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Welcome
This Month's Featured MasterMind: Vincent Flanders on Web Pages That Suck
Meet the MasterMinds: Common Sense Web Design with Steve Krug
Meet the MasterMinds: Philippa Gamse Tunes-Up Your Web Site
Web Resources: Web Site Design and Usability; eBook Resource Sites
Special Book Review: Impending Crisis, by Roger Herman, Joyce Gioia and Tom Olivo
Consultants' Forum: Is Your Value Proposition Strong Enough, by Jill Konrath;
Grow Your Consulting Practice with eBooks, by Skip Pratt
This Month in History
Coming Attractions
The End Page

September brings a changing of the seasons on the 23rd, with the Autumn Equinox in the Northern hemisphere and the Spring Equinox in the Southern hemisphere. It must be something in the air-this issue of MCNews is our biggest yet.

Twelve short years ago, a gifted scientist named Tim Berners-Lee toiled away in a Geneva-based lab on a pet project he called the World Wide Web. No one, including Berners-Lee, could have predicted how important the web would be today. So, with a nod to Berners-Lee and his colleagues, this month the MasterMind series presents advice from three leading thinkers on how a consultant can capture the promise of the web. Our focus is on the issues of strategy, web design and usability.

Have you noticed that "Help Wanted" signs seem to be everywhere? Strategic business futurists Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia noticed. Along with co-author Tom Olivo, Herman and Gioia are forecasting a U.S. labor shortage that could leave 10,000,000 jobs looking for workers. The labor shortage crisis and solutions will be presented in the forthcoming book, Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People, which will be out November. We sat down with Roger Herman for a preview of his team's findings.

We're also featuring articles from two MCNews subscribers this month. Sales innovation strategist Jill Konrath challenges you to muscle up your value proposition, and shows you how. Skip Pratt, consultant and business owner, shows how to bring new value to your clients and more revenue to your practice through the creative use of ebooks.

As always, if you have comments, send them along to me. And, get outdoors to enjoy the weather, wherever you are.

Vincent Flanders is the creator of the award-winning web site, WebPagesThatSuck.com, and co-author of the books Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design and its recent sequel, Son of Web Pages That Suck. Flanders, his web site and books have been featured in publications, on television, radio and the Internet, including Newsweek, Web World, Ziff-Davis TV, and PBS. He is an authority on web design and usability, and provides consulting services for a variety of businesses.

MCNews asked Flanders to enlighten us about the pitfalls of web design and how consultants can avoid being featured in his next book.

MCNews: What is it about web site design that created the need for your books?

Flanders: The short answer is the American education system. Unfortunately, American schools don't teach art or aesthetics, so most people don't have a clue about good design.

The longer answer is that too many designers, writers, marketing people, and others involved in getting companies on the web thought the web was the same type of medium as print or TV. It isn't, and people have had to learn that this medium has serious limitations--low bandwidth, incompatibility between browsers, different platforms, etc.--and they've tried to put a square peg in a round hole.

Another problem has to do with web design tools. Back in the "old days" we had to hand-code web sites. Now you've got WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) tools, which let you create really bad web sites very quickly with no knowledge of HTML.

Finally, the dirty little secret about the web is that it isn't really as important as people thought it was going to be in the way they thought it was going to be important. We all thought we could throw up content or sell gizmos and somehow the money would come rolling in. A lot of people are into the web because it's fun and cool, but most people in the real world could care less. The irony is that the money is in the important applications that we don't see--corporate purchasing, for example.

MCNews: What two or three hints should give you a clue that your web site sucks?

Flanders: Any time you see the word "paradigm" or other such MC-type words run, don't walk, away from the site. MC stands for Marketing Crap, by the way. In my new book, Son of Web Pages That Suck, I have the ultimate example of MC-- some consultant talks about how he's "…a frontiersman. He thrills to spend his time, his energy, and his intellect in the regions that form the margins of settled or developed territories…" Get out the shovels.

Another big clue is splash pages. There is no need for a site to have a splash, or introductory, page unless you have to offer your visitors a choice between multiple languages like they do in Canada or Switzerland. Splash pages are a huge banner that tells the world that you like to waste people's time, and they will figure that means you're going to waste their money too.

If you look at a site's home page and can't figure out what the site is about, then you've got a site that sucks like a Kirby vacuum. There are too many home pages, that even after you have read every word on it, you're not sure what it's about. One in particular talks about "content ecosystem" without defining it. What does that mean?

MCNews: What makes informational/service (as opposed to sales) sites succeed or fail?

Flanders: The main goal of an information/service site is, logically enough, to provide information. The most common mistake consultants make is to talk about how wonderful/smart/brilliant they are. You can tell people that your are "a voracious speed reader of 4,600 words per minute," but so what? People come to your site for one reason: to solve a problem. They don't care if you're wonderful and they probably don't care about much of anything other than "Can you solve my problem now?" You've got to convince your visitors that you can solve their problems, so the information you provide should be about that, not about you.

Flanders: If you have to mouse over a graphic to discover whether or not it's a link and where the link will take you, then you have what I call Mystery Meat Navigation. It's a popular technique and is totally acceptable to use on music, band, movie, or game sites, for example, but totally inappropriate to use elsewhere--like General Tire. The best way to overcome it is to not use it. Unfortunately, clueless bosses and marketing weasels (I'm one so I can say it) love shiny things and we love this type of junk.

MCNews: How can non-technical people evaluate and select web designers so they don't end up with a web page that sucks?

Flanders: Ah, the $64 question. I hear a lot of horror stories about companies spending tons of money on web design and being unhappy with the results. The truth is, I try to avoid answering the question because it would look like I'm suggesting certain designers, and that would take away my objectivity. I can only criticize a site if I didn't design it or recommend the designer who did. Otherwise, people might think I'm just extorting money to fix their sites.

Flanders: The most common problem is bad navigation. It's becoming impossible to find anything on a site without a search engine! On consulting sites, the biggest problem is the MC mentioned earlier.

Flanders: The great web sites have nothing to do with commerce or information. National Geographic has a great site. There are lots of band sites that are great, but you can't use any of their techniques. My favorites are actually humor sites-- SatireWire, and The Onion.

Flanders: I think accessibility is going to be very important. For one thing, sites will need to provide access to the visually impaired.

I'm sure we'll see some horrible new design technique come along because that's how it's been in the past. I'd like to think that web design is going to get better, but as long as we have multiple browsers and designers who are interested in looks and not functionality, then we're doomed to more of the same.

Flanders: Actually, I'm so functional it's insane. I just bought a book on Making Music Videos with Adobe Premiere. Digital is really the future.

Meet the MasterMinds: Common Sense Web Design with Steve Krug

Steve Krug, the author of Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, is a highly respected usability consultant, and he has worked with companies like Apple, Netscape, AOL, BarnesandNoble.com, Excite@Home, and Circle.com. Krug's book is packed with practical techniques for developing a highly usable web site. Before you create or redesign your web site, make sure your designer has read Krug's book.

MCNews asked Krug to answer some questions about designing web sites that communicate effectively and are easy to use.

MCNews: What is it about web site design that led you to write your book on usability?

Krug: Two things, I guess: First, there's the fact that it's so darned hard to get it all right--to come up with a site that's really easy to use. There are so many pressures at work--ludicrous deadlines, flocks of stakeholders with conflicting interests, changing technology, etc., etc.--plus the fact that you're designing for users who themselves have very different objectives, cognitive styles, information-gathering strategies, background knowledge, attention spans, etc., etc.--that it's very hard to build a site that works flawlessly--or even well. So the people who are trying to get it all right really have my sympathy, and I feel like they deserve as much help as they can get.

And second, there's the feeling that so much of what I do is basically common sense--something that almost anybody should be able to do, to some extent. Of course, people like me who've been doing it for years and years will [probably] always be a little better at it and know more about it (I like the rule of thumb that it takes ten years to become an expert at anything), but I still feel that with some guidance people who are motivated to learn about it can get pretty far on their own.

And they have to. After all, even for companies that can afford to hire a consultant like me, I can't be there every day with everyone on the team as they make the thousands of large and small decisions that affect usability. So even if they hire me, I feel like most of my job is educating people to make the right calls on their own.

And most sites can't afford an expert at all, so a book can come in handy. (Personally, I know there are times when I absolutely need a plumber, and I'll pay [almost] any price for one, but a lot of times a good book on plumbing will see me through.)

MCNews: Can you explain Krug's first law of usability and how it should be applied?

Krug: The "law" itself is pretty simple: Don't make me think. I've used it for years with my clients, and it really means exactly what it says: Don't do things that force people to think unnecessarily when they're using your site. I find that most people are quite willing and able to think when it's necessary, but making them do it when there's nothing in it for them (other than compensating for your failure to sort things out properly) tends to be annoying--and worse, confusing.

When you watch a lot of people use web sites (which is what usability experts do), you realize that even minor things that are left unclear or ambiguous often lead users astray and keep them from succeeding at whatever they're trying to do on the site.

The best way to apply this "law" is by testing whatever you create, which is what the last third of my book is about: low cost, do-it-yourself (unless you can afford to have someone else do it for you) usability testing. The only way to tell whether what you've built forces people to think or not is to ask a few people to try using it, and have them tell you what they're thinking while they do (the so-called "think aloud protocol"). It's usually obvious right away whether you've succeeded or not, and what parts you need to improve if you haven't.

I tell people to look for the questions marks forming over their test users' heads. If you see one, the part of the page they're looking at probably needs to be clearer. You just test, tweak the design, then test again until the question marks are gone (or at least as many as you have time to get rid of).

MCNews: Are there two or three principles of site navigation that should be included in every site?

Krug: There are probably twenty important ones, but here are the first few that come to mind:

MCNews: You've written that the tag line and welcome blurb on the home page are great ways to communicate your message. What advice do you have to improve those parts of a home page?

Krug: The tag line should be next to your logo (or right below it) at the top of the page, and everybody should probably have one, not just big companies. Choose a tag line that actually says something about what you are ("The world's best source for ice axes"), not a meaningless aphorism ("Taking you ever higher…"). And if at all possible, find a tagline that tells me what differentiates you from everyone else--why I should be here instead of at some other site.

A welcome blurb should be short (shorter than you think, about 30 words maximum) and contain real content ("3,000 products," "200 locations worldwide," "24 hour hotline," "Free shipping"), not "motherhoody" mission statements ("Providing leadership and outstanding service in the world of cold weather climbing technology"). Start with your "elevator pitch," then boil it down even more. People are not going to read very much on your home page; they just want the gist in a short sentence or two. (If your message is complex, make it into a short list of bullet points.)

Of course, you may not even need a welcome blurb if your message/business proposition is simple and you can convey it clearly just by showing some examples of what you do or what you're selling.

MCNews: How can non-technical people select web designers who make sensible usability a key part of design?

Krug: If I were hiring, I guess I'd look at the sites they've done (hopefully comparable in some way to yours) and see if I can understand what the sites are for and find my way around them easily. You can't hold them responsible for all the sites' sins, though, since designers don't always have the final word.

Then I'd ask them to look at your current site (if you have one) and one of your competitors' sites, and give you a few thoughts about what works and doesn't work in the designs. The key point here is not so much what they're saying as whether or not what they say makes sense to you. It'll give you good clues about whether you're going to be able to communicate well with them.

Also, if they sound like they're more interested in creating a portfolio piece for themselves than something that serves your objectives--and your users' objectives--I'd keep looking. (Of course, personally, I'd also ask them if they'd read my book….)

MCNews: When you review a site, what is the most common problem you find?

Krug: Too much--of everything. Too many options, too many offers, too many words, too many things competing for my attention visually. (Which is not to say that the barrage approach can't work sometimes. It's just that it's usually not the best approach since it often leaves people struggling to figure out what's really important.)

But if you asked me tomorrow, I'd probably give you a different answer, since there are a lot of very common problems. (So many problems, so little time….)

MCNews: Any web sites come to mind that you think do a really good job with usability?

Krug: I feel like I should come up with a new answer for this every time someone asks me. But the truth is, it's still the same old usual suspects: Amazon, eBay, Google. I like BestBuy.com a lot, too, but I think I'm biased by the fact that I like their in-store experience so much. (They always seem to hire nice, smart people who understand that their real job is to help you solve your problem.)

The common thread with these sites is that they figure out something that people want, work hard to figure out how to present it clearly and effectively, and keep reinventing themselves as they learn from their experience. Of course, even these sites have usability flaws, which just shows how hard it is.

I wish more new outstanding ones were coming along all the time, but they're pretty rare. Again, it's just so hard to get it all right. You need a good idea, painstaking implementation, and the will to resist all the natural forces that conspire to make things overcomplicated and hard to use.

MCNews: Any resources or sites on usability that you think are particularly useful?

Krug: Well, besides my book, these days I like Hot Text by Jonathan and Lisa Price (about writing for the Web, which usually gets very little attention even though it's crucial--after all, how many Web sites can afford a writer?), and Homepage Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir--especially the 30 pages of guidelines, which are worth the price of the book by themselves. Jakob's various reports (nngroup.com) are very good, albeit a little pricey for people who have to pay for them themselves, but his Alertbox columns (useit.com) are free and always a great source of insights.

There's also Keith Instone's link collection Usable Web (usableweb.com), John Rhodes' usability blog Web Word (webword.com), the information architecture ezine Boxes and Arrows (boxesandarrows.com), the National Cancer Institute's collection of guidelines (usability.gov/guidelines) and--probably the least known, but one of my favorites--Usability News from the Software Usability Research Lab at Wichita State University. That should be enough to keep anyone busy for a while.

MCNews: Thanks for your insights.

Find out more about Steve Krug, his book and his services at www.sensible.com.

Philippa Gamse is a professional speaker and an ebusiness strategy consultant. She has written articles and been interviewed extensively on the use of technology in marketing, including on CNET News.com and for magazines such as Entrepreneur, Sales and Marketing Management and Small Business Computing. Gamse has also appeared on the radio shows Eye on the Internet and Small Business Advocate.

It's always a good time to take stock of what's working for your website, and what needs some attention. Here are my suggestions for a great tune-up. Take a fresh look at your site and your promotional strategy with these pointers:

Do you have different potential clients for different aspects of your services? Is there content on your site that's designed for each? Have you considered whether your web audience might differ from your traditional markets, and if so, whether you can address that difference?

Make it clear whether you focus on a particular niche, such as marketing or human resource consulting, for example. Highlight any specialist services that you provide, such as employee retention programs or customer satisfaction surveys.

Your site should be written from your visitors' point of view, not yours. Does your home page clearly recognize why the reader might be there--what's in it for them, and why they should care? What are the problems or issues that they might have, and how will you solve them?

"People buy emotionally, not intellectually." Many consultants' sites are very dry, written in highly academic and complex language. Write copy for your site that recognizes this; use some humor, and make visitors feel that you can be fun to work with, as well as professional and good at what you do.

Do you have clients for whom English is a second language? If so, include some content in their language (if you can speak it too!)

If you claim that your services achieve results, do you have clear content on your site that substantiates this? Do you provide case studies and testimonials from happy clients? Third-party endorsements are worth far more than your own promotional text, and they should be spread throughout your site, not relegated to a separate page that few people will visit.

Ask your happy clients for some great quotes about their experiences in working with you. Obviously, you'll need to respect any confidentiality issues, but for the most part, people love to see their names on your site. And, their words will really add credibility to your client service statements.

One of the most effective ways to get exposure is to publish articles and white papers around your area of expertise. Search engines will pick up the content on your site, and you can also offer articles to publications that your target markets read--always with a link back, or reference to your site, of course.

You can also assist your clients in their selection process with an article on how to choose a consultant in your field (assuming that you meet all the criteria that you recommend!)

Whatever the outcomes that you want from your site, you need to ask for it. Too many web pages end weakly, with no clear call to action. Don't make your visitors have to work to decide what to do next--they won't! Every page on your site should have a strategy: invite the visitor to interact with you, or go to the next page, but make it easy and obvious.

So, at the appropriate place in each page, include a link to your contact form that tells the reader to "call me to arrange an appointment", "sign up for our monthly newsletter," or whatever invitation may be relevant.

Don't depend on free search engines for traffic. Explore other ways of promoting your site, such as using your content and articles, advertising in e-zines, appending a signature file to your emails, regularly sending updates to your previous clients, and ensuring that your traditional marketing is integrated with your online activities.

Investing in a good contact management database, such as Outlook or ACT! can really pay off. If your potential clients are willing to give you their email addresses, you can record their birthdays, business anniversaries and other occasions, and send out greetings, regular news items, reminders and referral incentives to generate more business.

Last, but really key--your website traffic reports will tell you what's working and what isn't. Without this information, you're really shooting in the dark. What if you were to find that the majority of your hard-earned visitors never go beyond your home page?

Ask your web designer if you can get traffic reports, and find out what's popular on your site, as well as the places that your visitors rarely go. You may make some very valuable discoveries!

This isn't an exhaustive list, but it's a good start. I hope that your website passes the test!

www.webstyleguide.com - Provides online guidance for web site design, based on the book Web Style Guide by authors Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton.

www.useit.com - Web site usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, delivers tips, techniques and strategies for creating easy to use web sites.

usableweb.com - This site lists over a thousand links to sites focused on web usability.

www.planetpdf.com - Extensive resource guide to using the Adobe PDF format for publishing ebooks.

www.ebookcompilers.com - Marketplace and resource site for understanding the range of ebook publishing options.

http://createpdf.adobe.com - Create Adobe PDF files on a monthly subscription basis, rather than buying the software.

Publisher's note: MCNews is not sponsored by any of the organizations mentioned above.

Special Book Review: Impending Crisis, by Roger Herman, Joyce Gioia and Tom Olivo

Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People, by Roger E. Herman, Joyce Gioia and Tom Olivo

Roger E. Herman, CSP, CMC, FIMC, is a futurist who specializes in workforce issues. His books include, Keeping Good People and How to Become an Employer of Choice. He has a new book coming out this fall, and MCNews presents a sneak preview of it in this interview.

Herman: It's a labor shortage coming this decade that will make the tight labor market of the late 1990's look like a practice session. Most employers and human resource professionals are not aware of how severe the shortage will be, or that it will affect all areas of the country and every industry. Obviously, those that are more dependent on labor will be impacted the most, for example, retail, health care and transportation.

Herman: Three primary factors are converging to create the labor shortage: first, the economy is expanding, which creates more jobs; second is the nature of that growth; and, third is the drop in the birth rate.

Employers don't see this coming because they focus on the short term and don't look very far down the road. Most CEO's and other top executives are compensated based on short-term results like earnings and stock price, not long-term growth.

Also, people are so fixated on the fluctuations of the stock market they don't see that the economy is about to heat up again. We have been warning about this, but people say, oh, you are nuts.

Herman: No question. The fact is that consumer spending has never slowed down. In the near term, as more jobs become available, people will get absorbed from the unemployment ranks. Then, we will start to see a substantial amount of churning in the marketplace as people who have been cocooning say I am out of here--I don't like my boss, my co-workers are jerks, or I don't like the kind of work I have been doing, so I'm going on to something better. Employee retention programs will not be adequate to stem the flow.

Herman: We've already had a 15% drop from the Baby Boomers to Generation X'ers. Births increased during the Baby Boom Echo, but as the economy grows, more jobs will be created than we will have people to fill them. Numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that, if present trends continue, we could have ten million more jobs than people by the year 2010.

And, that just counts raw numbers of people. If you are an employer who needs people with particular skills, it will be even more difficult. So, if you want to attract those few people who will meet your needs, you will have to become what I describe as an employer of choice. Employers will have to invest a lot more in training and education to bring their people up to levels needed for the future, and will have to foster environments in which employees are more loyal than they are now.

Herman: Consultants should research this issue and let their clients know how this crisis could change the way they are doing business. Some businesses may even be looking at extinction. This is a wake up call, and consultants should figure out how their expertise can help clients weather the storm. Consultants can find helpful information at www.impendingcrisis.com.

One reason that consultants' marketing is less than successful is their lack of focus on the value they provide to clients. In the article below, Jill Konrath addresses this lack and suggests how consultants can remedy it.

The day after I sent out a newsletter announcing my new web site, I received an email from a subscriber that said, "You did a good piece of selling in the email. I read all the way to the bottom, and I had NO intention of doing so when I glanced at it. You must know your stuff!" While I enjoyed the compliment, what really surprised me was that it was from a professor in the Pharmacy Sciences Department of a Midwest university.

What in the world was a PhD doing reading a newsletter on selling? So, being the curious (or nosy) person that I am, I emailed back and asked him why. Turns out that he and a colleague were starting a consulting practice. When they told me about it, I was floored. They have one of the best "value propositions" I've heard in a long time! But before I tell you what it is, let me define what that term means.

A value proposition is a clear statement of the tangible results a client gets from using your products or services. The more specific your value proposition is, the better.

Most consultants have lousy value propositions. Most often they're simply descriptions of the consulting firm's capabilities. Here are a few examples of weak value propositions:

You're probably saying, "So what?" That's exactly what most clients think when they read a weak value proposition. You haven't shared what's in it for them -- and that's what clients care about.

With today's tight economy and overburdened decision makers, you need a strong value proposition to break through the clutter and get their attention. That means you need a financially oriented value proposition that speaks to critical issues they're facing. And, by including specific numbers or percentages you get the decision maker's attention even faster.

Now back to the two professors. In researching various pharmacy benefit managers (the companies behind your prescription drug card), they found that some firms are much better deals than others. One of their clients switched to a plan they recommended and saved $800,000 in the first 6 months without reducing services to their employees.

Now that's a REALLY STRONG value proposition. I can't imagine any Chief Financial Officer turning down an appointment with the two professors after hearing those figures.

Let me give you another example. A while back I was having lunch with the president of a $1/2 billion division of a major corporation. She told me that if a consultant called her and said he could reduce her waste by just 1%, she'd meet with him immediately.

Now a 1% savings seemed miniscule to me, so I asked her why. She told me that she knew exactly how much her company spent on waste--and it was a big chunk of change. Every penny she saved would go right to her bottom line as more profits.

Documented success stories make you believable to prospective clients. That's why the two professors have such a compelling value proposition.

Here's one last example about a marketing consultant who specializes in launching new products, specifically in creating tools that increase sales force effectiveness. After analyzing the outcomes he creates for clients, he now describes his work in these terms: "I help companies significantly shorten the time-to-profitability on new product introductions. A recent client not only had the most successful launch in the history of their company, but also reached profitability three months faster than ever before."

So how does your value proposition look? Can you describe what you do in terms of tangible business results? Do you have documented success stories?

Or do you need to do some work to enhance your value proposition? If it's not strong enough yet, don't despair. Most consultants have a much stronger one than they use. They just get caught up describing "what" they do or "how" they work with clients.

Here are two simple things you can do right now to enhance your value proposition:

1. Brainstorm with Colleagues
Review your marketing material and what you say to clients to try to get their attention. If you're not talking tangible results, keep asking each other "So what?" questions like:

By asking such questions over and over again, you get much closer to the real value you bring clients.

2. Talk to Your Clients
Your existing clients are your best resource to find out what value you bring. Tell your client you need help understanding the real value of your services and that you'd like a chance to learn their perspective.

Most people are scared to ask their clients about this. It took me awhile before I was willing to risk this, but what I learned was a real eye-opener. Not only did it change my value proposition, but it also changed my offerings and self-perception.

Don't let another day go by with a weak value proposition. A strong one literally opens the doors of major corporations for you, while a weak one keeps you on the outside.

Jill Konrath is founder of SellingtoBigCompanies.com, a web resource that helps small businesses win big contracts in the corporate market. As a sales consultant, she's been successfully selling her services to large corporate accounts for over 15 years. To learn more about her services, visit Konrath's web site at http://www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com.

A creative marketing tool that deserves serious attention by consultants is ebooks. What is an ebook? It's an electronic book in a PDF or Word file. Most ebooks are "how-to" or "tips" guides. You don't need a New York publisher's permission or expensive software to publish an ebook. Many tools are now available that provide everything you need to publish, distribute and protect this expression of your intellectual capital.

Consider this: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) completed an extensive study of the ebook market last year, and concluded that ebooks represent a significant opportunity. According to AAP forecasts, by 2005, ebooks are expected to account for almost ten percent of the total consumer publishing market. That represents an estimated incremental retail sales opportunity of $1.6 billion.

As you look for new ways to bring value to your clients, an ebook is a natural alternative. After all, you DO have the expertise. Why not use that expertise to take advantage of the ebook phenomena and create a new product line?

As a management consultant, there are many ways to take advantage of ebooks, for example:

The examples above are just a starting point. Think about your expertise and the needs of your clients, and find ways to generate win-win scenarios to leverage the power of ebooks for mutual benefit.

A number of formats exist for publishing ebooks, but you don't have to focus on just one. In fact, after numerous interviews with industry leaders and considerable research and evaluation, my advice is that you offer your material on all three of the major platforms for online publishing, including:

Microsoft Reader - Claims a market of six million potential readers, including four million Pocket PC ebook-enabled devices and two million downloads of MS Reader for desktop/laptop computers. http://www.microsoft.com/reader/default.asp

Palm Digital Media (PDM) - This subsidiary of Palm, Inc. says it is the largest seller of ebooks. PDM, whose ebook reader is bundled with every Palm device, of which there are reportedly twenty million, offers 4,000 ebook titles that can be bought only through its web site. PDM estimates that 100,000 customers buy at least five times a year from the site. http://www.peanutpress.com/makebook/index.cgi

Adobe PDF - Reports over three million Acrobat eBook Readers downloaded and over thirty million Acrobat Readers downloaded.
Acrobat eBook Reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/ebookreader/main.html
Acrobat Reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/

To learn more about each of these ebook tools, visit their web sites via the links included above.

Now, what should you do with your ebooks and special reports? This is the fun part. Let your imagination run wild. Here are some ideas:

Sell your special report or ebook for a fraction of what your actual consulting service would cost, but at a high enough price to create a meaningful revenue stream. Let's say, for example, that you charge $225 per hour for your consulting services. Why not have your ebook on your web site ready to sell for a one-time price of $225?

When potential clients buy and read it they will recognize your clear expertise, and seek your advice. With even a small sales volume, you'll generate paid publicity for your practice.

Prospective clients will appreciate a "try before they buy" option to make sure you know your stuff. At $225 for your downloadable ebook, what easier way can they find out? I often find that my ebooks do the work of generating NEW business without any selling.

So, let ebooks add to your credibility. Everyone knows it takes courage to put your opinions and ideas out there for the world to see. You are already an expert, and now you will be an author as well.

Today more than ever, consultants and their clients are looking for ways to grow revenue and cut costs. You have the ability to help your clients do that. But, if you're not already in the water, you're missing the ebook wave.

Skip Pratt is the founder of Knowledge Download, an online ebook publishing service. He is an entrepreneur, consultant, author and former Vice President of Electronic Commerce for a F500 company. Visit his web site at http://www.knowledge-download.com, or write to him at: skip@knowledge-download.com.

September 1 was Emma Nutt Day. Ms. Nutt, the first woman telephone operator, began her professional career in Boston on September 1, 1878. She worked as a telephone operator for thirty-three years. Think she got tired of saying, "Operator, may I help you?"

International Coastal Cleanup day is Saturday, September 21. Nearly a million volunteers from around the globe will participate in the seventeenth annual cleanup of coastlines, rivers and lakes. Ocean Conservancy sponsors the cleanup.

United Nations International Day of Peace is September 21. In 1981, the U.N. General Assembly declared that the opening day of its regular session in September "shall be officially dedicated and observed as the International Day of Peace and shall be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples." In 2001, the Assembly decided that, beginning in 2002, the International Day of Peace would be observed on September 21st each year, with this date to be brought to the attention of all people for the celebration and observance of peace. It declared that the Day would henceforth be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities throughout the Day.

September 25, 1690, the first American newspaper was published. Benjamin Harris published the first (and only) edition of Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick in Boston. Authorities found the newspaper offensive and ordered its immediate suppression. It took fourteen years for another American newspaper to appear.

In October, MCNews will have two special guests as we focus on delivering client results: Robert Schaffer, author of the landmark book, High Impact Consulting, will join us to discuss why conventional consulting approaches often undermine engagement success, and what we can do about it. We'll also catch up with Mick Cope, veteran consultant and author of the book, The Seven Cs of Consulting. Cope will describe the tools you must have to guarantee the successful delivery of any consulting project. Don't miss these in-depth interviews.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill

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