Poor Man's Guide to Publishing

NORDIC MULTIMEDIA ACADEMY
1 The Poor Man’s Guide to Publishing

The Poor Man’s Guide to
Publishing
4th Semester Multimedia Design Project
Guðmundur Sigurfreyr

2010

Nordic Multimedia Academy | > 1
TEACHERS: ANNI GRØNDAL, LARS HAAHR & TRINE FALBEN LARSEN


CONTENTS

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................4
Background of the problem ................................................................................................................................ 4
Problem definition.................................................................................................................................................. 5
Report outline........................................................................................................................................................... 5
Methods and Models Used ....................................................................................................................................... 6
Scrum Development Method.............................................................................................................................. 6
Models Used .............................................................................................................................................................. 8
Analysis of the outgoing Website .......................................................................................................................... 9
Communication Strategy ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Jan Krag Jacobsen’s 24 Questions ................................................................................................................. 12
Defining the User Group.................................................................................................................................... 15
Analysis of Available Solutions ........................................................................................................................... 17
WordPress: The Medium Used ....................................................................................................................... 18
E-commerce Plugin ............................................................................................................................................. 19
Emailing List and Campaign ............................................................................................................................ 20
Print by Demand Services ................................................................................................................................ 22
Social Media Marketing ..................................................................................................................................... 24
Payment Gateway ................................................................................................................................................ 27
Implementation of solutions chosen ................................................................................................................ 28
Web 2.0 Design ..................................................................................................................................................... 28
The Eyetrack research Findings .................................................................................................................... 29
Logos ......................................................................................................................................................................... 32
User Design and Usability Testing ................................................................................................................ 33
Persuasive Design ................................................................................................................................................ 34
Favicon and Gravatar ......................................................................................................................................... 35
Nostradamus Forum ........................................................................................................................................... 36
Search Engine Optimazation ........................................................................................................................... 37
Permalinks ......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Optimize your Titles for SEO ...................................................................................................................... 38
Install Google XML Sitemap Generator .................................................................................................. 38
Noindex, follow archive pages ................................................................................................................... 39
How to Speed up WordPress ...................................................................................................................... 39
Plugins, Widgets and Shortcodes .................................................................................................................. 41
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................... 41
References ................................................................................................................................................................... 42



Books......................................................................................................................................................................... 42
Internet .................................................................................................................................................................... 42
Appendix ...................................................................................................................................................................... 44
1.Here are adds I did in the style.css file .................................................................................................... 44
2. Example of Shortcodes Used ...................................................................................................................... 49
3.Example of Customization done with Login to Nostradamus Forum. ........................................ 53
4.Infographics on Online User Groups ........................................................................................................ 54



MULTIMEDIA PRODUCT
http://www.nostradamus.is

INTRODUCTION

I have chosen a redesign of Samulesbok.com (http://www.samuelsbok.com), an
Icelandic e-commerce website of ÞJM Publishing as my exam project task. The website
is meant to sell the book Spádómar Nosradamusar: Hvað bíður okkar? (The Prophecies
of Nostradamus: What awaits us?) online. This book happens to be written by myself,
but I had nothing to do with the design of the website itself.

My publisher told me simply that he wanted to see if it would be possible to sell the
book solely online, without distributing it in any other way, and without advertising it
in the mainstream media. This would save his company a lot of money and also keep
the prize of the book down. The book in question is a 240 pages paperback, full color
cover, with 74 black and white photos.

BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM

The website Samulesbok.com was launced formally in April 2010,
same day as the book was ready from the printer. Same week a
Facebook Fanpage was opened. It introduced the book in a few
words and announced that a free copy would be given each day for
one week to two lucky members of the Fanpage. All they had to do
was to send out an invitation to all their Facebook friends, and then
write ”receipt” in the status line of the Fanpage. By doing this their
names would be put in a pot and might be the ones that were drawn out to win the
free copy.

I can´t say if this neat little marketing tactic did the trick, or if people were generally
sympathetic to the product, but within few days thousands of people had become
members of the Fanpage. As of today the Nostradamus: What awaits us? Fanpage has
5.701 members. The problem however is that this has not helped much in selling the

Nordic Multimedia Academy | Introduction 4


book online. Samulesbok.com website is not getting much traffic, and the sales have
been poor.

This surprised the publisher, not only because of the thousands that joined the
Fanpage, but also because three previous books by the same author, about the same
subject, became all bestsellers, in 1987, 1990 and 1996. It is estimated that they sold
in 12.000 copies in a country that had, at that time, a population of only 280.000
people. That would be equivalent to 12.000.000 copies being sold in the United States,
who had at the same time a population of 280.000.000 people.

The first book sold out in only three days, and it had to be reprinted several times. All
these older editions (that the new book is a shorter and updated compilation of) have
long since been unavailable. Since then a new generation of readers have come forth,
and one would think, with the crises the country has been going through, that people
would be interested in a book that covers predictions about the future.

I was however not in the least surprised. After seeing the website Samulesbok.com I
suspected this would happen, even though I hoped my predictions would not come
true. More on the reasons for this later.

PROBLEM DEFINITION

After consulting with my publisher I came up with a problem definition. Since there
was basically no money available to do any advertising, or even distributing it to
bookshops around the country, this would be the poor man’s guide to publishing. In
the literal sense of the word. So the basic question is. How do we create an online
multimedia production that: 1) Sells the book in a fast and relatively easy way, 2)
Encourages involvement from it’s readers, and 3) Is inexpensive to implement and
easy to update.

REPORT OUTLINE

The rest of the report will be structured as follows: 1. Methods and models used, 2.
Analysis of the outgoing website, 3. Communication strategy, 4. Analysis of available

Nordic Multimedia Academy | Introduction 5


solutions, 5. Implementation of solutions adopted, 6. Conclusions, 7. Reference, 8.
Appendix.

METHODS AND MODELS USED

In my previous projects I have always used Core Process workflow in order to give
my work necessary structure. 1 I combined it in to a project time plan with
descriptions of activities and milestones. Even though I found the Core Process
extremely helpful as a roadmap or a guide in web developing I was repeatedly
frustrated by the fact that in no instance could I follow or keep to the time plan. There
was always something I hadn´t had time to finish, or even worse, forgot to mention in
my report, or document it’s development, even though I had managed to finish it.

SCRUM DEVELOPMENT METHOD

Last summer I was privileged to be invited to a Scrum Master
Certificate Course in Copenhagen. It didn´t take long in to the course
for me to realize that Scrum would be a great tool in my
development work. 2 I was actually quite surprised that it hadn´t
already become a standard procedure in web development. Our
teacher pointed out that it had originated in Japan in the 90’s as a
software production model, and has since been widely used in different parts of the
world as a product and project management system.

During my course I could see that by combining Scrum with Core Process I would have
the perfect workflow tool I was looking for. The Core Process would work as a general
guideline, a reference on how the development or the workflow should proceed,
while the Scrum would be like the engine of the project, modus operandi or method of
operating, that would ensure that the project moved in the right direction according
to time plan.

1 Core Process Workflow was developed as a framwork for redesigning websites. It is devided in to five distinct
phases: 1) Define the Project, 2) Develop Site Structure, 3) Design Visual Interface, 4) Build and Integrate, 5)
Launch and Beyond. See GOTO, Kelly and Emily COTLER. 2005. Web Redesign. New Riders Publishing.
2 See Scrum (development), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28development%29 and

http://www.scrummaster.dk.
Nordic Multimedia Academy | Methods and Models Used 6


Here I will not expound in detail what Scrum is or how it works. I will rather explain
briefly in what way I used it in this project. Scrum contains sets of practices and
predefined roles. The main roles in Scrum are: 1) Scrum Master, who manages the
process, facilitates and removes obstacles, 2) Product Owner, who is responsible for
prioritization, ROI and business value 3) the Team, a cross-functional group of about
5-7 people who do the actual analysis, design, implementation, testing, etc.

Each role is responsible for three important artifacts in the Scrum. Product Backlog
is property of the product owner. It is basically a high-level list of requirements and
user stories. It is used to prioritize or sort by importance what has to be done or built
in to the final product. The Sprint Backlog is the responsibility of the team. It is a list
of selected stories and tasks. On the Sprint Backlog one can see what work is in
progress, what has been done, what is blocked, because of some internal or external
obstacles, or because of unplanned or unforeseen events. With this level of detail the
whole team understands exactly what to do, and potentially, anyone can pick a task
from the list.

The Impediment Backlog is the property of the Scrum Master. There he put’s
notifications of obstacles that have risen, and are either waiting for solution, in the
progress of being solved or have been solved. It is the role of the Scrum Master to
facilitate resolution of these
impediments or obstacles.
The Scrum Master is not the
leader of the team (as the
team is self-organizing) but
acts as a buffer between the
team and any distracting
influences. The Scrum
Master ensures that the
Scrum process is used as intended. The Scrum Master is the enforcer of rules. A key
part of the Scrum Master’s role is to protect the team and keep them focused on the
tasks in hand.

Nordic Multimedia Academy | Methods and Models Used 7


All three backlogs are publicly displayed for all to see. They work as a reminder, an
announcement board on how things have been prioritized, what has been finished,
what is still in progress, remaining work to be done, and if there are any obstacles
that need to be dealt with. The backlogs are updated every day and of course open to
change (e.g. new prioritization, new items added, other items totally discarded etc.).

I started my Scrum by brainstorming or mind mapping. I wrote on post-it notes
whatever came in to my mind about the website I was about to develop, the website I
needed to redesign, marketing ideas, design elements I wanted to include, testing
procedures I might try, things I needed to research etc. I put all these post-it notes
randomly on a table. When I ran out of ideas I took a small break and started again.
After this initial vision phase I organized each item into groups like; design group,
marketing group, social media group, interaction group, e-commerce group etc. Next I
eliminated items that I felt were not useful and started prioritizing my work on the
Product Backlog. The three backlogs were on my wall, daily right in front of my face.
There was no way for me not to see the status of my project. The logs helped me
reorganize, add and eliminate items from the product as it progressed. I did the same
procedure when it came to planning and writing the report.

MODELS USED

Even though I have written about these models and used most of them several times
before their usefulness still amaze me:

 User Centric Design  SWOT Analysis  User Testing
 Eye Tracking  Jan K. J. 24  Persuasive Design
Research Questions  AIDA Marketing
 CRAP Methodology  Web 2.0 Design

By applying these methods I analyzed and collected data used in planning, designing
and creating content for my multimedia project. Their use will be explained in more
detail as the report evolves.

Nordic Multimedia Academy | Analysis of the outgoing Website 8


ANALYSIS OF THE OUTGOING WEBSITE

Before any redesign of the existing website starts I
need to have a clear idea of what the site is meant to
achieve. Analyze it’s strength and weaknesses. What
elements of the site (text, imagery or media) helps
the site in reaching it’s goals and what hinders it in
achieving it. I need to audit the site, take it section
by section and determine which areas of the site will
be kept, modified or discarded. I also need to put myself in the minds of the site
user’s. Try to understand as much as possible about my target audience as I can. Who
my site visitors are, their age and education, income and social background, computer
skills, and what task they will be performing on the site. This information is then used
to create a persona or general profile for each visitor type.

In order to gather needed information I sent a client survey to my publisher. I also
created a questionnaire about the site (navigation, overall look and feel, readability,
relevance of content etc.) and sent it via email to group of 10 people, that I knew had
visited it or would use the site if they had known about it. When this information was
in the house I analyzed it. I also made my own observation and studied the outgoing
site thoroughly. My goal was to find out what was working and what was wrong with
the outgoing site before redesigning it.

What follows is a brief about the outgoing site (what’s wrong, what’s good about it)
based on my own observations, users suggestions and my clients concerns. My
publisher complained basically of two things: The site wasn´t selling as many books
as he had hoped, and the site didn´t turn up in Google or any other search result. The
Nostradamus FanPage was there and one or two articles that mentions it in his online
magazine (http://www.samuel.is), but no mention in Google search results of the
website itself!

One of the first problem I noticed was the domain name itself: samulesbok.com. The
domain stands for Samúels bók (Samuels book). Samúel is the name of the publishers
magazine, and is a well known brand name in Iceland. Not unlike Playboy in the



Untied States or Se og Hør in Denmark. But it is of course not in any way connected to
Nostradamus, predictions or prophecies.

Another obvious, and rather more serious, limitation of the site, at least when it
comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is the fact that the whole site is made in
Flash. Flash tends to thwart search engines and currently Flash content can’t be
indexed. Search engine bots and spiders require text and text links for their ranking.
Every site needs a detailed navigation information (preferably breadcrumbs and
sitemaps) to get optimal placement in search engine results. Navigation in Flash has
no value in this respect.

There are other serious issues with the outgoing website. Many users complained
that the music it starts playing as soon as you hit the site annoys them. Most start
looking for a way to turn it of within few seconds. The flickering in Nostradamus
image and the animated lightning disturbed their concentration while trying to read
the copy. There are other readability issues with the text. All caps heading in one
subpage, and a lack of line-height in the copy of the whole site makes the text hard to
read. Not a single reader I asked finished to read the copy even though they all said
the content interested them.

When the sites layout and structure is viewed with CRAP (contrast, repetition,
alignment and proximity) design methodology in mind there are many elements that
can be improved. The use of typography is diverse and sometimes confusing. Two
examples can be seen here:

Then there is the question of broken
links. The Visa/MasterCard gateway
payment system didn´t work. It has since been removed. It was substituted by a mail
order or cash on delivery (COD) system. This of course undermines the purpose of the
whole site. The link “Click HERE for a Mail Order” doesn´t work. A link to a
documentary video about Nostradamus, once found at YouTube, doesn´t work either.
Same applies to a link to History Channels “Lost Book of Nostradamus”. That video
seems to be lost as well.



There is a Notando Web shop system (http://notando.is/webshop) connected to the
site (click on the big orange button) but no explanation on Samuelsbok.com on how to
use it. The reader isn´t even made aware it is there, unless he happens to click on the
orange button on the homepage. It wasn´t until I had browsed back and forth on the
Notando web shop site, while clicking on this and that button, adding up to 3 copies of
the book, I realized I had to sign in, and get a username and password, before starting
to use the web shop. This could easily be avoided with simple users instructions.

There is no information about the size of the book, if it is 16 pages or 240 pages? The
image of it´s front cover is missing in the three dimensional quality that is important,
in my opinion, when designing online ads for books. Basically the buyer isn´t given
much encouragement in taking the next step of ordering or buying the book.

Another weakness of Samuelsbok.com site is the fact there is no social media sharing
provided. Even though the site has a Facebook Fanpage there is
no way to connect to it from the website. There isn´t even any
mention that such a fanpage exists. On the fanpage itself, there
is also no link to the website under the profile picture. There is
no information to be found how members can order or buy the
book. The little marketing done on the Nostradamus Fanpage has to do with totally
different events, like advertising a beauty contest. Some members of the fanpage
complained about this, others asked for more information, but neither were
addressed by the fanpage administrators.

The last message posted on the fanpage wall from the administration was posted 26th
of October, before that, we have one message posted on the 29th of June, then we have
one or two posts in May, and about 13 posts in April, while the free book offering was
going on. And that’s it! It is amazing that such sloppy social media marketing could
nevertheless collect 5.701 members. Probably more, because some members must
have left after realizing there was nothing much going on with the fanpage. In short
Nostradamus Facebook Fanpage is a good example on how not to maintain a Facebook
fan page. Wasted opportunity.



After taking all this in to consideration I was still surprised that all the users I
consulted with had nevertheless a positive attitude towards Samuelsbok.com website.
They liked the overall tone and feeling about it, the black background, red colored
fonts. They appreciated the flipping book feature, where one can sample the book,
some of the content, as well as it’s front and back cover. That is obviously the best
part of the site and the only item I decided to keep.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

One of the unexpected result of my analysis of the outgoing website was my decision
to translate the book in to English, publish it in collaboration with my publisher and
sell it online. The Icelandic market is really small, and with the internet, social media
networks, print by demand services, and my own skills in web development and
Search Engine Optimization, there is really no reason to limit ourselves to a small
language community when it comes to publishing. The problem definition hasn´t
changed though. My task is still to find ways to publish, advertise and distribute the
book in the most economical way possible. The design of the new website will of
course have to take in to consideration that the target audience is no longer only
Icelandic, but the larger English speaking community as well.

JAN KRAG JACOBSEN’S 24 QUESTIONS

In order to devise an effectual communication strategy I used Jan Krag Jacobsen's
24 Questions as an analytical tool. Jan Krag Jacobsen's 24 Questions is based on a
famous formula coined by the sociologist Harold Lasswell: "Who says what, in which
channel, to whom, with which effect?" Jan Krag Jacobsen's framework helps define
your target group accurately. It keeps the message lucid and prevents it from being
decoded erroneously. It addresses also many other legal, tactical and ethical problems
that any publisher might face. I formulated answers to Jan Krag's questions. 3 Few of
them are mentioned here.

3 JACOBSEN, Jan Krag. 2009. 24 Questions for planned communication, p. 16.
Nordic Multimedia Academy | Communication Strategy 12


“What is the target group?” From my experience as an author of three previous books
on Nostradamus, my talks with librarians, discussion with publishers, and after
reviewing the member sites of the Nostradamus Facebook Fanpage, potential buyers
of the book can be divided in to three main groups: 1) Middle age and older readers
(specially woman) who are religious and interested in mystical phenomena, and have
a Christian leaning when it come to faith, 2) People in the age group 24-32 who have a
rebellious attitude towards society, are anti-establishment, are interested in occult
matters such as magic, Tarot, astrology and yoga, and 3) Young people who have been
influenced by Nostradamus, as he is portrayed in popular culture of movies, TV
documentaries, music (e.g. heavy metal band Judas Priest), magazine and sensational
newspaper coverage.

“What is the message?” What we want to evade is to represent the prophecies of
Nostradamus as definitive version of what will happen in the future, herald him like
religious zealots or sensationalize his predictions. More then enough of that has been
done. We would rather approach him and his prophecies with a balanced, and even
critical view. Something in the line of: ,,IF Nostradamus was a true prophet, this is
most likely what he meant, what his predictions, are all about.” So the message to our
target group will be: “The book ‘Nostradamus: What awaits us?’ casts a sane eye on
Nostradmus prophecies. It provides an objective commentary with each verse and offers
unique interpretations of the many verses believed to augur future events.”

“What medium should be used?” The internet, more specifically an e-commerce
website, an email campaign and social media networks. “What is the intended effect on
the target group?” First and foremost to buy the book or engage in the website in
other ways, e.g. sign up for a Newsletter, join the mailing list or download some
material from the website that facilitates the user in to taking the next step of
purchasing the product.

“Who is the sender?” The sender is the website in question, but when it comes to the
purchase itself, it is Triple Rock Publishing. I think people in general are more
willing to buy a product, book in this case, from a registered publisher, rather then
from a website. The website role is to inform, entertain and engage the user, but
when it comes to ordering a book and paying online with your credit or debit card, I


think most users prefer to deal with a formal company. This has to do with trust,
authority or qualification of the sender. Ethos in Aristotle’s three modes or triangle of
persuasion.

“What is the intended effect on the sender?” To sell more books. “What is the purpose of
the intended effect on the sender?” This question, like many others in Jan Krag´s 24
Questions for planned communication, shows his superiority over other models in
mass communication. Jan Krag really cuts through the cheese. The answer to this
question is: “To get a book publishing contract or an offer from a mainstream
publisher.”

“What kinds of legal problems could occur?” Since the book contains quotations from
works of historians from various countries (necessary to prove Nostradamus
predictions have come true) it is advisable to check what copyright
laws are in effect. In some countries there is a limit to how many
words author can quote. If the quote is beyond that limit it can be
made shorter. The images used in the present Icelandic publication
might also be protected by copyright law. If that is the case the
solution might to be to discard the image, or better just Photoshop them. No
copyright law can prohibit that. If all the images in the book have been treated in the
same way, it is defined as “art” by law. The copyright belongs to the artist. Just like e.g.
Campbell’s tomato soup in Andy Warhol’s art work.

“What kinds of ethical problems could occur?” In the prophecies of Nostradamus it is
stated that Antichrist will come from China. There is no way evading the fact that,
according to Nostradamus, third Antichrist (Napoleon and Hitler being the first two)
will come from the Far East. According to verses of Nostradamus the “Man of Blood”
will rise to power on the world scene, in many ways because of the United States
(,,New Land”) governments incompetence. Antichrist will have a financial hold on the
United States. The capitalistic banking system and representative democracy will fail
completely. Mainly because of greed, the ruling elite will crush the middle class,
destroy it’s own foundation. These verses might offend some Chinese and American
nationalist. We can not underestimate that. Same applies to Nostradamus prophecies
about total elimination and destruction of the Shia Muslim religion, the Catholic


Church, and the fact that Nostradamus prophecies that from Iceland will come a
“great leader” that will establish a world government.

All this might infuriate. But best we can do is to point to the exact verses of
Nostradamus were this is stated. I will also point out that even though Nostradamus
names someone “Antichrist” it doesn´t necessarily mean that he is the embodiment of
all evil, but rather “mover of changes” done by forceful, violent means. According to
Nostradamus Iceland (“Island far in the North” … “at the arctic pole”, “landlocked by
three oceans”, where the “Germanic leader of the world” is borne) is the only mention
in his prophecies of a power or spiritual force that will change the whole world
without violence. This might surprise many people, since Iceland is such a small and
insignificant country, but it corresponds to other prophecies in the Old Testament, old
Chinese manuscripts and the Great Pyramid, according to the English pyramidologist,
Dr. Adam Rutherford. 4

DEFINING THE USER GROUP

We have established the potential target group or audience of the website. Even
though creating a profile or persona of it’s users is helpful I would rather approach
this in a totally different manner. Instead of designing the website only around how
we think the user might be (demography, computer skills, wages etc.) as is
recommended in user-centered design, we should also design the website according
to different kind of users, or what they do. This approach hasn´t received enough
attention among web developers or web designers as I think it should.

Last semester I had the good fortune to run across a study about what people are
actually doing online. 5 This study was done in the United States, but I think it is safe to
assume that similar results would be found with internet users in any other part of
the world. For me this study was an eye opener, and I am surprised it isn´t mention
more in designer circles. I have actually not found any discussion of it anywhere (see
info graphic on it’s results in Appendix 4).

4 RUTHERFORD, Adam. 1961, 1962 & 1966. Pyramidology Books 1,2 and 3, C. Tinling & Co Ltd London, Liverpool and
Prescot.
5 “What are people doing online“, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038405.htm.



The study divided users in to six groups according to age and how they spent their
time online:

1. Creators who publish web pages, write blogs and upload videos to sites like

2. Critics who comment on blogs and post ratings and reviews. They are also
YouTube.

active on Forums, where they exchange ideas and discuss various topics.
3. Collectors who use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and tag web pages to
gather information.
4. Joiners who use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
5. Spectators who read blogs, watch videos and listen to podcasts.
6. Inactives who are online but don´t yet participate in any form of social media.

These type of users are found in all age groups, but the most active users are in the
age group 17-26. This is the same age group that we expect to be interested in buying
a book about Nostradamus prophecies. The other target group I have mentioned
before (middle age and older readers) is represented in this study, but they belong
mostly to the group of spectators and inactives. About 61% of them are online but
don´t yet participate in any form of social media. I will need to consider this in my
design and find ways to involve them in social media, or at least accommodate to the
fact that they might not.

This study shaped the direction I took with my present
multimedia production. As in my last project I decided to
cater to all these six different types of online users. The best
way to do that was to produce a website with a Blog and
comment system, a Video-gallery and a Forum combined in
one. I would make sure that critics could express their views
in the Forum and comments, collectors gather information
with RSS, joiners be involved in social networking like
Facebook and Twitter and spectators provided with the opportunity to read blog and
watch video.



The website would be populated with plentiful opportunity for social bookmarking
and sharing (“Facebook Share”, “Subscribe to”, “Buzz”, “I like”, “Tweet”, “Digg”,
“StumbleUpon” etc.). To encourage and help inactives to use social media I decided
to have detailed Help on how to use the various features of the websites (how to
obtain a Gravatar, use RSS, share content etc.) and of course how to buy the book.
There would also be a printer friendly version of all content to save ink, and “Email
this” for older readers (inactives) who have not yet joined any social network but
might want to share the article with friends and family members. There would also be
the opportunity to save all content as a Abode PDF file for later reading. The real issue
here is to design a website that appeals both to teenagers (like myself ) and older,
middle age people.

It will be important to have a heavy doze of
marketing (“Buy the book now!”, “Sample the
Book”, “Get a Free Chapter” etc.) but to do it in
such away that it is not in people’s face. Be subtle,
but always present with the marketing. The
feeling I wanted to give to the reader is that this is a website, number one, two and
three, for his/hers information and enjoyment. The selling of the book is a by product
of the website, never it’s main purpose. In the future we might offer another book for
sale, or even no book at all, but still keep the website running as a Blog, Video-gallery
and a Forum.

Even though the domain name I chose Nostradamus.is is strongly connected to the
book as a product, it can well do as a brand name for a website that caters to people
who are interested in spiritual matters, the occult, mysticism, paranormal
phenomenon’s, and not only Nostradamus or his prophecies. This is why it is
important that the blog of the site covers right from the start subjects that have
nothing to do with Nostradamus or content of the book as such.

ANALYSIS OF AVAILABLE SOLUTIONS

It was obvious from the start that the website would have to involve e-commerce. A
free and open source Content Management System (CMS) would be needed. Even
Nordic Multimedia Academy | Analysis of Available Solutions 17


though I am a great fan of WordPress I approached this with an open mind. I studied
free and open source CMS’s available on the market. Found out that Magneto and
osCommerce are the most recommended. I did however reach the conclusion that
using either of them would be an overkill. Mostly because I am designing a website
that is selling only one product. I also want it to include a forum, an online discussion
for it’s users, and a blog with a comment system. Using WordPress was obviously the
best choice, not only because I know how to develop or customize it, but also because
WordPress is in many ways the best web shop solution if you are selling one or
limited number of products.

WORDPRESS: THE MEDIUM USED

WordPress is an open source CMS system often used as a blog
publishing application. It is powered by PHP and MySQL on the server
side and XHTML and CSS on the client side. It powers over 8.5% of the
web and is is used on over 26 million sites. 6 WordPress is a templating
system. There are numerous free themes you can download and install allowing you
to change the look of your site. There are also thousands of plugins and widgets that
provide extra functionality. If you want a special functionality, itʼs not a matter
spending 6 hours to develop it. Itʼs a matter of searching for 10 minutes and finding a
plugin that does it or finding an answer on one of the forums. Instead of having to
support your website all alone, you have got over 10,000 developers who are part of
a community working constantly to improve it.

Since it is open-source the PHP, CSS and XHTML code in themes, plugins and widgets
can be edited for more advanced customizations. WordPress also features integrated
link management; search engine-friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to
assign nested, multiple categories to articles; and support for tagging of posts and
articles. This is very important for readers when it comes to finding the particular
content he or she is looking for. As a CMS WordPress is super-simple, intuitive and
elegant to use, but is also robust. Microsoft recently decided to stop development on
its own blogging platform and move its 30 million users over to using WordPress.

6 “How to Sell WordPress to Clients”. 2010. Video Users Manuals. See http://www.videousermanuals.com.


The latest version of WordPress 3.0 came with new elements that improve it as CMS.
The one I specially like, and decided to use, in the website is the new menu
management system. It is one of the most exciting and
talked about features in WordPress 3.0. This feature
gives you full control over your site’s navigation
menus. With an easy drag and drop interface, users can
create menus that include any mixture of links to
internal pages, external URLs, categories, posts, you
name it. Then you can embed these custom menus as a
widget wherever your theme allows. I used this as a widget on all pages, so as to make
sure that the most important content of the site would be easily available to the
readers, and not be buried away, with newer posts or pages being added.

E-COMMERCE PLUGIN

There are three e-commerce plugins most recommended when one want’s to use
WordPress as a platform for a webshop. They are WordPress E-Commerce plugin,
eShop plugin and WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart plugin. I studied all of them
and decided to install and activate the Simple PayPal Shopping Cart plugin only to
realize it was too simple. It doesn´t include a ”Thank You for your order”, ”Cancelled
Order” or ”Shipping Rate” pages. It is very basic and suits well for buyers who are
used to shopping online, but we need to keep in mind that part of our target group
(middle age and older) might not be customed to shopping for products online, as
much as maybe younger people are.

A plugin that doesn´t even ask for your address before sending you to the PayPal
purchase page might invoke suspicion. Even though that information is also asked for
at the PayPal site I think the user will feel more secure if he fills it out on the website
itself. Just as it is important that the buyer get’s an email confirming his transaction.
Confirming the fact that he or she has just paid a certaint amount to purchase a
particular product. There are still a lot of people who have issues with security and
fraud when it comes to shopping online. We need to address those fears. This is done



not only in the Help section, but also in the ”Buy Now” or purchasing page of the site.

The WordPress E-Commerce plugin is a good solution if one has a webshop with many
different products. It is however an overkill for a webshop or e-commerce site as
Nostradamus.is will be, selling only one, or at the most handful of products. eShop
plugin is better suited. Not as complictated to set up as WordPress E-Commerce
plugin, nor as basic as WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart plugin. That is why I
chose to use eShop as an e-commerce plugin.

EMAILING LIST AND CAMPAIGN

Since this is the poor man’s way to publishing it is important to use email as a
marketing tool. It is economically more viable then paying for advertisements online
or in the printed media. But in order to do use email marketing one has to find a
suitable means of sending large number of emails and encourage people to join the
sites emailing list. This is done by offering a free sample of one of the chapters in the
book, and send it to the subscribers as an PDF file. Also encourage them to subscribe
to a monthly free newsletter.

But what emailing service is one to choose? There are several open source systems
available. I studied them. Dada Mail, iContact and phpList are obvious examples. But
their templates and integration with social media networks are poor. Another
problem is the fact that if I would install one of these free, open source email
campaign tools, my hosting service might not handle the load, of say sending a
newsletter to 500 people per hour. My ISP might even throttle my outgoing emails or
shut down my account if I send too much too fast.

Before designing an email
campaign one has to
consider the entire
subscription experience. I



will need to handle the entire opt-in process for a my readers, not just one little email.
This means I will need to design: 1. The subscription (opt-in) form. 2. Thank you
landing pages. 3. Confirmation link emails. 4. Final welcome emails. 5. Unsubscribe
forms. 6. Unsubscribe confirmation landing pages, and 7. Unsubscribe “final
goodbye” emails.

Testing and troubleshooting is another issue I would have to consider. When you’re
designing HTML emails, you should test them in as many different email programs as
possible. This is not like testing a web page in Firefox, then Internet Explorer, then
Safari. There are a few dozen different email programs (Outlook, Lotus, Entourage,
Apple Mail, etc.) and webmail services (AOL, Gmail, YahooMail, Hotmail, etc.) I would
need to look at. At the same time I need to be careful to design the emails in such way
that they pass through spam filters. Also abide to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 that
requires that I include my physical mailing address in the email. 7

It is also required by law that I
provide an unsubscribe link. It
is also very important that I
make sure I only send to
recipients who gave me verifiable permission to email them, and I need to have proof
that each one of them opted in to my mailing list, such as through a double optin
system. Without it one might get blacklisted. The United States federal CAN-SPAM Act
became law on January 1, 2004. According to their website, the FTC says that if you
violate the law, you could be fined $11,000 for each offense (multiply $11,000 times
the number of people on your recipient list). ISPs around the country have already
successfully sued spammers for millions and millions of dollars under this law.

After taking all this in to consideration I felt the best way to proceed would be to have
an email marketing service like Aweber or MailChimp (http://www.mailchimp.com)
handle all my email and newsletter sending. I know that the major blog gurus like
John Cow, Yaro Starak, Gideon Shalwick, Darren Rowse and David Risly all

7 “Email Marketing: A MailChimp Field Guide”, page 33.


recommend Aweber as an email marketing service. After comparing it with MailChimp
I really can’t see why. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that Aweber was the first
major player on the email marketing market. MailChimp is a new comer. Or because
these guys (who I recommend fully as a source of high quality information) get their
Aweber service for free. They seem at least to be affiliated in someway to Aweber. It is
of course easy to recommend to others to pay for something one get’s for free or with
a good discount.

After all why should I not go with Mailchimp that provides me with the opportunity
to send up to 6000 emails per month to 1000 subscribers absolutely free? Their free
email marketing guides or tutorials are superior, the templates they provide very
good, and at last but not least MailChimp’s integration with social media is
outstanding. 8 MailChimp’s got all the tools you need to impress your clients with
beautiful and powerful email newsletters. They make it easy to design and send eye-
catching emails, manage your subscribers and track your campaign’s performance.
They take fancy-schmancy tools like segmentation, a/b testing and ROI tracking, and
turn them into something anyone can use.

PRINT BY DEMAND SERVICES

I also made a detailed comparison of the self publishing or print-on-demand services
now provided online. The most popular print-on-demand services used by self-
publishers are Lulu, CreateSpace (http://www.createspace.com), and Lightning
Source. All three services take care of printing and distributing books for self-
publishers, for fees that range from moderate to zero. All three are recommended
frequently enough to suggest that they're reasonably satisfactory services. I also
checked out AuthorHouse but would certainly recommend authors to stay away from
them. They do quite heavy marketing in order to get authors to sign up for their
service, then after the money is in the house, seem to lose all interest. If one Google’s
the two words “AuthorHouse” and “Scam” these sad and sordid stories can be read.

8 See for example “Let’s Get Social: A MailChimp Guide”, http://resources.mailchimp.com.


One of AuthorHouse salesperson called me regularly from New York to encourage me
to sign a publishing contract with them. Which was fine with me, but in the end when
I asked him to send me a copy of the contract to study, he replied that there was no
contract, they didn´t issue one, I didn´t need one, since all our previous telephone
conversations had been recorded! Something he had forgotten to mention in our
many discussions. When I pointed out to him that didn´t help me much since I had no
recordings of our conversations, and needed to see what kind of obligations I was
undertaking, and what kind of service I was getting before I sent them the money, he
suddenly remembered there was actually a contract they used, which he would send
me the day after, which he did.

After studying the three most popular print-on-demand services I decided that
CreateSpace, which is owned by Amazon is probably the best choice. They offer
moderate distribution, moderate profits, and moderate expertise needed. Lulu,
CreateSpace and Lightning Source have some things in common. They're all relatively
cheap, they all do their best to make things as simple as possible for the people who
work with them, and they all offer services that are in reasonable relation to how
much money the self-publisher is likely to make from using their service. So basically,
they're all good plans, in their own way; it's just a matter of figuring out which one
fits your needs best. 9

The Apple iPhone, iPad and iTouch have revolutionized the ways in which readers
view books, magazines and news. If we want to keep up with the competition, we
must adapt our book marketing strategy to fit into these new markets. We need to
have Nostradamus: What awaits us? for sale in the Apple App Store. There, more
than 67 million iPhone, 7.5 million iPad and 45.2 million iPod touch users can easily
search for, purchase and download the book into their palm. With more than 300,000
apps and 100 million devices sold worldwide since its introduction in July 2008, the
App Store is more than just a passing fad – it has become the world’s largest mobile
application platform. It’s here to stay.

9“POD self-publishing options: Lulu vs. CreateSpace vs. Lightning Source”,
http://duskpeterson.dreamwidth.org/49735.html


Same of course applies to Amazon Kindle. Last January Amazon launced a new 70%
royalty option for the Kindle. Under this option, Amazon will pay authors and
publishers a royalty of 70% of the list price of Kindle books, which is a far higher per-
copy royalty than most authors receive on physical book sales (including the
standard Kindle book royalties). This is of course very important news since it has
been estimated that Kindle has about 90% of the eBook marketing share. 10 Both
Kindle and App Store need to be part of our publishing strategy.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

The new emerging Social Media
Marketing (SMM) will be an important
part of Nostradamus.is. For the past
two years the importance of social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook and
Linkedin, has become obvious. Web blogs and social media sharing (YouTube, Flickr)
have become part of peoples life. Same can be said of the social news sites like Digg,
StumbleUpon and Buzz. They are based on letting people submit links and articles and
encourage them to vote and comment on their submission. Many articles get
submitted every day, but only the most voted on appear on the front pages of these
social news sites.

Social bookmarking sites have also become popular. Delicious is a
social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and
discovering web bookmarks. The digital measuring service
ComScore reports that in May, 2009, 734.2 million or two-thirds of the world’s 1.1
billion Internet users, 15 and older, visited at least one social networking site. 11 The
number since then has definitely grown. It is therefore important to encourage all
who visits Nostradamus.is website, forum and blog to use these social networks.

10 “Here's Why Amazon Will Win The eBook War: Kindle Already Has 90% eBook Market Share”,
http://www.tbiresearch.com/amazon-selling-90-of-all-e-books-2010-1.
11 COMCORE, http://www.comscore.com.



As of to day the most popular social
network is Facebook. It has really
taken the world by a storm. Since
June 2010 Facebook has stolen new
important nations from local,
previously strong, competitors (in
115 out of 132 countries analyzed it
is market leader) especially in
Europe. When a world map of social
networks is drawn up for December 2010 we clearly see the influence of Facebook.

But this doesn´t tell the whole story. Even though Facebook makes up 78% of all
social media traffic; and Twitter only 5%, a study by Social Twist says using Twitter
for marketing is still better. 12 After analyzing more than one million links on both
platforms, researchers found that Facebook’s shared links average only 3 clicks, while
Twitter’s embedded tweets generate 19.

Click-through rates, or the number of clicks per advertised link, aren’t the only factors
to keep in mind when choosing a social media platform. If we are deciding between
Facebook and Twitter, we need to consider the following pros and cons of each,
compiled by PC World: 13

Twitter Pros

There are 165 million registered users and 100 million tweets sent a day,
according to Bloomberg.
•

With a split screen and view pane that allows users to share videos from 16
different media providers, the new Twitter layout is good for marketing.
•

Businesses can effectively share updated videos on their Twitter profiles,
instead of just repeatedly tweeting messages.

12 Social Twist, http://tellafriend.socialtwist.com/sharing-trends-2010.
13 “Twitter Crushes Facebook for Marketing”, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217703.


Twitter's audience is more sophisticated in terms of using technology and
social media. Social media professionals inhabit the Twitter world, and the
•

level of user-sophistication only continues to get better with each tweet.
Twitter is easy to use on third-party applications through features such as
scheduled tweets and searches.
•

With only 140 characters, a lot of tweets leave readers hanging. They have
more questions about what they've just read; this suspense factor taps into
•

their desire to click on more links.

Twitter Cons

The Twitter universe is comparable to a cocktail party, where people lightly
take part in numerous conversations, skipping from one to the next. Twitter
•

party attendees are always looking for instant satisfaction, a buzz that’s more
appealing than the one they just encountered. Needless to say, conversations
have gaping holes in the middle, often leaving Twitter users hanging with just
bits and pieces of conversations, and leaving them with more questions than
information. This is as much a con as it is a pro.
Twitter’s security is unreliable. Malwares are easily spread when users click
on URL’s loaded with viruses.
•

Twitter has the Fail Whale that has become annoyingly familiar to users.
Businesses must take into account the frequent moments when the server is
•

down or over capacity.

Facebook Pros

There are 600 million Facebook users compared to 165 million Twitter users.
Facebook is considerably more reliable than Twitter; outages are rare.
•

There are a number of multimedia tools available on Facebook that can be
•

good for our business, including videos, links, and photo albums.
•



Facebook Cons

The fact that there are so many Facebook users can be a positive point, but it
can also be a negative one. Many of the users are not target consumers, and
•

businesses must plan their strategies accordingly. Since Facebook is a less-
focused medium than Twitter, businesses have to put more effort into their
outreach to ensure clicks.
If Twitter is a cocktail party, then Facebook is like a college dorm. Masses of
people mill about and become familiar with one another’s faces; they don’t
•

actually get to know one another until months pass. As such, Facebook may
not be the right environment for a business to sell product.

Twitter may have a significantly smaller user-base than Facebook, but it requires less
time for actionable exposure, offers more return on investment, and reaches a more
specific audience and consumer base. The amount of distraction on Twitter is also far
less than the amount of distraction on Facebook.

Linkedin is another social network which is growing in influence. It has become one of
the three top social networking sites in some countries. The slow but constant growth
of Linkedin has surprised many because it was mainly thought of as a platform for
professionals, something similiar to an online CV or resume. If it has any value to
Nostradamus.is as a marketing tool I think is
rather unlikely. I would rather think that
Twitter and Facebook would be of more
value in that respect. Here to the left one can
see the three most popular social networks as
of December 2010.

PAYMENT GATEWAY

When it comes to choosing online payment gateway Paypal is the
most logical choice. Reason being that it is free to open (there is
no start up fee) and propably the most known online paying system in the world
today. One could say that PayPal, ”the poor man’s credit card” as it once was referred


to, has since aquired respectability and become a universal symbol for online
shopping. One of it’s value lies in the fact that you don´t need a PayPal account any
more to use it. One can pay now through PayPal with debit or credit cards like
MasterCard or Visa.

Recent news that it closed it doors to Wikileaks, cowardly and without real
justification has tarnished it’s image a bit. The result of that remains to be seen, and is
even a reason not to use PayPal, but with situation as it is, there is really no other
alternative. Authorize.net and other payment gateway systems all demand a starting
fee, before a busniess owner can start to use them to recieve payments online from
his or hers customers.

IMPLEMENTATION OF SOLUTIONS CHOSEN

When I chose a theme for the Nostradamus.is site I had three criteria in mind. It
would need to include breadcrumbs (for better SEO), have the possibility of removing
the sidebar (full width page) to make room for the Forum, the Google Docs Viewer
and Sample the Book feature, and be based on Web 2.0 style design.

WEB 2.0 DESIGN

The theme I chose
for this is called
“MyProduct” by
Elegant Themes. It
is a great theme
even though I
needed to do some
major
customization. It has all the basic tenures that I like so much about Web 2.0 design.
The main features are big and bold logo, central layout, 2 columns (except 3 on the
homepage) separate top section (the main bra nding and navigation area), huge
footer, big headings, bold text introductions,,strong colors, gradients and general

Nordic Multimedia Academy | Implementation of solutions chosen 28


simplicity in presentation. Web 2.0 design is focused, clean and simple. 14 The main
goal is to communicate the relevant information, not just decorate. Another thing I
wanted to do is to have the web site out of the constricted ,,box‘‘, so to speak. Give it a
liquid, elastic quality. The central layout is there but it is not contained or framed in
as happens when the white content is contrasted with a darker background.

The feel and tone of the site was meant to incorporate two different elements.
Mystical, vague, kind of dark, Middle Ages feeling, very old, ancient or archaic tone
with a more clean, modern, corporate tone. This is the clear contrast I was aiming for.
In order to obtain that I had to change completely the header image that came with
the theme. Create my own header image, which is a combination of a ancient
manuscript, astrology chart, looking at the stars, and has at the same time the element
of fire and dectruction about it. Perfect I think as a representation of Nostradamus.

THE EYETRACK RESEARCH FINDINGS

All the findings of Eyetrack III research have been incorporated in the designing of the
site, the layout and treatment of the copy. Among the interesting facts Eyetrack III
research uncovered are: 1) Dominant elements most often draw the eyes first upon
entering the page — especially when they are in the upper left part of the page. 2)
Text rules on the computer screen – both in order viewed and in overall time spent
looking at it, 3) Smaller type encourages focused reading, while larger types promotes
lighter scanning, 3) Web readers look typically at text elements before their eyes land
on an accompanying photo, 4) The bigger the image, the more time people took to
look at it, 5) Shorter paragraphs performed better than longer ones, 6) Navigation
placed at the top of a homepage performed best, 7) When testers encountered a story
with a boldface introductory paragraph, 95% of them viewed all or part of it. 15

14HUNT, Ben. 2008. Save the Pixel: The Art of Simple Web Design.
15“Eyetrack III: Online News Consumer Behavior in the Age of Multimedia”,
http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/index.htm



All these findings were assimilated
into the web site design. Web site
logo is in the upper left part of the
page. The navigation bar and a big
cover image of the book is positioned
in the area of Priority 2 according to
research results. The pages and blog
post follow a similar construction.
They start with a thumbnail image
that is meant to lead the reader in to starting reading the article. A boldface
introductory is meant to do the same. I have excerpt and big headings for lighter
scanning.

To ensure readability I use good space between lines (1.5) and between all elements
of the page. Paragraphs are also made short, and I try to use everyday words. The
body text is large enough, and there is high contrast between text and background. In
the Help page there are links to go down pages, as well as up, in a quick manner, to
save the reader from having to scroll with the mouse.

All pages and posts have a “Print this” and “Email this” feature. There is also “Related
Article” feature to point the reader to posts that are related. This is a good way to
encourage the reader to stay longer on the site. Also point out to him older articles
that might get lost or buried beneath newer content.

The marketing of the book
is extensive but at the
same time subtle. In all the
posts and pages the reader
is offered a free chapter of
the book. All he/she has to
do is sign up and join the mailings list. This is the only time the font of the site is blue.
Meant to underline the importance of the message. Below the pages the user is given
the opportunity to “Buy the Book”, “Sample the Book” and again “Get Free Chapter”.



Readers are also
encouraged at the
sidebar on all pages
(except in the Forum,
Google Docs Viewer and Sample the Book page) to “Subscribe to A Newsletter”. This,
just like the “Free chapter” offer, is an important part of the sites email marketing. We
need to build up a considerable email mailing list since experience has shown this to
be the main key to a successful online commercial site. 16

Another important factor is to use RSS (Real Simple
Syndicate) feed to collect subscribers to Nostradamus blog
and Forum. RSS is a web feed format used to publish
frequently updated works such as blog entries or news
headlines in a standardized format. An RSS document
includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and
authorship. Web feeds benefit bloggers by letting them syndicate content
automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from
favored blogs or collect feeds from many websites into one place.

FeedBurner is a good web feed management provider for this purpose. FeedBurner
provides custom RSS feeds and management tools to bloggers, podcasters, and other
web-based content publishers. I use it as an email service for those readers that
want to be notified of new content via email.

Another important bonus of using RSS and FeedBurner is the fact that it provides the
basic format that makes developing a mobile or podcasters application for blog
easy. Basically all that is needed is simple XHTML, CSS and web feed with RSS. Since it
has been estimated that in few years around 50% of internet users population will
access the web through podcasters and mobile phones this is a very important factor.

16“See Roadmap to Become a Blogger”: http://www.becomeablogger.com/roadmap/ and “Blog Profits Blueprint”:
http://www.blogmastermind.com/ by Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick.


Readers of Nostradamus.is website are given the opportunity to subscribe to new
content via a RSS reader, email, Facebook and Twitter.

LOGOS

I designed two logos to go with the site.
A logo for the site itself and another one
for Triple Rock Publishing, which will
be the name of the publication that publishes the book for the English market. The
site logo is a simple yellow (#FFBF3D) and white word mark made from Viner Hand
ITC font. I used the Eraser tool to give it this transparent or opacity quality. The idea
of having the logo as a handwriting is to give it the signature of Nostradamus himself.
It goes well with archaic tone of the header and is at the same time good contrast to
the more corporate style of rest of the site, and a good contrast to the layout of the
book itself.

Triple Rock logo is quite different,
more sophisticated. I use the not so
well known, but elegant
NadiaSerifNormal font. The symbol

used is that of the FÉ Frune from Elder

Futhark, the Nordic Viking alphabet. Fé
means “wealth”, “money” and “sheep”
in Icelandic. It resembles also in some ways three rocks, as the name of the publishing
entails. Triple Rock is a translation of Þrídrangur which holds a special meaning in
our native European religion, Ásatrú.



USER DESIGN AND USABILITY TESTING

Usability is literally the “ease of use” or understanding it takes to make something
work. In this case, website usability is the understanding of how an individual user
navigates, finds information and interacts with your website. Unlike online surveys or
focus groups, usability testing is a one on-one process in a “watch and learn”
approach. The results of the sessions are used to improve your user’s experience.
Having the web developer watch the testing and witness the results helps resolve
most internal issues in an undisputed manner.

User Experience (UX) quality is measured by the level of satisfaction and average user
gets from the product. Good UX has good function, good design, tailored to a typical
user for the particular context it is being used in. A good UX encourages site users to
,,convert“ to the next level (e.g. subscribe to the site or buy a product). Conversion
rate is a common way of measuring the effectiveness (ROI) of a user experince. How
many visitors sign up for your newsletter, how many casual browsers are „converted“
in to active buyers etc. A bad UX drives people away from your site, makes them feel
frustrated.

User Centered Design (UCD) is a project approach that puts the intended users of a
product or site at the centre of its design and development. It does this by taking the
user into account every step of the way as the product is being developed. The
development and involvement of the users are carried out in an iterative fashion,
with the cycle beinig repeated until the project‘s usability objectives have been
attained.

This time I managed
to do some usability
testing. Both formal
and informal with a group of 7 participants. Two Thai ladies, one man from China, one
Icelandic and three Danish. It helped me expose a fault with the design, clarify and
confirm development I had started, and at least in one case totally redesign one part
of the site. I also used card sorting to confirm the best way to organize the navigation



structure. I was quite surprised to find out that some things I took for granted, and
consider quite clear about my design, wasn´t so at all. At other times my worries
about something was laid to rest, because everybody could understand how to use it.

One example I can mentinoed that surprised me. In the Help section I put arrows
beside the headings as a link for the user to click in order to move up to the ”Content”.
To my surprise not a single partiscipant in the usability test understood the meaning
of the arrow, that pointed upwards. All thought it to be a simple decoration. So I
changed it to a simple text link ”Back to top” which most should be able to
understand.

PERSUASIVE DESIGN

Persuasive design involves designing a site that
involves trust; showing authority, quality and
seriousness to the reader. It appeals also to
social proof; mentions good reviews, positive
referrals and gives good quality advice. People

make decisions based on emotion, it is therefore
important to make the users like you. Giving a
away free stuff makes you likable. Call to action buttons is another important
element of persuasive design.

In my view persuasive design draws a lot from Aristotle´s triangle of persuasion. It
is based on three devices that a sender can use to influence his audience or target
group. They are ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos is an appeal to the authority or
qualification of the sender. Pathos is an appeal to the audience’s emotions. Logos is
logical appeal that is normally used to describe facts and figures that support the
senders message. I use all three devices on Nostradamus.is web site.

It is vital to address peoples fear about buying online. We need to explain to them
what the process involves, how their personal information, credit card number, email
address etc. will not be disclosed. Not even to Nostradamus.is site or Triple Rock


Publishing. All these matters are dealt
with in the Help section, ”How to Buy
the Book?” and in the ”Privacy Policy”.

The book cover, Triple Rock logo and
PayPal logo (”100% Secure Shopping
Website”) are shown side by side.

FAVICON AND GRAVATAR

It is very important to ecourage all visitors of Nostradamus.is site to comment on it‘s
blog post. This can be done by ending some posts with a direct questions to the
reader. Another way is to encourage readers to use their own personal avatar. An
image that will show up beside their comments. Gravatar (short for globally
recognized avatar) is a service for providing globally-unique avatars. On Gravatar,
http://en.gravatar.com/ users can register an account based on their email address,
and upload an avatar to be associated with the account.

When the user posts a comment on Nostradamus.is blog that requires an e-mail
address, WordPress checks whether that e-mail address has an associated avatar at
Gravatar. If so, the Gravatar is shown along with the
comment. This gives the blog a more personal feel and
look. Another feature I added to the Nostradamus.is site is a favicon. A favicon (short
for "favorites icon") is an icon associated with a website or webpage intended to be
used when you bookmark the web page. Web browsers use them in the URL bar, on
tabs, and elsewhere to help identify a website visually.



The Nostradamus Forum uses also a Gravatar if the user has one
associated with his or hers email address. If not, the user can upload an
image to have as it’s profile or simply use the default one that comes with
the system. I actually changed the default one used that comes with Simple:Press
Forum Plugin. It is grey and colorless so I made another one that I feel suits better.

NOSTRADAMUS FORUM

The Nostradamus Forum is a very sophisticated feature of the website. It deserves
more
coverage
then it will
be given
here.

is a huge
Simple:Press

and feature
rich plugin.
It fully
integrates into my WordPress site utilizing the same user records and database and
displaying on a single (full width) WordPress page. It is fully customizable and comes
with a number of skins (themes) and sets of icons.

Current users have shown it to be fully scalable whether your site membership
numbers the tens or the thousands. Through it’s powerful and flexible permissions
system it is suitable for those who wish to run private, specialist forums with invited
members but is equally able to accommodate open, public forums that allow guest
posting.

Simple:Press offers also a Private Messaging sub-system, the ability to link blog posts
with forum topics, the capability to extend the forum display with custom code, a
number of template tags for use outside of the forums, extensive online help that
explains every option and full language support.



I decided to have the Forum as light as possible so I don´t allow any private messages,
upload of photos, video etc. in to posts. I turned off a lot of default features in
Simple:Press in order to slim it down. I think it is important that uploading time
should be as short as possible.

The Forum is of course my way to reach out to the user group of critics on the
internet. People who like to take part in online discussions. As with the blog the
Forum is not meant to cover only discussions about Nostradamus or his prophecies. It
also offers discussions on other kinds of mysticism, magic, runes, shamanism, voodoo,
witchcraft and the use of sacred plants in ancient religions. To name few.

It is important that the reader get’s the notion that this is not one of those “buy my
book now, and you will live happily ever after” sites. Some times the best marketing,
is little or no marketing at all.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMAZATION

Since SEO, or lack of it, was one of the worst problems with the outgoing site I took
extra care to concentrate on fine tuning the SEO of Nostradamus.is site. WordPress
is a pretty well optimized system, and does a far better job at allowing every single
page to be indexed than every other CMS it is said.

But there's a few things one can do to make it a lot easier still to work with. My advise
is to go straight to Joost de Valks home site and follow his instruction on how to
optimize your WordPress site; http://yoast.com/. A part from the fact he doesn’t
recommend using All in One SEO Pack plugin (prefers more manual ways of doing
things) I followed his instructions to the letter. Yoast site is the very best I have found
on how to SEO WordPress. It’s all there explained in short and practical way. A real
how-to-do manual for all to use, who take the time.

Here are few of the things I did for the Nostradamus.is site:



PERMALINKS

The first thing I did was to change my permalink structure. In WordPress 3.0, you'll
find this page under Settings -> Permalinks. The default permalink is ?p=<postid>, but
I prefer to use /post-name/ so I change the "custom" setting into /%postname%/.

This gives the articles of my site a cleaner, more SEO friendly URL. Something like
http://www.nostradamus.is/third-world-war instead of for example
http://www.nostradamus.is/?p.1001&.

OPTIMIZE YOUR TITLES FOR SEO

By default, the title for your blog posts is "Blog title » Blog Archive » Keyword rich
post title". For my WordPress site to get the traffic it deserves, this should be the
other way around, for two reasons:

Search engines put more weight on the early words, so if your keywords are
near the start of the page title you are more likely to rank well.
•

People scanning result pages see the early words first. If your keywords are at
the start of your listing your page is more likely to get clicked on.
•

Joost recommends a plugin called Headspace to do this but All in One SEO Pack is a
plugin I use myself. All in One SEO Pack allows you to set the titles structure of the
website, and set meta title and meta description for the websites pages and posts
without going into the code.

INSTALL GOOGLE XML SITEMAP GENERATOR

I installed Google XML Sitemap Generator, a plugin that automatically generates a
XML sitemap of my posts that is formatted for Google, Yahoo, Bing, and
Ask. Nostradamus.is sitemap will be sent to all of the search engines every time the
plugin rebuilds the XML sitemap. Having this plugin, ensures that the search engines
are aware of all of my posts and will help with the overall crawling of the sites.



NOINDEX, FOLLOW ARCHIVE PAGES

I installed Joost de Valks Robots Meta Plugin in order to use rel=”nofollow” attribute
in outgoing or less important links in
the site. There is no reason we should
have Google or other search bots follow
those links. I made sure the settings
prevent indexing of all archive pages,
like this:

HOW TO SPEED UP WORDPRESS

Load time is becoming an important factor in search engine algorithms. Not to
mention a page that loads fast makes a visitor much happier and he or she is more
likely to stay on my site longer. Google has also recently announced that sites speed
will now have a lot to say how it get’s ranked. 17 Quick load up time and good SEO go
therefore together hand in hand. Here are few things I did to speed up My SQL
database and boost the Nostradamus.is website performance.

HYPER CACHE GENERATED STATIC PAGES
WordPress is a PHP script, so everything is dynamic, which means every time a page is
loaded, WordPress must execute the queries hence making the site sometime load
slow. The best solution to this problem is using static pages. The plugin Hyper Cache
cache complete generated pages and serve those to my users instead of processing
the heavy dynamic queries each time. It helps speed up the page load times by
removing white space and comments, and compressing CSS and js files. This plugin is
said to increase the site performance at least 8-10 times. By enabling caching, only
the first visitor will go through the process of processing the PHP code. The caching
mechanism will save the data and then serve every subsequent visitor the final
result. 18

17“Site Speed is Now a Ranking Factor“, http://yoast.com/site-speed-ranking-factor.
18“WordPress Caching. Casching Solutions Compared“, http://www.tutorial9.net/web-tutorials/wordpress-
caching-whats-the-best-caching-plugin.


REDUCE IMAGE SIZES WITH WP SMUSH.IT

Images help Nostradamus.is look more lively, but bigger the image we use, the
slower our sites will load and the more server resources we will use. Therefore it is
best to have low image size. We can obtain this by using a plugin called WP Smush.it.
This plugin reduces the image size automatically with minimum quality loss.

CUTTING DOWN THE SIZE OF MY MYSQL DATABASE

When writing posts, WordPress actually autosaves it, even after the post has been
saved. The revision articles stay in the MySQL Database. Bigger database bring the
site load time down. Since I would not use revisions I decided to remove them by
adding the following code to my wp-config.php:

define('AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 500 ); // seconds
define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false );

This code, will not delete my past revisions that are already saved in my database. To
delete all previous revisions, I need to visit PHPMyAdmin and run the following SQL
query.: DELETE FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = “revision”;

This SQL query, and the code above in WordPress wp-config.php file, will reduce my
database size.

OPTIMIZE MY MYSQL DATABASES

Optimizing my MySQL
databases can make a
difference in the websites
loading time. There are
two ways of doing this.
One way is to use a plugin.
Joost De Valk has a plugin for this. It is called Optimize DB. The other way is to do it
manually. I went to the phpMyAdmin at my sites host and found Nostradamus.is
database. Then towards the bottom, I clicked ”check all” to select all tables and then



towards the center of the screen, there was a drop down menu, and I could click
optimize tables there.

PLUGINS, WIDGETS AND SHORTCODES

WordPress has good inbuilt functionality when it comes to search, taging and
organizing content in categories. But as to other features and functionality we need to
add different plugins and widgets. There is a amazing range of plugins available for
WordPress. I try to install only the plugins that the website really needs, since I don´t
want to drag down the performance of the site with unnecessary clutter. Among the
ones I use is Akismet spam filter, Facebook OpenGraph I Like Button, Google Doc
Embedder (that allows me to show PDF files online that I have saved as SWF files),
WP-Print and WP-Email, that allows people to recommend my sites post and pages
to a friend and displays a printable version of them.

I also added a Subscription Options plugin that adds subscription option icons for
RSS Feed; FeedBurner Email Service; Nostradamus.is Twitter Stream and Facebook
page. Contact 7 is a simple but flexible contact form plugin I use. WordPress has been
criticized for forcing web developers to use the same sidebar on all pages. I use a
Widget Context plugin that gives me the power to decide where different sidebars
shows up. The MailChimp plugin I use allows me to quickly and easily add a signup
form for my MailChimp list. I also make use of WP shortcodes, and some example of
them can be seen in the Appendix.

CONCLUSION

Back to the problem definition. How do we create an online multimedia production
that: 1) Sells the book in a fast and relatively easy way, 2) Encourages involvement
from it’s readers, and 3) Is inexpensive to implement and easy to update?

We use free, open-source WordPress as a website platform, social networks, and
social news sites as marketing, free MailChimp service for email campaigns, PayPal
as a payment gateway system and CreateSpace as a printer and distributer of our
book. These are all definitely good tools to use.

Nordic Multimedia Academy | Conclusion 41


REFERENCES

BOOKS

DABNER, David. 2004. Graphic Design School: The Principles and Practices of Graphic
Design. London: Thames and Hudson.

HUNT, Ben. 2008. Save the Pixel: The Art of Simple Web Design.

GOTO, Kelly and Emily COTLER. 2005. Web Redesign: Workflow That Works. Berkley:
Peachpit Press.

JACOBSEN, Jan Krag. 2009. 24 Questions for Planned Communication. Roskilde:
Roskilde University Press.

SCHWABER, Ken and Mike BEEDLE. 2001. Agile Software Development with Scrum.
New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

WEINBERG, Tamar. 2009. The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web.
USA: O’Reilly Media.

WILLIAMS, Robin. 2004. The Non-Designers Design Book: Design and Typographic
Principles for the Visual Novies. Beckley CA: Peachpit Press.

INTERNET

Email Marketing Field Guide, http://resources.mailchimp.com/email-marketing-field-
guide

MailChimp for Bloggers, http://resources.mailchimp.com/bloggers

Let’s Get Social, http://resources.mailchimp.com/lets-get-social-guide

Scrum Alliance: Transforming the World of Works, http://www.scrumalliance.org/

http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/
The Definitive Guide To Higher Rankings For Your Blog,

WordPress SEO Video, http://yoast.com/wordpress-seo-video/

http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/index.htm
Eyetrack III: Online News Consumer Behavior in the Age of Multimedia,

Web 2.0 How-to Design Guide, http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-
design/web-2.0- design-style-guide.php

Writing for the Web, http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/

Nordic Multimedia Academy | References 42


Roadmap to Become a Blogger, http://www.becomeablogger.com/roadmap/

Blog Profits Blueprint, http://www.blogmastermind.com/

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, http://bit.ly/bAMpFE

Setting Up WordPress for SEO, http://bit.ly/duZL8O

Nordic Multimedia Academy | Appendix 43


APPENDIX

1.HERE ARE ADDS I DID IN THE STYLE.CSS FILE

/*------------------------------------------------*/
/*------------------[CHANGES MADE TO H1,H2, H4 and TOP FRONT PAGE FONT - Add
by Sigurfreyr]-----------------*/
/*------------------------------------------------*

#pagetop h1 {color: #c2c4c4; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #525454;}

#top-box p,

#pagetop p.tagline,

#pagetop p.tagline a { text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #525454; color: #ffffff;}

h1.title a { color: #3d3d3d; }h1.title a:hover { color: #000000; text-decoration: none; }

h4 { padding-bottom: 5px; color: #3d3d3d; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 1em;
font-weight: normal; }h4 { font-size: 22px; padding-top: 15px;}

h2.title-page a { color: #262626; font-weight: normal; }

h2.title-page a:hover { color: #3d3d3d; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;}

/*------------------------------------------------*/
/*------------------[PROMO LINK - Add by Sigurfreyr]-----------------*/
/*------------------------------------------------*

a#promolink {color:#2262cc; margin-top:2px; margin-bottom:2px;}

/*------------------------------------------------*/
/*------------------[INTRO WITH BACKGROUND COLOR - Add by Sigurfreyr]---------------
--*/
/*------------------------------------------------*/

p.intro2 {clear:both;background:#E3F3F8;padding:10px 15px 10px 15px;margin:5px
-15px 46px -15px;display:block;-moz-border-radius:4px;-webkit-border-
radius:4px;width:710px;*width:500px;font-size:15px;line-height:22px;margin-
bottom:24px;color:#2E79B8;text-shadow:1px 1px 1px #fff;}

Nordic Multimedia Academy | Appendix 44

Poor Man's Guide to Publishing

Poor Man's Guide to Publishing

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