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Notepad file instead of PDF?

by stoogefest
24 replies
PDF seems too official and heavy. People associate it with e-books and they've become a despised source of information during these last years. When you offer an e-book outside of IM-savvy communities and forums, people put on the skepticals (skeptical spectacles) and avoid you like Bangladeshi cuisine.

Nowadays life is already complicated enough. People look for salvation in simplicity. How about writing all your content and saving it as a Notepad file and marketing that? I haven't seen anybody who has done it yet.

It's so much more pleasing to the eyes, you can fit a ton more content on a smaller space, it's lightweight, very mobile and easily accessible, especially when you're trying to copy-paste some text for research.

You know these little read-me's and text files they put in torrents? I don't know why, but they seem so friendly, inviting and harmless that I always open them. Maybe it's just me...
#book #file #notepad #pdf
  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    It would drive me mad having to read through a large text file. Maybe it's just me but I would much rather read a well layed out PDF document.

    I would actually have second thoughts about a product if it were delivered to me as just a plain txt file - where is the value in that?

    I do know what you are saying though but I think the value comes from keeping the actual information inside the product nice and simple NOT the actual format of the document itself.
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    • Profile picture of the author Top Dog Marketer
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      It would drive me mad having to read through a large text file. Maybe it's just me but I would much rather read a well layed out PDF document.

      I would actually have second thoughts about a product if it were delivered to me as just a plain txt file - where is the value in that?

      I do know what you are saying though but I think the value comes from keeping the actual information inside the product nice and simple NOT the actual format of the document itself.
      I couldn't agree more brotha!

      OP I understand where you're coming from, but a text file probably won't cut it. It doesn't have the perceived value that a "flashy" pdf report has, and the default settings in notepad make it harder to read.

      Font studies have been done and a lot of the fonts you see in the pdf reports, like courier, are proven to make it easier for your customer or prospect to read and understand the information.
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  • Profile picture of the author DebbieD
    Personally, a .txt file looks kind of.. "raw". It reminds me of something too techie for me, and too hard to read.

    But maybe that's just me.
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    • Profile picture of the author sappacis13
      For me I used them both but it depends.

      I used notepad when copy and pasting. This way, it would remove all the code and paste it clean and plainly into any platform.

      While pdf also is used when you have to convert a file and submit it to other pdf directories.

      Ps and don't forget to put your backlinks on it.

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    • Profile picture of the author RSMarketing
      I think your all wrong :p

      Now people are soo lazy that they don't even want to READ at all, all they want are Video's!

      But joking aside, I agree with the majority here, that text files are a no-go.
      .txt files say "Amateur" to me. I mean whats next, .RTF? lol

      If your trying to get someone to sign up for your email list, or better yet buy your product, what are they going to think after paying $27.00 for a "Pet Grooming" BOOK, and it shows up in text format?

      That would be like going to the book store and walking out with a used notepad, written in pen along with scribbles and all. Instead of walking out with a nice new hardcover book with high quality custom graphics on the front cover and an HD author image and mini-bio on the back. Wait theres a Bonus dvd inside

      My $0.02 anyway.

      Rich
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  • Profile picture of the author stoogefest
    YouTubers nowadays have an average attention span of 30 seconds. They're too lazy to even watch videos You guys are right, .txt is horrible for a long report but it's great for a free giveaway as single page list of instructions or other technical description.

    I shouldn't have used the word "sell".
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    No formatting, not even minimal protection of your content, no color, no professionalism . . . not much appeal, IMO. Sounds like an argument someone would make because they don't know how to make a PDF (not saying that's the case, just that it sounds like that kind of argument).
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  • Profile picture of the author WebPen
    It just doesn't look at professional.

    If you just paid $47 or even $97 for an ebook and it came in a notepad- would you feel like you got something of decent quality?

    Appearance isn't everything- but it is a lot.

    Besides, with a notepad file I can just delete your name, put my name, and now I've stolen your content.

    Oh yeah, and since I'll turn it into a fancy PDF with videos and price it the same as yours, I'll make your product look like runny fecesin comparison to mine.
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    • Profile picture of the author Top Dog Marketer
      Originally Posted by Justin Stowe View Post

      It just doesn't look at professional.

      If you just paid $47 or even $97 for an ebook and it came in a notepad- would you feel like you got something of decent quality?

      Appearance isn't everything- but it is a lot.

      Besides, with a notepad file I can just delete your name, put my name, and now I've stolen your content.

      Oh yeah, and since I'll turn it into a fancy PDF with videos and price it the same as yours, I'll make your product look like runny fecesin comparison to mine.

      Exactly what he said!

      You could put the codes to your bank account in the plain text file and no one would ever use them because they'd most likely just skip over the info since it wasn't visually appealing in the first place.
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  • Profile picture of the author ronaldmd
    No offence mate, that's the lamest idea I ever heard. Even when people sell ebook in word format, they get a lot of refunds, especially in .txt format.
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  • Profile picture of the author stoogefest
    You could just as easily use OmniPage on a PDF file, that stuff is CIA material... You can scan a PDF and edit everything - delete the author's name, pinch the text here and there, make a few changes and sell it as your own work.
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    • Profile picture of the author globalpro
      So what you are suggesting is to steal someone else's content, hack it and call it your own?

      Gee, I can see you will go a long way online... if you don't get arrested or sued first.

      Thanks,

      John

      Originally Posted by stoogefest View Post

      You could just as easily use OmniPage on a PDF file, that stuff is CIA material... You can scan a PDF and edit everything - delete the author's name, pinch the text here and there, make a few changes and sell it as your own work.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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        Originally Posted by globalpro View Post

        So what you are suggesting is to steal someone else's content, hack it and call it your own?
        He didn't "suggest" that at all, John.

        He was simply rebutting an objection to one of his earlier comments by pointing out that although .txt files don't have any security, PDF's don't either, if someone wants to crack them.

        "Context". :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author webtechprodigy
    I agree with you, PDF is actually a very cumbersome format to deal with. It is difficult to create, format edit and share. Not everyone has a PDF reader installed on their device and not all can edit it easily if they have to. Notepad files are always awesome...
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  • Profile picture of the author BabyMama
    Yeah I totally agree with the other warriors. I hate to read text files! They don't always configure to the correct size and the font is not easy to read.
    PDFs I can read on my smart phone or tablet which is great! I don't know why you think people are going off pdfs I think there is no problem with them!
    Just my 2c
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    How do you propose to put screenshots in a txt file. This is such a bad idea. Light weight ... yes, but that's about all you can for it as a means to present information to buyers.
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  • Profile picture of the author stoogefest
    I've seen it somewhere I think. A really good web designer threw around a text file with his name, e-mail address and phone number. Cynical but damn he made thousands for a single website... I guess he just reached that level of bad-assedness that no matter what a douche he was, people would still look for him and his skills
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  • Profile picture of the author Teenage Genius
    Honestly a .txt file is a terrible idea - firstly style, ease of reading, images, hyperlinks etc. would be impossible.

    Secondly: anybody could just "copy & paste" your entire ebook to anywhere they wished in seconds!
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Originally Posted by stoogefest View Post

    PDF seems too official and heavy. People associate it with e-books and they've become a despised source of information during these last years. When you offer an e-book outside of IM-savvy communities and forums, people put on the skepticals (skeptical spectacles) and avoid you like Bangladeshi cuisine.
    Where on Earth did you come up with this? I've never noticed this - ever.

    There are more people cynical about the term "ebook", especially in the IM arena, because fools put together a two-page PDF and call it a 'book' than people who see PDF and assume it's somethig to be despised.

    It's so universally hated that it's become the de facto standard for sharing documents in the mainstream business world. :rolleyes:

    Originally Posted by stoogefest View Post

    Nowadays life is already complicated enough. People look for salvation in simplicity. How about writing all your content and saving it as a Notepad file and marketing that? I haven't seen anybody who has done it yet.
    Then you haven't been around very long. I saw the suggestion about selling text files and had a flashback to the early days of the web, before PDF. We'd sell our text files on the special interest groups on services like AOL and CompuServ, as well as the newsgroups before the spammers killed them.

    I don't want to go back to those days. There's a reason you don't see people doing it.

    Originally Posted by stoogefest View Post

    It's so much more pleasing to the eyes, you can fit a ton more content on a smaller space, it's lightweight, very mobile and easily accessible, especially when you're trying to copy-paste some text for research.
    I'm sorry, but a solid block of unformatted text is hardly visually pleasing. Notepad's default settings make this even more so than the same text in a suitable font and line spacing.

    The only venue in which I can see marketing text files would be PLR products. Those are intended to be edited, changed, copy/pasted, etc.

    Originally Posted by stoogefest View Post

    You know these little read-me's and text files they put in torrents? I don't know why, but they seem so friendly, inviting and harmless that I always open them. Maybe it's just me...
    Can't say much about that. I don't hang out on torrents, too many pirates and other ne'er-do-wells for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author mywebwork
    Originally Posted by stoogefest View Post

    PDF seems too official and heavy. People associate it with e-books and they've become a despised source of information during these last years. When you offer an e-book outside of IM-savvy communities and forums, people put on the skepticals (skeptical spectacles) and avoid you like Bangladeshi cuisine.
    Where exactly did you come up with the "statistic" that PDF's and e-books are a "despised" source of information? It would seem to me that the explosion of eReaders would have increased the perception of value for e-books, as opposed to make people despise them.

    No offence, but IMHO this has to be one of the most insane ideas I have seen here (or anywhere else) in a very long time! Will your next suggestion involve abandoning the Internet and going back to dial-up modems and bulletin boards? Or perhaps trading that color screen for a green monochrome CRT and abandoning Windows for DOS?

    This is 2011, almost 2012. The standards for e-books are PDF, ePub (for eReaders) and AZW (for Kindle eReaders). Text files have their use - for readme files and to hold textual data.

    Bill
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
      Sounds like a George Orwell inspired "Victory" report...

      I'd sooner see personality, pictures and rich content in a document.
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      • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
        Originally Posted by stoogefest View Post

        PDF seems too official and heavy. People associate it with e-books and they've become a despised source of information during these last years. When you offer an e-book outside of IM-savvy communities and forums, people put on the skepticals (skeptical spectacles) and avoid you like Bangladeshi cuisine.
        Like John and Bill, I just don't recognize this world you describe in which PDFs and eBooks are despised as a source of information. They seem to be quite popular in my experience. But then, I also like Bangladeshi cuisine. In fact many of the top "Indian" restaurants in the UK are run by Bangladeshis.

        In any case, the way that eBook readers are taking off, especially with potential buyers outside the IM field, worrying about the general acceptability of PDFs or other formats will soon become largely unnecessary.


        Frank
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        • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
          Originally Posted by stoogefest View Post

          You could just as easily use OmniPage on a PDF file, that stuff is CIA material... You can scan a PDF and edit everything - delete the author's name, pinch the text here and there, make a few changes and sell it as your own work.
          A professional thief will always be able to lift your material, no denying that. The average person is not a professional thief. The security afforded by PDF's is that it keeps honest people honest, just as locks on our home keep honest people honest. Most people won't "break in" if you make an effort to lock them out, but if you don't make the effort, many who wouldn't break in will take from if you make it easy.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaiganeshv
    .Txt file is great to write draft content but as for reading is concerned its difficult as you cant change font sizes etc, it might not suit everyone... i like slightly bigger fonts aroun 11 or 12, which is not possible in txt files and it gives a very dry impression and not fun to read but fast to type and draft...
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