I mentioned in NextStage Evolution's Evolution Technology, Web Analytics, Behavioral Analytics and Marketing Analytics Reports for the BizMediaScience Blog, 7 day Cycle, Part 1: Are Visitors Getting Good Value? that I'm working on simplifying my columns and blog posts. I wrote Priming the Conversion Pump with Images before I started down the road of simplifying my content, so it might be a bit information rich.
I wrote in Reading Virtual Minds, Author's Foreword, "First, I'm not your standard business executive and this is not your standard business executive's book. I couldn't write a popular business book if I tried. It's not in my nature. I spent an afternoon at a Barnes&Noble™ looking at popular business books before I started writing this one. Between 250 to 350 pages to talk about a single idea nebulously? With no action items? Definitely not my style.
This book is going to cover a very rich topic -- how people interact with information (software interfaces, websites, emails, brochures, flyers, etc.) -- and it's going to cover that topic in detail.
And I hated textbooks which had "...is left to the reader" or "...the derivation is left an exercise for the student" or some such hobnobble. To me, these were examples of "poof, and then a miracle happened" and "...it's intuitively obvious to the casual observer", neither of which were true. I have a habit of going over things in excruciating detail, explaining something then explaining the explanation.
My feeling is if the reader can't follow something from the roots to the treetop then the author is leaving something out. Throughout the book there will be specific suggestions and instructions on how changing a little thing here or a little thing there will increase rewards greatly. If you're going to read this book, be prepared to take part in the discussion."
I dated a woman many years ago. She broke up with me because "You see a hole in the ground and you have to get in it and see what's in there and what the hole's about. I see a hole and I just walk around it."
I can't help but think of all the gold and diamonds she missed out on.
I guess the compromise is to provide access to the gold and diamonds without insisting you get in the hole and explore with me.
You do realize this means I'll be keeping all the really good stuff for myself, right?
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Upcoming Conferences:
- IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
(Information in this post is from the Author's Foreword of my next book, Reading Virtual Minds. Text and images copyright Joseph Carrabis and NextStage Evolution 2006-2007)
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