Product Design
Design of your products is just as important as the content.
Obviously in this section it is hard to be too specific as you could be setting up a blog to sell products and services, how to grow the best potatoes in the world or dealing with multi nationals. For this reason I will go more into the principles and provide the resources for you to accomplish the right design. You can always use the forum to ask more specific questions.
Whether your selling someone else’s product or developing your own try and provide nice eye candy for your customers. A nice eBook or box cover can make all the difference to a successful campaign. Creating an attractive template for your eBooks only takes a few extra minutes of work but the overall look can be greatly enhanced and make your product look much more professional.
A simple, yet well designed header, can make your blog stand out from the crowd and and make people feel confident you know what you are talking about.
Photoshop
If you can get your hands on a copy of Adobe Photoshop it will be a great investment. You don’t need the latest version and you can pick up older copies at auctions, classifieds, garage sales etc.
I have a lot of tutorials at http://www.msiphotoshop.com to help you and there are thousands more all over the net.
If your just a beginner I have made a very simple to follow beginners video for you covering some of the basics. I did this for my wife on a Sunday afternoon so you see my mistakes, hear the traffic etc but it will show you the basics and get you up and running quickly.
Click here to watch the video.
Here is the action script for the eBook cover I used in the above tutorial Download here. (zip file 117kb)
If you prefer reading here is a great pdf that will also take you through the basics.
Once you learn the basics our friends over at Watch And Learn Photoshop are releasing a few new products and have also released not one, not two, not three but seven free photoshop video tutorials/tips. Their videos are a lot more professional than my Sunday afternoon effort.
Word Templates
If your writing an ebook, report or anything for your business try and make it look as professional as you can. When I was researching this product I was amazed how many poor quality products were online. This is good for us because it is not hard to stand out from the crowd. There are so many great resources out there that mean you can make your products look like they were designed by a professional.
Templates are quiock and esay way to make your product look good. Here are a bunch of templates form the crew at Microsoft. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx
For example say you were going to do a blog on Real Estate then they have a great template for a RE newsletter. You could do a weekly newsletter and send out a download for the pdf file.
Creating PDF Files
Adobe Acrobat is the best for doing this and again there are a lot of old copies out there however you can also get some great free software packages that you can use.
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Creating Video Software Tutorials – High Value Products You Can Easily Sell
What software programs or services do you use on a regular basis? What tricks do you know that make your life using the software far easier, and speed up your production because of it?
If you know secrets about the software and services you use, then you need to make software tutorials detailing what you do and how you do it. You can then sell these tutorials for a fee, aiming to get many hundreds of buyers looking to make their time more productive.
So what do you need to record your tutorials? Start off with Camtasia Studio from Techsmith. It’s an outstanding software application that lets you record your desktop activity, i.e. the actions you’re making in the software and services you’re using.
This means you can record every action, every keystroke you make whilst using your software or service – and add voice commentary to it at the same time – to create high-value software tutorials people will be happy to pay for.
The voiceover will need a decent microphone, ideally USB. I’ve found that the Plantronics DSP-500 headset works best – it produces outstanding audio at a low price. Also, Camtasia Studio will instantly recognize the microphone, so you won’t have to spend hours trying to configure it.
Believe it or not, that’s all you’ll need. Using just these 2 items will allow you to create high-value software tutorials that show others the tips and tricks you know.
And don’t think for a second that others won’t pay for your tutorials. If you’re showing them a way to save time, increase their productivity and improve their overall knowledge of the software in question, then without a doubt people will pay money for your information.
Also, video tutorials have a huge advantage over books in that many, many people prefer to learn visually. Their attention span is short when reading and they can find it difficult to grasp the concept of turning what they read into actions with the software they’re learning.
By seeing what’s going on directly in the application, they can simply replicate the process without having to refer to a load of text and a dozen screen shots.
if the software or service in questions also has an affiliate program, you can quickly produce additional income from your tutorials by offering a special discount on your product if the software is bought via your affiliate link.
Take some time to prepare the video and if you want you can also upload to Google Video, Youtube or ifilm and insert into your blog in seconds.
Powerpoint Presentations.
This is another great way to show off your products and can easily be embedded into your blog. Just create some nice powerpoint presentations and upload to Slideshare and even create an audio to go along with the presentation.
Summary
We will add a lot more to this section as time goes on but I think you get the idea. Make it look professional and use some of the great tools around to help you generate interest.
