When we took him home he was being treated for heartworms (he had been kept outside - an absolutely traumatic way for Goldens to live - they are so focused in on their people that forcing them to live outside is just cruel.)  His coat was dull, his eyes and cheeks were sunken, and he was very lethargic. We had to keep him quiet for 2 months while he received his painful shots and got rid of the heartworms. For the most part he didn’t have much trouble with the treatment, though we did have a couple of nights when his nose bled and we had to stay up with him and try to staunch the flow. But that, too, passed. He knew it the day his doctor declared him well - as soon as he got back from the vet’s office, he took off running around the back yard after 2 months of staying quiet!

Shadow was a “velcro” dog - he attached himself to me and stayed by my side (usually pressed up against my leg) 24 hours a day. He has eased off this a bit now that he’s well, and we’re starting to see more of his personality. He’s very different from Ben and Andy, and has his own unique personality.

About 2 weeks ago we adopted him! (You should have known that was coming! LOL!)

Here’s his picture…

Yesterday Ben died suddenly during a vet visit. It was totally unexpected and devastating. He was such a constant, comforting presence in the house that it feels empty here now, and very lonely. I still can’t believe he’s gone. I don’t think I can say anymore about it right now.

BEN
May 4, 1999 - June 2, 2008

]]> http://ebookgraphics.com/wordpress/2008/06/03/ben-died-yesterday-june-2-2008/feed/ http://ebookgraphics.com/wordpress/2008/03/30/one-bite-at-a-time-just-like-eating-an-elephant/ http://ebookgraphics.com/wordpress/2008/03/30/one-bite-at-a-time-just-like-eating-an-elephant/#comments Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:10:16 +0000 Neil http://ebookgraphics.com/wordpress/2008/03/30/one-bite-at-a-time-just-like-eating-an-elephant/ Information Overload…

Every one here has come up against the “info-overload barrier” - and there’s only one way to handle it… the same way you would eat an elephant: One bite at a time!

Actually, the trick is to take a good look at what you want to accomplish - for example, maybe you want a passive income that keeps going no matter what you do. Maybe you want money to come in “bursts”. Maybe you want a complete “no-hands” approach. Maybe you just want to experiment - and play - with marketing. Maybe you want it to be a full-time job.

First, get pencil and paper - don’t even try to keep this in your head. (The best way is to create a mind map and, yes, there are free mind-mapping programs available…plug this phrase into Google “free mind mapping software” - this one is pretty good… http://www.thebrain.com/#-47)

Number 1 is to determine what you want from Internet Marketing.

Let’s say you are the mother of 3 toddlers under 4. You must stay home with them. You cannot take your eyes off them. You want an income from the internet that isn’t going to require that you spend a lot of time working on the project. OK - we’ll look at “passive income.”

Number 2 is to “quantify” those wants… how much do you want or need to have as that income? Our Mom above decides she needs $2000 a month. Now, you can break that down to weekly, daily or hourly income if you like - or if it will give you a clearer idea of how that will translate in terms of work.

Number 2 is “quantify” - put a number to it.

Our Mom now knows she’ll need to make $2000 a month from passive sources.

Number 3 is to determine “what methods” will get you there.

And this is where most people get bogged down. There are so many possible ways to do it! There are membership sites, niche sites, auction sites, individual product sites, service sites, affiliate sites, and on and on and on.

But there’s a little trick here, too! You are not restricted to using only one method - as a matter of fact, the more you use the better! Multiple streams of income. Little trickles from many sources flow together to make streams, streams flow together to make rivers, rivers flow into oceans. Start anywhere!

Any product (or groups of products) can be sold using any or all of the methods listed above Maybe our Mom really likes crafts. She can create a membership site for crafts, or for a specific craft. She can create a CD or DVD and sell it on eBay or other auction site, she can create a niche sales site and sell individual products. She can create a site that teaches. She can create an affiliate site using products from Commission Junction, etc. There are all kinds of things she can do.

You can also get very technical and check what search terms and keywords people are searching for and set up sites for those items, but I like the personal - “this is something I’m interested in” approach. People seem to realize when personal energy is invested into a site or product.

Number 4 is “sell it.”

Like the above, there are a myriad number of ways to sell and market - both free and paid. And, like above, you should employ as many of them as possible. There are articles, viral ebooks, audio files, video files, cross-linking, back-linking, recruiting affiliates, forums, and many, many more. You can create a “package” of sales techniques that you use on every site, with every “method’ above. Yes, like a cookie cutter.

Probably the most overlooked, or possibly ignored, aspect of this is persistence. Back in the old days of advertising, the phrase was “If you throw enough sh*t on the wall, some of it’s bound to stick.” Keep track of what sticks and do it again.

Within a short period of time, your many little trickles will become a stream. And then a river…

Of course, this is all very simplified, and there is so much more to know… (for example: how do I pay for hosting 10, or 20 or 100 sites??) but that’s all part of refining your techniques…

For those who may be sceptical about the benefits of chiropractic, or who think chiropractic is just a placebo, think about this… dogs don’t know from placebos. They hurt, or they don’t. Simple. Ben showed more improvement with each treatment, and now feels good. He sleeps better, he has no pain in any range of motion, and he is his old happy self.

No placebo - just a treatment that works. You might want to consider it yourself…

She treated his neck again, his cervicals and upper thoracics, and his sacrum (base of the spine.) This time he slept the entire trip home, and when he got home, he went outside and then came back in and slept some more. He finally woke up when my wife came home for lunch. We watched him stand and move around, and we were guardedly optimistic. His limp was not as pronounced, he was getting up and moving better, and more often, and he was smiling and WAGGING - which he hadn’t done much of since he got hurt. Ben has always been a smiler and a wagger (he even wags at the vet’s with a thermometer in his butt!).

Since Wednesday, he has continued to improve - his muscles aren’t spasming now, he’s walking with a better gait, he has much less trouble getting up and down, and, of course, he’s smiling and wagging again. My wife said she would believe he was getting better when he greeted her at the door when she comes home for lunch. Well, Thursday and Friday he did just that! When he got hurt, I had just bought him a new toy, which he hasn’t paid much attention to - until today. Today he started playing with it and carrying it around. Yay, Ben!

Ben seems to be on the mend now. Hopefully, he’ll just keep getting better. And, yes, we’re going to continue his chiropractic treatments…

(BTW - if you are in Northeastern Oklahoma and want to take your dog or cat to a chiropractor, Ben’s chiropractor is Jody Barkley, DC and she’s located in Skiatook, OKlahoma.)

Who are they, and what do they do????

In it’s simplest terms, payment processors are services you can use to process the payments you receive on your website. They may handle credit cards, debit cards, e-checks, etc. They save you from having to have a merchant account to process credit cards. Some will direct deposit into your bank account, some will send you checks. Some are instant (PayPal), some take a few weeks (ClickBank), some take longer. Be sure to check on all the variables from each processor…

There are lots of different processors, and fees are variable so it’s important to go to their websites and read about them. Find your best fit…

http://www.paypal.com/
http://www.propay.com/
http://www.clickbank.com/
http://www.stormpay.com/
http://www.authorizenet.com/
http://www.2checkout.com/
http://www.moneybookers.com/
http://www.ccnow.com/
http://www.verisign.com/
http://www.firepay.com/
http://www.ibill.com/
http://innovativegateway.com/
http://www.iongate.com/
http://www.linkpoint.com/
http://www.plugnpay.com/
http://www.skipjack.com/
http://www.worldpay.com/
http://www.auctionpay.com/
http://www.moneyzap.com/
http://www.nochex.com/
http://www.certapay.com/en/homepage.cfm
http://www.premierauthorize.com/mer…ccounts.html
http://www.paysystems.com/
http://www.regsoft.com/
http://www.kagi.com/
http://www.digibuy.com/cgi-bin/features.html
http://www.goemerchant.com/
http://www.regnow.com/client.html
http://www.swreg.org/
http://www.e-gold.com/
http://www.paystone.com/
http://www.ikobo.com/
http://www.multicards.com/
http://www.verotel.com/index-en.html
http://www.netbilling.com/
https://www.onlinedatacorp.com/
http://www.qenta.at/en/payment/index.html
http://www.earthport.com/earthport/index.jsp
http://www.egold.com/
http://www.intgold.com/
http://www.shareit.com
http://www.payzip.com
http://www.payzipmerchant.com
http://www.cachecard.net
http://www.process54.com
http://www.ccbill.com

One of the most common things people email me about is what to do about their downloads. They don’t know whether to get a script, use a download program, or even how PayPal and ClickBank work. They search all over the net and get even more confused.

OK - deep breath and RELAX!

Let’s do a quick review of the sales process.

1. The buyer comes to your website and reads about your product.

2. They decide to buy it, and click the buy button.

3. They are sent to a payment page (PayPal, Clickbank, or other) where they make their payment.
(Note: PayPal, ClickBank, 2CheckOut, etc - are payment processors. They will handle getting the money for you. They will NOT, except as an minimal adjunct to their processing service, handle your downloads or the delivery of your product! They will, though, let you specify where the download is located - but, don’t do that!!!!!)

and here’s where all the questions start…

4. They are then sent to a download page where they can download their purchase.

or
they are sent to an autoresponder where they enter their email address and are sent the download instructions
or
they are sent to an autoresponder where they enter their email address and are sent to a download page
or
they are sent an email telling them how to get their purchase
or
they are sent an email telling them where to download
or
they are sent through a script to a limited download page
or…
or…
or…

You can see why people are getting confused - there are literally hundreds of ways to handle downloads.

I’ve tried a lot of them. I’ve tried scripts that hide your download in a secret place, I’ve tried the PayPal encryption buttons, I’ve tried programs that handle your downloads, and on and on… Every one of them required some kind of intervention along the way.

I finally stumbled on a solution, and now all my downloads are handled by it - I use E-Junkie.

Here’s what I said to someone who emailed me about her download confusion -

“You are making this much more difficult than it really is. E-Junkie is much, much more than just “timed-out links with x number of downloads.” First of all, it’s completely customizable, and each download link is unique to each purchaser (they don’t all get the same download link.) They check the buyer before sending the link - ie: the payment must have been completed. It will also add your buyer to a mailing list, send additional emails to them, and completely automate the buying process. Your ebook is on their server, so there’s no question about people finding it, and no question about bandwidth - if you get a lot of downloads, your bandwidth costs can be huge. E-Junkie takes care of all that. It also keeps sales records for you, and they have an affiliate program so other people can sell your ebook for you. And, your buyer’s payments can be processed through any processor you like - PayPal, Clickbank, etc. You get your money posted to your account immediately. People buying with an e-check don’t receive their ebook until the check has cleared. They can do a shopping cart, or an individual buy button. And, they so it all for $5 a month! No charges for each download - just a once a month fee. Good grief - it automates the *entire* buying process - why would you want to have to do all that yourself, or just get a part of it using somebody’s script????”

You really need to go to E-Junkie and wander around - read the FAQS, go to the forum, see what all they can do for you…

So, forget the scripts, forget the programs, and just sign up with E-Junkie - you’ll simplify your life…

===============================
OK - I just re-read this and I can see that I’m going to have to break things down a little more simply… next post will be on payment processors

First, sorry for the delay in posting - if you’ve read the “about me” page, you know I have a Golden Retriever named Ben, and you know I’m also a chiropractor. (And, a lot of people email me and comment about Ben and Andy.)

Well, Ben got hurt earlier this month. We think he might have slipped on the concrete floors (we’re in continual remodeling mode here!)

He hurt his neck and is limping on his left front leg. He’s been in a lot of pain and our vet couldn’t do much for him. The vet thought he had a cervical (neck) disc problem, and we tried giving him a couple of different NSAID pain drugs, but Ben had reactions to them. We tried massage, heat and cold, but nothing was having much effect. After what felt like an endless week of listening to Ben whimper at night, and not be able to lift his head or even get up and walk without stumbling, I searched out one of the guys I had gone to chiropractic school with. In school, his sole goal was to do animal chiropractic. Since he was from our area, I looked him up. He gave me the names of several animal chiropractors around Tulsa.

One of them specialized in dogs, so I made an appointment for her to see Ben. She treated his neck problem, and the results started showing up on the way home from her office. It was about a 40 minute drive. Ben slept about 20 minutes, and then sat up to look out the window! His neck was moving much more easily. Over the next couple of days, it improved even more. He was able to raise his head, twist and turn it, and reach those parts of his body he had been unable to get to before treatment. He sleeps well and no longer whimpers in his sleep. He’s more active, but his front leg is still a problem. Needless to say, I’m taking him back to see the chiropractor tomorrow and she’ll treat his leg and hips.

I have no doubts that Ben will be keep improving. We’ll keep working with him and his chiropractor…

Ok - end of tangent…

I’m going to post again a little later today on “Make it easy on yourself…” - ways to keep from doing everything the hard way and how to automate as much as possible…

In their rush to get the newest and greatest thing for marketing, most internet marketers have a tendency to forget one very tiny, but very critical, element.

You reach the most people using the lowest common denominator.

So, what does that mean? Well, basically it means what is the one thing that the most people have in common? For example - at one time, the lowest common denominator for screen resolution was 600 by 480 pixels. Now it’s rapidly rising from 800 by 600 to about 1280 by 1024.

The latest problem is the big disparity in connection speed. I’m very, very conscious of this. I cannot get DSL where I’m located, and cable is not an option with the cable company here being what it is. That means my only choice is a very expensive satellite connection - and I consider that to be just too expensive to even be an option. I’m stuck with dialup. Yep - dialup! It does not make me happy, but that’s all I’ve got, so that’s what I use. (Maybe someday I’ll get over my disgust with the local cable company, and give in, but not right now…)

It has made me very aware of what mistakes some marketers are making. They are totally ignoring that segment of the Net that does not have a high speed connection.

Let’s look at it from the arrival at their website…

1. First thing - they have a video that automatically starts loading when you get to the page. You have no choice - you are going to see that video! Most of the time, there is no way to stop it, so if you’re on dialup, you either wait (and some of them take a looonnnngggg time to load!), shut down that page, shut down your browser, or turn off videos in the options of the browser (if available). Because it’s dialup, the rest of the page often won’t load until the video is completely loaded, or it loads very slowly. Great way to greet a customer!

2. Perhaps they have a product you want to buy. For example, there was a WordPress script that I bought. The script itself was a text file, but the instructions were in a video. A 17.6 MB video - that translates to at least an hour and a half download time. I sat and waited for it to load - a 3.5 minute video. The relevant instructions took about 15 seconds to describe (it was just a matter of which option to set.) Had this marketer thought about it for 1 minute, he could have come up with (a) a transcript of the video, or (b) a simple step 1, 2, 3 text file for those who either didn’t want to watch a video, or who didn’t have a high speed connection. But he didn’t care about that.

3. Too many marketers are like a kid with a new toy, or like a guy with only a hammer (and everything looks like a nail!) Now everything they do has to have a video attached to it - even if the video is a complete waste of time (like above!). There are tons of membership sites that are nothing but videos. That sure shuts out all the dialup users! (I’d like to join some of them, but I can’t.)

4. Another thing is file download size. I wanted another product this morning, but it was a 45MB file. On high-speed, a few minutes to download. On dialup, I can get about 10MB an hour - so i’m looking at about 4.5 hours to download it. Lost sale for them.

Don’t get me wrong - I am NOT against videos (I actually love them!), nor am I against large downloads. I am just against marketers who don’t consider what customers they are shutting out.

So, how can they regain that lost market of dialup users, or others without the latest and greatest speed demon connection? It’s really very simple… I’ve purchased several programs from Laughingbird. (They have graphic creation programs.) All of their programs are over 100 MB, but they do something very smart - along with their downloads, they also offer a CD of the program. It costs a few bucks more, but it’s worth it.

Membership sites, large download sites, video sites - offer your products on CD and charge me a few extra bucks. Or, break up your large download sizes to manageable bites - let me choose what to download. Hey, I won’t be the only new customer you’ll get!

Look for the lowest common denominator - it’s a bigger group of people than you think!

Anyway, the brand of dishwashing detergent that we like had changed it’s packaging. Instead of the easy to hold hourglass type shape, now it was a pudgy bottle - like the Pillsbury dough boy. And wide - my wife can’t hold it comfortably. Not only that, they had added a little plastic cover over the pour spout that you had to flip back to get the liquid out. Both of these were major changes in the shape and use of the product, and became major issues. You could not easily grasp the new bottle shape, and when you did, the little plastic cap (attached on one side) was perfectly positioned to catch most of the liquid in it instead of squirting it into the sink! Just using it made a “liquid mess.” We hated using it.

This was not produced by a guy named Joe in his garage. Why didn’t the company see what was happening? From the size and awkwardness of the bottle, it’s obvious they didn’t test it with anyone - somebody just made a decision to go ahead and change it.

Who the heck thought this was better??? And has he been fired yet???

(BTW - Our solution to the “dishwashing dilemma” was to spend a day trying all the variables on our dishwasher to find a setting we could live with. We did - we found a “water miser” setting that works well and only takes an hour for the cycle. No more hand washing! Yay! Why didn’t we do this to begin with? Well, to be perfectly honest, it never occurred to me…maybe my MS was kicking up that day…)

So, how does this tie-in to ebooks? It doesn’t - directly. It does, though, in the sense of “usability.” For example - let’s say that you have forms in your ebook for the reader to fill out. You’d better think about how to handle them! If it’s a PDF file, once the “locks” are put on to prevent people from doing a “copy and paste” of your ebook’s guts, no one can fill out anything. Maybe the solution is to include a separate, small pdf of the forms that are set up for printing. Maybe you could allow annotating. There are a number of solutions. the point is - handle it, otherwise it limits your reader’s ability to use your ebook effectively.

Ask yourself - how is this going to work for my reader? Then get creative and find a way to solve the problem…

Now, there is one additional aspect of usability that I want to talk about, but I want it to have it’s own emphasis, so that will be the next post…