Writing is a great way to create content. Linking audio or video presentations may also work well for you. Once your writing is done or your presentations made, publishing them can become a powerful means of marketing. I’m not talking about advertising or promotional materials. I’m talking about creating information that’s useful to your customers when they use your products.

If you feel you can’t write well enough to take advantage of the ideas in this tutorial, you might consider two possible alternatives. First, you can try your hand at writing, and then hand off what you’ve done to a competent editor. With some heavy editing, you may be able to write better than you thought you could.

Always Edit

Even if you write well, you need to have someone edit your writing so that you produce a commercially viable writing product.

Second, you can hire someone to write content for you. You don’t have to look far to find good writers. You may be able to find an English major at your local college. You can contact a local writing club to find people that write in a professional manner. And it’s not difficult to find good writers for hire on the Internet. In order to get the most for your money, you need to provide a hired writer with a product similar to that which you expect to create. This is, provide an existing example that the writer can imitate. Additionally, provide an outline of the subject matter. The more detailed the outline, the faster the writing will go and the less expensive the writing will be.

If you want to create writing products, but you’re not sure exactly what you want, a good writer may be able to help you conceptualize the final product. That means the writer will spend more time with you and thus expect to get paid more.

If you are a good writer and you’re too busy tending to business to take the time to write, hiring a writer may be a good choice for you. If your products require technical writing, you will need to find a technical writer. If, on the other hand, your products require little technical expertise to use or operate, almost any writer can probably do the job for you. Professional writers usually have a wide range of interests and a wide range of quasi-expertise. They can easily use their skills for writing about products that are new to them.

I will outline some of the writing devices that you can use to promote your eBay business. In addition, I will cover audio, video and multimedia presentations.

What’s the Point?

Before I get started here, remind yourself that content attracts new buyers and keeps customers hanging around. Attractive content in the context of selling products usually means informational presentations that instruct how to buy, use, maintain, and sell the products. And where does this content go? Most likely it will be located on an independent website that you integrate into your eBay Store and About Me. And now back to publishing the content.

Written Presentations

To save space in this article and because an eBay business is an online business, the following sections on written presentations will be about digital presentations, not about printed products.

However, if you have a need to print products, you can take a digital product to a printer and have it printed. This is usually easy to do with an appropriate digital product. For instance, if a PDF file is well typeset, a printer can print it as is, and it will look pretty good. Many different types of digital documents can be converted to PDFs. But for the most part, printing is expensive whereas publishing digitally is not, once you’ve created the content.

Normal Documents

Normal documents include reports, white papers, newsletters, user manuals, tutorials, product specifications, surveys, data sheets, articles, quick-start instructions, directories, checklists, and resources. Perhaps the best way to create these is with a word processor such as Microsoft Word. You will want to make sure to nicely typeset them in Word according to traditional typesetting standards so that the documents are attractive, easy to read, and of commercial quality. The two best ways to publish digitally are with webpages or Acrobat pages (also known as PDFs). Word will automatically take your wordprocessor document and convert it into a webpage. Even if you don’t use that webpage, you can take the body of text inside that webpage and cut and paste it into a webpage template that someone has designed for you. Consequently, once you complete your writing in Word (and have it edited), it doesn’t take much to turn it into an attractive webpage.

To create Acrobat pages (PDFs), you must use Adobe’s Acrobat Distiller, an expensive program. It will take a word-processor document and replicate the way it looks very accurately into a PDF. Each PDF is a self-contained document. That means it will show whatever it replicates. For instance, although a webpage requires the font you used in the original document to show that document the way you typeset it, a PDF replicates the fonts so that the fonts used do not need to be present in a website visitor ’s computer.

Using Typefaces on the Web

The typeface fonts that you use in a webpage (HTML document) must reside on the user’s computer. Because you can’t count on all users having the same fonts that you have on your computer, you have to stick with standard (default) fonts when you’re making webpages. The standard serif fonts are Times New Roman for the PC and Times for the Mac. Standard sanserif fonts are Arial for the PC and Helvetica for the Mac. Using these fonts for your webpages ensures that everybody sees your webpages the way you’ve typeset them.

Once you have created content, either a webpage or a PDF, you can use it on websites simply by linking to it. In the case of the webpage, you simply link to a webpage where people can read your content. To link to a PDF, you simply name the PDF file as the URL in your link, and the Web will take the user directly to the PDF. Because PDFs require Acrobat Reader for your website visitors to see them, your website visitors will have to have Acrobat installed on their computers.

There are sure to be readers who don’t have Acrobat installed, however, and you will need to provide a link for them to go to Adobe’s website to download the free software. This is not something to worry about, as most people already have Acrobat Reader installed.

Email

You can also put your writings in an email document. Most email programs handle plain-text documents. You can copy and paste text out of Word right into an email message. The text will appear in the plaintext format (otherwise known as ASCII format).

Copy and Paste

When you copy and paste into an email message, you need to review the text in the email message. You may need to make some adjustments to the formatting to make the text look right.

Many email programs today accommodate HTML text too. That is, you can copy and paste from an HTML document into an email message to create an email message that looks like a webpage. As you probably know from the many HTML messages that you’ve received, this doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to. It’s something you have to do very carefully, or else find somebody knowledgeable to do it for you. The benefits to your readers of doing it this way is that it creates not only a more attractive email message but one that can include graphics, digital photographs, and so forth.

What’s a primary benefit of email? With email you can send your writings where you want them to go. With PDFs and webpages, your customers have to come to your website to see them. Having said that, however, I should mention that you can also attach a webpage or a PDF to an email message and send it to your customers.

eBooks

eBooks are easy to make. First you convert your writing to HTML. Then you convert it from HTML form into an ebook. This is easy to do using a freeware conversion program such as OverDrives’s Reader Works Standard. Then someone can see and read the ebook in the Microsoft ebook reader.

For PDF ebooks, there used to be separate Adobe Acrobat ebook reader. Those readers have been merged into one reader in version 6.0 and above. Consequently, any PDF document that you make with Acrobat Distiller is, in effect, an ebook. It may not look like an ebook, but Adobe Reader gives it all the attributes of an ebook automatically. To make any PDF document look like an ebook, all you have to do is give it a nicely designed color front page, a title page, and all the other attributes of a book. Then with Acrobat Reader, people will be able to use it like an ebook.

Do you have to go to all the trouble of putting your ebooks into two different formats, Microsoft and Adobe? That’s a tough question to answer. If the document really is an ebook, and you intend it to be an ebook, it might be best for you to publish it using both formats. Nonetheless, Acrobat is the most popular form for ebooks, and you can probably cover the territory just by publishing your ebook in the PDF format.

Audio and Video Presentations

Although one writer can create a lot of content with just writing, audio and video presentations usually take teams of people to produce or at least an individual who has mastered many different digital skills. Consequently, audio and video presentations are usually more expensive to produce and publish than written presentations.

Audio

You create audio by recording voice or music either in a quiet place or in a studio. Recording high-quality voice does not require expensive equipment nor an elaborate environment. Still, you have to know what you’re doing to turn out a good product. If you want to create low-cost audio content (voice), find a small radio station and use its resources for your production.

Music requires expensive equipment and audio engineers who know what they’re doing. Creating music is not a project to be taken lightly or on a light pocketbook. Fortunately, there’s no need to create music. There is plenty of great stock music available. You can buy the music for use in your content and in the digital format you need. What do you do when you have a presentation finished? You can either put it on a CD or a DVD and distribute it to potential customers. However, the least expensive way to publish it is to put it on the Web. For use on the Web, the audio file needs to be compressed into a format that’s usable by either the Microsoft Media Player, Real Player, or QuickTime Player. The compressed file is not downloaded all at once. Rather, it streams into a website visitor’s computer and plays as it streams. A website visitor must have Real Player or QuickTime Player installed, which can be downloaded from the Real or Apple website for free. Microsoft Media Player, which comes with Microsoft’s operating systems, will play the streaming audio also. A website visitor starts the streaming usually by clicking on a link in a webpage.

Video

Video requires at least a cameraman and a professional digital video camera. High-quality productions often require more equipment and personnel. The editing requires heavy-duty PC hardware and software. All in all, it tends to be an expensive proposition. Even if you can find one person who has all the production skills and equipment—not that difficult—such a person normally commands a high price. And remember too, when you produce video, you also have to produce audio. It’s a double medium, unless you want to imitate silent films.

Audio-Video-Written Content

Did you note that I’ve discussed the technical aspects of producing audio and video? Production costs are costs in addition to the cost of actually creating the content. You need someone—perhaps yourself— to create the content. Then you need others to produce it. This is different (and more expensive) than writing where the technical aspects of production are normally not a significant consideration. For example, let’s assume you are the creator. You are a chess expert. You operate a retail chess store on eBay. And you want to create a beginner ’s chess tutorial that customers and prospective buyers can use on the Web. You believe the tutorial will attract people to your chess storefront where they will buy something.

First, you can write a tutorial and publish it as a webpage. If you can’t write well, you can hire someone inexpensively. Then you can put the writing into a webpage template, and voila! You have a tutorial. Beginners can read it online and get some tips on how to play chess. Second, you can make an audio tutorial by making an audio recording. You can outline the content for the recording and give the audio performance yourself. Unless you have a thousand dollars’ worth of recording hardware and software and have mastered the basics of audio engineering, however, you will need someone else to make the recording, edit it, and compress it for Web use. If you don’t perform yourself, you will need to hire a professional voice instead to give the performance. In addition, you will need to write a script for the performance or, more likely, hire a script writer to do it for you. The costs for an audio tutorial can mount up quickly.

Third, you can make a video tutorial by making a video recording. This is similar to making an audio presentation except that you have two media to handle (audio and video) in addition to creating the content and giving the performance. The costs for a video tutorial will likely exceed that of an audio tutorial by a generous margin.

Accordingly, you can understand that writing is an efficient and inexpensive medium, while audio or video usually cost significantly more.

Multimedia Presentations

Multimedia presentations use more than one medium. An important thing to remember is that the Web itself is multimedia. You can include almost anything in a webpage.

Text

That you can use text in a webpage is self-evident. Remember, however, that HTML enables you to use hyperlinks to include all the information anywhere on the Web in your webpages. This is impossible in printed text and opens wonderful new content-making opportunities for you, just using text.

Web Audio

To use audio on the Web, a website visitor clicks on a link to download it. The digital audio must be compressed to stream. That is, it plays (streams) as a website visitor downloads it, not after she downloads it. Web audio is underused on the Web. If you can create and perform an audio presentation and get it produced inexpensively, it can be a wonderful and worthwhile addition to your website content.

Web Video

Video is like audio. It must stream to be used. Website visitors click on a link and then watch the video on a small screen in the webpage.

Frame-Rate

Full frame-rate for video is 30 frames per second. The frame-rate for streaming video on the Web is about half that. Someday when everyone has a more powerful computer and a broadband connection, streaming video will run at full frame-rate in a larger window. Then it will be more attractive and more compelling to use.

Web video is perhaps too ambitious for small businesses to use for promotion. On the other hand, some types of information must appear on video because it is awkward to convey the information in any other way (e.g., golf lessons).

Embedded Programming

No helpful device is more overlooked on the Web than embedded programming. Through the use of CGI scripts, Java applets, and other programming systems, you can create almost any functionality you desire in a webpage at your website. (If you’re not a programmer, you can hire one.) You can provide an embedded program that does anything from simple calculations to word processing. These are all used inside a Web browser.

According to Larry Chase (http://larrychase.com), a leading Web-marketing consultant, simple calculators are the best attractors on the Web. That’s good news for you. The easiest (and least expensive) device for a programmer to program is a mathematical formula. For instance, a mortgage payment calculator is very easy to program. An attractive interface takes longer to program than the calculator itself.

Is there something your customers and potential buyers need to calculate? If so, you can provide a custom calculator inexpensively for them and thereby provide an extraordinary convenience for them.

Auction Management Service

An auction management service provides plenty of programming power through a Web browser and is a good example of embedded programming . A variety of embedded programs make up the total service.

So, what kind of a calculator might you create for your chess storefront customers? How about a timer, one that measures the time limit for each player to make a move? That would be easy enough to program, although it would be a bit awkward to have to be near your PC while playing chess. On the other hand, its use might inspire players to buy a more convenient physical timer from you.

Technically speaking, I suppose embedded programming is not a medium. Nonetheless, it is an important cornerstone of the multimedia system that makes up the Web. Calculators and other programs (applications) can be helpful to people and will draw attention to your website.

What to Avoid

Don’t attempt to duplicate a certain medium for publication on the Web. For instance, don’t create a half-hour streaming audio presentation to duplicate the concept of an audio tape and then have it play in a webpage. Rather break up your presentation into stand-alone audio modules which together make up the entire presentation. If possible mix up the media in a webpage (e.g., audio modules and text modules). Keep things interesting for website visitors. Enable them to digest your presentation in small bites.

And Now for the Finale

What have I completely left out thus far that can brighten up your text presentation? Digital photographs! Photographs and other digital graphics can make webpages and PDFs seem like full-color magazines. Inexpensively! If you do a text presentation, sprinkle in some digital color photographs here and there to create impressive and professional content.

For instance, with a little practice and perhaps the aid of a book on photography, you could create informative color digital photographs of a chess board and chess pieces for a chess tutorial. And you could do it yourself inexpensively.

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