February 28th, 2006 E-Magazine #11: Your Recommendations Are Here
LearnOutLoud.com Recommendations
One of the most common questions we get from
visitors to LearnOutLoud.com is "Where do I start?"
Having 10,000+ titles on our site sometimes makes
it a bit intimidating to find something suited to
your tastes. We've been listening to your feedback
and have launched something we think you'll love:
Recommendations @ LearnOutLoud.com. In
conjunction with the fine folks at Loomia
we're proud to roll out the first recommendations
engine on the Net that ties together audio books,
podcasts and other audio and video learning
material including titles from our Free
Directory.
The way the recommendations engine works is that
it recommends titles to you based on how you've
rated titles that you've previously listened to or
viewed. The technology takes into account the
ratings of all of the members of the community here
at LearnOutLoud in an attempt to try to find new
titles for you that you'll love. And the more
titles you rate the better your recommendations get!
To get started now and get your personalized
recommendations perform the following steps:
1. Go to www.learnoutloud.com
and rate some titles if you haven't before. You'll
need to be logged in so take a few seconds to register
if you haven't already.
2. After you've rated some titles (the more the
better!), go to http://recommendations.learnoutloud.com
or click on the "Recommendations" link in the
upper-right corner of any page on our site. A few
seconds later you'll have your personalized
recommendations for Learning Out Loud.
3. Over time your recommendations will change as
you rate more titles and others rate titles on the
site. Be sure to check back often and try to rate
as many titles on the site as you can so we can give
you the best possible recommendations.
Our favorite part about the recommendations
engine is that it ties together all forms of audio
and video educational content. If you rate a
couple of business audio books highly you might be
recommended a good business-related podcast. Or
let's say that you give a good rating to a few
podcasts in our "Religion & Spirituality" category.
You might be recommended a free Billy
Graham sermon or a lecture like "Can
God and Caesar Coexist?" The possibilities are
endless!
We hope you enjoy the recommendations engine. It
won't give you perfect suggestions but what you do
get should get better over time. In the meantime if
you have any feedback just shoot us an e-mail at recommendations@learnoutloud.com.
Thanks!
Free Resource of the Day
We're adding a lot of new material to our Free
Directory these days and now have a way to
notify you when we've added cool new titles. It's
called our Free
Resource of the Day e-mail. By subscribing
you'll get a daily e-mail (Monday through
Friday) containing a link to a free audio book,
speech, video, etc. One day it might be a link
to a free, full-length version of The
Art of War. The next day it might be links to
the recent remarks given by Attallah
Shabazz and Maya
Angelou at Coretta Scott King's funeral. Each
day we'll do our best to pick something for you
that's educational, inspirational and entertaining.
To sign up for the Resource of the Day
newsletter, click
here and enter your e-mail address. Then click
"Subscribe" and check the box for "Free Resource of
the Day E-mail (M-F)". Click "Submit" and you'll be
all set. Our newsletters start going out on
Wednesday, March 1st so look forward to starting to
receive these links each day. We think you'll
really enjoy them.
It's Oscar Time!
It's T-minus five days or so until the
78th Annual Academy Awards. One thing that
makes watching the Oscars more fun is having watched
all the movies that are up for awards. But who has
the time for that? And reading all those books for
those movies? Surely you must be joking...
But why not take advantage of your commute and
listen to a few audio books that will give
you greater insight into the movies that are up for
awards? For example, you can listen to Striking
Back, a nonfiction book about the aftermath of
the bloody 1972 Olympic kidnappings depicted in Best
Picture nominee "Munich." Or listen to Truman
Capote's audio book In
Cold Blood (Best Picture nominee "Capote" was
based on the period of Capote's life in which he
wrote In Cold Blood).
Seth's written a great article summing up the
year in movies. It includes links to a number of
audio books related to films that came out this
year as well as podcasts that will quench your
thirst for cinematic dialogue. Whether you're a
huge movie buff or just a casual movie-goer you'll
definitely find it interesting.
It's
Movie Time!
Presidential Biographies
In February we here in the U.S. celebrated
President's Day and what better way to celebrate
than with a Presidential autobiography or biography
on audio? We've put together a comprehensive
listing of Presidential audio books ranging from
titles on Jefferson
and Adams
to Clinton
and Bush.
Sound interesting? Check out the link below:
Presidential
Biographies
New Downloads
A few new titles available for download from our
Sale
Section:
Miracles
Are Guaranteed by Bill Ferguson
Making
a Good Brain Great by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.
PeopleSmart
by Tony Alessandra
10
Traits of Spiritually Productive People by Guy
Finley
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