Month: August 2020

How To Save $485

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I use an Epson WorkForce printer in my office. I bought it a number of years ago, when it was first released. It’s very handy, because it can print on paper up to 13 x 19 inches. That means I can make mini-posters for clients right here, instead of having them printed elsewhere.

Lately, I’ve been having trouble with the printing. Specifically, the black print head has been leaving blank streaks, and what is printed is faint. I’ve replaced the ink cart twice, and it still wasn’t any better. I went online to look for a new printer.

I don’t need a scanner or a fax machine, so the closest thing I could find is a refurbed version of the next model up. Cost? $500 – and that was for the “cheap” one.

While I was looking, I came across something I hadn’t really considered – a cleaning kit, consisting of an oral medicine syringe and some “special cleaning solution.” That and the instructions would only set me back $15. Oh – and a week’s wait for shipping.

Now, I’d wanted to reach under the head and wipe off the nozzle, but for some reason, I’d never considered washing it from the inside. And now that I knew about it, I didn’t want to wait, either.

Somewhere, we have an oral syringe we got for giving medicine to our cats. Couldn’t find it. So I looked online again. Most places had them for about $8 – plus a week’s wait for shipping. Damn!

Just for the heck of it, I looked on the Walmart site. Found a kid’s syringe at my local store for only $3. After a 20 minute trip, I was back. I went under my sink and grabbed a pre-mixed spray bottle of Simple Green. I poured that in a juice glass, and used it to give my black print head three squirts of cleaning goodness.

Today, my printer’s churning out some great-looking black pages. That means I can now send back a wheel that doesn’t fit my new car – that I waited a week for.

Yeah, I think we have a problem with shipping, at this point. But I digress. . .

Anyway, between gas, the syringe, and my purchase of a huge jug of Simple Green at some point in the past, I figure I spent at least the same on all the supplies, as if I had ordered the cleaning kit. So by spending $15, I didn’t have to spend $500 for a refurbed printer. Total savings: $485.

7 Things to Offer Via Memberships

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1: Consumable Content

Text, video, audio, physical products, graphics – each post (or serving, or entry, etc.) expresses a complete idea. “One and done.”

2: Stackable Content

Like consumable content, except that each post builds on the previous entries, creating a larger, more complex item over time.

3: DIY Instructions

Recipes (for food, a physical product, a process, etc.) and patterns allowing the consumer to follow along, provide labor and materials, and create something.

4: Done-for-you Service

A mass creation, or even individualized for each consumer, this is the opposite of #3. You complete a service for your member.

5: Unsorted Library of Content

A collection of products, services, or information “all in one pile” that the consumer must go through on their own. They have to find what they’re looking for, and decide in what order they want to go through it.

6: Sorted Library of Content

Just like #5, except you group the items into categories, or sections, or whatever. You can also suggest an order for the member to go through it, but they don’t have to follow your suggestions.

7: Coaching or Advice

The member is responsible for making a product or performing work. You provide encouragement, advice, mentorship, etc.

Easy Way to Build Online Courses

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When you created an online course, the hardest part is coming up with – and then producing – the content. I mean the nitty-gritty stuff: the lessons, and the text/audio/video/PDFs that make up the content.

Or, that’s the way I see it. If you’ve got a simple structure, I’ve made courses where I just number the lessons, stack them in order, and then that’s how the student takes ’em. If you want to break the course into modules, and the modules into lessons, and add quizzes after lessons, then creating the structure of your course gets to be a pain.

Recently, I’ve been converting a couple of my books into online courses. I did the first one “all by myself,” making the content and the structure all by myself. But at the same time, I was looking into Learning Management Systems (LMSs). When it was time to create the second course on a different site, I took the plunge and bought a license for LearnDash. It’s a WordPress plugin that handles almost everything you’d want for running a course, including taking payment.

Look, building and administering one or more online courses is still work. But using an LMS to create the structure makes things simpler. You can just plug in your content in the places you want them to be. Want to re-order your lessons? Just move them around in a list. Lesson 3 becomes lesson 8.

But you still have to know what you want to teach, and then create the content to build the individual lessons.