The Nxtbook Robot Pen - In Action!

As we move into the fall tradeshow season, there’s always a lot of buzz at the Nxtbook farm (ok, inside my cubicle) about what our show give-away will be. There’s a fine line between cheap junk and cool stuff your kids will thank you for bringing home and we take that line seriously.

How will be know if our give-aways are a success? Easy: if somebody video-blogs their Nxtbook trinket, that’s a sure sign it’s a winner.

DISCLAIMER: I just found out about this video, which is more than a year old. Sadly, the robot pens are no more, though there is an underground movement to bring them back. Stay tuned!

Something Looks Different…

If you’re reading the newsletter version or RSS feed of our blog, nothing has changed. But if you’re a frequent visitor to the website version of our blog, you probably noticed a dramatic layout change. The "blog" has been renamed the "Publisher Resource Center," and now has slicker category navigation, so you can easily find archived webinars, case studies, videos and more. The idea here is simple: better navigation to help you find what you’re looking for. Same stuff, better organization - like I’ve been trying to do (unsuccessfully, for the most part) in my garage for years.

Nxtbook’s Cutting-Edge Technology Chosen to Help… With Cutting

In the news:

Empire Education Group announces the changeover of A Cut Above
Beauty College, to the Empire Beauty School brand name. Empire is
taking this step as the school undergoes extensive facility renovations
and significantly upgrades its curriculum and teaching methodologies.

The Indianapolis location, on East Southport Road, will be equipped
with improved learning tools such as Empire’s cutting edge teaching
techniques that are part of the CLiC (Certified Learning in
Cosmetology) (http://www.clicusa.com/index.html)
education curriculum. Empire’s unique digital presentation techniques,
featuring interactive presentation panels called TeamBoards and Nxtbook
digital textbooks, will also be installed in the school’s classrooms.
This accredited cosmetology school will offer certifications in
cosmetology and esthetics.

Read more here.

 

How Engaging is a Buffet?

I admit it: I’ve been to one or ten buffets in my lifetime. Most were fine. Some were very good. None, however, were memorable and none provided me with what I’d call an "engaging experience."

Over at FOLIO, Tony Silber recounts an interesting exchange where two-thirds of print executive say they consume more media online than they do print. When I hear the word "consumption," I think of buffets.

Here’s the thing: If asked that question, I’d likely answer the same way. But is that really the question that we should be asking? In a given day, I’ll visit dozens of websites and scan hundreds of feeds. I will - however - notice very few online ads and click even less. When I look at a magazine, though, I notice the vast majority of the ads and read well more than half. In short, I’m engaging with the content.

As we’ve said before, reader habits in a digital magazine are marketedly different than they are in the traditional online sense. Click-through rates, in particular, are crazy higher. People have been habitualized to read magazine advertisements. Quite quickly, though, we’ve been habitualized to ignore traditional online ads.

If you’re Google - and you’re serving up the world’s biggest buffet of content - you can get away with mass consumption low margin activity. But most of us in the niche trade world aren’t in the buffet business. Instead, our task is to provide a memorable experience for our customers. An engaging one, rather than one based on "consumption." For those publishers, the digital magazine provides just that experience at an expense far lower than print.

In the News…

While in Manchester last week, we spoke w/ Crain’s about the new Nxtbook office there. Feel free to read about it here.

Mygazines Holds Content Hostage, But Swears Nobody Will Get Hurt…

Here’s the Mygazines response to a blogger:

The true future of the industry lies in the final stages of our site
concept. We can easily transition to the final revenue model quickly
with the co-operation of the publishers. We cannot however reveal the
full concept at this time as we are saving that discussion for the
publishing industry directly.

This is actually funny… They’re saying it’s ok to re-use copywritten content and along the way, the publisers’ eyes will be opened to new and exciting revenue streams. This reminds of the time my Uncle asked me to loan him $500 and promised me he’d double it in a week, provided I asked no questions. I never did get my money back, but I was the proud owner of a surprisingly unsuccessful earthworm venture for a short time.

Americans in Manchester

Several of the Nxtbook team is in Manchester this week visiting our new European headquarters in Manchester. It’s wonderful to see the team so energized and excited about the product.

Manchester itself is going through a rebirth (not unlike our American headquarters in Lancaster). Both cities are doing their part to embrace technologies companies and there’s a sense of a new era in commerce in both regions.

While the European offices are much smaller than corporate HQ, they’ve got us beat in the view department - with large windows on the 5th flooring looking out over the canal. Absolutely gorgeous.

This pic if of Nxtbook European HQ chief Darren Fowler - taken along the water near the offices.

When Did We Get Into the News Business?

When we’re covering stories nearly a week before FOLIO does, something is amiss.

 

BOOK REVIEW: Get Content - Get Customers

If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you know that we like Joe Pulizzi. He’s a smart fellow, head of a cool little web thing, and just an all-around nice guy.

And yet, we haven’t posted a review of his book until now. This was because - nice guy or not - we hadn’t read "Get Contet, Get Customers" until this week. (SIDEBAR: We’ve also read Bart Yasso’s "My Life on the Run" and recommend it mightily.) Fact of the matter is the nightstand stack was simply rather high and it had to work its way to the top. Wow - are we glad it has.

If there’s a better book on custom publishing, we haven’t seen it. More important - the book covers all the bases on social media and new technology, too. We like Pulizzi because he doesn’t just drool over web gadgets - rather, he drools over how business can use them, and the tips and case studies included within the pages of this book are certain to educate (and entertain!) any custom publishers trying to figure out how to go to market today.

Of course, what’s not to love about a book with a few references to digital magazines? But once again - what’s to love about Joe is that he doesn’t give our technology too much or too little credit. Joe understands that digital magazines are simply another weapon in the war for reader attention, and he gives them their just due.

Your move: if you work in custom publishing, buy this book for everyone you work with. You might be an expert in social media, but we’ve learned that many people just don’t see how to plug into these new tools and techniques and those people will thank you for turning them on to this awesome publication.

People Love the Flash…

Did you know the chances are greater that you’re running the most current version of Flash than they are that you’re running the most current version of your Internet Browser?

Despite the fact that 40% of the population isn’t using the most recent version of their Internet Browser, within six months of release more than 80% of people have updated their Flash player.

Worldwide, Flash still has nearly 99% penetration. The study didn’t include Silverlight and other plug-ins with minimal penetration.

What this means to you? With an audience that has demonstrated regular updating of the service, Flash users are highly likely to be running the most current versions, which allows publishers to create cooler content, better videos and offer a more dynamic reading experience than other magazines.

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