Posts Tagged ‘tech’
How to Turn Your Book Into an Audiobook (and Your Audio Into a Book)
By Alicia Nicole Dunams
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Printed books or ebooks are the traditional mode for authors to convey their messages. Their readers turn the pages, reading along as the author shares his or her insights. Audiobooks, on the other hand, give people an opportunity to “read” a book by listening to it. No paper is necessary or long hours spent in front of a computer screen.
Which is better? That depends on who you ask. Some people don’t like to read or they don’t have the time to set aside specifically to read a book. They may prefer an audiobook, which gives them the opportunity to listen to a book while they’re driving or commuting, or even while they’re doing routine tasks around the house. Yet, others prefer the print version of a book, enjoying the written page, the ability to turn back at whim, or to curl up with a good book.
If you only have a printed book, you’re missing out on potential “readers” who prefer to listen to books, rather than read them. The same holds true for audiobooks — if you only offer an audio version of your message, you’re not going to capture the buyer who prefers to hold a book in their hands and turn the page. The solution? Offer both! You’ll increase your sales and reach a much wider audience.
WordPress Themes for Writers
Thanks to my recent just scratched itch for a “new” WordPress theme for Wordpreneur, I’ve just waded and sifted through who knows how many free WordPress themes available online for the taking. “A lot” feels like an understatement — there really is an incredible amount of theme designs out there for WordPress, most of them free. That’s the good news. The bad news? There’s an incredible amount of theme designs out there for WordPress.
Finding that “perfect fit” design (or at least, close enough) can be terribly time consuming, even confusing as your attention gets pulled multiple directions by all that eye candy. Of course, after doing this a while, you tend to learn which designers (or design collections) you favor, which does help you zero in on what you’re looking for. But even then, finding the right theme takes quite a bit of patience and luck.
Analyze Your Blog Statistics for More Traffic
By Keith Lunt
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Recording Your Blog Traffic Statistics
First, you need some way of recording and reporting back to you your traffic statistics. But, the problem is, some of the time you will doubt the figures. That unexpected day when you have received no traffic, or a huge traffic blip. Are they for real, or are they errors in the reports?
How to Make Over a Magazine for the iPad
FYI.
“There are a lot of uncertainties about magazines on the Apple iPad… [b]ut there’s an equally important logistical question that has to be addressed… How do you build it in the first place?”
Interesting Sites for Wordpreneurs
Came across these two as I clicked around. Haven’t personally used either, but they may be worth checking out for your projects — or stimulate ideas at the very least:
- PediaPress — POD books from Wikipedia content.
- eBookPie — Lets you buy chapters from ebooks.
How Magazines Will be Sold in the Tablet Age
FYI.
“Magazine Publishers have quite a few choices when it comes to finding a newsstand in which to sell the digital, e-reader and mobile versions of their titles…. Here’s a breakdown of what’s currently available as well as what’s to come.”
More Than a Million iPads Sold
FYI, according to eBookNewser, reporting on data from Chitika Labs, as of yesterday over a million iPads have been sold, with 33,000 coming online just yesterday alone. Makes you go hmmm on how many of those iPad owners will end up reading ebooks on their new toys.
See Your Site/Blog on an iPad
Unless you’ve been really out of the loop recently, you’ve heard of the Apple iPad. Watch it and its kin closely — it’s a major tech movement.
Just like it’s wise to test our sites/blogs on various browsers, it behooves us to check and see what we look like on an iPad. Which is exactly what I did earlier.
Alert: PDF Malware Possible via Embedded Executables
To the many of us who use PDFs, this is a must-read new security concern. The malware distributors aren’t even exploiting a technical vulnerability or hole, and instead are being quite clever. A manual Adobe Reader fix (at least until Adobe releases some kind of patch) appears at the end of this ZDNet news item.
2read – Five lessons Apple can learn from Amazon
Very good article on ZDNet Government. Interesting observations and insight. Must-read, I think, if you’re at all interested in the fast-developing ebook marketplace, ereaders (Kindle, iPad), and online book retailing.
Free WiFi Access Worldwide 3/20-21
With Skype Access.
Just got wind of this offer from Skype I thought you may be interested in and could benefit from. Skype’s new WiFi service, Skype Access, will enable free WiFi access in over 100,000 hotspots worldwide the weekend of March 20-21.
Build and Run Your Own Social Network Easily With WordPress
Now here’s something truly interesting in the WordPress and Wordpreneur universe: a free plugin that turns a WordPress installation into a social network ala Facebook (with a bit of Twitter thrown in, from what I’ve seen so far).
One that, if you know WordPress, is easy to build, set up and operate. And did I mention free?
Automating Video Transcription
In response to my Produce Video Transcripts EGAD post, Steve Kayser tweeted, “Good idea on transcripts from video. Any software to automate that? Instead of the good old headphones?”
Well, I personally have absolutely zero experience in this area. But we can probably figure something out.
Google to Its Product Teams: “Here’s How to Do SEO”
When Google talks Search Engine Optimization (SEO), smart money says we should listen. But when Google tells its product teams (aka its own employees) how to do SEO, I think it prudent to drop everything and pay close attention.
“Pretty Link” Often Referenced WordPress Posts
I mentioned the Pretty Link WordPress plugin in passing in last year’s How to Work In Affiliate Links Into Your eBook post. But that brief mention doesn’t do justice to just how useful this free plugin is to WordPress users.
Hands-Free No Sweat Blog Tweeting With WordPress and the Twitter Tools Plugin
Despite all the hoopla, if you have yet to set up a Twitter account and start using it to at least “broadcast” information to Twitter-using readers/prospects, I don’t really blame you. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if what’s keeping you from doing it is, well, tech overload.
WP Greet Box – A Powerful Promotional WordPress Plugin
By default, the free WP Greet Box WordPress plugin is already a no-brainer must-have — it displays a custom greeting on your posts, depending on where the reader comes from.
