What Matters Now--pages 4 & 5

The following post is a reaction to pages 4 and 5 of What Matters Now, a free ebook organized by Seth Godin. Please feel free to leave a comment and join the conversation.

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Page 4 appears utilitarian, as it encourages the reader to 'click the grey box' in order to view the ebook in full screen. I clicked it, of course, and nothing happened. Perhaps it only works when using certain viewing programs. In any case, I know how to make the book fill the screen. This is an interesting choice--asking the reader to block out everything else, and focus only on this book. That is, essentially, what full-screen reading does, right? It follows an important rule of marketing: "Ask the customer to do something."  This is a feature for me to consider, when formatting the ebooks here. I may as well mention now, the book is in landscape orientation, instead of protrait. I presume it's because of the full-screen feature. Being able to block out everything else on your screen and focus on the task at hand is powerful, and something important to consider.

Page 5 starts with a short essay, titled, "Generosity," authored by Seth Godin. Only one page long, this essay discusses how being generous with our art will lead to better business. On first glance the current economy doesn't seem to support this, because right now everyone is focused on making sure the bills are paid. However, if we give generously, our customers notice this, and will continue their relationship with us. The ebook we are discussing here is an example of Seth's generosity--it's a free book, designed to be downloaded and freely shared. And here we are, talking about it, linking back to it.

As for me, I plan on giving certain things away for free. The first thing that comes to mind is making videos of myself, showing how to make a certain thing. I'm selling photographed craft tutorials here, so why not make a little video showing how to do one small thing? There are a lot of things I know how to do, and video is a powerful medium.

What will you give away this coming year?

In a digital world, the gift I give you almost
always benefits me more than it costs. -- Seth Godin, _What Matters Now_