Author Archives: Paulette Ensign

About Paulette Ensign

Based in San Diego, California, United States, an East Coast transplant in 1996. Now in my third career, forever reinventing. I enjoy observing human behavior including my own, the beach, cooking, business brainstorming, travel, my cat, listening to any Brahms. Favorite Music: Classical and soft rock. Brahms is my all-time favorite composer.

Tips Bring a 6-Digit Sale

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Great news from a tips author this week. The proposal she recently presented to a major national corporate client in a face-to-face meeting included the following:

  • Tips presented as individual videos – licensed non-exclusively for 6-12 months
  • Products with tips and client logo (i.e. coffee mugs, shirts, etc.) – large bulk order
  • Fun mat with relevant tips and client logo on it – large bulk order

Corporate client exuberantly proclaims “You’ve just solved my problem for the year. Now I don’t have to think about this any more. It’s done.”

Total sale well over $100,000 — from information the tips author had already created and products that will be drop-shipped from the manufacturer directly to the corporate client. And how much do you want to bet this turns into a similar kind of sale again next year?

The tips author went into the pitch meeting well prepared after a 45-minute Rent-a-Brain session with me to strategize possiblities and discover new ideas from what we discussed.

It’s so great when people ask if it’s possible to make any real money with tips. What do YOU think? C’mon, you probably already wrote the tips that you’re most likely giving away in articles, just hoping that people will come to your site and buy something from you. Imagine transforming what you’ve already got so you, too, can have sales like this.

Let’s talk — today!

Your trusty guide,

“Turn your tips into products and your tips products into moneymakers.™”

Paulette Ensign
http://www.TipsBooklets.com - main site
http://www.TipsProducts.com - blog
http://www.CollectionOfExperts.com - co-authoring

 

 

Tips Marketing – The Secret Sauce

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Got an idea for a great product or service?  Is your creative mind taking you all over the map with ways to expand the idea, to different formats, different languages, different audiences?

Short of discovering the secret to the fountain of youth, the secret to successfully marketing your tips and whatever other products and services surface from your knowledge comes down to this:

  • Simplicity
  • Enthusiasm

One of my favorite television programs of all time is Shark Tank. Inventors and business owners present their ideas to a panel of investors for funding and mentoring. Some ideas are obvious winners and prompt a bidding frenzy. Some other ideas seem completely illogical, yet get the support of one or more of the Sharks because the business owner keeps the idea simple and is highly enthusiastic in his or her presentation of the idea.

Of course the sharks include other considerations in their decisions, like the level of universal appeal across cultures, age groups, different applications, and more. And is the business owner open to input or stuck in their own point of view.

A recent business owner presented an idea so enthusiastically and couldn’t have been any more simple. He wanted his idea to be the next Pet Rock (are you old enough to remember that one?).  The sharks were all over it and the idea is taking off like crazy. It served as a great reminder that success can look so many different ways.

Next time you notice you are taking yourself oh so seriously and making things oh so complicated, take a step back. Can you simplify it? Can you be genuinely enthusiastic about it? You may have a winner on your hands with your tips!

“Turn your tips into products and your tips products into moneymakers.™”

Your trusty guide,

Paulette Ensign

http://www.TipsBooklets.com - main site
http://www.TipsProducts.com - blog
http://www.CollectionOfExperts.com - co-authoring

 

What Do You REALLY Want YOUR Tips to Accomplish?

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You’ve seen it and so have I — “Top 10 Tips For …” or “7 Great Ways to…”

Do you have a strategy for creating and circulating your tips? Or are you doing that because you see so many other people doing it? You figure there must be something to jumping on the bandwagon, though you’re not exactly sure what it is. And if you keep throwing enough of these tips against the wall, surely something good must come of it.

If you’re in business, the standard reason is publicity, to market your expertise, to let people know you exist and that you’re the go-to person for what they need. Nothing wrong with that! After all, if people don’t know you’re there, you won’t be “there” for very long!

The piece that many people overlook or have yet to discover is that those same tips can be a direct source of income while they are also marketing you. In fact, that’s what the blog at www.tipsproducts.com is all about — leveraging your tips into products to sell and/or to strategically give away.

This week I spoke with two different business owners who would find it completely appropriate to have a tip from their expertise put onto a tie. Yes, a tie — that garment that goes around the neck. A unique item, to be sure. In one case it could be sold to their client who is a large financial services company, to be distributed to their account executives as a way to promote a particular idea about investing. The other business owner is an image consultant for men. The same is true that  the business owner can sell a large quantity to a supplier of men’s accessories, for instance, to foster a particular concept for men.

The same tips that are on those ties can be licensed to the company who buys the ties, to use on their website or in other ways that would benefit their business.

These are examples of the thousands of ways YOUR tips can serve double duty for your business, both as a way to market you and to generate direct revenue.

Go see what else strikes your fancy and works best for putting your tips onto products that   simultaneously market you and bring you new income at http://tinyurl.com/tipsproducts You can get ties and thousands of other products here, and easily get your tips onto them. And you can do this one unit at a time.

Your trusty guide,

Paulette Ensign
“Turn your tips into products and your tips products into moneymakers.”

http://www.TipsBooklets.com - main site
http://www.TipsProducts.com - blog
http://www.CollectionOfExperts.com - co-authoring

 

 

Fun Moneymaking Products from Your Tips

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You know all those tips you put into your booklet or are thinking about putting into a booklet someday to expand your tips business? Depending on your topic, there are endless ways to instantly expand your product line and bottom line, with very little (if any) cash out of your pocket. A few somber and serious topics don’t lend themselves to what I’m about to share with you. Most topics work just fine though.

For years I’ve been teaching booklet authors to actively get into tips marketing by licensing their content to companies and associations for all kinds of uses in a range of formats, for both online and offline products and applications. That is still always an option, and more so now than ever because of social media and online marketing. However, there’s more you can do, from a different direction, right now.

‘Ever noticed you’ve had that flash of a thought about how perfect one of your tips would be on a t-shirt or coffee mug or note cards or an iPad case (!) or calendars or tote bags or an apron or stickers or a zillion other things. It makes it a fun way to offer more to your buyers from information you’ve already put together, from the brain power you’ve already generated. It opens the door to go back to companies and individuals who already bought from you, without your going deep into product development both time-wise and money-wise, not to mention creativity-wise.

Plus you weren’t sure how to go about doing this at all, much less how to do this so you can easily and quickly create a SINGLE sample of your tip on a product? Well, I discovered a place that will do just that for you. Or they’ll sell you thousands of units if you want, or anything in between.

You can order as few as ONE unit of a product, with a 30-day guarantee of 100% money-back or replacement, and they ship within 24 hours of getting your order to wherever you want. That means you don’t have to maintain any inventory and you don’t have to get involved in fulfillment.  How fabulous is that?! All you do is place the order any time of day or night on their site and invoice your client whatever you’ve decided (and they’ve agreed!) to charge them.

While the advertising specialty industry (READ: any item that has your customized name/logo/photo/copy on it) has been alive and thriving for decades, they typically can’t accommodate single-item customized products at reasonable prices and terms like this. And that’s totally understandable. This resource does. They are set up to do that.

Many folks use such items for promotional purposes for their company, adding to the expense side of your bookkeeping. You’ve gotten things (freebies to you that cost the company to buy and ship) in the mail and at trade shows just as I have.

There is no reason you can’t add this to the REVENUE side of your business bookkeeping by expanding your product line with sales from single samples you show people at your speaking engagements, from photos on your website, and through product sheets you develop to pre-sell these things.

Go take a look through this link right now. http://tinyurl.com/tipsproducts

Your imagination is the only thing to stop you from expanding your thinking and your bottom line!

Your trusty guide,

Paulette Ensign

www.tipsbooklets.com – MAIN

www.tipsproducts.com – BLOG

www.CollectionOfExperts.com – co-authoring


 

 

 

3 Ways to License Your Currently Free Tips

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Licensing your tips is like renting out your information. You still own it, and someone pays you to use it for a certain period of time in a certain way. There are ideas right in front of you to make money from your tips that are in your articles you give away, ways that you may have had no reason to consider

Are you a tea drinker? Have you ever looked at the tag on the end of the string of that tea bag? Some companies put quotes on those tags. They could just as easily put one of your tips, or a whole lot of your tips over time.  And pay you for the right to use those tips.

How about Chinese fortune cookies? Remember the last time you cracked one open to see what your fortune would be? The fortunes inside those cookies can easily be customized to each be a tip for living a better, and sold by an advertising specialty company to businesses who want to give out something different to be memorable.

Do you have 365 tips on how to save time or how to exercise at your desk or, or, or? You can license those to a corporation to drip a daily tip by email into their employees’ Inbox or out to the company’s mailing list as a way to stay in touch with their clients and prospects. Some professional associations already do that with their members. The tips are pre-programmed so there is no “heavy lifting” for anyone.

And you recycle your content and make money from it. You probably thought of some other directions to go, too. And you’ll no doubt be more aware of opportunities than you were before reading this!

Your trusty guide,

Paulette

www.tipsbooklets.com – main

www.tipsproducts.com – blog

www.CollectionOfExperts.com – co-authoring

 

 

 

 

 

Placing Your Tips Promotionally

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‘Ever notice the articles in your favorite publication (print or online) that are based on the model of ”7 Great Ways to ______” (on any topic)? Or see a sidebar of tips accompanying a longer article?

Journalists love articles like that. In fact, three times a day, five days a week, journalists’ queries are delivered by email right to your Inbox from a free service at www.helpareporter.com You’ll find a range of topics, many of which will be a match for your expertise.

Having your tips ready from the products you created with them lets you quickly respond to those queries. You’ll get your name, your business, and your expertise out into the world, into a wide range of publications small and large, online and offline, bringing you more business at no cost to you.

It’s also not uncommon for the journalist to start with a request for tips and then go into more depth and even come back to you later for another interview. The deadlines on these queries are frequently short, so act fast.

Turn your tips into products and your tips products into moneymakers.

Your trusty guide,

Paulette

 

Tips Lead to Results Only When …

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…you take a crucial step.

You can:

  • post tips on every social media location you can identify.
  • send your “top 10 best ways to” article to the best article directories that ever were.
  • create a checklist of vital things to remember, out to every current and past client.
  • create various ways to deliver your tips beyond only articles.
  • compile the tips from your articles into a booklet or an audio program.
  • be the most creative person on the planet in putting your tips out there.

You can do all of this and more, yet still see no increase in business. The missing piece?

Tell people what to do next after they read, hear, or experience your tips!

What do you want them to do next??? Do you want them to go to a particular page of your website, or phone or email you, or attend a teleclass or webinar, or something else?

You can have the greatest information available on the planet in your area of expertise, and leave out that one very important thing. It makes a huge difference in sustaining and growing your business.

So simple, yet so vital.

While we’re at it, why don’t you go to www.tipsbooklets.com to receive a tip in your inbox every Monday? You’ll see a purple box in the left margin. While it refers to booklets, you’ll find the tip you’ll get each week applies to many formats of distributing your tips for marketing and for making money.

If you’re already getting those weekly tips or want to skip over getting the weekly tip, give me a call or pop me an email to explore the best next step for you. You’ll find that contact info in the About section of this blog.

Your trusty guide,

Paulette

3 Great Reasons to Share Your Tips

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As you look around at people you admire for whatever reason within and outside your area of expertise, you find yourself wondering what’s the point of sharing information you know oh so well. And beyond merely sharing the information, would anyone actually buy it! After all, isn’t what you know common sense? Doesn’t everyone already know this?

Well, here are three great reasons that definitely support your sharing your knowledge:

  1. Some people know some of what you know.
  2. Some people know a lot of what you know.
  3. Some people don’t know any of what you know.

Share your tips anyway, in whatever ways you’d like. They can be in articles, booklets, audio, licensed, or other product formats and other venues like speaking and interviews.

As simplistic as that all may sound, there is always more to learn. In some cases it becomes confirmation for them, that someone else (you, the expert) is affirming what they know.  That has value.

Your information can also remind them of what they forgot, information that is now useful to them again or for the first time.  One pearl of an idea can be the perfect thing to help them in this moment.

Even in a topic that has a lot of information available, there is no way anyone could possibly have ALL of what there is to be had. Think about someone interested in Italian cuisine, who loves to cook. It is impossible for them to have every single Italian cuisine cookbook ever published. Create yours anyway.

Keep in mind that something you view as common sense could be rocket science to someone else, and vice versa. There are topics you struggle to grasp that someone else finds easy.

Create your tips anyway. Share them by giving them away strategically and by selling them. Not sure how to do that? You’ll find great guidance at our Learning Tools.

Your trusty guide,

Paulette

 

Passive Income, Recurring Income, or Both

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Many people who trade time for dollars as an employee, a consultant, a coach, or other primarily service provider longingly talk about wanting to create passive income —  money that is earned while sleeping rather than money that is earned from showing up someplace at a certain time.

In making the transition from trading time for dollars, it quickly becomes apparent that there is nothing passive about selling products, no matter what sales and marketing methods you utilize. It takes time — somebody’s time, whether it’s yours or someone you hire. And if you hire someone, it takes your time to interact with them to train them, to evaluate how things are going, and make course corrections. Yes, there is heavy lifting on the front end to set up the marketing and follow up with the sales. Nope, nothing passive about any of that.

So while the sense of freedom from scheduling looks appealing, it is not, in fact, passive. No more commuting on a busy highway, train,  or airplanes. No more boss placing unreasonable demands. Agreed.

The bigger and better thing, though, is to create income that repeats itself with as little effort on your part as possible. That’s the ideal combination. Some ways to do that:

1. License your tips content to a company for a certain time span for their promotional use, on a renewable basis. They may want to drip a tip on their mailing list each week, for instance.

2. Have choices of content for that same company to use so they can have a quarterly campaign with different content. They license one set of tips for the first quarter of the year, a different set of content for the second quarter, another for the third quarter, and yet another for the fourth quarter.

3. Create your content in different formats. The same quarterly idea can apply, just with different formats like a booklet, an audio file, just tips, and some interactive format.

By having these choices, you can create a year-long arrangement that can be automated delivery from you and have a renewable element in it to provide you recurring revenue. These suggestions are to get you thinking of the endless additional ways you can craft your business to provide you both passive and recurring revenue, the ideal combination.

Let’s explore specifics for your company.  Feel free to share your suggestions here in the “Reply” section below.

Your trusty guide,

Paulette