In football, it's called "piling on"

Newspapers are hurting soooo bad, in both readership and revenues. Craigslist is killing their classified revenues, and if that wasn't bad enough, it now looks certain that Google is getting into the act.

Classified Intelligence reports that "Google is aggressively moving to include classifieds listings in its organic search results," requesting direct feeds of listings from various classified advertising Web sites. No big deal? Au contraire. Classified advertising is a $100 billion-plus industry worldwide. For a long time, newspapers enjoyed the lion's share. But those days are over.

As Good Morning Silicon Valley put it, "Your search -- 'Newspaper classifieds revenue' -- did not match any documents." (Ouch!)

Start a Google Alert for "For Sale: used printing press."

Feeding that certain hunger

Since I seem to be in a certain groove lately, here's just one more post on entrepreneurship, self-employment and the "free" -lance life...

John Koten, Editor in Chief of Inc magazine, says there's a deep-rooted hunger to be an entrepreneur... and to apply creativity to business. Koten called these urges key factors in our economy today. A wide range of people see themselves as entrepreneurs -- everyone from Martha Stewart to Snoop Dog to college kids to retiring Baby Boomers. Koten predicts a rise of the entreneurial class in America. "Entrepreneurship is a huge underexpressed force," he says, even in large companies.

Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends was in the Cleveland City Club audience when Koten made his remarks. She has a link to an mp3 podcast of the event. Worth checking out.

Joining the "free" world

Congrats and bon voyage to Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur's Journey. The Aussie blogger has just quit his "real" job at a help desk and made the leap into full-time self employment, which he writes about here.

Yaro has entered the "free" world.

Of course, if you read his blog (which is well worth your time if you're entrepreneurially inclined) , you know this young guy already is making a decent living as a blogger. With his Internet savvy and business sense, I have no doubt his plunge into FTSE (full-time self-employment) will bring him great success -- and great joy.

Someone once said there are two kinds of people in the world: entrepreneurs -- and those who work for one. Yaro is definitely the first type.

Welcome aboard, Yaro!

"Free" as in "Freelance"

Freelancing is more than a way to make a living -- it’s a way of life.

Working Today surveyed over 2,800 freelancers last spring and discovered that most are creative, independent and fiercely dedicated to their lifestyle. Their free report, The Rise of the Freelance Class, looks at how they (we) are doing. A few key findings:

• Freedom is important to freelancers. Almost all (86%) cited having a “flexible schedule” or some form of freedom (60%)—from office politics, difficult bosses, cubicles and commutes—as the primary benefits of freelancing.
• Freelancers work in the city’s key industries: advertising, publishing, film and television, technology and the arts.
• Freelancers are an emerging constituency. More than half (53%) see themselves as members of a freelancer community. 100% have voted in a national election, 87% in a state election and 83% in a local election.
• Freelancers are falling out of the social safety net. About 28% spent some portion of the last year without health insurance. Less than half (47%) save money for retirement each month.

If you're self-employed -- or considering it -- you ought to check it out.

Speling is'nt impotent, rite?

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way." (Mark Twain)

Twain was right. Spelling's not important -- unless you want people (customers, clients, bosses) to take you seriously. It's not that spelling is all that important. It's just that spelling mistakes undermine your credibility.

As a copywriter and marketing consultant, I've seen plenty of evidence that typos and misspellings plant little seeds of doubt in the minds of customers. These doubts can torpedo your best efforts at persuading someone to trust you. And who can blame them? If you're not careful enough to check your spelling, how careful will you be doing your work?

YourDictionary.com has posted a helpful list of the 100 most mispelled, er, missspelled, I mean misspelled words. (Thanks, Lifehack.)

PS: Want a tool like Word's "AutoCorrect" that works in every application -- even email subject lines, etc.? Check out ActiveWords. If you're a lousy typist like me, you'll absolutely love it!

(No, I'm not an affiliate -- just a satisfied customer. I get nothing for the recommendation.)

Web ad spending soars again (ho-hum)

Web advertising continues to roar. $3 billion was spent in 2Q alone -- a whopping 26% increase. 40% of that was for paid search listings, 20% for banner ads and 8% so so-called "rich" media. More here.

Marketing's biggest mistake

Most marketing makes one major mistake. It focuses too much on YOU, your company, your services, the bells and whistles on your nifty new 2006 model widget. It's not about YOU -- it's about your customer.

Information marketing takes a more consultative approach. The main focus is on your prospect: their needs and wants, and information about how to satisfy those needs and wants.

What information should you share? Obviously, it depends on the work you do and the audience you serve. But it must have value to your target market. The higher the value of the info you share, the more they'll value it -- and you.

Old news = "So what?"
Common knowledge = "Who cares?"

My suggestion: Give away a few of your best secrets. Juicy insider info fascinates the right people (i.e., the ones who are interested in your services). Sharing valuable info drives up your credibility. It convinces potential clients there must be lots more where that came from.

But wait a minute, you're thinking. If you give away your secrets, your hard-won knowledge, what will you have left to sell?

Well, you're not giving away the whole store, of course. You probably couldn't, even if you wrote an entire book. You're just giving them a chunk of it. A taste. A free sample, just like the man selling fudge at the carnival.

It's a fair trade. After all, your "insider information" will attract people who are interested in what you do -- perhaps very interested. There's a name for people like that: prospects!

Read more about information marketing here.

"Flipping" Web sites for fun and profit

Real estate investors do it with houses. Entrepreneurs do it with businesses. Should you do it with Web sites?

The "it" is buying, fixing up and selling properties -- in this case, underperforming Web sites. Yaro Starak of the Entrepreneur's Journey blog has just published a detailed explanation of how (and why) you might consider it. He covers the advantages of buying an existing site over starting a new one of your own, seven possible acquisition strategies, and what to do once you've taken the plunge.

"Making a profit may be as simple as implementing a smart AdSense campaign on a popular site after buying it from an owner wishing to move on to other things. Perhaps an e-commerce site could use some search engine marketing or some tweaking to an AdWords campaign might do the trick, or better still, monetize, optimize, affiliate and upsell for maximum gain - make use of all the marketing tricks at your disposal." Link

Yaro's post offers another great example of what I call "information marketing," a powerful new approach to attracting customers (which is what marketing is all about). Yaro generously shares the information he has worked very hard to acquire, which boosts his credibility tremendously.

You can read more about info-marketing and other aspects of attracting customers on my Web site.

Firefox extensions rock!

Find a need and fill it. Find an aggravation and fix it. That's the kind of thinking that drives a small army of independent Firefox developers. These imagineers continue to improve the Web browsing experience with their innovation. They see problems or irritations, then create small, simple, often-elegant solutions (called extensions) that fix or eliminate them. Best of all, almost all of them are free.

Flashblock is especially welcome. At last those obnoxious Flash animations are history. While the technology is terrific, its primary use -- as a means of pushing commercials at you -- is terribly annoying. Flash ads are the Internet equivalent of a pushy used-car salesman pestering you while you’re trying to browse. (Flash developers, please note.) Personally, I refuse to buy anything that's sold via spam or Flash animations.

With Flashblock, all that blinking and zooming and, um, flashing is gone. It's replaced by a calm blank space and a small “f." If, for some perverse reason, you actually want to view the stupid animation, mouse over the “f” and it changes to a right-facing arrow. Click and watch. Whatever floats your boat.

Flashblock is free, and works hand in hand with another indispensable Firefox freebie: Adblock, which does just what the name implies. Adblock’s big strength is that its use of wildcards, so you can block all or some of the ads from particular servers (or sub-directories).

Other extensions I’ve installed recently that make my heart sing are Gmail Notifier (which gives you a real-time peek at incoming mail to your Google Mail account) and Copy Plain Text, which strips the formatting from web page text. Perfect for writers and researchers like me. (Wish there was one for MS apps.) Update: There is one for MS apps! It's called PureText, and it's the equivalent of pasting text into Notepad, then copying and pasting that into the final document. Thanks, Lifehacker for the tip.

So raise a glass to these innovative Firefox developers. You guys and gals absolutely rock!

Making money -- or meaning: Kawasaki

What's the goal of your business? To make money, right? Actually, that's misguided, says the wise former Apple "evangelist" Guy Kawasaki, now a venture capitalist.

The first thing I learned is that the people who change the world—the people who really make a difference—aren't motivated by money.

Instead, Kawasaki notes, they want "to make meaning and create products they themselves would use." I totally agree. Apply those principles to your business, and watch it flower.

There are three principle ways of making meaning, says Kawasaki.

"The first is to increase the quality of life of your customer.

"The second way is to right a wrong: To take something and look at the marketplace and say, 'You know, there must be a better way to do this.

"The third way is to perpetuate something good."

That seems to me to be a pretty simple recipe for successs, both worldy and spiritual. So take a step back and look at yourself, your business, your employees.

Are you just in it for the money?

More from Guy here.

Easy to be hard (hard to be simple)

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace.

"Making the complicated awesomely simple... that's creativity."

Charles Mingus

Bye bye Blogger?

I'm getting pretty weary of Blogger's many limitations and, uh, eccentricities (Can you say "bugs?")

In the previous post (below), for example, I must have tried to format the color of my bullet list about 15 times, but no matter how I selected them, those first two bullet points would not turn yellow. Got it at last! #16 was the charm, I guess.

But should I really have to select all but the first letter of each bullet point, change it to yellow, then go back and select just the first letter and do it again? On each point?

So, I ask you, honored neighbors in the blogosphere, where should I take this thing? Typepad? Wordpress?

What do you use, and why?

Simplify, simplify

Simplify doesn't mean "dumb down".

It means your memos, presentations and other businesss documents should only be as technical as they need to be depending on your audience. Obviously, if you're writing or speaking to engineers, you can safely assume a certain level of technical competence -- although you might be surprised at how many software developers, for example, can barely crank out anything beyond the most rudimentary PowerPoint presentation.

But you should keep it as simple as possible, even when addressing a technically- sophisticated audience, like medical doctors.

That's not just my advice. It comes from an American doctor who attends a lot of technical presentations and gives quite a few himself. His advice, on Presentation Zen:

Always ask yourself how technical do you really need to be. If you’re a specialist speaking to generalists, do they really need all the details? This is particularly true when discussing your own research or work (where it’s easy to get carried away).

Can you say: “The technical details are in the handout” (to be distributed after the talk) or “for those interested in the technical details, I’ll be in the lobby after the talk”?

• Can one complex slide be broken down into several simpler ones? Can you use simple graphics and complex descriptions?

• Most importantly: the basics are really important: (a strong) opening, informal tone... work the room, using the blank screen feature, and, of course, Passion, Passion, Passion!!!

I once saw a great talk on the notoriously difficult subject of biostatistics in which the speaker started his talk by standing up in his sportcoat and tie and said “I don’t know about you, but I get pretty worked up talking about biostats so I’ve gotta get this coat off and get ready to rock.” It was funny but genuine and showed passion and informality right from the start. A nice move I’ve copied on occasion."

"Dr. Ted's" advice applies not only to speaking but writing, too. Try it yourself. But don't be surprised to discover-- it's hard work to keep it simple. But your listeners/ readers will love you for it! (Hey, they might even buy what you're selling.)

Who's your audience?

Any effective communication requires answering two basic questions before you start to write:

• Who are you trying to communicate with?
• What are you trying to get them to do?

Then tailor your memo, email or other message so they -- your intended audience -- understand it.

That last bit is where many companies fail, especially those in technology. Their copywriters and marketing communications consultants are so sophisticated in tech stuff, they think the average office worker is, too. Not so, as a UK tech survey reported in the BBC found:

• Three quarters of workers waste more than an hour a week deciphering what a technical term means

• Terms like jpeg, javascript and cookies are among the problem words

• Younger workers are just as likely to be confused by computer language

Computer People recruiters, which questioned 1,500 workers, says effective technology professionals must "understand the need to tailor their levels of jargon." In other words, as I've been saying for years, write clearly and keep it simple.

Thanks, Lifehacker, for the link.

Three keys to speech-writing

“The three most important elements in any speech are: brevity, levity, and repetition. Let me say that again: brevity, levity, and repetition.”

Daniel Pink, author, Free Agent Nation, at a 2005 commencement address

If he'd sat down right after that, it would (theoretically) have been a perfect speech.

Creative or Organized? (Pick one)

Do you have notes jotted everywhere? I know I do. As a full-time writer, ideas are my bread and butter, and I hate letting any of them slip away.

Consequently, I’ve got ideas scribbled on Post-Its, yellow pads, my PDA, digital voice recorder and some Backpack pages. And let’s not even mention the thousands of half-started files in dozens (hundreds?) of folders and subfolders. I often jot down new ideas in a Word doc, save it, then promptly forget all about it -- or can't find it when I need it.

Thanks to a mention in Walt Mossberg's WSJ column, I've been trying out a free note-taking application that shows promise for people like me. (No, not brain dead. BUSY. Too much to keep track of. And like that.)

It's called EverNote. It’s basically an endless roll of notepaper, not unlike the old green and white striped fanfold computer paper the MIS guys used to use for their reports. (That’s a better analogy than a giant roll of toilet paper, right?)

EverNote lets you snatch just about anything (text, images, etc.) from just about anywhere (Web page, Word doc, spreadsheet, even a hand-scribbled diagram on a tablet PC). Just right-click “Add to EverNote” and it’s added to the bottom of the list – even if the app itself isn’t running. Pretty slick.

Best of all, each note contains a clickable link to its source, no matter where it is. You can also type, drag or paste content into a note, or use a special button on the Firefox toolbar.

There are built-in templates for to-do lists, expenses, shopping lists, but either they’re pretty lame or I’m not using them correctly. That’s OK, I’m still making good use of the product.

Your notes are manageable because you can assign categories to each, then filter by category. You can also search, click on the timeline to go to a certain date, or scroll. Notes can be collapsed or expanded to save screen real estate.

Unlike Backpack, EverNote lives on your hard drive, not a Web page. For you, maybe that’s a drawback, but I prefer it. It’s much, much faster, more nimble and more flexible than Backpack. And it, too, is free. Try it here.

So... what do you use to stay organized?

Maine's not the only one

In my previous post I had a mild rant about waiving tolls on the Maine Turnpike. But our neighbor to the South, New Hampshire, just pulled a toll increase -- without raising prices. Huh? How?

New Hampshire no longer accepts its own tokens for tolls. Now riders have to pay a buck each way, instead of the 50 cents (or so) the tokens ended up costing. Bottom line: about a 100% increase in the cost.

BTW, for those of you from away, New Hampshire's little stretch of I-95 is only about 15 miles long. A buck to ride 15 miles of pavement!

A penny for your thoughts -- about pennies

I've been throwing my pocket change in a jar on my dresser since I was a kid. It's a pretty painless way to save, but it also means you often don't have the three cents you inevitably need when the coffee barista brings your double latte. Many convenience stores and small markets have a penny tray for your convenience, but not everyone.

Seth Godin writes about an acquaintence:

He stopped at the Cinnabon in Penn Station and his treat came to $3.03 with tax. Now, he has to hassle looking for change, or break a bill, and the store has to hassle with breaking the bill and shlepping lots of pennies to and from the bank. In the long run, they may even need to hire another clerk because productivity is hit.

Seth's suggested solution:

"... they should teach their clerks to always round off the pennies. So if a check comes to $5.05, the clerk says, "don't worry about the nickel." Don't worry about the nickel! Can you imagine? Would that make your day or what? A little free prize that makes you feel way better..."

Great idea, Seth. I think the state of Maine's Turnpike Authority should do something similar on summer Sunday afternoons. It would conserve fuel, reduce air pollution and be great PR for the state -- and for a greedy bureaucracy.

Every Sunday during the summer, thousands of cars slow to a crawl to pay their tolls when leaving Maine. Sometimes the backup is 10-15 miles long and lasts an hour or more. I've been saying for years the state ought to just waive the tolls and let the tourists leave without having to shell out another $1.75. Getting a little freebie like that would leave 'em smiling, and remembering the last moments of their vacation as very happy ones.

Instead, what do you think the Maine Turnpike Authority did?

Of course. They added more toll booths...

Tom McKay
Fumbling for change

Do you love quotes?

A good pithy quotation by some wise man or woman is like a ripe peach: sensuous, juicy, overflowing with good stuff.

God, I love peaches -- I mean, quotes. (Well, both actually.)

I've been collecting great quotes for years, and have a file filled with thousands of them.

I'm also going to start sharing more of my favorites with you. Here's one of my all-time faves from George Bernard Shaw:

"We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing."

In this high-stress world, we all need to remember to keep things light, to take time for fun, and not to take everything (especially ourselves) so seriously. Hey, that reminds me of a similar quote:

"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly."

What are your favorites? Post them in a comment so we can all enjoy them.

Love those lists!

What is it about lists that are so darn appealing? People just love 'em -- numbered lists, bulleted lists, grocery lists (OK, never mind that last one).

Personally, I know I was finally able to unblock myself and start writing magazine articles when I discovered the list format years ago. Somehow an article titled "Six Ways to Save for Retirement" was easier (for me anyway) than just a vague, amorphous piece about retirement saving.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has some theories about why lists are so loved:

1. Lists are scannable - online readers are notoriously lazy. A list helps communicate a number of points quickly and easily
2. Lists keep posts succinct - there is something about a list that keeps you from rambling
3. Lists look ‘neat’ - I don’t know about you but when I surf onto a site that is full of messily formatted text - I don’t tend to stick around long. Lists on the other hand can be quite visually pleasing
4. Lists are easy to link to
   
5. Lists can be comprehensive
6. Lists are persuasive - if you want to mount a case for something quickly presenting numerous arguments in a list can be quite convincing
7. Lists can add to the ease of writing - I like writing in lists because they break down my thoughts into bite sized pieces which is good not only for readers but me as a writer as I consider how to express myself (Tom adds: amen!)
   

Read Darren's entire post here.

When I started using lists as the core of my articles, they had more direction, better focus, higher energy. As a bonus, I finished a lot faster, too.

Try it yourself for your blog posts -- or any other kind of business writing.

Afterthought: A list isn't an excuse to be shallow, of course. As a Maine fisherman would say, you still have to give good weight.

The "secret sauce" to spice up your blog posts

Most of us struggle to write well. Irish PR practitioner Piaras Kelly has posted 12 excellent tips that may help you write for your blog -- or any other business writing.

You may not agree with all twelve. Maybe they don't reflect your personal writing style. But most are solid advice no matter what you're writing -- memos, reports, articles, powerpoint presentations, etc.

A few guidelines that can be broadly applied (beyond blogs) are:

• Use catchy titles (works with powerpoint slides, too.)
  
• Be unique
• Credit your sources
• Think before you write/post
• Stay on topic

Thanks Darren for the link.

Free audio books

Do you enjoy audio books? Want to get some for free? Would you like to narrate a few, too? Here's a great opportunity for you.

LibriVox creates and distributes free audios from books which are in the public domain -- meaning no Harry Potter, sorry. In fact, most will be novels from the early 20th century and before-- Joseph Conrad is on the current hitlist.

It's an open source project, so they depend on volunteers like you to record a chapter or two at a time. Great practice for you budding podcasters out there. Sounds like a worthy project to support.

Personally, I used to enjoy audio books when I was more of a road warrior. Nowadays I work at home, so obviously I don't have a long commute. Also, I read mostly business books now, and for me reading/ skimming the print versions is not only faster, but I retain a lot more. With print, it's also easier to go back and re-read something, slap a post-it note on the page, or whip out the old highlighter.

I remember trying to listen to the cluetrain manifesto and a few of Seth Godin's books on CD, but I just didn't get as much out of the audio versions. My mind wanders. Besides, I know from my days on the radio you can "speak" only 200-250 words a minute, but I can read 800 or so when I'm in the groove.

But I digress. If you like audio books (and would like them even better for free), check out LibriVox. Their hit counter is probably going wild, since they just got links from boing boing, delicious and lifehacker.

A marketer's introduction to blogging

Sure, you and I may be convinced of the value of blogs. But it's hard to come up with a quick, convincing answer when other people ask, "Why bother blogging?"

Well, now we don't have to -- Rich Brooks has created one for us. Rich, who's a regular contributor to Business Blog Consulting, has posted an excellent introduction to blogging on his company blog.

It very concisely answers those pesky Big Questions that bosses, clients and other purse-string holders ask. Like:

What are the benefits?
What's required?
How do I start?

Check it out. The effort you save may be your own...

Freedom of the press/blog

Random thought while reading Seth Godin's latest, who's there:

Freedom of the press, they used to say, was restricted to those who owned one. Now, every blogger has one, and anyone can become a blogger/publisher. As Seth puts it:

Today, all printing presses are created equal. And everyone owns one. Which means that a good idea on a little blog has a very good chance of spreading.

Back in colonial times, rabble-rousers, crackpots and patriots (it was soooo hard to tell the difference) spread their (literally) revolutionary ideas by printing one-sheet "broadsides" decrying King George or the Stamp Act or the latest indignity imposed on colonists by the Crown.

Today, blogs give each of us the same freedom. We can rant whenever we want, about anything we want. And we don't even get printer's ink all over our hands...

The revolution has indeed begun.

Advertising copywriting rules

Maybe it's because it's a separate reality -- or just seems like one -- but advertising seems to have its own set of rules. So says writer John Camm via BBC News Online via BoingBoing. Among his observations:

1. Men are obsessed with sex but will forego sex in order to watch football or drink beer.

2. Women are locked in a constant battle with their weight/body shape/hairstyle.

3. Career success is entirely based on your ability to impress your boss.

5. Any act of male stupidity (e.g. walking across a clean floor in muddy boots, putting the dog in the dishwasher, etc.) will be met with a wry smile, not genuine annoyance/anger.

7. Anyone with a scientific career will have a bad haircut and dreadful clothes.

10. Scandinavians are, without exception, blonde and beautiful.

12. Children will not eat fruit or vegetables. Ever.

13. Both men and women find driving deeply pleasurable, never boring or stressful.

Gosh, you mean they're not true?

Does anybody actually work anymore?

Or do too many CEOs just engineer deals that fatten their own wallets?

If anyone wonders why many people are cynical of all the merger activity going on again, this item from GMSV (see below) will provide some insight:

Capellas donates new wing to Golden Parachute Museum

When he left HP in 2002, he received $14.4 million in severance, plus a $1.9 million incentive payment and $9.6 million to cover his taxes on the payments. When he took over MCI, he received a $2 million signing bonus. Now comes word that Capellas is entitled to a $39.2 million payout when leaves MCI after its pending $8.4 billion merger with Verizon. According to an MCI proxy statement filed Thursday, Capellas will receive $11.3 million for three years' worth of salary and bonus; $18.5 million from a previously disclosed restricted stock grant; and $9.4 million in payments to cover the taxes on his exit package.

I wonder how many of his millions Capellas is donating to the victims of Katrina?

Funny business writing

As a business writer myself, I love anyone who can write about business, especially technology which I love, with wit and insight. So one column/blog I read almost daily is Good Morning Silicon Valley.

First launched in July 1996, GMSV is one of the longest running technology Web logs around. Written by John Paczkowski with John Murrell, "it looks askance at the technology news of the day with an authoritative eye and irreverent wit," according to its "About" page.

Yesterday's lead headline was typically hilarious. It came on the heels of Massachussetts' announcement that the state is migrating to open file formats -- thus abandoning proprietary formats like MS Ofice, Lotus Notes and WordPerfect. The headline:

Ballmer, get your butt out to Boston, and for heaven's sake stay away from the beans

Read the entire thing here.