Conquer The Net Blog

In part one of this series I talked about how to serve your customers better through the proper use of the web’s fastest-growing medium – video.

In this final part, I want to talk about the most prevalent form of downloadable media online – PDFs.

At the end of part one, I mentioned I had only seen two marketers do what I’m about to tell you.

And frankly, I’m amazed that more haven’t taken their lead on what is undoubtedly a great benefit to all who read ebooks, reports, whitepapers or whatever else in PDF format on their computer screens.

Ok, I’ll cut to the chase…

I’m talking about publishing your PDFs in two formats – one for the web and one for being printed out in "hard copy".

In other words, one in "portrait" layout and one in "landscape" layout.

If you’re like me, you have downloaded hundreds, if not thousands of PDFs during your time online.

Some you read on-screen. And others you prefer to print out and read offline.

There’s just something about being able to hold it in your hands and flip through it (or punch holes in it and put it in a binder) while lazing on the couch (or wherever) that seems so right.

Not to mention that too much computer reading can lead to screen blindness (sort of (<;).  Maybe it’s pixilated eyeballs?  At any rate, it’s impossible to take notes and highlight stuff onscreen…

The first marketer I saw do this was Armand Morin. He did it with his "An Obvious Truth" report, released last year.

There’s a screenshot of it below that is linked to the site where the report is still available (and relevant).

No, it’s not an affiliate link…

Now, Armand is no slouch in IM circles. The man is a class act, in my opinion.

And when I got this report, the first thing I thought was "Wow, this is the way ALL marketers should offer their PDFs", or something like that.

My estimation of Armand was immediately increased – not only because of the beauty (nice graphics template) and functionality (fully linked throughout) of the report, but even more so because of the easy-to-read layout.

Who wants to scroll down each time they want to read the rest of a page? Not me!

Why not make the entire page visible with each mouse scroll or page-down button pushed? It’s drop-dead simple to do.

The next and only other guy I’ve seen do this is Leo Babauta, author of the short ebook "Zen To Done".

It’s a refined take on the famous book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, but with a Zen touch to it.

I enjoyed it a lot, even though I hadn’t read Getting Things Done. It’s available here for a mere $9.50.

Or, if you prefer, you can read it in its entirety without downloading it, on Leo’s blog.

The point of all this is: You can make things easier for your readers (or viewers – see part 1) with a minimum of effort on your part.

But the improved experience that results for the consumers of your material will be a very nice feather in your marketing cap for future sales to those satisfied folks.

While I’m on the subject, let me tell you about columns.

As far as I’m concerned, columns only belong in dictionaries, encyclopedias and maybe the occasional newsletter.

Again, the goal should be to allow your reader to smoothly proceed through the material – from left to right – just as we learned how to read.

If you make them read one column and then have to look up, or worse yet, scroll up to read the rest of the page, you’ve done them a disservice.

So, write your stuff in standard book layout and leave the columns to reference manuals.

Finally, avoid Serif type fonts.

Serif fonts tend to cause eye strain because of all the extra ornamental stuff our minds have to process when reading – whether we know/realize it or not (now you do).

The easiest types of font to read are Sans Serif.

I’m talking about Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, etc.

So there you have it. To summarize:

1. Publish your PDFs in both layouts for maximum readability. Use Landscape layout for on-screen reading and Portrait layout for off-screen reading.

2. Avoid using columns in your writing.

3. Use only Sans Serif fonts to help avoid eyestrain for your readers.

If you do these simple things, I believe they will create increased and measurable appreciation on the part of your readers and pay major dividends to you in your marketing.

Oh yeah, one more thing. 

Like I said in part one – tell your potential leads, subscribers and customers about what you’ve done to make their lives easier – i.e. benefits to them.

Since so few are doing this, it’s an easy way to not only separate yourself from the masses of other marketers, but to gain the followership of greater numbers of people who appreciate you really thinking about how to better serve them.

Now go forth and prosper!