Rogers Online Business Management for the Agriculture Community

Archive for the ‘Handbooks and Manuals’ Category

You may be asking yourself how do you keep your reader engaged in your ebook after you spent all that time writing it?

Well often times if you include some anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos, graphs, advice, and maybe some tips, you will keep the reader turning the pages. Include some sidebars which are useful for quick, accessible information, and they help break up the density of the page as well.

Make sure you write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader’s respond to the feeling that you are having a conversation with them. Try to break up the length of structure of your sentences so you don’t hypnotize your readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Just remember that good writing takes practice. Lots and lots of practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a day. Read books and magazines about the process of writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you write (and read), the better your writing will become. And the better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales figures.

If you feel that you just can’t seem to come up with enough information to write an actual Ebook on a subject for your Information Product that you want to sell then why not write a Workbook instead.

Workbooks are a great thing to do for your marketing because you can help people by walking them through those decisions that they need to make. Putting your expertise and working formula in a workbook format would be great for your customers who may not be able to afford you coaching them one on one, or who may not be able to dedicate a junk of time to learning a new method. The workbook would allow them to work at their own pace.

The key is to help more people in the least amount of time whether it’s with case studies, doing workbooks where you write them out once and sell them time and again or group/single coaching as well.

How long should an ebook be? What about an audio recording?

Many people have been asking me the above questions. These actually are very common questions and I always respond in the same way. There is no magical formula that determines how long an ebook or other information products should be. Sure you might hear something like a special report would be about 50 pages, and an ebook about 100 pages. I really don’t know how anyone can come to that determination.

Your ebook, handbook or other product only needs to be as long as it needs to be to fulfull your promise in your marketing message. If you are offering step-by-step instructions on how to maintain a certain piece of equipment on your farm then you just need to provide the instructions, maybe some photos or a video and that’s it. You needn’t talk about the history of the machine and talk about other manufacturers, unless you’re making those a bonus offer on your sales letter. All you have to do is give them the information that you promised them.

When I purchase products related to my business, I don’t like the long books if I’m only looking for a method on how to do something. I’m not a beginner and don’t necessarily need a step-by-step guide. But if the information product covers a subject that I’m not familiar with, then I do like a more in-depth ebook that tells me everything.

You may decide to write a big ebook that tells you everything, or you may decide to do a 10 minute video showing step by step. These are always good to help someone who is brand new. But again, it’s whatever you need to do to fulfill your marketing message.

I think people worry about how long the ebook or other information products should be because they think that people won’t want to pay for the information if it’s not long enough. But realize that people are lazy…if you can show them in a very quick way how to perform a seemingly complicated task in 10 pages, that can be a great selling point.

Even though we don’t like to think about something happening, an emergency can strike your farm at any time. You need to be prepared with the correct information to assist emergency responders and others if called upon when a disaster strikes.

Farms have equipment, building structures, livestock, chemicals and fuels, and crops that will require special attention by emergency responders. Make sure that you’re able to provide them with information on the description and location of these to minimize the devastating effects of a disaster on your farm.

Here are some items to include in your farm emergency plan manual:

• Make a list of emergency contacts to include the Fire Department, Police Department, Poison Control Center.
• List family members, employees, and neighbors who are familiar with your farm business, along with their contact information.
• List contact information of all the businesses providing services such as veterinarians, utilities, equipment, hauling companies, insurance company, and financial institutions.
• List contact information for your suppliers of chemicals, fertilizer, etc.
• List contacts that can help provide emergency feed and water, power, livestock, machinery, etc.
• List location of important health history for yourself, your family members, and your employees.
• List location of important farm documents on-site and off-site such as safe deposit boxes.
• Have a description of the farm and directions from the nearest major intersection.
• Have a general diagram of the farm that includes the location of chemical, fuels, livestock, equipment, overhead and buried utilities, etc.
• List the location of spare keys for vehicles and buildings.
• List meeting location where all family and employees should gather following a disaster to assess the situation and to make sure everyone is accounted for that was working during the time of the disaster.

Make sure you hold regular safety meetings with your family and employees to review and update this information, as well as make sure that they are aware of the location of this emergency manual.

If you need help in putting together your emergency manual contact Rogers Executive Administrative Services at agriculture@easmyworkload.com. We can help you keep track of all this information, as well as put your manual together for you to ease your record keeping workload.