Cool Ways to Bring Your Content Off the Web
There are so many ways to publish high quality books and documents today with no upfront costs. With the major advancements in print on demand publishing that have taken place over the years, you can really take your business presence to a level that was not possible just a few years ago.
Take a look at a few of these:
Lulu: wierd name, great service. Print professional hardcover books, softcover books, calenders, CD’s, DVD’s etc. Also offers a storefront through which to sell your products. (Note: Amazon recently began selling self published books through it’s storefront as well.)
PodioBooks: Once you get your book in print, why not turn it into an audio book and get it circulating around the bit-torrent sites and other venues for podcasts and audio books. Audio is a huge attraction right now for busy people and steadily growing more important in marketing.
Blurb: Keep your eye on this one. Blurb offers print on demand like Lulu, but with a different twist. The thing that really stands out to me is their Blog book publishing that is in Beta right now.
QOOP: Offers a new way to print photos. If your industry is very visual, this offers a fast and simple way to get your images into a professionally bound book quickly. If your business isn’t very visual by nature, maybe it could be–people are very visual and images sell. What kinds of images would your target audience be interested in? For example, if you sell data storage, why not have a slightly humorous photo journal that documents different server rooms and give it away to potential clients with your branding on every page. Think that’s boring? People that are interested in this kind of stuff think it’s pretty interesting.
Just because the web is a major driving factor in many businesses, doesn’t mean it should be the only factor. People still seem to lend more credibility to those who publish professional quality material that can actually be picked up and enjoyed.
There are just too many high quality, low cost publishing options to ignore the possibilities any longer. The possibilities for unique, out of the box thinking are virtually limitless and the playing field is wide open for new and interesting ways of marketing, building brand, and strengthening customer relationships.
