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Hello,

If you have a smartphone (whether it’s an Apple iPhone or an Android-based one), there are two things I think you’ll probably agree with:

1 – Smartphones are amazing

A little phone that fits in your pocket and lets you keep in touch with friends, read the news as it happens or listen to music… or do all sorts of other things, whether you’re at home on the sofa, in a cafe or even lying in bed – that’s pretty amazing.

2 – Smartphones can be frustrating

Sometimes you try to do something and it just doesn’t work properly.  Or it complains with a message that might as well be in Ancient Assyrian. Figuring out how to make it do what you want can be maddening.

I sometimes wonder if smartphones are one of the leading causes of hair loss – I know they sometimes make me want to tear mine out!

Then there are all the things no-one bothered to tell you it could do (let alone show you how) – but once you know, you say “that’s brilliant – I wish I knew about that before!”.

It’s nearly as bad when most people try to “help” by telling you how it works.  Whizzing through it, using loads of jargon or getting themselves confused half way through! Often they can leave you more confused than when you started.

If only someone would show you…

If only you could sit down with a cup of tea (or coffee – best save the whisky until after though…) with someone who really knows how to use phones to explain it all.  Someone who knows how to take their time and explain everything properly. Someone who would go step by step, starting at the beginning so you don’t have to rush to keep up and you don’t miss anything.

Well, I’m not volunteering to come round to everyone’s house (much as I’d like the tea… no comment on the whisky!).

But what I can tell you about is our newly-updated online smartphone course, complete with videos.

A “course” – but no need to go to college…

“A course?” “But I don’t want to go away to college to learn how to use my phone!”

Don’t panic.  It’s not the type of course you go to.  You can do it all in the comfort of your own home, sat on your sofa (or at the kitchen table or wherever).  And it’s not some big commitment – it’s much simpler and easier than it sounds.

All you need is some kind of device that works on the internet – a laptop, PC or tablet.  You could even do it on a smartphone, but I’d suggest using a separate device if you can.

Here’s how it works (nice and simply):

Once you’ve joined the course, you click the link in the welcome email we’ll send you.  That takes you to a sort of “contents page” of everything covered.

It’s up to you whether you go through it in order or jump straight to the bits you’re most interested in.  Either tap or click on “Lesson 1” if you want to start at the beginning or pick a particular lesson if you want to start with a particular topic.

By the way, don’t be put off by them being called “lessons”.  It’s not like school! We just couldn’t think of a better name for each chunk.

Once you’re into the lesson you want, you’ll get a short video introducing it – probably just a couple of minutes or so.  It’ll tell you a bit about what you’re going to learn and what the point of it is – what you can use it for.

Then there’ll be a little bit of writing, maybe giving you some background or explaining a couple of important words (don’t worry – there won’t be lots of jargon but sometimes we’ll explain words you might hear elsewhere so they can’t confuse you).

Then another video – maybe this one will be a bit longer, say 10 minutes, showing you exactly how to do whatever it is – you’ll watch as Kathryn or Julie shows you exactly how it’s done while they explain it nice and simply – you can see their smartphone screen as they do it.

Maybe you could stop at that point and try it out for yourself – or watch the video again to make sure you’ve got it.

Then there’ll be some more writing… and so on through the lesson, all broken up into nice short chunks so you can try it out as you go.

Go over each bit as many times as you want – whenever you want

Then once you’ve finished the lesson it’ll mark it as done so you know what you’ve already gone through.  You can still come back to it again later on though – there’s no limit to how many times you can go through each part.

Come back to it whenever you like

And if you ever get stuck using your phone at some point in the future you can come back and watch the bit about whatever you’re stuck with.  Suddenly, it’ll become much easier.

Oh, and there are also a few short quizzes… not like school, where you have to worry about passing a test or anything like that!  Just a few questions to help you make sure you understood it. (If not, you can easily nip back and watch that explanation again if you want.)

So what’s covered?  Well, I can’t list every last thing here.  But it starts at the very basics – ideal whether you’re completely new to using a smartphone or whether you’ve got by but wish it was easier or you could do more with it.

It explains what you need to know – not the geeky stuff that techies delight in but the stuff that might actually be useful to you… starting with how to control the darn thing – making it nice and simple.

Here are a few of the things covered:

• How to open, close and switch between different apps – including what you should and shouldn’t do when you finish using an app for now.
• Why “changing the volume” isn’t as simple as it sounds – and what you might have been missing all this time.  (Hint: the same buttons do different things at different times – and unless you know what and when, you could end up in a right pickle.  Luckily, we’ll make it simple.)
• The first text message ever sent was “merry Christmas”, back in December 1992.  You’d think that 28 years later they’d have made everything about them simple and easy.  Well, it’s not too complicated… once it’s been explained that is.
• “The contacts app” and how it can confuse matters.  It’s really handy, though – pretty much essential. But one or two aspects about how it works can be confusing, especially if you use your phone for more than just making phone calls.
• I remember the first time I used a phone as a sat nav.  (It was to find a pub for lunch in Whitehaven and we were walking rather than in a car.)  I found it amazing. But they can do a lot more than they could back in those days and once you know how they work, they’re pretty simple to use, even for some of the fancier features.

And there’s more:

• I used to have a digital camera.  In fact I still do – at the back of a drawer somewhere.  You see, my phone actually takes better pictures than the separate camera did.  Especially now I know a few of the basic features beyond literally just “point-n-click”.  I’m no great photographer, but I do find some of the extras useful.
• I don’t know about you but I’m not the most organised person.  Nowadays I use my phone to remind me of most of the things I need to do, to keep shopping lists and so on.  There are lots of ways you can use a phone to be organised – here are some of the better ways.
• I admit, one of the things with a phone is that typing on it can be fiddly – the screen isn’t huge.  There are a few useful tricks (turning it sideways so the keyboard’s bigger for one) but you can also talk to it – dictate any emails, texts or whatever.  It works surprisingly well. You can even ask it things like “Navigate to Stratford-upon-Avon” or “When was Stonehenge built?” instead of typing it into a web search box – saves having to type.  (It was 5024 years ago, apparently.)
• Storage space on your phone, or “What to do if you run out of space?”

That’s not all – as I say, I can’t list everything here – but everything most people might enjoy using their phone for or might want help with is here: music, books, maps, even printing.

I know it sounds like a lot but don’t be put off – you don’t have to follow it all through if you don’t want to.  Instead you can pick and choose whichever bits are most important to you.

And then all the frustration of not being able to get your phone to do what you want disappears – you can do far more with it, with ease.

That’s it – you don’t need to be able to go to a college, you don’t need any specific fancy equipment and you don’t even need to set aside specific times in the day (though you can if you want to).

So how much does this cost?

Remember earlier on I said about how if only you could have someone come round and explain everything, nice and simply, step by step?

Well, I started working out how much a tech tutor would charge to do that for everything covered.  It quickly got into the hundreds and hundreds of pounds though, so I stopped adding it up. There’s no way we’d charge that much!

In fact this course is just £59.99 – or if you prefer you can pay three instalments of £20.  Remember, that’s not just to go through the course once, you can go through it as many times as you like.

It’s not time limited, either – there’s no “you can use it for one month” or anything like that.  As long as the course is available, you can use it. We guarantee to keep it available for at least 3 years – but we don’t intend to take it down even after that.  And you can use it as much as you like.

Some people pay that much every month for their phone!  Even if yours isn’t one of the most expensive ones, it probably cost several hundred pounds by the time you add it all up.  Yet chances are you’re not getting all you could out of it – simply because no-one’s shown you properly what it can do and how to use it.

So the course costs less than filling an average car with petrol – and I’m certain you’ll remember how the course helped you more than the petrol in a year or two’s time!

12 month guarantee in case you aren’t happy with it

But in case I’m wrong, I don’t want you to risk buying the course and regretting it.  We only want you to have to pay if you actually find it helpful. So, here’s our promise:

That way you have no risk – if you aren’t happy with the course, you get all your money back and it’s cost you nothing.  Does that seem fair?

Two more things I should mention:

Free bonus included (at the moment)

First, there’s also a free bonus course you’ll get when you join the course.  It’s called What to do when your smartphone goes wrong and it takes you through exactly what its name suggests – showing you what to do whenever something goes wrong on your phone.

Of course, I’d love to hope that you’ll never need it – but we all know things don’t always go according to plan.  Having this should make it all much simpler and easier if your phone does ever decide to play silly beggars and do something odd.  At the very least it gives you peace of mind – at the most it might save you having to replace your phone.

Enrolment ends Friday 8th March (then we stop letting new people onto the course)

Second, you can only join the course until 5pm on Friday 8th March 2024.  That’s in less than a month’s time.

If you haven’t joined by then, you’ve missed out. We might open it again at some point – maybe in a year or so’s time.  Or we might not. We just don’t know yet.

(Just to be clear: if you’ve joined by then, you can still access it after that date – for at least 3 years.)

The last time we launched this course, it was hugely popular. But we only opened enrolment for a month. Now, by popular demand, we’re opening the doors again – but again, just for a few weeks.

(If you’re wondering, yes, we have updated the course for changes to iPhones and Android phones – and if you’ve previously joined the Smartphone course, you don’t need to join again – you’ll get all the updates automatically.)

So, how do you get the course?  Simply click here, then put in your details.  A minute or so later you should get an email that lets you access the course. Simple as that – within minutes you could be sat back watching the first video in the course and going “Oh, so that’s how it works – why has no-one ever told me before?”.

(Or if you’d prefer, join now and leave watching the first video until you’ve got a spare moment – that way you’ll be ready to watch it when you do have time.)

Or you can ring 01229 777606 and Jade, Shanice, Shannon or Emma (or one of the others if the phones are busy) will join you up – either way in five minutes or so you’ll be in!

Best do it now – an end to the frustration!

So if you’re thinking about it, it’s best to join now (you don’t have to start watching the videos now if you’d prefer to leave it, just join it now) even if you’re umming and ahhing about it.  After all, if it turns out you’re not happy with it for some reason at any point in the next 12 months you can get your money back, so you’re not risking anything.

To join, just click here to go to the “checkout” page.  Or if you prefer, ring 01229 777606 and Jade, Shanice, Shannon or Emma will sort it all out for you.

After all, you’ve nothing to lose… apart from the frustration at using your phone!

Why not do it now, while it’s on your mind?  Within a few minutes you’ll have access to the course and you’ll be able to start straight away… or save it for later (whichever you prefer).

Yours

The Helpful Book Company

PS

Using your smartphone can be easy… and you can get more out of it.  If only things are explained properly. Why not get the course that makes it all easy now?  After all, there’s no risk because if you’re not happy with it at any point in the next 12 months, get every penny back.

But enrolment ends at 5pm on 8th March – don’t leave it and risk forgetting and missing out!

PS
Don’t forget, if you join the course and find you aren’t happy with it at any point in the first 12 months, you can get your money back – every penny.

Or if you prefer, give us a ring on 01229 777606 and Jade, Shanice, Shannon or Emma will sort it all out for you.