Did you get a "nice deal" on your book contract?

If you write books, you probably wonder about advances.

Your own advance.

And what other people get.

If you're wondering if you got "a good deal," there's a great resource for you called Publishers Lunch. It is an institution in the publishing industry -- everyone reads it.

They have lots of news and gossip about the industry.

Plus they list a few deals each week. Here's their key to understanding the deals:

"nice deal" $1 - $49,000
"very nice deal" $50,000 - $99,000
"good deal" $100,000 - $250,000
"significant deal" $251,000 - $499,000
"major deal" $500,000 and up

PR LEADS alum Michael Port got a "very nice deal" for his new book to be published by John Wiley, according to Publishers Lunch. The book's called " 'The Think Big Manifesto' in the tradition of Napoleon Hill, offering a paradigm of centered collaboration as a new path for business and personal growth that produces dramatic results over the small-thinking ways that plague our everyday experiences in work, relationships and society, again to Matt Holt at Wiley, in a very nice deal."

If you write books, this newsletter is delightful eye candy.

Get yours here

SpamArrest really cuts down on spam

I love spamarrest. I couldn't live without it.

At the very best, I see only emails enter my email account that have been approved by me. Then I go to their website and quickly scan the mail it blocked -- 99 percent is junk. The one percent that should have gone through usually is from new clients who haven't clicked on the approval option.

I check the folder in the morning and then 2-3 times a day. It really works.

Here's another tip: I have a lot of domains (publicity for doctors, trainers, consultants, etc.) that I just post a page for, but don't have active emails addresses. The spammers found that sites and send me junk, so we disabled the email option on those sites. That cut down spam a lot. So if you have old sites, pointer sites, or sites that you really don't need mail from, you might want to do this.

I'd heartily recommend spam arrest (and I get an affiliate commission if you click on this link)

http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4037403

I check the folder in the morning and then 2-3 times a day. It really works.

Making sense of call reports

Call reports can be a great asset to teleseminar producers.

A good call report shows the time a person came on the call, the time they left and the number of minutes on the call. It might even show the caller's phone number.

You'll see that not everyone stays on the line for the entire call, which prompted one client to wonder if he was doing something wrong.

Maybe. Maybe not.

A client emailed me that he was disappointed that people dropped off his call.

Here's what I wrote:

Don't read anything into this. They might have had a heart attack, gone to the bathroom, taken an important call, originally allocated 30 minutes to the call knowing they would have to run, lost the call because they have a rotten phone company or skype connection. OR, if you look at the start times, you might notice some people didn't get on the call at the beginning. Don't assume they just weren't into you.

OTOH, some people will drop because they aren't getting anything out of it -- and that's okay. Not everyone is going to buy from you. You can use this report to follow up with people and have a good idea of what they heard on the call. All this is positive.

Definitely review call reports to see if you can spot trends. If lots of people are bailing out at a particular time, you might be doing something wrong.

So review the reports and see what you can learn from them.

Dan Janal
www.GreatTeleseminars.com

Should telseminars have professional moderators?

Question: As a broadcast personality/journalist/interviewer with a strong
marketing sense, I wonder if there is an opportunity to serve as co-
host on teleseminars in order to make them more effective. I have
spent countless hours listening to dull and ineffective presentations
and this includes some of the major names in the Internet marketing
industry, and I really believe that I could help to make their
products sound (and sell) better.

I'd like your opinion on whether this idea has any merit, if a ton of
people like me are already doing it (and I'm just not hearing them),
or if marketers wouldn't think twice of paying somebody a percentage
for this kind of service.

Dan Janal replies:

I agree that many people who do teleseminars lack the essential hosting and interviewing skills that can make a teleseminar sound professional, Many sound amateurish.

Unfortunately, many people either don't seem to know the difference, or care. I find the same attitude with recording quality as well. I've heard many teleseminars from top names that offered disturbing sound effects that made me question their professionalism or their concern for their audiences. That's the reason Great Teleseminars Audio Production Company exists--to help people who realize they need to sound good!

So, I agree with your premise: the need for quality interviewing and recording is paramount, but I wonder if you will find a market. People want to do teleseminars on the cheap and they use free conference services that offer quality that is just good enough to get by (although I was a guest on a teleseminar and the free service dropped everyone off the line -- including me, the moderator and 100 paying clients!) .

The short answer is that you have a great idea for a service. But you'll have to market your services superbly to find an audience that will pay for it.

Good luck!

Dan Janal
Founder
Great Teleseminars Audio Production Company
http://www.greatteleseminars.com

Presentation coach Karen Friedman offers several great tips that can be used to start your teleseminar with a bang.

View her short video here:

I plan on using these tips in my next teleseminar!

Does your free conference line suck?

I've had it with free conference lines! They suck!

I used to recommend free services for people who didn't want to rent my lines and get full customer service. If they didn't need my help, that's okay, because free lines were okay.

But now, I'm getting emails from people saying their clients can't onto the call, or their clients get kicked off the call, or there's an echo.

Why?

The quality of these lines stink. They used to be good, but now there's a big court case going on with the telephone companies and the free services (too complicated to go into here), but it appears the quality of the service is dropping fast.

If you want guaranteed, high quality lines, Great Teleseminars rents phone lines for $25 for the first 25 people and $1 per person thereafter. If you are looking for a nearly free solution that includes automatic recording, try this service instead. I've tried it and it works fine. PLUS, they don't use the "free lines" that can bomb out on you.

If your call is valuable, don't trust it to a free service. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Nearly free recording at new teleseminar service

If you're looking for nearly-free recording and no hassles, you'll want to check out Instant Teleminars. You'll also be able to host 200 people on the call. Plus they will be able to send you questions by a web user interface.

You can test this service out for $1 and if you like it, you'll get unlimited service for less than $50. It really is automatic. I tried it and it worked.

There are other features for notifying your guests, etc. Read more about it here.

This is the brainchild of Rick Raddatz, former Microsoft whiz kid who has launched many other marketing and audio programs on the web.

Could your "free conference" call service block your callers?

If your "free" teleconference service provider sends you to a 712-area code phone number in Iowa, your clients might not get through.

Read the story and commentary in an excellent post by Alec Saunder's blog
http://saunderslog.com/2006/10/11/whats-with-the-712-area-code/

The free conference service we recommend is not based in Iowa and would not be affected. If you think your callers could be blocked -- and we don't even want to think of the customer service hassles that will cost you -- then you will want to check out this great free service:

http://www.myfreeteleconference.com/promo/