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 … Read more
Here are the best books I’ve read in 2006 in no particular order. Beware that not all of these books published this year, but rather they’re books I read. * Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things: I haven’t written this review yet as I just finished it. Reading Norman’s follow up to … Read more
Reading about business schools take aim at bad writing didn’t surprise me. When I was a MBA graduate student for one semester, we had to pass a writing and presentation section. The university conducted seminars followed by students giving presentations and writing a paper. Students who didn’t pass received tutoring and presented again. Those who … Read more
InformIT’s When Is a Blog Too Personal, discusses how much personal information to reveal. Even before blogs became a word in the dictionary, I tried to remember to ask, “Do I want a future client or employer to know this?” Nowadays, some businesses search the web when considering a candidate for a job. I’m thankful … Read more
How do you pronounce “Casio’s G’zOne?” That’s what Strategic Name Development asks. Just the other day when I volunteered at my kid’s school book fair, a few of us were talking about Mo Willem’s Knuffle Bunny because we all love the Pigeon books. I thought it was pronounced “nuffle bunny” like “know.” The librarian thought … Read more
Management using jargon like blue sky thinking, brain dump, thinking outside the box, get our ducks in a row confuse staff more than encourage them. We may have heard “thinking outside of the box” for years (I met that term in my first job out of college), but BBC News reports these terms don’t go … Read more
When I posted the entry about designing a logo, I didn’t expect to get the kind of emails I did about designing on specs. I didn’t think about the issue with such “contests” where a business posts its requirements and offers a set price. People would respond with their creations and then the business picks … Read more
Letting things go — what is done is done is a recurring theme this week. In today’s Early to Rise newsletter, Robert Ringer talks about Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, a book a read years ago as I’m a worrier (thanks, Grandma). Ringer writes that some of the book’s content are … Read more
More and more businesses are adding tech support reporting features, knowledgebases and expanding frequently asked questions — including businesses whose core business doesn’t include technology. Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, has a tech support-like reporting tool — the kind of tool you expect to find on web server hosts and software development companies. … Read more
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 … Read more