There I’ve said it.

No point in beating about the bush. This is a great product.

It may have its imperfections, of course — which one of us hasn’t — but as a piece of monumentally complex software, it surely stands supreme.

I know of all the complaints that portmanteau products like Microsoft Office are much too big, too complex, and contain hundreds of features that most people don’t need and never will use. But that’s the nature of the beast. Just try using Google Documents and Spreadsheets for anything other than simple projects. And you need to be online to use them.

I’ve had Office 2007 for a couple of months now, and while I haven’t yet got round to trying out every program bundled in there, I have to say I’m very impressed. I came to it directly from Office 2000, so missed the intermediate experience of the 2003 version.

At first, the so-called Ribbon feature was a bit baffling, like all supposedly intuitive controls are. But once I found my way around the different groupings of features and learned what all the icons stood for, I began to revel in its clean simplicity and ease of use — I’m usually wary of geeks being “intuitive”, because more often than not, they’re not.

However, Office 2007 is a triumph of design and utility (my favourite word). Nowadays, we expect software to be over-engineered simply to get ahead of the competition. And, yes, it is. Features aren’t everything, naturally, although in today’s world of cheap memory, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have them, especially in a productivity suite that is expected to meet all criteria in a fully-functioning business environment.

I believe Word 2007 to be the best word processor around now, and Excel 2007 to be irreplaceable. Smaller features stand out too. Like most folk I don’t need the massive clout — and expense — of Adobe’s Photoshop for my image handling. But I do want something better than the cheaper programs out there. One surprise in Office 2007 is the Microsoft Office Picture Handler which comes bundled in with the suite. It really is a doddle to use and has all the functionality I need (in combination with my non-Microsoft DTP program), without the heart-stopping overload of some other applications.

So, well done Microsoft. It’s not often you hear that, is it?

My print publishing business, Dial Publishing, is currently in exploratory talks to buy a small, but established print publisher of nonfiction books. This is still at the confidential, due diligence stage, so no names or pack drill.

If the buy comes off it will bring a solid backlist of steady sellers to Dial’s inventory, plus a fund of experience and connections impossible to create overnight. Dial Publishing is a totally separate business from Syntagma Digital Limited, which is our digital publishing company.

These events have ballooned out over the Easter period and have led me to reflect on the essential differences between print and digital publishing. With 20 years of print experience and two years of digital publishing behind me, I’m only now beginning to see the wood from the trees.

Let’s state from the outset that we’re talking profitable projects here, not worthwhile artistic efforts which gain critical acclaim but lose money — they are more in the province of personal blogs. In the commercial sphere, it’s the money that determines the outcome in both cases, as always.

Digital and print publishing are surprisingly complementary over a range of possible output. Speaking very generally, the money in digital publishing is in :

Bite-sized reports on events and products that command large-scale interest.

Most essay-type sites don’t make any money at all. The way still to earn income publishing online (not social networking) remains in a few mega-niches : finance, automotive, gadgets, gossip and miscellaneous products and services. Looking across Syntagma’s 50-60 sites the ones with large numbers of text link ads stand out a mile. That’s a very good test of financial viability. All our projects going forward focus on these areas.

The gold in nonfiction print publishing comes from :

Lengthy exposition and detailed information on essential topics and useful techniques.

Most writers find one of these branches easier to accomplish than the other. Just a few may be good at both.

So, in terms of cash and results, there are two discrete environments — print and digital publishing — to work with. Both are capable of bringing results, but the need to consolidate and move on is ever present, especially online.

Other Considerations
To succeed in digital publishing you need to play the market and its highly volatile readership with a certain degree of cunning. Traffic is driven by keywords and buzz — what we used to call “word of mouth”, but now in a different context. To win online you have to get down and dirty with search engine optimization and a measure of gaming of the system. Google benefits too, so there’s real scope for the dark arts here.

Some people don’t really like that aspect of digital publishing — I confess to being a bit chary of it myself. However, to win a war you have to kill people. There’s no other way.

Print publishing is much more congenial to anyone with scruples, although the scope for shenanigans is increasing by the day, especially as the number of titles being published grows beyond the public’s capacity — and wish — to purchase. Content and reputation count above all in today’s busy marketplace.

Complementarity
If you indulge in both arms of publishing, what are the cross-fertilizations you can call up to improve both businesses?

There are many, but in brief :

* You can sell books online and use websites for publicity.
* Books can contain a list of web addresses to get a new audience logging on.
* Multiple cross-references can drive traffic both ways.
* Websites can provide an introduction, while a book develops the whole picture.
* Books can refer readers to websites for more up-to-date information.

These are real benefits and, used smartly, can make a great deal of difference to success on- and offline.

The convergence of digital and print publishing is therefore more of a complementarity than a merging. That the same people are now often doing both is a sign that a mature marketplace is developing which successfully crosses the seemingly large ravine between the two outlets for publishing.

Which, though, potentially yields the bigger return on investment?

That will have to be left to another post, so stay close.

Over on our newest webtitle, Small Business Booster, we are beginning a new series on business startups — all the advice you’ll need before taking this massive step, plus tips and shortcuts for when you get going.

Many people dream of fleeing the rat race and starting up on their own. Thoughts of freedom — being one’s own boss — and all that lovely money to be made, waft across the mental screens of most of us at some time or another.

But have you got what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Do you have the grit and stamina to see it through? Above all, do you have the right talents and personal qualities to succeed where many others fail?

At the outset, before the business has any assets, only one object exists : YOU.

Start the startup series now.

I’m off on a short, sorely needed spring break while things are quiet here and the weather good.

I’ll be spending a few days at the southernmost tip of the British Isles. Clue : it’s in Cornwall. Apart from gazing soulfully at the sea, I’ll be trying to get some traction on my two book projects. Hardly a holiday then.

I’m leaving a few timestamped posts sprinkled around the sites I write. If you’re looking for something to read here, click on “Syntagma’s Top Posts” under Archives in the sidebar.

See you on Monday.

When I write about blogging or blog networks on this site, it puts around 700 uniques onto the day’s stats. It also draws some interesting people into the comments section. Why should I not do it?

Despite those facts, there’s a lot of rumbling around the flogosphere [the commercial blogsphere] about the saturation of blogging as a topic. [Here and here] My own belief is that metablogging peaked as a useful activity around a year ago and continues largely as an echo chamber effect within the space. So what’s going on here?

Do you really want to read more about bloggers who blog about blogs now? Is another article about making money online going to contribute to your income? Is a further attack on b5media by the 9rules leadership, going to contribute to the stock of human kindness?

I don’t need to answer those questions. The fact is, subjects get stale with use and time. What was fresh and bubbly in 2005 is flat and fetid in 2007.

The real question is what can you write about that will hit the spot now?

The answer is : … given at the end of the post.

The usual way of framing this query is by asking, “What’s the next big thing?”

The NBT is supposed to be “social media”, something that promotes democracy to the point of anarchy and generates a lot of traffic of the type that just wants to be part of the crowd. What do you get when you invite scores of sheep to a party? A lot of baaaing noises.

So let’s leave social media to the teenyboppers and wearers of white socks. Ken Marlin, a technology investment banker in New York says : “The world is filled with companies that waited too long to sell and missed their window of opportunity. We think this land grab on the Internet probably will only last another year or two.”

There’s an old adage in marketing that when all the people who would buy your product have bought it, the only thing to do is to expand the usage of it. I once created the British campaign for Telex, which was then in every office in the land. My slogan was, “Please confirm by Telex”, and it was designed to educate people in new uses for that wretched old piece of kit.

My teenage niece once told me that she wore Lancome perfume in bed “just for herself”. I recognized instantly the work of a crafty copywriter trying to get people to make more use of a saturated product.

Does it work? For a while, yes, until the even craftier consumer catches on that they’re being manipulated. Eventually you have to admit defeat, or, more likely, you’re superceded by something new and shiny.

Let’s be clear, what we’re talking about here are ways of getting eyeballs to content to drive CPM and CPC advertising. That requires :

* Constant refreshment of the material.
* Knowing what’s going on.
* Writing for a much wider readership than your peer group.
* Improving the content platform to encourage people to stay.
* Targeting usability as a prime reason for writing.
* Keeping the commercial side below readers’ threshold of tolerance.

There are probably many more bullet points for that list, but you get the message.

The other reason is to develop credibility as an author on a topic. Again, a well covered subject.

When I started out writing for the print world, there were hundreds of books, magazines, groups, circles etc. specializing in advising the novice how to succeed — it wasn’t called metawriting in those days. The fact that very few of the advisers had ever succeeded themselves very much, told you all you needed to know about the trade. Blogging about blogging has reached that point now and needs to reconsider its gameplan.

So what’s the answer to the question posed at the beginning of this post?

It’s a fallacy that there’s only one right way forward because there’s only one way back. At any moment going forward there are multitudes of choices available to you. However, the vast majority of them will be beyond you for one reason or another. Some will be dead ends. A few will have promise but are impractical. Around a dozen will be crying out for development.

The danger is you’ll be overwhelmed by the huge number of possiblities and turn back to the comfort zone of the crowd. Your face will set into a rictus and you’ll hear a familiar baaaaing sound bleating out of it. You’ll feel safe.

One thing’s certain though : being a pathfinder and failing is better than following the rest. For the pathfinder who fails gains precious knowledge of fields not previously ploughed. New stacks of possibilities will open up, a step-change in advance of those set before the crowd.

Always push the envelope. Test the future before it tests you.