The new article is up - When Fishing for New Business - Information is the Best Bait!  It's based on, "...People are always looking for information.  This is the major reason Google has been so successful.  With that as a given, how can we as marketers capitalize on this phenomenon?  The simple answer is to give away information.  It is the greatest premium item ever conceived.  It usually costs less than a pen, a note pad, or a coffee mug; especially if it is repurposed from prior programs, and it's much easier to deliver.  Plus, delivery is actually the first step on the pathway to purchase."  You can read the full article at:  http://ezinearticles.com/?id=1104713.

Any time you can get new business for not much effort and not much money, it is good!

More later...

        

I've got a new article that will pop up shortly on Ezinearticles.com - When Fishing for New Business - Information is the Best Bait!  It's based on, "...People are always looking for information.  This is the major reason Google has been so successful.  With that as a given, how can we as marketers capitalize on this phenomenon?  The simple answer is to give away information.  It is the greatest premium item ever conceived.  It usually costs less than a pen, a note pad, or a coffee mug; especially if it is repurposed from prior programs, and it's much easier to deliver.  Plus, delivery is actually the first step on the pathway to purchase."
It should be live in the next day or so, and I'll put up the link as soon as it is ready.

Meanwhile, you can check out another article on EzineArticles- "Hybrid Teams Increase Small Office Efficiency - And Save Money" Remember, companies today have a choice: doing everything themselves with staff resources or hiring outside resources. On one side, you may have to maintain a large staff - not always the best practice, especially considering the seasonal nature of many of the things a company does. And companies today are always on the lookout for more efficient ways to accomplish their goals. On the other side, handing a major project or process, especially Communications, completely over to an outside agency can be extremely inefficient and not yield results that are in the companies' best interest.  Read the whole article here.

        

Its coming!
Earth Day April 22, 2008
So what are you going to do about it.
May I humbly suggest a few things that you can do day in and day out in your office to help reduce electricity consumption and save a few pounds of carbon emissions - those pounds add up.  If everyone saves a few pounds, it all adds up to many tons!  And really, it requires little effort, and the gains, if I may quote the Preamble to our Constitution, "...to ourselves, AND OUT POSTERITY (caps mine)... will benefit those who follow us on this planet.
So... a few modest suggestions, easily implemented when you leave the office for the evening or weekend:

• Turn off the printer - hard switch OFF, don't just let it go to sleep and think that is enough
• Turn off your speakers - again, hard off with a switch where they plug into the wall.  The wall wart consumes power even if you turn off the switch on the speakers
• Turn off your Monitor - hard switch off, don't just let it go to sleep.
• And so forth.  Everything you can turn off saves us all
  

It comes down to the little things.  Every little thing that you leave turned on when it is not needed consumes a watt or so.  100 wall warts consuming a watt or so, equals 100 watts - would you leave your desk lamp on all night?  No.  So turn off those little things - its good for your children... and their children... and their children.

How about this?  If you have a desk lamp, next time it burns out, replace the bulb with a compact fluorescent.  They will generally use about 1/3 to 1/4 of the power of the regular incandescent bulb.

That's all I'm going to suggest now.  But think about it.  We all are responsible for the earth we hand off to our children.  Let's act like it.

        

I have a three part article on EzineArticles.com - If You Didn't Measure it - You Didn't Do It!

In this three part article, I explore the process of a product announcement.
Part 1 - Defining the dimensions of the problem and what was expected of the program
Part 2 - What was done to solve the problem
Part 3 - What the results showed when compared against the dimensions of the original problem

There are links in each part to the other two parts so you can read the entire sequence easily.

The most important part is the ...<< MORE >>

Great story about Hybrid Production Teams.

The teen age students at Sussex Technical in Sparta, NJ built a human powered submarine and competed in the International Submarine Races for the third time, and again achieved winner status.  My client supplied components for the sub, and definitely supports young people getting involved in engineering.  You can check out the whole story here.  In addition to creating the web page and adding it to their site (thanks Mark Scala), we also sent out a Press Release using the services of my PR buddy, ...<< MORE >>

Many small office communicators think they have to DO IT ALL THEMSELVES!  This is a big stress inducer, and there IS an easier way - Hybrid Production Teams.
I have an article about the many advantages of outsourcing SOME of the work load.  A process made so much easier today by the world wide web.  It lets you use production resources from across the hall, or around the world.  My one recommendation is to keep as much of the work in your own country as possible - saves many potential headaches.  Take a look at an article I wrote on this ...<< MORE >>

Ok...

You've just been asked to prepare your first PowerPoint presentation.  Where do you look for guidance.  One good place I've found is Dave Paradi.  He has been studying PowerPoint and teaching folk how to use it well for quite a few years.  First, he has an informative free newsletter that is a good source of ongoing tips and ideas.  You can sign up on his web site, www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com.  He also has a great Guide to PowerPoint that you can pick up from Amazon quite reasonably.  It will definitely get you going.

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This is just a quick note to hook up to Technorati so you can find us there.

Dan


Technorati Profile
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New Article - Think First!

Just published a new article on Ezine Articles.com.

It is designed to help organize and unify thinking about ideas to be presented. The results of this process can be used internally or given to an outside producer or writer to insure that the desired message is communicated in the most efficient and effective manner. By devoting a little time early in the planning stages of a project to honestly answering these questions, the people who will prepare and present the idea will have a much better chance of achieving the presentation's stated goals.

Read the full article here: 

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Hello...
I'm Dan Davenport, and I'll be your host for this venture into Communications Processes and Idea for the Small Office.  If you work in a small company or office, this is the place for you.  we will be talking about writing, writers, PowerPoint, a little bit about advertising, and a host of other topics.

If your employer has tasked you to set up a meeting, create a presentation, create some web copy or other exciting projects like these, this is the place for you.  So many folks (I know, I was one - about 30 years ago) are in the knee ...<< MORE >>