Back when the Internet first became the Internet, I remember (with genuine fondness) marking up text documents (using the Unix ‘vi’ editor) with HTML tags. That would have been some time around 1995 or so, back when the NCSA Mosaic web browser was your only choice if you wanted to surf the ‘Web (I still remember the excitement when Netscape first came out… Nothing like an old geek!).

We’ve come a long ways since then, and if I were to post my web pages that way today, I’d be left in the dust. Thankfully, I don’t have to; in fact, this blog is maintained using WordPress. I just log in and start typing! When it needs to be upgraded (due to a security flaw or a new feature), I simply click a link in my admin area and I’m done. I’ve even set things up so that my autoresponder (an Aweber clone) auto-magically sends out an email when I publish a new blog post (subscribe to my list to see how that looks on your end; it publishes the first 300 characters or so of the post in the notification email) and a script emails me a backup of the back-end data base every day. Neat stuff.

I say that because the online world is changing and will continue to change. I still remember a product I purchased back in 2004; it contained videos and the seller offered to send them via mail if the purchaser had bandwidth issues. At the time, I had a dialup connection and gladly took him up on his offer (as did others, I’m sure). Nowadays you can’t click on a link in your Inbox without finding a web page with video — and where would we be without YouTube?

I started a list of business procedures back in 2006 — and sadly allowed myself to stop maintaining them. I now realize that they can save me (and possibly you) a lot of time. For example, I’m downloading a product that includes private label rights (PLR). I’d like to sell it but realize that doing so is a bit of a pain right now because I don’t have a checklist I can pull off the shelf to follow as I prepare it.

Here’s what I need to do (off the top of my head; I’m sure I’ll come up with more once I get further into the process):

• Purchase and download the product. This is already done; I use the DownThemAll plugin for Firefox as my download manager and I definitely know how to buy stuff online…
• File the originals using my system. It’s weird and I want to move to a different system (but that’s a story for another day).
• Make a copy of the files and store them on my local hard drive in the folder for the web site where they will be sold.
• Edit the sales letter and product, as needed.
• Upload the files. This is not as easy as it seems because I like to host the videos on Amazon’s cloud (MUCH cheaper). I do need a full process for this and need to finally learn the product I use to protect the files (again, more on that in a later post. I want this one to be fairly short…)
• Create a payment button. Am I going to sell it on ClickBank? Via PayPal? Which delivery script will I use? Lots of questions to answer — and again, because I don’t have a system, I get “stuck” here.
• Test the system once everything is set up. Thankfully, all I have to do is log in over at Earn 1k A Day and some of my market colleagues will be happy to test the system for me, usually because I offer it for a very, VERY low price for a few people (they get great value and I get valuable feedback to ensure that things are working right before I release it to the rest of the Internet).
• Change the price… As much as I’d like to do it, leaving things at the test price doesn’t pay the mortgage (and in many cases jeopardizes the relationship I have with some of the sources of these products. While it’s illegal in the US to set a fixed price for a product, I do like to honor requests for minimum prices).
• Start selling the product. Let’s see, just what IS my marketing strategy anyway?
• Be ready to help with customer support requests. People buy stuff because they think it will help them, and they understandably get frustrated if they can’t access the product or if they have questions that weren’t answered.
• Separate the serial refunders from the legitimate requests (and ban the serial refunders. Their IP address goes into my cPanel “block” list so that they can’t even access my web site. While I do take some steps to counter theft of my products, I prefer to focus on my paying customers, and in most cases, those digital product thieves do it simply “because they can” and not because they are going to take action on the stuff they steal, at least in my opinion).

And that’s just off the top of my head.

So creating new processes and procedures is high on my priority list. I’ve also started a couple of them for a new FOREX system that I’m studying. It’s a manual / mechanical system and I’m loving it so far because I actually KNOW when to trade and why. I think it’s going to work out well in the long run.

Incidentally, while these procedures and processes are “nothing fancy”, they are VITAL to the growth of my business. I don’t like reinventing the wheel every time I do something; in fact, I don’t have TIME to reinvent the wheel. When I need to do something, I need to pull a procedure off the shelf, knock it out, and move to the next task. And I think that all of us who are working from the proverbial home basement would do well to develop these processes.

Just be reasonable about it; while you may need a procedure for setting up a new product in your back-end product delivery and protection script, you probably don’t need a procedure for turning on your computer and firing up your web browser! If doing something is second nature to you, then there’s no point in creating a procedure for it until you are ready to outsource the task (or if you are building a continuity book so that somebody can pick it up and run with your business, which is a good idea. More on that in yet another post…).

And if mine serve me well, I may make the available — perhaps even for no cost (IF an idea I have in mind works… You would have to buy some things). If I do this, I recommend that you use them as a starting point for your own procedures (and for that reason would make them available in an editable format).

We’re more than halfway to the weekend now; hang in there!

Happy November! Here it is, Month 11, and I still haven’t finished a project from Month 9. What’s up with that?

Some might say that I have the attention span of a gnat, but that would be an insult to gnats everywhere…

So it’s back to focusing on the task at hand. When I sit down in front of my computer to work on my business, I am going to work on this task until it is done unless I’m doing something that is a higher priority (like customer service).

So here’s a recap of where the project currently stands and what still needs to be done:

* Got the PLR package. Bought the upgrade so that I’ll have the audio recording.

This brings up an interesting point. Since I can’t really change the audio recording without actually re-recording it, I can’t really change the original ebook, other than to change the affiliate links in it. So it looks like re-writing the book is going to be a waste of my time. If I do come up with some interesting additions, I may add them as so-called “sidebars” or something along those lines.

* Purchased a domain name for the project, pointed the domain name to my hosting account, and created a hosting account.

And yes, laugh at me… I forgot the name of the domain in the month and a half since my last update (which was when I last worked on this!).

A word of explanation, if I may. I plan on completing all projects that I start, especially if I talk about them on this blog. I’m simply not going to quit or give up on them. In the past, I have deleted some posts because I quit on a project (which explains part of the reason why I deleted all of the old posts). Not any more; I want this to be an honest picture of what I’ve done and what I’m doing.

Even if it means I have to look up the domain name I purchased for the current project — but forgot because I haven’t been working on it…

I also want to set a good example by not getting distracted and buying the “latest and greatest” Internet marketing product. I see now how buying bunches of new stuff — no matter how good or bad — keeps me from ever seeing a project through to completion. It also drains my wallet. So I’m going to do my best to set a good example and not buy new stuff.

Yes, you can get some great discounts during the launch of a product, but by my way of thinking, even paying full price later — when you need it — can still be a bargain if it makes you money. And of course, if it’s some “fad” method that dies off next week because Google adjusted their search algorithm, then I can be glad that I didn’t buy it at all.

Back to the project listing… Once again distracted…

* Got the domain name (I’ll tell you what it is in an upcoming post; I don’t want to reveal it to the search engines of the world until all is ready), set the DNS, and created the hosting. One thing I’m also doing when I create a new hosting account (via my WHM reseller, Dathorn) is logging in to the cPanel interface right away (so RoboForm captures and stores the details) and logging in via FTP (so the details are stored in FileZilla, my FTP client).

Still to do:

* Create the actual ebook. Perhaps I can add some illustrations and pictures? Guess I need to print it out and read it over.

* Work the articles. Based on stuff I’ve read recently, I want to “spin” them and try some mass submissions to multiple article directories. I’ll also write a couple of “fresh” ones for the major ezine directories.

* Create videos out of the articles. Incansoft has a software program that creates videos out of your articles (that link leads to a site that I own; I am a licensed reseller of Incansoft software). I haven’t installed it yet but will do so shortly. I’ll make a review video and post it in case you want to see how it works.

* Do some keyword research to get some good key phrases. Distracted Me did learn some neat tricks about keyword research and article marketing, which I’ll get into (at least a bit) as I get to that phase of the project.

* Build a linking net. More on that one. Maybe. I may just end up linking to the course I bought on that.

* Make a “useful, but incomplete” version of the book, telling them “what”, but not “how”. I’d use this as a gift to encourage people to sign up for the list. Again, I got that idea from Jimmy D. Brown’s "Small Reports Fortune" (affiliate link!).

* Write an autoresponder series for the ebook itself.

In general, I need to work on creating autoresponders quickly and easily and get a lot better at this task.

* Look for other freebie-related products on affiliate networks that I could promote. If I find good ones, write autoresponder series for those products (plus drive some traffic to those review pages).

* Consider other things that frugal-minded people want and need and consider marketing those products to these people.

My thinking is that people who want free stuff might also be interested in finding out ways to save money, make their paycheck go farther, and might also be interested in some low-risk ways to earn money via a part-time business. I could be wrong but I think it’s worth testing.

So that’s enough for now. Actually, it’s quite a bit and may be more than I really want to tackle.

One final note: The license that comes with the PLR package states that the audio files must be delivered with the ebook itself, so I won’t be able to use it as an upsell. I could still give it away as a bonus and to add value to the package. I’d like to wait a few days before giving it out, i.e. as a reward to people who actually signed up for my email list, but since they have to be delivered with the ebook, that is out of the question.

More work to do!

I just wanted to give a quick update on the status of Project 09-001. Getting the project off the ground has been a bit “interesting”.

First off, I could not brand the ebook. I’m using a system running the x64 version of Vista Home Premium, which may make a difference since I suspect the software was written for 32 bit systems and may not have taken Vista’s added layers of “security” into consideration (I do not consider it to be “security” because Availability is part of computer security, and if an app won’t work due to a security control, then security failed and something needs to be adjusted).

I put in a ticket to John’s help desk and got a response almost right away; however, I did not get the usual email telling me that my ticket had been answered. I’m not sure what happened, but I do know that it’s the first time something like this has happened with John Delavera’s system. Glitches do happen, though, and I’m sure that John and his team will sort it out (and if not, I’ll work with John to figure out what’s going wrong). But I waited a week before I decided to check on the status of the ticket; had I done that right away, I could have had this project much farther along by now. It’s my fault for not checking.

The fix for the branding problem — which consisted of a presumably different version of the ebook and brander — did work. I was able to brand the ebook. I then looked at the rebranded book, figured out what I really wanted the branded parts to say, then rebranded it again…

Then I noticed that the title of the ebook on the first page said, “The Online Copyright Handbook”.

Huh? This is a book on getting free samples; it’s not a book on copywriting.

No problem, I’ll just change it myself — except I don’t have a PDF editor and don’t want to buy one (cheap, cheap, said the chicken!).

So I downloaded and installed Inkscape, opened the first page of the PDF, deleted the title, and added a new one that mirrored the actual title of the ebook. I then had to run my version of the Portable PDF Toolkit (available from PortableApps.com), split the existing PDF into separate pages, rename the title page, then put it all back together again.

The ebook now looks nice. There’s just one little problem: The original ebook’s size was 422k after branding; after performing my edits, the ebook is now 2,877k. While this is still marginally small enough for a dialup user, I don’t like it. I was forced to use a dialup connection for four years (I just got DSL a few months ago) and am extremely sensitive to file download size.

So I’m going to open another ticket with John’s help desk and ask them to change the title on the first page.

Or should I just go ahead and purchase the private label rights for $47? That way I can change whatever I want to change and make it my own.

Decisions, decisions.

I did purchase a domain name for the product, which cost me $8.99. I’ll host the domain on a server that I already own, so there will be no new hosting fees to worry about. If I purchase the private label rights, I’ll have $55.99 invested in this project, which means that my break-even point (assuming a price point of $7, which I think most freebie seekers might pay — but that’s just a guess that will have to be tested) will be 8 copies of the book. I should be able to sell 8 copies…!

The package also came with some articles. I’m going to make video articles out of them (something new!) and post them to some video sites, like YouTube. There’s a tool that makes this easy (including submission to seven video sites) and I might give that a try to see how it goes. If I don’t like it, I’ll just have to do it myself. Again, if the tool can pay for itself, then it’ll be worth it — and I may have found a great business model., i.e. get PLR packages with articles, convert them to videos, post… Or affiliate products with pre-written articles… Or…

So while I wait for my new domain name to get fully registered and for the DNS to be fully propagated, I’ll think a bit about the PLR package. Right now, I’m leaning towards getting it, mainly because it will make it easy to do what I want to do. I can also add some stuff to it and change it around some to make it unique. It would also allow me to make a “useful, but incomplete” version of the ebook to give away (thank Jimmy D. Brown for coining that phrase), which might help.

On a somewhat related note, I need to finish creating a new autoresponder account for this blog. I’m switching my list over to a private label version of aWeber (another Turbo Membership benefit!), which should improve delivery and what-not. Once I do that, I’ll make an announcement here to let you know that I’m accepting sign-ups. And you may want to sign up for the list because the only easy way to learn where I’m selling this ebook is to sign up for my list (the link will be in a password protected post, and the password will be sent out to my list). Another reason to do so is to get a copy of the “useful, but incomplete” version of the ebook, along with the ability to get the full version at a very good price — but only for a limited time. I will need to test the payment system before I fully launch it, and my list members are the ones who get to test the system. The good news is that my test price for this one will probably be $1.

So be sure to sign up once I announce that the new autoresponder is ready. If you sign up to the current list, you’ll receive an email when the new autoresponder is ready.

Time for a walk so I can decide whether to get the PLR package…

…and the decision is “yes”. I’ll also get an audio version of the book that I might be able to use for an upsell. The only issue with that is that it might set back my timetable for getting this thing launched.

But we press forward (and create fewer help desk tickets!)…

And I like the concept that John has used here. Give away free Master Resale Rights to customers with whom you already have a relationship, then sell the private label rights for a reasonable amount and add some extras (in this case, the audio files). Another idea to tuck away for another day. And I also can’t help but wonder if the errors in the rebrandable ebook were intentional, i.e. they were introduced to perhaps drive people towards the PLR package, where the problems could be easily fixed? If it was intentional, it worked for me…

Today marks the start of Project 09-001. I’ve received a free resale rights (RR) package from John Delavera’s Turbo Membership (please see the link in my Blogroll if you want to know more about Turbo Membership).

This package looks promising because it’s an ebook about getting stuff for free. My first step, though, will be to read through the package to ensure that the book meets my subjective standards.

There’s another thing I’m going to be looking at as I go through the ebook and the rest of the package. John is selling private label rights (PLR) to the package for an additional fee, but along with the PLR rights, you also get an audio recording that you can sell, thus adding value to the package.

So I’m going to cut this short so that I can look at the RR package. I’ll talk more about this later.