15 Key Questions About Writing Your Own Tips Booklet
Everyone has something they want the world to know about and a tips booklet
is a great way to do that. More than 500,000 copies in three languages of a
tips booklet called '110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life' have been
sold, all without spending a penny on advertising.
Here are some questions to get your tips (and cash) flowing. You can mine
your own field of gold by looking at any promotional literature you have
created, audio or video tapes you have produced, press releases or articles
about or by you, your product catalog and even your business card.
1. What is the single most important subject from your experience or
knowledge that you want the world to know about? If there are several
topics, which one is most compelling to you right now?
2. How would you narrow that subject down into segments? Do those segments
create additional booklets to develop a series?
3. What do you want the booklet to accomplish for you? Do you want to
altruistically spread the word about something? Will a booklet be a
marketing tool for your business? Can it be a profit center for you? Would
you like it to be a marketing tool and a profit center?
4. What are you often surprised by that people do not know about your
subject area? Is there something that seems so 'common sense' to you, while
being highly helpful or enlightening to others?
5. What is the single most outstanding thing you want people to know? Is is
a new skill, perspective, attitude, expanding general knowledge?
6. Does your information need to be presented sequentially or can it be
random? Can a specific entry stand on its own or does it need whatever came
before it to cause it to make sense to the reader?
7. What do you want people to do and not to do, be or not be as a result of
your booklet? How will this information be benefit the reader?
8. Who besides the reader can benefit from this material? Are there
manufacturers, suppliers, distributors whose business activities can profit
by distributing your contents?
9. Is there language that is peculiar to your topic? Have you considered
how you will monitor and treat that in your content?
10. What surprised you most when you learned about your topic? Is that
useful to pass along to your readers in some way?
11. What resources are needed to implement any of your suggestions? What
are the easiest ways to accomplish what you are recommending to your
reader?
12. What do people need to know about you? What gives you the credential to
write about this topic?
13. What other products and/or services do you have to assist the reader in
this topic? Are they products and services of your own or of someone
else's?
14. How would short anecdotes be useful in supporting your materials? Would
they get in the way or enhance your content?
15. Do your tips need visual support with graphics to allow them to be more
fully understood? Is clip art adequate or do you need original art?
Paulette Ensign is the founder and CEO of Tips Products International. Her
company's products and services match your needs and budget with a
manual/video/booklet package and on-phone teleclases for the
do-it-yourselfer, consulting services for those who are interested in
partnering and complete services for the delegator.
'Everyone has something they want the world to know about. An informational
tips booklet can be a great way to do that.'
About the Author
Paulette Ensign
Tips Products International
12675 Camino Mira Del Mar #179 * San Diego, CA 92130
voice: 858-481-0890 * fax 858-793-0880
Paulette@tipsbooklets.com * http://www.tipsbooklets.com
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