Archive for December 2006

In working with clients, I aim to make business as easy as possible on them. I don’t want to add another hurdle or challenge as they have plenty to keep them busy. While I provide them with a service, I’ve picked up a few great tips from working with them.

Hank Stroll of InternetVIZ gave me the spine and courage to speak up about anything, touchy or not. I developed a habit of not speaking up when I worked in the corporate world as I learned that it didn’t make a difference. Not so with Hank.

Jenna Glatzer of AbsoluteWrite continuously offered important insight and tips on how to be a better writer and on the business of writing. She also showed it’s possible to change your direction as a writer as she started out with screenwriting and has since done non-fiction including Celine Dion’s biography..

Debbie Weil taught me that you can have fun with your content and work, and still have others view you as intelligent and professional. She also confirmed that sometimes you click with the work and sometimes you don’t, and that’s OK.

Blue Flavor showed that a business can succeed when straying from the traditional route. You don’t have to do what everyone else does.

Nate Hoppe and Cal Clinchard of PC Today reinforced the value of style guides and following them. It makes life easier on the editors.

Robin Good provided great advice to improve my online writing. I’m in awe of how much content he publishes on his network.

Christopher Schmitt helped me finally wrap my brain around the CSS box model.

The folks behind InformIT showed it’s possible to face a challenging situation and overcome it for the better.

Anthony Davidson of New York University proved that a university can provide a superb online master’s education to help its students succeed and advance in their careers. He also taught me the intricacies of a research paper and what it takes to write a good one.

Neil Lichtman of Marketing4Profit educated me that sometimes a client won’t take the recommended route, no matter how much information you provide. Sometimes a client is passionate enough to succeed in going in a different direction.

getAbstract helped me learn how to communicate the most important information, whether it be explaining a 200+ paged book in five pages or an article in one paragraph.

I’m blessed that these wonderful people have taught me a lot and trust me with their content. Thank you to my clients, friends and readers especially those who take the time to leave comments always enlighten me and broaden my thinking. I hope 2007 is full of great content for everyone.

Businesses especially small businesses expect employees to do more than their main job and this often includes sales and marketing. Book Yourself Solid contains activities that business people most likely already know. However, Michael Port brings these activities together and organizes them using lists and questions to help the reader find the answers.

The author writes that he gathered the ideas from multiple resources to build his Book Yourself Solid system. Port shares first-rate advice like dropping clients that sap your energy leaving you with more stress than enthusiasm. Let go of clients? How can you afford that? Think of how much work you’d finish if you enjoy working with every client. Maybe you’d be able to add a few more by letting go of deadweight clients.

The book provides guidance to find your target audience. Anyone who has read books and researched the target market thing may be skeptical about discovering new information in this book. Port breaks down the process of selecting your target market into doable steps, something few resources do.

At times, the book starts reading like those “hyped up” sales materials you see online or in infomercials. In spite of this and a bit of off the mark advice, the book is a worthy and useful read. If you check out Port’s web site, you’ll encounter this hype. Don’t let the web site influence your decision to read this book. The book and web site have little in common.

Small business owners and employees will find the book’s ideas simple to understand and easy to put into action. In fact, they’re most likely doing some of the activities, but the author takes the activities a step further with the goal of booking more clients.

The book benefits business people who want to make marketing and sales an everyday part of their job for a couple of hours a week. Some especially new businesses and service-based businesses will value the book as it saves time that’s involved with trying to determine how to do marketing and sales.

Title: Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling
Author: Michael Port
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 0471783935
Date: April 2006
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 258
Cover Price: USD: $24.95 Amazon: $16.47

Somewhere I mentioned that it was family tradition to do jigsaw puzzles and play board games on Christmas. I didn’t think I’d get to do a puzzle, but I pulled it off with help from Paul and my two young’uns. I made sure I picked one with 500 pieces instead of 1000 to ensure we could get it done in one day.

I chose the Thomas McKnight puzzle based on the artist’s Midtown – From the Manhattan Penthouses Suite painting. I love his style, which resembles Fanch Ledan‘s style. We have a few of Ledan’s works. Ledan incorporates real artwork from the likes of Picasso, Mondrian, and others in his paintings. I love his “Windows on the World” concept where he paints a room with art and you can see the locale or city in the windows.

What do you enjoy doing over the holidays?

The Poppit! Show is a puzzle game plopped into a game show complete with a stage, host, and cheering audience. Note there are two different versions of the game. One on Pogo.com where you can play as part of a network. The other from BigFishGames/Oberon, which doesn’t connect to a network. This review focuses on the Pogo.com version — but gameplay is similar.

Those not familiar with The Poppit! Show might recognize the game as it resembles Same Game, Collapse or Yahoo! JT’s Blocks, games I’ve enjoyed in the past. The main difference is instead of blocks falling down as they’re destroyed, the balloons fall up as they’re popped.

The Poppit! Show adds a twist. Not only do you want to pop same colored balloons together at the same time, but also release all of the prizes hidden in the balloon in order to win the game. A power-up is available in each puzzle to help you win. Every TV show requires winning a specified number of games to unlock it.

Like the other games of this family, the more balloons you pop in a group, the higher the score. If you leave less than six balloons at the end of a game, you win a bonus.

A game has three levels: easy, medium and hard. The higher the skill level, the higher the prize appears in a row of balloons. They’re harder to release, but they’re worth more tokens.

When starting a game, pick an identity known as a Pogo Mini. Think of it as an avatar that represents you in a chat room. Your Pogo Mini can get more clothes as you win online games. Members of Club Pogo (not a free club) gain extra privileges.

Unlock all seven TV shows to unlock every power-up. Each TV show contains a different theme, so get ready to disco, cook, go on a safari, do some magic or fly out of this world. You can play the game either connected or not connected to the Pogo Network.

The Poppit! Show is more fun when you play connected than disconnected. I started by playing disconnected to see how it plays and honestly, I was frustrated and slowly getting bored. Perhaps, it’s my being used to things falling down instead of falling up. This turned out to be true as I liked the game better as I got the hang of it. As I unlocked TV shows, it took longer to unlock the next one, as you have to win more games. There’s one mystery studio and it takes 100 wins to conquer it.

But when I connected to the Pogo network, the game play completely changed. I didn’t chat much, yet I had a blast playing the game. More things happened to keep me interested and motivated to earn new ranks and more tokens. The host annoyed me after a while (happens both connected and disconnected), as I had to click the dialog box every time he said something. I couldn’t find the option to turn this off.

You can receive power-ups from other players and donate them in exchange for a few tokens. Whenever I can’t get all the prizes or get down to six or less balloons even with the power-up, I donate the power-up. Playing connected also gives you the opportunity to earn Jackpot Spins, win outfits and backgrounds for Pogo Mini, work for badges and win more tokens.

The first time you connect to the network, you’ll need to login or create a free account. Once you do this, just look at the telephone on the main menu for “Connected” or “Disconnected” to see whether you’re connected.

Since this game connects to the Pogo.com community, players also receive a rank so others know how well you play. Moreover, the game is more fun knowing you need to work for a new rank. The game contains a Stats Room where you can check your rank progress and badge collection. Earn tokens by collecting surprises, super-pops (popping many balloons of the same color at the same time), bonuses and jackpot spins.

Players can win Pogo Tokens in most Pogo.com games and The Poppit! Show. Players can use tokens to enter prize drawings for Pogo.com’s daily, weekly or monthly prizes. Of course, the more tokens you win, the more tickets you can enter in the drawings. Members of Club Pogo can also use tokens at the Mini Mall to buy stuff for the Pogo Mini.

Those who love puzzles will love this one with the added bonus of hearing the roar of the crowd.

The Poppit! Show doesn’t have an official rating, but it qualifies for E (Everyone) as explained by the ESRB.

System Requirements

Windows 98, 2000, 98, ME, XP
Processor: P-500
Memory: 256 MB RAM
DirectX: 7.0

Download the demo to try the game.

While the holidays are a time many of us give ourselves to helping others, I believe it’s something we should make a regular part of our lives. My daughter wants to educate others about Darfur, so I told her I’d post something here for her.

There has been mass genocide in Darfur where over two million people have died. The government hasn’t helped, but rather is part of the problem. I’d like to see good wishes sent to places like Darfur and the unfortunate who need help. Here’s a PowerPoint presentation [pdf file] about Darfur. You can help Darfur by buying t-shirts or wrist bands to spread awareness, donate money for a stove and other needed supplies. One $50 solar cooker [pdf file] supports an entire family.

You can also take action by writing congress or attending an event.

Please, if you take any action — either email me or leave a comment. I’d like to tell my daughter how much she has helped by spreading the word. I think kids like it when they can see clear results from their actions and I want nothing more for my daughter to continue helping others.

I’ve been noticing folks getting into “holiday mode,” so I’ll keep the next few posts fun and light. As usual, web sites come out with holiday games, top ten lists, funny videos, and mangled song lyrics. If I missed anything, please post it in the comments.

ReadySetHoliday has games for kids including Candy Cane Race, Snowball Fight, The Puzzler, and Toy Factory. No login needed to play.

Microsoft has free holiday ringtones. Yep, FREE. OK, the catch is that you’ll have to register.

Snowed In 5 – Flaked Out for Pocket PCs.

Fimoculous returns with another year’s worth of lists.

NStorm is responsible for Elf Bowling.

Pinguin. PETA — no real penguins were hurt in this game.

Web designers will enjoy 12 Days of an Accessites Christmas.

Another one for designers: Don’t Let the Graphics Grinch Steal Your Christmas

A meryl.net oldie… Let Us Blog

One of the more enjoyable ways to market is by holding contests. They’re fun, they encourage folks to spread the word, and they make a few people happy. Imagine my surprise when I saw a package from DeveloperOne on my doorstep yesterday. I didn’t remember ordering anything. I opened it and found a lovely and professional holiday card with the note, “Meryl, congrats on your prize!”

It clicked that I had entered the Developer One Holiday Traditions Giveaway! The company asked for stories of favorite traditions. My prize? Wisconsin’s famous product: Cheese. I received cheese in the shape of beer mug and a package of beer bread mix. The mobile software company is located in Milwaukee.

The best contests are the ones that fun for everyone. I had fun trying to think of a simple tradition while I assume DeveloperOne enjoyed reading the stories. Some contests are a burden requiring more work or giving away more information than needed. A few provide extra credit if you forward the contest information to a friend. The company gets more names while the contestant gets more entries.

I’ve been playing 1FunThing, but it took too much time. The questions are challenging and I spent more time that I should have in seeking the answers. I’m stuck on #32 and need four more to complete the tour, but #32 killed me. It was fun, frustrating, and takes too long.

Last Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law was asking about how to get a web site to get better search engine rankings. Apparently, someone she knows started a web site and talked about it with her. No way she would’ve brought it up otherwise as she and my father-in-law are semi-Luddites. They have a computer for the basics and playing bridge online, nothing more.

She and Paul looked at me asking how did I get my site to rank well. Honestly, I don’t think about search engines when I work on my site or create blog entries. I told them that my site has been around since the mid-’90s and that getting decent search rankings took a long time. I started blogging in 2000, about three to four years before it went mainstream. This site stays fresh as I try to update it about four to five times a week.

That’s it. No magic formula. No studying articles, studying blog entries revealing search engine secrets or anything else. Just keep trucking and updating. Of course, if I try to start a new web site, it’ll be difficult for it to achieve half the results of this one because it will never have what this has: Longevity.

It’s frustrating to land on many sites obviously trying hard to optimize their sites for search engines by using keywords everywhere… repeating key words… putting “navigation” at the bottom with at least four rows of links and keywords. As soon as see this, I leave the site. It isn’t illegal to do this, but I don’t want to associate with someone or a business that does such tactics.

What do you think?

This past entry addresses the dying art of letter writing (by hand and snail mail!). Cursive writing becoming a thing of the past looks at cursive writing’s decline in the classroom. Students typically learn cursive writing in third grade and I believe this should continue — but not with a heavy focus on getting it perfect.

Rather, the kids should remember how to do it and legibly. Just like learning new spelling words, they need to learn to read and write cursive. Neatness, like art, is subjective. Some people are good at it and some people aren’t.

Kids today have to learn more than kids did 10 years ago. They have computers and keyboarding added to their list of things to learn plus 10 more years of history. Remember memorizing the American presidents and the years they served? I clearly remember that from 9th grade, but I’ve forgotten the order and years. Is there any point memorizing this? Well, perhaps, it gives us an idea about when the president was in office. For instance, we know Lyndon B. Johnson didn’t serve anywhere near Lincoln or Adams — but somewhere around Kennedy and Carter.

My parents took me to Washington, DC for the first time when I was about 10 years old. We visited the Smithsonian museums where I bought presidential flash cards (OK, I was a nerd … sometimes). I learned them on my own, but promptly forgot them by the time I had to learn them again in 9th grade.

We also memorized poems. I still recall the ones I had to say over and over:

* Shel Silverstein’s Captain Hook from Where the Sidewalk Ends in 2nd grade.

* The Highwayman in 7th grade.

* Edgar Allan Poe’s Eldorado in 7th grade

* Kipling’s If

* Mark Anthony’s Caesar speech in 10th grade

* Shakespeare’s All the World’s a Stage

I hated memorizing poems at the time. But you know what? Some of these have become my favorites. I can still recite Eldorado without help. There was a time when I was into finding poems like The Highwayman and discovered The Shooting of Dan McGrew by Robert Service. It turned out my grandmother was also a fan of his work and we spent a little time discussing his poems. As a result of this interest, I started writing epic style poems. Wish I had them (That’s why I try to pick some of my kids’ work and kept them in a safe place.).

In middle school today, kids learn about one poem per six weeks — depending on the class. The poems are tied to the curriculum.

I loved reading GAMES Magazine, but have since given it up along with many other magazine subscriptions. The magazine lists the games of the year. The Morning News and Yahoo Answers Readers also shared favorites. About.com lists Toy Industry Association’s nominees for 2006 game of the year. Here are Gone Gaming 2006 Board Game Internet Awards and the Top Tens Board Game List.

Plenty of game gift guides: Critical Gamers, Yehuda’s List, Bruno, The Spiel, Board Game Geek.

One reason why I especially love the holiday season: Games. No, not electronic or video. Board games. Old-fashioned fun board games. My family gets together and spends a day or two playing games. Last year, Apples to Apples was the hit. I got the Junior version for my middle child as a gift (Shh…), so I expect we’ll play that. I hope to show my parents how to play GiftTRAP.

I got Paul (he’s too busy to read this) Trivial Pursuit: Totally 80s. Last year, I got him VH1 I Love the ’80s Board Game. What can I say? We’re children of that decade.

We have a few other unopened games like Blokus, Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan Board Game tucked in our closets waiting to be played. I don’t like to put the games in the game room because the younger ones get into them and lose the pieces. But we’re in the middle of remodeling and adding a couple of closets, so I hope we can organize the games better.

We no longer have a complete set of Pit, the card game. One of my fondest memories is playing the game during my wedding weekend. Paul’s best friends and my best friends all huddled in a hotel room yelling “Two! Two! Two!!!” “Three! Three! Three!” Not often you can get a big group like that playing games.

My family also spent many winter holidays putting together jigsaw puzzles. I still remember doing the 5,000 piece Coca-Cola puzzle with my mom and my best friend until 2am only to find one piece was missing. My favorite puzzles consisted of themes like collector’s items such as baseball, campaign buttons, sports, Snoopy, antique toys, red-colored items (that was hard!). Many of them hailed from Springbok — even had one with computers.