Judy Vorfeld – Page 4

West Valley Think Tank enjoys catered lunch

November 9, 2009 By Administrator

800-thinktank Today was my birthday, and I couldn’t think of anything more fun than to invite some very special people and have one of them cater the lunch.

Anne Caldwell, who is a human resources guru, is also a terrific caterer, and she came into my home this morning and took over while I went back to the office and worked. She produced lunch, and I produced Web pages and did bookwork.

Then it was time for my guests to arrive, including my brother and his camera, and we sat down to a delightful lunch. Anne is fairly new to our group, as is Julie Moran, but the rest of us, including Jen Muench and Elsbeth Oggert (who couldn’t join us today), have been part of the group for over a year.

In the picture above, from left, are Anne Caldwell, Lois Epps, Julie Moran, Janet Crook, Ruthann Clemens, Roseann Ritterby, and me.

punchbowl What do we do? Brainstorm. Help each other out with business ideas. Help with organizational ideas for small businesses and nonprofits. (One of our members is starting up a nonprofit, and another is a social worker.) Analyze projects brought in by one or another of us. Analyze and critique as needed. Learn how to use new technology. Learn how to navigate in the world of social networking.

We’re a group of authentic people who have a great deal of life experience, enthusiasm, and energy. While we certainly look back at what we’ve learned, we tend to look forward as we discover way to make our businesses work in this new age. Marketing and communication are two of our main focus points. A diverse group, which makes things very refreshing, we try to think outside the taco.

Back to Anne Caldwell. Her catering business is called “In Good Taste,” and she specializes in healthy, wholesome cuisine. The main dish and salad were delicious and colorful, and the Zero Sugar Dessert was to die for. She knows what she’s doing, and I recommend her highly. Give her a call at (602) 228-9191 to discuss how she can enhance your holiday experience. Her rates are very competitive, and she’s totally reliable.

The Internet: Homonym Heaven

October 28, 2009 By Administrator

By Judy Vorfeld

as-bronzecluster-op Have you ever visited a visually attractive site and then spotted phrases such as, “If your interested in learning more about our Websight, e-mail us,” or “This product comes with an unconditional guarantee. It’s high quality will make you’re life better!”? How about, “Body fat problems? We can help. Of coarse you need patients when it comes to reducing the access around you’re waste.”

You have just entered the puzzling world of homonyms (same: homo – name: nym). A homonym is a word with the same pronunciation as another but with a different meaning and origin and usually, different spelling as well. These little critters run rampant through cyberspace, especially on Websites, often turning away potential clients/customers.

Rather than rip apart people who use homonyms in their text, I want to offer some friendly help. We’ll use some of the most common mistakes and offer alternatives according Webgrammar’s Style!

ALL RIGHT vs. ALRIGHT
All right: all right means okay, satisfactory, agreeable, safe, good, well.

Alright: While alright is used often in fictional dialogue, and is still preferred by some writers of journalistic and business publications, we’ll merely say that it is outdated for daily use.

ITS vs. IT’S
Its: The possessive form of the pronoun it. NEVER written with an apostrophe. Since most possessives have apostrophes, this confuses many people.

It’s: contraction of it is and it has. Examples: It’s time to go … It’s been great … It’s a well-designed site.

YOUR vs. YOU’RE
Your shows ownership: it’s your choice … it’s your money … it’s your Website.

You’re is a contraction of “you” and “are.” Example: You’re heading in the right direction.

Both words: “You’re taking a big risk with your animated graphics.”

THEIR vs. THEY’RE vs. THERE
Their: possessive form of the word “they.” As with the possessive of it, you do NOT use an apostrophe for this word. You say, “Their site is colorful, crisp, and clear.”

They’re: Contraction of the words “they” and “are.” Example: They’re giving away powerful prizes.

There: at or in that place, e.g., “Now there is a sound system to die for.”

All three: They’re eating their hot fudge sundaes before heading over there.

PRINCIPAL vs. PRINCIPLE
Principal: first in authority; main participant; amount of a debt, investment, minus the interest, or on which interest is computed. Examples: She is a high school principal … K. A. Simpson is a principal in the firm … he still owes $5,000 on the principal.

Principle: basic truth or assumption. His ethics and principles are lower than a snake slithering on its stomach.

If you’re a Website owner who has problems with homonyms, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or just plain writing, don’t be discouraged! You have a number of choices:

Ignore the fact and hope no one notices. After all, you have a great product or service!
Keep a good dictionary on your desk at all times, use it frequently, and guard it with your life.
Hire a copyeditor to proof your words.
Ask a friend to proof your words. If your friend isn’t tactful and you’re rather sensitive, you may end up with one less friend and a hole in your heart.
Find one of the many sites designed to help you with specific grammar and language problems. See the list below.
Ask Webgrammar for advice at mailto:webgrammar@webgrammar.com
HELPFUL SITES:

Alan Cooper’s Homonyms
Self-study Homonym Quizzes
Notorious Confusables
Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, & Heteronyms

For more information, contact Judy Vorfeld

How to Create an ASCII Text Ezine

October 23, 2009 By Administrator

INTRODUCTION
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Have you ever viewed the source of a Web page? When you click “View Source,” the code that pops up in a box is in your computer system’s default text editor. For most PCs, the default is NotePad or WordPad.

What’s the difference between text ezines and all others? A true text ezine is created in text editors like Notepad, NoteTab, WordPad and UltraEdit. Such documents are often called Full Text Documents. Each byte represents one character. What you create is exactly what the reader sees, fonts included. Most of the time. No hidden codes or macros.

If you have any coding that doesn’t use a fixed-width font like Courier new, creates colored backgrounds, etc., it’s not considered an ASCII (plain text) publication.

Most word processors (Word, Works, WordPerfect, etc.) have the CAPACITY to create plain text documents, but often the automatic formatting processes get in the way. This is why many people use a plain text editor for creating ezines.

TEXT EDITORS

The easiest route is to use text editing software that creates simple ASCII text, like Notepad, NoteTab, WordPad, and UltraEdit. These programs use a monospace (fixed width) font like Courier that looks the same in email readers regardless of platforms or operating systems.

NO FORMATTING, BULLETING, UNDERLINING, BOLDING, ITALICS

No formatting.
No bullets.
No underlining.
No bolding.
No italics.

Everything is done by typing and the space bar. You want bullets? Use the asterisk key. You want to tab? Use the space bar. Because the text is in ASCII, there are no macros or hidden codes.

CHARACTER WIDTH GUIDELINES

Choose the number of characters per line you’ll use. A good rule of thumb is 65. Most plain text programs have a ruler to help.

If you use a program like Word, choose Courier or Courier New for your font and make sure to hit “Enter” when you’re close to 65 characters.

Use a hard return (enter key) at the end of each line.

If your program doesn’t have a ruler, here are a couple of ways to figure out line width: use the numbers, where each “x” stands for 10, 20, etc., or use the “equal” sign 65 times:

123456789x123456789x123456789x123456789x123456789x123456789x12345

Why the fuss about 65 characters per line? Everything depends on the recipient’s email program, and many email programs are set (automatically or by the user) to wrap incoming messages at a maximum of 65-70 characters per line. If you have no character limit, but have just typed away, you can bet that some recipients will have jagged sentences within paragraphs, like this:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor.
Invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.At vero eos et accusam.
Et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet cl whatever. Ugly. Unreadable. Forgettable.

WORD WRAP

I create my ezines in NoteTab, and wrapping it at 65 characters, but I do it with Word Wrap turned off. That’s because I can CREATE it with Word Wrap, but it won’t read that way on all email programs.

So: because automatic Word Wrap only works on some email programs, be safe where all email readers are concerned, use the Enter key at the end of every line.

Because you don’t want one line to go on forever, and because you also will edit, set your Word Wrap to something like 85. Then, when your paragraph is the way you want it, go back and make sure every line ends on or near 65. Of course, you may be one of those enviable people who writes well the first time. Just hit Enter as you go along.

VISUAL BEAUTY? CHOOSE YOUR PRIORITIES

Do you think a text ezine is unattractive? Perhaps so. But it can’t transmit viruses, worms, or Trojan Horses, takes very little bandwidth, and looks the same in every email program. Use your creativity to make it as clean and crisp as possible.

WRITING THE EZINE

I strongly recommend you use a template. If you don’t have one, get mine (https://www.ossweb.com/ez-ezine-template.html), and once you’ve downloaded it, modify it to suit your needs.

I also suggest that you take a few minutes and create a brief style guide for your ezine. If you have someone proof it, s/he can refer to it. Decide issues like spacing, punctuation, headers, capitalization, dates, abbreviations, line spacing, etc.

Here’s an example:

Any grouping that has a series of numbers will be punctuated like this:

1. TITLE, CAPITALIZED AND FOLLOWED BY COLON: Leave two spaces before getting to the description of site/item.

PROOFING THE EZINE

Read every word and punctuation mark out loud. Use spellcheck. If I’m in doubt, I usually copy and paste my ezine into Word to see if it will catch any errors in spelling or usage. I leave the document open in NoteTab and make changes as needed.

Before you send it out, email yourself a copy and see how it looks when you get it back. I find that sometimes word wrap didn’t work (especially if I was cutting and pasting), and this quick test helped correct the situation.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Make sure you have your email address at the beginning and the end of your ezine. If, anywhere in your publication, you want to have readers contact you on a specific subject, try using this format, which works in most email programs:

mailto:you@yourdomain.com?subject=ezine_survey

If you have more than one word in the subject area, use a hyphen or underscore character to keep everything connected.

SENDING IT OUT

Some people send text ezines using email programs like Outlook, Outlook Express, The Bat, Eudora, Netscape, etc. Others use CGI programs like SubscribeMe. I’ve used SubscribeMePro, but SubscribeMe Lite is free. All you need is a CGI programmer like Will Bontrager.

Using a CGI program like SubscribeMe means that first, you have a website, with your own domain. You will then have backup copies of all your subscribers’ email addresses in your domain directory.

Others use free Web resources like SubscribeMeLite, Yahoo Groups etc., while yet others hire a third-party Web businesses like Constant Contact to manage subscriptions and send out the ezines. At this rewrite in October 2009, I’m using my host’s software program. It’s free, and while there are a few things I’m not comfortable with, it is an excellent program and also means that when my host gets a notification that I’ve sent spam, they know I didn’t and take care of things for me.

You can read many articles about the right day to send out ezines. I try to send mine late Monday evening, Arizona time, or early Tuesday morning.

SUMMARY

** HTML ezines have formatting commands written in HTML. The best are created using tables. If you want to see how it works, create a brief HTML page with a few variations in color, font size, etc., then save it, go to your email program, and mail it to yourself as an attachment.

Most recipients get HTML ezines right in the body of their email programs. A few email programs can receive HTML messages as attachments. It all depends on the email program. But there is no guarantee that your HTML ezine will look the same in every recipient’s email program.

** TEXT ezines use one standard. For the most effective look, hit the Enter key on or before going beyond 65 or so characters.

If I’ve missed anything that could be helpful, let me know, at this email address.

RESOURCES

1. ASCII TABLE
http://www.asciitable.com/

2. ASCII TABLE 7 BIT:
http://www.neurophys.wisc.edu/www/comp/docs/ascii.html

3. ASCII: WEBOPEDIA
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/ASCII.html

4. A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO EZINE PUBLISHING
http://www.epdigest.com/beginner/

5. TEXT EDITORS
http://www.tucows.com
On home page, click on Windows, and when the next screen opens, type “text editors” in the search window. It has both HTML and text editors, but you’ll find all the good text editors there. Most are freeware; some are shareware.

I highly recommend that you begin with NoteTabLite. If you like it, you can upgrade later to NoteTabPro for $19.95. Tremendous range of functions. Example:

I went to the Tools/Text Statistics section and it shows the following:

Different words/items counted: 601
Total Words: 1449
Total Punctuation: 280
Total Other Text: 39
Total Characters: 8940
Total Paragraphs: 241

It shows every word and character used in the document, how many times they were used, and gives the percentage. Once you’ve saved your document, you can click Document/Disk File Properties and see the size in kilobytes. This document is 9.18 KB (9,410 bytes). Experts suggest the maximum one should send in one email is 40kb. Larger than this may be rejected by email program or ISP.

I write my Twitter Grammar Tips in NoteTabPro because I can quickly select the text, click an icon, and see how many characters I’ve used.

6. JUDY’S FREE EZ-EZINE TEMPLATE
https://www.ossweb.com/ez-ezine-template.html

7. SUBSCRIBEME SHAREWARE
http://www.siteinteractive.com/subscribe/

8. NOTETAB SHAREWARE
http://www.notetab.com/features.php

For more information, contact Judy Vorfeld.

How to paint a powerful portrait of your business

October 22, 2009 By Administrator

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Would you search the Internet for a professional (e.g., CPA, physician, attorney, financial planner) and, upon finding a stunning Web site, plunk down your hard-earned money without checking that person’s credentials?

When shopping on the Internet, do you head for www.harryanddavid.com or for www.heretodaygonetomorrow.com? When you buy clothing, do you click on www.nordstrom.com, or www.cheapandsleazyduds.com?

That’s easy. Most of us prefer working with those Internet businesses having the best reputation for quality of product or service, invoicing, packing and shipping, and customer service.

But how can small or new businesses on the Internet compete with those like Harry and David and Nordstrom? What do successful Web business owners know that beginners do not? Much of it has to do with credentials, credibility, self-respect, and respect for others.

Successful bricks and mortar businesses, regardless of size and location, know that they must have quality products. They know that they must not only get the prospect into the store, but must make sure that they communicate everything clearly: prices, sizes, shapes, attributes, return policy, etc. They must provide pleasantly lighted surroundings with the proper temperature. And they must treat customers with respect. They must show that they value the customers’ time.

Their shoppers don’t need someone hovering nearby, but they do need to know help is always available, and that they will not be treated as criminals if they bring back a product that was the wrong size, the wrong model, or that has flaws.

The same principles hold true for a virtual business. If you want your business to succeed on the Web, spend some time and effort reflecting yourself. Your ethics. Your attitude toward your community. Treat your visitors with respect. How, you ask, do you respectfully treat a person you will never meet?

J. C. Penney Company has a site just for the full-figured woman. People can create their own permanent model based on the specifications they give online. The concept is dazzling and successful. They’re aware of the sensitivity involved in asking someone to give weight and body dimensions. Check out their Just4Me privacy statement. This company is sensitive to the privacy its shoppers require and deserve. Way to go, J. C. Penney!

Design an About Us page or group of pages. Create a business profile/resume as part of the area. Mention community involvement, such as volunteer work (schools, church, nonprofits, etc.). Note any professional affiliations, and any significant awards. Provide links to professional associations or organizations whenever possible. Write a bio of yourself in the form of a press release that people can easily find on your site. Whatever works for you.
Post a privacy policy (to learn more about privacy policies, go to http://privacypolicy.com). Visitors need to know that while you may collect statistics on them, you will never SPAM them. Never. Find a Privacy Wizard to make a privacy policy for your site.
Consider affiliating yourself with a group of ethical Internet professionals who will hold you accountable for your business ethics. Place the group’s graphic on your pages when possible. If the graphic’s too large, make a text link to the organization’s URL. Put the name of the organization in as a keyword or as keywords in your Meta tags. Be creative.
Post your business name, address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address on every page of your site. Many people cannot click on “mailto” links, so the very best way is to link to your contact page. If possible, list prices for your services. Make everything on your site easy to navigate. This says, “I care about you” to the visitor.
If you have trouble spelling and punctuating, hire someone to check your site text for typos. If you can’t afford to hire someone, try bartering, or ask a friend or relative for help. Everything about your site – your text, graphics, design, and layout – makes a strong statement regarding the value you place on your visitor and on yourself. You will probably make mistakes, even when trying. We all do. And when someone brings it to your attention, you have the opportunity to make a new friend.
Find a niche. Please! Even if your niche is as a multi-talented specialist. Don’t try to sell your product or services to the entire world. Search for a way to show your uniqueness. Are you a specialist in something? Talk about how you use that specialty to ease the businessperson’s stress. It doesn’t mean you can’t have other profit centers/niches. And if you have several specialties, clearly list them.

It’s okay to start out being ignorant of the components that help make a successful Web business. It’s also okay to work and re-work in an effort to improve your presentation. Talented, enthusiastic people run rampant through the Internet and your community. These wonderful people sometimes offer free help and mentoring for inexperienced business owners and designers. Search for the equipment to paint an authentic picture of yourself.

Make it easy for visitors to grasp the level of your professionalism. Let them see that you are there to make their lives easier. That you’re trustworthy. That they can hire you for a project and expect you to see it through to the end. Efficiently and cost-effectively. You’ve then started painting enough of a picture for them to decide whether or not to transact business with you. It’s a process that never stops.

For more information, contact Judy Vorfeld.