In the latest issue of Nick Usborne’s bi-weekly Excess Voice e-newsletter (about writing online; subscribe here), he talks about the similarity between e-newsletters and blogs: 1. Good newsletters and blogs seek to engage your attention at a personal level. 2. Good newsletters and blogs both deliver timely information. 3. Good newsletters and blogs expand their [...]
Monthly Archives: February 2007
Customer service tips
Seth Godin has been writing about customer service a lot lately, and in one recent post, pointed to “Seven steps to remarkable customer service” by Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Reading what his company does about customer service makes me want to buy the software and I don’t even know what [...]
Ragan’s right about better web sites
Ragan Communications’ free monthly newsletter, Grapevine (“Tips and tactics from the world of corporate communications”), shares a beef of mine this issue. Among the tips in a story called “What do you want from a Web site?” is my favourite: avoid downloadable PDFs. Ragan elaborates: “If a PDF is the only sensible option — for [...]
How are advertisers going to reach them?
My 20-year-old son is home from university for reading week, and I notice that every time he takes the car out, he changes the radio to CD mode. He says it’s because he has no patience for radio. Two reasons: (1) the stations don’t often play what he wants to hear and (2) he can’t [...]
I’ve been comment spammed!
The only surprise is that it took so long: I’ve just received my first “comment spam,” which Wikipedia says is “done by automatically posting random comments” in the hopes of increasing a site’s search engine ranking. Of course, that only works if the comment gets posted and readers actually click through to the highlighted site. [...]
Bedeguar drove me to the dictionary
Now here’s a word you don’t run across very often: bedeguar. I had to search many places to find out it means “a gall produced on rosebushes,” gall being a type of fungus. Looking at that definition, you might be surprised to find out the word was not used in a gardening article. No, in [...]
Another benefit of wine
You just never know what you’re going to learn from reading. Today I found this interesting tidbit in Natalie MacLean’s well-researched, informative and often quite funny e-newsletter: Researchers at Glasgow University have discovered that if you consume two glasses of wine, members of the opposite sex appear more attractive by about 25%. (From Nat Decants, [...]
Nora feels bad about her neck
Just had to share another book that recently showed up at my local library (I was 29th on the “hold” list!): Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. I had read an excerpt in a magazine and found it hugely funny, especially the parts where she laments [...]
Are dictionaries a writer thing?
An e-mail newsletter to which I subscribe (Writer’s Web Watch) recently recommended “improving your vocabulary” and using resources such as a thesaurus, grammar book, style guide and dictionary. I do have all these books on a nearby shelf and refer to them often. I have another dictionary in the family room, near where I do [...]
An inspirational book about cancer
When I run across a book that’s highly recommended, I check if it’s available at my local library and put a hold on it. Quite often I have a number of books lined up, so when the call comes in that my “hold” is in, it’s always a surprise to see what’s waiting for me. [...]
