The Red Jacket Diaries blog

The mission today

by Sue Horner | Jun 12, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

Really, I’m working away here, but I just had to stop and share this. A client invited me to sit in on a conference call, with the intent of writing an article for the employee newsletter. Before the call, the fellows we’d be talking to took the time to...

3 flies walk into a bar

by Sue Horner | Jun 11, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

What a great exercise in telling a story and setting a mood, in a tight framework too! I’m talking about the Copyblogger’s Twitter Writing Contest. The goal: Write a story in exactly 140 characters (the length of a post on Twitter, aka a tweet). Not more,...

Show your personality and make people laugh

by Sue Horner | Jun 9, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

There’s something so appealing about humour, I don’t know why people feel the need to be stuffy. An online posting led me to Woot, an e-store and community that sells “cool stuff cheap.” One look at the job postings shows you this crew has a...

Brain food makes expressive writing

by Sue Horner | Jun 7, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

Talk about a deft turn of phrase! Spotted in an interesting article in the Toronto Star called “Patient gets brain surgery – fully awake,” by Joseph Hall: “Glioma, as it is also known, is a whack-a-mole cancer, with tumours that are treated or...

Get out and network

by Sue Horner | Jun 6, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

One of the things I encourage new freelancers to do is get out and network. Established freelancers, too! Working in a home office can be as lonely as it is liberating. Just as you should spend some time every week on marketing your business, even when you are already...

Loving that usability

by Sue Horner | Jun 3, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

If you want people to buy from your web site, make it uncomplicated, will ya? I am so sick of creating new accounts, thinking up a password, entering here and checking off there, only to hit a wall. I’m going to the movies tonight with some gal pals (so you know...

Words this week

by Sue Horner | May 30, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

I ran across a couple of words this week (on Word Spy and Buzz Whack) that particularly appealed to me: Staycation. When you spend your vacation at home. (Thanks to high gas prices and a sluggish economy, it’s all many of us can afford.) Also known to those of...

‘What’s the point’ marketing

by Sue Horner | May 28, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

A coupon for a free item seems like a good way to market your business, doesn’t it? Maybe not, if the place you turn it in can refuse to honour it. We have such a coupon, expiring May 31, for a free sub at Quizno’s. In our household, the subs are known as...

Advice to grads: Don’t settle

by Sue Horner | May 26, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

As the school year winds down, Son #2 is headed for graduation from high school. While it’s not graduation from university, it is nevertheless a momentous occasion. (Sentimental creature that I am, there will be a tissue or three in my pocket.) So it seemed...

Do what you love

by Sue Horner | May 23, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

You’ve often heard the advice, “do what you love and the money will follow.” In the dating world, the equivalent is “do what you love (or even just like) and the love will follow.” At the very least, you’ll have fun, but you may...