Product Creation Question

14 years ago

I think Video training would be better then ebooks when dealing with techy stuff. Or you can offer a free ebook and then offer your video training as a OTO.

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purplecone 14 years ago

Joshua,
Thank you for an excellent idea!
Linda
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sitelit

Banned 14 years ago

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purplecone 14 years ago

Thank you, sitelit.
This is the kind of feedback I need!
Linda
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Alexa Williamson

14 years ago

Yeah I just barely noticed that today while working on my ebook.
I was bored and I was looking through all the features on microsoft word and I saw the PDF create! button. Apparently you can make hyperlinks too? This seems like it would be way simpler than download adobe and doing it that way.

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purplecone 14 years ago

Hi, Alexa!
Thanks for your input. This is also something that you can try out before buying, since MS Office allows a 30 day trial. And if you are a student, with a .edu email account, you can purchase it for a much lower price at ultimatestealdeal[dot]come (not an affiliate link).
Linda
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Kevin_Hutto

14 years ago

You could sell it as a course, or you could offer it as a service... Some amount to make your simple word doc into a "fancy" pdf ebook.... Thats something that I personally dont want to learn, but I outsource it and if you had a superior service for a reasonable price, I bet you would sell a heck of a lot of it...

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purplecone 14 years ago

Hi, Kevin_Hutto,
Thank you for the response. Developing a service for this is a good idea, too.
Linda
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purplecone 14 years ago

Kevin_Hutto:

The quote in your signature is my favorite quote of all times. I print it out in 48pt font and give it to my students.

Linda
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- Kevin_Hutto 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by purplecone
  
  Kevin_Hutto:
  
  The quote in your signature is my favorite quote of all times. I print it out in 48pt font and give it to my students.
  
  Linda
  
  I have that quote in front of me at all times... It is what has made the difference in my career, business and life. For me, it would be hard to overstate its power.
  
  Thanks
  
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paulie888

14 years ago

With programs as complex as MS Word and Powerpoint 2010 that possess far more features than the average person would ordinarily use, trying to highlight the features in a written report will be an extremely time-consuming affair (I've seen those huge manuals almost as thick as a Bible in the bookstores!)

In this case, a short video accomplishes more than a thousand written words (probably even more), so I think you'll get far more accomplished by spending several hours recording screencast videos rather than attempting to write it all out in a report/ebook.

Paul

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purplecone

14 years ago

Hi, paulie888,
You may be right. However, there are always those (like me) that want to have a print out to be able to refer back to it. I did not intend to highlight all the features of MS Word and PowerPoint, just those that would be specific to the tasks.
Thank you for your response.
Linda

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paulie888

14 years ago

Originally Posted by purplecone

Hi, paulie888,
You may be right. However, there are always those (like me) that want to have a print out to be able to refer back to it. I did not intend to highlight all the features of MS Word and PowerPoint, just those that would be specific to the tasks.
Thank you for your response.
Linda

Hi Linda,

I understand what you're getting at, what you could do is provide some short PDFs that illustrate the major points to go along with the videos. Video has far greater perceived value in the IM marketplace, so you'd be wise to include it in your product package.

Additionally, it'd be easier to demonstrate many tasks in MS Word and Powerpoint, as by doing a video your viewers would basically be able to look over your shoulder during the entire process of accomplishing the task.

Paul

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purplecone 14 years ago

paulie888,
Excellent points. Thank you!
Linda
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purplecone 14 years ago

moonfish,
Open source applications such as Open Ofrfice are definitely worthwhile. I know many people would not purchase MS Office, but some will already have it, for whatever reason. I believe that a similar product for Open Office would be a good idea. Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with most open source applications. The last time I used Open Office, it was comparable to MS Office 2003, which was a good application, but did not have near the capabilities of the 2010 version.

I will keep the open source community in mind while I am brainstorming ideas for products.

Thank you,

Linda
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Joshua Bretag

14 years ago

Hey Linda

Great to see you taking some action in doing a product. To be honest I think your best option for both you and the customer would be a membership site. That way when microsfot office updates they can send you questions etc. and you can update the resources and everyone in your membership gets the video + the transcript (dont forget to do kindle and Iphone/ipad versions of the book for easy reading). You also get the added bonus of a passive income from the membership and can educate a few outsourcers to continually research the topic for you and provide advice and answer common queries and questions.

I would have forum in there where you would discuss things like Opensource versus paid and which is better for who and why.

Just my 2 cents worth

Josh
The Crazy Email Marketing Professor

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purplecone

14 years ago

Hi, Joshua,
Thank you for your comments. I had not thought of having a membership site with this. Article marketing and blogging I know, but I will have to learn how to set up a membership site, and create kindle and Iphone/ipad versions. Lots to learn! :-)
Linda

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Joe Mobley 14 years ago

Linda,

Of course you could test your ideas with some Warrior Special Offers (WSO). No Web site, no domain, no hosting to get started. Yet still have the ability to build a list and make some money.

I'm just thinking.

Joe Mobley
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- purplecone 14 years ago
  
  Hi, Joe,
  
  What a great idea! I like it.
  
  Thanks!
  
  Linda
  
  Thanks
  
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Joshua Bretag

14 years ago

Originally Posted by purplecone

Hi, Joshua,
Thank you for your comments. I had not thought of having a membership site with this. Article marketing and blogging I know, but I will have to learn how to set up a membership site, and create kindle and Iphone/ipad versions. Lots to learn! :-)
Linda

It only takes half an hour to set up a wordpress membership plugin. As for the ipad, kindle and iphone versions just check out fiverr.com and get a person there to do each on for $5 and charge $47 for the membership per month.

Regards
Josh
The Crazy Email Marketing Professor

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purplecone

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Joshua Bretag

It only takes half an hour to set up a wordpress membership plugin. As for the ipad, kindle and iphone versions just check out fiverr.com and get a person there to do each on for $5 and charge $47 for the membership per month.

Regards
Josh
The Crazy Email Marketing Professor

Thank you, again, Josh. I am so happy I found WF!

By having a membership site, I could start posting videos and shorter e-books (the chapters) as I get them done.

Linda

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gjabiz

14 years ago

Hi Linda,

I think the best person you can take a look at and learn from is BILL MYERS. His membership site is a bargain.

But the reason I recommend him to you is simple:

He's "written the book" on what you are trying to do. He has over 10 years of archives at his site, and some pretty specific HOW TO regarding creating a DVD for a New Software (or a new update).

It isn't complicated and you can use a site like KUNAKI to accept and ship orders and you have a hands off business as for the fulfillment. YOU simply create product.

Check him out, Bill Myers bmyers DOT com at his PRODUCT DEVELOPERS MEMBERSHIP site. I think you'll like what he has to offer.

Good luck, glad to see MS Office finally catching up with the times.

gjabiz

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billaaa777

14 years ago

There are a ton of free tutorials already on the internet relating to those subjects, so regardless of how much better your program might be, it will be VERY difficult to sell.

I would look for something that there is not to much free information available and purse that instead.

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lamberw

14 years ago

Originally Posted by billaaa777

There are a ton of free tutorials already on the internet relating to those subjects, so regardless of how much better your program might be, it will be VERY difficult to sell.

I would look for something that there is not to much free information available and purse that instead.

This doesn't mean people won't pay for the same information. People are always paying for information which they could get for free if they looked hard enough.

You might be right about people not buying that information, but not for the reasons you give.

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Gary King

14 years ago

Hi Linda,

It's great to see you getting things in gear and coming up with product ideas!

My thoughts are:

You'll have a tough time selling this to Internet Marketers because they will typically only use a small subset of the features of a massive application like Word/Excel, etc.

Consider changing your market to the corporate world.

Right now, the average company deals with end-user training in one of a couple ways:

Lets them figure it out on their own (bad for productivity)
Tries to have I.T. or an internal training team come up with something (bad because they may be ineffective at communication and/or not have the skills themselves)
Sends people to classes (can be expensive, lost productivity)

Now, if you can come up with a down and dirty set of guides and videos (watch the video, follow along in the guide with exercises) and price them reasonably, you may have a market for the corporate world.

Cheaper than going to classes... improves productivity and reduces end-user frustration of figuring it out themselves... reduces "push back" where end-users hate change because it's something new they have to struggle with...

I would suggest two sets - one that is for new users and one that shows what's different between the current version and previous versions.

Remember, the 80/20 rule is VERY prominent here - I typically see more like 95% using 5% of the features.

Do some searching for stuff like Microsoft Office Training - you'll see you have competition, but if you market it right (cost, to the point and available for a range of users vs per user licensing) I think there's a market there for you.

All success,

Gary

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ItsDubC

14 years ago

My only concern w/ creating products designed to teach ppl how to use a particular piece of software is that these products tend to have less of an evergreen factor. In other words, when MS Office 2012 comes out, your product may not sell as well because consumers might deem it to be obsolete. You might then have to release a product specific to MS Office 2012, and so on.

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Istvan Horvath

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ItsDubC

My only concern w/ creating products designed to teach ppl how to use a particular piece of software is that these products tend to have less of an evergreen factor. In other words, when MS Office 2012 comes out, your product may not sell as well because consumers might deem it to be obsolete. You might then have to release a product specific to MS Office 2012, and so on.

Actually, I see it as a good market for future products

- you can offer discounted rates for existing customers
- you can get new clients for the new product (those who start using only the new version)
- keep them on a buyers list and you can even promote to them similar products (as an affiliate)

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Gary King

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath

Actually, I see it as a good market for future products

- you can offer discounted rates for existing customers
- you can get new clients for the new product (those who start using only the new version)
- keep them on a buyers list and you can even promote to them similar products (as an affiliate)

Absolutely!

You're actually future-proofing the business by KNOWING that Microsoft, et all WILL release new versions.

Now, you'll still have to make new videos/manuals/whatever for those versions, but there will still be people new to that version AND people transitioning to the new version.

With them on your previous customer list, and nice discount for repeat purchase to get your new version and you're golden.

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ItsDubC

14 years ago

^Excellent point, fellas!

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EBiz81

14 years ago

I personally like the video training course idea. I think it could do well if presented right.

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purplecone

14 years ago

gjabiz,
I will check into Bill Myers. Thank you for the tip.
　
billaaa777,
In my experience, most of the available free training leaves out much of what would be needed. I often send my students out to use materials online that I have searched for, and it is not easy to find quality training, even when there is so much of it. Thank you for the comment.
　
Gary,
You have some great ideas. I wondered how difficult it would be to sell to marketers. Maybe desktop publishers would be a better market, in addition to the corporate world. The issue with most of the corporate training divisions is that they want someone there to do the training. I love teaching in person, but I do not desire to travel. However, if I could find a way to promote it as a training at your own pace and in your own time, it might work. Thank you for the comments.

ItsDubC,
Most colleges wait at least a semester, and sometimes two, before changing over to teach a new Office program. Other software classes are sometimes as much as two years outdated on the version of software used, at least in small colleges. That said, you have a valid point. Thank you.

Istvan,
Offering a discounted rate for existing customer who upgrade to the new version is an excellent idea. Thank you.
　
EBiz81,
Thank you for your comment. Visual training is a huge component these days.