Errors of ignorance versus errors of ineptitude

In his latest book (The Checklist Manifesto), surgeon Atul Gawande makes a simple yet profound distinction. Some mistakes are made because the person doesn’t know enough or know the right information or have the right skills (these are errors of ignorance), but other mistakes arise from not applying what we know.

In implementing strategies to move my life, work and income in the direction of freeing my time from money and still making a meaningful positive impact on the world, I must admit most of the mistakes and missteps I have made have been from not applying what I know.

I procrastinate on implementing what I know would help move me forward: hiring some more outsourcing help to implement the overwhelming number of ideas for projects I constantly generate; hiring a coach/project manager to “herd my cats,” that is, to help me stay focused and working on the right things and moving projects to completion in a more systematic and timely manner.

So, this post is to get you thinking about what kind of mistakes you make: Do you need more information or skills? Or do you need to use what you already know in a better way?

Location-free

I am visiting relatives today. And doing a teleseminar.

Teleseminars are a great way to generate income form anywhere. I make thousands most months from doing teleseminars.

If you are not yet doing teleseminars, why not?

It’s not that hard, if you know what you are doing. I stumbled around for several years not knowing much. Finally I learned and mastered the medium.

If you want to save some stumbling around and get started, check out the training I am doing with Ruth B. of NICABM.com.

http://www.nicabm.com/teleseminar/2010/howtocreateteleseminars//?affid=spkrlBn1101

Advice on getting started building an email list and generating online income

Some in my advanced coaching group was having trouble getting focused and figuring out where to put her energy/time and what to do first.

Here were my suggestions. After I wrote them, I made them a little more generic and thought some of you might want to read them. Could they apply in your situation?

I would put together a free report on your topic. About 15 pages, written in Word, spruced up with some graphics and turned into a PDF. Put another free offer of an audio someone will record interviewing you on your topic. Mention this audio in the report so even if people forward it to others, your name, contact information and your offer will be in there.

Send the offer of the free report out to anyone you can think of that you have permission to email and ask them to forward it to anyone they think might be interested. Announce it on your Facebook feed; your Twitter feed; etc. Put up a YouTube video on your topic area and put a live, clickable link to the free report on the YouTube description box.

To do this, you’ll need:
1. To have set up a mailing list management service (like AWeber or Constant Contact or iContact or MadMimi) to capture emails, manage them and send out autoresponders.
2. Write the free report, get someone you know to edit it and check for errors. Then get some graphically-oriented person to fancy it up and turn it into a PDF.
3. Start thinking about what products or services you want to sell once you gather a list and get more well known. Begin to create those products/services; create a page that describes each one somewhere on the web (on a blog or website); set up an online shopping cart and set up the product or service you are selling on that shopping cart; then get the code for that product and service and put that on the sales page you set up.
4. Start thinking about what additional services/products you would offer people who bought anything from you (this is called “the upsell” in marketing/sales). It could be a more advanced course (audio, video, online) going more in depth on the topic, etc.
5. Set up another page to describe and sell your upsell and arrange to send people to that page after they have purchased your initial product.

Webinar services available

Here are some of the main webinar/webcast services available as I write this.

WebEx
http://www.webex.com/
This one lets you show your screen to attendees, and can be attended on an iPhone. You can get a free trial to check it out.

More advanced and larger meetings can be hosted at their premium version called Training Center:
http://www.webex.com/product-overview/training-center/presentation-studio.html

GotoMeeting/GotoWebinar
GoTo Meeting is for up to 15 participants ($49/mo.) and GoToWebinar can take up to 1,000 ($99/mo). You can get a discount for yearly subscriptions. You can get a free trial to check them out.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/

Conference IQ
http://www.conferenceiq.com/
Here is a chart showing the features and costs of this service. It’s pretty new and looks good.

Netspoke:
http://www.premiereglobal.com/conferencing/web-conferencing/netspoke/
This one lets you show your screen to attendees, as well as have chat, audio, video and Q&A. You can get a free trial to check it out.

They have a more expensive premium version of this.
http://www.premiereglobal.com/conferencing/web-conferencing/webcast/

And here is a chart comparing some of the most popular webinar/webcast services. This was prepared by the ConferenceIQ folks, so take that into consideration when you look at it.

Turning webinars or webcasts into passive income

The way to turn a webcast or webinar into passive income is to record it and offer it for sale afterward.

To do this, you either need screencast software (Camtasia for Windows; Screenflow or Screenium for Macs) or you need to have a webinar service that allows you to record the webinar/webcast.

You could also put the recorded webinar/webcast up on YouTube or similar video hosting service to develop your platform or reputation and indirectly profit from the increased exposure.

You could, of course, also offer the webinar as a bonus or free gift to get people to opt-in to your list or buy a product.

Creating audio products

Maybe because I speak for a living and have for the past 30 years, making audio products is relatively easy for me. Even though I have written 29+ books (http://astore.amazon.com/billohanlon/), making an audio is still faster and easier.

Here’s how I make one and sell it:
1. I get an idea and make an outline (making an outline is another topic, which we won’t go into here; maybe in a future post).

2. I use my Edirol R-09 digital audio recorder. One touch recording, so easy for non-techies to use it. It’s $305 USD as this is written at Amazon. com (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016MLUKU?ie=UTF8&tag=billohanlon&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B0016MLUKU). This is a small handheld unit with built-in microphones that does a great job recording high-quality digital audio. It uses digital storage cards like a digital camera uses to store the recordings and then you can transfer those recordings as files to your computer through a USB connector.

3. Once you capture the audio recording, you will probably have to edit it a bit or add some musical introductions or interludes and for this you will need an audio editing program. There is a free program that many use called Audacity (for either Macs or Windows computers), so you might want to try that. I use a simple, inexpensive program for the Mac called Amadeus II $30 as this is written (http://www.hairersoft.com/Amadeus.html). [Note: There is a Pro version for a bit more money, but it is more complex and unless you are willing to take some time to learn it, keep things simple by using the regular version.] Mac users can alos use GarageBand, but again the learning curve is a bit steeper (although you can do amazing things with it once you learn it). For online distribution, the best compression setting for balancing size of file and audio quality is 24KBs, MP3, so save it in that format.

Once you get the hang of it, editing audio is very much like word processing for sounds. You can cut, you can paste, and you can combine previously separate sections or recordings to make the finished product.

4. Upload the finished audio onto your shopping cart (you do have a shopping cart, right?–How you going to have a Life of Freedom with no way to collect the cash?). I use a private label version of 1shoppingcart.com called Web Marketing Magic): http://www.webmarketingmagic.com/app/default.asp?pr=9&id=78775), that I think is kick-ass (it offers the ability to track ad campaigns, makes coupons, stores all your digital files, lets you create and track affiliates-people who sell your stuff for a referral fee, send out autoresponders, delivers your orders and takes the money and sends it on to you automatically, and more).

5. Get the code/link from your shopping cart and put it on your website, in your blog, or in an email announcement.

6. I create cover art for my products (either by hiring an outsourced graphic designer or by making a PowerPoint slide and turning it into a .jpg or PDF). I think it helps sell the product.

Once you have done all that, you are one step closer to Your Life of Freedom.

Ten million tuna fish eggs can’t be wrong

I was reading that the bluefin tuna releases 10 million fertilized eggs each spawning season and is lucky to have 10 of them hatch and live to adulthood.

It reminded me of the Internet and how it suits my personality. I get excited about trying things. I am a bit impulsive and sparky. Writing and publishing print books was a challenge for me since it often takes a year or two to go from conception to finished product. By then I have lost interest in the book and often can’t even remember what was in it. I have to re-read it to do publicity for it.

I remember the first time I learned about e-books and conceived and released an e-report in about three days. It sold about 200 copies at $12.95 each. I got so excited when each order came in and about the thought that four days ago, this thing didn’t exist. I hadn’t even thought it up yet. And here it was in the hands of 200 people. Out into the world.

It was crudely designed but filled with really useful information. I learned more about how to create and design an e-book as time went on. And they got better. (See my opt-in newsletter bonus at http://www.billohanlon.com for my best e-book, A Lazy Man’s Guide to Success).

I have noticed that people who don’t succeed on the web are the more deliberate types who obsess for a long time before they act.

So, I have a suggestion for you. Start doing things. Emulate the bluefin tuna. Do ten million things (I’m exaggerating but you get the point). Maybe only ten of them succeed, but that’s ten more than you had before. Rinse and repeat.