Archive for August 2006

Making Online and Offline Connections looks at how the virtual world changed how we connect to others. In it, I state that the online world made it possible for me to become a full-time freelancer. It got me thinking how I met people in this virtual world.

I met a few through blogs, especially in earlier days. We bloggers left comments or sent emails to each other. Over time, we learned about each other and became friends. Another is a client who became a friend. I found the client because I interviewed (by email, of course) a co-worker of his who connected us.

Two other clients come from referrals from someone I met on the Internet; one through his own blog and the other from working on a Web site together. IVWCC, an online networking group, also brought in more clients and friends.

I completed an online certification program at New York University. One of the professors asked me to be his TA (teacher assistant). Eventually, I lost the job because there were not enough students enrolled in the program to warrant a TA as a result of the dot com crash. Over a year later, NYU contacted me again (a different program) because someone from the previous program recommended me.

A recent gig came from the editor’s using the search engine to find me. He did a great job because my experience fit well with what he needed. I’ve also gotten gigs by replying to online ads.

Obviously, the Internet offers many routes for meeting people and finding gigs (emphasis on gigs as the chance of finding a full-time job is only about 8% as reported in a career-related column). Possible ways to meet others online:

* Blogs: Leave a comment and link to another person’s entry from yours.

* Forums and email mailing groups: Join discussions.

* Email newsletters: I respond to all emails and survey responses. I’ve also connected with people with their own newsletters.

* Online groups: Like IVWCC. Or you might be one of many bloggers like Blogcritics. The site also has a mailing list for its writers and editors.

* Web site: One that’s content-rich and frequently updated (this is where a blog or blogging-tool can help). Even having a profile in Amazon can lead to meeting people. People have contacted me that way even though I haven’t quite made it into the top 1000 reviewers list.

* Emails: Contacting people. Email a writer to pay a compliment on an article. Email a business to congratulate on a recent success. Many business people write articles and include their bylines.

* Articles: This is the flip side of emails. One of my first freelance gigs came from a guy who contacted me based on an article I wrote. There, I met another editor and we recently connected and helped each other (she submitted an article for one of the newsletters I managed and I answered interview questions for her blog). I’ve got a huge list of article banks. Need to post them here.

* Chats: You might attend a chat where there’s a guest. Usually chats are secondary — meaning you meet the person some other way before you talk in instant messenger.

You never know who you’ll meet through the Internet. Just interact with the virtual world and enjoy the surprises that come your way.

David Strom talks about online networking and living in a virtual world. I feel the same way he does. In fact, I met all of my clients through online resources and networking. I just got my first local client, but she found me online and we have no plans to meet face-to-face (f2f).

Thank goodness for the virtual world. I don’t think I could’ve gone into business for myself without it. Most of you know I’m profoundly deaf. Although I speak, lip-read and don’t use ASL (American sign language), I’m uneasy in f2f situations where I know no one. I don’t understand everyone I meet. In Bionic Ear Blog, I explain these situations and why I’m uncomfortable around people I don’t know … yet.

I’m a member of a chamber of commerce… a virtual one. All of this doesn’t mean I avoid in-person situations. On the contrary, I go out more. I play mahjongg and take tennis classes. The real thing, not virtual. Virtual tennis classes don’t get your heart pumping. Having friends in the offline world is still important to me.

Last June, you may have seen articles around the web and in newspapers like this one from The Washington Post report that we have fewer closer friends. This is disheartening. Growing up, I had three friends considered my closest. I’m still in touch with all of them. It took me a long time to make new friends when I moved back to Texas in 1995. I did gain one best friend and a few more friends — I wouldn’t call them close (yet, anyway). I’m working on it. But it takes two to grow a friendship.

Though I’ve met good friends and colleagues online — that I have yet to meet in person — it’s not the same as having a friend close by especially since I can’t connect with people on the phone. Having a relay operator in the middle of the call just takes away the personal aspect of a phone call.

The virtual world allows me to network and find more clients. The offline world allows us to have close and more personal connections.

Back online at my main PC. Still shaky from the whole experience. What we had to do (Paul is my hero) is repair Windows. In doing so (thanks to Scotty), we learned that Netscape and Firefox hijacked some of the DLL files. Why is this happening?

We also learned that SyncToy and Carbonite don’t like each other. SyncToy backs up my data to the network drive while Carbonite backs up online. I’m going to look for another online backup system as I’m not comfortable with Carbonite because:

* It runs all the time (hence, SyncToy not liking it)

* The restore process was shaky

What I mean by a shaky restore process is that when I went to check to see what files had been restored on my laptop, nothing was “there.” I’m assuming that I can’t access the files until the store is completed. I might be wrong — but it just didn’t work for me. Besides, I need an app where I can schedule online backup at a different time from SyncToy so they play nice together. It’s important to backup to both a separate network drive and online.

SyncToy can’t backup to an online server unless it’s on the network. Besides, I don’t have a server big enough to hold my files. I plan to look at Mozy per Peter’s suggestion.

The most disconcerting thing is the Firefox and Netscape (Mozilla apps) theft of the DLL files.

BTW, the network drive had one problem. I couldn’t access it from my laptop. Gotta figure this one out.

Looks like the hard drive died. I don’t know what happened as when I got on the computer, the login screen appeared in low-resolution. After fiddling with it and watching the PC freeze — I had no choice but to turn it off.

What’s really annoying is that my network hard drive was off for the past few days. I wasn’t aware — so it didn’t get to back up any work I’ve done since … I don’t know when. I hope I can get to the data as I’ve written a few articles. Needless to say, this isn’t a good day.

It’s frustrating to finally get a backup system in place — even trying out Carbonite for online backup — and this situation doesn’t allow for a quick recovery. I started using Carbonite within the past week, and I don’t know how much of my data made it to its servers.

Starbucks originally served whole milk and didn’t offer other milk options until after receiving customer feedback rather than making the decision without customer influence due to dietary trends. Paul of Idea Sandbox patronized a local coffee shop that serves only whole milk and won’t change.

But that local coffee shop doesn’t have the disadvantage of having numerous locations where customers barrage baristas with complaints to offer other milk options. I like Paul’s adaption of “The customer is always right.”

The customer may not always be right, but they’re never wrong.

This line of thinking helps a business come up with creative solutions or a compromise. Did Starbucks betray its identity when it started serving low-fat, skim, soy and other milk alternatives? Where does a business draw the line between sticking to its beliefs and meeting customer demands?

Thanks to technology and its ability to customize, we as customers demand more from businesses. We know it can be done, so we expect the business to conform to us, not the other way around.

I like the new look over at Dictionary.com. It loads faster and works smoothly. One complaint — click the Thesaurus tab. Now is that ugly mustard yellow or what? It bothers my eyes. I like the blue and green under the Dictionary and Reference tabs just fine.

And an added bonus: no tables!

Usually I try, “define: word” in Google first, but sometimes I need more than that and that’s when I go to Dictionary.com.

I’ve been using Blingo, which uses the Google engine AND gives you a chance to win prizes. My sister finally won something and because I referred her, I won too. Unfortunately, “define: word” doesn’t work in Blingo.

This Is Broken looks at KFC’s ad for its “NEW! KFC famous bowls.” The submitter correctly points out that you can’t be “new” and “famous” at the same time. One reader says games can become famous before they ever hit the market. True. Look at Nintendo’s Brain Age and Big Brain Academy. My mom was clamoring for the Nintendo DS and the two games just because she read about them months before their release.

Sorry, KFC, bowls don’t get that kind of advance press to earn “famous” in their names.

Let’s be careful out there!(TM) takes a creative approach in encouraging readers to avoid plagiarizing — almost the whole article, or letter, uses content from resources and attributes every single one. How can people think of stealing another person’s work even before the Internet? I suppose they thought they’d never get caught, but it isn’t the fear of getting caught that prevents me from doing such a thing — but rather doing something immoral and dishonest.

I’ve written on this topic before and wonder if perhaps some writers truly thought their ideas were original — when it was an old memory stored in the back of their minds? If you can’t connect a memory to a previously read story or article, you naturally think it’s your own imagination.

Age of Embellishment writes that Helen Keller was accused of stealing Margaret T. Canby’s work from The Frost Fairies when she wrote The Frost King. The story says Keller based it on a childhood experience. Can’t it be possible that we experience or think of a story that exists?

American Inventor, a TV show that searched for the greatest inventor, showed an inventor who learned from the judges that his product already existed. It’s not hard to believe that two people came up with an idea. In 1999, I had an idea for a baby product and in trying to build it — I couldn’t make it work. The product showed up in a catalog last year. The inventor didn’t steal my idea. Simply, we saw a problem and worked to solve it — only that person found a better answer than I did.

All this stealing words and ideas talk can make a writer paranoid as it did for Helen Keller. We simply don’t have time to research every story and idea we write to see if it already exists. All we can do is “be careful out there.” So do I attribute the quote to Hill Street Blues though I dropped the “Hey” and “let’s” since it didn’t work in my sentence?

Marcia Yudkin’s The Marketing Minute newsletter refers to a story The New Yorker’s cartoon editor Robert Mankoff told in his book, The Naked Cartoonist: A New Way to Enhance Your Creativity.

Robert Mankoff, cartoon once set out to find a cartoon that nearly everyone who had any sense of humor would find funny.

He sent what he thought was his own very best cartoon to 2,000 men and women, asking them to rate it from 1 (completely unfunny) to 10 (extremely funny). About 80%
rated Mankoff’s cartoon 7 or above, which delighted him. Yet some respondents gave it a 1.

Mankoff threw up his hands, calling this item “the most highly rated cartoon for funniness that I ever did, or (sob) will probably ever do.”

Yudkin explains that members of your target market have many differences and they won’t think the same thing when looking at an item, marketing message or what-have-you. Yudkin says, “It’s foolhardy to aim at universal praise or acceptance.”

Jason Spector shares an insightful thought of the day relating to people trying to do everything. The point is that no matter how smart and nice we are, there’s always someone who won’t like you or your work.

I took a management class when I worked for a teleco. One of the tasks called for us to send notes to different colleagues and managers along with a form they could fill out and send back to the school. The form contains questions where the answer would be 1 through 5 plus it contained space for comments. What makes the process work well is that people filling out the form can remain anonymous — so they can give honest feedback without worrying about retribution.

The reviews matched for the most part. Not perfect, but in the general area — except one. It slammed my work and had all low scores. I couldn’t imagine how someone thought I did a terrible job.

Then there are the reviews I post on Amazon. In writing reviews, I make an effort to give the reader a good idea of what the book is about beyond the obvious and judge its quality. A recent book review currently has 3 out of 5 people find the review useful. I’d love to make it better — but how? Maybe I can’t make it better… maybe I simply won’t be able to please those two people.

I honestly like working with all my current clients. I’ve had a couple of gigs that looked perfect on paper and fit my background, but they were stressful experiences with little enjoyment. It’s that point again — you can’t please everyone. This applies to marketing efforts, reaching your target audience, the people you work with and for… almost everything we encounter in life.

And here’s a story of “The Old Man, the Boy, and the Donkey” that I read in Book Yourself Solid that explains this whole “can’t please everyone” concept — it also appears on many Web sites:

An old man, a boy and a donkey were going to town. The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked.

As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding.

The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Later, they passed some people that remarked, “What a shame, he makes that little boy walk.”

They then decided they both would walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought
they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the
donkey.

Now they passed some people that shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a
poor donkey.

The boy and man said they were probably right, so they decide to carry the donkey. As they
crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story?

If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass goodbye!

Your About Page Is a Robot caught my attention especially since I’ve been reviewing over 100 sites in a specific industry. Some don’t have About pages, some had them — but they were not helpful, and a select few succeeded.

The About page also gives your company a human touch. What your About page should contain depends on the size of your site and company, as well as the nature of your company. These sites I reviewed didn’t need anything elaborate as Ask.com’s About page.

Many companies use corporate speak when writing about their business in the About page. A yawner. When I simply want to know is what the company does — the answer comes in a long, fancy babble. No time for that or translating it into English.

Too many sites take the hard way in writing the About page. It’s OK to shoot for simple. Suggestions of what to consider adding in an About page especially small businesses:

* what the company does

* bios

* photos

* contact information (yes, even if you have a separate contact page) and more than one way to contact

* site information

* basic info

* appropriate call to action

The article explains a glaring problem with About pages.

Ms. Patience: For starters, I need to know what you do.

Dumb-bot: The Knock-Doodle Corporation is a global services and solutions provider.

Ms. Patience: All right…But what, exactly, do you do?

That’s the kind of stuff we run into. I looked at a potential client’s Web site to get a feel for what it does to determine what content is needed. What should’ve taken a minute took minutes to find out the answer to “What do you do?” A lot of the content sounded like Knock-Doodle Corporation’s response — just multiply by ten.

Ask a friend who doesn’t know your business to read the content and see how much she grasps.