to create a slideshow, with Ken Burns like pans and zooms, accompanied by royalty free music and your own narration - you’ll want Photo Story from Microsoft.  PhotoStory, which is free, can be downloaded from Microsoft’s web site. However, please note: Photo Story 3 is for Windows XP. It probably won’t work with Windows Vista. (Microsoft recommends that Vista users use Windows Movie Maker instead.)

Many top videos on You Tube were created with Photo Story. With a little effort, you can produce very professional results. (If you are looking for the missing Photo Story instruction manual - try Ghost Leg Media’s Everyone’s Guide to Photo Story.)

Flypaper

Perhaps the Ken Burns effect isn’t quite what you wanted. Maybe you want to add a little sizzle to your presentation. Then you need to check out Flypaper. Flypaper is finally out of beta, and the Standard version is free. (There is a paid, Pro version as well.) Flypaper uses a collection of templates to build online brochures, presentations, and movies. Although the templates may restrict your flexibility, Flypaper is optimized to work with eBay, You Tube, and Facebook and MySpace - so it is definitely worth checking out if you want to spice up your auctions.

Yodio

Yodio adds a twist to recording audio. You can use your phone to record the narration - removing another technical stumbling block for folks without a microphone. Finished Yodios can be emailed or embedded in blogs, Facebook pages, etc. If you want to see what a Yodio is, check out Cindy Shebley’s simple explanation of HDR Photography. Like the other services discussed so far, Yodio is free.

SlideShare

If you’ve struggled with sharing your PowerPoint presentation online, look no further than SlideShare. You don’t need to master Flash or Camtasia or any of the other programs that convert PowerPoint into a movie. With SlideShare, you can add audio, or just let viewers click through your slides. The presentations are also downloadable at the creator’s discretion, so make sure you watermark unique content. Slideshows can be shared publically or privately (only selected viewers, according to rules created by you). Just sign up for a free account, upload your PowerPoint presentation and you are ready to go!

SlideShare still lacks some of the polish of a PowerPoint slideshow run on your computer (no transitions, for instance). And there is a conversion process which, like You Tube’s, can make pictures fuzzier than the original. But as a simple way to get your slides on the web, it is hard to beat. The FAQ will answer most of your questions about the service.

How can you take advantage of these tools?

If you are an eBay Educational Specialist and you want people to sign up for your classes - maybe Flypaper is the way to announce the schedule and content. If you want to offer a preview of an upcoming seminar, SlideShare could be the answer. Photo Story can perfectly showcase any product you have to sell. Jing will allow you to answer customer service questions in half the time and with twice the effectiveness of an emailed reply. Yodio can bring pizazz to any announcement, regardless of your video or audio equipment (or lack of it). This is just a taste of the free photo/slide/screencast services available to product developers. More are added every day. What are you using?