Vetted Vendors

Rebecca Morgan’s Vetted Vendors

 

Before you do business with anyone, do your due diligence. Even though I’ve worked with the following vendors doesn’t mean they will work for you. So talk to them, make certain they can do what you want at a reasonable price and compare them to others before moving forward. And if anyone on this list doesn’t meet your expectations, please let me know. (Please see my article on this.)

I have affiliate relationships with some of the following, but believe me they wouldn’t be on the list if I didn’t have personal excellent experience with them. But you should still do what you need to do to feel comfortable doing business with them.

Graphic artists

Kimb is a very fast and inexpensive. She’s in Winnipeg so if you call her, she’ll call you back. She can do logos, one-sheets, web page design (the look, not the implementation), book covers, bookmarks, DVD/CD labels/covers, postcards, business cards, magalogs, etc.

For 20 years, Bill was the in-house graphic designer for NSA, producing Speaker magazine, all convention materials, flyers, etc. He has a MFA, so has a refined eye. He’s great to work with, is $50-$60/hour, and creates elegant designs. He created my last (now obsolete) 1-sheet and my current business card but I moved away from him when he got too busy with NSA work. Now he’s on his own so has more time for clients.

You launch a graphic “contest” for $39, write a detailed description of what you want and don’t want. Graphic artists from around the world will enter the “contest” to try to win the monetary prize you’ve offered (the site gives you prize guidelines). You can do this for a logo, business card, book cover, web site (look and feel), ad, etc. You MUST give feedback on every entry or they stop submitting. After 7-10 days the contest closes and you award a winner and send them the prize award. They sign a work-for-hire agreement and give you the electronic files for you to do with what you want.

Internet/web marketing/blogs

  • Google keyword tool
    https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternalPut in a keyword or keyword string, or even a URL. You want to find keywords that have healthy traffic but low competition. Don’t be seduced by large traffic numbers if those keywords also have a lot of competition as it will be hard to come out on the first page of search results. Lower search results can be profitable if you’re offering something those searchers find valuable.

Tell him your focus/topic, your market, and your web site URL (if you have one) and some keywords you think you want to be found by. He’ll look at the possible keywords, how many times that term is searched for and how many competing sites there are. He’ll give you a report (in English, not technoese). You can then write the copy on your web site to utilize those key words. Make sure to enter my name as the referral to receive the $97 rate. He wants to track who comes through my recommendation, so please put my name in the “Where did you hear about us?” field.

Offers a 90-minute ‘walk-through-the-process’ of setting up a blog for $150. He also does SEO consultations and implementation.

For a limited time Tom will provide a free, no-obligation 20-minute phone review of your web site. He’ll tell you what you’re doing right and show you what needs improvement.

If you know your web site and Internet marketing strategies are underperforming and would like to know how to turbocharge both, Tom is offering 3 hour-long review and coaching sessions for less than the price of 2. Normally, he charges $150/hour but for Rebecca’s Jammies’ grads he’s offering 3 sessions for $249 when paid in advance. Schedule at your convenience and get ready for a hands-on, no-holds-barred experience that will take your web site, blog and social media strategy to the next level. Guaranteed!

Get your domain name URLs for cheap. Also offers very inexpensive web site/blog hosting, and web site templates and a limited/basic shopping cart.

WordPress has become the most popular and powerful blog engine. Start your blog on your own domain name if you want to do any ecommerce. (In other words, don’t have WordPress host it. So your blog should not have “wordpress” in the URL.)  It is free.

From the beginning, or after a few days/weeks, you’ll want to have your own look to your blog. You can switch themes at any time, but it’s probably easiest to start out with one that has all you need. I use the “Thesis” theme as it allows non-tech users to modify nearly everything ourselves. You can buy a 1-use license, or an unlimited license. I choose the latter so now use it for all my sites. http://tinyurl.com/2e8rvfp

This group is designed for speakers who blog. Great group. Post your questions and nearly always someone has a relevant answer. You don’t have to be an NSA member to join.

  • 1ShoppingCart

A very good shopping cart, offered in 3 levels. Start with the very basic one only when you have something to sell. Graduate to the next level as you need it. Top level offers automatic delivery of eBooks, MP3s, etc. and has an Affiliate module for you to offer others commission on your products purchased through their link. (I’m an affiliate so if you’re interested, please use http://tinyurl.com/2ce7lzg

  • Constant Contact, email marketing resource

Design your ezines and manage your opt-ins and opt-outs easily. Price varies depending on the number of active email address. Also has a survey and event marketing tool. http://tinyurl.com/2bwqpyl

  • Rich Hamilton, blog specialistRich can help you set up and maintain your blog. He updates new plugins on his blog. http://ryowebsite.com
  • Ken Braly, website expert

Ken will help you set up, maintain and trouble shoot your blog. ken@kenb.com

Teleseminar Resources

  • “Teleteach for Profit: Learn How to Promote, Run and Sell Interactive Teleclasses & Audio Programs” by Marcia Yudkin. She’s offering $100 off the $795 for the first 10 buyers who use the coupon code “NSA.”  http://tinyurl.com/62uqpq
  • Teleseminar bridge line—rent (single or multiple times) or lease (1 year)Go to speakernetnews.com for a Compilation on reader-recommended bridge line rental companies.

•     TelephoneBridgeServices.com

•     FreeTeleconference.com

Webinar Resources

• GoToWebinar.com; starts at $99/mo. ($948/yr.) for up to 1000 attendees

•  WebEx.com; starts at $49/mo. ($468/yr.) for up to 25 attendees

* Google+

Transcripts and General Office Help

  • Laura Franz, Virtual Services
    316/283-0864, http://franzvirtualservices.comLaura can put up your Facebook Fan Page, update your blog and other administrative duties. She’s smart, fast, and personable.
  • Mary Jansen, My Virtual Marketing Center
    916/740-2629, mary@maryjansen.net, www.myvirtualmarketingcenter.com
    Mary has done wonders to follow up with my contacts — some of whom I haven’t talked to in years! After clarifying how you want her to introduce herself to your contacts, she’ll make calls, engage the recipient to set up a 10-minute catch-up call with you, or get their email address for your follow up. If your contact has left, she’ll find the replacement and begin contact with them. Don’t expect her to close deals, as she won’t know enough about your business to do so. But she can rekindle relationships that open the door for you to discuss new business. Or follow up with all those business cards you were given after a speech — even from years ago. With 30 years in sales, she’s professional and reliable and will represent you as your Director of Client Services — or whatever title you give her! She is easy to work with and is very reasonably priced.

Self-Publishing

Barbara can edit your one-sheet or web home page. Or she can interview you and craft articles for you. Or help you refine your book proposal and copy-edit your book. When I last asked, she was around $80/hour, with lower rates for bigger projects.

Veteran speaker and publisher with decades of writing experience (books and articles), Gordon is best at consulting about empire-building, niche publishing, and using “ancillary publishers” (Lulu, CreateSpace, Blurb, Kindle, iPad, Smashwords, and maybe Scribd) as a lead or secondary (simultaneous) book publisher(s). Rates vary with the project. Burgett also has two last-look, is-it-ready-to-publish-as-is review services.

Elaine has not only had many books published via a publisher but has self-published as well. She understands all aspects of publishing from creating a catchy title, to crafting a appealing cover, interior layout, marketing and printing.

Sue created a great template I’ve now used for 18 books.  Her cost: $250. She would also lay out a whole 200-page book for  $500.

In addition to having great customer service, and the lowest prices I could find, they are owned by Ingram, which means you get in the Ingram catalog. This means anyone going into any book store can order your book and it will be printed the next day and sent to them without you doing a thing. Same thing for Amazon – your book is automatically listed there. You decide how much you want to earn and the retailers discount from their share.

Also, for no extra fee, you can get your eBook listed and they populate 5 eBook (PDF) sites with your info. You have to get a separate ISBN and upload the files separately.

Their site makes it very easy to get the cover dimensions you can then give your designer, including spine width as soon as you know your final page count. All files are uploaded.

$75 setup fee/title; $40 change fee, $30 for a proof.

Snowfall is great for very short runs. You can get a proof for a few dollars (my 238-page book was $3.55 plus a $5 for postage). Or you can print larger runs. They don’t list you in Ingrim, nor do they give you all the tools that Lightening Source does, but for proofs this is great. Also, this is fabulous if you want to convince a client to buy customized books with their logo on the cover and a letter from their president inside. Do a quick mock up and have one made to send them. Much more convincing than a PDF!

  • MiniBük.com
They’ve given me a special discount code to pass on to you for $50 discount off one MiniBük title printing, one per customer (applies to first order only). Email me for the code.

Prices start at $99 and go up depending on the complexity of your book.

  • Kindlize your book

Lisa Despain
ldespain@cox.net
918/232-6155

Recording & Duplication Services

Recording and editing fee: $75 per 1-hour teleseminar recording.  This includes the live recording, editing of the recording, adding music if required, equalizing the levels, and sending the final MP3 file to the client.  This usually involves 3 to 4 hours of work.

Owned by NSA past president Sam Silverstein. You can order in bulk or just-in-time (JIT), making only a few units as a time so you don’t have a garage full. Their service is spectacular, but prices for JIT production are higher than if you buy in bulk. You get 10% off your first order if you mention me.

Janita has been in business for decades and specializes in infopreneurs. Try her for bulk pricing. She’s customer-service oriented and a good person.

Misc. Resources

There are compilations on recommended book cover designers, teleseminar bridge line providers, web designers and web masters, virtual assistants, etc. Nearly 400 teleseminar/webinar recordings of interviews with experts on topics of interest to speakers/trainers/consultants/coaches/authors.

Free service that rates your press releases on a 1-100 scale for their web readability and SEO, giving you a brief report on how to make it better. Then resubmit your releases after you incorporate the advice until you get a rating near 100. Then post the release to your web site.

Great service, great prices, good turnaround. If they make a mistake, they fix it. Good for business cards, flyers, bookmarks, etc. Good for everyday stuff. If you want embossed, foil stamped, higher end printing, go somewhere else. But for high-quantity stuff, try them.

Inexpensive copies (as low as 6 cents/side). I’ve been using them for order forms. If you care about exact color matches, skip them. But if you want to have eye-catching order forms in small quantities (if you customize them for each group), they are inexpensive and fast.

Paulette will produce a booklet for you, consult and coach you through doing your own, and offers recordings on how to go through the process.

  • ProspectDB, Inc., Mailing list broker

Mr. Sky Cassidy, Sales Associate
818/430-9139, scassidy@pdb-mail.net, www.pdb-mail.net
(Highly recommended by a colleague. I haven’t used them.)

  • Lee Van Landingham, Trademark attorney
    301/515-4544, lsvanlan@hotmail.com
    (Highly recommended by a colleague. I haven’t used him.)

Seth writes a daily thought-provoking blog which I love.

Robert produces a useful free weekly ezine for independent professionals, and provides group coaching and other products.

Manufacture on-demand your custom t-shirts, hats, mugs and other merchandise. Zazzle.com is another provider like this.

  • FedEx Office/Kinko’s

BOR signs. Ask for vinyl, mini-banner signs, 11” x 17”, around $15 including the foldable stand. They can make them from a PDF of your book cover, product pricing, etc.

Relevant SpeakerNet News Teleseminar Recordings

“Teleseminars Soup to Nuts: How to Provide Profitable, Low-Work, High-Value Seminars” with Rebecca Morgan, CSP, CMC

“Add Webinars to Your Services: They’re Easier Than You Think” with Dave Paradi

View all our teleseminar and webinar recordings.

The bundles listed below are $34 for the three MP3s in the bundle.

Get-on-the-Phone Sales Skills

Close-More-Sales Skills

Finding More Clients

Surviving and Thriving in Tough Times

Expand Your Offerings

Get Your Book Completed Now!

Getting Your Self-Published Book Produced

Selling More BOR ProductsHow to Use Blogs to Increase Visibility and Revenue

Practical and Sane Social Media Strategies and Tips

Protect  Your Ideas, Brand, Intellectual Property and Business

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