Meryl's Notes Blog at meryl.net by Writer Meryl K. Evans

Free Samples

2012-05-17T12:54:51Z

Image from sxc.hu user awottawa

“It bothers me to watch the hordes at the farmer’s market, swooping in to each booth, grabbing a sample and walking away,” writes Seth Godin. In his post, he explains that it bugs him to see farmers giving away free samples at a farmer’s market. Instead of offering samples, they need to focus on building connections. Of course, building relationships leads to trust and eventually the buy. No argument there.

I’ve been guilty of picking up a sample and avoiding eye contact with the person at the booth. But I do the same thing in clothing stores. Two reasons for this. One: I want to make my own decisions without interaction. If I need help, I’ll seek it. Two: I don’t want to risk having an awkward conversation or embarrassing situation if I can’t read the person’s lips.

Example. Years ago, I was trying on clothes in a store with my mom nearby. Apparently, the sales person had been trying to talk to me while I was in the changing stall. She admitted to my mom that she thought I was a snob. We had a nice conversation, I bought a few things and I walked away with a good story.

If I I decide to buy the sampled item, then I’ll go back and grab it.

Granted, Godin could be speaking of farmer’s markets and not other situations. After all, he has given away many books. It’s true that free samples don’t work for everything. Writing and designing on spec has had plenty of controversy. Yet, sites like 99designs thrive. These sites allow clients to post a project posting a fee for the winning design. Designers submit their entries based on the client’s requirements and cross their fingers. Imagine the time the designer invests in creating the work. If the designer’s work isn’t selected, that’s time wasted. And many do it again and again.

I’ve bought many things as a result of free samples. Some of these, I continue to buy. While 10 people may have sampled items with no plans to buy, the company turned me into a loyal customer. My regular purchases paid for the 10 little samples and then some.

Heck, I’ve even bought from companies after receiving their swag that had nothing to do with their product or service. The swag helped me remember them when I needed their services. Yes, I researched the company before hiring them. No one expects you to buy on swag alone.

Building relationships is important. No question. Still, free samples. They can be a good thing. Maybe not for farmer’s markets, but certainly for others.

What are your thoughts on samples? Spec work?

Are You Memorable?

2012-05-02T12:40:41Z

Ask anyone between the ages of 13 and 30 who knew my dad to share something they remember about him. Most will reply with “talking like Donald Duck.” Walk in to the office in my mother’s house and Donald Duck greets you from every direction beginning with the large bright yellow latch-hook picture of Donald Duck on the wall.

I don’t know how Dad started this Donald Duck talk business, but it’s one of those things many people remember about him. His wife, three kids, and friends showered him with Donald Duck gifts for years.

Accidentally Memorable

I also have one thing that makes me memorable. No, I don’t imitate any famous characters. No, I don’t perform magic tricks. This one came with the package that the doctor delivered to my mother when I arrived. I was born deaf only no one knew the little secret until around my first birthday.

Despite years of speech therapy and repeating nonsensical sounds, I have a deaf accent [video]. Whenever I met a new teacher or professor, I often introduced myself in the first class explaining that I read lips and will sit in the best place where I can see the teacher. I joked that I could never skip class because the professors would notice the deaf one didn’t show up.

In eighth grade, my drama teacher asked me if I was Michael’s little sister. This may not sound shocking … until you hear that we’re 10 years apart. Imagine all the students in 10 years who came through her door before I did. When she taught my brother, I was just three years old — not exactly recognizable from a photo. Michael showed her a photo of three-year-old me when I wore the clunky hearing aid in a box on my chest. Would she have remembered me without it?

What makes you or your company memorable?

You don’t need to run off and take lessons on how to imitate a famous character. As outgoing as my dad was, I can’t imagine him pulling out the Donald Duck trick in a business meeting. It could be a a clothing accessory that stands out, a company mascot, smashing customer service or a well-written email newsletter.

What helps you remember a company? How does your stand out?

Connect with Clients and Prospects with a Well-Designed Email Newsletter

2012-04-25T19:50:41Z

Image from sxc.hu user mmagallan

A 2011 MerchantCircle.com survey of over 8,000 US local business owners found email marketing cited by 35.8% as a “Top three most effective marketing or advertising method.” Likewise, the 9th Annual Merchant Survey (2010) conducted by The E-tailing Group asked merchants to list which initiatives they would be using to improve website performance. 79% chose “send more targeted email” as the top answer. No other marketing tool gives you direct interaction with clients in a platform that incorporates graphic design, valuable content, web links, and incentives like an email newsletter does.

Done right, email marketing can have a strong, positive impact on your business. Here are the strategies to ensure your email newsletter is as effective as possible.

Share great content. This is the bread and butter of effective email marketing because interesting, appealing, and humorous content compels your clients and prospects to read your e-newsletter and visit links. It takes time to produce good content, so don’t wait to pull it together at the last minute. Create a project folder for your newsletter so that you can add a new picture, feature story, or content idea whenever ideas come to you you.

Headlines and top stories don’t have to be related to your business. In fact, fun anecdotes, inspirational quotes, product reviews, pro-tips, and even editorial copy is more likely to engage your readers initially and keep them on the page. You can sell your product or service later, but try to make the first impression and subject line as intriguing as possible. Consider capitalizing key words, mentioning deals, or using friendly copy in the subject line to lure readers to open your email.

Many businesses will recycle content week after week for e-newsletters. Be wary of this, as sending emails too frequently with stale information or too many graphics will quickly lead to a rush of unsubscribes. If you must re-use content, take the time to paraphrase or rewrite your content so that it stays fresh.

Engage readers by asking for their help. This can be as simple as voting in an online poll, filling out a survey, or asking for product reviews or testimonials. You’ll e amazed how quickly your readers will offer up their time when prompted. Reader reviews and testimonials are invaluable for new businesses, and also make for great copy in subsequent newsletters. Getting readers to interact with your newsletter is the best way to make sure they open it every time.

Remember to provide links. One of the biggest assets of email marketing is the ability to dispatch web traffic. Offer links back to your website, specifically to new products or services, or to valuable areas of your site. This is your opportunity to directly stimulate web traffic. Include links to events, social media pages, and other sites if they will return the favor for you.

Sign up for other email newsletters. Any newsletter designer or graphic artist will tell you to always do your homework before designing. Sign up for competitors’ newsletters. Read them every week. Notice what works and what doesn’t. Check out graphic design styles, determine what you like, and then integrate that into your design. Pay attention to email marketing trends and consider how you can use them to your advantage.

Check your statistics from previous newsletters. Most email newsletter providers have reports and stats to allow you to see how many impressions and clicks your email received. This is important information. You can find out which headlines and links got more clicks, and apply that intelligence to upcoming emails. You may be surprised to see that a fun fact or product review got more attention than a coupon or featured deal.

Make sure you seek lots of feedback before pressing “send.” The preview button is there for a reason! Send a test email to associates, friends, and business partners to get their feedback on your design — then apply them. Your email is a reflection of your business, so make sure it’s just right. Avoid typos and grammatical errors costs and verify all data is correct to avoid ever sending a “corrections” blast.

If you take the time to create powerful and valuable newsletters, email marketing can be a winning tool for your business. When your clients and prospects look forward to your emails, your newsletter is a lot more likely to get the impressions you want, and stay out of the trash folder.

About the author: Industry veteran Anita Brady is the President of 123Print.com, a provider of high quality customizable items like business cards, letterhead and other materials for small businesses and solo practitioners.

Chynna’s Top Ten Writing Tips

2012-04-16T12:38:20Z

Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Chynna Laird’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour.

About Chynna Laird: She’s a psychology major, freelance writer and multi award-winning author living in Edmonton, Alberta with her partner, Steve, and their four children. Her passion is helping children and families living with Sensory Processing Disorder and other special needs. Laird has authored an award-winning children’s book (I’m Not Weird, I Have SPD), two memoirs (the multi award-winning, Not Just Spirited: A Mom’s Sensational Journey With SPD and White Elephants), a young adult novel (Blackbird Flies), an adult suspense (Out Of Sync), and a Young Adult Suspense/Mystery/Paranormal/Sweet Romance (Undertow, to be released 2012). She blogs at The Gift Blog and See the White Elephants.

Chynna’s Top Ten Writing Tips by Chynna Laird

I’ve been writing since I was in my single digits. I guess you could say that writing isn’t just a hobby for me or something I ‘just do’, it’s a huge part of who I am. I need that creative time that’s separate from the other roles I play during the day when I can lose myself in my characters and the places they take me. It’s a wonderful feeling having all of these stories inside of me bursting to get out that I can actually share with other people … and they read it! How cool is that?

I consider myself very blessed to be able to do what I do and I don’t take it for granted in the least. Writing is something we can always do as long as we have a story in our hearts and our wits about us. There’s no age, sex, race, religion, social status, or ability barriers when it comes to being a writer. If you have that creativity inside of you, if that passion is there, nurture it.

A still have a few years to go before I’m plopped in that ‘veteran writer’ category, and my goodness I still have so much to learn. But in the fairly short period of time that I’ve been out in the writing world, there are a few things I’ve learned. And, if you’ll allow me to, I’d love to share them with you.

1. Accept that you are a writer. It doesn’t matter if you dabble in it or you work most of your day pounding on the keyboard. You could be a blogger, an article writer, a poet, a short story creator, or a diligent person who writes 200,000-word books. You. Are. A. Writer. You have that creative energy inside of you and you make the effort to channel it. So, even if you haven’t been published yet, just say what I used to before I got my first story published: “I’m a writer. The world just hasn’t found me yet.”

2. Find the time. If all you have time for is a paragraph or two or a single blog post, perfect. There will be days when you just don’t have time to write as much as you’d like to get some out. It keeps the creative juices bubbling. My personal goal is about 1,500 words a day. That could be an article, a blog post, or a section in one of my novels-in-progress. For me, writing gives me the same energy as my yoga or exercise time. I make the time.

3. Have your own space. I realize this isn’t always possible. My “work space” is smack-dab in the middle of my living room where all the action is (I know … my bad … ). But when I have something I really want to work on or an important deadline to meet, I take our tiny laptop or a notebook and a pen and I hide somewhere. It doesn’t matter if you set up a little space in the walk-in closet, put little desk up in the quietest place in your house or shut yourself in the bathroom for a bit, have a space where you can let the words flow.

4. Journal. I’ve been practicing journaling since I was very young. It has many benefits. Aside from being a place to jot down your personal thoughts, feelings, and dreams, it’s also where you can work on ideas, practice finding your writing voice as well as getting into the habit of writing. That’s how my dedication and discipline for ‘finding the time’ came from.

5. Read … a lot. Just like in any profession, in order to succeed it’s a good idea to learn from those who are rocking it out there. Read anything and everything from authors you aspire to be. Trust me, you can learn so much just from that alone.

6. Start in your “safe place” then branch out from there. When I first started, I had absolutely no idea where I fit into the writing world. There are so many genres and sub-genres, it’s hard to know at first where I “fit in.” All I knew was that I was told my style of writing was “emotionally charged.” So I started writing inspirational articles and personal essays. From there, I channeled my emotional energy into intense contemporary young adult shorts, then it blossomed from there. The point is by all means start where you feel safe. But don’t be afraid to venture out past the safe area because you never know what else you’re capable of.

7. Join a writing group. Every province or state has some sort of writing association. Get in touch with them and find a local writing group. If there isn’t one, why not put one together? Writing groups are great because they are often made up of a good mix of individuals in various stages of their writing careers. You can get critique of your work and network with writing peers, which is a major part of being a writer.

8. Find a writing mentor. I love my writing mentors. They inspire me, keep me focus and grounded and never let me give up. It’s very important to have someone who has “been there, done that” who can give you guidance, answer your questions and be that strong support when you need it. If you don’t know someone who can mentor you, check with your local university or college’s English department or the writing association nearest to you. Both often have mentoring programs you could sign up for.

9. Get out once in awhile. This is something I have to remind myself of once in awhile. If you’re a full-time writer, you’ll be spending a lot of time in front of your computer. Alone. (No, social media chats do not count as getting out or connecting with others!) I’m lucky because I have my four kids around me and have to get out there and be around others through their school, activities and my charity work.

10. Rejection is a part of writing. It sucks, but it’s true. If it makes you feel better, even though I’ve written countless articles, blog posts, and books, I still get rejections. It’s a part of the whole process. The only advice I can give you is to feel the sting, then move on. Consider it a learning curve. Analyze why you were rejected and work on it. There are other editors waiting to hear your pitch. Trust me, each time it happens your skin gets a little thicker until you can finally say, “Ah. Their loss. NEXT!”

The only other piece of advice I can give you is this: Do not give up. I consider everything I go through in life a lesson, good or bad. You just can’t think of it any other way or things will just get to you. If you truly believe in yourself and what you’re doing, others will too. Never give someone the power to squash your dreams. They are what inspire us, give us hope and keep us moving forward.

Happy writing!

What writing tips do you have?

About White Elephants: Elephant in the middle of the living room — that is one way of explaining how a family walks around the invisible presence of huge problems. Hindsight is what brings the elephant into focus.

Somehow at the innocent age of five Tami began to see the bulky creature crowding her family and took on a sense of responsibility far beyond expectation for her age. Her mother was different than other mothers. Family life in their household was not pretty. No one noticed. No one did anything about it, and Tami wanted someone to do just that. As an adult Tami took on her first name, Chynna, and took up the challenge to find out what might have helped her mother fight her battle of self-destruction. She couldn’t help her mother, but she would consider it worth everything if her family’s story helped another.

This candid memoir is a story of one girl’s struggle to deal with her mother’s alcoholic/bipolar condition–the white elephant no one else would see. With a conversational tone, Laird shares her remarkable story of abuse, survival, and her triumphant recovery into becoming a healthy, well adjusted wife and mother. Tastefully written, this book will touch your heart. It offers hope that, no matter where you come from, life is what you make it.

Research Redefined

2012-04-03T13:56:38Z

You may have heard that Encyclopædia Britannica no longer sells a print edition. It now only offers a paid subscription to its online edition. Why pay a few bucks a month for information that’s available free? Ah, yes, Encyclopædia Britannica entices prospects by saying, “There’s no such thing as a bad question–but there are bad answers.”

Wikipedia vs. Encyclopædia Britannica

Resources like Wikipedia and infographics have been known to produce incorrect information. Besides, even if Wikipedia managed to produce perfect entries — it still has a human factor problem with volunteers writing and editing the entries.

I’ve seen an editor delete an entry due to bias rather than providing a solid reason that complies with Wikipedia guidelines. I’ve seen entries on controversial hijacked or rewritten with bias. And I’ve heard stories like David Henderson’s. He shares his thoughts and experience on Wikipedia.

I think we all agree Wikipedia has plenty of mistakes. But what about the stalwart Britannica? It’s not infallible according to a study.

Nature conducted a controversial study comparing the accuracy of the two sources. Using the average mistakes per article, the study found 2.92 mistakes for Encyclopædia Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia. However, Wikipedia could make corrections instantly while a printed edition could not … that is, until now. I wonder how the two compare when using the online edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.

Nonetheless, we all need to know how to discern bad information from the good. That means learning how to find information, looking at the facts, and evaluating the source [pdf]. Many Wikipedia contributors include citations to support the facts presented. Using our experience and research skills, we can figure out whether those resources suffice.

Wikipedia doesn’t get much respect in academics. Some educators consider it invalid as a source. (Search for it and you’ll see.)

Trusted resources not always reliable

The Internet has changed how we obtain information. The information is out there, but we need to know how to dig through it to get what we need. Even reliable resources get it wrong.

For example, The University of Texas’ Energy Institute conducted a hydraulic fracturing study that included a look at the media and public perception of shale gas development. The study found that the tone of media coverage was “overwhelming negative.”

Here are the most interesting facts from the study:

“Less than 20% of newspaper articles on hydraulic fracturing mention scientific research related to the issue.
“25% of broadcast news stories examined made reference to scientific studies.
“33% of online news coverage mentioned scientific research on the issue.”

Newspaper articles. Broadcast news. Online news coverage. These are resources many people trust. Yet, these media outlets don’t often rely on scientific research when talking about shale development.

Side note. Here’s an infographic comparing the two. Accurate or not? I found the Nature study through Google, which happens to be one of the resources in the infographic. Do a search on the study and you’ll see plenty of results about its controversy.

What kind of impact does the Internet have on research? What if many researchers, journalists, and students rely on flawed data found on the Internet and reliable resources? How do we determine what’s reliable aside from talking to a primary source?

The Secret to Writing about a Popular Topic

2012-03-27T15:25:55Z

Image from sxc.hu user rhythms

Before reading Margie Clayman’s Avoid the temptation to write something popular, I saw articles on how to get ideas for blogging and how to write a bunch of blog posts quickly. These tired topics introduce nothing new. Same outfit, different color and style. Blog there, done that.

I’d rather not blog than rehash something that others have said many times, many ways. Like Green Eggs and Ham — these articles have been delivered so many ways possible … on a boat, with a goat, in the rain, on a train.

Is there any hope for writing about popular topics? Yes. Even about Pinterest. Already, every kind of article on Pinterest has shown up: round ups, lists, advice, and so on. Many of them good reads.

Good things about writing about a popular topic like Pinterest:

Add fresh content to the blog.
Reach newcomers. (Users join Pinterest daily, so they may have ignored past articles on the topic.)
Share my experience. (No one can be me.)

Blogging isn’t just for driving traffic. It’s for loading the website with fresh content to keep search engines happy. Because of this, blogging always pays off. Traffic is a bonus.

Yes, there’s a way to make a post on a prominent topic like Pinterest stand out. Although it means reaching a smaller audience, the search engines will love it. The secret: Write about Pinterest with a focus on a narrow topic.

Examples of Pinterest articles with a specific topic:

Ways to use Pinterest in the oil and gas industry.
How to make Pinterest work for your professional services business.
Pinterest for a forklift company? Yes!
How a luxury car dealership uses Pinterest.
5 ways to promote your help desk department with Pinterest.

Get the idea, yes? Not many people will be looking for articles on forklifts and Pinterest, but you’re feeding the search engines by having the keywords in the headline and link, such as http://www.helpdesksoftware.com/blog/5-ways-to-promote-your-help-desk-department-with-pinterest.html (This link is fictitious. Any resemblance to real links, living or rotted, is purely coincidental.)

This link provides more keyword power for “service desk” especially if the company’s other content already uses those keywords in the headlines. While few may look for “service desk pinterest,” “service desk” appearing in the headline and link will help the site pump its keyword muscle.

You may wonder if adding obvious keywords into an article like these has a phoniness about it. As a writer, I’m extra sensitive to keyword phoniness in web content. In this case, you treat those specifics as your example.

Be careful, though. Try to write these articles without mentioning your company, product, or service. Why? A client needed articles on how to evaluate help desk software. Go on and give it a shot. Search for “evaluate help desk software” and see what you find. Most of the time, the search engine produces few results. And when they do, the article mentions the company’s product.

Lost. Link. Opportunity. The company needing these articles doesn’t want to link to articles mentioning its competitors’ products. This also makes an argument for having a company blog under a separate URL. Even if the competitor doesn’t mention its products, the company wouldn’t want to send prospects anywhere on the competitor’s site.

What do you think? Should bloggers and writers stop writing about the popular topics? Do the niche thing? Something else?

Documenting Life

2012-03-20T20:29:13Z

Every year since her birth, I’ve written a letter to my daughter on her birthday reflecting on the past year. Her baby book had a page for “Letter from Mom” and I filled it with the usual corny thoughts of hopes for my daughter. Somehow, I continued the tradition of writing a letter every year since then, and did the same for her younger brothers.

Originally, I wrote the letters by hand. Then I got lazy and switched to typing. It may not be as cool and personal as my handwriting, but it turned out to be a good thing. Some of the handwritten letters were harder to read and didn’t scan well.

I decided to write them until the kids turned 18, and my daughter hit that milestone in February. I had planned to give her the letters, but then an article sparked the idea of turning the letters into a book. Brilliant. A book would keep the letters in one place and make it easier to read. I’ll keep the originals in a safe place as the kids will be going to college, moving and so on.

I’ve been documenting my life in journals since my freshman year of college. Thank goodness! (Of course, I wish I had started earlier.) The journals came in handy when I needed dates or specifics of things that happened in my family’s life.

Documenting your life isn’t just for your personal life and family. It also works well for business.

Early in my career, I ran into a tip to document the work I did and how it contributed to the bigger picture. It was helpful for updating the resume, supporting performance review meetings and remembering things, such as what training I took. The document also provided an overview of my progress toward with business and career goals.

George Angus wrote a post on documenting your writing work in a writing journal. Here’s his suggestion of what could go in the journal:

Your writing journal could have entries for the date, type of writing (blog post, SEO article, novel chapter) word count and even a brief description of what inspired the article. I think it would make for a very interesting read at some point in the future.

Indeed, it makes for a great read in the future. Documenting your work doesn’t have to be time consuming. My career documentation simply consisted of a table with four columns: project, task, accomplishment and date.

Long after you’ve left the position and surpassed those goals, reading about your past work years later can boost your confidence and make you feel proud.

How can you use a journal or documentation of your life? What would you track? How would you use the information? Have you tracked your life or work? What’s your experience?

Get Organized: Folder Naming Tip

2012-03-13T13:29:13Z

I’m a neat-aholic. When I enter a kid’s messy room, my mind overloads and my body stiffens. Though I’ve trained myself to accept a little messiness in my home, the exception to the rule is my office space.

My youngest occasionally came into my office to color, play with toys or do projects. That was fine with me as long as his stuff goes with him when he left the office.

The neatness thing carries over into my cyber space. I organize my documents and emails into folders and subfolders. It lets me find things quickly. This way I don’t feel overwhelmed by all the files in one folder. Searching is an option, but finding files in organized folders is faster.

I ran into a new problem. In backing up my files and accessing the backup from another device, I’d see two folders with the same name.

For example, I have a top level folder for Clients and a subfolder for Others. I have another top level folder for Contacts and a subfolder for Others. In running a search, Others pops up and it isn’t clear where the file I need lives.

In another case, I needed to backup two folders with the same name and they appear as top level folders in the backup system.

The trick. Add another keyword to separate the generic names, such as others-clients and others-contacts. Beware this won’t always be possible as several folders are system folders. At least, you’ll cut down the confusion.

What tips do you have for managing your documents? How do you organize your cyber properties?

More tips and resources available on my Facebook page. Hope to see you there.

Guest Post: Recalibrate Your Online Presence in the Age of Pinterest

2012-03-02T21:46:52Z

Pinterest home page

Watch out, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+! There’s a new kid on the block who’s gaining popularity by leaps and bounds. And the kid’s name is Pinterest.

The social media world is changing and evolving all the time. Pinterest is only two years old but over the past several months, this precocious little kid has exhibited phenomenal growth. In a period of only six months, the site’s registered user count has leapfrogged from under 200,000 to well over 7 million! And it is still growing.

So what exactly is Pinterest and why is it so popular? Simply put, the site is an organizable bulletin board for images. It allows you to post images and then sort them onto different boards representing specific categories. You can “pin” something new whenever you want for your followers to see. And once you do, your image can be commented on, liked, or re-pinned by any of your followers to their own boards. Just like some YouTube videos, it’s always possible that one of your Pinterest pins will go viral.

Meryl's Pinterest page

One of the biggest reasons for Pinterest’s enormous popularity may be that it gives users the nearest online experience to how people like to shop. Think about it. When people enter a store or a shopping mall, do they always know exactly what they want? Sometimes they do, but very often they depend on the store displays to tell them what they want. For many shoppers, the joy of shopping lies in the experience of browsing — seeing what is on display, what looks nice — all the time looking forward to being blown away by something that might catch their eye which they never imagined they would ever see.

Up ’til now, the most common form of online shopping consisted of typing a search phrase for something you want to buy and hoping that the results lead you to a successful purchase. Pinterest is a little different. You can still narrow down your search to certain categories, but the rest becomes visual instead of text-based. You can look for what you want, find something you never knew you wanted, or simply have a great time looking at a bunch of interesting pictures.

So how does this relate to you, your business website, and your online marketing approach? Do you need to do a complete overhaul out of fear of being trampled by the Pinterest stampede? The answer is: probably not. Instead of an overhaul, it’s more likely a recalibration is in order. Take a closer look at what works for Pinterest and, where appropriate, make the same kinds of things work for you. Along these lines, here are a few things you can think about doing:

1. Jump aboard Pinterest.

OK, let’s start with the obvious one. Keep in mind that Pinterest works better for some businesses than others. If your product or service is highly visual, then joining the site will most likely do wonders for your business. On the other hand, if what you do or sell doesn’t project in particularly visual terms, then maybe Pinterest isn’t for you. Either way, it’s worth a shot. Set up an account and pin relevant images — be careful not to start off overly-promotional. Instead, focus on making the images interesting, funny, or captivating. Then follow others and re-pin the content of theirs that you like. After a while, start displaying your products with links back to your site. You may even want to post special deals or coupons for your followers.

2. Place a greater emphasis on images over text.

One lesson that Pinterest is teaching us is not new: A picture is worth a thousand words. And, another lesson we’re learning is that the quality of the picture not only matters, but matters a lot! A stunning image captures the eye. This is as true on your site as it is on Pinterest. Start paying more attention to both the quantity and the quality of images you post on your site.

3. Think less linearly in your website design.

More than one designer has noted that Pinterest uses a masonry layout rather than a linear one. Images are arranged vertically, than horizontally like a grid — it resembles a mason arranging stones in a wall. This type of arrangement not only neatly categorizes content into visual sections, but also allows users to scan and digest a large amount of information quickly. You may want to make greater use of this type of design on your own site.

In a very short time, Pinterest has evolved from the “just catching on” stage to one of the top players in the market for click-through referrals. Obviously, it’s doing something right. As a smart business person, you might be able to take that “something” and recalibrate your own marketing efforts to make Pinterest’s success work for you.

Have you jumped on the Pinterest pinwagon? If yes, how do you use it? If no, why not?

About the author: Christopher Wallace is Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amsterdam Printing, a leading provider of personalized
pens, promotional pens, and other personalized items such as imprinted apparel and mugs and customized calendars.

Simplicity

2012-02-24T00:12:13Z

In reading about a letter opener that looks like a whale, my first thought was who needs a letter opener when a finger works fine? OK, sometimes it fights to dig in the little space in the corner. Sometimes it walks away with a shiny new paper cut. (How does something tiny hurt a lot?) Besides, I open my mail wherever I stand as I sort mail right away. A letter opener may not be within reach.

I have that whale letter opener and love it. Yes, the everyday arcane task of opening a letter is fun with the pink whale. Its skinny tail fits in everything and then zzzzipppppp! I love the tearing vibrations as the whale makes its way across the envelope.

Simplicity works. Imagine if the inventor had added bells and whistles. How silly would that be to blow the whistle or jingle the bell whenever I opened mail? “Hey! Gather around, the mail’s here!”

That’s what’s happening with apps today. Twitter’s new interface is live. It requires more steps to do tasks that took one or two steps with the old design. I waste too much time looking for features. Good interface design that’s intuitive doesn’t make you work hard to get around. (Many folks need to read Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think.)

For a long time, I used Palm Desktop to manage my tasks and calendar. Yes, the app that came with Palm Pilots. After I recycled my last Palm, I continued using Palm Desktop for years without the device because nothing measured up. Eventually, I moved to Google Calendar while continuing to use Palm for managing tasks.

Google’s tasks wasn’t ready for me because it didn’t have the needed recurring feature. All the other task apps had problems: overkill, missing features, no desktop version, no syncing with smartphone.

Then, I found gTasks. It has the recurring task feature and syncs with Google tasks and my smartphone. (Would you believe someone left a review on January 22 saying it took a long time to find an app replace the trusty old Palm? That says something about Palm despite its rocky last years.)

I’m not a Luddite. The opposite actually. I love my gadgets and technology. I’ve admired and appreciated a good website makeover. But developers think they need to offer everything to be all things to everyone. That just overwhelms potential users. We’d keep looking for a simpler product rather than settling for a bloated or confusing one.

Content is like that, too. Not all web pages need to be covered with words. A lot of great sites communicate with few words. Yes, we customers want to know as much as we can about a product or service. That’s why you have navigation and links to take us there when we’re ready. Too many directions and calls to action send us away from the website.

Mail’s here. Zzzzippppp!

What products do you love for its simplicity? What do you like about it? Have you had favorite products add too many features? Did you abandon it or stick with it?