Monday, December 26, 2005

Strategy: Use This Week to Plan for Next Year

Quite an odd circumstance we have this week - an entire workweek sandwiched perfectly between Christmas and New Year's. Feels like an island in time, doesn't it? What do we do to innovate, to make the week worthwhile, when it seems disconnected from the rest of the year? (At least that's how I've been feeling.)

I have one idea - planning.

The new year IS upon us. What better time to lay out the months ahead, make up lists of objectives and tasks, and schedule out the progress of the year? I know, there's no way to plan for everything. But with a solid strategy to stand on, it's a lot easier to weather the unpredictable.

In part, I'd like to use this post to introduce a website that's become extremely valuable to me recently: Lifehack.org. There's a slew of information here on personal organization, productivity, business strategies, and more. I'll be plumbing the depths of this site all week, looking for tidbits and hints on ways to make 2006 well-planned, easy to approach, and goal-oriented.

Here's to a wildly productive 2006!

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

A new Blue Ferret hangout? Other blogging solutions?

There have been a lot of problems with Blogger lately. I couldn't even see my own blog for more than 48 hours. In business and time, that's unacceptable.

So now I'm thinking about switching to another blog platform. I don't have a lot of budget left (even before the holidays!), so cost is a prime factor. Right now I'm considering TypePad (at TypePad.com) and WordPress (at WordPress.com). Both are well-supported, very popular, and hosting is either free or cheap, with lots of extras.

So I put it to the vastness of the Web - which do you feel is a better blogging solution? Do you have an alternative? Fire away!




Friday, December 02, 2005

Multiple Proofreadings - Give Your Content The Twice-Over

A client's email today reminded me of something important enough to post on. He emailed to tell me he was having a couple of other people at his business look over the content I wrote for their website.

Extremely sensible of him.

Proofreading is vital to any writing. But one thing that can help a great deal (and is not often done) is multiple proofreadings. Everyone has a different role, different priorities they follow each day. Taking a few minutes to read over something to see if it represents your interests as well only improves the writing's quality. Another pair of eyes can catch what the first missed, and so on.

Way too often, not even one proofread is done. I see articles online, from reputable news or corporate sites, with glaring spelling errors in them. I've gotten to the point where I don't actually say out loud, "How can you miss that?" They're that common. Doing one proofread is smart, but several is exceptional.

How many people read over your last content update? Next time you're writing up some copy, call up some department heads and ask them for their proofreading time. They'll feel better, for being included in the process, and you'll come out on top with well-reviewed copy.