6 Tips for Better Recordings When Creating Your Infoproducts

If you're creating audio or video information products, you're probably using one (or more) of the following programs:

• Camtasia (screencasts)
• Sony Movie Studio / Sony Vegas (live-action video shots)
• Audacity (audio recordings)

No matter which program you're using, here are a few tips for getting better results in your final product:

1.  Record in Short Clips
It's much easier to figure out how to split your information into manageable chunks, then record each piece individually.  Once you're done, you can splice them together so things appear seamless.  But if you have to go back and re-record something, it'll be much easier to do.  The worst thing to have happen is to record a long clip and then realize you need to re-record something that's in the MIDDLE of that clip.  Save yourself the headache and record in smaller pieces.  This applies to audio and video.

2.  Don't Stop Recording When You Make a Mistake
This also applies to audio and video.  You're going to flub a few lines…it's almost guaranteed.  But don't worry about it and definitely don't start back over from the beginning.  Just pause for a few seconds, collect your thoughts, then repeat whatever it was that came out wrong (if only we could do this in real life, right?).  The good thing about pausing for a few seconds is that not only does it give you time to figure out what you want to say, but it also makes it easier to edit that section when you get around to editing.

3.  Be Sure to Use a USB Headset/Microphone
For audio or Camtasia type videos, be sure to use a USB headset.  You'll have the option of choosing a USB headset or one that plugs directly into your sound card.  Choose the first option since you'll get WAY better results.  Connecting to the sound card causes too much noise and your audio will sound unprofessional on most computers.  And get a headset, not a desktop microphone.  There's too much variation as you move closer or farther away from a desktop microphone.  The headset mic pretty much stays the same distance from your mouth.  Speaking of which…

4.  Be Sure the Microphone is Far Enough Away From Your Mouth
Do a quick test run and see how it sounds.  If you're popping p's, try moving the microphone away from your mouth…either higher above your mouth or below your chin.  It'll still pickup your voice but you won't have to worry about those annoying spikes that are made when speaking certain words or letters.

5.  With Camtasia, Don't Move the Mouse So Much
Don't move the mouse in Camtasia recordings unless you have to.  The less motion there is on the screen, the easier it is to edit later on without things looking weird.  But if you mess up something you said while you were scrolling the screen for absolutely no reason, it's going to look weird when you edit that out since the screen will jump from one place to the next.  Minimal motion is a good thing and makes life easier later on.

6.  Edit Ruthlessly
This is where your project goes from sounding like a high school kid made it versus sounding like a pro.  Little things can go a long way, like of course, editing out those little goofs, editing out large gaps of silence (maybe while you were thinking about what to say next while recording), and getting rid of those annoying sounds of you taking a breath (no on really wants to hear that), the umms and ahhs and other random sounds.  For some things, you might want to keep the same amount of space but just get rid of the sounds, so just insert silence over the noises and you'll be good to go. 

And yes, some will probably say just release it.  It doesn't have to be perfect. 

Ask yourself which version you'd prefer.  You'll make the right decision.

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Benefits of Being in the Physical Information Product Business

I was talking with a friend of mine about some of the upsides to being in the infoproduct business, specifically selling PHYSICAL infoproducts.  If you're not already selling information products, then perhaps this list will help highlight some of the reasons why it's such a powerful (and profitable) business model.

Zero Inventory
You don't have to hold any inventory in your home office, basement or wherever you work out of.  Using print-on-demand services or other means for product fulfillment means that's one less step in the process that you have to be involved with.  And more and more companies are popping up that offer print-on-demand services, making it easier than ever to use that sort of streamlined delivery method while taking yourself out of the equation (if you choose to).

Low Overhead
Sure, you can build a business with tons of employees, staff, a huge building and tons of equipment.  But wouldn't it be better to not have all that overhead?  That's just more things to manage, more things to go wrong and much more cost.  There are hardly any overhead costs with an infoproduct business.

Speed to Market
With the right tools, you can have a product created and out to market relatively quickly.  Instead of needing thousands of dollars of equipment, like what might have been the case in the past, now you can just use off-the-shelf software and readily available consumer electronics to create fantastic, profitable products.

Higher Perceived Value
You can typically charge more for a physical info product thanks to the higher perceived value.  I know I'd rather have a DVD that I can refer to later if I need to rather than wondering if that website with the online tutorial is still going to be up and running 2 years from now.  There's a place for online info products, but in general, it's just as easy to deliver a finished product to your customers and take advantage of the higher perceived value that comes with that.

High Margins
There are HUGE profits to be made in the infoproduct business.  You've seen how much a typical product sells for.  And you know that the actual "hard costs" aren't anywhere close to that (in most cases).  If you have a bunch of great info that you've packaged into a DVD that sells for $50, you're keeping something like 90% - 95% of that as profit.  That's tough to find in any business.

Repeat Customers
While not something that's unique to an infoproduct business, you can certainly foster repeat purchases from your customers.  That's especially true if you produce quality products in a market that's information intensive.

Leveraging What You Know and Replacing Manual Labor
Creating infoproducts allows you to leverage what you know and generate income from that know-how.  Rather than "doing" the thing, you can show people "how to do" the thing.  That means you're also replacing manual labor by having a product, freeing more of your time.  You're also able to work once and get paid multiple times for your product.  You can also easily scale this model up by adding additional products.

It's FUN!
Would you rather be creating a new, profitable DVD (or other product) on a topic you enjoy or stuck in some meeting for 4 hours with no one getting anything done?  Easy choice.

 

Popularity: 66% [?]

Product Creation Perfectionism and at Least Four Things That Are More Important

If you're serious about getting your online business going this year, you might have already decided that an information product business is the way you'll get started.  One of the things that's likely to come up is "product creation perfectionism". 

One important thing to realize is that the product is really the least important of the items that matter.  It took me awhile to get this.  It sounds counter-intuitive but it's true, assuming that you have at least a decent product - not perfect, but good information that represents a fair exchange of value for what you're charging for it. 

If that's true, then there are more important pieces of the puzzle you should probably focus on rather than trying to make your "good" product "perfect".

1. Getting traffic to your site - of course you need to get people to your site in order to make sales.  This goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyway.
2. Improving the conversion rate of your sales page - once you get people to your site, are they buying?  If not, why?  What can you do to increase the rate at which they purchase and, therefore, how much each visitor is worth to you?
3. Offering a premium version of your product - once people are purchasing, can you add something to the offer to create a premium version?  Maybe you can offer a free consultation, paid support for an additional fee, a quick start guide, or something else that at least a percentage of people will be willing to pay extra for.
4. Offering backend products - are there other related products that you have or that you're an affiliate for that you can offer your buyers?  Are those offers on your thank you page, in your follow up email sequence and other "leaky" places?  Again, the goal here is increasing the visitor value for a given amount of traffic.

Focusing on tweaking, perfecting or adding to your product before you even start promoting it will probably just leave you spinning your wheels and with an empty bank account.  You can always go back later on and add to it, rework those pieces that need updating or tweaking.  You'll also be able to get feedback from customers who purchase the initial version.

So the bottom line is if your product is good enough to get "out the door", start promoting it, get traffic to your site and work on converting that traffic to improve visitor value.  Down the road, you can come back and add to it.  Just be sure you don't start promoting something that's garbage - of course, it should still be valuable information for your target market.

Popularity: 72% [?]

Don't Go Stupid While Building Your Online Business

If you didn't know already, I was an officer in the Air Force for just over 8 years.  The other day I was thinking about some of the stuff we learned back then in my career field.  One day we talked about how certain types of "smart bombs" worked.  In this case, the gist of it is that a laser is reflected off the target and that reflection is picked up by a little doohickey in the nose of the bomb.  That thing is tied to the fins on the back of the bomb that guide it down the path to the target and adjust it's course to the left and right.  At least I think that's how it went…it's admittedly a little fuzzy in my head but that explanation serves our purposes here. 

So if you looked at that path of this thing as it's coming down towards Mother Earth, more than likely it would be a series of zig-zags to the left and right combined with being too high or too low at any given time.  Bottom line is that the thing is almost constantly off course, overshooting or undershooting the target and has to continually correct course in order to hit the bullseye.

What can we learn from this as entrepreneurs?  Well…

Notice that the bomb doesn't go a little off course and decide, "Hey, this just isn't working.  I don't wanna' hit that target".  Nope, instead it immediately takes action to get back on course.  Then inevitably…whoops, over-corrected and off course again.  Time to get back on course again.

That's the same way we need to be as entrepreneurs.  Have you tried something related to your online business that didn't work as well as you thought it would, or that was a complete disaster?   Did you immediately take what you learned from that experience and get back on course?  Or did you go "off course" saying "This stuff doesn't work" and other such nonsense.

Note: On those occasions when a so-called "smart bomb" does end up going off course, the pilots say that one "went stupid".

Bottom line: Most of us get from point A to point B in a series of zig-zags rather than a straight line.  When you find out you zigged when you should have zagged, get back on course and don't "go stupid".

Popularity: 67% [?]

What Would It Take?

I was part of a coaching group here locally for awhile about a year ago.  I found some old notes I had taken and one thing in particular that I found is something I've always tried to keep in mind since learning it back then.

It has to do with "powerful thinking" for lack of a better way to put it.  No, I'm not going to go get all Tony Robins on you, but I think this was a really useful way of thinking about those problems, goals or other situations that always seem to come our way.

When faced with such a challenge, ask yourself one simple question:

What Would It Take?

Want to have a list of 10,000 subscribers?  What would it take?  Then keep asking yourself that question until you can get down to some actionable steps you can take to help you reach that goal. 

Using the list of 10,000 subscribers as an example, what would it take?:

• That would take roughly 833 new members added to your list each month (about 27 per day)
• What would it take to get 27 signups per day?  A viral special report that people can distribute?  A low-cost report they can sell and earn money from while you get the optin?  Daily blog comments on high-traffic sites related to your blog (you DO have a blog don't you?)?  An interview between you and someone that already has a large list where you collect the optins?

Need to make $5000 a month to quit your job?  What would it take?

• 3 products @ $55 each and selling roughly 1 of each per day.  Okay, so what would that take?
  • Deciding on a market where you could offer 3 such products at that price and testing the market
  • Creating the products,sales pages, blog
  • Promoting those products, building traffic, increasing conversions, adding backend offers, and so on
  • etc.
• 200 newsletter subscribers @ $25/month each (or hey, why not 25 subscribers @ $200/month)
  • Market selection
  • Content creation…content with enough value to warrant the $25 (or$200) fee
  • List building (because more than likely only a percentage of people on the list will sign up)
  • etc.

Okay, you probably get it by now. 

But notice the question is "What Would it Take" not "Can This Be Done". 

It assumptive in it's wording - that whatever you're considering actually CAN be done and that it's just a matter of figuring out the pieces of the puzzle. 

And notice that it's not "What Would I Need to Do"…you might need to rely on others to help you with some of the things you come up with.

If you have a goal you're shooting for and you know where you are right now, the answers to the "What Would it Take" exercise help you bridge the gap  between point A and point B.

So when you stop and think about it, "What Would it Take"  is a very powerful question.

Popularity: 66% [?]

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