It’s Christmas and I’m spending it in a beautiful 3 story cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Jeff, the boys and our dogs!It’s great (& necessary) to take some well-deserved time off to spend together and appreciate all the blessing we’ve created over the last years… One of the things that have helped us both is the ability to create several online businesses, so I thought a great gift for my subscribers and readers would be… The 12 Free (or Very Low Cost) Product Creation Resources of Christmas!

12. My favorite place to get ecovers, ECoverArt.com has rolled out a brand new website called http://MyEcoverMaker.com You can make beautiful Ecovers for all kinds of products and ot’s 100% free! I played with it and the service later emailed me a brand new ecover I designed.

11. I’ve been using Photoshop for many years. I purchased it (expensive!) because I couldn’t afford a designer to create the labels for my bath & beauty products so I decided I would learn it and it has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. There’s a fabulous online service that allows you to do most of the same things to create and edit graphics… http://Pixlr.com <== What a resource! Have fun creating your own “add buttons like the ones I have on this site, or editing your photos to fit your website, or add your website name to your graphics!

10. In 2010, if you’re online… you MUST learn to use video. It is simply not an option any longer… AND there are several ways to do video at low cost. You can always use your computers webcam, the video option if you have one on your phone or buy a low cost flip video at http://TheFlip.com (or google/Ebay for a slightly used one. You don’t NEED the HD version to create great video infomercials or trainings.

9. A FABULOUS resource when you’re first beginning to use video is http://CuePrompter.com I was very nervous in the beginning when using video and I would always forget 1/2 of what I wanted to say, until I found this online teleprompter. Just tape it (yes, tape it) to the cover of your laptop, where the “eye” of the camera is directly above the screen, cut and paste your copy into this website, when you’re all ready, hit F11 on your keyboard for an “extra trick” to make it even easier (you have to try it to see what I mean) but this can make you go from looking like a video newbie to an online broadcast professional.

8. Once you’ve created your video, PC users can use Windows Movie Maker which is on most PCs free. Sometimes it’s a little hidden, just look carefully in all your Programs to find it. If you’re on a Mac, you can use iMovie to do editing! It’s free.

7. Once you’ve finished your awesome video, now what?! Well, you have to get it in front of people! Upload it to your You Tube channel AND use Tube Mogul to send it to even more video sharing sites. http://YouTube.com and http://TubeMogul.com

6. To create Audios or do Teleseminars there’s http://FreeConferenceCalling.com This is a free conference call service that allows you to record what you say. If you’re the only one on the call, it won’t record, but just use your cellphone to call in and allow recording or get a friend to call in. You can do group calls and create products with this service. I’ve got a course called Teleseminars Made Easy that shows you how to use Instant Teleseminar (a paid service) which gives tips on why & how to use Teleseminars AND shows you step by step video how to use FreeConferenceCalling.com Here’s my special page for the course at a Christmas price!

5. If you have an iPhone, you must get this fantastic (and Free!) app called Dragon Dictation. It lets you dictate and gives you the text to email. Great for sending messages easily and I even experimented last week dictating my “tweets”!

4. WordPress. It’s amazing that you can get WordPress allowing you to have a website, just like this one easily and without needing to know html, that super tech-geek language that can be scary and confusing to us regular folks… Get a low cost domain name, low cost hosting like Host Gator (that is my affiliate link!) and voila! You can have a website up in the few clicks of your mouse…

3. WordPress plugins! A must have (that’s also Free!) is the WP Easy Uploader. I also love My Page Order, Backup to name a few! All you have to do is “google” those names and you’ll find them.

2. Once you have your website up… what else do you need? Well, against popular belief, simply putting up your website does not guarantee you’ll have traffic. Use services like http://EzineArticles.com http://ArticlesBase.com http://Twitter.com http://YouTube.com http://Facebook.com to send targeted traffic, people interested in what you have to offer to your site…

And the # 1 Free Resource you have to create your money-making products is… *drumroll*

1. YOU!

You creativity, your resourcefulness, your passion, drive, ability to learn AND your willingness to get out of your comfort zone and do whatever it takes…

and stop talking about what you will do and actually do it…

even when you feel the fear.

Courage is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more you have. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy 2010!

In this video, we show you one of the many ways we’ve successfully used Teleseminars in our business for

• market research
• strategy Q & A sessions
• to create products
• as the basis for many products
• to create a community

Tomorrow is the big preview training call for Teleseminar Secrets, http://ThePreviewTeleseminar.com the course that helped our businesses and is one of the main reasons we found each other! Jeff has been a faculty member for Alex Mandossian’s course and this year, Maritza is also involved during TSS strategy sessions… If you decide to join the course through us at http://TeleseminarArticleMarketing.com , you’ll get a signing bonus of our Twitter Profits Video Module from our course Social Marketing Blueprint & Maritza’s 12 videos from Teleseminars Made Easy!

Any way you look at it… When you use what we outline in this video, you can :

1. be sure you create a product people actually want
2. Answer questions (& objections) using Free Teleseminars
3. Get paid to create your product
4. Repurpose that product into several other forms of media

And thank you for your comments & emails about the show! We’ve gotten lots of questions that will make fabulous webisode where we answer them so keep those questions (and comments!) coming!

Several weeks ago I got a comment from David Tomen about how to market his Ebook… Here’s his blog comment:

Hi Maritza: Wasn’t sure where to put this comment but the end of this article seems appropriate. I just wanted to thank you for the tutorials and inspiration in how to create an eBook. I was looking around for info on how-to articles and found you. I recently published the Used Boat Buying Guide which you can find here: http://oasisyachts.com/used-boat-buying-guide. It is by no means a best seller and I need some additional help on how to get the word out. It may never sell in the thousands (although it should considering that there are over 17 million registered boats in the USA). What I learned however during this process can now be easily duplicated. So thanks once again. DM me @DavidTomen on Twitter with your email address and I will be happy to send you a compimentary copy.

Warm regards,
David Tomen

I love seeing people take action so I sent him a DM (direct message via twitter) and told him I would make a blog post to help him out. I grabbed part of a video about how to market your Ebook after you’ve created it…

The video shows several ways to makret your Ebook once you complete it and now with the super-explosion of  Social Marketing Tools, it’s even easier for you to connect with people looking for your information. Other ideas specifically for David:

• I can’t tell how often you post on your blog because the posts aren’t dated (great strategy because people think day old posts are “yesterday’s news”), but post often!
• You could start a weekly boat life video show – obviously you know how to do videos http://www.youtube.com/DavidTomen Just fire your video up and show people living the life with a yacht… if that doesn’t sound amazing I don’t know what does! Go interview your friends with yachts or customers  – I just found out I’ll be interviewing Gary Vaynerchuk of Winelibrary tv soon and he’s inspired me to begin a daily video blog show about different aspects of online biz (unedited, unscripted and completely real!) You obviously have a great sense of humor with your “Spousal Conversion Kit”
• Went to your twitter accout, definitely find more people who are interested in boats, yachting etc. Go to http://search.twitter.com and enter the keywords to find them… and them follow them Also, tweet about your videos, your Ebook and stuff on your blog. Find nautical quotes http://quotegarden.com or just “google” it. Load quotes/tweets into http://Hootsuite.com so you can have them going while you’re on your yacht! Or use the search field on the right hand side of your twitter toolbar to enter boats near: Florida
• Engage with people! Let yourself go in your videos. The videos where I get the best response are the ones where I almost feel like a “used car salesman” (not that there’s anything wrong with that…) But I let go and get enthusiastic. Maybe listen to some loud inspiring music beforehand and just don’t care what people will think… some will like you, some will love you and some will be trolls (not my word, Seth Godin’s) and criticize you. I will applaud you!
• Think of Social Marketing with the 80/20 rule 80% social 20% marketing. And make offers… from time to time, make a direct offer for your Ebook.

Hope this helps! Love, Maritza

PS I’d love to hear other comments and /or ideas for David. As always please comment below (and check out my new “sexy toolbar” when you go to post your comment)

Ay chihuahua! It’s been a couple of weeks since making a blog post! I’ve been busy in the “Product Creation Lab” creating a new course called Social Marketing Blueprint… Jeff & I are so excited about the course and the launch… Last night members got access to their new Member’s Area to rave reviews. But, I have to tell you… Although this is one of the most exciting and fulfilling projects I’ve embarked upon, especially since I know we’ll be helping a lot of amazing people get their websites found… it’s been a lot of W.O.R.K.

I’m never shy to get in and get dirty and work hard. One of the things my family blessed me (a 1st generation American in this case) with is a huge “get-it-done-no-matter-what-MacGyver” work ethic… and I LOVE challenges.

This Halloween, I’ve decided I have no choice but to “dress up” as  the Product Creation Hunchback…

Usually I go as a witch or a devil or something where I can still be girly, but this year my back has let me know that I MUST be a hunchback from bending over the computer for 14 hour days creating this curriculum! And on the preview call with Alex Mandossian, one of my mentors I greatly respect, I got this wonderful comment…  “Maritza, one of your strengths is the ability to create outstanding curriculum.” – Alex Mandossian Can you say cool & humbling at the same time…? And although I have a fabulous team surrounding me, Jeff Herring my SMB partner,  Tracy Shiflett the head VA extraordinaire, Irene Hachar, Luz Castillo & Kimberly from FIC printing who did a fantastic job with the Diamond Deadline Online Success Planners… Whoever tells you that success is instant and effortless is just dead wrong.

While it’s true that success can be easier by leveraging the tools of the Internet and now Social Marketing, I don’t believe anyone who creates long term success has done it without W.O.R.K.

W = Willingness to do Whatever it takes.

O = Overcoming your own intertia AND Overcoming the pebbles that will get in the way

R = Reasons why you want to create this (Add value to others, to yourself, your family, creating a legacy… what is your compelling Reason Why?)

K = Kindness to yourself & others when things done work out “perfectly”… one of my biggest mottos I remind myself about over and over and over again… It’s all about “Progress & not about Perfection” Cut yourself a break and do the absolute best you can and be kind when it isn’t exactly as you imagined.

Well after midnight last night, when I crawled into bed… I finished reading Gary Vaynerchuck’s book Crush It! and my biggest takeaway is that when you combine passion with hustle… you don’t even notice when you turn into a Hunchback because you are having so much darn fun, so appreciative of all the new students, so excited to create a fabulous commmunity with them…

And Jeff & I will be starting a video blog show about Online Biz Meets Real Life with free tips, inspiration and showing the “hustle behind the scenes”. I’ve never been happier and felt more fulfilled… even if I do look like an Igor…

As always, I’d love to hear from you and share what you’ll be dressing as for Halloween!

Here’s the second half of my list to help you sell your product after you create it as quickly as possible so you can gain confidence and momentum in your marketing…

5. Choose How to Accept Money. You have many alternatives in shopping carts and there is always paypal. In the past, paypal was seen as unprofessional but those days are over. It’s a fabulous option today. You are up and running very quickly and when you do make a sale, the money you’ve earned is available instantly instead of days later as with a traditional shopping cart and merchant account. Don’t overlook this option, especially if you are being held up by the complexity of merchant accounts, payment gateways… **eyes glazing over**

6. Add Your Buy Now Button. If you choose to use paypal to accept payments, go to “Merchant Services” once you’ve created your account and you’ll see optins to create a “Buy Now” button and an “Add to Cart” button. Create your button with the price for your product. Copy the code for your button and place it in your sales page several times throughout the page. This is like asking people to buy several times. Don’t just ask once. If people get mad at you for selling your products (and services), they aren’t a match for you, your products and services… let them move on. And notice that the people who get mad when others offer their valuable products and services are also the people who cannot sell themselves.

7. Ask Your List to Buy Now. It doesn’t matter how “small” you feel your list community is… as soon as you have your sales page with your buy now button ready, ask your list community to buy your audio product! Give them a special incentive to do so immediately. For example, a subscriber appreciation gift of X dollars if they purchase within the next 3 days. Or, a special fast movers one-on-one or group coaching session. Email your list community each of these days to remind them of why they should buy your product (the benefit to them) and how many days or hours they have left to purchase your product at this special price or wiith this special bonus. This serves several purposes, you will get a burst of confidence and momentum from seeing your first sales in this product and the infusion of cash can help you continue to find new subscribers and customers.

8. Find New Subscribers and Customers. After you’ve created your product and put it online to sell, it isn’t over. Just like a “real” bricks and mortars business, you should always be looking for new potential customers and clients. Many times people think if I just get a website up or if I just get a product up…. “They will come.” This is not true. Just like a “real” physical business, this takes time, energy and effort. Though it’s a lot easier leveraging the power of the internet, selling 24/7 and being able to conduct business from anywhere in the world!

9. Keep Asking for the Sale. Do not “hide” your product once you’ve created it. Place a link to your sales page on your blog, recommend your new product as a subscriber resource in your newsletter or articles. Every once in a while, have another special limited time sales event to motivate buyers to act now.

As always, I’d love to hear what you think, how you use this & ask any questions below!

Last night I did a student-only unannounced bonus webinar where I answered questions from students about anything related to creating and marketing their productst. One of the recurring questions was similar to this

“I feel the only thing holding me up is the actual piecing together of getting my new product listed on my site, adding a payment option and getting all of the steps done in the right order. I feel paralyzed because I’m afraid I’ll miss something. The order of doing everything is what I’m overwhelmed by… help!”

Here’s part one of my answer:

1. To Edit or Not to Edit. Does your audio product need some small editing? Keyword here is small. You don’t want to get stuck on making it perfect. Remember, it’s all about progress and not about perfection. Do you need to edit your audio? If your child is crying in the background or there’s a dog barking… yes. If you speak normally and have some Ahs and Ums… no. As long as the content is good, you don’t need to sound like you spent weeks in a professional studio. Get a copy of a low-cost or free audio editing software if you think you should do some small editing. Be sure and plan ahead for uninterrupted quiet when creating your audios because many times, you can create your audio without the need to edit afterwards.

2. Brainstorm a Great Title. Think about what your audio product will deliver to your customers. What is it they really want? Try to avoid “cutesy” titles that can detract from the value of your information.

3. Consider a Cover. Seriously think about getting a professional cover created for your audio product. This creates a higher perceived value in the mind of potential customers and clients. You can also just have a low-cost logo created as long as it looks professional in place of an audio CD cover.

4. Write Your Product Sales Page. Wherever you put your audio product for sale, you will need some compelling sales copywriting. This is a great skill to cultivate. You can also choose to outsource this is you have the budget. When writing your sales copy, remember it is all about the customer and the bottom line benefits they will get from your product. This is not the place to focus on you and your greatness (…though I am sure you are!)

I’ll be back tomorrow with the second half of my answer!

PS Don’t forget to comment below if you have another question or a comment!

The most important thing to remember when you’re setting up a website to sell your eBook, or any other product, is to build your list community. When you build your list community, you are building an asset, a database you can market to over and over again with products, services and information they need.

Your effective Ebook selling webpage should have only one option; you don’t see any links going anywhere else. The only option to give is for a person is to exchange their first name and primary email address for something of value. Your website isn’t about making an immediate sale, ot’s about building a list community.

A few more tips for your simple product selling website:

Be sure your headline speaks to your audience’s problem. Many times, websites talk about the author, or the product creator, but do not address how the site or the product can help solve a person’s problem. People buy solutions to their problems. Address how you can help solve people’s problems.

Give something away for free. Your web page is a “Get My Free Stuff” page where you’re giving people only one option, to opt-in , or join your list community for the free giveaway. So what’s a good example of a free giveaway web page? It doesn’t really matter what you’re giving away, you can give away a video, a special report or a top 10-list, just be sure it adds value to your audience. Do not be afraid of giving your content away.

Try different ways to grab attention. Don’t just use text in your website, use images, audio and video. I love using video in my opt-ins and my sales pages and I encourage trying them but always remember to test. Testing is the only way to truly know what is working best on your website and for your particular audience.

This kind of simple and effective web page is what you want to send people with all of your different traffic-generating activities, such as writing articles, speaking, live meetings, sending people to your free giveaway website during interviews. Once a person joins your list community by opting in on this simple webpage, you can then market your ebook or other product on the thank you page, in your autoresponder or in your newsletter.

And now I would like to invite you to learn how to write your Money-Making Ebook in 30 days or less… From Maritza Parra – The Product Creation Queen and Easy Online Marketing Training | www.QuickEbookCreation.com

You can use positive self-talk, or autosuggestion, to help you develop a solid faith that will sustain you no matter what. This is not to say you won’t have some low times, but it’s what you do when this happens that makes the difference whether you’ll continue to pursue your dreams. Regular negative self-talk fuels low self-worth and stops us from being able to identify opportunities when they do arise. Most times this negative self talk is simply a habit. One which if practiced for so long can seem nearly impossible to break. But it can be changed. When you are drowning in negative self-talk, the anti-mantras that you have believed for so long, you give in to limiting beliefs that can hold you back. This leads to a false skepticism about the validity of your dreams and your ability to achieve them.

Because faith and self-talk are so connected, practicing positive self-talk when your faith is faltering can sometimes feel like a giant lie. This is because people often go to the extreme, trying to jump from feeling despair to joy with one affirmation! It leaves people feeling frustrated, as if self-talk works for “some people” but not for them.

Successful people know how to practice self-talk they can believe in, which leads to a sense of self worth and faith that cannot be shaken. The key to using this universal success principle is to use inner language that makes sense to you in terms of where you are right now. If you can get yourself to feel just a tiny little bit better now, you can up the ante tomorrow, building your unbreakable house of faith day-by-day, brick by brick. Slowly changing the habit of negative self talk to positive. Making this shift slowly ensures the change will last.

There are only two categories of self talk and those are self-love and self-hate. You are either feeding your mind and spirit with supportive, self-loving thoughts and actions or you are breaking your spirit and motivation down by engaging in destructive self-talk. Like most anything, this is habitual and can be changed. Awareness is the key to all change, so try carrying a notebook for a couple of days and recording how many times you’re aware of your self-love talk and your self-hate talk. When you are supporting yourself with positive self talk, you are able to move in the direction of creating what you want in your life.

What do you desire? What do you dream about having, becoming, experiencing? What is it that you want more than anything? Most people can come up with a list of things they would like to have more of: money, a new house, new friends, supportive colleagues, or time off.

All of us, at some point or another, also list over-arching goals that we would like to achieve: become a millionaire, get published, open a new business, run a marathon. I call desires that are not crystal clear your “wish list”. Whether you carry your wish lists in your pocket, your briefcase, or in a tiny corner of your heart, what you desire will come easily when you get clarity. Then it becomes a desire.

The people you admire, the successful, wealthy, joyful people whom you set on a pedestal have desires. The difference is, they are able to obtain what they desire, and they do that by first getting very specific about what they want. Even if disaster strikes these people and they seem to lose things for a moment, have you ever noticed they always rebound to even greater heights of achievement?

When you learn to apply these proven principles to your life, it’s like a roadmap or a recipe, follow it and what you would like to create in your life becomes easier and more attainable. To use this first universal success principle, clarify your own wish list so that you know exactly what you want, and then commit to that desire.

Get it down on paper, every last detail. Design and refine your desire until it is crystal clear. Feeling excited, but also a bit nervous? Good. You’re on the right track!

“Desire is the Starting Point of All Achievement”

- Napoleon Hill

This quote says it perfectly, desire is the foundation upon which all your success is built. There is the desire to move away from the things you do not want and the desire to move towards the things you do want, when you approach from both sides of the coin, you’ll attain a burning desire to create your products and create your successful online business.

Writing an Ebook can be the first step in creating a profitable and low cost online business. The Baby boomer generation still loves the feel of a physical paper book, but even they are adapting to the next generation demand of having instant access to content via a screen.

Here are some interesting statistics about the increasing popularity of Ebooks and other electronic information products. In 2008, printed book sales dropped 2.4 % and sales of Ebook jumped over 68%. Only during the month of December, Ebook sales grew by 120% a sure sign the popularity of Ebooks just going to continue growing.

One question many people ask is “So what exactly is an Ebook?”
Writing and creating an Ebook is a form of E-publishing which means to publish your content in an electronic format. This includes Ebooks, downloadable audios like MP3s or online video. An Ebook is your content in text form.

The easiest way to create an Ebook is to make an outline of your How-To information… Grab a tape recorder and pretend you are teaching that information to someone who could benefit from it. Have it transcribed and there is the foundation of your Ebook. You’ll have to go in and edit, but the hardest part is over.

Once you have your Ebook as a text document, you’ll need to turn it into a PDF file. PDF means Portable Document Format which just basically means it can be shared among all different kinds of users.
I hope you noticed I didn’t use fancy words like platforms and cross browser compatability? Well, that’s because I don’t really know what those things mean myself! You don’t need to know all the gory details that can seem like rocket science. You just need to know how to get your content out of your head into a product so you can make money from home like me!

There are several different ways to turn your Word document into a PDF. From online services to free software as well as paid software that lets you do things like embed video into your PDF, which means you can even create a multimedia Ebook easily.

And an Ebook can be just the beginning of your E-publishing empire!

And now I would like to invite you to learn how to write your Money-Making Ebook in 30 days or less… From Maritza Parra – The Product Creation Queen and Easy Online Marketing Training | www.QuickEbookCreation.com