Free Books: Easier Access to Downloads

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Will Edwards

Over the years, I have tried many things to improve our results at the White Dove Books site. If you are familiar with the Deming Cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act) for continuous improvement, you will know that the checking and acting (tweaking) never stops.

Occasionally, I make a decision to reverse a tweak because it just has not produced the anticipated results. But that is one thing I believe I have got right i.e. I allow my results (measurements) to be the judge of whether or not a particular tactic is effective. So, today, I decided it was time to end the requirement to do a Like, Tweet or +1 before allowing visitors to download our free books.

In principle, the idea sounded good and, there is no question about it, it did cause our site to get a lot of social mentions over the period we tested the idea. But really, social mentions are not the end game and I realised that the number of visitors to our site simply had not increased over the period of the test.

In addition, as ridiculous as this may seem, the practice meant that we had to respond to people who could not figure out how to access the downloads, despite the fact that we made a video showing how to do it and we put it in our FAQ page. There is a link to the FAQ page from the contact form, suggesting you might look there first. But, of course, a lot of people don’t and all of that was just a lot of unnecessary hassle.

So today, I decided to dump the idea. You can now access all of our free books directly from each of the download pages and you can view them on screen or you can choose to download them. The text under the download links now simply asks people to give a social mention if they enjoy the book and actually, I feel a lot better about the arrangement.

In addition, I have removed the ‘Pay-with-a-Tweet’ requirement from our WordPress plugin, so again the download links access the books directly. Oh yes, while we are on the subject, I also removed the requirement to sign-up in order to access the books. By the way, if you have a WordPress blog, you really should be using our plugin.

We have a new version of the plugin almost ready. It will add the LoyaltePays facility to the existing plugin and that means it is going to be very exciting indeed. So do watch out for a further announcement on this matter in a few days time.

EDIT: Version 2.0 of the pluin, supporting LoyaltePays is now released!

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Abide With Me

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Will Edwards

Fergie has finally retired and David Moyes has been appointed as his successor at Manchester United. Before I comment on David, I should say that I think Sir Alex has been an incredible manager. It may be hard for many to remember the state that Manchester United were in before he took over. In fact, many United fans are actually too young to remember; he has been in charge for so long – 27 years at the top.

Sir Alex Ferguson is officially the most successful manager in British footballing history, winning 2 Champions League Titles, 13 Premier League titles, 5 F.A. Cups, 4 League Cups, and a whole host of other competitions; a total of almost 40 separate trophies with Manchester United. The word ‘legend’ is overused when commenting on the careers of people in the public eye, but surely, the achievements of Sir Alex warrant the accolade.

As many of my regular readers will know, I am a lifelong Everton fan and it is with some regret that we must say goodbye to David Moyes – a man who has won no trophies at Everton, but a man who is, nevertheless, a worthy successor to the old man.

David is dearly loved and respected, both by fans and players alike. His achievements at Everton rank him in the top echelons of football management. Working with limited resource, he has steadily built a quality side that is capable of competing at the highest level. I know that every Everton fan will join me in wishing him all the best for the future. He has earned the opportunity to show the world what he is capable of achieving with better resources and, next year, we hope he wins all of his games, except two.

That brings me to the F.A. Cup Final which was contested yesterday between Wigan Athletic and Manchester City. My heartfelt congratulations go to Wigan, who were absolutely superb, winning the game 1-0 to bring the cup to Wigan. The game was illuminated by an outstanding display from the ex-Everton youngster, Callum McMannaman who has a very bright future ahead of him I’m sure.

As it happens, I missed the singing of Abide With Me – my absolute favourite hymn. When I was a kid, it was often played at funeral services. It always struck me as a poor choice for such occasions because, despite those beautiful words, I always wondered how anyone could bear to sing it under the circumstances. I far prefer to hear it sung at Wembley, and it still brings a tear to my eye every time.

The above video shows London Community Gospel Choir singing Abide With Me at the 2009 F.A. Cup Final between Chelsea and Everton – the last time we got to Wembley. I chose it for two reasons: the obvious one (being an Everton fan) and also because yesterday, Frank Lampard of Chelsea broke the club record for the most goals ever scored by a player, previously held by Bobby Tambling. Frank is a truly great player and I cannot think why Chelsea were ever considering releasing him at the end of the season though, as we all know, the club owner has a mind that is completely inscrutable at times.

What a week!

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The Seeds of Greatness

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Will Edwards

As I drove back home from one of my workshops yesterday, I was listening to some Member of Parliament talking about the Conservative Party’s policies. Yes – I know – dull as ditch water. But there was one phrase that stuck out to me, the MP said that David Cameron would be able to “demonstrate his greatness” by organising a referendum.

“Well,” I thought to myself, “are we referring to the same David Cameron (UK Prime Minister) here?” And, of course, we were, so I realised that the MP and I must have a completely different notion as to what the word ‘greatness’ means.

But what I wanted to discuss today is the idea that we all have the ability to become great. Of course, it is true that we will not all become great; that probably includes David Cameron. But I do genuinely believe that we all have the seeds of greatness within us. Let me explain why I believe this to be so.

There was an item on the UK news some years back concerning a man who became an accomplished artist after suffering a stroke. The stroke somehow had the effect of ‘rewiring’ his brain and, as a result, he is now a completely different person. Somehow, this one example has stayed with me, though it is, by no means, an isolated case.

As I looked into the issue of how we can be changed as the result of experiences such as stroke, I realised that we all have the seeds of greatness within – that is also something that Tommy McHugh effectively says in the above video.

For me, the evidence is convincing. The ability to be a completely different person with access to a completely different set of talents and capabilities lies dormant within each of us. You can be an artist, a musician, a dancer, a mathematician and not only can you be any of those people, you can be truly great!

My suggestion is that you do have the raw ability though, of course, you may not have access to it. As Tommy says in the video, in years to come, perhaps they will invent a cap that you would put on your head and it would be able to activate those parts of your bran that have the ability to make you into whatever you want to be.

For the time being, whilst we do not have access to that kind of technology, I wonder how our brains become wired to make us into the people we, presently, are. If we could understand that, then perhaps we might also be able to understand how to change that wiring and activate our own potential for greatness. I feel this is an area I would like to research further and perhaps I might write about, more extensively in the future.

For now, I just want to leave you with the thought that “you are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are!”

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