Cindy Kunath-Brock

Archive for the ‘Affordable Words’ Category

One of the only projects I have that I still work on/in is Decluttering for Dollars.  When I launched this site, it was done as the result of a free teleseminar I did for a clutter busting group I belonged too.

As I’ve been at NAMS this weekend, and after discussions with some business associates that I respect, I am thinking that I am going to move my focus to providing products – versus services (except to a select few clients that I have been working with for a long time).  Why?

NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems) has shown me that I do not have to work IN my business – but I can truly work ON my business.  I’ve learned all about automation using blogs, social media (Twitter, FaceBook), forums, etc.  I’ve also learned about the benefit of being an affiliate for other products – whether they are in my niche or not.

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Do you currently have articles, seminar transcripts, and/or class recordings that could easily be turned into ematerials and sold?  

Do you neither have the time nor the skill to do this quickly and easily?  That’s where I step in.

As a professional writer and fellow solo entrepreneur, my forte is taking words in any form (even those scratched on a bar napkin) and turning them into a product worthy of being sold.

Over the past few years, I have watched other solo entrepreneurs send out materials that were…well…less than stellar.  In fact, I received one just this morning that had much to be desired.  How is your eBook going to convince someone to pay you $50, 75, or over $100 when it’s plain, dull, and boring.  It won’t.  Please – especially now – want to get tremendous value for their dollar and they expect far more than before. 

Here’s what they’re seeking: 

• A cover that excites them and entices them to turn the page.
• All the legal jargon that shows you mean business.
• Who you are.
• An outline (aka the Table of Contents) they can quickly review.
• Great looking content with easily identifiable sections, nice formatting, helpful pictures, and easy-to-follow information.
• Content that is free of spelling, punctuation, and/or grammar errors.
• A user-friendly product they can read online or print correctly without having special software or adjusting their printer settings.

Recently, several friends asked me to turn their web articles as well as the seminar transcripts into professionally designed ebooks.  This included creating a cover, inserting the applicable copyright and bio page, generating a table of contents, editing and/or formatting the material, adding images, and all the other production work required to turn their material into a top notch eBook.  I even created a thumbnail of the cover for use with websites and ezines. 

Below are the before/after transformations of a teleseminar transcript provided by my close and dear friend, Melinda Day-Harper, CEO of T-Zone Consulting (www.TzoneConsulting.com):

Obviously, the after version is not a transcript.  It’s an actual ebook that someone can read – just as they would a regular book. 

Since I’m also a virtual assistant (VA), I discovered that a large number of solo entrepreneurs utilize VA’s that simply don’t offer this level of service.  This is because most VA’s (a) are not professional writers, and/or (b) do not fully understand and/or maximize the word processing software they use.  There’s nothing wrong with this.  These VA’s focus on what they do best, which is administrative/secretarial types of services.  I simply prefer to work on a different business aspect. 

For the past 25 years, I have written both creative and technical materials, conducted instructor-led training, had my written works published, and created and reworked hundreds of documents for all types of business and corporations.  In fact, in my first year of running my writing corporation (Affordable Words, Inc.), over 75% of my 6-figure income came from editing and formatting alone.   (The other 25% was writing user guides and developing online help systems for software applications.)

So if I can do all this – be a writer, train, offer VA services, etc., why in the world would I want to create ebooks?  Because it’s what I absolutely LOVE to do!  Call me a perfectionist, call me anal retentive, call me a freak.  No matter.  Helping others to distribute information that’s both pleasing to look at and pleasing to read is my “mission” in life.

How can I help you?

I so enjoy helping friends when it comes to communication about their business.   I recently completed a new brochure for my wonderful friend and massage therapist, Dayna Ward-Walker.   She gave me some previous samples of her brochures and there were not at all what I expected. 

Dayna offers these amazing, wonderful services – my favorite being body brushing.   Yet, none of these services were in her current brochure.  Strange.  To me, it was just an automatic “given” that I need to include them.

Development of the brochure went fairly quickly.  I found some great pictures and then added in some text from her old brochures and a completely new “menu” page. 

When I gave the sample to Dayna, she was like a little kid in a candy store.   The menu page just shocked her.  

We did a little refinement and she opted to have it printed in color on premier white paper and tri-folded on a machine.    She was so happy with it.  Yet, in the middle of all our excitement, we both failed to notice one thing:  one digit of her phone number was wrong!  ARGH!   No matter how much you proofread and proofread, the basic things are what you miss. 

Regardless, the cost of color copies is so low now that Dayna is just going to use the brochures as they are (she only had 75 made) and we’ll make the change the next time around!

To see the final brochure (with the correct phone number) click here.