When it comes to books nowadays, you’ll hear many terms thrown around pretty regularly:

Ebook, PDF, Kindle, Nook, ePub, .mobi…the list goes on. We don’t blame you for being confused…it’s confusing.

Don’t fret, we’re here to make some sense of this stuff for you.

Luckily, despite the confusing terms, dot-whatever file types and cute device names, there are really only three different electronic book formats we need to worry about. Let’s look at each of these.

But first, we best play Socrates and clarify our language and terms a bit.

Standard Electronic Book Definitions

Ebook: Generically, ebook just means “electronic book.” That means it’s read on a computer …

Welcome to the new Charfish Design…uh…design!

A bit about the new design, what prompted it and what’s coming up:

First off, the new design was built to be fast. Google is up to new things as usual, one of which is determining search rankings based on site speed. The old site was a bit more graphic-intense and wasn’t quite as fast as it should be.

Of course, hosting makes a difference in that as well, and we’re currently looking into new hosting solutions as well. But for now, the site, code and images herein should be fast enough for even the stingiest of search algorithms.

More fun than a kiddie pool full of colored balls, minus the urine.

More important …

Question: When it comes to putting out your own ebook, is a standard Word template good enough?

Answer: Hahahahahahaha!

We are continuing today with the series on ebook design. This time we’re going to discuss the bare-minimum quality that ANY ebook should have. By bare-minimum we mean an ebook that at first appearance won’t make your audience laugh or feel they’ve been ripped off.

This post is based in part on an email I received and which got me thinking. Basically, the email said:

“Look, I really just need a cover. The inside doesn’t need to be anything special because it’s going to be a freebie anyway. People won’t be expecting much.”

Mmm…no.

First off, if your friend gave …

Is your website a noxious visual miasma? A hideous concoction of strident hues? A vomitous amalgamation of eye-related wretchedness? Well, this post may be for you.

You know how when you walk into Baskin Robbins, you see all those ice cream colors? And there’s that smell in the air? That sweet waffle cone smell that makes you feel like your nostrils just got a cavity? That shouldn’t be your website.

And with that, I welcome you to Part 3 of our “10 Ways to Make Your Website Look Better” series.

Today, we’re going to talk about color.

An introduction, and why I’m even bothering

I think it’s safe to say that MOST of us don’t use hideous color …

Let me tell you a story…

At the end of 2007 I gave away a free ebook to my customers over at IgniteLiving.com, another site of mine. At the time, the site was only a couple months old and had exactly 17 RSS subscribers.

My plan was to offer a great ebook that would attract some visitors and possibly some business. So, I wrote the book and designed the hell out of it. I gave it a slick cover, nice fonts and typography, a cool color scheme and made it available for free download.

When the post went live, a whole lot of nothing happened. Which is sort of what you’d expect of a …