September-October 2009 - Issue #71

• Intro
  
• Article - Ready to Launch Your Online Business?
  
• The Office Corner
  
• The Human Resources Corner by Anne Caldwell
  
• Grammar Question of the Month - "If" / "Whether" & "Might" / "May"
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Word of the Month - anomaly
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  
• Judy's Photo Gallery
  

* May I introduce two of my latest makeover clients: Farrell's Hawaii and Valley View Health Care. I worked with the fabulous design talent of Elsbeth Oggert (http://www.itsanoffice.com) and the Farrell's Hawaii team, and we had fun. Fabulous fun. My biggest problem was the very realistic pictures of food and ice cream creations. They made me so hungry. Over and over. We'll be doing more with the site in the future. Find it at http://www.farrellshawaii.com.

Valley View Health Center (http://www.vvhc.org) has its headquarters in Chehalis, Washington, where I lived for ten years. The achievements of this nonprofit organization are amazing. It has five locations to help the under-insured and uninsured of Lewis County. The center offers dental, medical, and behavioral health support.

* I'd also like to recommend that you visit The Chancer Chronicles, http://www.thechancerchronicles.com/index.html and take a look at the book "My Invisible World," by Morasha Winokur. Her brother, Iyal, has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD) and she writes about life with Iyal and his FASD Service Dog, Chancer. It's a valuable book that gives many insights into a loving family dealing with profound challenges.

* HOMELESS FOR THE HOLIDAYS is an eBook by Becky Blanton full of great ideas on how to support the needs of the homeless. "Being homeless is not a crime someone commits. It is a condition someone experiences." (She was homeless for a year.) http://homeless4theholidays.com/index_files/Homeless4holidaysFINAL.pdf

Also, watch her talk last summer at TED in Oxford, England: http://www.ted.com/talks/becky_blanton_the_year_i_was_homeless.html

I'd like to wish you the happiest of holidays.

By Judy Vorfeld

Are you ready for your grand opening? If you've spent lots of time studying what works and what doesn't, in terms of customer expectations and search engine essentials: go for it! Before you launch, however, why not go over your check list one more time?

DOMAIN NAME
You bought your own domain name and have a good Web hosting service. You've made it as easy as possible for people to relate the domain name to your business. If you couldn't get the domain name you wanted, you'll brand your business so people will have some point of reference.

TEXT
Your site has readable text. You avoided dark text on a black background; too small a font size; big blobs of bolded text; bulky paragraphs; underlined text that is not actually hyperlinked; and putting the text too close to the edge of a box or table cell. You don't have unusually wide lines of text, strange fonts for your body text, or too many italics. You made sure that link text can be read, easily, when it's on top of any block of color.

Most importantly, you know that your website is all about your visitors, not about you. You understand them, and describe how you can help solve their problems. You don't play on their fears, but you know they're there, and you carefully show how you can give them something solid. Something authentic. Something that will calm their fears.

GRAMMAR
You have excellent punctuation, spelling, and usage. Your words clearly define the reason for your site, and you worked hard to create powerful sentences and headings. You use "its" when it means possession, and "it's" when it means "it is" or "it has." You use "their" when it means possession; "they're" when it means "they are"; and "there" when it means "in (or at) that place."

CONTACT INFORMATION
You offer clear contact information, including a mailing address. You've placed your business name, address, and phone and fax numbers, plus your e-mail address, at the bottom of every page.

GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION
Aware that you have just a few seconds to hook visitors into remaining on your site, you optimized all your graphics so they load quickly. You've visited enough sites to know that graphics must enhance, not overpower, both visually and in terms of loading time. You avoided animation, knowing that it detracts from the text. And you--wonderful you--didn't use the dreaded marquee feature and scrolling status bar text!

A FLASHY SITE
You used Flash in your design, but very carefully. You've visited many Flash-based sites where loading time was excessive and you left, never to return. Plus, you're aware that all-Flash sites usually hold no interest for most search engines.

MISPLACED HUMOR
You have a terrific sense of humor, but you avoided trying to be cute or clever by using phrases like, "heh heh" or "hee hee" on your site. Best of all, you didn't use ONE smiley emoticon! :)

ABOUT YOU
While you didn't give your life history, you revealed who you are and why you have your online business. You want potential customers to know that you have a legitimate business and hope to build a long-term relationship of trust and respect.

PRIVACY POLICY
In line with building trust and respect, you offer a good privacy policy.

NAVIGATION AND SITE ORGANIZATION
Visitors can move seamlessly from one page to another on your site, because you sat down and effectively organized your site's hierarchy . . . um, make that "outline" or "directory." You also put text links of your most important pages at the bottom of each page. And since some pages are necessarily long, you inserted "top" anchors and "top of page" hyperlinks for ease of navigation.

BARRIERS: CALLING OUT THE RESOLUTION, BROWSERS, & PLUG-INS
Way to go! You avoided telling visitors what browser, resolution, and plug-ins they must (or should) use. Instead, you designed for the widest possible audience, using at least three major browsers for testing; checked your pages using a good site validation program; and fixed what didn't work. During this phase, you asked several people to test your site, including some who use AOL, WebTV and a Mac. And you get a gold star for not using an "under construction" graphic on unfinished pages.

CONCLUSION
Lots of people upload unfinished business sites, and then scamper around the Web applying for every possible award. Do you wonder why? Some hope they'll get free ideas for site improvement. Others hope to impress their visitors with their lists of awards. But you decided to put the horse before the cart. You worked hard, had a good checklist, tested carefully, and are ready to open for business.

Sure, you'll make changes. Every website is constantly under construction. You plan to study those professionals offering solid advice for online businesses, or hire someone who can do that for you. Or both. You stand out, because you offered the best you had at the beginning, rather than opening with a weak, skeleton-like framework that you'll fill in when you find the time. Congratulations!

Now get out there and network. Locally and on the Internet. Let others get to know you and your business.

1. TRANSLATE INTERNET SLANG: Enter internet slang or IM acronyms such as idk, afk, blog, or lol and our dictionary will translate ur netspeak.
http://www.noslang.com/

2. CALCULATE ME: Calculates almost anything: Temperature, Currency Exchange Rates, Convert Between US and UK Recipes, Gas Mileage, Roman Numerals, Area, Astronomy, Beer Volume, Butter, Computer Storage, Energy, Length, Power, Speed, Time, Volume, Weight, Wine Volume. Etc.
http://www.calculateme.com/

3. More and more of us are doing business across multiple time zones. WORLD TIME SERVER lets you check the current time in just about any location, not just in major cities. It tracks Daylight Savings/Summer Time so you won't ever miss a conference call, and you can even read the local news...From Terence Kierans
http://www.worldtimeserver.com/

4. In my research reports, I frequently have to look up historic monetary exchange rates. For this task, I head to FXConverter, which converts 164 currencies. FXCONVERTER is available in seven languages. Just enter an amount, a date, and the currencies - and you'll quickly get your answer ...From Terence Kierans
http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic

5. Online calculators have been cropping up on the Internet for years, but no one does it better than MARTINDALE'S CALCULATORS ON-LINE CENTER. This collection of business and management tools helps you calculate costs involved with direct mail, employee turnover, and equipment leasing, and more....From Terence Kierans
http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators1B_2_Bus.html

Have you determined what critical skills your organization, and therefore, your managers must have? In order to be most successful, executive teams must have considered the direction they want the business to take, and what skills will be needed in order to make that happen.

It is imperative to assess applicants in regards to what qualities and competencies are essential for that next step in your corporate strategy. You must think through what will move your plan along and what skills you need in order to do that. When these are properly delineated and selected, they provide a basis for a skills matrix to which each candidate is compared.

These might include the ability to allocate tasks to others, to design and institute a strategic course, to possess a high level of problem-solving and decision-making skills, establishing rapport and building relationships, interpersonal and communications skills or fiscal expertise. The practice of strategizing and distinguishing aptitudes takes time, and cannot happen without the commitment from the executive level of the company, but it is essential if you are truly dedicated to creating an effective management team.

Whether your senior staff comes from internal pools or if you recruit from outside, maintain the approach to using the matrix of skills that you have identified as necessary or preferred, and compare each prospective manager to those. A simple spreadsheet can be created that lists the attributes across the top with a code that indicates which are non-negotiable and which would be advantageous.

Make a row for each candidate and make notations in the columns regarding each of the skill sets. You could set a numerical range to indicate where they rank in that particular skill (e.g., 0 - 5 based on how closely they meet the need) or even an alphabetical grade (A-F, just like in school). Use this in conjunction with a more structured interview, especially in the case of inexperienced interviewers, so that you are essentially asking everyone the same questions.

Have more than one person interview each candidate, preferably at the same time so all the same ground is covered. These steps make it easier to compare apples to apples when reviewing the candidates after the interviews.

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

By Professor Harold V. Cordry

My sense is that "whether" implies the negative alternative more strongly than a simple "if" does. The negative possibility is emphasized even more, of course, in "whether or not."

A related point: "might" implies a lesser degree of likelihood than "may."

"We may go."

"We might go."

Here's a case error I see pretty frequently:

WRONG: I'll give the tickets to whomever wants them. (A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.) The writer sees the preposition "to" preceding the pronoun "whoever" (meaning whatever person) and thinks that "whoever" should be in objective case as the object of a preposition.

BUT Ask and answer this question: To whom will I give the tickets? Not simply to "whomever" (some person) but to "whoever wants them." Thus, the entire clause "whoever wants them" is the object of the preposition "to."

Rather elegant, yes?

Word currently checks both spelling and grammar as you create your document. Likely spelling errors are marked with a wavy red underline while possible grammar errors are marked with a wavy green underline. Present versions of Word have the facility to add more wavy underlines, like blue.

1. Select "Tools/Options". Word displays the "Options" dialog box.
2. Click on the "Edit" tab.
3. Check the "Keep Track of Formatting" check box.
4. Check the "Mark Formatting Inconsistencies" check box..
5. Click OK.

Word will now monitor the formatting in your document, in background, and mark dubious formatting with a wavy blue underline.

By right-clicking the underlined text, you will see exactly what Word suggests may be wrong with that selection.

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. MLA AND APA UPDATES: The Purdue OWL now hosts both the updated MLA guidelines and the updated APA guidelines. Our MLA resources, samples, and PowerPoint presentations reflect the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.) Our APA resources and PowerPoint presentations reflect the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/purdueowlnews/

2. NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

3. TYPEDIA: A SHARED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TYPEFACES: Typedia is a resource to classify, categorize, and connect typefaces.
http://typedia.com/

Main Entry:anom-a-ly
Pronunciation:*-*n*-m*-l*
Function:noun
Inflected Form:plural -lies
Date:1603

1 : the angular distance of a planet from its perihelion as seen from the sun
2 : deviation from the common rule : IRREGULARITY
3 : something anomalous : something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified

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

1. ESSENTIAL WEBSITES AND RESOURCES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS by Martha Retallick
http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/websites-for-photographers/

2. WINDOWS 7 OFFICIALLY RELEASED OCTOBER 22-to replace Vista
http://mashable.com/2009/10/22/windows-7-released/

3. DISNEY'S GOING DIGITAL: Buy Once, Watch Anywhere
http://mashable.com/2009/10/21/disney-going-digital/

It seemed to be a summer that refused to end. My only issue is that the recycled air in my home got a bit stale. But finally, just last week, summer waved goodbye. Now I have fresh air coursing through the house whenever I can. Even though there's dust and grit coming in. Who said life was perfect?

One of the experiences I'm enjoying is spending time with my Think Tank Tribes. My larger (yet still small) tribe meets every four to six weeks and we apply critical thinking to our own business issues and those of others for whom we've taken on a project. We brainstorm, and it's a gratifying experience. I'm seeing the good ways this group is bringing life into other businesses, and it's amazing.

September 2009 Prickly Pear Cactus in Judy's front yard - Original Photo

Cactus edited using Alien Skin's Oil Painting Filter

Cactus edited in Virtual Painter 5: Gouache filter

Cactus edited in Virtual Painter 5: Gothic Oil Painting filter

Cactus edited in Virtual Painter 5: Collage filter

Cactus edited in Virtual Painter 5: Air Brush filter

ARCHIVES FOR ALL COMMUNICATION EXPRESSWAY ISSUES
http://www.ossweb.com/ezine-archive-index.html

Questions, comments, recommendations?
Contact Judy Vorfeld at judyvorfeld@ossweb.com

TO SUBSCRIBE TO COMMUNICATION EXPRESSWAY
go to http://www.ossweb.com/ezine.html