January-February 2009 - Issue #67

• Intro
  
• Article - HIDDEN POWER OF CONTENT by Gerry McGovern
  
• The Office Corner
  
• The Human Resources Corner by Anne Caldwell
  
• Grammar Question of the Month - Avoiding Double Period
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans - Excel: Automatically format a cell
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Word of the Month - Yeoman's Job/Service
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  
• Judy's Photo Gallery
  

* Happy New Year! One of the articles I've linked to in this issue, Just Say "No" to Hourly Rates, is controversial for many of us. It is certainly worth considering, but in the long run, you alone know which would be best for your business.

* "...the way the content is written is even more important in helping to frame expectations," says Gerry McGovern on the hidden power of content. If you or your clients sell products, then you'll find this guest article valuable.

* Long-time colleague/client/friend/author launches website. Jeannine Clontz, one of the bright stars of the Virtual Assistant industry, recently launched "VA Business Coaching," at http://www.vabizcoach.com/. If you're a new VA or are not where you want to be in the industry, consider using her services. She's the best.

* Guest article by Gerry McGovern explores the need for bright, tightly written content.

Content influences offline purchasing behavior in profound ways. Its online influence is even greater.

"People say, I don't trust my own experience, but I trust those numbers," Christopher Hsee told Time Magazine in December 2008, when commenting on how people can be unduly influenced by product descriptions. Hsee, a professor of behavioral sciences and marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, ran a set of experiments in conjunction with researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In one experiment, people were asked to choose between two digital cameras. When shown examples of photos taken by each camera, 26 percent of people chose Model A. When a similar group of people were told beforehand "that model A was a 4-megapixel camera while model B was a 2-megapixel version, a full 75% chose model A," Time reported. "How information is presented can also have a drastic effect: when resolution was expressed as 2,900 dots on the diagonal as opposed to 4 million over the entire screen, preference for model A fell back to 51%."

In another experiment, a group were given two towels. One was much softer than the other. 57 percent of people chose the softer one. Another group were asked to draw circles based on how soft they thought the towels were-the larger the circle, the softer the towel. After drawing the circles they were then asked to choose a towel. 83 percent picked the softer towel, 26 percent higher than the other group. Turning their feelings and opinions into actual content changed the opinions of a significant percentage of people.

"It's not hard to imagine using a product, talking about it on a web site for other consumers, and, in the process, upping your own chances of buying more," wrote Barbara Kiviat, the author of the Time article. "One big problem with letting your buying be swayed by specs is that your underlying preferences likely don't change along with your purchase decisions - and so you wind up at home with things that don't make you as happy."

This was confirmed by a study called "Feature Fatigue", published by Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, which was featured in the February 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review. The study found that "consumers give more weight to a product's capability benefits and less weight to a product's usability before they use the product than after they use the product-despite the fact that a product's usability strongly influences their satisfaction with the product."

While "people prefer to purchase products with more features ... when people actually had a chance to use the product, they were more satisfied with the simpler version," the study stated. "Even though people want more features, companies need to balance initial purchases against long-term satisfaction and repurchases. They could eventually lose market share if people are consistently and systematically unhappy with their product."

Think about the Web for a moment. For many products we don't get a chance to 'hold' them, to try them. So, the way the content is written is even more important in helping to frame expectations. Web content needs to be managed in a rigorous, professional and scientific manner.

Content Management Solutions: Gerry McGovern
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com

1. VIDEO SPOKESMODEL: You can advertise your business, products, or services on any website with a real-life VideoSpokesModel (VSM) presenting it to them.
http://www.videospokesmodel.com/

2. THE BEST OF "THE PUBLICITY HOUND'S TIPS OF THE WEEK" from 2008
http://tinyurl.com/Bestof2008Tips

3. JUST SAY "NO" TO HOURLY RATES
http://www.businessknowhow.com/money/hourlyrates.htm

4. THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR OWN EMAIL ACCOUNT
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-importance-of-your-own-email-account/

5. UNIT INTERACTIVE: design professionalism, business practice, design craft, culture …and anything else they happen to be interested in sharing.
http://unitinteractive.com/blog/2009/01/19/redesigning-unit-interactive/

6. typographic posters
http://www.typographicposters.com/

How do we keep the best? Part 2
By Anne Caldwell
President, Outsourcing Solutions

HOW TO AVOID EMPLOYEE BURNOUT
Helping employees keep their work fresh is another way to avoid burnout. Meeting with staff on a quarterly basis and giving them the opportunity to trade some functions not only keeps them from being bored, it creates a cross- trained pool that can be useful in a crunch.

Take a half-day off once a quarter, splitting the crew in half if you need to maintain coverage. Take them to lunch and let them decide what to do with the afternoon - miniature golf, shooting pool, maybe even playing board games together.

TAKE THEM OUT TO LUNCH
Everyone appreciates being taken out to lunch and having the company spring for some entertainment, and it renews relationships within the group as well, releasing some of those resentments and differences that build up between co-workers.

FIND CREATIVE METHODS FOR BUILDING TEAM SPIRIT
Finally, find ways to let them acknowledge each other in some creative ways. Go to the local pawnshop and pick out the gaudiest bowling trophy you can find. Present it to a member of your staff, but make sure they're chosen for a specific act of going beyond the call of duty. It then becomes their responsibility to pass it on after it sits in glory on their desk for a week. They need to select someone carefully, based on a specific act.

All in all, people will tell you that a good salary is great, and a comprehensive benefits package is attractive. But the one thing you cannot undervalue is a positive, productive, and appreciative environment. Everybody wants to work there.

Find H/R expert Anne Caldwell at Outsourcing Solutions.
www.azoutsource.com

When an expression that takes a period ends a sentence, says Chicago Manual of Style 6.122, no additional period follows. Example: The study was funded by Heritage & Co.

When such an expression is followed by a comma, however, both period and comma appear. Example: Smith, et al., in Stories, describe the ordeal.

Automatically Format a Cell As You Type

You can use these tips to configure Excel to format cells as you type:
*	To enter a value in Currency format, just type a dollar sign [$] before the value. For example, type $100.00 to enter 100 dollars in Currency format.
*	To enter a value as a fraction, type 0, press the spacebar, and type the fraction (including the forward slash). To enter 1/12, type 0, press the spacebar, and type 1/12.
*	To enter a value in Percentage format, type a percent sign [%] after the value, as in 60%.

You may also format cells as text as you type. If you enter a zip code, say 09246, then, by default, Excel will format it as a number - 9246. So, to format it as text, type an apostrophe ['] before the zip code. Type '09246 and the cell will be formatted as text.

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. Copyediting-L (no dues)
Much specific Q&A about grammar, syntax, usage. Members are very "wordy."
http://www.copyediting-l.info

2. Editorial Freelancers Association (annual dues)
Email discussion group limited to Association members About evenly divided between copyediting Q&A/business issues
http://www.the-efa.org

3. Technical Editing SIG List (annual dues)
A special interest group of the Society for Technical Communication. There is also an online STC forum with an editing section.
http://www.stc-techedit.org

4. Freelance Writers Editors (no dues)
A relatively new list, mostly inhabited by editors and those of us who do both writing and editing, which concentrates on the business of writing and editing.
http://groups.google.com/group/freelancewriterseditors

5. TECHWR-L (no dues)
A discussion list for technical writers, with occasional short threads on editing. If you obsess on-list about editing issues, you will be told to join Copyediting-L
http://www.techwr-l.com

Another good link for writers: National Novel Writing Month
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Main Entry:yeo-man
Pronunciation:*y*-m*n
Function:noun
Etymology:Middle English yoman, yeman
Date:14th century

1 a : an attendant or officer in a royal or noble household b : a person attending or assisting another : RETAINER c : YEOMAN OF THE GUARD d : a naval petty officer who performs clerical duties
2 a : a person who owns and cultivates a small farm; specifically : one belonging to a class of English freeholders below the gentry b : a person of the social rank of yeoman
3 : one that performs great and loyal service *did a yeoman's job in seeing the program through

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

1. ULTIMATE TWITTER GUIDE
http://tinyurl.com/5nu6rs

2. CRASH HOT POTATOES
http://tinyurl.com/5rhqn9

3. WHY CHUNKING DOWN INCREASES YOUR EXPERT STATUS: by Sean D'Souza
http://www.psychotactics.com/artchunking_down

4. RECOMMENDED WEB HOSTS FOR YOUR WORDPRESS BLOG/SITE
http://hostwordpress.com/

5. OPEN LETTER TO THE WOULD-BE CEO BLOGGER
http://tinyurl.com/cdote8

6. 39 RESOURCES TO LAUNCH A BUSINESS
http://morecaffeineplease.com/?p=304

What a wild and wonderful two months. Absolutely crazy weather, trips to the zoo and Desert Botanical Garden, visits with visiting friends and relatives, fresh oranges begging to be squeezed (and I do that!), termites in my house, meetings with my two think tank tribes, plus the evolution of social networking. And clients wanting to upgrade their websites and documents. And more.

I am so grateful for my blessings, and you are a blessing to me. I hope you find something useful in this issue.

Shadow give L'il Bear some loving. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

Flamingo at Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

Dale Chihuly Exhibit at Desert Botanical Garden. Boat filled with colored glass balls. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

King Vulture at Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium. Edited by Judy Vorfeld. Photo by David Crook

Judy's Granddog, Nellie, with her favorite toy: a rubber chicken.
Photo by Kerrie Simpson

Judy wearing Shadow's photo on a PawFun.com shirt. Photo by David Crook

Bonnie Larner's cats, Weezer and Charlie, when they were kittens. Edited by Judy Vorfeld. Photo by Bonnie Larner

Yellow fish taken at Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

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