Product Creation Blog | Gwen Tanner

Here’s an idea I’ve discussed before and I still think is pretty good product idea!

Do you have a step-by-step solution or roadmap for getting results or solving problems in your niche?  Then try creating a blueprint for your niche, or topic.

A blueprint is a plan, a layout, a design.  As far as product creation, I think of it as showing your customers how the information you’re given is going to be laid out for them to achieve a specific result.  For example, if I create a “Blueprint for Success in Social Media,” I envision a product that identifies all (or most) of what I need to know about social media, and how all these bits and pieces work together to make me successful.

Here are some “blueprints” I found quickly on Amazon:

• Lucid Immersion Guidebook: A Holistic Blueprint For Lucid Dreaming
• The Beauty Blueprint: 8 Steps to Building the Life and Look of Your Dreams
• Attitude Reconstruction: A Blueprint for Building a Better Life
• A Blueprint for Financial Success: Learn How to Play the Game
• The Responsibility Trap: A Blueprint for Treating the Alcoholic Family
• Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing

As you can see, you can create a blueprint for almost any niche. Don’t these make you at least “feel” like you will be successful?

What blueprint can you make for your niche?

No I’m not nuts.  Do you remember Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”?  The children in the schoolhouse were singing a repetitive and eerie song called Risseldy Rosseldy before the birds started forming to attack. It’s a non-sensical song derived from a Scottish folk song called the “Wee Cooper o’ Fife” and was actually produced as another version on good ol’ vinyl by Chubby Parker in 1927.  And I believe a few years later, Burl Ives did a version as well.

So I guess you’re wondering what does this ridiculous song have to do with product creation?

The topic is ‘derivations’. Derivations are a a simple way to create content based on a modification of existing content.  I’m sure you’ve heard that you should repurpose your content – meaning use them again for another purpose, like plopping 10 articles together to create a free report. A derivative is along the same lines.

Think about updating and modifying existing content to create something totally new, but similar. This is very popular to do using works in the public domain.  So you could say, take your favorite book of poems from the public domain, add some annotations and interpretative images, et voila!  You have a derivative work of your own to sell as your own product.

Special Note:  Derivation is NOT plagiarism.  Create derivative works from your own content, public domain or content you have the permission to use.

PS.  I’m sorry if watching the video below will give you an “ear worm” for the following week

Below are another 10 amazing free tools to add to your product creation toolkit.  Be sure to review the previous post for the first set of product creation tools.

1. MyEcoverMaker

http://www.myecovermaker.com

MyEcoverMarker has about 40 designs for you to customize to create your own professional-looking product covers. You can create covers for reports, ebooks, CD/DVDs and membership cards.  The site provides you 100s of free graphics and backgrounds to build the right design for your product.

There is a free account, which is somewhat misleading.  It’s more of a pay-as-you-go service where you can sign up and play around for free, but you have to pay about $4 to download your ecover.  This is a bargain considering that you can pay a designer $67+ to create a cover for you.

2. Pixlr

http://pixlr.com

Here is a free online graphics editor. You no longer need the bloated Adobe PhotoShop or the archaic MS Paint to do your graphic work. It contains all of your basic photo and image editing tools – online. Use Pixlr to create header images or make funky manipulations from stock photos you want to add to your product.

3. Adobe Kuler

http://kuler.adobe.com

This one I use all the time.  If you don’t have a nack for matching colors and building a color palette that is pleasing to the eye, you don’t have to fret.  Kuler users mix and match up coordinating and complementary colors for you.  Just pick your favorite color and see what options for an entire color palette are available.  Take that color palette and give it to your graphic designer for your product ecovers, templates and blogs.

4. Audacity

http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Audacity is your free audio recording software.   Get quality audio recordings for your audio products and videos with this easy to use sound editor.  Compliment it with a fairly decent microphone and you will have crisp and clear sound.  You can use Audacity to clean up any flubs you make in recordings using other audio recording products as well.  Remember to always remove your “ums” and “uhhhs” from your recordings!

5. FlamingText

http://www.flamingtext.com

Ready to create your own logo? You can make a good looking one at FlamingText. But don’t stop there – how about creating your own buttons and small animation? Imagine some killer “Buy Now” buttons on your sales page that you created yourself? You simply pick the style you like and add your text.

6. SpiderScribe

http://www.spiderscribe.net

This is a mind mapping and brainstorming tool that helps you to visualize your ideas.  As you do research for your product, drop in text notes, documents, links and images into your mind map.  This will help keep you organized and keep all your resources in one place. There is even a search box on your map in case you get very detailed in the beautiful web of ideas and topics you come up with.

The best part is you can embed your map into your blog and get feedback from your readers to see what just might be missing.

7. Anthologize

http://anthologize.org

Thanks to reader Dee Ankary from moonpreneur I’ve learned about Anthologize. It’s a free plugin that allows you to grab posts from your WordPress blog and create an eBook.  You can also grab RSS feeds from other sources. So if you have multiple blogs, you can put all of your posts together to form one ebook OR even grab RSS feeds, from say EzineArticles to pull together a free giveaway report.

8. Conv2PDF 

http://www.en.conv2pdf.com

So, what do you need this for?  Well Conv2PDF not only allows you to create a PDF, it also allows you to secure them.  This will help with keeping your paid content safe from people who … love to spread the knowledge.  You can secure your PDF by modifying rights for printing, reading and even editing.

9. Easy Prompter

http://www.easyprompter.com

Here is your free online teleprompter!  This is a very simple teleprompter that you can use for recording your talking head or demo videos.  You simply create your script, paste it into the teleprompter and click play.  The teleprompter will show you the script in scrollable, adjustable text, just like the pros use.

10.  NoodleQuest

http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest

NoodleQuest is a pretty cool research assistant.  When you’re researching your topic, you probably jump to Google and do a search. But did you know there ares quite a host of OTHER search options.  NoodleQuest will suggest the best search strategy for what you’re looking for. Whether you’re looking for an expert, an opinion, recent news or even a controversial issues, drop over to NoodleQuest and see what search engines and directories they suggest.

I will always stay on the lookout for even more tools for your product creation toolkit!

I’m on a diet.  In addition to that, I’m trying to get “in shape”.  Now, whatever “shape” actually means for me, the result of my trying to get “in” it means that I’m buying too many exercise videos and too much exercise equipement.  I’ve spent many hours over the past few months reviewing (and buying) exercise DVDs.  Walking, stretching, Billy Banks new PT 24/7, the Insanity DVDs – BELLYDANCING. (Yes, I bought a belly dancing DVD).

Now, the goal of all these products is to help me get “in shape”.  They all do the same thing, they guide me and encourage me to move my body  to burn calories for weight loss and fitness.  However, they all teach me to do it using different techniques and at different levels.  Basically, they all have their own special point of view of how I should get in shape.

While my collection is relatively small, there are thousands of other similar DVDs that have the same goal – and I will probably still buy a good portion of those as well.  Why?  Because:

1. I have a goal I want to accomplish
2. I want to learn as much as possible about exercise
3. I want a variety of viewpoints
4. I will get some videos that are just too difficult (even though they look easy)
5. I will get some videos that are just duds and I regret I bought them
6. I recognize that each instructor teaches me something new and different
7. I can combine what I learn from each to build my own workout method
8. I worry I might be missing some secret exercise that will blast fast
9. I simply find other videos that look interesting and I’m curious about them

Well, whatever my reasons are, I just keep buying more exercise DVDs.

Those DVD publishers who market to the fitness niche realize that people in that niche buy multiple products for many of the same reasons that I listed above.

You have to think the same way about the product you create.  It can get discouraging to think you have the most unique idea ever, then do a little research and find 3000 other products just like yours.  If that happens, don’t worry about it. Write your passion and believe that there are so many similar products for a reason – there is a demand for them.  And people who are just as passionate about your niche will want a variety as well.

Think about some of the books or magazines you’ve purchased.  How often have you purchased multiples on the same topic?Cookbooks, parenting, diet, pets, auto repair, home decoration – we often choose multiples.

What niches do you buy in multiples?

The “Dummy books” are hot. I’ve written in the past about how to use the Dummy books to get ideas for your product.  In fact, the “for Idiots” books fall along the same line as the Dummy books.  I assume the Dummy books came first, but this post is not about publishing priorities, it’s about a great tip for creating a line of products for yourself.

Create your own line of Dummy books.  Of course you won’t create a product “for Dummies” without permission from John Wiley & Sons (a former employer of mine, oddly enough), but you can think of other adjectives to describe your target market:

• for Dorks
• for Intellectuals
• for Newbies
• for Twitter Fanatics
• for Health Nuts
• for Wise Guys
• for Single Mommas
• for Animal Lovers
• for Hippies

Do you think you could create a line of products like the Dummy books?

I found myself today clicking on the link of an email from a marketer I didn’t know and can’t remember why I signed up for his list in the first place.  I clicked it out of procrastination… er…curiosity.  The link took me to a page with a video of another marketer I’ve never heard of.

But the video caught my attention!  This was something new about offline marketing that I never heard of. So I kept listening.

The intro caught my attention, he showed an example of the results and even stated the price. He even described the effort to put this all together for me – all within the first 4 minutes or so.  Then he said the video will continue for another 15 minutes, and he would show how his program works in more detail.  The concept – interesting.  The price – nice.  I wanted to know more!

But then…

He started talking about his money problems…he had big bills to pay. Then he went into the history of why he had the big bill to pay.  At this point, I started losing interest.   Why?

He already had my attention to learn more about his product!  I’m on the verge of clicking the “Buy” button, just as soon as I learn what he’s selling.  But then he had to go into the HISTORY of his debt to explain WHY he made the system?  I lost interest – to me, it was another long-winded story, one that I surely could not relate to.  Then he started talking about other marketers and THEIR stories and how they rip us off with get rich quick schemes. THEN he went back to HIS story.

And worse – there was no fast forward button on the video!  I don’t know how long he went on and on about his money problems.  This went on for many more minutes.

Ugh, well I turned off the video because I was turned off by the video. I even read the sales letter, but it had the same story regurgitated from the video.  Unfortunately, I might be losing on out a great product and a great idea, but there was a lot of talk about ‘him’ and not enough about what he can do for me.

We’ve all been exposed to long-winded videos – and it’s pretty trendy now for marketers to says “I know this is a long video, but bear with me”.  Sometimes they’re good, most of the times they are unnecessary.

How can they solve this issue?

1. One thing is to guy the viewer an “out” – give them a control bar or a play bar so they aren’t trapped waiting for information.
2. In this example, I got the price and an example right off the bat.  So put the price up and show a result up front. This will gain attention – not a sob story we’ve all heard before. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s how marketers “relate” to customers, but haven’t we all heard the same stories for the umpteenth time?
3. Have a webinar instead of a video. If there is so much information you need to dish out to sell your product, hold a webinar instead.  We know a webinar can last for 30 mins, an hour or even two hours.
4. Have your long-winded video, but put the nitty-gritty details in your sales letter (please don’t have ONLY a long-winded video).
5. If you must have a long-winded video then make it ENTERTAINING.  At least try to impress your customers with something interesting that will keep their attention from looking at their clocks.  A video of only your talking-head, while beautiful I’m sure, probably won’t keep their attention for too long.
6. If you still must have a long-winded video, then make it about how you will help your customers and how things for them will change.

Do you have experience with long-winded sales videos?

Your product funnel is a series or progression of products that you offer, usually from free or low cost to more expensive items.

The gist of a product funnel is that you’ll get customers for your no cost or low cost products (like a free 10 page report), and those who grow to trust your advice, knowledge and wisdom will make their way through your funnel, purchasing your more expensive items (like a $1000 personal coaching program).

The challenge in creating a product funnel, and having more products available for people who want to spend more money with you, is that you need ideas for those products.  What about solving your “what product do I create next for my funnel” dilemma using themes?  Here are some examples:

• By volumes:  Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3
• By age range:  Infants, Toddlers, Teens, Adults, Seniors
• By levels:  Level 1, Level 2, Level 3
• By expertise:  Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert
• By skill: Artists, Musicians, Chefs, Techies
• By part:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• By size:  Complete, Supreme, Ultimate
• By passion:  Lover, Connoisseur, Aficionado
• By the numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4
• By progress: Phase I, Phase II, Phase III
• By time: 5 days, 30 days, 90 days
• By value:  Silver, Gold, Platinum

I hope you see the value in creating a “theme” around your product. It will allow your customers to naturally want to progress to the next level, but also help spur some ideas for the products you create.

Can you think of any other ideas to add to this list?