The Power Word: Gold Guide - Fully Updated For TradeSkillMaster!

We are proud to announce that The Power Word: Gold Guide has been fully updated and is now current with the recent (Feb 2012) overhaul of TradeSkillMaster's user interface, new modules and new features. The Power Word: Gold Guide is now more useful than ever!

If you've been struggling to learn TradeSkillMaster the latest Power Word: Gold Guide is a great in-depth manual for doing nearly everything in the addon. We were lucky enough to have Faid (from Clockwork Riot) work along side us to update the TradeSkillMaster section of the guide and, while I'm not usually one to brag, the new TSM section turned out fantastic! Head to the Store to buy the guide now or read on to find out what else we updated.

That New Guide Smell

You may have noticed that I rarely ever devote full blog posts to our paid guide. I think it's because to me it kind of feels "wrong" even though making a post about a paid guide seems like a perfectly normal thing for it's author to do. The truth is most times I'd rather be talking about what I'm doing at the moment than putting on a salesman hat and trying to hock my wares.

That said, we put a ton of effort into the latest update to the Power Word Gold: Guide and we wanted to take some time to talk about it. The guide is now well over 100 pages long and is fully illustrated with descriptive screenshots and visuals to make sure you know what exactly we are talking about every stap of the way.

TradeSkillMaster, Mastered

One of our favorite features of v0.11 of the Power Word: Gold Guide is it's fully updated and enhanced TradeSkillMaster section. It was slightly disheartening when TSM pushed out a major update the day before we released v0.10 of the guide. V0.10 of the Guide included the TSM section with images of the previous TSM UI. While most of the information was still perfectly relevant and usable, some of the screenshots no longer matched the current version of TSM.

When it came time to finally update the TSM section of the guide we were lucky enough to be able to get Faid to work with us. Not only did we update the screenshots but also addined sections to the TSM chapter for modules that didn't even exist when v0.10 of the guide was written. I think we really knocked this section's update out of the park. The TSM section is by far the largest section in the guide and, in my opinion, it's almost worth the price of the entire guide just for that one section.

TradeSkillMaster is a very intimidating addon and it is often very hard for players new to gold-making to get their heads around it. They see experienced gold-makers using it and singing it's praises but when they go to use it they are faced with pages and pages of check boxes and sliders and it quickly gets very confusing and frustrating. What many don't know is that, after that initial learning curve, TSM blossoms into a powerhouse of a gold-making addon. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

With our update to the TradeSkillMaster section we really were working towards providing a guide that, while accessible to the absolute beginner, still provides the necessary depth to allow readers to be able to use TSM in a meaningful way in a (relatively speaking) short amount of time. On that front I feel the guides succeeds with flying colors.

Size Matters

One of the features of the guide we are most proud of is the file sizes of the included images and the guide overall. V0.10 of the guide clocked in at over 28 MB which in our minds was just too large. For a .pdf guide that people will be downloading we felt we could do better.With that in mind we took a lot of time re-working and optimizing each and every image to maximize readability while minimizing file size.

We are proud to say that we were able to drop the total file size of the guide down to just over 7 MB, a reduction in file size of 75%. Yes, it may seem like a small thing (see what I did there!) but one of the things we're most proud of.

Pricing

With the new version of the Guide comes a new pricing structure. We've been working on finding just the right way to price the guide. The new version of the guide is available with a "you choose which price" price of $3, $5, $10 and $20. We love the "you choose which price" pricing model as we feel it allows the purchaser the opportunity to let us know what they value the guide at.

While each price point buys the same guide, some may feel that a 100+ page, fully illustrated and updated guide is worth $20 to them. Others may only be able to pay $3. As a note, v0.10 of the guide sold at every single one of its four price points so we know people like the ability to choose.

Distribution

Due to the overwhelming number of people who downloaded our previous guide and chose not to pay for it (according to our rough estimates around 98% of people who downloaded v0.10 of the guide never paid for it) we've moved away from what you could call the "download and then pay" honor system model. All guide sales are now being sold through the gumroad.com distribution system.

We love Gumroad's simplicity and ease of use in allowing people to sell their own digital content. So far we've been very pleased with the new distibution system and, if things hold steady, we may continue to use Gumroad for future products we sell on The Power Word: Gold Store.

Try Before You Buy

As we move to a more "closed" distribution model we realized that it might be tough for some people to fully commit to purchasing the guide having no idea what it may include. To help alleviate those customers concerns we've built a special one-chapter sample of the guide which people can download and review. we feel this will allow people to get a better idea about what exactly they will be spending their hard-earned money on.

The free one-chapter sample is available in the store under the "Items For Free" section and we hope anyone on the fence about purchasing the guide will give it a look. We want all customers to feel comfortable in their purchase.

Update Free To Previous Purchasers

If you are one of the many wonderful people who purchased v0.10 of the guide (before March 17, 2012) and would like an updated version of the guide, simply send an email from the email address you used to make your PayPal payment to [email protected] requesting an update. Once we receive your request we'll send you the updated guide via email.

While this may seem a bit clunky it is the best solution we have for now since we changed how we distribute the guide. We wanted to make sure those who showed their tremendous support weren't left out in the cold.

Buy Today

We've only scratched the surface of what is in the guide in this post. Purchase the guide now for $3, $5, $10 or $20 by heading to The Power Word: Gold Store.

Full purchase details are included in the store as well as the free one-chapter sample of the guide and an FAQ for those who may have more questions.

Affiliate Program (Pilot) Announced

With the new version of the guide we are also starting a pilot program that will allow people to advertise the Power Word Gold: Guide on their own personal websites and blogs, with a percentage of the sale price of every guide sold via their site going to site/blog owner.

We are still in the very early stages of this program, but if you feel your site/blog would be a good fit for selling The Power Word: Gold Guide, send us an email at [email protected] with your site URL as well as any information (site traffic statistics, size of readership, twitter followers, etc) you feel would allow us to evaluate your site/blog for entry into the pilot phase of the affiliate program.

We are building the affiliate program from scratch so that we can custom tailor it and make sure it works well for all parties involved. We expect to only allow a handful of sites/blogs into the pilot phase of the affiliate program and, if it works well, expand it.

We love making money by doing what we love and we'd love seeing others who produce great gold-making sites/blogs earn money as well through our affiliate program.

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