March-April 2009 - Issue #68

• Intro
  
• Article
  
• The Office Corner
  
• The Human Resources Corner by Anne Caldwell
  
• Grammar Question of the Month - Capitalization: Titles/Offices Part 1
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans - EXCEL
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Word of the Month - Spate
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  
• Judy's Photo Gallery
  

* I mentioned colleague/client Jeannine Clontz in the last issue. Here's what she said after reading it: "Thanks for your help in getting my VA site updated during the same time that I was setting up my coaching programs. You are the lifeblood of my online business identity for that business, and the turnaround time always blows me away. I?m so grateful to have you on my team." http://www.vabizcoach.com/

* The last few months has been a time of making new friends, locally and on the Internet, and of getting into social networking to see how it might affect me, my clients, and my colleagues...and what I can do to help others.

I've put together two sites I'm excited about: one for the Arizona Center for Disability Law (http://acdlaw.ning.com/) and one for the families of children with disabilities, which includes groups of people who already have service dogs, and those who will be getting them in the future (http://4pawsdogs.ning.com). Take a peek. You can start a social network at a site like Ning.com, if you're interested in connecting people. As you know, I'm a connector.

This article is a blend of various thoughts and ideas. Web design for the disabled...comparing email newsletters with a blog...thoughts on Content Management Systems (CMS), and copywriting/editing.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES NEED GREAT DESIGN TO NAVIGATE WEB In thinking about the target market, how often do we keep the disabled in mind, wonders Glenda Watson Hyatt - Author, Blogger & Podcaster, http://www.doitmyselfblog.com. Hyatt lists some obstacles that the rest of us with disabilities face on the web:

* Flickering or flashing designs can cause seizures in people with certain neurological disorders.
* Without captioning, people with hearing impairments cannot appreciate multimedia content such as on-line newscasts, movies, and lectures.
* For individuals with little or no hand control, using a mouse can be very difficult. Being required to "click" on a tiny area to access information can be an obstacle.
* Inconsistent page layout and poor information design can be disorienting and confusing to any user, particularly to individuals with cognitive impairments.

Visit her blog. Glenda's a wonder who types with one thumb, and comes up with some dynamic material. She also creates presentations for groups.

AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER OR A BLOG?
"...which is better, an e-mail newsletter or a blog?" asks Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today, as he writes an article for his website. (http://www.wilsonweb.com/email/wilson-ezines-vs-blogs.htm) "Each has its place. For my carefully written and (hopefully) enduring articles and stories, an e-mail newsletter and website archives will be my medium of choice. For short, transient comments on books, articles, and current events, blogging is best.

Of course, "Which is best?" begs the real question that we must ask ourselves, and Wilson recommends that we ask ourselves: "Are you communicating with your customers by any regular means? If not, you've got a world of possibilities, marketing power, and profits awaiting you. Go for it!"

Visit Dr. Wilson's site at http://www.wilsonweb.com/

CONTENT MANAGEMENT (SOFTWARE)
Gerry McGovern admits that content management was, and to a large extent still is, about content management software. He indicates that the school of content management brought us such developments as portals, customization, personalization, and distributed publishing.

However, he asserts that these management-free, technology-driven solutions have led to huge amounts of "public websites and intranets teeming with poor quality, badly organized, out-of-date content."

McGovern's concerned because CMS sites were supposed to bring web self-service, and while that can happen, too often it doesn't.

"What do you get when you personalize crap content? he asks. "Personalized crap content." We still need quality people to manage websites if we want those sites to deliver value to the organization, he says.

So again we see that technology can be wonderful, but knowledge of human behavior is critical. If you have a say-so in what kind of a website will work best for an organization or a business, read his blog post at Giraffe Forum. http://cli.gs/H203Ua

QUALITY IN WEBSITE DESIGN/ORGANIZATION

I recently consulted on content for a web developer, and she totally impressed me with her organizational, design, and graphic abilities. The majority of her strengths are in these areas, but her ability to write is quite good, as well.

That said, she's savvy enough to know that good writing and good copywriting are somewhat different. Her hiring me allows me to provide her with ideas for copy that may better reach out and touch her visitors. Her open attitude allows us to brainstorm and come up what may be best for her business.

Truly an honor to be part of her team.

1. FILE EXTENSION RESOURCE: A huge file extension list including easy-to-understand descriptions and associated applications. Quickly search by extension, view common and most popular file extensions, and click to extension categories including audio and music files, multimedia, graphic and image file types and others.
http://www.file-extensions.org/

2. TO-DO LIST: It's a good idea to have a "To Do List" for every day.

3. THANK YOU CARDS: Whether they're postcards or notecards w/envelopes, it's a good idea to keep them handy in your desk, and use for ever so many things. Nothing works like saying "Thanks."

Not many organizations invest time in determining the environment they want to create. Companies are rare who establish their corporate culture by asking, "Who are we and what do we want to stand for?"

Few interviewers discuss the working atmosphere in any great detail. When potential employees hear how much thought you have put into creating an environment where people are appreciated and acknowledged, they will be drawn to consider your offer more seriously than other companies.

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

In general, civil, military, religious and professional titles are capitalized when they immediately precede a personal name (the title is used as part of the name).

Lowercase titles, usually, when they follow a name or are used in place of a name. Here are some general examples:

President Obama; the president
General Eisenhower; the general
Governor Brewer; the governor

CMS 15 says that although both first and second names may be used after a title, such usage is generally avoided informal prose. It's also necessary to mention a title once and needn't be repeated each time the person's name is mentioned.

More on Titles and Offices in the next issue.

Calculate A Person's Age

To quickly calculate a person's age use Excel's DATEDIF function.

For example, you want to determine those employees who are within say five years of the retirement age of 65.

Column A lists the employee names; column B their birth dates. To find the age (in years) of the first employee listed in A2, enter the following function in C2:

=DATEDIF(B2, TODAY(), "Y")

Excel will display the age in years of the employee listed in A2. To find the rest of the employees' ages, just drag cell C2 down column C. To determine the exact age of each employee in years, months, and days, enter the following formula in C2:

=DATEDIF(B2,NOW(),"y") &" years," & DATEDIF(B2,NOW(),"ym") &" months," & DATEDIF(B2,NOW(),"md") & " days"
This formula will return the age as a text string; for example 60 years, 4 months, 3 days.

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. BOOK PRODUCTION, Services for Authors and Self Publishers
http://wordpix.com/authors/index.asp

2. SEVENTEEN WRITING TIPS BY AUDREY OWEN:
http://www.writershelper.com/writingtips.html

3. WRITER'S BLOCK: Wikipedia not only explains it, but offers strategies to overcome it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writer%27s_block

4. TOP TEN GRAMMAR PROBLEMS: Guidelines from The Brief Penguin Handbook
http://wire.rutgers.edu/p_grammar_top10.html#comma

Main Entry:spate
Pronunciation:*sp*t
Function:noun
Etymology:Middle English
Date:15th century

1 : FRESHET, FLOOD
2 a : a large number or amount *a spate of books on gardening* b : sudden or strong outburst : RUSH *a spate of anger*

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

1. FIX YOUR BROKEN MARKETING, A BLOG BY JODI KAPLAN, who says: "I write the Fix Your Broken Marketing blog to help small businesses that have been spending money on web sites and brochures, but not getting the results they want. I started this blog because small businesses often know quite a bit about their businesses, but not about marketing. I've spent over 20 years providing copywriting and marketing services that improve the return businesses get, and often save them money too." Jodi's the real deal.
http://kaplancopy.com/blog/

2. WHAT'S NEXT BLOG, BY BL OCHMAN: If you are interested in amazing marketing ideas, building social media and social networking skills and knowledge, and dazzling communication, you may want to subscribe to her blog at http://www.whatsnextblog.com/.

3. CONDENSE THOSE URLS: There's no need to confuse people by sending long URLs that get broken up in email messages. Try Cli.gs. Why? Well, Jill Whalen uses it, and that's good enough for me. Sure, you have to login each time you turn the computer on, but among other things, Cligs keeps a record of how many click-throughs there were. You find out what works and what doesn't. Now that's helpful. Plus there are a number of great analytical tools.
http://cli.gs/

A fast, furious, yet wonderful two months has zipped by as I try to do all the things I think I should, along with those I think I must.

Arizona is beautiful in the winter, and this means spending time with happy visitors. Martha Retallick just spent the weekend here, and we grabbed our cameras and submerged ourselves in the glory of Phoenix's Desert Botanical Garden, including the Chihuly exhibit on Saturday and Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium on Sunday. Brother David Crook joined us Sunday. Way too much fun.

See you in June! ...and now, to go out and tackle the weeds in my yard!

Bella McDaniel in Judy's back yard. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

Fish at Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

Duck at Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

Prickly Pear Beaver Tail Cactus in Judy's Front Yard. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

Happy Fish at Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium. Photo by Judy Vorfeld

image

Octopus at Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium. Photo by Judy Vorfeld