Posts Tagged ‘Books’

It was the first day of the new millennium and he greeted it by walking away from a $20 an hour job to start his own business. He had never been in business for himself before and the endless possibilities were exhilarating and exciting. The man had planned well for his departure and began his new business with a few prime clients in place. With hard work and perseverance, he replaced his previous salary within two years. Then the unthinkable happened. Like the orchestrated detonation of a condemned building, his business collapsed in 2002 due to a major shift in his industry. The bottom fell out and there was nothing the man could do to stop it.

His income dropped by 80%, and in spite of 13 attempts to go back to a “real job”, every opportunity fell through. Relying on food stamps to feed his family, his house in active foreclosure, the man knew there had to be another way. In spite of the bleak outlook, he knew he had made the right choice to start his own business. With a renewed commitment to himself and his family to find the answer he was looking for, the man continued to push ahead with a dream of something more.

Slowly, he rebuilt his business, saved his house and got off food stamps. But in spite of all his hard work and effort, the answer the man searched for alluded him. A year later, when a stranger’s comment reminded him of something he had forgotten from ten years previous, a spark of curiosity captured the man’s imagination with an idea of possibility. How could he have so easily forgotten a “miracle” that had saved his family once before? With little outside help and a lot of hard work, the man ventured into a brand-new marketplace with a vision for the future and his first book in hand. That was five years ago and that man was me. The discovery (or rather, re-discovery, was the Public Domain.

In the past five years, Public Domain content has changed my life. Through the products I’ve created from Public Domain content, I’ve been able to generate a consistent six-figure income every year. The reason why that’s so amazing and such good news for you is that the copyright laws haven’t changed and Public Domain content is more accessible now than ever before. And so I have decided that, in honor of my 5-year anniversary in working with Public Domain content, I am going to teach a brand-new series that reveals the blueprints I’ve discovered and developed to create profit-pulling products from Public Domain content.

In “Public Domain Blueprint,” I am going to reveal the best strategies, the best blueprints for turning the proven content from the Public Domain into laser-focused, profit-producing products using every media type available: Books, Serials, Patents, Government, Images, Audio & Video. You might think that I’ve shared all my secrets about the Public Domain, but you would be wrong. In “Public Domain Blueprint”, however, they all come out. I’m holding nothing back.

If you’re ready for the next level of product creation (and you’d like to get in on the fun at an 85% discount), click the link below and get ready to discover the Public Domain like you’ve never seen it before. Because I’m going to tell you what works and what doesn’t. Click below!

Public Domain Blueprint

Over the past several years, I’ve explored pretty much every type of content available in the Public Domain, from books and magazines to patents, videos and more. In that time, I concluded that I had pretty much seen it all…that there were no new surprises available for me to discover. Recently, I discovered I was wrong.

I put together a two-page report that explains my discovery. Don’t let the small page count fool you…what I’m revealing in these two pages is HUGE! Find out for yourself!

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE!

Here is the next strategy in our “30 Covert Strategies” series…

2. Publish E-Books. When it comes to e-books, I’m lumping all types of e-books into one description here. These would include PDF’s you sell or give away from your website, as well as e-books published for the Kindle, Nook, iPad and every other tablet and mobile device available now and in the future! While I love print books, the truth is that e-book sales are on the rise, and that’s not about to change. E-readers have changed everything. With the number of e-readers, tablets and smartphones already in use, plus more being purchased everyday, you cannot ignore creating and selling e-books…unless you hate money.

Selling your own PDFs created from Public Domain content is pretty straightforward since most word processors and page layout programs output directly to PDF. Publishing to the other platforms can present a few more challenges, but don’t let that stop you. Amazon offers excellent tutorials for publishing to the Kindle, as does Barnes & Noble for the Nook. Other sites, like Smashwords.com, enable you to publish to all the major reader platforms by supplying your book(s) in the EPUB format, the standard for most readers. The same book creation strategies I shared with Print Books apply here. As a matter of fact, I would HIGHLY recommend creating BOTH print books AND e-books of every Public Domain-based book you publish. There is no reason to NOT do that…unless you like leaving money on the table!

I’m writing a new series of posts that break down the BEST ways to profit from Public Domain content. To kick the new series off, here is Strategy #1!

1. Publish Print Books. You would think that republishing books from the Public Domain would be a no-brainer strategy for marketers to pursue; especially with today’s high-quality POD technology; yet few actually do it. Here are a few covert approaches to consider for creating print books from Public Domain content: Rather than publish existing books as-is, consider pulling the BEST content from topically-related books to create a “new,” more laser-focused book with you listed as the editor or compiler. CreateSpace.com (owned by Amazon) makes it easy to create and publish your own print books, offering templates and step-by-step instructions!

Alternatively, also consider finding related magazine articles from the Public Domain and publish them in print form. Each article would represent a chapter (unless it’s a really short article). There are hundreds of thousands of pages of content available in the Public Domain in magazine form just waiting to be re-purposed. The goal here is to create print books that people actually want to buy and read rather than to just publish content for the sake of “getting it out there.” CreateSpace also enables you to publish full-color print books as well. The cost per unit is higher, but with the millions of photographs and illustrations available in the Public Domain, the opportunities here are endless.

Need ideas on topics to focus on? Here is a hot one…we are just now entering the timeframe of the 150 anniversary of the Civil War. For the next three years, there will be a LOT of celebrations and events related to this country-changing historical event! Capitalize on it!

Over the past several days, I’ve been sharing some in-depth strategies and insights on how to use Public Domain content to create Physical Products. With top traffic sites like Amazon, eBay, Etsy and others pulling in a whopping monthly
traffic volume of over 175 million consumers, it is INSANE to NOT be selling products on those sites!

The great news is that, with the vast collection of Public Domain available to us, is it easier now than ever to create and sell products on those sites. And that leads me to a VERY exciting announcement!

I just released the details on a brand-new webinar series I am teaching called, “Physical Product Success Secrets” where I will be sharing all the latest marketing research, product creation strategies and much more! This series will share,
step-by-step, how you can add profitable physical products to your business and benefit from the massive amounts of consumers looking for YOUR products. I will show you how to determine what sells and what doesn’t, the types of products
you can create (and how to do it), where to sell them online AND offline, and much more!

You can get all the details on how to get started here. You do NOT want to miss this:

Physical Product Success Secrets

As information product developers, we often spend a lot of time trying to get traffic to our websites so that we can increase sales. More traffic = more sales…or so the theory goes. But we often get SO focused on “digital products” and “traffic getting” that we miss some huge opportunities for capitalizing on massive traffic that already exists. The catch, however, is that to benefit from this traffic, we need to sell PHYSICAL products, not digital ones (with one exception which I’ll address later).

I love creating digital products as much as the next person. They’re fast and easy to manage. But with the abundance of “physical product” traffic that is available, it’s time to re-think your product creation process. The truth is, that in many cases, your digital products can easily make the jump to physical with minimal effort. You will understand what I mean when I reveal the traffic sources.

I’ve been conducting a LOT of research and testing on sites like the ones I’m about to share BECAUSE of the traffic volume they receive…that’s the ONLY reason. The numbers are simply too big to ignore! As a matter of fact, I will go so far as to say that if you are not selling on ALL (or at least most) of the sites I’m about to mention, you’re missing a huge opportunity to boost your income. And the BEST news (as far as I’m concerned) is that Public Domain-based products are PERFECT for these sites! What websites am I talking about? Here is the list along with their traffic numbers (from Compete.com):

• Amazon.com (82.1 Million Visitors per Month)

• eBay.com (67.2 Million Visitors per Month)

• Etsy.com (6.5 Million Visitors per Month)

• Zazzle.com (5.7 Million Visitors per Month)

• CafePress.com (5.2 Million Visitors per Month)

• iOffer.com (1.9 Million Visitors per Month)

When it comes to selling physical products, the above sites are the cream of the crop. There are addition sites out there with traffic numbers under a million per month, but these six sites should be a part of your product-selling strategy…period…simply because of the traffic. Think about it, is it easier to create a river or stand in the middle of one? Obviously the latter approach is easier. By offering your products on the sites above, that is essentially what you’re doing…standing in the flow of their existing traffic!

So…what should you be selling there? Be smart and do your research. Find out what people are already buying and them sell them more of the same! Most of the sites offer best-seller listings…use them! And with today’s on-demand technologies, turning Public Domain content into physical products to sell couldn’t be easier!

Here are a few places to begin your research on the top three sites:

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/

• http://pulse.ebay.com/

• http://www.craftcount.com/ (Top sellers on Etsy)

I’ve been teaching a webinar series for my Step-by-Step Members lately on creating different types of physical products from Public Domain content. And so, for today’s post, I thought it might be beneficial for you if I listed some of my personal favorite resources for getting physical products created.

First of all…WHY physical products? Aren’t digital products easier to manage and more profitable? Yes and no! The truth is that, in spite of the rise of the iPad and other mobile devices, many people still enjoy having a tangable, physical “something” to hold and stick on the bookshelf or share with a friend. And besides, try “wearing” a piece of digital art…grin. Physical products also carry a certain sense of “realness” that digital products don’t have. Then there is the perceived value piece of it. Try an experiment…tell someone you wrote an e-book, and then tell them you also wrote a print book. Somehow, having a book in “print” carries greater weight in the mind of the reader because you’ve been “published.”

So what types of physical products are able to be created using Public Domain content? With, with the advent of many different types of on-demand technologies, there are quite a few types of physical products you can create. As recent as just a few years ago, many of these technologies either didn’t exist or were crazy expensive. All that has changed now and will continue to evolve…for our benefit!

Some of the most popular physical product creation methods available to you include:

• Books (paperback, hardback, photo books, etc.)

• DVDs (movies, digital collections, software, etc.)

• CDs (music, digital files, software, etc.)

• Binders (workbooks, course modules and more)

• Apparel (t-shirts, totes, jackets, hoodies, etc.)

• Prints (posters, maps, artwork, photographs, calendars, etc.)

• Other Printed Pieces (magazines, calendars, greeting cards, etc.)

• Household Items (drinkware, window decor, tapestries, etc.)

As you can see, there are quite a few options for you to choose from for creating physical products. Please bear this important point in mind though…if you don’t actually CREATE the products, you can’t make money from them. Seems obvious enough, but you’d be surprised how many DON’T take action. So to make “taking action” as EASY as possible, here is a list of some of my favorite sites for creating products in a “physical” way. As Olivia Newton John once sang…”Let’s get physical…” lol.

Books

• Lulu
• CreateSpace
• 48hrBooks

Photo Books

• Blurb
• MPix
• SnapFish

Apparel

• Zazzle
• CafePress
• Spreadshirt

Prints

• Print Pelican
• Shortrun Posters
• BayPhoto

Magazines/Calendars

• Print Pelican

DVDs/CDs

• Kunaki
• CreateSpace

My good friend, Wendi Friesen (an amazing…and funny…hypnotherapist and teacher), contacted me yesterday through Facebook with a simple question…

Tony, if a book is in the public domain, I can read it record it without a problem, right? What else do I need to know if I want to sell an audio version?

Perhaps you have had the same question. If not, you SHOULD be asking it, or at least creating audio products of some type. The reason is that audio products are the ONLY product type that your customer can take with them anywhere! They can’t read ebooks while driving and they catch watch those training videos of yours while walking the dog. Audio, however, can be taken and listened to anywhere, and on a myriad of devices, from smart phones to MP3 players, iPods, CD players and much more! The other important piece of info I shared with Wendi was that, because you are creating a derivative product from an existing Public Domain work, it qualifies for copyright protection because recording the audio requires “minimal creativity,” a requisite according to copyright law. How cool is that?!

What I shared with Wendi, and now with you, is that the process of creating an audiobook from Public Domain content is truly THAT simple, with no other “catches” or things to worry about. Of course, you need a way to sell your audio product, but the creation process is pretty straight-forward. Pick the Public Domain book, magazine or content of your choice, read it into your computer using a USB mic (like the Audio-Technica AT2020 USB mic), record it using audio software (like Audacity, which is free), and save it as an MP3. That’s it…pretty straight forward.

Of course, you can also add intro music and other bells and whistle, break them up into podcasts, sell them through iTunes, etc., but the basics of creating audio products using Public Domain content are pretty simple!

My course, Create Audio Products, goes into great detail, step-by-step, on how to creating different types of audio content, where to FIND audio content already in the Public Domain and a LOT more. It’s time to create your OWN audio products!

Barnes & Noble just provided us with a new opportunity for profiting from our e-books (like those from the Public Domain). Their new program, just launched October 5th, is called, PubIt! and gives anyone the ability to publish e-books for their Nook reader. What makes this a worthwhile consideration is, first of all, PubIt! uses the epub format, just like Apple’s iBooks for the iPad, Sony’s e-Reader and other devices. Second, Barnes & Noble has apps to offer their books on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and the PC.

After signing up for my own account, I did some investigating to see if B&N said anything about the Public Domain. Here is an excerpt from their terms concerning copyright:

Copyright Infringing: Material to which you do not own the copyright or the right to distribute. Public domain content may be posted to PubIt!. Barnes & Noble may, at any time, request validation that a given eBook qualifies as a public domain title.

So the good news is that the door is wide open for Public Domain titles. Now before you get the bright idea to upload PD titles and load them with links to other products and offers, you will also want to consider this statement as well, again from the PubIt! website:

Advertisements: Material contained within your eBook that primarily seeks to sell a product other than the eBook itself is prohibited.

In case you are wondering what kind of profits can we make from selling our e-books through PubIt!, here is a breakdown of the royalty structure:

Publisher will be paid a royalty off the List Price according to the following terms:

1. For eBooks with a List Price at or between $2.99 and $9.99 – 65% of the List Price

2. For eBooks with a List Price at or below $2.98 or at or greater than $10.00 (but not more than $199.99 and not less than $0.99) – 40% of the List Price

So, if you haven’t figured it our yet, keep your prices in the $2.99 to $9.99 price range…grin. With Barnes & Noble jumping into the e-publishing bookstore fray along with Apple’s iBook store and Amazon’s Kindle, the future is looking mighty bright for those who choose to sell e-books (and not just Public Domain e-books…hint…hint) through these marketplaces.

You may have noticed lately that I haven’t been talking about Public Domain content as much now as I have in the past. So what happened? Have I given up on the Public Domain? Have I milked it for all its worth and now am onto bigger things? Have I gone underground and am keeping all the new tricks to myself? Nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is that I have (temporarily) shifted away some from teaching about Public Domain content because of YOU!

You see, I discovered a growing trend with many of my subscribers that really concerned me. They would hear me talk about the Public Domain and share what’s possible with the content and get excited. They would invest in my Public Domain courses, find TONS of great Public Domain content, but then, something happened. It is this “something” that concerned me, and it is the PRIMARY reason why you will NOT make money from Public Domain content!

I found that many of my customers…perhaps even you…didn’t DO anything with the Public Domain content they found. It just sat there on their hard drive taking up space. Tons of ebooks, images, magazines and more…all with great potential, all doing nothing to make them money.

I wondered, “What about the blog posts and articles you were going to write using PD content? What about all the product ideas you had using PD content as the source? What about the books, e-books, videos, audios, posters, membership sites and all the other wonderful products you can create using Public Domain content? Quite honestly, I was puzzled. I wondered why so many would take those important first steps of action, but then stop. A little investigating revealed the answer. And this discovery is what shifted my business.

What I discovered was that few people actually knew and understood what their next steps should be. They found great content, and in some cases, even created products, but didn’t know how to get those products online. They weren’t sure how to build the websites and set up the download pages. They didn’t understand how to get traffic to their site (if they had one) and, in many cases, the idea of using social media was confusing at best. It seemed that even knowing the right tools and software for creating those products was elusive.

Can you relate? Is this where YOU are in your own business? I think you will agree that it would be irresponsible of me (or anyone else) to ignore the problems you might be struggling with. And so, because of these revelations, I’m changing how I approach my product creation, my interaction with my subscribers and customers and with YOU! No, I haven’t given up on the Public Domain. As a matter of fact, it is playing a key role in some of the new projects I’m working on right now! The task right now, however, is to see YOU succeed even MORE with Public Domain content!

So I’m curious…what roadblocks are YOU facing with taking the next step? What is the ONE THING you believe would make all the difference in the world in helping you become successful (or more successful) online? Please post your thoughts and comments below. And if you would, please also share this with your friends and subscribers through the Twitter, Facebook and Digg links. Thanks!