I did a lot of research recently into helping a client convert her printed book into a digital format. The original we were working with was an Adobe InDesign file, and an output of almost 600 pages. Here are my notes. Rights Protection & Formats Consideration is: Keeping customers from willy-nilly just sending a copy…

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I spontaneously made this as a tool for my own week review. I am finding it extremely supportive to take a full-spectrum look at my life each week (on a Sunday, for example). I will take a walk, and turn off all inputs. As I review my life, a bigger picture begins to emerge. What…

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Given that I just wrote about how annoying it is to get email signup popovers earlier that day, it struck me as odd that this one “worked” for me. When I saw this, I somehow wanted it, and did not feel annoyed by it in the same way. Now, I’m sure this is personal, but…

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Some years ago, internet marketers decided it would be very clever start pushing large forms in people’s faces that ask them to sign up for an email newsletter. These are called “popovers”, and can be programmed to appear at different moments when someone is visiting your site. The obvious core idea is: You have this…

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The makers of Drift published a great little book called This Won’t Scale. Play #8 in this was Build an Emotional Moat Around Your Brand. The author goes on to talk about “crafting a consistent story” and every “touchpoint” being part of that—which is all good, but still sounds a little mechanical, if you ask…

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Dear designer-marketer: You think you are being cute by just making the thing you want me to pay attention to… jiggle a little. I am not stupid. I find it very annoying, and am very tempted to close your page right away. —User Unless you want to be annoying (I can’t figure out why you…

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This one is very simple, and you’ll see that the type is small and hard to read, but the point is that they are highlighting a promise of what you will get. And: In fact, notice that they are not highlighting the format, they are highlighting the outcome. “Weekly progress updates” is what you get…

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I like the way Tim Ferris puts his newsletter as a menu item on his website. This is part of an integrated strategy—I like what he says about the newsletter too: Every Friday, I send out an exclusive email with the five coolest things I’ve found (or explored) that week. It could include exclusive giveaways…

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This week I discovered the Flowtime Techique, something invented by someone who wanted to tweak the Pomodoro Technique (which I have used on and off for years). Pomodoro has always been helpful at different moments when I just needed to focus. But then, it can start to feel like you are regimenting your life and…

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What I love about this is that the design itself says, “we are not afraid to ask first before we send you emails.” People actually get to decide. This was literally on their lead magnet page! Now, this is on the website for a design company, and so the design elements are very well executed,…

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