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Need some feedback

by genhorrall
5 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
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Okay so I am not sure this is the right thread to put this in, but it is part of my website. I wrote an ebook to use as my free gift. I need to know what some one that is actually in IM thinks.

I would love for anyone to go and download it and tell me what you think.

I shows up as an attatchment in your email. I had the hardest time getting uploaded to mysite and then the link did not work. So for now it is still an attatchment. Will have to find the time soon to fix that. :confused:

Anyway, you can unsubscribe from my autoresponder if you wish,but I need to know if this is good for a free content.

Thanks in advance.
#ebook #feedback #free give away
  • Profile picture of the author genhorrall
    Okay got the thank you page to work now. You tube is so awesome. But still could use feedback for the book.

    Thanks,
    Gen =D
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    • Profile picture of the author stormyweather
      I signed up but was immediately met with an upsell before it was clear the free ebook was on its way. I didn't like that.

      The confirm message arrived, and when the ebook arrived in the next email, there was a picture of it that had no title - just a blank book. That looked unbaked to me and a bit fly by night, amateur. If you're going to use an image it ought not to be blank. (I'm only saying all this because you asked).

      The cover of the real ebook is not great. And your site wasn't too good. The font is weird and you have spelling/grammatical mistakes. How does this brand you? Here are some extracts from your site :

      "The goal of this sight is help the reader and engage them in learning the importance of selling yourself rather than a product."

      "I am said to say that I found only a couple."

      "the very basics that you have already been able to gleen yourself"

      "It is your marketing strategies that will make your busines"

      It's a shame because you write very well in places. Your stuff can be readable.

      But the contents of the ebook is no different really to your site. The message being that there is no secret and no pushbutton solution and that loads of gurus are out to get you. I don't think there is enough original content in this free give-away.

      The quality of the writing in the ebook is poor. It needs editing.
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      • Profile picture of the author genhorrall
        Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

        I signed up but was immediately met with an upsell before it was clear the free ebook was on its way. I didn't like that.
        I will change that. I did not realize I had my offers on both pages. After I fixed the other page that has the download link, I forgot to go back and change the first page.

        Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

        The confirm message arrived, and when the ebook arrived in the next email, there was a picture of it that had no title - just a blank book. That looked unbaked to me and a bit fly by night, amateur. If you're going to use an image it ought not to be blank. (I'm only saying all this because you asked).
        I was having trouble getting the picture to let me add words. I wanted to put the name of the book on the ebook that comes with that template. It would not let me add any text.

        Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

        The cover of the real ebook is not great. And your site wasn't too good. The font is weird and you have spelling/grammatical mistakes. How does this brand you?
        I have only been working on this site for a couple of weeks. This is my second site and the first one is not about making money. It is monetized, but it is not about money, that one is a purely informational site. I will have to go back and fix the mistakes. I do most of my work at three in the morning when my twins are asleep and the baby does not need me anymore. I know it is no excuse. Maybe I will save my drafts and go back and read them before posting.

        As far as the font that is the one that comes with that plug in. I will try and see if I can go and fix it in the CSS sheet. I have just been learning how to do some html. I think I learned that about a week ago.

        The ebook cover was because this was my first ebook to write. I have never done this before. I did not know how to create a cover for it. I guess that is one more thing I am going to have to go and find the time to learn. Thank you for taking the time to point out the mistakes so I can go back and change them.

        Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

        It's a shame because you write very well in places. Your stuff can be readable.
        Glad to know that I can do a few things right. I am sad that you feel my site is poor and that my content is sort of readable. But this is how we learn and I know that criticism is the only way we learn. So if you could be more specific with what I have written well I would appreciate it. I would like to know which parts you found to be readable.

        Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

        But the contents of the ebook is no different really to your site. I don't think there is enough original content in this free give-away.

        The quality of the writing in the ebook is poor. It is in needs editing.
        I guess I have more work to do on this book. Like I stated earlier this is my first ebook. This is my first product creation ever. I am not sure what else I could add to make it more original. And just as a side note, I had this book edited and proof read by two seperate people. Guess I will not be using them again.

        Thank you for your very honest critique. I will have to go back to the drawing board on some of this. I will take down the offer on the first thank you for subscribing page. I will look into changing the font and the bolded way that the post show up in the style sheet. I will see about creating ebook covers. I will fix the mistakes on my site, that is a must. As far as tweaking the book I will have to put more thought into it. I am sad to find out that my writing in it is poor.

        Well I definately feel like a newbie today. But that being said I will only learn from these experiences. And you did tell me the truth. I appreciate that.
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        • Profile picture of the author stormyweather
          Sorry you are feeling low about my comments. I don't blame you. But you have done more than most people ever do - quite a lot more actually - so don't feel bad, you just have to raise your game in a few areas. Most people never do anything at all.

          If you want to be a self-sufficient marketer I think you do have to keep learning and try to rely less on packaged out-of-the-box solutions to get things done. Some people won't agree with me, but this is my opinion.

          So in order to make your site look better, use a good premium theme. It will save you a lot of time in the long run. If you think you are up to it, use Thesis, but if that isn't for you, just head over and buy Genesis with the complete package of child themes. You will end up with a glossier, cleaner slate to start with. And you'll have a whole bunch of themes to work with as you make more sites. See the themes available here :
          StudioPress Themes

          It costs $249 for the lot, but it is worth it for the time and trouble it will save you.

          As for the image of the book, PM and send me the image and I'll write the words on it that you want. But you need to get good at using Photoshop. I know it's expensive, but again - if you want to be able to throw sites up quickly without messing around, you need to be able to manipulate your own graphics. If you know a student you can buy Photoshop CS5 for the student rate - and in any case you can download the free trial for 30 days. I think trying to do everything for free is just a waste of time. Spend the money on some decent tools and they'll pay you again and again.

          The font comes with the plugin??! The font on the website is too heavy - that will be fixed with a decent theme and some time spent on CSS. Very simple once you know how.

          And the font in the ebook? I'm writing a PDF at the moment. It is written in Microsoft Word - where I can choose any font I like, and then saved as .PDF. No "plugin" required. If your version of Microsoft Word is old and cannot save as a PDF, then simply create the PDF using a free online tool like Word to PDF Converter

          As for creating a cover, I am making one at the moment by getting a photo I took of a sunset over my garden, and writing some text on it using Photoshop. Then I paste that into Word and that is it.

          Specific? OK. You write with gusto. And the stuff about balancing a baby and still not making excuses and getting on with it is very compelling. So I think you just need to continue to write as you do, naturally, but then put the whole thing through a massive sanity and editing check. No way can this stuff be written and sent out as web content or an ebook on first draft. Because that is how it reads - like a first draft. The only people who can do that and get away with it (and frequently do) are people like re-purposing King, Stephen Pierce. He has his talks transcribed and sells or give these away as ebooks, but people read that conversational writing because the guy is worth millions and invented the word Squeeze Page. His track record is enough.

          But as for the ebook content - you have to give real value and present it well. Because you don't have a track record.

          Sign up to Kim Roach at Buzz Blogger if you want to see someone who gives a lot of high quality stuff.

          Your site has a home-made look about it. That is what I meant by the site is poor - and the header image - I see where you are going - brand yourself - peacock is a pretty branded - but the words superimposed on the peacock are poorly done. If you made the site look slicker, and used a normal font, and cleaned up the grammar and spelling you have the start of something as far as the site is concerned.

          I have a free thing you can sign up to. Unfortunately is it slightly out of date now (as it is designed for Thesis 1.7 and Thesis 1.8 is now out), but the graphics part of it may help you. In it I create a header on video to show you how to use Photoshop to create a header for Thesis. Go to How To Do a Squeeze Page With Wordpress and Thesis 1.7 and sign up for the free download. I am bringing out an update, but it won't be for a 6 weeks yet. But you might be able to learn something from what I have there now.

          Liz
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          • Profile picture of the author genhorrall
            Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

            Sorry you are feeling low about my comments. I don't blame you. But you have done more than most people ever do - quite a lot more actually - so don't feel bad, you just have to raise your game in a few areas. Most people never do anything at all.

            If you want to be a self-sufficient marketer I think you do have to keep learning and try to rely less on packaged out-of-the-box solutions to get things done. Some people won't agree with me, but this is my opinion.
            Thank you. I did feel low, but like I said it is criticism and critique that teach us how to refine our craft and make us better at what we do. (I used to be a theatre major in what seems like life times ago now.)

            Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

            So in order to make your site look better, use a good premium theme. It will save you a lot of time in the long run. If you think you are up to it, use Thesis, but if that isn't for you, just head over and buy Genesis with the complete package of child themes. You will end up with a glossier, cleaner slate to start with. And you'll have a whole bunch of themes to work with as you make more sites. See the themes available here :
            StudioPress Themes
            I did find a free child theme for now. I switched the site to it. Add the peacock for now. The point of the peacock is that is all he ever does, he goes around branding himself to all the females. He is in a constant state of look at me. I do have to say that it looks much cleaner. I also found the plug ins to replace all the things that came with the other theme. I will keep those other themes in mind when I actually do have a budget to work with. I really am bootstrapping it here. I have used all I have just for hosting right now.


            Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

            As for the image of the book, PM and send me the image and I'll write the words on it that you want. But you need to get good at using Photoshop. I know it's expensive, but again - if you want to be able to throw sites up quickly without messing around, you need to be able to manipulate your own graphics. If you know a student you can buy Photoshop CS5 for the student rate - and in any case you can download the free trial for 30 days. I think trying to do everything for free is just a waste of time. Spend the money on some decent tools and they'll pay you again and again.
            Thank you so much for the offer, but I do not have the photo that I want yet. Sad thing is that my DH is an acutal fine arts/graphic arts major. We did have access to all of that, but then his hard drive crashed and the stupid cd/dvd reader busted. LOL. What are you going to do. I have all the stuff I need to make it. I just can't get it loaded back on to the computer. LOL. He can even take the photo I want. LOL. I think I will see if he can do this at school, since I do not have the photo I want yet anyway.


            Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

            And the font in the ebook?
            The font that was on the website before was the one that was in the theme. I tried to change the css style sheet to no avail. So like I said I switched to the cleaner free child theme I could find.

            The font in the ebook was all me. I like to read in georgia font, but I guess I could change it to a more standard times roman. That would probably be the better choice. And again no one said anything to me when they proofed and edited the book. RRRR. Oh well it is not something they do for a living.

            Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

            Specific? OK. You write with gusto. And the stuff about balancing a baby and still not making excuses and getting on with it is very compelling. So I think you just need to continue to write as you do, naturally, but then put the whole thing through a massive sanity and editing check. No way can this stuff be written and sent out as web content or an ebook on first draft. Because that is how it reads - like a first draft. The only people who can do that and get away with it (and frequently do) are people like re-purposing King, Stephen Pierce. He has his talks transcribed and sells or give these away as ebooks, but people read that conversational writing because the guy is worth millions and invented the word Squeeze Page. His track record is enough.

            But as for the ebook content - you have to give real value and present it well. Because you don't have a track record.
            Okay I totally get what you are saying here. I will try and make sure that I proof read and edit and read out loud what I write so that it makes better sense. As far as the ebook. I am not sure if I should scrap the whole thing or edit, revise, and add something like how to start your own site. I do know how to do that.

            Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

            Sign up to Kim Roach at Buzz Blogger if you want to see someone who gives a lot of high quality stuff.
            Thank you I will most definately check this out. I really do want to make this site with value and give to my readers. I also want to find information that will help others. So thanks for this tip.

            Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

            Your site has a home-made look about it. That is what I meant by the site is poor - and the header image - I see where you are going - brand yourself - peacock is a pretty branded - but the words superimposed on the peacock are poorly done. If you made the site look slicker, and used a normal font, and cleaned up the grammar and spelling you have the start of something as far as the site is concerned.
            I hope that the changes that I have made help with this some. I know that it will not be taken care of completely till I can afford the better themes, the logo I want, and the graphics. Changing the theme got rid of that stupid superimposed lettering though. That made me happy, it was one of the things I did not like about the theme. Put I liked all the things that it came with. However, there are plug ins that do the same things. I just had to go and find them. That is the only draw back to bootstrapping, you have to have more time to get stuff done. I did take the time to go and clean up the errors. I got time from my DH and he did the kids and I got to read when I am not half asleep and exhausted. I am much happier with it. I mostly just fixed the mistakes, but I change how some of it was written a little too.

            Originally Posted by stormyweather View Post

            I have a free thing you can sign up to. Unfortunately is it slightly out of date now (as it is designed for Thesis 1.7 and Thesis 1.8 is now out), but the graphics part of it may help you. In it I create a header on video to show you how to use Photoshop to create a header for Thesis. Go to How To Do a Squeeze Page With Wordpress and Thesis 1.7 and sign up for the free download. I am bringing out an update, but it won't be for a 6 weeks yet. But you might be able to learn something from what I have there now.

            Liz

            I will check that out too. I have really appreciated all the time you have taken. I know that we are all busy here and for someone that is doing this to take their time and give a real evaluation has helped. Thank you so very much. If you don't mind, when I get my ratings and traffic up would you consider maybe being a guest blogger and adding your two cents in for my readers. I would really love that.

            Thank you again so much,
            Gen

            PS. I will let you know when I have done more than just change the font on the ebook. Thanks again.
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