"Make a reliable $100,000 a year
offering seminars, workshops, and breakout sessions, then double that income
with books, audio CDs, reports, and consulting as your empire takes root and
prospers.
Dear Colleague:
I backed into seminaring
at lunch years ago when a fellow administrator at Cal State University,
Dominguez Hills told me he had a hole in his coming extended ed catalog and if
I had two topics "that worked" (and could talk for 3-4 hours about
each), he’d drop them in. But he was going to press the next day!
"How much do you pay?" was my first
ignorant question.
"We can charge $40 a person and you keep
half. If 1,000 people sign up, you get $20,000." Then he laughed, in part
because he rarely had a room with more than 50 seats.
So I wrote down three titles. He liked two,
"How to Sell 75% of Your Freelance Writing" (a book I was writing)
and "Writing Travel Articles That Sell" (I already had hundreds of
travel pieces in print, so why not?) The 100-word descriptions took longer.
When the "talking" dates became a
reality a couple of months later, I had organized my ideas and created short
workbooks. It was fun. The registrants shared their dreams, I provided process,
and soon enough I got a check for about $800 for each program. (How much more
would I have earned if my book had been in print to sell back of the room?)
Those two titles turned out to be among my
most popular programs, of a core eight, that eventually I gave for decades
through 35 colleges and universities.
What about sponsoring my own
seminars?
Or speaking to Fortune 500 folk?
You’re right! I was in the money minor leagues. The major
leagues were in offering seminars, breakout sessions, and training programs to
(1) businesses, corporations, and associations and (2) self-sponsored seminars.
So I tried them too, and they worked! I gave about 30 programs in (1) and eight
in (2)—and made a lot more money per program in each category. But my
topics (and my heart) really weren’t there. I flat-out loved working the
college/university circuit (and still do), even though it may have cost me a
million dollars over my career.
Still, as I said before, for 20+ years I
averaged an income of about $75,000 a year by giving seminars, mostly through
extended education—and most of those years it was in six figures. (The
best part? That was just one component of my wee empire.)
The best news for you?
Since I spoke in the lowest-paying part of the seminar-giving world, you could easily double my income!
So let me tell you the necessary stuff you
need to know about all three seminaring formats,
though I will focus a lot on the academic or institutional programs because
they are wide open for anybody, hardly cost a thing to test and try, and can be
set up in a few weeks with some quick checking, a bit of organizing and
defining, and getting your new program worked into a schedule that is always
looking for new ideas and new presenters. In short, a great place to begin if
your topic is right.
I call this program…
How to Set Up and Market Your Own Seminar
… and, yes, it too has been a seminar
that I’ve offered nationwide for years to others who, like you, are eager
to get a toehold on sharing good material with people who want to pay them to
know what they know.
Enough of me and what I’ve done, other
than to assure you that what I tell you to do I have in fact also
done—and it worked! More exciting, probably 150 seminar-givers in
Let’s get you set up right now so you
too can start speaking, earning, and expanding within a few months.
That’s the purpose of this three-disc audio CD program. You hear me just
as others do in a live seminar, except I taped this session in a studio to
lessen the background noise and to reduce the four hours of content to three,
without opening introductions, banter, a break, another short break, and
hard-to-hear questions.
Why do you need this program?
Because it can quickly change your life by providing a
high-paying core of your own information-dissemination empire!
To make the process immediately applicable and
easy to follow, I’ve broken it into three parts: (1) the entire seminar on disc, (2) the
complete workbook—16
sections (about 28 printed pages if you download it)—full of facts,
process sheets, and samples, and (3) an audio
CD summary, which simply means that I have summarized, in text,
what I say on the discs.
Frankly, I love audio CD summaries, but nobody else
seems to offer them! Why are they my favorite part? Because I seldom have time
to hear audio discs, and I’m usually distracted (probably driving the
car) when I do. So I fear I miss a lot, I forget even more, and I never get
around to hearing them again.
Yet I can review an audio CD summary quickly before I
hear the discs, and I can review it again after I’ve heard them. Then if
I need to listen to a specific item a second or third time, it tells me just
about where I can find it on the disc so I can fast-forward to that spot.
Why are seminars
the best place to start?
If you really want to make money in the information-sharing
world, you need a solid core of exchange through which your clients know that
you are fully informed, articulate, and organized.
That usually means that you need a book or a seminar, since both are long and full enough to
answer the clients’ questions and qualify you as a person from whom they
should buy more, now, and often.
You will eventually want to write a book, in
full or e-book format. Since I’ve had 36 published, I will help you do
that with other products, particularly in niche fields (with Niche Publishing).
But seminars are faster and, at least in a limited scope, are as effective.
This program will get you right to the heart of the process.
Not only are seminars much quicker to
organize, 15 of my books started out as seminars, where I tested the material
orally for about a year, heard the questions, identified the peskiest problems
that listeners wanted solved, and saw where my explanations needed to be
expanded or simplified.
It was much faster to write the books
after giving the seminar!
Where does Your Empire
Figure In?
The idea of an empire is to put you in the center of both a need
and hungry buyers who want that need met. The very kind of people who pay to
hear what you have to say! So once they are listeners, assuming you do your
part well, they will gladly become part of your army, eager to buy more from
you and pleased (usually) to tell their friends that you are the real thing and
they should become your followers too.
In monetary means, that means bigger audiences,
more of your products bought, more readers for your newsletter, more eager
registrants for you self-sponsored seminar, more folks for your boot camp, more
consulting clients. You get the idea. By giving a dandy $50 or $100 seminar you
get their buying allegiance for several hundred or several thousand dollars of
additional buying. (And you help them make their dreams come true, as they do
the same for those to whom they speak.)
Another point: if you are talking about X now,
there is much more to say about the five related topics that come from or lead
to X. Those too become seminar subjects, and are open to the same books,
articles, audio CDs, and other info-selling means that X
enjoys.
What do I get if I buy
this three-part program?
Here’s what the three audio CDs cover:
Agenda
|
1. |
Introduction |
|
|
2. |
Brief
definition and overview of seminars and the potential income |
|
|
3. |
Eight
kinds of seminars—three we will focus on here |
|
|
4. |
How do
you find a subject? |
|
|
5. |
A
guideline that seems to help |
|
|
6. |
Feasibility
study: learn from others |
|
|
7. |
Writing
a description |
|
|
8. |
Creating
a title |
|
|
9. |
Identifying
a market most likely to pay to attend |
|
|
10 |
Selecting
the most appropriate sponsor—or doing it yourself |
|
|
11. |
Income
boosters: B.O.R. sales |
|
|
12. |
Workbooks
|
|
|
13. |
Booking,
price, time, location and promotion as they relate to:
|
|
|
14. |
What
you do before your listeners arrive |
|
|
15. |
Very
quick summary |
In the seminar I divide the contents into two
segments: the Basics (1-12, though each overlaps some on the Specifics) and the
Specifics (13-14). I do a lot of consulting in this area and almost without
exception the reasons that seminars fail is found in numbers 4-10, without
regard to the kind of sponsorship. So I focus very much on those. Do them right,
and with sufficient promotion you are in clover. Some of them seem obvious. Err
there at peril.
Yet I can only say so much on disc, so the
fact-filled workbook (much more slanted to the Specifics) fills in the gaps and
provides a foundation to help you create a seminar that works the first
time…and forever!
What’s in the workbook?
Workbook Table of Contents
· Agenda-Guideline
· Defining seminars
and identifying sponsors
· Where does the
do-it-yourselfer fit in?
· Offerings seminars
through the college-university systems
· Offering seminars on
your own
· Seminar
organizational schedule
· Seminar description
· Budget guidelines
· Content and
organization
· Thoughts about
seminar promotion
· Creating successful
copy for seminar brochures
· Mailing lists,
mailing, mailers
· News releases
· Evaluation sheet
· Five-step guide for
seminar success
· More help for
speakers
What’s missing? The audio CD summary that I mentioned
earlier. It’s the third, missing element of a complete audio CD
package. It tells you in text summary what I tell you in greater detail in the
audio CDs.
What does this three-part
life-changing program cost?
How much does it cost you to find out "How
to Set Up and Market Your Own Seminar"?
Rather than spending years learning slowly by
doing it your way, buying the process that consistently works has to be worth
far more than $500—which
is far less than the profits you will probably earn from any seminar you offer!
But you say that you’ll gladly pay half
of that, or $250,
because you aren’t sure you can do it.
OK, we’re in a recession and this is a
ticket out. So let’s do it even better: $49—for the three audio CDs, the full workbook,
and the audio CD summary. (Have I lost my mind?)
There’s a greater reason you want to buy this all-in-one guide RIGHT NOW. If you want your seminar
or workshop to be in a college or university catalog for the fall offerings,
you almost certainly have to have the proposal, title, description, and
whatever else the director wants from you in his or her hands within
a month. Missing that deadline could cost you a hunk of your future
$100,000 just for dallying!
P.S. If you’re not already a recipient of my free
newsletter, it’s a double winner for seminar-givers. The three free
reports alone are worth subscribing.
So here's the
sign-up info for
"Writers, Speakers, Publishers, and Product Developers:
"Create Your Own Highly Profitable Empire"
Subscribe (free) at www.gordonburgett.com/free-reports
and also receive three free reports
About Gordon Burgett
Gordon Burgett specializes in niche publishing and empire-building from
writing, speaking, and product development. That is the theme of his monthly
newsletter, "Create Your Own Highly Profitable Empire."
Gordon has also given 2000+ paid spoken presentations nationwide, written 36
published books and 1,700+ freelance magazine and newspaper articles, and is
the owner and director of two publishing firms. His most recent book is Niche
Publishing: Publishing Profitably Every Time.
Four of Burgett’s books have been Writer’s Digest Book
Club top choices: Sell and Resell Your Magazine Articles, The Travel Writer’s Guide, The Writer’s Guide to Query and Cover Letters, and How to Sell
More Than 75% of Your Freelance Writing.
In 2007, three of Gordon's books were revised, updated, and reprinted: How to Plan a Great
Second Life, the Travel Writer's Guide, and Sell and Resell Your Magazine
Articles. His first novel also saw life that year.
Burgett is the Executive Editor of www.VisualTravelTours.com,
leading visual travel podcast production firm in
world, and for years has appeared as a talk show guest on radio and TV shows
across
What They Say About
Gordon Burgett
"I've been reading and profiting from your stuff for decades. Your
cover article in the April PMA Independent (about niche publishing) is yet
another example of your unmatched ability to present useful, practical ideas in
a concise and entertaining fashion."
---Bob Bly, author of The Copyrighter’s
Handbook
"I
looked you up on the Internet, signed up for your newsletter, read your
articles, and said,'This guy is really giving out the
goods!' For me it is concrete information that I can run with, so I was
glad to be able to get your Niche Publishing book. Your presentation and
material are concise, Gordon, and I appreciate that."
---Jan Ellis
"People buy nonfiction books to learn something or to solve a problem. In
Niche Publishing, you will discover how to help more readers and sell more
books by focusing your message."
---Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing
Manual
"Read Niche Publishing if you want to fill a niche with a best selling
book."
---John Kremer, author, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books
"If you’re planning to publish, STOP what you are doing
now—read this book first!"
---Reece Franklin, author of Consultant’s Guide to Publicity
"This book sets the table for those who want to feast on the lucrative
niche publishing market."
---Kent Sturgis, president (2004-6) of the Independent Book Publisher’s
Association
"Savvy advice on a smart way to publish."
---Judith Appelbaum, author of How to Get
Happily Published
"Wonderful framework for thinking about how and what to publish. I am an
editor who works in professional publishing. Niche Publishing will show you,
step by step, how to brainstorm, evaluate, create and execute more successful
single titles, series, and lists. This is a terrific and useful book."
---Tim Bigby
"Well done! As a publishing professional involved in publishing Jewish
books, Niche Publishing is a virtual tome of useful information. It is hard to
believe this is a work of just under 200 pages! Everything is well explained.
(Gordon) helps you understand what to look for in your market. Analyze who they
are. And ultimately, see how to create and market products geared specifically
for them."
---Rabbi Yisroel Bernath,
Jewish World Publishing
"Here's the book that shows you how to focus and concentrate all your
efforts on (your niche market): how to determine the needs, produce the goods
and sell the product (at a profit). What I personally enjoyed the most was the
thorough case study at the end (it's over 40 pages long) of the whole process
done on one of the books he worked on. Packed with practical information, Niche
Publishing is a book for that would-be author who's almost lost hope for his
'baby' to ever come to birth. The 'labor' is hard, but the result is well worth
it. If you're in that niche that needs a book like this, get it. It's packed
with what you need to know."
---Rod Harrington
"In Niche Publishing: Publish Profitably Every Time! Gordon Burgett
presents straight talk to writers about how to target a specialty market for
your book and how to sell to that market. This book is valuable for saving
promotional money and time. Gordon Burgett also compares and contrasts the
information in his book to that of other best-sellers and he gives references
for further research. He is an authority on writing and publishing, having
written 35 published books. He (also) owns two niche publishing
companies."
---Kathy Noltze, author of Flanders: Bits of
"We now live in the age of desk top publishing and Print-on-Demand presses
where anyone with a manuscript and some cash can get published. But getting
published profitably is quite another matter. That takes
planning, preparation, and perseverance. It also takes a 'how to' manual
like successful author-turned-publisher Gordon Burgett's
Niche Publishing: Publish Profitably Every Time. (This book) should be considered
essential reading and a core addition to the Writing/Publishing reference shelf
of any author or novice publisher aspiring to be published profitably and with
a minimum of risk."
---James A. Cox, Library Bookwatch
"Thanks for the tremendously enjoyable (How to Sell 75% of Your Freelance
Writing) four-hour seminar. You are very thorough in your presentation, the
information was more than I expected to receive, and very helpful."
---Melinda Hamm attended the SFSU program
"Gordon, thank you for the Travel
Writer's Guide.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I learned from your text. So many of
the ideas you provide have assisted me well beyond travel writing. I've sold
several non-travel articles because of things I learned in your book."
---Gregory A. Kompes
Terrific article in the December
(2009) issue of IBPA! As a "book shepherd" I need to
stay on the cutting edge, as much as possible. The ebook
situation is critical for me to understand and your article is a huge help.
Thank you so very much.
--- Ellen Reid of Ellen Reid's Book Shepherding
(bookshep@mac.com)
Hello Gordon!
I recently contacted you to request a copy of your booklet on how to plan a
great second life. Awesome work! And I have also recently acquired your book by
the same name.
Thanks, Gordon! ...(Y)our work is awesome and
inspiring—a true gift to the world!
---