Archive for April 2007

Been busily writing a lot of how tos and I do a monthly column with a round-up of new and updated mobile software. It’s easy to write these types of articles, but they do present a challenge: repetition. As I write them, it feels like I’ve said the same stuff many times before with the only difference being names and features.

Repetition in explaining how tos could be a good thing because it makes it easier for the reader to follow and concentrate on the “new” parts. In doing a round-up — I’ve got a handful of words I try to rotate to prevent the article from sound monotonous.

Some words and phrases drive me nuts because I can’t always find a workaround for them. Examples: such as, like, and as. But also, I’ve got to watch for passive voice. In re-phrasing a sentence, it ends up passive or using one of the too often used phrases.

I rely on a Thesaurus often, but it can’t help with sentences. How do you deal with such troublemakers?

When I find my way to a Web site, I may have gotten there through a search engine or through a link from a colleague or Web site. After I’ve scanned the content and fiddled around in the pages, the site may impress me if the information proves valuable.

What do I do then? The possibilities: Bookmark it, Furl it, subscribe to the feed or subscribe to the email newsletter. The action I take depends on how much I need the information and what options the site offers by way of feeds, newsletters and what-have-you.

Let’s say I found the email newsletter link or subscription box. Would I subscribe? It depends on what’s available on the site surrounding the newsletter. I won’t subscribe if respecting my privacy isn’t mentioned. I also won’t subscribe without finding archives to review. The third reason I won’t subscribe is if the site asks for too much information.

Rather than causing your visitor to leave “empty handed,” you can do more to improve your chances of capturing a new reader. With so many sites competing for new subscribers, it’s amazing the readers found their way to your site, so do what you can to make them happy and stick with you.

Privacy policy: Long or short?

How often do you read privacy policies, if at all? Sure, you care, but you don’t have time or patience to read through the legalese. Why use a lengthy policy on your site then, when you can simply put “We respect your privacy” next to the email address on the form? This applies to all forms requesting information, not just email newsletter subscriptions.

This approach is short and sweet. Yes, you can still have the long, dull policy for those who take policies seriously. This way you have both bases covered.

Forms: We must have your information!

How many fields are required to subscribe to an email newsletter? The only thing that should be required is the email address. Boy, it’d be lovely to get more information — a marketer’s dream — but would you rather have one piece of information than zip? Go ahead and add a couple of more fields — but watch it — too many, and the visitor is lost for good.

Identify which fields are required. Visitors get aggravated when they fill in a couple of fields, hit submit and see they didn’t fill in all the required fields. Weigh your priorities: a new subscriber with limited information versus a lost subscriber with no information.

Some newsletter subscription forms have “subscribe” and “unsubscribe” buttons. When someone becomes interested in your content, it’s about subscribing not unsubscribing. Yet be sure that those who get fed up with the email newsletter can look for unsubscribe information within the newsletter or on its Web pages rather than in the subscription box.

Archives and feeds: Show ‘em what you got

A link to the current newsletter or archives should appear right by the subscription box. I’ve often opted not to subscribe when I don’t see an example. I don’t want to subscribe and wait to see if the newsletter is good or bad, and then go through unsubscribing and sacrificing my email address.

If you offer a feed for your content and newsletter, put the RSS/XML button or link next to the subscription box. Again, you’ll cover your bases, as some people don’t know XML from NFL and others will scream if another email newsletter comes to their inboxes. If you provide multiple newsletters, put the RSS/XML icon next to each one — better yet, let the readers select the newsletters they want in the feed and get one feed for those selected. Organized folks love this.

Does the newsletter come in HTML (pretty pictures), text (plain Jane) or both? If you offer only one or the other, mention that somewhere. If both, provide the option to subscribe to one or the other. Either that, or get ready for emails asking about the text version. Save yourself trouble. Oh, and, don’t just have an HTML or text checkbox. Not everyone assumes if the text checkbox is left unchecked that the newsletter comes in HTML. Or some people think we’re idiots for offering one choice, since there appears to be no other choices.

Multiple newsletters: Simplify the subscribing

Many Web sites and companies provide multiple newsletters. Having the subscription page in one spot for all of them saves time. My publisher at InternetVIZ asked me to look at his subscription page draft. The thing was long! Every newsletter came with a detailed summary and other information.

Some people want to see everything you have to offer in the simplest format possible. That way during newsletter selection, they can see how many they’ve subscribed to and make sure they picked the right ones. Does that mean no summary? Of course not. Instead, write a one- or two-sentence overview of the newsletter and link to a page with more information. Next to the link, write “Opens in new window, so you won’t lose your data. If you have pop up windows turned off, turn it on temporarily to see the information.”

How many times have you seen a link for more information, fearing you’ll lose all the data you just entered if you click on it? That’s why the message. Another option is to expand the section when the user clicks on the link. No pop ups here, and the new information appears with a click and disappears with another click. These are just two ways to ensure the users know they won’t lose the information while providing them with more information.

Be careful when listing many newsletters on a page. My publisher’s draft page confused me. For example, the page had a box with events and tradeshows. My initial thought was this led to more information on events and tradeshows. The box turned out to be a category.

Learn from the good and the bad

Here are examples of newsletter subscription pages for inspiration and what’s good and bad about them:

U.S. News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/newslett.htm
I like this one listing frequency, but it’s missing archives.

ClickZ
http://www.clickz.com/subscribe/
This one’s crowded and hard to read. Frequency and HTML/text are shown. But why have a checkbox for HTML if HTML is the only option? The preview helps, but it’s not available for all items. Items in Tracks list a few links, and it’s not readily clear why they’re there.

GIS Development
http://www.gisdevelopment.net/subscribe/index.htm

The subscription checkboxes are at the bottom. Visitors might be better served if the checkboxes were on the left of each subscription’s summary.

iVillage
https://subscriber.ivillage.com/funnels/5
Nice, clean look and even has personalized newsletters.

PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/newsletter_manage/
Well-organized by categories with summaries next to each. But where is the Subscribe or Submit button? Hard to find, but it’s there.

InfoWorld
http://subscribe.infoworld.com/cgi-win/ifwd.cgi?m=newsletter
A better version of PC Magazine’s subscription page. No links to examples or archives, however.

Build smart — then hold on tight

Once you’ve reeled in visitors, do what you can to hold on and encourage them to take action. The newsletter subscription page sounds like a minor thing, but a lot of factors make the difference between “just visiting” and “subscribed reader.”

For a brief time, I used the same color for my links and visited links. BAD move. I didn’t realize how much I relied on visited link colors until I went to a Web site that didn’t give visited links a unique color. As you know visited links let users know they’ve already been there. It helps in two situations:

• You want to find a document you had already seen before — visited links narrow that down.
• You’re checking out links on a Web page and need to know which ones you’ve already seen so you don’t go to them again.

Styling links discusses the appearance of links. It prompted this post as I started recalling some of the link problems I’ve run into, which the following lists:

• Lack of color differentiation: I receive a newsletter from a nonprofit organization, which always contains links. When the newsletter received a new design, the links turned green with no underline. Just using color can work, but here … it was hard to distinguish the olive green links from the dark brown text. I e-mailed them and they added underlines. Much better.
• Confusion between clickable and non-clickable links: Some sites use the same color in the headers as they do for the links. However, the “links” aren’t links, but rather attention-getting phrases or highlighting points. Be careful when using colors that match headers and other text that aren’t links.
• Visited links don’t have a color to stand out from other links: Already explained.
• Incorrect use of the “new window” icon: I got confused whether these icons meant a link outside of the current site or if the link opens in a new window. The reason is that there isn’t a consistent use of this icon. That’s where standards help. We need to have some standards that represent user expectations that something is going to do what it should do.

Linked text is another story.

See the two images below for two examples. What problems have you run into with links?

Yuwanda Black wrote a two part (scroll down in both links) article sharing her 19 years of experience as a freelance writer. She shares wonderful insight that I’ve discovered in the past few years. Here is her list with my comments on some items:

1. Staying abreast of technology is crucial: Lucky this isn’t an issue with me.
2. Writing is a skill: I hear those “Duhs!” But we all write. We learned to write stories and reports in school, so that makes us a writer by profession? Sorry. No. It took me five years to get where I am today. Practice, study, learn, practice.
3. Freelancing full-time is not hard: Start doing freelance work on the side — don’t just quit your day job cold. Instead, build up your business on the side. I did that for five years before I went full-time freelancing.
4. Marketing is a skill that must be developed: This is where working on the side helps. I slowly added more clients without the pressure of wondering where my next pay check would come. I always keep my eyes open for opportunities even though I hardly have room to take on more. Things fall through. Projects end. You may want to drop a client that’s more trouble than it’s worth. I believe that freelancers who cut the difficult or incompatible clients are happier and end up with more assignments though it means losing some.
5. Employers don’t like to hire freelancers for full-time jobs: No thoughts here. Makes sense in some cases.
6. You can’t change your rates every year: Guilty. Not of changing rates, but my inability to quote projects. Some clients don’t have all the information or details of what they need me to do. I explain to them that since we can’t see exactly the work involved that I’ll have to quote by the hour. The problem is they can’t side aside a budget for writing work since hourly is ongoing. I’m still developing my skills in this area.
7. You must develop a niche: I believe this is true and spent a lot of time thinking about this. But I’m happy with my variety and lucky I have a nice amount of work though it’s not in a specific niche. Sure, I cover a lot of tech, but I also cover B2B, web design, newsletters and online marketing, education (not from a writing perspective) and games. Maybe it’s my nature not to fall into one thing. Since it’s working, I’m not going to go crazy working my way to a niche. If it happens, it happens.
8. Patience is a virtue: Definitely. Five years before I left corporate America for Meryl Co.
9. Retirement is not planned for: I’m working to change this. Investing in an IRA can help with taxes, too.
10. Longevity pays: “The longer you freelance, the easier it gets,” writes Black. I find this work easier than I did as little as one year ago. Practice, practice, practice.

Google maps the route from New York to Paris, France. Anyone know someone who can handle Step 24? “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean for 3,426 miles.” Thanks for the laugh, Google.

You can play with other countries separated by the waters. Not all of them worked. New York to London did.

My dad went into the hospital last week and left on Saturday. He went back in the hospital yesterday. So I wanted to dedicate a post to his recovery — he has a long road ahead of him. One thing I am grateful for is that I never thought, “I wish I had spent more time with Dad.” I don’t know where along the journey of my life that I learned spending time with family is important so you have no regrets.

My youngest turns four on Saturday. I can’t help but be amazed how fast time has flown from the day he was born. I’ve made an effort to enjoy every year and the things he discovers each year. You just can’t shake time or make it slow down. Remember to stop a minute. Talk to a friend, relative, whomever.

We’re all busy. I still have that 150 page deadline due next Monday, but I had to go home and visit my dad. I’m glad I did. I’ll just have to push harder in the next few days. At least, I’ve written about 100 pages, so two-thirds of the way there.

E-mail experts advice for e-mail subject headlines typically advise one of the following two ways:

* Write short and catchy headlines in the Subject to entice people to read the e-mail.

* Use the same headline in the Subject to stay consistent and make it easier for filtering.

Both work. In my little e-mail newsletter, I use the same headline changing only the month of the issue. Readers can filter the e-mail by “meryl’s notes” and have it go in their reading folder or at least, I hope, not the delete or junk folders.

But in the e-mail newsletters I do for InternetVIZ, we use two creative headlines. One in the initial sending and another in the second send that only goes to people who didn’t open the first send. This split testing provides insight as to what works and what doesn’t work.

A sign in Beijing’s airport says, “Careful Landslip Attention Security.” With the Olympics coming to Beijing in 2008 and over 500,000 foreigners, officials promise to take care of the bad grammar according to this CNN article. They’ve gone so far to ask for help from the public to watch for poor grammar. Other poorly translated signs:

* On a billboard, “Shangri-La is in you mind, but your Buffalo is not.”

* In an elevator, “Please lead your child to tare the life.”

* Danwei (top 10 volunteer for helping correct poorly worded signs) has a photo of a sign that says, “Racist park.” Yikes! Beijing International explains it’s the Park of Chinese Ethnic Minorities along the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing.

* “Oil Gate,” “Parking this way,” “Export” and “Goods Return” from CCTV.

This podcast with David Tool, also known as Du Danwei, discusses his helping with English and putting the spotlight on the issue of more wheelchair accessibility.

Mail-in rebates — especially for small amounts — may be tedious, but I do them. Some are too complicated and require buying four items from a list. But I won’t pass up a rebate for $75, which Amazon offers for Macbooks. Amazon.com Rebate Center simplifies the process of getting a rebate. All done online. A couple of companies required mailing in a rebate, but then they e-mail you with a link to one of the rebate sites (see below) for a status. That’s progress.

No doubt, some companies don’t want to take the route because they hope the rebate entices you to buy, but not make the effort to complete and send in the rebate along with UPCs and whatever else they require.

Wow Coupons lists for product rebates, retailers rebates and rebate sites. Rebate Report Card grades companies on how good (or bad) they are about handling rebates.

Talk about confusing. MySpace says, “Post new blog.” You click “Post Blog” button after writing the entry. A business magazine recently encouraged readers to add a blog. In this case, it was talking about adding an “entry.”

A new entry can’t be defined as a new blog. A blog consists of entries. Entries consist of words and links. I opened several books on blogging to check their definition.

Blogging for Business: “Blogs organize their content into short “posts” or articles, which are displayed in reverse chronological order and tend to contain personal opinions as well as facts.”

The Corporate Blogging Book: “A blog, short for ‘Web log,’ is an easy-to-publish Web site.” and “Entry: The meaty part of a blog, i.e. the individual articles are short posts written by the blogger. Also known as post.”

Blog consists of entries. You write and add entries into a blog. You write IN a blog, not add a blog, unless of course, it’s a new blog in itself that will have entries added.