Only One Thing Holding Me Back From IM Success!

[Zanti]

Dear Fellow Warriors,

I sincerely need your help.

I'm a writer and have completed 5 E-books. I have written 42 articles ready for submission to directories. I have a well researched, unique niche, with little competition and high searches. I'm considered an expert in my niche. I have 5 unique affiliate products that fit my niche perfectly. Last, I have my website 97% finished and ready to go live next week.

With all of the above completed and ready to be put into action, what could possibility be holding me up from moving forward?

Before I divulge my Achilles heel please allow me to share a few facts that will assist you to provide me with the best help:

1. Due to a serious health issue, I'm working on less than, a Shoestring Budget.
2. The computer I work on is a Mac.
3. I do not have Photoshop.
4. I do have GIMP, but little experience with it.
5. One of my business philosophies is: Outside of my field/niche I don't have to be an expert in any one key area, but I have to know enough about those key areas to intelligently converse with an expert of those areas.

My Achilles heel is: E-book Covers.

I'm not able to outsource this at present. I've searched on google for written details and/or videos with step-by-step directions to no real avail. I'm confident in my abilities that I can create professional book covers. I have come across some WSO's and War Room, E-cover creation programs, developed for PC's but not Mac.

What I'm Seeking: Step-by-step directions and/or video on; How to create E-covers using GIMP and Mac.

Until the E-covers are created, I can't launch the site, drive traffic, sell my products or affiliate products.

Any direction, leeds, offers, websites, PDF's, videos, newsletters or anything else you think could be helpful to me I would greatly appreciate.

Thank you for your help,

Sincerely,

Z

[TrafficGuy Claude]

Why not run the popular Windows eCover creation programs through a Windows emulator on your Mac?

Check this one out, its FREE too!

VirtualBox

[Russ Reynolds]

Or..start selling without an ebook cover and reinvest your profits into some professional graphics.

[~Davor Debrecin~]

Ugh..

Being a perfectionist will loose you money.

You wrote 5 ebooks - why don't you use one of those ebooks (or even maybe two!) and offer them as a bribe to build your list? You said you are already known in your niche, you can then easily drive some traffic to your optin page. You could then generate a list of 20-30 very responsive people and sell them something (anything!) and earn $200 which you can use to get your ecovers done.

My advice - don't be a perfectionist! Trust me, I speak from my own experience. Before I was just like you, trying to get everything done perfectly exactly like I had in mind. That cost me too much time, energy and money that in the end some projects failed because of that.

Take care,

~Davor

[infohog]

Agree 100% with Davor. Don't wait for that perfect moment to launch - it will never happen. A running Pinto beats a stalled Porsche.

If you don't have ebook graphics yet make light of it with your readers with a gray square image that says 'Pretty pictures coming soon' or something similar. Or place a few pics of humans doing your niche. People like seeing people.

Bottom line - don't wait for all the stars to align to get your ass rolling! Do it now.

[JamesPenn]

I launch many products without graphics.

It's not always necessary.

James

[imatech]

Greetings Davor,
Go to 995.com download is Free. which means help them with a cash gift when up and running. Download pdf creator. copy and place your text. Then you can hit the button upper left which hanges file to PDF

Hey Davor, we have all started the same as you mention of your forte everyone had to stumble about as I did and pdf.com are excellent.

You can allow your affiiates the ability to add their name. This way they have a book with their name and this makes them something a book with their names. But all links are your;s. As sugestion alow a few link this will start you pdf up, running and distributers.

To your Success DAVOR

[infohog]

James Penn - Is Sean Penn your dad? Damn, the resemblance is eerie.

[Aljiro]

Contact me for a free design I just like helping people.

[JamesPenn]

Originally Posted by infohog

James Penn - Is Sean Penn your dad? Damn, the resemblance is eerie.

I've heard this about 20 times now.

And no, he's not my Dad or any relation. Although it could be a great selling point

[luckystepho]

I agree, you have done the hard work, just get your books out there; once you have made some money you could reinvest it in outsourcing cover designs and see if it improves your sales.

I don't think it matters too much if you have something fairly basic at first- well done on getting as far as you have, the amount of work you have done is impressive!

[Zanti]

First, I want to thank you all for your support, encouragement, words of wisdom, offers, suggestions and help.

I learned in writing my first book, 290 pages, that if I wanted to finish it I had to give up on having everything perfect. I was so determined to make it the very best that I kept making changes to it. Until one of my best friends who is a published author, well respected in his field, and who has appeared on Oprah, Good Morning Amer. and every other major daytime talk/news show, said to me: What you have is perfect, if you keep chasing perfect you'll never catch it.

So I don't seek perfection, but I do have high standards. In my writing, I provide a service to the reader. I provide them more value than what they could ever have expected. This is something I would never compromise on, which is the reason that my book cover must reflect the content quality.

Yes, I could put the books out without a nice cover and reinvest expected sales into outsourcing cover creation. But that still leaves me short of my desire to learn how to do it myself. I mean, a year ago, I didn't know anything about html, css, website, wordpress, IM and a host of other things, but I leaned and have gotten pretty good at some of them. I'm willing to invest the time to learn how to create book covers with my Mac. Once I have profits from my site I will purchase Photoshop, as I know there are tutorials and pdf's on creating covers.

Now on the particle side, I want to specifically thank Hypnoman and Digitalphantom05 for your kind offers, you will receive a pm from me today. Thank you for your willingness to offer your services.

I'm still open to suggestions, ideas etc... on how I can learn to do covers with Mac + GIMP.

Again, thank you all for your help,

Z

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by Zanti

I'm still open to suggestions, ideas etc... on how I can learn to do covers with Mac + GIMP.

Maybe this will help? Free EBook Covers - How to Create Yours For Free With GIMP - Part 1 of 2

[steveweber]

Remember, "Good is Good Enough"

If the site is "97%" finished, publish it! And get those articles submitted.

Get some traffic and start building your list....forget about "selling" right now. Focus on getting qualified leads and then building a good relationship with that list.

Heck, if your list likes you, you don't NEED a book cover!

"Perfection" is your enemy right now it....that's how it sounds to me.

[spokenwords]

I agree with stevewebber, sometimes ready fire aim is best

[Don-James]

I had a similar situation some time back and did the following:

1. Paid $10 Used iStockphotos.com to find a professional image to place on my ebook.
2. Imported the photo into Paint.NET on Windows (you'll have to use some other package on the Mac) and added the title/spine text.
3. Used Free Ebook Covers to create the ebook cover.

It was that simple and came out great!!!

[angela99]

Zanti, I don't mean to sound flippant, but who says you need e-covers?

I skipped e-covers for years. My attitude was, why bother? All you need is great content.

Happiness reigned. I made sales. All was well.

But I kept hearing that good covers made all the difference.

Finally, I decided that a pretty cover couldn't hurt a product.

So, now I have e-covers for my products.

Have they made a difference?

NO.

I'm currently working on several products, and e-covers aren't on my to-do list.

You're selling CONTENT. Focus on the content.

Judging from your post you may have a fear of failure/ fear of success challenge which has nothing to do with covers. :-)

I wish you all success -- get your products out there. :-)

[Zanti]

Thanks Dan and Steve,

Don't know how I missed the eza article. Thanks Dan.

The site will be live next week one way or another. I'm really not tyrannized by perfection. Many of my articles are tied to or lead to one or more of my e-books. I really do see perfectionism and quality standards as two distinct ways of approach.

I think that some use "it doesn't have to be perfect" as an excuse or a justification to offer less than superior products or services. And that's one trap I will never fall into.

Based on my personality it easy for me to focus on the big picture and not on the small details and to find excuses not to pay attention to the details. So if it takes me two or three extra days to launch that's ok. In the past few months I've accomplished a lot and what important, more than anything, is that I have taken action. Not just thinking about things, planning things or getting more information, but taking real action. When I launch next week, I will have book covers that I am proud of that matches the quality of the information behind the cover.

There is an energy around anything that you create or produce. When one can harmonize with that energy not only will you recognize and benefit, but your customers will also recognize this energy and benefit from it, which is why they return as satisfied customers.

Thanks again, and keep the thoughts and ides coming.

Z

[killercopy]

I'm a big proponent of a good looking cover. True, you don't need one, but I've learned that an exciting, professionally designed cover DRAMATICALLY increases sales. I started with no cover and made sales. I then got a mediocre cover and made more sales. And once I splurged for a professional cover, sales increased even more. I'm like Z at this point and I won't bother with a launch without a pro looking cover because a lost sale is most likely gone forever.

[steveweber]

Originally Posted by killercopy

I'm a big proponent of a good looking cover. True, you don't need one, but I've learned that an exciting, professionally designed cover DRAMATICALLY increases sales. I started with no cover and made sales. I then got a mediocre cover and made more sales. And once I splurged for a professional cover, sales increased even more. I'm like Z at this point and I won't bother with a launch without a pro looking cover because a lost sale is most likely gone forever.

I agree with Brian. Get an idea "out there" just as soon as possible in order to see if there is any traction to be had. If not, move on. If there is, then begin spending time testing, tweaking, and THEN making it as perfect as you can.

[scraggz]

I realise that this is quite a while after your initial enquiry but if you are still interested in learning how to create ebook covers in Gimp grab the free pdf from my sig.
I also have a video series on Gimp which I sell for $17. I would be willing to give you access to these in return for credit/link on your site or products, whichever you felt was appropriate.

Stan