The thing that is stupid about cloud computing, is that it’s largely being done because it can be done. Nobody is really asking where the real advantages are, apart from the fact that you can read your email on your phone, for example. And nobody seems to want to hear of the dangers this “new” computing paradigm could pose.

Take, for example, GMail. I know lots of people who are now using GMail as their primary business email provider. I think this is ludicrous. GMail is, IMHO, just another free webmail provider. Their terms of service basically don’t guarantee you anything. Google can decide to discontinue the service whenever they see fit. They can also block access to your account if they think you’re a spammer. If you’ve ever received bounced emails from addresses you’ve never heard of, you have an idea how easy it can be to be accused of spamming.

There are examples of cloud computing that make sense. Web-based email is even one of them, albeit not for critical business email. Online calendars are pretty useful, too. And basically any application that requires online collaboration, like project management tools or a CRM platform, make sense in the cloud.

But online backup? Or my complete address book in the cloud? Why? What’s the benefit? Why should I trust Google, Amazon or any other provider more than my hard disk and a daily Time Machine backup? Why do I need applications on the Web, when my machine and the operating system are perfectly capable of handling the computing tasks I give them?

I love to see new technologies emerge and I love trying everything I get my hands on. But the whole cloud computing buzz is nothing more than marketing hype. It’s great for the companies that manage to get their customers to put their data - and their trust - into the (company’s) cloud. But the user will soon realize that he’s giving all these different companies total control over his data. And when he tries to get his data back, we’ll just have to see how that goes…

Now, I’m not saying that there will never be a single sale from these articles. But at this rate of readers and clickthroughs it’s going to take long. Too long.

So I’m going to let those articles sit there and research a different niche. I have 3 more articles I can submit to EZineArticles under the Basic PLUS plan, then I have to apply for Platinum. Either they finally upgrade me, or I get a new round of Basic PLUS with 25 more articles.

Nevertheless, many people are bitching about how slow EZ has become at accepting articles, and how they constantly change their rules and on and on. I say, play by the rules EZ sets or play somewhere else. It’s their site, it’s their service. Deal with it.

EZineArticles hasn’t reviewed any of my articles yet and, since the weekend is near, I guess the articles won’t go live before the beginning of next week. While it’s kind of frustrating to see my articles in the approval queue for so long, it’s good to keep in mind that those articles will likely be around for a very long time once they’re live. So a little waiting is just a price you have to pay. And it also gives me the chance to beef up the content on Flockrank.com a bit.

Related links:
30-Day Article Marketing Challenge at the Warrior Forum

“What’s in it for me,” you ask?

Well, first of all, it’s a lot of fun competing against other marketers. Even if you don’t come out on top, you’ll at least learn something. Secondly, you can see how others are going about their article marketing, as participants are posting their progress on the forum thread. Lastly, Tiffany’s giving away lots of valuable stuff to the winner (of her choosing).

Since I’ve been slacking off with my article marketing, this was a great opportunity to get going again. I submitted my first article today and, since this is day 2, I’m going to submit the second article today. My chosen niche is registry repair tools, since my site FlockRank.com needs the links and the traffic anyway. I put a lot of energy in setting that site up but it has just been sitting there since its initial launch. So some article traffic certainly won’t do any harm.

You can still join in the challenge, but, if you want to have 30 articles published by the end of the challenge, you’ll want to hurry up. Even if you don’t join in, the thread is bound to develop into a great resource for learning about article marketing.

Here’s the link to the forum thread:
Tiffany Dow’s 30-Day Warrior Article Marketing Challenge

First of all, he sent a second email a couple of days after the first. His thinking was probably along the lines of “maybe my first email was overlooked, I’ll just send a second one to be sure.” What this will usually do is send you to the spam folder, as many email programs’ spam rules think that two emails from the same unknown address is likely to be spam. In any other case you’re likely annoying the recipient, as he wasn’t interested in your email the first time around. But this guy went a step further, he sent a third email. Pretty ballsy, considering he’s sending this using his real name or at least a name he uses online, e.g. for submitting to article directories.

Secondly, this guy committed one of the capital sins of email: he entered all recipients in the cc: field, so everyone who received his email could see who else had received it. The last time I saw someone do this was circa 1998, but I guess stupidity survived the 2k switch unharmed.

But wait, there’s more. One of the links in his HTML email linked to an address different from what the link anchor text implied - not very reassuring. It was probably just an error on his part, but if I’m getting link exchange requests from people I don’t know, the email better check out in every respect.

To sum it up, this guy was requesting a link exchange for a site totally unrelated to mine, using email in a way that borders on spam, all while exposing email addresses of the people he was contacting. Not bad for a Tuesday afternoon.

While many ebooks in the Internet Marketing field are of good quality, there are lots that are not more than sorry excuses of an ebook. What otherwise would have been quality material suffers from the author’s apparent inability to adhere to even the most basic rules of writing.

I’ve identified 7 “sins” you can commit as an ebook author. Any single one of these will get me, and probably many others, pissed off and when you manage to commit more than one in a single ebook or report, you’re begging for a refund request.

The 7 Sins of Ebook Creation

1. Crappy layout

You don’t need to have a Mac or create your ebook with QuarkXpress. But producing a document that is easy to read on-screen, that doesn’t waste too much real estate and is easy to navigate shouldn’t be too difficult.

But what do I get, time and time again?

- Chapter headings starting in the middle of a page instead of on a page of their own
- Use of too many different fonts and font sizes
- Use of HUGE fonts and line height
- Awkward colors
- Textured backgrounds

It’s simple: black text on white background, 12 point font size (or maybe 14 for better readability on-screen), 1.5 line height, two different fonts for headings and body text max. That’s all there is too it.

Think “real book”.

Do real books look like DTP diarrhea?

2. No apparent structure whatsoever

Every now and then I read an ebook that sounds like the author just typed his thoughts into the computer the moment they came to him. The writing shows no logic or structure, the flow of words seems random at best.

If you’re going to publish anything in the written word, take the time to create some sort of structure before you start writing. Ask yourself what the whole point of your ebook or report is, why you are writing it and what it should convey to the reader.

Create a written structure before starting to write. It will help you sort your thoughts and identify any gaps you need to fill.

3. No table of contents

If your report is only 10 or 15 pages long you can do without a table of contents. In any other case please do yourself and your readers a favor and create a table of contents, preferrably with page numbers linked to the appropriate pages. Every half-decent word processor, like MS Word or OpenOffice.org Writer, will generate such a TOC automatically.

It’s really a matter of minutes. Write your ebook and, when you’re done, add a table of contents.

4. Hyperlinks don’t work

OK, I use a Mac. Sue me. By default my Mac opens a PDF with Preview, which is fine because loading Adobe Reader takes much longer and has no additional value. Apart from hyperlinks that work, that is.

For some reason some ebooks have hyperlinks that don’t work in Preview. They’re underlined and blue, but when you click them nothing happens. If the URL is spelled out, you can just copy and paste it into your browser. Not very comfortable, but it works. But if the URL is not in the link text you have no chance of identifying where the link should lead.

For me as a reader, that sucks. But it sucks for the author of the ebook, too. If the link is an affiliate link it will not be making him money because it’s not clickable.

So take care of your links, for your own good.

5. Pour gramar and speling

Nobody’s perfect and we all have our occasional typo (there are probably many of them in this article). But the difference between “their”, “they’re” and “there” should’nt quiz you too much, same goes for “its” and “it’s”, “here” and “hear” or “then” and “than”. There are many more of these that frequently get mixed up, and the fact that many authors repeat the same errors throughout their publications suggests that these are not the occasional bloopers everyone could be accused of.

If you’re unsure of your writing abilities, get a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. It explains all the intricacies of grammar, punctuation and spelling and it’s also fun to read. Your readers will thank you for doing so.

6. No page numbers

I’m sorry, but I’m one of those people who actually don’t like reading long texts sitting at a desk staring at a computer monitor. It doesn’t matter how big and bright the monitor is, if I want to read more than a couple of pages I print the stuff and read it from the comfort of my couch.

It seems many ebook authors think their readers will read a 50-page ebook sitting at their computers, where they would of course use a PDF viewer that displays the page numbers. So there’s no need for including them in the document itself, right?

Wrong. I bet many people print lengthy reports and ebooks and sit in their recliner or on their couch to read them. And for orientation, page numbers have proven to be a pretty neat feature.

As with a table of contents, this is very easy to do. Add a footer to your document and let your word processor automatically insert page numbers. Is that too much to ask?

7. Colorful header graphics on each page

While I like an ebook to be well layouted, putting a big fat color header image on every page is a waste of virtual real estate and a waste of toner or ink for those of us who print ebooks. If you absolutely cannot do without a header image, put ONE on the title page. But don’t repeat it on every page. That’s not branding, or whatever euphemism you might want to use, it’s just plain annoying.

Conclusion

If you value your audience (aka your customers), you should take the time to edit and layout your ebook or report properly. No matter what you’re selling your ebook for, your readers will welcome an ebook that is well layouted, carefully edited and doesn’t read like a teenager on weed is writing about how he discovered the latest and greatest secrets to making money online. Publish something that you can be proud of to put your name on, your readers will appreciate it and most likely buy the next ebook you publish without thinking twice.