Is Readz the Mutli-Platform Publishing Solution?

A long time ago, in a web galaxy far, far away, there was one way to engage with web content. You simply opened up your web browser and the page displayed according to the parameters of the HTML code. Sure, there were some minor differences between Netscape, Opera and Internet Explorer (am I dating myself here?), but by and large all content would display without much ado.

Times have changed dramatically. Not only do we have hardware differences (Mac vs PC), but we have a variety of mobile devices that have redefined how we consume content. Smartphones and tablets with varying screen sizes have created a scenario akin to \”Nightmare on Web Street\” for graphic designers.

Certainly websites much be responsive and scale to whichever device a site is being viewed on, but the variety of vehicles of delivery, such as PDF or web apps, make it even more challenging for your content to be delivered in a format that is easily engaged.

Readz claims to solve this problem for content creators of all stripes. Their platform is designed to help brands and companies transform their content into a great mobile experience, regardless of the device it\’s being read on. This includes white papers, customer magazines, sales proposals and training manuals.

I\’ve created something like 40 ebooks and/or white papers in the past years. Clearly, it is essential for businesses to produce material which can be taken on the go. I\’m a fan, and every one of my titles has been released in PDF format.

There are certainly benefits to PDFs, but more and more I am encountering frustration in formatting for various resolutions and screen sizes. Adobe\’s product has met the needs for my customers who like to read on their desktop, but others are experiencing various degrees of success (or failure) attempting to read my content on their smartphones, and in some cases, their tablets.

On top of this, it\’s a known fact that PDFs do nothing for your SEO. It\’s content that doesn\’t work to make friends with the search engines.

I have not used Web Apps to distribute my content across the device spectrum because I already felt there would need to be to much technical effort required to pull it off.

That\’s why I find Readz product interesting. How easy is it to publish with Readz? From their own website:

Hmmm… sounds almost to easy, right?

I decided to open Readz example of a Web App delivered via their platform. You can try it out for yourself by clicking here.

I tried this on my desktop, iPhone and iPad. And dang… it actually works near perfectly on all three. It FEELS like a web app, but the scaling and responsiveness feels like it was made for each device.

Since the content isn\’t PDF format, you get SEO benefit from it. Ideally, this will boost your search engine rankings.

But even more important is the potential conversion rates. If customers can access your content easily without barriers, they are far more likely to engage with you and take action.

Also, because the content is still web-based, you can get full analytics from your readers. It\’s impossible to do that with a PDF.

The final cool benefit which appeals to me is the ability to connect to existing tools such as Mailchip and Infusionsoft.

When I first heard about Readz I was skeptical. I am a skeptic no longer. It\’s a cool platform and I may have to look at moving away from PDFs for my white papers and ebooks. Click to discover more about Readz.

What are your thoughts? Have you encountered other platforms which accomplish the same goals? Please leave your comments below!

Disclosure: I am being compensated to share my opinion about Readz, but my thoughts are my own. I genuinely believe their platform is worth paying attention to and am happy to share it with you.