Mitch Joel says there’s never been a better time to start your own blog.  Technorati says in its State of the Blogosphere/2008 report that “blogging is not dead” and “blogs are here to stay.” The report also notes that bloggers have been at it a average of three years and are collectively creating close to a stunning one million posts every day.

I feel like saying, “So there.”  When I started blogging in January 2007, some indicators made me feel I was late to the game. Well, I was, compared to the early adopters (who are now spending more time on Twitter), but few of my friends beyond my communications colleagues have joined the bandwagon.

In 2007, the Gartner Group said they expected the total number of blogs to peak that year around 100 million. Here it is 2008 and Technorati’s report cites a study estimating that 184 million people have started a blog. It says “Blogs are pervasive and part of our daily lives.” Can’t you almost hear the buzz, like the background noise at a party?

So if you haven’t launched your blog yet, it’s not too late. Join the party. As Mitch says, “Don’t be fooled by the few that are looking at the next shiny object.”

I scared myself last week by turning down two jobs. Two!

Before you wonder how well my brain is functioning, let me tell you why I turned away work, and why you should seriously consider doing the same when you have the option.

1. Both jobs had unreasonable deadlines; I would have had to drop everything else to meet them.
2. Both jobs overlapped a week where I already have deadlines to meet for good clients who give me recurring work with advance notice.
3. The projects were not something I do best (such as newsletters, case studies, “warm and friendly” style), so I knew they would take me longer than usual to do well.
4. One required several in-person meetings at a location at least an hour away from my home office, which would eat up the time I needed to meet my other deadlines.
5. All my instincts cried out, “No!”

Oh sure, I’ll admit it was difficult turning away work. However, I have learned over years of running my own business to listen to my gut feeling about a job. It’s a philosophy that has helped me keep my life balance and keep from tearing my hair out. And I do believe it leaves space in my schedule for the work that does suit my style and strengths.

What about you; have you turned away work? Has it been the right thing to do?

Jakob Nielsen’s September 15th Alertbox talks about store locators on web sites, where he says “it must be not only possible to accomplish the task, but also easy and pleasant to do so.”

Good advice. I’ve run into sites before where it’s easy to find the locator and it pulls up all the necessary information (street address, phone number, hours, maybe even a map) using something simple like city name or postal code. Possible, easy, pleasant. Other sites make you hunt to even find the locator itself, don’t list stores in cities where you know they have them, return error messages when you try to find a Canadian store representing a U.S. chain, and in other ways present frustration at every turn. Impossible, difficult, unpleasant.

The philosophy of possible, easy, pleasant that should also extend to life offline. For example, I was in a local store last weekend, buying supplies to repaint Son #1’s room. The chain had issued a scratch card, where you could win different things, the most common of which was a coupon for a free frozen cake. Who doesn’t like cake? Who doesn’t like “free”? Good idea so far.

Instead of giving each cashier a stack of the coupons to give customers as needed, every single customer with a cake-winning card was told to go over to the “Customer Care” counter. When I first entered the store, there was a long lineup at the counter of people returning things. A big discussion was underway with a customer and three store employees, two of whom seemed to just be watching. Only one other person was actually caring for customers.

I bought my supplies, scratched my card and won a cake coupon. I went over to “Customer Care.” The lineup had cleared somewhat, but there were still a few people ahead of me, most just getting the coupon. Possible, yes. Relatively easy but could have been easier. Pleasant? No.

I guess the store felt the need to control or track who got the coupons, but it seemed more like distrust of the staff.

Having just edited a client’s news release, I found David Meerman Scott’s recent post on weasel words, gobbledygook, jargon and other baloney quite topical! (Check it out for some awful examples of what not to write.)

The release I worked on started out in the classic dreadful style: “[Client name] [stock symbol], [standard long,  jargon-filled description of the company], is pleased to announce…”

First of all, the fact of announcing something is NOT the news. So put the “news” in the first sentence. If you absolutely must use the jargon-filled description (and yes, many companies will insist), at least put it in a later sentence.

Second, try to get rid of Frankenquotes – you know, those horrible, made-up statements that no living human would ever actually utter. You know that no self-respecting editor will ever use something full of weasel words anyway!

I rewrote sections of the release to follow these two points, although I don’t know yet if the client will go along with my suggestions. It seems this type of jargony release is firmly entrenched in the corporate world!

Don’t you almost hate to open a newspaper, watch the news or check your stocks these days? The bad news is unrelenting. Formerly solid companies going bust. Layoffs. Gasoline prices through the roof. Catastrophic weather. It’s definitely an uncertain world we live in. But is it time for independents to worry?

It may not be time to cheer, but being solo is less dangerous than you think. We’re already used to relying on ourselves, unlike the person in a so-called “secure” job.  We generally have more than one client among which to spread the risks. In a home office, our expenses are generally less than someone who has to commute to work and buy a more extensive corporate wardrobe that often needs dry cleaning. We don’t buy lunch at a restaurant or take-out joint as often.

Still, if you’re an indie, there’s much you can do to make sure you can continue to pay the rent or the mortgage:

1. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you notice one client taking up most of your time, try to diversify. Actively look for or accept work in different industries.
2. Keep marketing yourself. Oh sure, that’s good advice I often don’t follow, so if you don’t either make sure you do something else to get your name out there, like…
3. Get out there and network. Join associations and groups relevant to your business. Get to know people.  Build relationships.
4. Volunteer in an area that showcases your expertise. Pay just as much attention to the work you turn in as you would paying jobs. Meet deadlines. Do good work.
5. Keep delivering value to your clients. Be reliable. Deliver on time or early. Turn projects around quickly. Be responsive. Pull a rabbit out of a hat on occasion (maybe by pulling out all the stops to do an unexpected rush job).

In rough economic times, the communications people on the inside of a company are most at risk. Those able to ride out the uneven economy will likely need our help to do more work with fewer people.

What other tips can you share?

One of the great things about having small children is watching Sesame Street. My children loved that show for the funny puppets and silly sketches. I loved it for the way it made learning fun, and because the writers did crazy things that made parents as well as children laugh, and did clever things referencing pop culture.

They still do. I had seen the YouTube video of Feist singing her famous 1,2,3,4 (”monsters walking cross the floor”) but Louise Desmarais of Mud Creative pointed me to another of Norah Jones with Elmo, singing Don’t know why Y didn’t come. From there, I found James Blunt, REM, Alicia Keys, Tony Bennett, Andea Bocelli and so many more. I’m not sure if the songwriters or the show’s writers came up with the alternative verses, but either way, you have to admire writing talent like that!

(I posted this earlier today, but a hard drive failure on the server hosting my site washed it away. So apologies if it shows up twice. To make up, I’ve added two bonus errors!)

We all make mistakes, but in this business, you need to work hard to keep the error rate down. Here are some of the things that I noticed slipped through the editing process of several major newspapers and magazines lately:

• …what would peek their interest (pique)
• …stayed a constant professional (consummate)
• …a laid-back dress code slaps of unprofessionalism (smacks)
• …back peddling (pedaling)
• …peddled a bike (pedaled)
• …in the throws of (throes)
• …pressure to tow the party line (toe)
• …Santa Clause parade (Claus)
• …he diffuses posturing (I think the writer meant ‘eschews’ for ‘deliberately avoids,’ but I’m not sure!)

Please, do your readers a favour and try not to spell by ear. And if you aren’t familiar with a word, don’t guess; pick a word that both you and your readers will recognize!

Last week, I was juggling several different articles for two different employee publications. One memorable piece started off with three interviews, four people to quote and three pages of notes. I had 1,500 words to boil down into 500, a process I like to call spinning straw into gold.

If you’re faced with a similar task, you might find my method helpful:

1. Print out a copy of the raw notes before getting to work. Then, if the client later requests more detail in a certain area or has a question, you’re better equipped to respond.
2. Now, cut and paste. Find the best comment/most interesting statement/piece of information most critical to know and put it first. Build your lead around this.
3. Organize the comments. If several people have talked about the same thing, move the comments to a common “holding pen” section. Identify who said what with initials or first name at the beginning of the line.
4. If you’re struggling with the lead, warm up elsewhere by condensing comments from what is usually a rambling couple of sentences into a concise statement. When you’re ready, go back to the lead.
5. Once you’ve got a rough draft together, let it sit – overnight if possible. Reread it in the morning with fresh eyes.

I sent off the final draft on Tuesday (560 words).

From the always amusing WordSpy and BuzzWhack:

• Defriend/de-friend: To remove a person from one’s list of friends on a social networking site
• Foodprint: Growing your own food, shopping local, eating in season.
• Social notworking: Surfing a social networking site instead of working.
• PowerPoint singalong: A presentation read verbatim from the slides without observations, comments or asides of any kind.

What great words have you found lately?