January-February 2008 - Issue #61

• Intro
  
• Article - Great Websites Do, Not Say
  
• The Office Corner
  
• Grammar Question of the Month - Plural Endings in Parenthesis
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans - Renaming Excel Worksheets
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Word of the Month - otiose
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  
• Judy's Photo Gallery
  

* Jill Whalen, of High Rankings (http://www.highrankings.com/issue222), recently responded to the question, "I have a customer who is convinced that for maximum SEO, the page length must be between 450 and 625 words. He has a software program that tells him this. Is there any truth to it?"

In part, Whalen responded, "You can rest assured that there is absolutely, positively no specific number of words that any given page needs to contain in order to gain highly targeted search engine traffic. Every page is different, as it has different needs and different target markets.

"Your pages should be as long or as short as they need to be in order to say what they need to say. The number of words on the page is not a search engine issue at all, but a marketing issue. SEO can be performed on any page regardless of its length because search engines know that it takes a varying amount of words to get your point across."

* Hope your year is starting out well. These are exciting times. We get to study many experts who are changing and growing, and need to be ready to think outside the box. How exciting to be part of such a culture, where the old blends with the new to create new ways of doing business.

By Gerry McGovern

Never tell people what you're going to do for them on the Web. Just let them do what they came to do as quickly and simply as possible.

"Welcome to our website." What? I'm in a hurry. I don't want to pass meaningless pleasantries with your website. I don't want to shake its hand. Or talk about the weather. I'm at your website for a reason. I'm in a hurry. I'm impatient. So kill the welcome, please.

"It's really easy and quick to do blah blah blah on our website." If it's really easy, why are you telling me it's really easy and quick? For starters, you've wasted my time by making me read your meaningless sentence. Things that are genuinely easy don't require sentences telling you that they're easy.

When you go to Google, do you read a sentence saying: "It's really easy and quick to search using Google." No you don't. And the reason is that it IS really easy to search using Google. It's so easy that you hardly have to think about it. There's a big search box in the center of the screen. That's easy.

Links were invented so that we wouldn't have to say things like "on our website you will find ..." So don't tell people about what they'll find, link to it! Don't have your website become a bore on a bar stool, extolling to his half-empty whiskey glass about all the things he's going to do for you.

Government websites are in danger of boring people to death because of two particular character flaws. The first is that many politicians can't help using government websites as campaign poster sites.

Big pictures of politicians on homepages. In an age of increasingly informed and empowered citizens, this juvenile propaganda is laughable and derisory. Does anybody actually believe that putting the picture of a politician on the homepage of a government website achieves anything other than making them look like a pre-digital laughing stock dinosaur?

The second flaw is that governments have this need to prove just how much of our taxes they're spending. If I come to a health website, I'm not interested in hearing about how much the government is investing in health. I want to solve a problem. If I can't, and you waste my time telling me about all that's being invested, that just makes me feel that you're wasting my time and my taxes.

One of the most important laws of getting elected is that you never tell people what you've done for them; you tell them what you're going to do for them. But a government website must be even more focused. It's the place where you let people do the things you told them you were going to do for them.

Nobody wants to read about your five year plan. Your website is a place for implementing that plan. Nobody wants to hear that you've just launched a new website, or that you've figured out how to do podcasting or videos.

I'm talking from experience here. I know how much effort goes into all these things. I know how excited the web team can get about all the shiny, new stuff. I know how hard it is to resist boasting about all that investment. Nobody cares.

Strip it all away and let people do.

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com
Content management solutions: Gerry McGovern

1. The Top 10 Ways To Apologize To Someone You Have Hurt or Offended
http://www.topten.org/content/tt.BN30.htm

2. Timing Your Offers, by Robert Middleton
http://actionplan.blogs.com/weblog/2008/01/timing-your-off.html

3. 25 Things You Should Never Put on a Resume - HR World
http://www.hrworld.com/features/25-things-not-to-put-on-resume-121807/

4. When Search Words are Misleading, by Gerry McGovern
http://tinyurl.com/ytc36x

Question. What do I do if I'm referring to an item that could be either singular or plural?

Gregg Reference Manual recommends enclosing the plural ending in parentheses, and gives this example: Please send the appropriate form(s) to the appropriate state agency(ies).

EXCEL

At the bottom of each worksheet in the Excel document window is a small tab with the name of the worksheet in the workbook. The default names (Sheet1, Sheet2, Sheet3, etc) are not very descriptive; you can rename your worksheets to reflect what they contain.

For example, in an annual budget workbook, each worksheet might contain budgets for individual months:
  * Double-click on one of the existing worksheet names.
  * Type the new name
  * Press Enter.
The worksheet tab is renamed.

You can use names with up to 31 characters; composed of any characters and even include spaces.

Additionally you can tint the worksheet tabs in the colours of your choice:
  * Right click on the worksheet tab
  * Left click on Tab color.
  * Left click on the required colour and click OK.

Terence Kierans
Cyberspace Virtual Services
tkierans@virtualservices.com.au
http://www.virtualservices.com.au/
We keep your project on the boil, while you sleep

1. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE WRITING WORKSHOP: Advice on writing
http://www.utoronto.ca/ucwriting/handouts.html

2. NEWSROOM 101.COM: Offers around 1,650 free, self-instructional exercises for journalists, writers, editors, students and others who want to review (or learn) journalistic language, as governed by the Associated Press Stylebook.
http://www.newsroom101.com/

3. SPELL IT: Scripps National Spelling Bee study site created in cooperation with Merriam-Webster. Spell It! focuses on about 700 words, divided into sections by language of origin. Studying language of origin will enable you to learn and remember several important rules, tips, and guidelines for successfully spelling words in English—the most challenging language of all for spellers!
http://www.myspellit.com/

Main Entry:oti-ose
Pronunciation:**-sh*-**s, **-t*-
Function:adjective
Etymology:Latin otiosus, from otium leisure
Date:1794

1 : producing no useful result : FUTILE
2 : being at leisure : IDLE
3 : lacking use or effect : FUNCTIONLESS
synonyms see VAIN
  –oti-ose-ly adverb
  –oti-ose-ness noun
  –oti-os-i-ty \**-sh*-**-s*-t*, **-t*-\ noun

*By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.m-w.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

1. DISABOOM: Connecting the millions touched by disability
http://disaboom.com/

2. LOGOLOUNGE: 2007 Trends in Logo Design.
http://www.logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=540

3. I LOVE TYPOGRAPHY
http://ilovetypography.com/

4. BILL STOLLER'S PUBLICITY INSIDER UPDATE:
http://www.publicityinsider.com/freezine.asp

5. TEN RULES TO ACHIEVE PRICING CONFIDENCE
http://www.businessknowhow.com/money/pricingrules.htm

My area of Arizona is always busy in winter. I've already had house guests, watched all the fun of the Super Bowl from about two miles away, and commiserated with family experiencing snowstorms.

Speaking of snow, I spent Christmas week in Mossyrock, Washington, with family, and we had lots of snow. The morning of December 31, my brother, David and I drove up the hills behind Christmas Hills Tree Farm and got some wonderful pictures. The snow was 6-8 inches deep, and absolutely beautiful. We then headed back to the house, where I bid goodbye to the Burton family, and headed for Portland.

I spent New Year's Eve at home with my (now) senior cat, Shadow, and L'il Bear, who came to our house after our wonderful Bear died. L'il Bear is very cute (of course). And a natural comic.

Happy New Year!

Photo of firefighter by David B. Crook, Peoria AZ

Photo of Saguaro Skeleton taken January 2008 at Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix

Photo of Fairy Duster Blossoms taken January 2008 at Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix

Photo of Hawk taken January 2008 at Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix

Photo of Pond Reeds taken January 2008 at Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix

December 31, 2007 photo of three Noble Firs taken at Christmas Hills Tree Farm, Mossyrock, Washington

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