The Financial Crisis

I've been following the developing economic crisis over the past few years with great interest. For me it was easy to see that the United States would end up in a full-blown economic crisis.

We've gone from a nation envied across the world for it's industrious and well-intentioned people to a nation widely regarded as belligerent, greedy and unbalanced.

Meanwhile, I've listened to countless US citizens deride the "socialism" in Europe.

Well....I'm pretty sure the multi-trillion dollar bailout that just occured in the United States today makes us the largest government owned economic system in the world.

How about that?

I think this is maybe what happens when you walk around telling everyone how great you are, put a priority on "lookin' good" and making sure everyone knows "you're worth it"...instead of going out there with a chip on your shoulder and proving it.

When we purchased CRead, we knew this was coming. We knew that capital would be increasingly scarce. We knew that many large companies would fail. We knew that the world would likely slide into a depression-like environment.

However, my hope was that folks in the United States would start focusing on the important things in life (relationships, trust, education) and put away the absurd focus on appearances.

I also assumed folks would start wanting to read more. Maybe realize that the television media doesn't add value. Maybe realize that true learning requires the commitment to dive well beyond the headlines.

My thought was maybe CyberRead can help them and help me earn an honest living.

Well....we'll see. Hope I'm not disappointed.

Readius

If you are not aware of the device that Readius is about to release, you owe it to yourself to check out the next-gen device.

It's one of the reasons we purchased CyberRead a while back. It fits in the palm of your hand and then can expand the size of the reading screen through some sort of e-ink "scroll".

It's pretty cool.

Caching System

For anyone using the cyberread.com retail site and following this blog, it is NOT your imagination that the site is running slow. However, the team informs me that the page caching system will be in place this week....which should dramatically improve performance.

We'll also have some other enhancements in place soon to make the site run super fast. Thanks for your patience!

The peeps at Zurb

We hired a firm named Zurb to help re-conceptualize the CyberRead user flow, design and optimization of the site. I think they did a great job with the product pages, home page and category pages.

We've received many comments that the site is very clean and easy to use. Any performance issues you may have encountered are not their fault.

My only wish is that I had more $$ to spend with them to fix the rest of the site. But that day is coming.

If anyone has any comments on the new site, would love to hear from you. We know it's not perfect but any comments you make might help me prioritize.

Book Review Software

One of the great things we did with the re-launch is add ebook customer review software. We think over time this will prove to be something that our customers love and a great asset to the site.

Obviously, we need to "kickstart" the reviews on the site.

So for a limited time, we are offering a 75% off code (that can be used to purchase anything on the CyberRead site) to anyone who completes a review on our site. There are no limits to the number of reviews you can post...and thus no limits to the number of 75% off codes you can gather.

However, we must accept the review for you to receive the code. (obviously) You also need to register as a "verified reviewer" and give us your email address. (so we can email you the code)

It's a ridiculous offer that is going to cost me $$$....but I think it's worth it for now.

Here's the press release on our review software partnership.

The future of e-newspapers

Newsweek has an article out regarding the future of e-newspapers.

I think the question is one of format & capabilities. E-zine providers such as Pressmart provide advanced interfaces and capabilities without losing the "feel" of a mazazine. It's a very media-rich experience...and you can "localize" it. (no web connection needed)

However, most folks are getting used to the very basic layout and capabilities of the humble web browser.

Maybe it's going to come down to the device. If everyone starts buying devices and demands a rich interface before standard web protocols/tools can provide such interface, then it could be a huge market.

Jury's out on this one in my opinion.

We have re-launched!

It's been a longer road than hoped, but CyberRead.com has re-launched.

Go take a look: www.cyberread.com

For anyone who stumbles across this blog by acccident, CyberRead is an ebooks retailer and publisher that has been around since 1999.

We purchased the company from Marilyn Jenkins, the founder, last year and have been working on investing into the site to make it easier to use, added over 50,000 books and counting and outstanding customer support.

The site still is not perfect...our search engine could use some work. But it's much easier to use!

Here's the press release.