Value of a Mastermind

You just never know when an off-handed comment will trigger a major turning point in your career or your business development or any other part of your life. And there's no way of predicting when these things will happen. The odds are greatly increased that it will happen when coming together with other like-minded people.

Looking at the membership roster, it's been noteworthy to see that PublishingProsperity.com is attracting highly educated, highly credentialed people to its ranks. That wasn't among the criteria nor is it hardly a requirement in targeting the market for this site and what it offers or for coming on board. However, that's who has been drawn to it. Lots of alphabet soup -- Ph.D.'s, MD's, MS's, MSW's, and others. That means it becomes somewhat of a well-matched tennis game. Lots of good minds bringing a range of experiences, personalities, interests, and learning styles.

Like any other learning, at least three opportunities are available to you:

* Learn new information
* Be reminded of information you forgot
* Find confirmation in what you are doing

The monthly Open Mic session for www.PublishingProsperity.com is gathering momentum with each passing month since starting in September 2008. Those who attend are coming away with great value from the experience of input from each other and from me. While the schedule doesn't always work for everyone, there's no question it has been worthwhile for those who have been present.

What resources do you have access to that could catapult you to the next level of your business? And when will you start taking advantage of those resources?

Until next time,
Paulette - excited by what people are experiencing

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

Why Audio and Print of Same Thing

"How to Promote Your Business with Booklets" is in both text version and audio CDs. The Expert Interviews of www.PublishingProsperity.com are in PDF text transcripts and audio MP3s. What kind of sense does it make to have the same content in both text and audio?

Here's a few reasons why it makes perfect sense to have your content available in both the written word and something to hear:

• Your client's primary learning style is visual or auditory
• There are times in a person's day where it's more convenient to read or to listen
• It takes multiple exposures to the same content to internalize it.
• It gives your clients a choice of which to buy, rather than a "yes or no."
  

There's probably more reasons than this. These are the most obvious ones though. And you can start by creating the written one first and then recording it, or the other way around -- speak it and then have it transcribed.

Look at what content you already have. What's your starting point in creating or expanding your product line by offering both text and audio?

Until next time,
Paulette - suggesting easy ways to get the word out there and make more money

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

San Diego Workshop Scheduled

Information Products - Today's Secret Marketing Tool
Thursday, February 19

Where will YOU be??

All the goodies about it and enrollment at:
http://www.tipsbooklets.com/sandiego2009.htm

Record Your Products - Reap the Rewards of Recording and Getting Your Product Done Faster and Easier

by Patsy Bellah

(who has been doing the Expert Interview transcriptions)

You may remember the days of typing on typewriters. You may even remember typing on "standard" or manual typewriters. If you aren't in the know, that's a typewriter without electricity.

Then electric typewriters arrived. That was something new to learn, but work could then be done faster, easier and with less mess.

Then came computers. Yes, there was yet more to learn and with this technology life was made even easier for secretaries, writers, or anyone having to convey information with the written word.

With each of these advances there were those who said they couldn't do it. You may have been among those folks. They didn't like it, they didn't like change. They could get along just fine, thank you very much, with a manual typewriter, or an electric one. They didn't need computers. There was too much to learn. It was too different.

You need not let that attitude keep you from learning the latest time saver for transferring words to paper and that is the digital recorder. As the manual typewriter gave way to more sophisticated electric typewriters, which gave way to the computer, so, too, has the digital recorder made it faster and easier to transfer the spoken word to the written word.

On average, a one-hour recording yields about 20-30 typewritten pages. That means a one hour "conversation," speaking your story or information into a recording device, then getting it transcribed, you can transfer your spoken word to a document in about 25% of the time to type it yourself.

It may take a bit of practice to learn to dictate into a recorder. Once you have, you will save yourself a ton of time. The longer it takes to complete a project, the less likely it is you will finish it. Embrace this new technology.

Here are some guidelines to consider when purchasing a digital recorder:

1. You must be able to download your recording to your computer. Some of the less expensive recorders are not "downloadable." You need to transfer your recording through the Internet to a transcription service or to transcribe it yourself on your computer.

2. Although most recorders come with internal microphones, it is best to be able to attach an external microphone. External microphones work better to record presentations or to record from a distance. Additionally, you can elect to use a lavaliere microphone for yourself and not be hampered by holding the recorder. Or, if you are recording more than one person because you are interviewing someone, you can get an attachment allowing you to hook up two microphones.

3. Get a recorder with at least four hours of available recording time when using the high quality recording setting. Be sure the recorder has enough time to record a full presentation before having to download the recording to the computer.

Recorder capabilities change all the time. Prices, like many things, are coming down drastically while recording time increase.

A good quality Olympus recorder can be bought on the Internet and at some local electronics stores for about $100.at the time this writing.

An Olympus, and a Marantz recorder which uses a flash card with as much as 4G-8G of storage space sell for just under $400. The Sony or the Edirol are also good recorders, and have similar capabilities and prices.

Buying a recorder is much like buying a blender or a computer. Although it's wise to buy as much as your pocketbook allows, you don't need to buy more than you will use.

A digital recorder is small and easy to use. You can record on it all of your information products, presentations, blogs, or articles.

Embrace this new technology. Using a digital recorder to record your information products, presentations, or teleseminars allows you to finish your product in less than 25% of the time it would take to type it yourself. If you outsource your audio file to a professional transcriptionist, all you have to do is edit it once you get it back. A good professional job will require minimal edits, in fact. You can have your product completed in less than a week.

Patsy Bellah is the owner of Great Transcriptions where the spoken word becomes the written word. Check us out at http://www.greattranscriptions.com For more information about recording your information products, read "How To Get Your Info-Product to Market With Lightning Speed!" for only $29.95. Claim your free report at http://www.lightningfastinfoproducts.com

© 2008, Patsy Bellah

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Until next time,

Paulette - who values the work of our transcriptionist, making additional products from our recordings

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

Dear Techies and Technophobes: You’re Both Missing the Point

By Caleb Scoville - Expert Interviewed by Paulette Ensign this month

In this day and age, it seems that the world is divided into two huge cultures: techies and technophobes. Techies are obsessed with gear, software and always on the leading edge of technology at any cost. They tend to throw money at their problems, constantly investing in the latest gadget, thinking that it will solve all of their problems. Their biggest problem is that they often focus on the medium of delivery and perfecting their products’ aesthetics rather than primarily focusing on content and value. They often alienate people who are less tech-savvy.

Technophobes convince themselves that they are too stupid, inexperienced or too old to learn new technologies. They too fall into the trap that gear and software are vital for success, but instead of being excited by new technological developments, they are scared off by them and end up not creating anything because they fear making a fool of themselves, breaking something or otherwise doing something wrong.

Aside from these archetypal differences, techies and technophobes also run their businesses very differently.

Techies tend to try to do everything themselves, over compensating any weaknesses they might have with new gadgets and toys they convince themselves are needed for their success.

Technophobes tend to either get scared of new ideas or developments and revert back to what is comfortable or abdicate everything they think their business needs to the nearest “expert” without the slightest clue of how it will work or cost. This often leads to disaster because they are not in the driver’s seat of the business and are left to the mercy of someone who calls himself an expert, but may or may not actually know what he is talking about.

My clients tend to fall into the technophobe category, but many of my colleagues and associates are classic techies.

Here are some words of advice for technophobes:

1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
   It’s important to understand what you want to accomplish, but you don’t have to know how to perform every single related task.
2. Take action and correct as you go.
   You’re better off doing something imperfectly and achieving partial results than simply stewing in your own juices, paralyzed and unable to make anything happen.
3. Don’t let your technophobia be an excuse for failure!
   It’s never too late to learn. I know plenty of folks over 50 who are making great money online. Sure, they’ve had to pick up some new skills, but it didn’t kill them.

And lastly, some words of advice to my “techie friends”:

1. Always keep your ideal client’s interest at heart.
   You may love talking about your new toys or how all the nuts and bolts of a new product, service or program work, but when you dump all this minutia onto someone who is less technologically inclined than you, you’ll end up scaring away or confusing otherwise eager customers.
2. Remember - creating perceived obsolescence is simply a marketing tactic.
   Don’t be a victim to someone else’s marketing strategy without making sure that it’s working in your favor as well. Being the first kid on the block with the newest iPhone or latest version of Photoshop is quite expensive and isn’t usually all it’s cracked up to be.

Whichever category you fit into – or even if you’re somewhere in between – I hope this podcast will help you strike a healthy, balanced relationship with technology for a more successful and sane life, in and out of business.

And now I’d like to invite you to learn out the 5 simple steps to turn one hour into a successful marketing plan at http://www.northbankaudio.com/teleclass

Caleb Scoville helps consultants, trainers, coaches and service professionals, multiply their impact with information products and audio and video online marketing strategies.

=============

This is the second of several articles written by this month's expert about creating audio products. What is your starting point with audios? Is it talk first, transcribe later, or the other way around?

Until next time,

Paulette - who is gradually progressing from being a technophobe to an toddler techie

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

Teleseminars: 9 Simple Steps to Launching Your Information Empire

By Caleb Scoville

(An expert who was recently interviewed by Paulette Ensign)

If you want to attract more clients, establish yourself as an expert and capture the valuable knowledge that you already have in your head, you should be hosting teleseminars.

A teleseminar is simply a way of distributing your knowledge to your audience. They are virtual events hosted on the telephone via a bridge line. Because of how simple they are to set up, they are usually the easiest way to get started in information marketing.

Very few of us are effective writers and even less of us actually enjoy doing it. If you are a coach, consultant, speaker trainer, teacher or service professional, it’s almost a given that your primary mode of communication is vocal. This is the beauty of a teleseminar.

Instead of speaking only to your clients, those who call your office or that you call, you can reach large audiences during and after your teleseminar. And instead of having to travel to high pressure speaking engagements, you can host teleseminars from your home or office.

Here are the 9 simple steps to launching your information empire with teleseminars:

Step one: choose a topic. This is a major roadblock for some people. Remember to focus on the benefits of the concepts you are teaching and that you pick a topic that your target market is actually hungry for - not just something you like to talk about.

Step two: create an outline. Don’t waste your time by writing out a word-for-word script for your teleseminar. Not only is it time consuming, but it will make you sound unnatural when you are hosting your event.

Step three: host and record a teleseminar. Use a free bridge line service like www.freeconferencepro.com or better yet, use www.handsfreeteleseminars.com, an online tool that allows you to host, record and promote your event at a very low cost. Simply invite your list, your friends or anyone who you know who might be interested in the topic you are covering. Don’t worry - even it if it’s just you on the line, still deliver the teleseminar.

Step four: distribute the recording. Send out the recording to your teleseminar attendees.

Step five: transcribe the teleseminar. Have a professional transcriptionist convert the audio recording into a text format. This can then be distributed as PDF to your teleseminar attendees and sold or given away as a free report or white paper.

Step six: set up an opt-in page with your recording and transcript as a free or low cost lead generation product. It can be in the form of digital files or a CD and a printed transcript. You will then drive traffic to this page through your online and offline marketing campaigns. Your goal is to get targeted people in your target market to exchange their contact information for your valuable recording and transcript. Then you can be in touch with those people and help transition them into customers and clients.

Step seven: repurpose your teleseminar into marketing materials. The audio can be redistributed as podcasts and submitted to directories. The text can be edited and redistributed as online marketing articles, blog posts, ezines and e-courses and press releases. The audio and text can be combined to create online video which can be submitted to YouTube and other video sites. All these pieces can be promoted through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, blogs relevant to your target market and social bookmarking tools like Digg.

Step eight: repeat the process. Tweak as you go. Notice which topics and approaches get the best response and focus on those. Pay close attention to which questions are asked the most.

Step nine: archive and repurpose again. Consider repurposing multiple free or low teleseminars into a book or a big ticket item (live event, high-end info product, home study course or coaching program.)

Even if you don’t complete all nine steps for your first few teleseminars, keep creating and moving forward. By simply getting started with information marketing and list building will help you refine your message, grow your business and differentiate yourself from your competition.

Learn about the 5 simple steps to turn one hour into a successful marketing plan at http://www.northbankaudio.com/teleclass

Caleb Scoville helps consultants, trainers, coaches and service professionals, multiply their impact with information products and audio and video online marketing strategies.

=====================

This is the first of several articles about creating information products in audio formats. Look at the content you already have from articles or larger works you've written, outlines you've created, or ideas that have been floating around in your mind. Which will be your first audio product?

Until next time,

Paulette - encouraging you to expand your reach and your product formats

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

Audio Info Product Line

When you think of an audio information product, do you come up with more than one format and more than one application? For the longest time (in my life, anyway), an audio product meant a vinyl record played on a turntable, either as a 33 or 78 recording. Yeah, how's THAT for dating myself, huh? Some readers of this blog have never known such a product in their lifetime. Regardless, then it moved on to tapes of large size, tapes of smaller size, compact discs, and digital. Once it hit digital, well, I'm not even going to make an attempt at listing the different formats since there's no doubt I'm woefully uneducated about the scope of formats, with more being developed by techies each week.

What I do know is that every single format of audio products can be sold in hard copy or licensed in digital format in as many ways as the printed word can. It can be sold as single copies/downloads directly to end-users, and/or it can be sold/licensed in bulk to be used by the buyer as a promotional tool to help them sell and promote more of their own product, service, or cause.

Once you've got your initial content created in a written manuscript, it can be sliced and diced, expanded or contracted endlessly for commercial purposes by companies, associations, and websites. The promotional value to you may or may not be more limited than your ability and requirement to have your own name be present in the product. However, you can always publicize the situation yourself through any and all media opportunities you have and that you create.

See more about developing an audio info product line in this month's member ezine for www.PublishingProsperity.com and in the articles that will be distributed from this month's Expert, Caleb Scoville, who will be interviewed today.

What can you add to your list of ways your buyers can use your audio products to help them promote and sell more of their products, services, or causes?

Until next time,
Paulette - who continues stirring it all up because it's such fun to do

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

Turning an Expense to Income for Your Buyer

For the past several years, a long-time friend of mine has accompanied his wife when she's been the keynote speaker for some high-level conferences around the world. They've gone to some great places in the process. My friend is an excellent photographer, though hasn't done it professionally during the more than two decades I've known him.

He usually gets to go on these jaunts with his wife for no cost to him -- and no payment to him, either. He donates his photography to the organization who paid his wife to speak to their group, as the group claimed they had no money to pay him as the photographer for the event. Gee, yet they paid his wife's travel and honorarium, but no budget for the photographer or photography.

None of this sat right with me, as you might imagine. My friend has made bound books of the photography and presented a single copy to the association or society in question. Well this was just too good to pass up on giving the suggestion I offered to my friend.

There's rarely a member organization that doesn't want to find relevant and appropriate sources of non-dues revenue to support their group's life. They can't live on member dues alone. The photography albums are quite a few notches above the high school and college year books that sell to students of schools like hot cakes. What about presenting the bound photo album to the powers that be at the organization, and suggest offering these for sale to those who attended the event memorialized in these pictures? The association generates non-dues revenue, the attendees have a lovely memento of the event, and my friend makes money from the sale of the albums -- much more than the association ever would have paid him as a photographer.

What do you have that you already publish or could publish - words or some spin-off product - that associations or even schools who have no money to pay you as a speaker or consultant would jump at the opportunity for this type of joint venture?

Until next time,
Paulette - sharing what's right in front of you, through different filters

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign