ChrisDucker.com

Helping Entrepreneurs Go The Distance In Business… And Life!

Want Success…? Say ‘Thank You’ More! (Plus, a Public Message to My Wife!)

Today’s post is a short one. It’s about as simple of a message as you can get.

Say ‘thank you’ more often.

I’ve found that since I’ve been in business for myself, my success has become more and more apparent and I have been able to develop more and more meaningful relationships – both business and personal – by simply saying two little words more often than I have done in the past.

When you feel as if you should thank someone for a job well done, do it. When you believe someone needs a pat on the back, pat them on the back. The simple gratitude that the words ‘thank you’ bring to someones day is by far one of the most success-driving activities you can get involved with.

Here’s MY ‘Thank You’ for Today!

To my beautiful, loving wife, Ercille…

You have given me so much to strive for. Your ability to continuously encourage and support me and to help me always see things in a good light, no matter what, is something that I am thankful for every day. Your love and affection is something that I cherish.

And the way you love all three of our children, even though you personally only helped me make one of them, is nothing short of heroic! You are my hero. My best friend… I love you.

Thank you, darling…

Now, stop reading blog posts and go say ‘thank you’ to someone!

How to go from a ‘Working Class’ to an ‘Entrepreneurial Class’ Mindset!

Financial Mindset

I’m much more a podcaster than a blogger, so I thought I’d whip up a little audio segment that you can either listen to right here, by clicking the ‘play’ button below, or take on the road with you. I hope if you have any questions or feedback you’ll swing back to the blog and give me a shout in the comment section, below:

Dan Andrews – VBL Audio #1

I believe that becoming an entrepreneur is a gradual process. Without a doubt, the #1 thing that holds people back from being a success in business is poor personal financial mindset. It’s odd to me – most people are much better at business finances that personal ones (as an entrepreneur, of course, they’ll be the same thing). That’s probably because there is a huge element of self control involved.

In the included audio, I’ll point to three main mindset shifts you can make that will jump-start your journey into the entrepreneurial class, plus you’ll find out:

  • The thought experiment that inspired me to quit my job.
  • The only thing you need to know about personal finances (and why you shouldn’t take my advice)
  • Some of the key mindset traps that keep people in jobs.

Mentioned in Today’s Audio: Dave Ramsey

Enjoy and leave your thoughts below 🙂

When Is A Virtual Assistant Not A Virtual Assistant…!!?

Note from Chris: This is a guest post by Michelle Dale. Michelle is an extremely successful virtual entrepreneur in her own right. Here are a few insights from her on the world of outsourcing and working with VA’s.

Most entrepreneurs, especially those pursuing an online business venture, will at some point consider investigating how hiring a Virtual Assistant – or even many Virtual Assistants, could benefit them and their business.

For those of you who are new to this concept and still trying to learn what a “virtual assistant” actually is, you will undoubtedly find a lot of different options available for you to choose from, and not every virtual assistant option maybe right for you, so here is a quick “VA 101” which I have put together for you which is based on the wide variety of Virtual Assistants I have come across in my own career.

If you find a VA online, they could be one or many of the types of VA listed below, for example, you may find a solo-VA working offshore, or an online business manager who is also a consultant and has a multi-VA team. The absolute best combination I have found is to work with a variety of different VA’s and use a combination of the possibilities out there for different areas of your business, especially if you are looking to utilise outsourcing for all of your staffing requirements. Once you have worked out what you need, you can then choose your Virtual Assistant or combination of Virtual Assistants wisely, based on how you would like them to fit into your business. Once you have the combination right, that’s when your business can really reap the benefits of this awesome industry.

In a nutshell, independent virtual assistants are generally business owners just like you, and they assist all kinds of individuals online with their businesses. I have listed the most common ‘types’ of virtual assistant below, but each one is essentially a virtual assistant in some way, shape or form.

Solo VA’s

This I believe is where the industry began many years ago, traditional PA’s and administrative assistants found a way of working from home and servicing a client base over the Internet, thus allowing them to step out of their role in the workplace and into a virtual role. Solo VA’s have since come a long way, and they have branched out from the more general services such as diary management, call answering, customer support, transcription etc… into offering online marketing services, and in some cases creative and technical support. They generally work alone, servicing a small client base, which allows for a more intimate one-on-one service with their client. Solo VA’s can be excellent multi-taskers. The downside of a solo VA is that if they truly are solo, then the times when they are away from their work, you may need to seek an alternative until they return. In some cases the VA may have a plan in place for handling work while they are away and you will need to ask them about this directly.

Multi-VA Teams

These are usually teams of VA’s who collaborate online for a single VA company. They will either be groups of VA’s with similar skills, or different skills depending on the company hiring them. Almost always the multi-VA team is made of up freelance independent business owners and they can either work full-time, part-time or on an adhoc basis for the main VA who developed the team. Most multi-VA teams will have a primary VA, the one who developed the team, and more often than not, they will be the primary point of contact for clients at all times, and may still also provide services themselves. The good thing about multi-VA companies is that they often have resources available to “step in” during holidays, so there is no disruption to any ongoing services.

Offshore VA’s

Offshore VA’s have come to be known as the VA’s who work in countries with a lower cost of living, generally “offshore” from the western world. Two very popular countries where offshore VA’s can be found are the Philippines and India. Whilst of course many of them do not speak native English, you can find offshore VA’s who speak excellent English, and they are able to communicate with you very well. Particularly, VA’s who have come from call centre environments are often able to speak conversational English surprisingly well.

The benefits of offshore VA’s mean that entrepreneurs and start-ups can cost-effectively get the support they need within their businesses, and for anyone on a shoestring budget, this is an ideal solution, because rates tend to be lower to match the economic climate where the VA lives.

Online Business Managers

Online business managers have likely taken on the role solely as a manager, and generally won’t be the ones performing the VA services anymore. In many cases, they have a multi-VA team themselves who they will utilise in order to provide a wide range of services for a larger number of clients. Online business managers often started out as virtual assistants and they moved into hiring a multi VA team – they should be very experienced in working online, and have excellent project management skills for those looking to carry out larger scale projects and business expansion, which they need more of a right hand kind of support for. This solution is ideal if you have a variety of tasks you need doing and don’t want to spend time on training and quality control. A skilled online business manager can do this for you, perfectly.

Virtual Consultants

Virtual consultants will likely have had a great deal of experience as a virtual assistant, and over time, they developed more of an “expert” status after handling a multitude of tasks and clients. Some online consultants will remain solo, while others may have multi-VA teams with them. The consultant will want to work with you more as a partner and advisor, and they will often charge clients based on their experience and ability, rather than on a skill or service set. You will need to talk with the individual, sometimes in great depth, to find out how they are able to assist you with your business.

Virtual Intermediaries

Virtual intermediaries are companies which are set up to introduce you, the client, to a suitable virtual assistant. They will generally have a significant database of independent professionals, for which they will take down information from you on exactly what you’re looking for, and then they will carefully consider your requirements and find a suitable match. The great thing about these introducers is that it cuts out all the leg work for you; they’ll generally screen the VA’s beforehand to meet a minimum standard, and keep profile and rates information on file. If they don’t have someone suitable within their database, they will set to work in finding a match for you using their resources.

Example: Chris is the founder of the brilliant service “Virtual Staff Finder,” which can help you find pre-qualified offshore solo-VA’s, for almost any requirements.

Whatever it is you’re searching for, there is a virtual assistant out there for you. Questions? Comments…? You know the deal – go for it, below..!

Becoming Highly Productive – Working in the Zone!

Productivity Zone

This is a Guest Post by Ian McConnell.

I’ve just had one of those days where everything just fell into place. I was completely in the zone. Task after task got completed effortlessly. Stuff was just falling into place, things were going right and everything just got done. I even completed 4 extra tasks that I hadn’t planned to do today. It’s a great feeling, but I have come to realize that some people struggle to find this zone and don’t enjoy as many of these highly productive days as they should.

It seems that it is more common to have days where small things go wrong and disrupt the day. The computer decides to do an update when it starts up, the browser is slow and unresponsive, the password program can’t find the password that was saved yesterday, etc. Most of these small problems are unavoidable 100% of the time. But, if you are trying to manage your time and tick off the items on a lengthy to-do list, these small problems will undoubtedly add frustration and stress to the mix.

So, how do you get in the zone more often?

I’ll tell you how I did it.

1)      I threw out my to-do list.

2)      I deleted my time management system which was my Google calendar

Yes, I deleted every repeating task in my Google calendar. These were repeating tasks like write an article on Monday at 9am to be finished and submitted to the article directories by 10.30am. Monday 10.45am to 12noon scan the warrior forum for people I could help out. 1pm to 4pm create new Insiders Club content and so on. I had booked up nearly every minute of my 8 hour working day, with a task for the rest of my life. That was thanks to the power of repeating tasks that never end in digital calendars. It felt good when I initially set up all these weekly tasks. I felt organized. But, after a few weeks of trying to stick to my time management plan, I knew it wasn’t going to work.

Are you sometimes in the right mindset when doing your tasks?

9am Monday would come around and my calendar said I should be writing an article. But, I just wasn’t in the right mindset or zone to write an article. I would force the issue, thinking I needed to be disciplined and get this article done. The article would then take 2 hours (or more) to write and I had scheduled an hour to write it and half an hour to submit it. I then had to adjust my schedule for the rest of the day and usually something didn’t get done at the end of the day, or it got rolled over to the next day. This then compounded the problem the next day.

Not all daily tasks could be accomplished as written on your to-do list.

However, I did notice that on some days at different times I was finding the article writing zone. It just seemed to flow and the article writing was so much easier. But, those times tended to vary. By moving that task to a different day or time slot would work one week but not the next. It seemed like just knowing that task had to be completed put me in the wrong mindset.

I needed a system that was much more flexible and took into account what I actually felt like doing. A system where I worked in the zone 80% of the time instead of 20% of the time. You may be thinking that’s just a lack of discipline. I should have got a timer out and forced myself to get the article done… I tried and it didn’t work. I would get the article done but days later would go and adjust it because the quality just wasn’t good enough.

I tried outsourcing the articles but ended up rewriting them because this material had to be in my voice. Outsourcing articles works great for my niche sites, but not for my personal blog. I had to do the writing so people experienced the real me. Then one day I heard Tony Robbins talk about chunking. Chunking is where you group tasks together which when completed will produce a specific result.

Get rid of to-do lists and go to chunk……

An example of a weekly chunk with a specific result is “Build a list of 1,000 subscribers”. There are no to-do lists or scheduled tasks. Just the chunk, that needs to be completed by the end of the week. I tried it and it worked very well for me.

Here is how I apply it:

I review my monthly goals on a Saturday afternoon and then I create 3 chunks. Saturday afternoon suits me because I’ve had a morning away from the business and I’m usually more relaxed. I create 3 result based chunks which must be completed by the end of the next week. I write these chunks on a post it note and attach it to my computer monitor. It’s a quick and easy system, but as I relax on Sunday it’s amazing how some great ideas pop into my head. On Monday morning I always start the day off, like most week days, with a 40 to 60 minute walk. On the walk is when I contemplate which chunk I’ll start with and what tasks I’ll complete that day.

After a shower and breakfast I’m ready to get to work. My mindset is in the right place, my body is energized and I usually start with the easy tasks, or the ones I know I can knock over quickly, because that builds momentum for the tasks that are not so exciting. I found that by removing the long to-do lists and strict time management it eliminated the overwhelm and has allowed me to be flexible with my days. I also don’t check emails until I have completed what I wanted to do for the day.

I don’t have a start and end time for work!

I start the day and if I’m in the zone I milk it for everything it’s got. If it’s one of those days where small things are going wrong and I struggle to get in the zone I’ll read a book, watch the latest launch video, grab a coffee and try again in an hour or two. As an entrepreneur I believe I have to be flexible. I’m a player in a game and have to be constantly looking for the 20% of my efforts that are working and work more on those. Sometimes a rigid time management system doesn’t work. You may feel like you are busy, but you are busy with the wrong things.

Ian McConnell is a regular VBL reader and supporter. He’s built a full time income online in the last 3 years. Check him out at https://inmyhomeoffice.com, where you’ll also find links to him on Twitter and Facebook!

To Whom and HOW You Should be Selling Your Online Products!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYwE5bugAFs

When it comes to embracing the Virtual Business Lifestyle, there are a number of core concepts involved. If you’ve not been visiting the blog for too long, they are listed at the top of the site – namely Entrepreneurship, Passive Income, Outsourcing and Super Mobility (click on one to see the archive for the category – after finishing today’s post, obviously!). One of the main focuses on creating a lifestyle that revolves around being a mobile entrepreneur is creating products or services that can ultimately become Passive Income streams. I say ‘ultimately’ because even ‘passive income’ products have to come from a lot of hard work and time spent on them to get them to ‘market’, or launch, as they are more commonly known as online.

It’s NOT as Easy as 1, 2, 3

Producing a product to sell online is not as simple as just coming up with an idea, getting a domain name registered and a landing page created! Like most things in life, you’ll get out of your product, what you put into it. As I’ve spent a bit of time going into finding a niche before (my quick-fix approach to it, anyway), today I wanted to take you through some ideas on two very important aspects of product, or ‘muse’ creation. Namely, who you should be selling ‘as’, and more importantly whom you should be selling ‘to’… as well as a few ideas on ‘how’ to sell to them.

I hope you enjoy today’s post, and I look forward to your comments, as always.

Creating a Kick-Ass Free eBook to Build Your Brand (Part 3 of 3)

Here we are with the final installment to this 3-part series on how to be able to create an eBook to give away for free to help build your brand, promote your blog, market a product or service, or simply just to get the word ‘out there’ about what you’re doing online.

In part one we went over the eBook itself. The concept, the importance of quality and the way to lay your eBook out and design ideas. In part two we discussed the importance of building your list through partnering with someone like AWeber, for your list management purposes, and utilizing a great WP plugin tool called PopUp Domination, to be able to super-charge the growth of your subscriber list. We also discussed the importance of utilizing the PDF format of an eBook, by including relevant links and the ability to make a little money (never a bad thing) through using affiliate links relevant to your topic, too.

Nothing comes to those who sit on their ass waiting for the riches they dream about to just land in their laps. Building a solid, profitable email marketing list is no different. With this in mind, today I present to you my Top 10 List of additional things you can do to help promote and market your eBook to make sure that as many people as possible sign-up, by opting into your list and downloading your eBook to devour all its creative splender!

So, lets not waste any time at all, and get going!

1. Share it with Other Cool People!

You’ve worked hard on your eBook, now get it out there. Email a copy of it to other bloggers, particularly those within your niche, and ask for their feedback and if they would like to let their audience know about it. Any good blogger will be happy to point their subscribers in the direction of additional helpful content. You should be that insecure, people. Really.

2. Becoming ‘Social’ on the Subject!

Not using social media to get the word out about your free eBook is like literally going to an awesome water park in the middle of the summer and not jumping into one of the pools! Tweet and Facebook the hell out of it for a few days, and then stop being irritating and calm down, sending the odd-tweet out here and there throughout the course of the week (note to self, Chris – tweet about your free eBook… NOW!)

Tweet sent!

3. Create a Press Release for Online Distribution!

Online press releases are awesome. Why? Because they rank – FAST – in the SERPs. Create a press release, and be sure to stick in the title of your eBook, plus a couple of other related keywords (note: your eBook title does not have to be keyword heavy. Thinking branding FIRST, ranking second!) and you’ll see that it gets listed on Google very quickly. The reason behind this is that the search engines love new, relevant content, PR submission sites are great for that stuff. Better yet – have your virtual assistant do it for you – it can be a little timely, theres a lot of PR sites online!

4. Get Vocal!

If you have a podcast, or get the opportunity to be interviewed, or become a guest on other peoples podcasts, be sure to mention your free eBook. I do this regularly, and it always brings in a spike of sign-up’s. In fact, I went one step further and purchased an additional domain name, VirtualAssistanteBook.com, specifically for mentioning it in podcasts and videos – its a lot easier than saying “Download my eBook by going to my blog and finding the sign-up form to the top of the site and then entering your name and email to get it!”. Instead, its simply… “Click over to VirtualAssistanteBook.com to get my free eBook!”. Much easier.

5. Get Visual!

Shooting a quick promo video for your eBook is a great idea. You can start by showing a front cover image and then cutting to you talking about the contents and why people should download it. Putting yourself ‘out there’ on video is also a massive branding exercise, too (perhaps I should do a post on that – what you think?!)

6. Use Your Other Websites!

If you have other websites, or blogs, produce a quick post on the launch of the eBook, and link to the site you are wanting to promote/market with the free eBook, so that people can sign-up and download the eBook. You’ll be surprised how many people might check out your sites regularly, but dont actually subscribe to any of them. I find this happening more and more, as the Virtual Business Lifestyle blog gets more and more popular.

7. Create Some Additional Awesome Content!

Creating some additional awesome content, related to the content in your eBook and then posting it on other peoples blogs as a guest post, or on article submission sites, such as eZineArticles.com is another great way to drive traffic to your landing page. Just be sure to write well, and dont just do it for the link. People will see ‘link bait’ a mile away nowadays!

8. Blog Commenting (The RIGHT Way!)

Commenting on other, likeminded blogs to your own is another great way to help build traffic to your landing page. Again, just make sure the comment is a good one, with a genuine ‘let me help you’ approach – otherwise it will either a) probably get deleted by the blogger, or b) not get any clicks. I used to do this a LOT when I first started blogging, but nowadays I dont have as much time. I can tell you, however, it does work!

9. Start a Facebook Page for your eBook!

Not a lot of people think of this. They might prefer to just create a Facebook Page for their blog in general, which is okay, and something you should certainly do, but having two pages that you can cross-promote and mention whilst surfing around Facebook is better than one. Disclaimer: I have not done this with ‘Saving the Day’, but I have with other projects and although you have to do a little legwork in getting people to ‘Like’ the page, etc., it can really help to spread the word quickly. Try it, and let me know how you go with it. Again, this is something a virtual assistant is perfect for!

10. Mention your Free eBook in Your Email Signature!

Such a simply thing to do, along with a direct link to your landing page – yet, so, so many people forget to do this one very easy thing. Go for it!

11. Over to You!

I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed this series, and that its perhaps answered a few questions and solved a few problems for you, in case you’ve been thinking of putting together a free eBook, or perhaps have been stuck in the middle of finishing one up! Let me know of any other ideas and ingenius ways that you have seen free eBooks marketed and promoted online. I’m sure that there are tons I haven’t mentioned here… And we can all help each other with something like this. Just comment below!

In Closing… I will be getting this 3-part series put together in – you got it – a downloadable free eBook format next week. I will drop you guys an email when it is available. So, be sure to sign-up for my free eBook now (Below!), to get it via email, as soon as its available!

Creating a Kick-Ass Free eBook to Build Your Brand (Part 2 of 3)

Welcome back to the second part of this 3-part series. So, in the first part, I went over the importance of creating a solid concept for your eBook, focusing on quality, rather than quantity and then wrapped things up by going over some important stuff on the design and layout of your eBook.

Today we’re going to be focusing on the reason behind WHY we have created an eBook to give away for free in the first place (above and beyond helping people with our awesome content, obviously!). In other words, to help build our brand, promote our mission online and to market ourselves, our products, or our services (or perhaps all of the above!). We’re going to look at our email list provider, a simple tool that will increase our sign-up’s by over 200% on average, as well as a technique that will actually allow you to make money from your ‘free’ eBook, after all.

But, First!

The best way to distribute your eBook is in the format of a PDF document. PDF’s are great, because they are low on size, they are quick to download and cant be edited, so you know your content is going to be seen and enjoyed the way you want it to be!

Also, you can include links in PDF documents that when clicked on, automatically open up in a browser. Which we’ll go into a little more in a while.

Converting your eBook, regardless of how, or in what software package you’ve created it, is easy. In fact a lot of programs will now have a built-in function to do it automatically. If not, don’t fret – click here for a ton of freebie options.

It’s All in The List, Baby…!

Personal branding to one side, the main reason why most people giveaway free eBooks online nowadays comes down to one thing and one reason only – to build a list. This list is more than just a collection of email addresses of people that want to read your free eBook and subscribe to your blog (although for some people thats enough!). As an online marketer – its your most powerful tool. The better the list, the better your earnings online.

See how I said better, and not BIGGER!? Personally, I’d rather have 1,000 people that really enjoyed what I did, loved everything that I put out online and genuinely would have no problems putting their hands in their pockets (or Paypal accounts!) when I came to them with a product I had created to sell, or an affiliate offer of some kind, than having 10,000 people on my list that either rarely opened my emails, or did open them and never took any action!

So, below are, in my humble opinion, the three most important things you’re going to need to be able to benefit from all that hard work you put into creating your labor of love, before giving it away for absolutely nothing. Enjoy.

Dependable Email List / Auto-Responder Provider

This is your lifeblood. This is what controls your entire email list set-up. Utilizing the services of a solid, dependable email list auto-responder provider is probably the most important investment you’re going to make as an internet marketer / web entrepreneur.

There are a few good, solid providers out there in this space. However, I use AWeber for a number of reasons:

  • Cost Effective
  • Very Easy to Use
  • Great Sign-Up Form and Email Templates
  • Flawless Auto-Responder Set-Up (if I can do it, anyone can!)
  • Brilliant Reports and Analytics
  • Awesome Customer Service
  • Lots More!

Check out these screenshots from one of the lists I have built for a niche site I have… Great info!

I did a hell of a lot of research on this subject before I actually put my free eBook live online and starting promoting it. Since I’ve been with AWeber, they have never let me down and have even updated their API and other customer service side of things several times since being with them. I’m impressed and suggest you use them and no one else. Simple.

Powerful, Cool Sign-Up Partner!

A lot of people hate ’em. I used to be one of them. However, pop-up’s, lightboxes, or whatever you want to call them, WORK! Plain and simple.

When I first came across PopUp Domination I was a little concerned as to how it was going to work for me. After all, I had been using my AWeber form to capture my new eBook subscribers, and it was working well. However, I went ahead with it because of my relationship with its creator, Michael Dunlop (be sure to catch my interview with Michael on the VBL Podcast!) and was absolutely BLOWN AWAY with how many more sign-up’s I was getting daily.

That was months and months ago, and I am still surprised when I check my sign-up’s from time to time now. Before, I was averaging around 4-5 sign-up’ a day, which I was happy with. Nowadays, I average around 15-20. And the number one source is the PopUp Domination plugin.

The other really cool thing about this plugin is that it works with any website set-up, and any email list provider, too. And… this is super-cool… you get all of the original PSD source files, too. Meaning you can even play around with the design! Above you’ll see that I’ve had my designer tweak the template a little to ‘funk up’ (careful if you’re reading that aloud!) the design a little – it really makes a difference.

Adding Links to Your eBook to Make a Little $$$

As I mentioned at the top of this post, the best way to distribute your free eBook is in the form of a PDF document. There are a ton of reason behind this, but one of the main reasons why I like it is because it allows you to include hyperlinks. This is good because you can send people to other useful resources, such as different blog posts, or websites – to help them in their continued efforts to learn more on whatever subject your eBook is focused on.

However, one of the most under-utilized type of links in free eBook’s are links that send people to products and services that you are an affiliate of. They click. They buy. You make money. Simple as that.

Seriously. Think about it. No matter what subject you’re writing about there MUST be at least a couple of products or services out there that you can help promote and make money from, whenever anyone clicks on your links. Even an Amazon Affiliate can do that for books related to your topic – and there’s tons of books related to EVERY topic!!!

I know of one marketer that gives away an 18-page eBook on the subject of travel for teenagers. He makes around $600 a month on affiliate commissions from that eBook! Links to shoe stores, apparel stores, Amazon, and a couple of additional online resources / guides. He doesn’t lift a finger and is making $600 a month, month-in-month out.

That’s a beautiful thing!

So, that wraps up the second part of this series. In Friday’s final installment I’ll be breaking down my Top 5 ways to ‘get the word out there’ about your eBook and what it stands for, to enable more sign-up’s, downloads and followers! See you then.

Creating a Kick-Ass Free eBook to Build Your Brand (Part 1 of 3)

On Monday last week I announced this series of three posts that begins today. I was blown away by all the awesome comments and emails I received. Seriously – you lot are a seriously smart, demanding bunch! Just joking… After digesting everything and going back to my original mindmap for this series, then adding in your suggestions to hopefully fulfill your ‘needs’, here we go…

So, today we start the series on how to create a kick-ass free eBook which you can use to help build your brand, as well as help promote and market your blog, product, service, with taking a look at Creating the Concept of your eBook, the time-honored question of ‘Quality, or Quantity’ and how important the Design and Layout of your eBook is.

Initial Housekeeping Notes

Although I have tried to make this series of posts as informative and as easy-to-follow as possible, you might still see the odd crack in the ‘process’ being presented here. This is because, quite frankly, I wanted this to be a simple to follow series, with practical advice and tips, and not go into too much detail on any one subject matter – saying that, there is still plenty of meat on the bones, and if you have any particular questions, feel free to let me know.

Kindly note, this series is about creating a FREE eBook. One that you will give away for absolutely no profit. If you want a more in-depth guide to creating an eBook that you can sell, I strongly suggest you check out Pat Flynn’s eBookstheSmartWay.com (free), and Dave and Naomi’s HowtoSellYoureBook.com (paid) – I’ve read and used BOTH in my eBook marketing, and they’re great.

Most Importantly: Create something that you feel is good enough to sell, but then give it away for free! This will ensure that the quality of your eBook is high, that its incredibly informative and will genuinely make a difference to the reader once they have finished reading it. I did this with ‘Saving the Day, the Virtual Way’, and have had so many awesome emails from people, that it was certainly worth all the effort.

Creating the Concept

First and foremost, don’t write about anything that you know nothing about. It’ll be so obvious that you’re bluffing and simply not worth your time! Secondly, here’s probably the biggest, most important tip you will get from this entire series – write your eBook for your audience, not for yourself. Look into solving problems for other people. If this comes about by taking care of a problem YOU have to start off with, thats fine. Solving problems for people is the oldest and most powerful ‘sales’ strategy out there.

You might have a very clear picture of what you want to write about. If so, and you know it’ll benefit your audience, then go for it! One thing that you should also consider is doing a survey with your current readership first. I did this a while ago when we re-designed the VBL Blog, and I can tell you, the feedback I got was priceless – worth more than any amount of sales, as it allowed me to tweak the design of the site to help people navigate it properly and enjoy their experience on the blog more. I also did something similar when trying to find my ‘core’ readership, and when when asking for feedback on an upcoming product I’m putting together.

Among the most successful digital products out there, almost all of them are ‘How To’ types of products. Your giveaway eBook should be no different. Not only are ‘How To’ guides really simple to put together, but they are easy to read and generally get downloaded more than the other types of freebie eBooks out there.

Every good story has a beginning, middle and an end. Your eBook should be no different. So, break your contents down into three main sections. It’s a good idea to sit down and plan this part of your eBook out very clearly. I’m a big fan of mindmaps. I use them, literally, every day. Now I use my iPad to do most of them, but, back in the beginning of 2010 when I produced ‘Saving the Day’, I mapped things out on a small whiteboard I have in my home office.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the original mindmap… You’ll see I already intended to add additional content to it, and make an audio version, even back in those earlier days. Although I did it nearer 3000 downloads, not the 1000 noted here!

Firstly, I presented the problem. I talked about how busy entrepreneurs are, and that if only they had solid, dependable help they could get so much more done on a daily basis. Then, I went into the solution side of things. Again, by way of example, in my free eBook I talk about virtual assistants, what they do, how they do it, etc. Then finally, I wrapped everything up with the ending – what the solution can mean to the person reading. In my case the solution is finding, hiring and working with a VA to enable the busy business owner to gain more time in his/her day-to-day life, create more business ideas, strategize for growth, spend more time with family and ultimately become more successful, all by utilizing a VA.

Quality, or Quantity?

This is a highly debated topic when it comes to giving away a freebie eBook. Fact is, if the eBook has lots of pages, then it looks as if people are getting a lot more for their ‘download’ buck. However, what if all the content on those pages is a load of old rubbish..!?!!

A while ago, when I was discussing how often I was going to be updating this blog, and the struggles I was having in keeping up with the schedule I had put in place, the most commented-on topic was over the fact that quality matters more than anything else. Visitors were very clear that they would rather come to the blog twice a week, or three times a week for QUALITY posts, than five times a week, for soft or ‘weak’ quality posts.

So, bottom line here – quality – every time. The fact is that I’ve downloaded some eBooks that are just a handful of pages long (personally, I wouldn’t call these ‘eBooks’, but rather ‘Special Reports’, or something similar), and they have been great. However, I’ve downloaded 100+ page eBooks for free and they’ve been mediocre at the best of times.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. Namely, Jonathan Mead and Colin Wright – their free eBooks are nothing short of spectacular, and both great in length and content. I’m sure there are more, but these gentlemen really stand out for me, personally. Note: You’ll see interviews with both these guys on the VBL Podcast soon. They are in being edited, as we speak!

Things Not to Forget

There’s a few things that you certainly do not want to forget to include in your eBook. Firstly, make sure you have some kind of disclaimer / copyright page set-up. In my eBook’s I dont go too heavy on this, but I do make sure to tell everyone that they should feel free to distribute the eBook further afield, however, not to remove or edit anything in anyway, shape or form – that just aint cool, baby!

You should also be sure to include some links to other valuable sources, either on your own blog, and other peoples, too. You can also link to relevant products and services that might help people further, too (we’ll go into this a little more on Wednesday) – just be sure not to link-stuff, too much!

And lastly, be sure to hype yourself a little, at least. A simply ‘About the Author’ page is certainly needed, with a nice image.

Design & Layout

Most people I have spoken to on this subject believe that you can have the most amazing design in the world, but if the content is crappy then you won’t get very far, in the overall scope of things. I agree. However, the importance of standing out, and making sure that the design of your eBook is nice, clean, professional and helps to build your brand is, as far as I’m concerned, just as important as the content.

Although I have a flare for creativeness (my father was an architect, my mother an interior designer), I do not know how to use Photoshop, and quite frankly, when I have such phenomenal support around me, there is no real reason for me to learn how to, either. I come up with the concept, sit with my designer and then he will put it all together. We’ll work as a team, finalize the layout template and then he’ll simply dump the rest of the content into the approved layout. Viola! Your eBook will be finished in no time.

Firstly, having a rockin’ cover will certainly help gain attention. Be sure to spend time on the title. Be original here, guys! Innovative, don’t follow… And the internal pages should be on a white background and a dark covered text, just in case the person that downloads your labor of love wants to print it out. I like to keep images to a minimum in my eBooks, this gets the reader to focus on my content, rather than pretty pictures and colors. See some examples from ‘Saving the Day’, below:

Front Cover, Internal Content Page and the ‘About the Author’ Page in “Saving the Day!”

You’ll see with this eBook, I came up with a superhero theme. Hence the title and the colors, and front cover Superman-style logo. I loved this when my designer finished it up – but, I will say, the ‘concept’ was ALL ME!!! 🙂

You’ll also see that we continued to brand the eBook with the logo internally, too (my designers idea, not mine!) and it worked out great! I highly recommend going with a landscape style layout, as its easier to read on a computer screen – the way eBooks should be read – on a monitor. When you’re done with the layout and the design aspects of the eBook get to focusing on the editing of your content.

Go back through what you’ve written. Focus on just the MEAT of the content itself. Any ‘prettying’ of sentences, etc., lose them. As I always say, sometimes less is more. Remember that. This will enable you to create content that is easy to read, keeps people turning (or clicking) the page and ultimately means that the reader experience is top quality all the way to the end of the eBook.

So, that just about wraps up this first installment of this weeks 3-part series. Let me know what you think in the comments below, and in case you have any additional questions on anything that you feel I might have left out on this part part.

If you’d like to see my entire eBook, including the additional content and the AudioBook version, you can download it here.

See you on Wednesday with Part 2 of the series where I go into how you can now use your eBook to start gaining more subscribers, building your email list, and the tools you can use to make this important activity easier and more successful than you can possibly imagine and… how you can STILL make money with your eBook, even though you’re giving it away for free!

If you liked this first installment – Please share on Twitter, or Facebook!

3 Success Traits Underrepresented in the Business Blogosphere!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAWPfUzdbq0

Chris: Today I am very excited to feature the first of hopefully a long, long line of posts here at the VBL Blog by our first ever ‘Regular Contributor’, Dan Andrews. Dan and I have been friends for a while and have many things in common. The strongest trait for me, by far, is our mutual love for entrepreneurship. So, over to you, Dan!

Along with todays video, which focuses on the 3 success traits for entrepreneurs that I feel are underrepresented in the business blogosphere, I’ve included some further reading if you are interested in some of these ideas:

Ambition

Discipline

Teaming Building

  • Maverick by Ricardo Semler. I won’t suggest another because you need to read this book. Seriously.

Chris: If you feel you could contribute 2-3 quality posts to the VBL Community each month and would like to be considered as a ‘Regular Contributor’, please contact me with your proposal. Please note, that there are no more ‘guest post’ spots open, and that all Regular Contributor content MUST be related to the VBL Core4 concepts of Entrepreneurship, Passive Income, Outsourcing and Mobility.

Comments below for Dan, as mentioned in his video…!

Ask the Readers: What is an Entrepreneur Out For, More Than Anything Else..!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr3E6Z9ynm0

What is an entrepreneur, exactly? I’ve said it lots of times – we’re a strange breed. We are the masters of our own domains (both online and off!) and bring a lot to the table of life, thats for sure. Crafting ideas and marketing like mad. We all want different things. But, the big question here is what are we really out for..?

Asking the question ‘What is an Entrepreneur’ might be easy enough to answer, you can check out the dictionary definition, if you like! However, as individuals, there are a lot of different things that come into play in regards to what we really want out of being the king of our own castles, such as:

  • Money
  • Fame
  • Power
  • Recognition
  • To build things
  • To promote our OWN things

The list is, literally, endless. What is an entrepreneur thinking when he/she starts his first company? Why do they aspire to make the jump from 9-5 robot to ‘own boss’ status. What is an entrepreneur striving for with each and every idea that they come up with, manifest into something awesome, and then unleash it upon the world..?

Check out my thoughts in the quick video clip above, and then I’d like to hand this one over to you guys. As you know, I value your input, insights and feedback more than anything else (even a good Starbucks!).

What is an entrepreneur out for, in your eyes?