Practical Information Products for the InternetWritten by Robert Brents
I have been in training business for over twelve years. As I began writing how-to manuals, I naturally began offering seminars on how to write how-to manuals. And I still do. But I've found that by putting what I've learned about this subject into print and marketing this manual, I've been able to reach out and help many more people than I ever could through seminars alone.Practical. Above all else, writing, publishing, marketing and promoting your how-to manuals is practical. Information products are some of easiest things to create and market (especially over Internet!) How-to manuals are a consistently profitable market. Never mind if there are already twenty- eleven things in print on your topic. If you have something new to say on subject, or some new way to say it, you have a unique product that may fulfill needs of others. Portable. One of things I love most about this business is that it’s portable. You can write, publish, market and promote your how-to manuals from virtually anywhere. I've written how-to manuals while traveling almost full-time delivering my seminars and training courses. When my wife takes early retirement in a few years, she wants to move from large city we now live in on West Coast to a small town in northern New Mexico. No matter, I can still do my business from wherever we settle next. Your Spin. This business really has no limits! As I said above, even if there are many other publications on a topic you want to write your how-to manual about, don't fret! Put your unique stamp on topic and/or market it in a new way, and you'll find plenty of buyers. Do you think Dr. Wayne Dyer was first person to write a self-help book? Absolutely not! But way he wrote "Your Erroneous Zones" reached people, many of whom had never read a self-help book in their lives, in a way that made him a best-selling author!
| | The Five Most Commonly Encountered, Off-putting E-commerce ErrorsWritten by Marcia Yudkin
While getting less public handwringing than during holiday season, "abandoned shopping cart problem" continues to wreak havoc on online sales. Recently I judged a raftload of sites for Webby Awards (my second time) and for Inc. magazine Web Awards, as well as for my own clients. Here are five irritants and obstacles that most frequently disrupt visitor's shopping experience at e-commerce sites. 1. Lack of quick orientation for first-time visitors. What does site sell? I've had to poke around for several minutes sometimes to understand focus of a site. Jargon is one culprit. Another is lack of context, like an airline site that sells tickets not giving a single clue on home page in what countries or even what continent it flies. 2. Explanations that don't explain. What does product do and not do? Another basic, but it happens often that a site doesn't explain whether their "Turbocharge VT27-Plus" is a one-time download, a subscription, a Web-based service or something else. An alternative payment system's site failed to offer a clear, systematic description of how it works.
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