This product creation volume has actually been therapeutic for me. It’s forced me to concentrate on all the various aspects of product creation. There are so many things that we take for granted when we see a finished product…things that we don’t see as far as the process itself.

Take for example a product that contains step by step instructions that involve using software. When creating video products I use Camtasia and when creating audio products I use Audacity. If you’ve been using these for a while, you take their operation for granted, but if these are pieces of software that you’ve never seen before, well, then some detailed explanation is required. You really have to think about each step and what you’re doing.

That’s where screen prints can take away so much of the work for you. You know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words. Well, in many cases, it’s true. This product I’m putting together wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is without all the screen prints. This way, the reader can see the process step by step, rather than just read about it.

I found out a quirk about Audacity and screen prints, at least with the software that I’m using. It kind of glitzes in the top left hand corner unless you start the screen print from the bottom right hand corner and work your way from right to left. If you’re doing complete screen capture it’s not a big deal, but if you just want a part of the screen, that’s where my software kind of frizzes out.

You find out things like this as you do more of this stuff. Product creation in itself is an experience. You may know the steps inside and out (because you’ve been doing them so long) but communicating these steps to others is a whole other ball game. That’s why it’s a good idea to review what you just wrote, if it’s a how-to book, and go through the steps as you have them laid out and make sure you can do them yourself. If not, you have a problem and you need to figure out what you omitted from the process.

Anyway, I finished audio creation tonight and tomorrow I’m going to start on creating membership sites. I’ll go through the whole model from thought to design to getting trial members to the finished product. Membership sites can be a lot of work but they can also give you a nice residual income for a very long time.

I’ll try to update this blog again either tomorrow or Saturday. I still have a lot of work to do on this project but there’s no rush.

In the meantime…enjoy the ride.

It’s going to be a fun one.

Sincerely,

Steven Wagenheim