{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0}

Dear {!firstname_fix}

Yesterday was a sad day - yes, Cheryl Cole got sacked from the American X-Factor. Can you hear the violins playing? Do you need a tissue to dry your eyes? Have we all gone bonkers thinking this is a problem? Let's get this straight: the issue was not her accent. OK - she has a broad North Eastern England accent. To her I have a broad Medway Towns accent. But we could  understand each other. Whenever we meet someone with a strong accent we "tune in" and listen hard, if - and it is a big if -  if we find them interesting. If we really are not interested in what they are saying we simply don't bother to try hard to wade through their accent. Instead, we nod politely, smile and make our excuses and leave. That's exactly what the American audiences have done in the pilots of the X-Factor. It wasn't her accent - it's that what she was saying was not interesting enough for people to actually listen hard. Simon Cowell, on the other hand, is listened to in America - in spite of a strong South Coast accent - because he has firm opinions and is direct. It begs the question online - how hard do we all try to make our websites interesting? Being direct, opinionated - even controversial - means that people will engage. Being "nice" like Cheryl Cole probably gets you nowhere.

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED:

Are all these new formats, like ePub, important?

As you travel around the web at the moment you may be coming across downloads in formats that are relatively strange and new. One is called "ePub" another is "mobi" and then there is "LRF". Confusing isn't it? Just when you'd got used to PDFs, along come another bunch of file formats to upset things.

An "ePub" document is an "electronic publication" (aren't they all?) which can be read by online software. As such it is a kind of competitor to PDF, though Adobe - the creators of the PDF system - also allow you to read ePub documents. So, it is even more confusing. Since PDFs are so ubiquitous why don't we stick with them? The reason is the Barnes and Noble "Nook".  This is an e-book reader, similar to an Amazon Kindle - but it reads documents in "ePub" format. If you want your book, your newsletter, your blog even, to be available to the millions of Barnes and Noble customers, you need to produce your content in ePub form.

The "mobi" form is the one used by the Amazon Kindle. So if you want your content on the Kindle, you need to produce it as a "mobi" file.  And then there is the "LRF" - that's the file format accepted by Sony Ebook Readers.  Plus if you want your content on a Palm device, you need to save it as a "PDB" file.

Essentially, hardware manufacturers have opted for one format for their device so they can be unique. If every piece of hardware in the ebook reader marketplace used the same software there would be no competitive edge and these items would then become commodities - not what the manufacturers want...! So that means, several different file formats for content producers like you and me. If you want your content to have the maximum exposure you now have to produce it in various file formats - PDF on its own is no longer acceptable. And don't think you can wait - Amazon announced this week that Kindle sales of new books has now overtaken sales of printed books. In other words more people already prefer the ebook format.

This doesn't mean that printed material will disappear, of course. But what it does mean is that people now have a wider variety of choices in which they can get their content. And that means you need to deliver your content in as many different forms as you can.

To help you do this there are two options you can choose. The first is software that will translate your PDF files, for instance, into "mobi" or "ePub" format. The best I have found is called Calibre and is available from: http://calibre-ebook.com/ - and by the way, it is free.

You could also sign up (again free of charge) to Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/ which can act as a central distribution point for your electronic content.

But whichever solution you choose, you cannot ignore these new file formats.

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK:

I'm glad I have a big one

Earlier this week I had a problem with the graphics on my computer. So I decided to upgrade the graphics card - and while I was at it, get a new monitor. I chose a 30 inch full HD TV as my monitor. When I'm not using it as a PC screen I press a button and I can watch TV, including all the Freeview channels. Before this new arrival, I had a 22 inch PC monitor (going spare if anyone wants it...!). Wow...! Am I impressed with the big screen. Not only can you fit more on it, the screen actually saves me time and makes me more productive. Instead of having to flick from window to window, for instance, the resolution and size of the screen means I can have windows open side by side. That knocks several seconds off each action I need to take - and over the day those seconds add up. Indeed, I have read research which shows that each incremental increase in monitor size reduces the time taken to complete a task by 30%. In other words, if you buy a bigger computer screen you will end up almost a third more productive than you are at the moment. People often moan about not having enough hours in the day - it looks like one solution to that problem is simply buying a bigger monitor.

THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY":

Twitter Your Business

Twitter Your Business is one of those books that I find really easy to recommend. Some books I have to think about a little, or have to search for the real value in them. But this book is one of those obvious ones - obvious that anyone who wants to benefit from Twitter in their business needs to read it. The book is written by Twitter expert Mark Shaw who takes you by the hand and leads you through the potential confusion of Twitter so that you can be effective and efficient in using it. Not only that, unlike other books on Twitter, this book has real, down-to-earth and relevant case histories. So many books simply trot out the same-old, same-old stuff about Starbucks and Dell and how they have used Twitter. Here, this book gives you examples from businesses you can relate to such as independent financial advisers, marketing consultants, recruitment firms - even a Chinese restaurant. The book reckons it is a "beginners guide"; whilst that is true - it will definitely help beginners - I think it is more than that. It will help anyone in business who already uses Twitter because it tackles questions you may ponder on already - such as "it is rude not to follow someone back?" or "how do I get more retweets?". Whatever your level of use of Twitter you will find something (probably a lot) in this book to help you. 

To find out more about the Kindle version of this book visit: http://uklik.me/twitteryourbusiness

To see details of the Apple iBook version: http://uklik.me/twitteyourbiz-ibook

To get the ePub version visit: http://uklik.me/twitteryourbiz-epub

(Hope you noticed it is available in a variety of formats...?)

AND FINALLY:

From this week's blog...

Why Twitter has made a $40m mistake buying Tweetdeck

So, after all the rumours and speculation Twitter has bought Tweetdeck for a whopping $40m. Big mistake chaps. If you didn’t already know it, Tweetdeck is an application for managing social network information, in particular Twitter. On its own, Twitter is pretty much useless. The front page is of no use at all and even if you are logged in all you see is a mish-mash of stuff; no order to it, no

Read More About how why Tweetdeck was the wrong purchase at: http://uklik.me/mm1wbi

To get my blog delivered to you each week in PDF, Kindle or ePub format simply visit: http://uklik.me/gjweekly

Kind Regards

Graham Jones
Internet Psychologist

Web: grahamjones.co.uk
Twitter: twitter.com/grahamjones
Facebook: facebook.com/internetpsychologist
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/grahamjones

Tel: +44 118 336 9710
Email: graham@grahamjones.co.uk

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