An overburdened pubs manager—facing an unanticipated workload spike, open staff slots, worker vacation, whatever—may feel slightly lonelier than Robinson Crusoe since there’s likely no Man Friday handy. Online Communities for Communicators describes resources for accessing information, opinions, and peers. These communities are also tools for locating and contacting skilled workers. Remember that you’re somewhat known [...]
Author Archives: Gabe Goldberg Gabe Goldberg Computers and Publishing Inc.
Home Pages That Say, ‘Drop In’
March 14, 2008My wife likes doors—front doors, closet doors, porch doors, storm doors. When we were house shopping, the initial impression a door made on her set the tone for an entire walk-through. We shunned otherwise presentable choices with grotesque entries since she felt that ugly doors only led to places we didn’t want to be. Your [...]
Civilized Networking that Pays Off
March 6, 2008Networking affords a way to deliver your organization’s messages to a broad audience and recruit clients, partners, and colleagues in the process. While networking sometimes gets a bad rap as self-centered and manipulative, it actually opens doors, solves problems, helps others, and lets them help you. Networking simply means meeting people, learning their interests, sharing [...]
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Online Communities for Communicators
February 27, 2008Whether you’re a small association’s lone publications person, or working in—or managing—a mega-corporation’s pubs department, it’s worth cultivating outside ties for access to more information, diverse opinions, and a vibrant community of peers. There are few better ways to stay abreast of technology and other issues pertinent to publications development and Web publishing in Washington—and [...]
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Why Can’t We (Editors and Writers) Get Along?
February 18, 2008In a perfect world, editors and writers would all be mind readers. Each would understand the other perfectly, deadlines would always be met or beaten, word counts would be precise, and the results would thrill readers and Web site visitors. It has never worked that way, of course, but today’s editors have a particular incentive [...]
Baking Cakes, Flying Planes, Testing Drugs—One Step at a Time
January 23, 2008When writing instructions or directions, it’s easy to assume too much reader knowledge or to omit critical steps. (The joke in driving directions, of course, is telling someone to turn left where the red barn used to be.) When my journalist father added “cooking columnist” to his career rap sheet, he became methodical in crafting [...]
“Ready, Aim, Fire”—in that Order, Please
January 18, 2008I’ve just returned from Las Vegas, where I attended the Consumer Electronics Show mega-conference (2,500 exhibitors and 140,000+ attendees) and played tourist. In addition to being a gadget hound’s playground, CES booths highlighted an important marketing issue. While most were well done—telling clear and compelling stories—more than a few were mysteries, not conveying messages that [...]
If the Market Calls, Will You Answer?
December 21, 2007Not long ago—just barely before the millennium turned—four gents posted 95 theses they modestly styled “the end of business as usual.” Indeed, the Cluetrain Manifesto Web site and book describe a fundamental transformation in how organizations operate and people interact with them. Though several Internet generations have passed since its birth, the Manifesto has inexplicably [...]
It’s Not About You
December 18, 2007Or is it? From the World Wide Web’s early days, the first step in creating a Web presence has been setting goals. If you don’t know why you have a Web site, you can’t tell whether it’s a success, measure progress, or evaluate proposed or implemented changes. Still, too many Web sites’ structures match their [...]