The Number One Product Creation Myth is…
... That you need to add "professional quality" audio and video into a product. The truth is you can get away with what I call the "lens cap strategy" ... you'll know exactly what this means when you get inside Product University 2.0... but more about that on Wednesday's training call.
Remember, products are not just e-books. Videos can be products on their own... streaming videos, downloadbale videos or even DVDs. You can use audio to create CDs, offer them for download or even stick them onto your sales letter to increase conversions.
Here's something you can do to enhance your sales letter in the next five minutes: whip out an audio recording program like Audacity or Camtasia, put that USB headset of yours on your head, and record you reading the most powerful part of your sales letter.
That's the beauty of audio: you can read what's already on the page word for word and people will still get extra value of it because it makes your message more impactful.
You might choose to read your guarantee word-for-word. Or maybe the description of your bonus items, or your headlines and the deck copy below the headlines. Then slap it on an audio button and guess what... you've added personality.
But what's great about those little USB headsets you can find on Amazon.com is that the audio quality is so good, you don't need a hiss filter. You don't need a preamp or an equalizer. You don't need anything because it plugs right into the USB port and does not use your sound card.
Video is a little trickier, but only a little. What's interesting is that people will hate a good video picture and bad audio much more than they will hate bad video and good audio quality.
With that said, most laptop and computer web cameras these days are decent if you bought it in the last couple of years. Even if you didn't, get a Flip camera. The new HD ones cost 200 bucks but you can find the old ones that run on AA batteries for just 40 dollars.
If you know what you're talking about, you don't need a script, just an outline. Just pretend you're presenting at a live event. You can screw up in person and recover... the same is true with video.
Marlon Sanders used to give me a hard time over e-mails telling me I had bags under my eyes just like he does and that I need soft lighting to make it look better. If that's a problem for you, then don't film in your basement! Crack a window for some lighting or film outside. Problem solved.
People don't care if your video looks homemade as long as it makes sense and delivers good content. Once you get the hang of using high-level techniques like video creation to generate products FASTER, you'll launch products faster and make more money.
Leave a comment below telling me what you'd like SPECIFICALLY to be covered in a product creation class and this blog post should redirect you to signup for the free webinar on July 1st, 2009.
Filed in: Seven Things
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I LOVE IT!!!
Personally, I’d want you to offer (I know you did this in the past) to co-host multi-part webinars with participants…
that in itself, is worth a few hundred dollars. There are people in the business of setting up giveaways that charge THOUSANDS to set them up right…
I’d also like to see you offer one-on-one ongoing advice via email or webinar to buyers of the course, say, bi weekly for the next six months.
that could even be an upsell!
Izzy,
If you join, I’ll co-host webinars with the participants.
Definite no on the ongoing advice for 6 months. I’ve tried that, and it only encourages people to wait until class is over until they start asking. I want every active student to have at LEAST two selling products by the end.
Robert,
The following is an excerpt from Eban Pagan’s “Marketing Voodoo” found at the Guru Home Study Course.
This comment is left in all respect to you and your knowledge but I thought you might get some value from it if you hadn’t already seen it.
“Try this exercise:
Take out a one dollar bill and a twenty dollar bill, and LOOK at them for a
moment.
Ask yourself a simple question: “Why is one of the bills “worth†twenty times
as much as the other?â€
Is it the different pictures?
Is it the different serial numbers?
Is it the different signatures on the bills?
No, it’s not.
The reason why one of the bills is “worth†more is because of…
…the NUMBER that’s printed on the bill!
Now, I don’t want to get into a philosophical argument about whether or not
the bill actually “has value†– or whether or not the twenty dollar bill represents a
bigger “promise†– it doesn’t matter.
What DOES matter is that humans project the higher value onto the bigger
bill instantly, automatically, and unconsciously… and that’s that.
So what?
How does this help you?
Well, when you take a minute to think about it, you’ll realize that…
…people are NOT very good at figuring out
how much INFORMATION is worth!
So if people aren’t very good at figuring out how much information is worth,
and you want to make more money selling information, then it makes sense that
you need to get good at…
…translating the value for them!
In other words, you need to clearly “print the number on the bill†so that one
of your potential customers can know how much they should pay.”
To your success and thank you for the awesome content,
John “Curley” Bruin
@ John Bruin
That’s a very, very good exercise and a compelling point.
Amin
Hi Robert,
I can see how the average Joe would be concerned “I can’t do it good enough to sell”.
Now that you’ve brought this up, there are a lot more audio and video products on the market which are not studio quality products, than there are those “professional quality”.
As long as I can receive the content in a comfortable manner, and it is good content, I don’t mind hearing the kids in the next room playing, or the dog barking in the background once in a while.
Any content that is based heavily on video needs to be easily discernible, just as audio needs to be done well enough to be heard without extraordinary effort.
Luckily the equipment to do so is fairly easy for most people to muster together, and sometimes it’s free.
I’ve enjoyed the Product Creation Myth series.
Dennis
Will you be promoting it to your list? (thats what you did in the last version of the webinar course, if I recall correctly.)
Hey Robert,
Yeah, bad audio REALLY blows…
A good USB microphone and micro screen make it easy.
I hate those poppin’ P’s without the wind screen! :-0
Robert, will you be in Austin next month for your
buddy Jason F’s seminar at the Embassy Suite Hotel?
I will be there, and would like to meet you,
black bagged eyes and all…
Keep up the Offensive!
As in constant pushing forward, not being satisfied
to just hold steady.
It was great to see you let go of the tether line,
when you kissed your J.O.B. adios…
Your Friend in Texas,
Dr. Michael Quadlander
______________________________
Robert,
You have motivated me!
I created a new report for my opt in page in under 28 minutes…
http://bhmh.net/reportcreationinmotion.html
I can only imagine how much more your class will accomplish by the time the class is done…
what do you think of it?
Izzy,
What programs were you using? It seemed to me that it was some kind of auto dictator? Cool!
…So you study Talmud?
Sometimes I can get through a passage.
I wonder if there is market for learning Talmud faster?
That would be a cool niche product.
I saw ur linkdin profile.
Are you a full blown Rabbi? With Semicha?
adam
Adam,
hmmm….
“speed Learning Talmud” is a niche, but I don’t know if it would be a profitable one.. I doubt it…
In Judaism, effort is placed on learning the information in depth and understanding very very well, and not on speed.
let’s email privately about that stuff, if you want to. Super Robert might not want personal conversations taking place in his blog comments. 😉
I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking for dictation.
I’m a member of Robert’s time management class, and recording myself helped me focus on getting it done without goofing off, and also left me with a fascinating video that i will probably post on youtube.
it should generate some traffic to my new opt in report, which i finished today….
I finished the text, report, cover, branded… and ready to roll.
Robert,
there are rumors of demonstrations being planned outside your house to protest the lack of blog posts…
any comment?