Archive for the ‘Publishing’ Category

A Word Relating to Creating an Online Publication Catalog

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Spoiling even the best digital newsletter is sadly very easy, never mind how much creativity you’ve put into it, with a bad choice of digital newsletter package. When you’re determined to make an online catalog the essential decision is to select the software supplier. Setting the format for your brochure is only a little section of what they do. The most important part of the package is, naturally, it’s intuitiveness. If you can’t make the software run it doesn’t matter how good it is hyped to be! Take the time to try out different packages before you select a provider for your ebrochure. As spamming and hacking are issues online, security should be your second concern as you’re making an online edition. What measures are taken to secure your account? Will the content be protected? Is it possible for people to simply copy and paste the newsletter content or does the digital publishing software vendor have protective measures preventing this? Is your content made safe by the online publishing software supplier from copy-pasting by readers? Once you’ve made a flash newsletter it’s time to make up a marketing timetable. No matter which plan you use you should think about ads and the role of social media. Thinking about search engines will also be essential when considering marketing your ezine.

Can you combine paid for and free content? How about offering several possibilities for subscription? Also, the nature of your content - is it monetized ? Will you be using summaries and teasers to sell this digital publication? How available is the newsletter? If it’ll be private you can look into several hosting options or will it be public? In which case you will be better hosting directly. What’ll you be doing with back-isues? Some workarounds should be looked at in advance i.e. ahead of actually having to go for them. What is the tech support like? Is it simply a list of FAQs? Do they feature a how-to guide? Do they commit to their response time? Do they have 24/7 support? The importance of tech support cannot be over-stated. You certainly don’t want to find out the hard way that they’re actually not up to par!

The choice you make here will be what determines how well your publication does - consider carefully before picking out your provider. Search Google, Yahoo or Bing to look for the terms “create online publication” to find further useful information.

Deciding on Digital Magazine Software Vendors

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Spoiling even the best electronic catalog is all too easy, never mind how much energy has been put into it, if you have a poor choice of digital catalog package. Once you’ve chosen to make an online catalog the essential next call is to pick out the software vendor. Formatting your message is simply a minute section of their work. Simplicity of use is the key feature to look out for. The software could be the most impressive you’ve seen - but if you’re unable to actually use it, it’s not worth a single penny… Before selecting a provider for your ezine, be certain to try different packages out.

Further major preparations you need to make are about security. The next thing in line to think about are hackers. Do you know what measures are taken securing your account? Is the content secured? Is it possible for people to simply copy and paste the catalog content or has the flash software supplier something in place peventing these things? Is the content secure?

Have you made a plan to sell your flash catalog yet? Is modern media consolidation necessary? Ads ought to be covered. These things are not completely essential for all of your issues, but you will certainly need to choose one which matches your particular business plan. Selling the ebrochure will probably require search engine friendly content.

Back issues will need to be thought about when creating an online catalog. Will your electronic catalog be generally accessible? Your service provider providing hosting probably makes sense if it’s going to be easily available. Will you share teasers to spread the word about this interactive newspaper?

Technical support is a big consideration in the selection of host. Are you able to contact technical support with questions? Be assured by their response time! Are there helpful FAQs? These things might seem minor now, but in the event of something going horribly wrong, you’ll be happy you considered this beforehand. Your skills are being tested - select with utmost care! When creating the catalog, your quality of provider will determine its overall success.

Market Your Businesses Products with Professional Videos

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

Video commercials are a wonderful instrument to promote your firm’s products and services. For certain there are dozens and dozens of other kinds of marketing approaches around which include content writing to blogging, from press releases to podcasting. Although, nothing says “cool, connection, and creativity” like an online video.

More & more companies of different sizes are generating online videos about their offerings. They’re not only just posting them on their websites, but they are posting them to their official blogs. To gain universal 24/7 coverage, business videos are being added to numerous video-sharing websites like You Tube and Metacafe. And why not ? it’s economical, easy-to-do, and can have a major impact, in many cases, on the traffic it brings to your businesses website. Improve your businesses revenue online with promotional video production from Vidify.

There are many more reasons why professional videos are an exceptional way to advertise your business.

Promotional videos enjoy a large distribution: Videos by their very nature are easy to “package” which means they are ideal to slot into a series of different distribution channels. You can post them on your organisations website or blog, you can store them onto your notebook and run them again and again at a selected business show. You can upload them to countless Internet video-sharing social media sites. You can copy them onto CDs & give them away or sell them. You can even distribute them by email.

Videos on the Web are a wonderful way to communicate. As our understanding with technology evolves, so do the ways in which organisations like to interact with others. Most individuals are visually oriented meaning that is how they best understand and cooperate with their world. This makes videos online the idyllic business strategy to communicate to today’s clients.

These are just one or two of the many reasons why videos on the Internet might be an exceptional way to advertise your organisation’s products & services. Find out more about this area to see how you may exploit your own time, money, and energy to communicate with your target customers in an inventive and attractive way.

A Look at Online Video Production and Distribution - Part One

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

The bright old Chinese catchphrase has a very strong implication; the anecdote portrayed the truth that each and every person trusts an event substantially more if it is viewed. By means of video production or videography it is practical to film a sequence of events.

Today in countless company presentations, video recording is commonly utilised. By implementing video production services it is feasible to provide the required communication to quite a lot of different potential consumers to help interest them. Video production is at present used for numerous jobs; however, more than a few online corporate videos & awareness related presentations are usually created in order to accomplish desired business goals.

Audio video presentations are at present in fashion and are therefore used in roughly any form of industry activity. Digital media companies primarily work with a certain type of client or a business that are looking to develop a promotional video, a presentation or an assortment of video clips. The entire job of video production is often carried out by a number of freelancers; yet there are numerous online video production agencies around at the moment.

Participation of music composers, cameraman and script writers are also very common when creating internet video productions. What’s more, advertising agencies and public relations companies have lately become involved with video production. Click here to find out about Vidify’s video production and marketing services.

Why Should You Depend on Other People?

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Humans are so dependant on other people’s opinions. Having been assessed positively we feel powerful, successful, intelligent and beautiful. We judge ourselves according to others’ comments on our actions. When being criticized or laughed at, we feel bad, depressed and nothing seems to make us happy anymore. This happens only because our ways are not accepted in the society. “Ego” cries for positivism, but none appears for you base your facts on the opinions of others. The truth is that you will never be in favor of everyone surrounding you. There will always be a group of people that will not positively assess everything you do. One thing that will help against criticism is self-confidence that one should grow within him/herself.

A student may be a perfect example. Since childhood people are likely to overestimate own possibilities and paint the picture of the future in pink colours. When working out a plan for future, we do not consider the majority of possible failures that might occur on the way to success. Perfectionism is a bad feature that is worth getting rid of. Nevertheless it is present in the back corner of a young student’s “ego”. Can you imagine a devastative consequence of a failure? The tutor praises the skills and intelligence. He feels like he is on top of the world and can do anything. You get used to good things easily. When the genius is recognized you start to think of yourself only as of a genius. And after everything goes smooth and bright there is a point when someone, even your beloved tutor, comes to criticize you and your work. Instead of an expected “A” you get an “F”. The perfect world falls apart because this error doesn’t fit into your plan. At this point you build a characteristic of your actions from the way your tutors, colleagues give you. This is the main error in your system of values and priorities. You tend to overlook the world from the point of view of other people. What one should do is to build up his or her own system of values and of course taking into consideration some of social priorities. But every final decision you take should be based on your decision. A failure should only stimulate to move forward and to overcome.

Interference of the society is unavoidable. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to close yourself in a world full of illusions. Hardships make a person more experienced, wiser, stronger. The more you hide and close into depression, the more time you loose to improve the situation. The reality is harsh but it is impossible to live beyond it.

Carol Miller is a senior researcher at BestTermPaper.com - Custom Term Paper Writing Service. She has written several articles devoted to the problems of writing different college term papers (e.g. psychology term paper) and offered her own innovative views on the issue.

The Verdict’s Out: Publishing Articles Helps Determine Product Demand

Friday, April 25th, 2008

According to the experts, publishing articles on the web is a good marketing strategy because it increases your credibility, helps you become known and trusted, and proliferates your contact details. But is there more to be achieved than that? I decided to find out.

On 14 OCT 05 I started a test to determine to what extent the number of people who read an article is a determinant of demand.
I asked the question, “Determining Product Demand: Can Articles Help?” In that article I referred to three previously published articles about writing business letters, each of which is a tutorial.

As I write this, a couple of months later (24 DEC 05), here are the statistics for those three “Writing Business Letters” tutorials:

1. Letter Format - 1427 Readers
2. Parts of a Business Letter - 704 Readers
3. Writing a Quality Letter - 484 Readers

Of 35 other articles I have written between 2002 (Updated in 2004) and 2005, the highest number of readers is for “Writing
Business Letters: Tutorial 1 - Letter Format (1427 as shown previously). The average number of readers per article is around 340. So, 1427 shoots right off the ‘normal’ scale, especially given the relatively short time it has been accessible. Even 704 and 484 for the related two topics are solid readership statistics.

Not only do my article statistics give me some idea of interest, they also indicate where the interest is highest ie, Letter Format. For some reason, people are interested to know about letter formatting.

When I launch my “Secrets of Successful Letter Formatting and Writing” ebook in early 2006, I feel confident that there will be at least a warm market response. (Note that the title includes the most popular keywords, “Letter Formatting”.)

Although I wouldn’t rely only on readers’ responses to my articles to gauge demand for a product or service, the additional data available from my articles is helpful in making an overall decision about where to invest my time and effort. In this case, I think I can answer my own question; “Yes, writing articles can help determine product demand, but don’t use it as a sole indicator”.

Copyright 2005 Robin Henry | First published Dec 05

Robin Henry - EzineArticles Expert Author

Robin Henry is a human resources specialist, educator and Internet marketer who has a specific interest in business
communication, methods and processes. He operates an online business from his home at Alice Springs in Central Australia that helps people improve performance through smart processes and procedures. At the time of publishing this article is working in the United Arab Emirates.

More information can be found at http://www.dwave.com.au

Learn the Four-Step Secret to a Perfect Manuscript

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

Tired of proofreading for hours? Moving from first draft to perfect manuscript can be a slow and tedious exercise even for the most experienced writers. But you can create a perfect manuscript with just four simple steps.
The secret is to focus on only one area each time you edit. Start with the tone and flow of the overall piece. Then whittle down your word count. Check your grammar and spelling, and finally, read through the piece one last time.


STEP #1 - EDIT FOR TONE AND FLOW


After you have eliminated words, read through the manuscript checking the tone and flow. Is your tone appropriate for your audience? Are you lively and entertaining, or stiff and businesslike? Do you use contractions or perfect English?


If you are not sure about the audience, lean toward a more formal manuscript.


Check the flow of the manuscript by jotting down a quick flow diagram. Each paragraph should have a main topic. List it. Then connect the topics with arrows. Next to each arrow, note how you connect one idea to another. Or use arrows to connect subtopics to the main topic. Make sure all the subtopics support main topics, and main topics support the theme of your manuscript.


To improve the flow of the manuscript, vary the length of your sentences and paragraphs. The change in lengths gives your writing interest.


STEP #2 - PLAY “HOW FEW WORDS?”


Have you ever played the “How few words” game? Go through your manuscript to see how many words you can eliminate and still keep the original meaning.


Here’s an example:


Long version - To properly edit and proofread a manuscript or other piece of writing by an author, other writers should read the manuscript and then eliminate as many words as possible from the prose. [32 words]


Shorter version - To shorten a manuscript, ask someone to remove words. [9 words]


This game is usually much easier on someone else’s writing. We writers often get attached to our words. Ask a friend to eliminate words for you.


STEP #3 - PROOF FOR GRAMMAR AND SPELLING


In the next read-through, check for grammar and spelling errors. Some of the most common grammar errors include misused tenses, misplaced commas, and subjects, verbs and pronouns that do not agree.


Use the search function in your word processor to check for commonly misspelled words like effect/affect, to/two/too, there/their, its/it’s and hear/here. You can find a list of common errors at http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/.


STEP #4 - FINAL READ-THROUGH


Let your manuscript marinate for at least 24 hours. Then, read through it one last time. You’ll be amazed at the problems you missed (of course, if you make any major changes, you should start over with step one!).


Want to learn more? Visit http://www.organizedwriter.com. Julie Hood is the author of “The Organized Writer: 30 Days to More Time, More Money and Less Frustration,” an ebook with a roadmap for combining a writing career with the rest of your life. She manages the OrganizedWriter.com web site and writes Writer-Reminders, a weekly newsletter for writers. Newsletter subscribers receive a free ebook, The Sidetracked Writer’s Planner. When she isn’t writing, she sneaks in cleaning house around a busy household with two children, her husband, and two avid golfers.

Copyright 2004 Julie Hood, Finally Organized LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Article Submission Trumps Ezine Ads and Google AdWords

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

You may have heard advice from Internet marketing gurus that ezine ads are one of the best forms of advertising. You may also have heard that Google AdWords and other pay per click search engines are one of the best advertising methods. But when it comes to marketing your web site, article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords anytime.

The advantage of article submission is trust. Suppose you subscribe to an ezine in the form of an email newsletter. You’ve just sat down at your PC, coffee in hand, to read your email. There in your inbox is a copy of one of your favorite ezines, the one you read every time.

Clicking on the newsletter, you see that this edition starts with a sponsor ad and then has a couple of great sounding articles and a couple more ezine ads. Sipping your coffee, one of the articles catches your attention. You read the article, and you were right. It’s a great article.

At the bottom of the article, there is a link to the author’s web site and a short biography. You notice the author has a link to pick up a free report with more information about the article’s topic. Then you notice that right below that there’s a sponsor’s link in an ezine ad. The sponsor’s link is for a different web site, but it also offers a free report about the same topic.

Now you might click both links. But if you could only click one, which would you choose: the one by the author of the great article you just read or the one in the ezine ad?

If you would click on the one from the author of the article you just read, you’re not alone. Most people would, wouldn’t they?

Now suppose you’re surfing around on the web. You do a Google search on a topic you’re interested in, and you follow a link to a great article with some excellent advice on the topic. Again, there is a link to the author’s web site and a link to a free report with more information on the topic. Right beside it are five Google AdWords ads on the same topic. As luck would have it, they are also each offering a free report on the same topic.

You would still be most likely to click on the author’s link at the bottom of the article, though, wouldn’t you?

Article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords because you establish a relationship and build trust with your reader. You are obviously the expert. After all, you wrote the article. And the webmaster or ezine publisher wouldn’t have published the article if they didn’t think you knew what you were talking about, right?

Years ago, I used to do direct sales in people’s homes. I learned that one of the first things you need to do is the “warm up.” You’ve just entered someone’s home, they don’t know who you are as a person, and they know you’re going to be trying to get money from them before you leave.

If you don’t establish rapport quickly, it’s difficult to overcome people’s natural sales resistance. In direct sales in the home, you do that by talking a little with people before you begin your sales presentation. They get to know you as a person, and their resistance is lowered.

Most people can’t do sales because they remain the “enemy,” the horrible sales person who wants to sell them something. Let’s face it, people hate sales people!

But imagine if you could warm up to people easily - and not just one or two people, but thousands of people. Imagine if instead of selling them something, you could educate them about something that will solve a problem and be of great benefit to them. That’s entirely different, isn’t it?

Article submission allows you to do exactly this, and on a massive scale. If you submit many articles to article submission sites and article directories, many will be published on web sites and in ezines around the Internet. People will read your articles and warm up to you. Solve their problems and they’ll want more.

It’s hard to accomplish that with Google AdWords. You only have three lines and a few words to build interest and trust and to get the click. It’s also hard to achieve that with ezine ads. Even with solo ezine ads, everyone knows they are advertisements.

Article submission is the secret. Writing and submitting articles is relatively easy. Just write very helpful articles on your topic and link to your web site. Through article submission you will build your reputation. Through article submission you will gain trust. And through article submission you will get visitors to your web site that already like you, value your advice, and want to know more about what you can do to help them.

That’s already an incredible benefit, but it gets even better. Article submission is usually free, or low cost if you use an article submission service. Ezine ads and Google AdWords can be very expensive, and it is unlikely you could ever get traffic coming to your site as open to listening to you and trusting you as they will be from an article submission.

This is why article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords.

Mike Adams is the owner of ElectricText. Mike has been creating and promoting websites almost since the Web began. His ElectricText site is one of the growing numbers of article submission web sites that you can submit your articles to: http://www.electrictext.com/

Design a web album using Adobe Photoshop- Part 2

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

So let’s begin crunching down these 300 images using Adobe
Photoshop from start to finish. When I say ‘crunching’, to some
300 images may seem like allot, but it’s not. I have done jobs
for clients that have 100,000 plus images. When you have that
many images to produce there are other programs I use that are
designed for this. We’ll cover that another day.

To this point we have ensured that our images are web ready,
cropping, retouching, watermarking, etc. So let’s get at it. I
will assume that we are all using Adobe Photoshop version 6 or
greater.

First we will go to the ‘file’ menu and select ‘Automate” shown
here
http://weprintcolors.com/screens/screen_dw_create_photo_menu.htm
. Now you are ready to create the theme of your photo album by
filling in the required textfields. Remember to be as brief and
descriptive as possible, as this information gets published on
all html pages generated by Photoshop. This is where Photoshop
is seems to offer more that Dreamweaver. You will notice the
first pull down menu ’styles’. There are many different
horizontal and vertical styles available. The second menu allows
you to enter an email address that you may want to be available
to your visitors. However, I advise against it. Remember that
thing called SPAM.

Then next pull down menu allows you to specify .htm or .html
extensions. Now we’ll click the ‘browse’ button and locate your
image source folder. Click the ‘destination’ folder. This folder
should be located somewhere in you website folder. If you don’t
have one, make one. ‘Options’ is, again an area that Adobe seems
far more thorough that Dreamweaver. The ‘options’ menu let’s you
specify every aspect of your photo album…size of small
thumbnails, size of large thumbnails, add custom colors to
better tie into your corporate scheme. Remember to complete the
’site name’, ‘photographer’, textfields tactfully; this is what
tells the search engine what your subject matter deals with.

Are you ready now? Go ahead click OK. Like magic your photo
album manufacturing itself. This is a great tool that can be
used commercially or just for fun. Create commercial product
pages for your clients or create an online photo album for
family and friends in minutes.

Robert

Ordering printing can be intimidating

Friday, January 11th, 2008

Educating yourself before ordering your office printing can save
you serious dollars

“I went to see a printer today to get my company’s stationery
printed. They ask too many questions, I can’t answer!” How many
times have you felt this way? It’s kind off like going to the
auto garage for a tune up and being told you need a new 02
sensor, your sincro mesh gear has a tooth missing and so on. You
know you have to get it done but who can you trust to give you
the best quality, value and service. There is a reason why I
include all three ‘quality, value and service’ In the 80’s and
early 90’s it used to be ‘quality, value and service’…pick 2.
These days, with the internet as a resource, buyers and sellers
alike can really benefit from forming bonding relationships with
their printer of choice. Location is no longer an issue. In
fact, I will bet money you can always find what appears, to be
better than what you are getting. It can be overwhelming, too
much information.

Here are a few tips on what you should figure out before you
talk to your printer:

1)Decide how many ink colors you are going to print in. Here are
a few links that will help you understand this: Pantone color
chart in RGB and html;
http://www.weprintcolor.com/pantone_RGB_convert.htm Convert from
RGB color to CMYK color;
http://www.weprintcolor.com/rgb_CMYK.htm Explain CMYK, RGB and
Pantone Color;
http://www.weprintcolor.com/pop_ups/Templ_modificatons_full.htm
2)Have a pretty good idea of the paper and texture of the paper
you would like to use. Learn some ‘buzz words’ in your
conversions with the printers you speak to. Here is a list of
printing terms commonly used by people in the printing industry;
http://www.reprotechprint.com/printing_terms.htm 3)Have a
general idea of the quantities you would like to purchase. If
you’re not sure don’t be afraid to ask your printer to provide a
quotation on several different quantities. In printing, the more
you order the cheaper the per unit cost is. Here are a couple of
online price calculators demonstrating this: Business Cards;
http://www.weprintcolor.com/businesscardscolour.htm Postcards;
http://www.weprintcolor.com/postcard_index_4×6.htm 4)Will you
provide a ‘print ready’ digital file? When I say ‘print ready’,
it is important that you understand this. Many printers will
attempt to print from a ‘none print ready’ file. This will
sometimes lead to undesirable results. Here is a couple of links
to help you with this: Free digital file inspection;
http://www.weprintcolor.com/upload.htm Specifications for
sending files; http://www.weprintcolor.com/SendingFiles.htm

Once you have gathered education with the terms us printers use
you will understand , more clearly, what you are getting for
your money. You will also appear more educated in your future
purchases.

The moral of my story? Buyers need to be more armed with
knowledge to make an educated purchase and sellers need to be
sharp, knowledgeable and willing to share this
knowledge…Everybody wins.