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Booklet Tips From Paulette

Writing, producing, and promoting tips booklets for marketing, motivating, and making money.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Getting Started or Getting Finished

Today's post was going to be about starting your booklet and finishing your booklet, the inherent joys and challenges of each, and a realistic perspective on all of it. Then I found a post on a colleague's blog that said it all. Thanks go to Ted Demopoulos. Mouse your way on over to http://snipurl.com/xlno

Until next time,
Paulette - who prefers not reinventing the wheel.
www.tipsbooklets.com

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Write and Market a Booklet in Five Minutes

"I don't have time." -- You've heard yourself say that at various points in your day, week, month, or year, no doubt. During my many years as a professional organizing consultant, it was a common event to suggest to clients and audiences that they consider what they could do in five minutes. There's lots of things that can be addressed and accomplished (operative word there) within five minutes -- file a few papers, make a phone call, send an email. You get the idea.

It's become equally as common now to suggest to booklet author clients that they (YOU!) consider what you can do in five minutes. How many tips can you jot down in a notebook or in a file on your computer? What prospective large-quantity buyers of your products can you add to your marketing list? Who can you email to request an introduction to a bulk buyer? You can accomplish plenty in snippets of time.

The next time you notice your thoughts going to "I don't have time to write a booklet much less market it," think about this post. Grab the next five minute moment that presents itself to do just that much more. Before you know it, your booklet is done, your marketing list is substantial, and you bask in your own inspiration.

Until next time,
Paulette
www.tipsbooklets.com

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Booklets and New Ideas

What do you do when you have a new idea for the booklet part of your business? That means either a revision of a previous version, or a whole new topic, or a completely different market. What's your approach? Do you ponder it for awhile or jump right in? Do you do any test marketing or make an isolated decision or set of decisions?

There's no right answer here on any of this. It can be useful to stop to notice what you do to asess how well it works for you and whether it makes any sense to modify it.

Until next time,
Paulette
www.tipsbooklets.com

Monday, September 25, 2006

Colleagues Painlessly Marketing Each Other

It's not uncommon to hear time and money issues voiced about writing and marketing, even when it comes to the short, simply designed tips booklets discussed here. As easy as a booklet can be, there's an even easier solution to consider. In fact, this is so easy and inexpensive you'll be amazed by it. Mouse your way on over to the page below to find out how:

http://snipurl.com/x5xh


Until next time,
Paulette
www.tipsbooklets.com

Friday, September 22, 2006

Booklet, Book, or Both

Why choose between creating a book or a booklet? You can do both, regardless of what you've got right now.

Some fields truly require a book to be a somebody in that field, and others don't. If you are in one of those that does require a book, and you just can't get up the steam to write it, create it by doing a series of booklets that are later combined. In the meantime you have products to sell in the way of each of the booklets.

Or you might already have a book and wonder about the reason for doing both a book and one or more booklets. The reason is that those booklets can help you sell more copies of your book by whetting the appetite of anyone reading the book. You got them hooked, and now they want more.

In either case, when you have the ear of a decision maker for buying large quantities of anything to use as sales incentives, you're in the best possible position by having both a book and booklets. The conversation changes from a yes/no possibility to"which of these is our starting point?"

If you are not in a field that really requires having a book, you might decide that one or more booklets is the way for you to go. One size does not fit all when it comes to information products.

Until next time,
Paulette -- who adores choices
www.tipsbooklets.com

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Booklet Excerpts Earn Cash

You've seen it suggested here to excerpt tips from your own booklet as the basis for an article or for many articles. Articles are historically an excellent mechanism for promoting your business and your booklet. The articles can be posted on your own site as well as on article directory sites.

Some use of articles can be viewed solely as public relations and publicity, a way to get your name out there. However, there is something you can do to make direct cash from those articles.

Here's how. Let's say you are in a profession that does not allow finder fees or commissions for referrals. You're a health provider or a lawyer or some other professional who is regulated against receiving referral fees. Find a supplier of some product you advocate, join their affiliate program at their website, and put their affiliate link at the bottom of your article, with the directions "For more information, click here." When someone clicks on your link and buys something from the affiliate site, you automatically get the affiliate commission sent to you, no fuss no muss.

This concept has been used for years by many internet marketers in the free reports they offer. Whether you are in a restricted profession or not, you can certainly benefit from the technique of adding affiliate links into your articles. It's 'found' money while promoting your own expertise.

Until next time,
Paulette -- always looking to leverage the efforts
www.tipsbooklets.com

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Booklet Creativity

Booklets are written on every imaginable topic, as you can see at the ebooklet catalog at www.tipsbooklets.com It is fascinating to see the range. Safe driving, time management, mortgages, holistic health, organizing small spaces, religion, technology, and on and on. And booklets written on the same topic are different. There are quite a few booklets about organizing your business life, for instance. Each one of them is different, based on the author's perspective.

Sometimes authors think everyone already knows about the topic of the booklet. There is, in fact, always something unique in each booklet, bar none -- a slight twist or an additional explanation or just the right time for the reader to absorb a concept. There is always merit in writing your booklet, regardless of the topic and regardless of the timing.

Then why is this post referencing creativity? It's intended as encouragement and an invitation for you to literally create your booklet. It's your creative expression of what you know. Think about some topic that you think is a challenge. Yet to someone else it is like rolling off a log because they are so comfortable and familiar with the information. People feel that way about your expertise.

Get going and create yours now. After all, how dare you deny your wisdom to those who want it and will benefit from it?

Until next time,
Paulette -- cheerleading you on
www.tipsbooklets.com

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Booklets, Daydreaming, and Nightmares

This caught my eye in an email today:

There's an old Japanese proverb that says, "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."


You've got the vision to do a booklet. Maybe even several booklets. You've started looking at ways to sell them, even some very creative directions to go for sales and new product development. And then what? Yes, it's an amazing grasp of the obvious that you must take action. You can lull yourself into thinking you're gathering your thoughts and will step up to the plate soon. I've definitely done that a few times in my life.

Or, you can jump into the pool , full body, without looking to see if there is any water in it. Hey, at least you're taking some action, right? Well, without some level of vision about the possibilities, you'll be chasing your tail at best, and bumping head-long into a wall at worst.

The ideal, of course is vision followed by action. Give your imagination a wide berth. The more ideas you have about your products and where to go with them, the more likely you'll be to take action when you're inspired to do so.

Until next time,
Paulette -- who doesn't really think about booklets day and night, though it sometimes seems like it.
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Monday, September 18, 2006

Booklets - Persistence Pays

A booklet author was telling me about some repeated experiences that were surprising. Several times last week he re-contacted decision makers he'd been calling a number of times without reaching them or without being able to have a conversation.

Last week, he heard from several people in a row that they truly appreciated his persistence. For one reason or another, the people he had been calling were simply not ready until they were ready, though they each had a basic interest in discussing the booklets this author had. The prospects had pressures on them that the author could have no way of knowing.

The decision makers or referrals to decision makers were not put off or annoyed in the least by the author's efforts to follow up. Sometimes that's just what it takes. Since so many booklet authors are independent solopreneurs, it can be a challenge to think about the kind of daily rhythm a corporate decision maker is dealing with, pulled in many directions at once and rarely in charge of their own day.

When you think you're ready to give up on a large-quantity booklet prospect, make one more call. Then make one more call after that. You just may be surprised by the outcome.

Until next time
Paulette -- who has made many a sale late on a Friday afternoon
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Friday, September 15, 2006

Booklets - A Marketing Problem

Today was one of those wonderful days I got to put a face with a credit card number, er, um, I mean with a voice and and email address, yes, that's it. One of my booklet authors was in town from another part of the country, traveling to attend an event in sunny San Diego and we had never met in person.

We sat in a cafe over some beverage, chatting about his business and life journey (aren't they one and the same?). He said he had a marketing problem. After listening to the wonderful mind he has, and so many of the things he's accomplished, I realized (and of course told him) that he didn't have a marketing problem at all. He had a "choice" problem. Like so many, he had lots of directions he wanted to go, all at once. His challenge was in making the decision which direction to go.

It didn't take long in our chat for him to realize what he liked and didn't like about various industries he was considering pursuing, making it so much easier for him to focus on how to present his booklets and the other products he'd be developing from that one booklet. I watched it crystalize before my very eyes. The lightbulbs were going off over his head one after another I knew it was time to go. This delightful gentleman had hit overload for the moment.

I think he now knows he doesn't have a marketing problem. In fact, he doesn't have a choice problem either. It seems like he is about to go to an entirely new level with his business in very short order. Aren't days like this what we all live for?

Until next time,
Paulette - who possibly has the best clients in the world
www.tipsbooklets.com

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Booklets - Hundreds of Thousands

It's always fun to chat with a booklet author about the potential size of an order. Some booklet authors think a bulk sale is measured as 10 copies. Well yes, that's true. It's more than a single copy sale, so it does literally qualify as a bulk sale. However, I'm usually talking about thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of copies in a single sale.

These numbers can seem huge to many booklet authors. It's all about perspective. In fact, those numbers can be a drop in the bucket in some venues. Years ago when I did a licensing deal with the Lillian Vernon Catalog, they licensed the rights to produce 250,000 copies of a slightly modified version of my booklet. Yes, that's right, a quarter of a million copies. Seems like a lot, right? Don't kid yourself, it seemed like a lot to me at the time, too. However, it was merely a test for Lillian Vernon Catalog. They wanted to see how well offering an organizing booklet free with any purchase in that issue of their catalog would increase their overall sales. They liked the results , at a 13% sales increase directly related to that offer. And why is this a test, you ask? At the time, they were distributing 17 million catalogs a year. A quarter of a million booklets was like sticking a little toe in the water instead of jumping full-body into the pool.

Keep in mind there are many, many corporations, publications, websites, and associations whose universe is in the millions and multi-millions. It's only a matter of a few more zeros, both on their order and on their payment to you!

Until next time,
Paulette -realizing zeros are a lot more than nothing
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Booklets at Grocery Stores

Periodically the question pops up about distribution into grocery stores and drug stores.Today brought one of those emails. My response was this: Though you may envision your booklet there, it will not happen, nor, in fact do you really want it to happen. Those publications come from sources that distribute many titles, first of all. Secondly, it is like bookstore sales in the United States, fraught with returns of non-saleable copies that paid pennies in royalties that have to be given back. Not so attractive after all, is it? It's a very strange business model, too, and one that is apparently not universal around the world.

There are saner ways to sell tons of non-returnable booklets and make lots more money by selling in bulk to single buyers. (Corporations, associations, publications) It's a one-way sale, which are the only ones that make any sense at all. And it's usually a lucrative sale.

So next time you go to the grocery store and see those booklets in the rack near the check-out stand, smile to yourself with the knowledge that you can do it differently with your own booklets.

Until next time,

Paulette - doing business in bulk

http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Booklet Writing - Don't Do Don't

A client's ezine today pointed out one of the classic things I advise people to do. The only thing is that the example was reversed. There was one tip after another that started with the word 'don't.' Don't do this and don't do that. I thought maybe the content of the tip might hold the secret of what TO do. Alas, it wasn't there. As a reader, I was left with the burning question of what TO do once I followed the advice of what NOT to do. How helpful is that to the reader? What I thought was even more interesting was that the article in the ezine was about how to deal with difficult people. Telling the reader what not to do when dealing with difficult people seems slightly counterproductive to me.

I've got quite a number of booklet authors who write on this topic, so I am not showing anyone's hand by featuring this example. And I don't know if this particular author reads my blog or not :-) It just jumped off the screen at me and I had to share it with you.

When you are writing your tips and you find yourself in a stream of don't's, ask yourself what you want your reader TO do to turn that all around.

Until next time,
Paulette - who is still learning what TO do
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Monday, September 11, 2006

Booklets and Joint Ventures

Joint ventures are a beautiful thing -- when they work. A recent article in a colleague's newsletter about this very thing piqued my interest as it became an amazing grasp of the obvious while being a useful reminder.

The all-important thing about joint ventures is the audience, the target market. Your own newsletter subscriber base and mine have to behave similarly in order for success to occur in a joint venture. When I see a product that gets me all excited that was developed by a colleague, and I can't wait to bring it to the subscribers of my blog or my ezine, the overidding element is to know how my subscribers respond. Are you similar in your background, economics, learning style, decision-making speed to the list of my colleague who developed the product? If so, everyone benefits.

When I am invited to present a teleclasses that is hosted by any of a number of colleagues, the sales results swing widely. The client lists are more and less of a match to my own. It is the same phenomenon when you bring someone else's booklet into a conversation you are having with a large-quantity booklet buyer. If their buying behavior is similar to others who have bought that booklet from the author, then you have a sale. Otherwise it's a no-go. Keep track of your buyers' behaviors and they'll keep track of your business, in a Good Way.

Until next time,
Paulette -- the perpetual student of human behavior
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Friday, September 08, 2006

You Want What You Want

Peter Bowerman is a publishing colleague in Atlanta. In an article Peter wrote in someone else's ezine, he spoke about a billboard advertisement in Atlanta for Apartments.com . In Peter's words: " It had one short sentence (their tag line, actually) across the middle: “You want what you want.” Then, simply their logo and the Apartments.com name. Nothing more. A thing of simplicity and beauty. In one five-word sentence, they nailed THE hot button for their audience: personal taste and choice in an apartment. They managed to use the magic word “you” twice in a five-word sentence. They know what people want to hear. They understand marketing."

When you are writing your booklet and your promotional copy for your products, the magic, by all means, is in connecting with the reader. The word 'you' does just that. Peter echoes my own continuing approach.

The article I saw was excerpted from The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living, by Peter Bowerman. Fanove, 2006. www.wellfedsp.com ,

Until next time,
Paulette -- always enjoying contributing to your success
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Booklet Promo Multiplies

Ever notice how publicity generates more publicity which generates more publicity? One of the subscribers of Booklet Tips from Paulette ezine graciously acknowledged the 15th anniversary of the launch of "110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life" on his blog. Thanks, Chuck Huckaby! Check out his blog for yourself.

http://work-at-home.business-opportunities.biz/2006/09/06/15-years-later-her-tips-booklet-keeps-on-selling/

Until next time,
Paulette -- spreading all this great stuff around
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Your Booklet - What Grabs YOU?

If you were looking at your own booklet for the first time, what would be the most compelling thing about it? Yes, I know that's tough to do, since you've now spent a lot of time up close and personal with your booklet. I do wonder, though, what answer you might give if you did ask yourself what the biggest grabber is for your booklet.

Why am I suggesting you do this exercise? It's because an answer that addresses the usefulness of the booklet will give you a great boost in how you talk about it out loud and in print to anyone else. Usefulness equals benefit. Benefits equals want (not especially need). Want equals purchase. Purchase equals everyone having what works for them -- useful information for the reader or buyer, and distribution of your message attached to some money for you.

So what grabs you about your booklet?

Until next time,
Paulette -- grabbing every product by the benefit statement
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Pre-publication Sales

Ever wonder why you sometimes see notification to expect 6-8 weeks for delivery time of something you know makes no sense to take that long? Very often it's because the seller wants to be economical in stocking or developing the product in question. You can do the very same thing with booklets.

Let's say you're considering a series of related topics for 6 or a dozen different booklets. Rather than write and produce all of them and then go looking for buyers, there's a much more efficient way of going about this.

Create a product sheet or sell sheet (same thing, two different names) that includes all the titles you have in mind. Since you're going for bulk sales anyway, there's no concern about someone coming along saying they want to purchase a single copy. When you get an order for 5,000 copies or 10,000 copies or whatever it is, then you write and produce the booklet. You could get the whole thing done within a month if you had to, which is frequently a completely acceptable time frame for most bulk booklet clients.

The pre-publication approach works well when you've got one booklet already done so you can provide it as a sample of the calibre and production quality. Check with your graphic designer and printer to see what their schedule looks like before you promise the bulk buyer a delivery date. And then start writing your heart out! Oh, and of course you got a 50% deposit to initiate the order, which will more than cover your production costs.

Until next time,
Paulette - working as efficiently as possible as often as possible
http://www.tipsbooklets.com

Friday, September 01, 2006

Pay It Forward

An email today from someone new to the world of booklets made the point ever so clearly about the power of word of mouth marketing. An excerpt from the email is what captured my attention:

I am a new EFT practioner and I am watching Gary Craig's DVD on how to do business with EFT and one lady mentioned your name and that you have an hour free teleclass on how to write booklets.

Imagine that -- someone most likely in the audience when this DVD was recorded mentioned my work as a resource, prompting the person watching the DVD to contact me. I have only a recent and minimal awareness of EFT. Not only did this increase my own interest in finding out more, it made me smile to think that every time someone watches that DVD, my work is being marketed! And it came from someone who either attended or heard about the free teleclasses I periodically deliver. And now I just gave a promotional plug to Gary Craig (whom I don't have the pleasure of knowing)! After all, it's the very least I can do, don't you think?

Doesn't that just inspire you to keep passing along other resources you feel are valuable whenever you can? You just never know what the positive ripple effect will be, and how, in the grand scheme of the Universe, it is highly likely it will all come back around.

Who else's booklet can you recommend? What programs have you found valuable? How has a particular person contributed to your success? Continue being generous with those suggestions everywhere and anywhere you can. Someone is sure to return you the favor.

Until next time,
Paulette -- never ceasing to be amazed by how this all works
http://www.tipsbooklets.com