Archive for March 2007

In talking about speed reading, Scott H. Young mentions a word I hadn’t come across: Subvocalization. He defines it: “Subvocalization is saying the words inside your head as you read them.” I’ve done this almost my entire life and didn’t know there was a word for it. Hearing words in my head is a natural habit and I never thought about whether others do it.

Actually, I did once. A reporter interviewed me when I was in high school. We talked about speech and hearing. I mentioned that even with my hearing aids turned off, I still “hear sounds” in my head when someone talks or when I read or write. Maybe I thought this was a “deaf” thing — just never seriously thought about it until I read Young’s post.

Now that I think about it — not sure it’s a deaf thing because not all deaf people wear hearing aids. I wonder if those who don’t wearing hearing aids have their own sounds they hear in their heads — it might be different than what we know.

It’s that same habit that helps me as a writer. As I write this, I’m hearing these words in my head. It works almost as well as saying the words out loud. Rarely do I find something doesn’t work out loud when it worked in my head.

When I read, I hear the book’s words in my head. Young says that if a person wants to read faster, it means to stop subvocalizing. Oh boy. This was HARD to do and when I did it, I felt like I was staring at the book’s pages and couldn’t absorb the words. I’m not sure I want to turn this into a habit considering it plays a large part in my job as a writer.

What are your experiences — if any — with subvocalization?

Matthew Jordan, a freelance designer, explores the benefits of being a lone freelancer. Though I’m a freelance writer rather than designer, both share many things in common. I started writing on the side as a part-time gig while holding a corporate job for the benefits and security.

I made the move to full-time freelancing when my husband settled in a job with better health benefits AND my freelance plate was full enough. Obviously, I have the benefit of being married — so I didn’t have to worry about health benefits as long as my husband had a solid job with such benefits.

Those wanting to go freelance should pay attention to the following key sentence, which happened in my case: “My best recommendation is to get involved in freelancing while you’ve still got the comfort of your full-time job. Now, for many people, this causes a conflict of interest with the current company, so be sure you aren’t violating any corporate rules by moonlighting.”

The Downside of Freelancing

* No health benefits (although some freelancers find a deal — but I have kids and it would be pricey)

* No paid holidays or vacation (This one is also a benefit. Taking vacation makes it tricky to one without guilt, but that may just be me. I know plenty who have no trouble taking regular vacations.)

* No supplied supplies and support (software, hardware, PC, more powerful printer, etc.)

* Do your own marketing to get clients. This was a bigger concern for me as I can’t make phone calls in the same way the average person does.

* Do your own books/accounting (better to do it yourself to protect yourself and not be robbed blind — or at least stay on top of what comes in and what goes out). I’m not implying that you shouldn’t hire an accountant — in fact, experts recommend it — the key thing is to take steps to ensure no one steals from you.

* No team to bounce ideas (unless you work with a project team that makes it possible — for example, I’m a newsletter editor for InternetVIZ — we’re all freelancers around the country and we make up a team). But someone I know hates her job because of this same issue and she works for a corporation.

* You get paid whether it’s a slow day or not. In freelancing — most cases — you don’t work, you don’t get paid.

Upside of the Freelance Life

* Flexibility in terms of hours and location, and holidays (My holidays don’t match the traditional holidays, so I don’t have to deal with asking the boss for those off) and I’m available for contractors needing to do something in my house. This benefit is a biggie especially as a mom.

* Work in PJs or whatever.

* Variety of assignments and clients. I bore easily doing one thing.

* Lack of politics, red tape and bad management. Sure I have to deal with politics from a client perspective, but still a far cry from the kind of politics in a corporate setting. If I don’t like a client or prospect — I can get out of the work. If you’ve got a bad boss… (like someone I know) you’re stuck unless you can switch jobs.

* When I don’t feel well, I can easily lie down and even work in bed with a laptop.

* Exercise anytime and not worry about getting dressed again for work.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things. I’ll add them, if they come to mind. Feel free to chime in with your experiences.

After getting tagged, I created a list of 10 habits that I believe help me succeed in life. The list is posted over Bionic Ear since the person tagging me knows me from that blog.

A common habit appearing in entries of those participating in the project is “visualization.” I’ve read and heard many stories of how clearly visualizing something complete with seeing yourself already doing whatever it is can lead to reaching that goal or want.

Dilbert creator Scott Adams has successfully used this method. After reading his story, I started visualizing a goal I had at the time. Sad to say, I missed the goal by 100 points. So I guess I need to work harder.

What habits do you have to help you succeed? If you post it on your blog, please let me know.

Authors can’t rely solely on their publishers to do the marketing for their book especially self-publishers. They need to take it in their own hands and the Internet simplifies the task. However, are authors making full use of the Internet? Plug Your Book! is a checklist complete with instructions so authors ensure they explore every potential book promotion resource.

The book’s introduction gives good advice on how to use this book. Make a copy of the table of contents and cross off each item as you do them or pass over them. To be thorough, read the book and decide which methods work best.

As a frequent book reviewer, I’ve seen successful authors rely on many of the tactics covered in this book. Book marketing goes beyond using Amazon, blogs and your own web site. Weber shows how to get more mileage from these resources and points to others like social networks, search engines, and tags.

Creating an account in MySpace may be obvious to most. Some tips Weber offers for making MySpace work for you including making the right friends, managing your top eight pictures, and paying extra attention to specific parts of the profile. He provides detailed advice so there’s no confusion on what to do.

The Internet makes it easy for authors and publishers to use other identities in posting positive book reviews and buying books to boost the book’s rank. Weber briefly addresses the ethics of marketing books online.

Authors and Internet pros who know about most of the resources covered in the book will benefit because of its organization, scannable contents, readability and conciseness. Plug Your Book! succeeds in ensuring the author makes the most of every opportunity and resource.

Title: Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors
Author: Steve Weber
Publisher: Weber Books
ISBN: 0977240614
Date: February 1, 2007
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 208
Cover Price: USD: $24.99 Amazon: $18.99

Since I work and breathe email newsletters for much of my work week, The Seven Deadly Sins of Email Marketing Management from Digital Web Magazine caught my attention.

Many B2B articles and magazines have repeatedly shown that companies easily get a return on investment (ROI) with their newsletters (when done right). The article discusses seven problem areas with email newsletter management:

1. Failing to test with multiple email clients

The first thing to do is accept your newsletter will never look perfect in all e-mail clients. There are just too many out there with their own interpretation of HTML and CSS. I wrote an article about designing newsletters for email.

2. Failing to spam-check the email copy before sending

If you use service provider for sending email, most likely it comes with a feature to check your newsletter’s spam score. Every one points to SiteSell’s free spam checker service.

3. Putting hurdles in the way of unsubscribing

Hey, if a reader wants off — make it easy. Don’t keep a reader who doesn’t want your newsletter. When a newsletter’s unsubscribe process is difficult, the reader simply creates a filter to divert the newsletter to the junk folder. It may not be a big deal to have extra readers, but the numbers add up and it also jinxes your numbers. This reader isn’t going to read the articles — therefore, that reader lowers your “articles read” metric. You want honest metrics. Let ‘em go.

Funny thing is that we’ve been having a problem with a client’s newsletter because we made the unsubscribe process easy. Just click the link and you’re unsubscribed. No entering your email address. Unfortunately, the unique link has popped up on the web and bots like Googlebot are finding it and unintentionally unsubscribing us.

A robots.txt file isn’t in the cards for this situation. We’re still investigating a solution — a solution varies depending on newsletter management. Dori suggested one way checking the referrer on the unsubscribe page. If there is one (i.e., they came in via another web page), then don’t do the unsubscribe.

4. Neglecting to maintain the list’s invalid addresses

Sure, you want big subscriber numbers, but not when they have bad emails. Make less work for your email distribution service by cleaning out the bad emails. A service might do this for you automatically.

5. Becoming complacent

The article focuses on keeping an eye on stats and behaviors. I’m going to focus on the content. I’ve seen many (yes, “many”) high quality newsletters go downhill after a while. Their content changed from informational and useful to an ego-fest and self-promotion. Do 80/20 (80 percent useful content and 20 percent ads/promotions) and you’re A-OK

6. Sending content that isn’t relevant to what the user signed up for

Avoid this by having newsletter archives available online, or at least a few representative samples. You benefit more if all issues appear online. It’s original content.

7. Most importantly, emailing a user without their permission

No argument here. A practice that bugs me is a publisher adding your name to his subscription list after a personal email exchange that says nothing about subscribing to a newsletter. Exchanging emails doesn’t equal permission. In most cases, the reader will be upset and disappointed in this behavior — not a good way to start an email newsletter relationship.

I’m by no means an event planner and I admire those who are. Having recently completed planning a party, I can imagine the work that goes into planning an event. As an attendee, however, I picked up a few things that I thought worked well and others that didn’t work so well. Events can be trade shows, conferences, festivals, exhibitions, expos, conventions, training.

* Web site: Having a web site with event information makes a difference and helps attendees feel more prepared before they go.

* Hotel information: Are there deals? How do you get the deals? How far are the hotels from the event? How would the event planners rate each hotel? Give attendees an idea of which are more expensive, average priced, and low-priced. Do they offer airport, city, and event shuttle service?

* Transportation: How can attendees get around? Avoid car rentals is a plus — one less thing to pay for.

* City information: Unless the event is held in the middle of nowhere, tell people about the city, its famous places, great restaurants, good shopping. Enhance the event experience with a great city experience. This will get attendees talking and adding buzz (word of mouth marketing) for your event. Even if the event is one of those where people won’t have the opportunity to see the city during the event, they might arrive early or stay later to see the city.

* Merchandise (“swags, baby!”): Make it possible for people to buy goods before coming. Save time, line and frustrations plus promote your event as they’ll wear it or carry it before, during, and after the event.

Miss anything? Please share in comments.

Here is a feature on designing event web sites. Much of the information here can also apply to print and direct mail.

Designing Web sites for events requires a different thought process and approach than a regular Web site. Of course, every design project should be unique, but events have features in common that the design project should discuss in every project. Such common features include:

• Home page: Event name, date, location and quick explanation of what it’s about and who it is for.
• Travel: Event hotel with special rates (if available), hotel recommendations including how far they’re located from the event and whether an airport shuttle is available (if the city has a subway or other transportation — provide this information).
• Schedule
• Some events require tickets for showings, seminars, panels, etc. One superb site made it possible to select the classes you wanted to attend and get the tickets for them all at once by having boxes next to them. Participants select the boxes and submit the form.
• Ability to buy or reserve tickets to the event itself. sxsw, which includes photos on its badges, lets you upload pictures for the badges.
• Vendors/Exhibits: Provide the details vendors need to sign up, get their stuff to the city, and so on.
• Having links on the schedule for more details (speaker bios, topic details, location, etc.). Having the title of the panel or whatnot and the speakers don’t give enough information (unless the event is far off).
• Accommodations
• Food and drinks: Will the event have accessible food and drinks? I like to have water with me at all times. I want to know ahead of time whether I need to bring my own water or if I can get it there. Can you even bring food/drinks from outside?
• Wheelchair, hearing impaired, visually impaired, etc. accommodations. Anything you can provide regarding these accommodations is always helpful. For example, a Dallas theater has laptops available for the deaf, which contain the show’s script. But it doesn’t say what you need to do to check it out. Most conferences and events are exhausting for me as a deaf person — so I’m less inclined to attend events — but if I see some accommodations to make things easier and more enjoyable, it’ll increase the likelihood I’ll attend.
• Bathrooms. Save time and frustration by giving people an idea of where the bathrooms are. Go the extra mile and tell them “Get up anytime … when you gotta go… you gotta go.”
• Maps and directions. Make sure the map you use or link to is accurate! At a recent family event, the street didn’t appear on one popular map Web site.
• City info: Participants may want to explore the city during down time. Make it easier and a better experience by providing:
• List of recommended restaurants nearby and restaurants that are unique to the city that may not be close, but worth the visit. Don’t simply point to the city’s guide web site — there is too much info there and they won’t know what’s good and what’s not good.
• List of places to visit and anything that’s unique to the city.
• Shopping! People want to buy stuff to remember their visit and surprise their loved ones with souvenirs. Plenty of “baloney” places exist to trap tourists — show your participants where the real goods are.

Nice to haves… depending on the event

• Merchandise (aka “swag”): Event shirts and goodies popular? Save time, lines and frustrations by selling merchandise online. Hey, people can wear them before and at the event. More promotion!
• Updates during the event: Have a section or a blog… whatever is easiest for posting regular updates. Updates can include news, changes to the schedule or location, notes, presentations, etc. Make them available online, through feeds and provide a computer where people can check the updates as not everyone wants to bring a laptop.
• Post-event notes: Podcasts, notes, speaker presentations, transcripts. Anything you can provide will make the participants more appreciative and more likely to come back or talk about it.
• Feeds and files for downloading to MP3, handhelds, smartphones so participants can carry the info with them. I can’t remember how they did it — but sxsw made it possible for attendees to download info and schedules to their devices AT the event. These should be easy to browse and not graphics heavy. If you create maps or something with graphics, create a separate feed or file so only those with capabilities can access them and the others don’t have to deal with slow download times.

Did I miss anything? What do you wish you had known before going to a conference or event?

Pick the Brain nicely abstracts George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing and provides the link to the original essay. I just came across this tool that helps you eliminate cliches from your writing. This helps with Orwell’s first rule of avoiding the use of metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech that you’ve seen in print.

Rule #2, use short words instead of long — “use” works better than “utilized.”

Rule #3: Cut out a word. Less is better. So eliminate “very,” “really,” “so,” and “much.” Really, the sentence sounds better without them.

Rule #4: Active not passive voice. Came across another tool to help with this: The Passivator.

Rule #5: Use everyday English instead of jargon, foreign words or scientific terms. Many of us had the flu works fine. Using “influenza” won’t go over well.

Unless you’re following specific rules for a college paper or a technical paper, keep it simple. No one thinks less of you for using simpler words and shorter sentences. These rules help smooth the reading experience.

This sequel to Magic Match comes with a new developer. Codeminion developed the original and Friends Games picked up where they left off. Giggles, the Imp guided me as I played this pattern-matching game for the first time. The game got off to a slow start as I didn’t have many spells, points or bonuses. As the game progressed, it reeled me in.

The game told stories through songs sung between levels giving the player a 40 Arabian Nights feeling with its tune, words and looks. I wanted to speed up the song and its subtitles (which I appreciated because of my hearing loss) since it was a little slow for my taste, but I couldn’t. You can skip the songs, but I still wanted to know the story… a little faster.

Thankfully, Magic Match: The Genie’s Journey came with Timeless mode, so I wouldn’t feel pressure from the potion clock ticking down. I completed the game and the ending wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped. I liked receiving promotions when I earned enough points and trophies for accomplishing a certain task. However, the game didn’t explain how to earn the trophies as not all were obvious based on their descriptions. I didn’t know what to try for and just had to hope that I would luck out.

A bonus level pops up every few levels for earning extra magic points. Some of the bonus levels were fun while two were difficult to maneuver. You can play the bonus games anytime from the main menu as well as replay the songs and battle against the computer.

The variety of the components, bonuses, bonus rounds, and magic spells kept the game appealing. But it didn’t capture the magic found in the original game. The original had a few features not found in its sequel. For one, it didn’t spell out the spells not even in the Rules (help file).

The original made it clear how many points you lose whenever casting a spell and how the spell improved. The Genie’s Journey only lists numbers, which confused a first-timer. From time to time, a message stated “Complete the level to improve your Swap (or whatever) Spell.” What did it mean by “improve?” So I checked out the original Magic Match and its more thorough rules, which cleared this up as well as other questions I had while playing the sequel.

I could see why some thought it wasn’t quite as charming as the original. The sequel has two things the original doesn’t: Timeless mode and a peacock that gives you an idea of how many moves you have left. Still, the differences in the interface, functionality, usability, readability and game play are enough to downgrade the experience from the original’s great one to the sequel’s good one. Despite these criticisms, The Genie’s Journey is an enjoyable adventure and the original Magic Match is a better one.

Download the game from your favorite site:

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games

Download and try Magic Match: The Genie’s Journey and Magic Match free.

Publicity experts have been implying that press releases are dying, but they’re not (I’d like to link to the article that prompted this entry, but it won’t be accessible in a week without a login — this is a lost opportunity for the site as it could’ve gained new users if they keep the link up without requiring login). Many writers and editors still rely on them. In fact, I rely on them to stay on top of new mobile software releases for one of my columns. The press releases save me time in searching for enough mobile software releases to include in my monthly column.

But many press releases end up in the junk or trash folder. Such releases go out to everyone with a remote connection to a broad topic such as software. One company repeatedly sends me every release every week in spite of my responding that my audience has no use for this type of software.

They continue to send releases, so to better manage my emails — I created a filter that sends their press releases into the trash. Maybe they’ll have something worth my audience’s eyes, but they lost the opportunity by being a pest.

The way to create effective press releases is to study up on your industry and see what articles have been published that mention a competitor or an expert in your industry. Read enough of these, and you’ll get an idea of what reporters are interested in. Gear your press releases in that direction.

Don’t want us rolling our eyeballs at your press release? Then …

* Don’t exaggerate or use positive and opinionated descriptive words like great, excellent, high quality, best. We know you think a lot of your product or service, but we’re not going to believe it because we know you’re biased.

* Don’t include quotes unless they add meaning. Most of the time, quotes are useless. It’s perfectly OK to leave out quotes.

* Get to the point in the first sentence and title. I want to know right away what the press release is about otherwise “Delete.”

* Send news releases when appropriate. A company doesn’t have newsworthy items every time something happens. For example, executive changes — some publications care about this and others don’t. If something new happens every week, pick the more important ones and send them to the right people.

* Ensure the press release makes sense to someone not an expert in your industry unless you’re sending the release to technical publications (but these are not common).

* Make the press release scanable especially those sent by email. Use bold headers, bullets and white space. We can do without upper case sentences. They’re harder to read.

When I was the publicity chair for an elementary school, a chair kept urging me to send a release to every media outlet and repeatedly. Sadly, this person’s full-time job was in the marketing/public relations arena. Three reasons I had a problem with the request:

1. It wasn’t a unique event as many other schools did the same.
2. The event received publicity the year before, when it was the first time the school held the event.
3. Meant repeatedly bugging the media — if I do this, then they’ll send my stuff to the trash in the future.

Typically, I sent an initial release before the event. If there was something unique about it, I may also fax the press release. When we had photos of the event, we sent those after.

It does matter how you write a press release.