ChrisDucker.com

Helping Entrepreneurs Go The Distance In Business… And Life!

Why Your Logo SUCKS and How to Fix It!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvum91pNZsE

While I was in San Francisco last April I didn’t get as much time as I normally do to shoot video for the blog. My schedule was simply very hectic… However, I did shoot this one clip on my iPhone4 (along with all the B-Roll footage that goes with it), on the importance of logo design and implementation for branding and business growth.

In the short video I discuss and show you:

  • Why its important to keep your logo clean, and not too busy looking.
  • The original design for my company logo, and why I made several changes to it.
  • How making the changes enabled us (my company) to be seen as a ‘bigger’ fish in the ever-growing world of the outsourcing industry.
  • The ideology behind the logo for my Virtual Staff Finder service.
  • Why so many big brands spend so much time focusing on their logos.
  • Much more…!

Smart Logo = Big Business!

To enable yourself to be seen as a serious business entity, you simply cannot underestimate the power of a strong logo design for your company, and even your personal brand.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours going over logo designs for everything from business cards to letterheads; websites to online products; retail packaging to TV presentations – and every one of them has been priceless in the search for the perfect logo design that ‘says it all’.

I’d love to know what your ideas and ‘rules’ are when it comes to designing logos and branding your businesses and products. Leave a comment below to help everyone out, and look incredibly sexy in the process – a bit like me, in the video! 🙂

How to Beat the **** Out of Your Inbox!

 

Email in Inbox

It’s probably the number one time-drain for entrepreneurs all around the world. Yet, email is about as required today as having a fax machine was in the late 80’s and early 90’s. When it comes to communication, your Inbox is where the party’s at, lets face it…

However, email – and particularly your Inbox, doesn’t have to be the pain in the ass that it is for a lot of busy business owners and 9-5 escapee-wannabe’s! It’s simply about putting systems and processes in place to make sure you don’t get sucked into email doom on a daily basis.

When I was in the process of becoming a Virtual CEO last year, I had a lot of mini-goals that I incorporated into my one-year long goal of escaping my desk on a daily basis. These mini-goals were basically monthly goals and sometimes I’d have to hit several within a one-month period to stay on track.

Rewind to January 2010

In that first month, I set out to remove myself from as many email commitments as possible. The main reason behind this decision was that if I truly wanted to become that Virtual CEO, I had a lot of work and planning ahead of me. I simply wasn’t going to be able to achieve everything I needed to, if I was stuck in front of Outlook all day!

So, I took myself out of as many ‘copy me in’ threads as possible. Everything from my HR team (except management issues), my IT team (except emergencies) and my Operations team (except for a couple of key clients). It worked. I went from spending 4 hours a day on email to around 1-2 hours, depending on the day (Monday is usually a little heavier than most for me).

Moving Email to the Cloud

Nowadays I’m cloud based, and handle all my email via the Gmail platform. This was another move I made last year, around April, which enabled me to become more mobile as a business owner. The ability to check, reply and ‘file’ email from any device I own, or any other computer for that matter, just became golden, and I never see myself going back to a one-device email set-up, such as Outlook, or Mail for the Mac.

But, this doesn’t necessarily mean that I am going to remain super-productive when it comes to battling my Inbox, does it? Of course not. So, I’ve had to put several guidelines and processes in place to make sure that happens.

My 6 Golden Email Rules

Now we get down to the focus of this post. The following guidelines; rules; processes, whatever you want to call them, are not, by any means final, nor irreplaceable, neither are they going to work for everyone out there. However, if you’re a new-age entrepreneur, traveling business owner or small online business boss, believe me – trying them out might just make your life a little easier – and productive.

One Click Rule

This is about as simple as it sounds. When an email lands in my Inbox, I open it and with one click do one of the following:

  • Reply
  • Delete
  • Archive

If you open the email and then go onto another email you’re only going to have to come back to the first one at some point. Why bother yourself? It takes time, it’s irritating and it simply doesn’t make sense to me.

Three Sentence Rule

For any of you who might have corresponded with me via email, you would have seen the following email signature when I’ve replied to you (if not, feel free to email me):

The link takes you to a page where you can find out why I answer all of my emails using no more than three sentences. The simple reason behind this is that it enables me to answer my emails properly, yet in a polite and productive manner.

I’m more of a talker than a typer anyway, and so my rule is that if I can’t give a reasonable answer to a question, or a piece of info someone needs within three sentences, then I pick up the phone. The only exception to this rule is business proposals, if need be.

Eliminate Yourself from Email Threads

This will affect some people more than others. But, if you have a lot of people working for/with you within your company set-up, then the chances are that you can probably get your number of daily emails down quite considerably, just like I did, by removing yourself from certain email threads.

Start Using a Project Management System

Using something like Basecamp to work with people on a daily basis, whether they are within your company structure, or not, enables you to cut your Inbox load down even further.

It does mean, obviously, that you’ll be handling messages, updates, etc., from another platform, so you’ll have to balance out things and see whether it will work for you. Bottom line – try it. If it works, great. If not, nothing ventured, nothing gained…

Unsubscribe from Mailing Lists

We are all guilty of this. We see a shiny eBook that we want, or a video course we want to check out. They are free – but, you need to opt-in. This sticks you on someone’s mailing list, however, which means you will get email from him or her regularly (some more than others, obviously).

My rule on this was to remove myself from all of the mailing lists I was on, except for my five favorite bloggers. It was a simple process to undertake. I simply waited for an email to arrive, figured out whether I still wanted to receive messages from the owner of the list, or not, and hit the ‘unsubscribe’ link more often, than not.

Don’t Use Your Inbox as a To-Do List

A lot of people I know make this mistake. And I mean a LOT! This is mad. Think about it – if your Inbox is also your To-Do List, then, as a busy ‘idea a minute’ entrepreneur, you will never clear your Inbox. EVER.

Just the action of leaving the message in there, regardless of what color you flag it, or what nice label you give it, goes against you and your productivity levels. Get your ‘To-Do’ items out of your Inbox and put them somewhere else.

Some ideas of ways to manage your To-Do List could be as follows:

  • A notepad
  • An iPad (as I use now. App – ‘Things‘)
  • An iPhone (or other smart phone)
  • Post-It Notes (I used to use this)
  • Index cards
  • Excel Sheets

Starting Kicking the *** Out of your Inbox, Now!

As you can see, I attack my Inbox in a number of different ways. What matters the most here, more than anything else, is that it works for me. I mean, when you go from 4 hours a day stuck in an email-jam, to an average of an hour or so, that’s killer. That’s game-changing, for ANY entrepreneur.

What are you doing to cut down email and become more productive? Let me know in the comments, below. And… ReTweet’s of this particular post are really appreciated! Thanks.

How to Use Super-Mobility to Beat Your Competition!

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

So, over the last few weeks you’ve seen a few videos featuring myself and Dan Andrews, of TropicalMBA.com fame, talking about the VBL Core4 concepts… Namely, Entrepreneurship, Passive Income, Outsourcing, and now today we tackle the final subject of Super Mobility.

This is something that Dan is crazy about, and I have to say, he leads a much more mobile lifestyle than I do – but, then again, he doesn’t have 250 people working for him, and a family to keep him a little more grounded then I, either! 🙂

What Dan does so brilliantly in regards to the super mobility factor of the Virtual Business Lifestyle is truly… LIVE IT.

Super Mobility

In todays final clip we discuss:

  • The countless excuses of why people don’t escape their businesses.
  • Why ‘super mobility’ is more a mindset than anything else.
  • How I look at travel, and how I make the most out of my overseas trips.
  • Dan’s top 3 tools that he uses to get and stay mobile.
  • Dan’s packing concept for business on the go.
  • Why Dan’s outlook on whats ‘meaningful for his business’, and whats required.
  • Lots more great entrepreneurial chit-chat..!

When we started this video series, I never thought that it would create such a huge amount of positive feedback. To everyone that has commented, hit the ReTweet buttons or Shared / Liked any of the posts on Facebook, thank you. Your support has been greatly appreciated.

I’d love for you to tell us all about YOUR mobility tips, too. Software, devices, strategies – nothing is off limits. Please share your knowledge below in the comment section, help each other and lets close this 4-part series with a BANG!

Entrepreneurial Outsourcing – Tips from the Trenches!

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

Over the last couple of Monday’s, myself and Dan Andrews have been talking about different aspects of the Virtual Business Lifestyle concepts, or the VBL CORE4 as I call them. In week 1 we covered Virtual Entrepreneurship, last week it was Passive Income and so, here we are for the third Monday in a row (and you’re still coming back – amazing!!! LOL) to talk about a subject that we are both super passionate about – Outsourcing, specifically entrepreneurial outsourcing.

As some of you will no doubt already know, I am the owner of an outsourcing services provider company, based in the Philippines, with almost 250 people working for me (and their respective clients worldwide) full-time. I’ve been in the business close to ten years and I’ve trained thousands and thousands of virtual workers. I love this industry and everything regarding working with virtual staff.

Dan attests the use of entrepreneurial outsourcing, and working with virtual assistants in his business to the ultimate growth of his company and everything else that happens to him as an entrepreneur. In this video, amongst other things we discuss:

  • The importance of working with VAs to grow your business.
  • How to train VAs to maximize their productivity.
  • Brainstorming on new business ideas together.
  • My Virtual Staff Finder service and some of the top internet marketers and pro-bloggers that have used the service to find their virtual assistants.
  • How I removed myself from the service and WHY I thought it as important to do so.
  • Why entrepreneurial outsourcing should not be overlooked, regardless of company size.
  • Lots more stuff!

Outsourcing to many people that visit the VBL Blog is not a new subject. Whether you heard about it through the pages of the 4-Hour Work Week, or on this blog (or anywhere else for that matter!), the most important thing is that you know about it, and what it can do for you as a business owner.

If you have absolutely any questions at all on the subject of entrepreneurial outsourcing, please jot them down in the comments section below. I’m more than happy to help. Next Monday will see the final part of this video series, where we’ll be talking about Super Mobility!

Understanding Passive Income – According to Two Virtual Entrepreneurs!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeV4jp63IRo

Following on from last week’s video with Dan Andrews from TropicalMBA.com, where we discussed Virtual Entrepreneurship, this week we attack the time-honored subject of Passive Income.

What follows is another light-hearted collection of random ramblings on the subject, peppered with a few golden nuggets of information, and a massive amount of props to my buddy Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com (including a special appearance from Pat, too!).

I’ve discussed the subject of making money online a lot on this blog, particularly on the VBL Podcast with guests such as John Chow, Pat Flynn, Chris Garrett and Glen Allsopp to name just a few. Why? Because passive income is a massively popular subject, and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

We discuss many points in this video, and break down what it means to incorporate passive income into your life as a virtual entrepreneur in general. You’ll find that this conversation was a little more serious than the first one – however, we did still have a few more out-takes for you at the end, just like last time.

If you have any specific questions on the subject of passive income that you’d liked answered, just drop them below, and likewise – if there are things that are working for you online, when it comes to your income that you’d like to share, feel free below, too.

How to Create Physical Products Without Breaking Your Freedom!

This is a guest post by Greg Rollett.

We have grown accustomed to all things digital, just take notice at the “everything iPad” world we are marketed to everyday. Even Amazon has recently jumped into “cloud overdrive” with their new promotion to give away 20Gig of cloud storage if you buy a music album (great deal btw).

But for every bad Windows commercial that proclaims “to the cloud” there are millions of people all over the world who still love going into a store and trading their hard earned money to rip off the plastic packaging and hold their newfound love in their hands.

For the majority of Chris’s audience, you have been conditioned towards creating digital goods and services.

  • Membership sites
  • eBooks
  • Videos and video courses
  • Podcasts and audio series
  • Mobile Applications
  • Blogs
  • and so on

And while I wholeheartedly agree with this business model, a recent project has taken control of my product creation creativity and spawned…GASP…a physical product!

Many things come to mind when building and releasing a physical product. From

  • Product creation
  • Manufacturing
  • Duplication
  • Scaling
  • Shipping
  • Returns
  • Customer Service
  • And on and on we go

Over the next few paragraphs I am going to do my best to share some physical product creation tips to help ease your mind and get you thinking physical and the value that will bring to your marketplace.

Product Creation

This phase many of you are familiar with. Take your ideas, skills and talents and bundle them up into a consumable format. Nothing new here. Where you really need to start thinking and planning in the creation of a physical product is the time constraints.

Check with your manufacturer (more on this in a few) to see the maximum amounts of storage available on certain mediums. With our recent DVD we were limited to 2 hours of footage and a certain amount of storage for those 2Gigs.

Many CD’s if you are doing an audio program can hold around 72 minutes. This needs to be included in your planning stage as we had to cut out a few chapters and even an upsell video in order for our information to be put onto the product.

Manufacturing

There are multiple options to choose from when you are looking for a company to produce your physical products. We have looked into a multitude of options working with musicians, entrepreneurs and with our own products and here are some items and tips that might be quite valuable to you.

Custom MP3 PlayersIf you have the means, think outside of the CD or DVD. There are other media options. Custom MP3 players with your branding and logo are a big hit and you can often find 1 Gig iPod Nano look alikes with your branding and material pre-loaded for less than $5/ea. These products have a high perceived value and can be sold in your store for $20-100 or over greater depending on the material.

The Chinese still have great prices and great turnaround, but be prepared to buy in bulk. (This is not an option for our company as we want low to no inventory and I’ll share some more of how we do this below.) For some musicians we have been able to source CD cases that look like Nintendo Cartridges, giant Hulk hands with custom download links on them and even recording devices that act as magnets we have used for show promotion.

Always get samples. Yes, this delays the timing of your launch, but by scheduling demos and samples you ensure that your CUSTOMERS, the most important part of this equation, gets the highest quality product that you can offer.

All of these options are great, but my favorite model of them all is the…

Print And Ship Model

The print on demand industry has been around for some time now with t-shirt companies like Zazzle and others that will print your picture on a coffee mug to send to your mom on Mother’s Day. But only recently has the industry become reliable in the same fashion as a fulfillment center, and at a cost where us online entrepreneurs can still turn a nice profit.

If you are looking to produce CD’s or an audio series (like a “best of your Podcast” physical product) I would recommend looking into a California start-up called Audiolife. They are one of my favorite companies with great customer support, above high-quality printing and timely shipping of the products.

Even better for you is that they can act as your storefront via a widget or custom code, collect your money via PayPal, redirect their portion and then send you your profits. All of that happens while they print your product and ship it out. Meaning you never have to touch it, see it or package it. That is truly collecting money on autopilot if there is such a thing.

My other big source is what we are currently using for our new DVD, and that is Kunaki. This has been an Internet Marketing trade secret for some time now as they can print and ship a DVD for about $5. Yes, you read that right, printing and shipping for $5. And for you cool kids getting a few orders a day, you can just import your order list into Kunaki, pay for the DVD’s and they will print and ship them right to your customers.

Thus solving the issues of spending time with inventory and shipping and still covering your margins to run a highly successful virtual business.

Boo-yah!

Will You Go Physical?

There are hundreds and thousands of other ways to source and build physical products, but these are some of the best we have found and the ones that have been working for us. I’d love to hear what your thoughts are and if you have any tips or resources for people looking to create physical products and not create inventory or stress into the freedom of our business.

Share your thoughts below.

Greg Rollett comes to us from over at Radically Ambitious, an Internet Marketing and Lifestyle Creation Company. Want to learn more about physical products or just chat, find Greg on Twitter as well.

Reality Check: Are You Achieving Your Goals…?!!

Reality Check

Every month I set myself a goal. Sometimes its ‘bigger’ than others…

Sign a new client with a minimum 10-employee requirement, create a new policy to promote and encourage more reading in the workplace, gain another 200 RSS subscribers, listen to more inspiring podcasts, spend more time developing business ideas, take the family to a resort for 3-days of relaxation… you get it.

I’ve said it before many, many times. Goals are the cornerstone of entrepreneurial success. If you are spending time on any project, any idea, any business model, without putting goals in place first – then, you are literally walking through the jungle at night without a flashlight. You’re going to get nowhere!

Are You Being Realistic ..?

Here’s the thing… No matter what goal I set for myself, I always, ALWAYS make sure of two very simple things. They are as follows:

  • ONE: That it’s achievable. Setting a goal that is so outlandish that I’ll never hit it, is simply pointless. As well as being extremely time consuming.
  • TWO: I achieve it.

Sometimes I feel the benefits of hitting my goals immediately. Sometimes its something that will ‘hit home’ later on. But, I always make sure that I hit my goals. It’s what keeps me going as a business owner, husband and father.

How Are You Doing…?

What goals did you set in place for yourself this month? We’re now half way through the current month. Have you looked at where you are with that goal? Anything more you can do RIGHT NOW to be sure you hit the goal by the end, or before the end of the month..?

Let us all know below in the comments section how you’ve been doing. Give details – the juicer, the better! What was your goal this month – and how you’re doing with it..!

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 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…!