➤ update #3 includes new info on Ultimatum and Traject

WordPress has been on my list for a couple of years. When it comes to customizing the layout and look of your site, I've found it helps a lot if you already know HTML and CSS.

A classic country crossover tune, released June 2010. Hats off to Kimberly Perry and her brothers.

Below, equally good songwriting from a different era — quality that shines through even without the benefit of today's advanced audio production. From Orleans' 1976 album Waking and Dreaming.

This Kenny Loggins classic is an excellent reminder to appreciate all that we have, and make the most of it.

For me, it's a message with universal appeal, and an appropriate sentiment for the coming New Year.

← Play (widget may be slow to load)

lyric excerpt:

No don't you run
no way to hide
No time for wonderin' why
It's here, the moment is now, about to decide 
. . .
For once in your life, here's your miracle
Stand up and fight

This is it 
Make no mistake where you are
This is it
The waiting is over

This is it...

Bumping up this 2-year-old post as I just came across a relevant new addition that may be worth investigating.  Wondering if it may be more of an enterprise solution than a VSBS (Very Small Business Solution) but in any case, looks cool:  inMotion Workflow Management

■  also interesting:  ConceptBoard
(perhaps more for collaboration than approval?) 

originally posted Oct. 23, 2009 / some links may be obsolete or broken:

Recently I remembered a cool tool I'd come across that appeared just right for client review and approval. I didn't try it or bookmark it at the time, and of course couldn't recall the name. Went crazy for hours trying to find it, getting very creative with Google search terms. Finally located it in a 3rd scouring of my browser history. Of course, in the process I collected a lot of similar and related tools.

My loss is your gain - here are the collected links, in no particular order, some with the tags they came with. You're likely familiar with big names like ConceptShare, but there are probably some here you didn't know about. The crowdsourcing approach offered by Concept Feedback (near the bottom) is cool. There are also simple tools like Coded Preview.

In case it's not apparent: I have no affiliation with any of these products or services; I'm just a resourceful (and sometimes obsessed) web designer who used to be an ad agency copywriter. Enjoy.

The one I couldn't find: Flowzit

Flowzit looks very cool. I'm not reviewing it here as I haven't put it through its paces yet. But it appears to offer elegant simplicity. Check it out. (Cool navigation with the three colored squares, too.)

ProofHQ product overview. Simple to set up. Easy to use.

https://www.proofhq.com/html/product_overview.html

ConceptShare

http://www.conceptshare.com/

colaab web based collaboration and communication in real time or your own time

http://colaab.com/Index.aspx

DeskAway Online Project Management Software, Project Collaboration Software, Task & Issue Tracking Software

http://www.deskaway.com/

ProofHub Web based project management system

http://www.proofhub.com/

Protonotes HTML prototyping collaboration tool.

http://www.protonotes.com/

redmark the easiest way to mark up a design and track revisions

http://www.redmarkit.com/

Thinkature - Real-time collaboration for the web

http://thinkature.com/

WebProof online design collaboration tool

http://www.webproof.com/

"By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun... Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

As a copywriter, this always resonated for me:

“It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writing, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read, and how they listen.

He learns that most readers come away from their reading not with a clear, precise, detailed registration of its contents on their minds, but rather with a vague, misty idea which was formed as much by the pace, the proportions, the music of the writing as by the literal words themselves.

And he learns that the reader reads with his ego, his emotions, his compulsions, his prejudices, his urges, and his aspirations, and that he plots with his brain to rationalize the facts until they become the tools of his desire.”

Download quotes PDF here.

and finally...

“Knowledge is ultimately available to everyone. Only true intuition, jumping from knowledge to an idea, is yours and yours alone.”

Okay, this is good. This is very good. This is one you don't pass up.

Relevant to yesterday's post also.

"The book is a rallying cry to creative professionals worldwide to throw off the shackles of the pitch, regain the high ground in their relationships with their clients and prospects and summon the profit, professionalism and respect that has long eluded them. 

A treatise on winning new business without pitching free thinking, the Manifesto maps out twelve proclamations of a Win Without Pitching firm. These are the steps to move any creative business - freelance designer or global ad agency - from order-taker to expert, and to transform the way they get and do business.

The Manifesto arrives at a time of rapid commoditization of design and advertising-based businesses. It is the field guide to fighting the internal and external forces of marginalization and to building a more lucrative and rewarding practice."

A 2006 spoof on agency culture.

Even more interesting is the re-Tweeted comment, "This is about as accurate a portrait of working in an ad agency [as] I've ever seen."

Blue Man Group's poignant and haunting memorial
http://www.exhibit13.com/

It's one of those days. No time to elaborate. "Sorry." (voice of Kristen Wiig character Gilly :-)

I'm hardly going out on a limb predicting that matrix barcodes, also known as QR (Quick Response) codes, will catch on big time. They've been prevalent in Japan for more than a decade. The kinds of destinations they can point to are numerous: URLs, images, coupons, events with calendar details, and much more.

For clever marketers the possibilities are almost endless. For example, how about providing logins to a secure wifi network near a prospect's location (the first destination after s/he logs in would feature your company's product or service)?

Making print media relevant again
Boston Business Journal offered interesting discussion and analysis a few months ago, with the article including the quote, “All of a sudden, print has a place in a digital marketing strategy.”

A Boston-based restaurant uses QR codes on plates to

show diners where food was sourced.

In February 2011, BBJ carried an article about QR codes being used as a recruitment tool: Job market a cinch for those who can connect the dots

The takeaway / Executive summary
The brilliance of QR codes is in their ability to instantly engage a person. Consumers become involved, voluntarily, in an interaction or dialog with marketers, and the potential value for both sides is substantial. In marketing terms, these mini-experiences are a kind of synthesis of push and pull.

Install a free QR code reader on your smart phone, try it out, then ask yourself: What other observations can we make about this technique?

Resources

This topic is too broad to do it justice here, so I refer you to Wikipedia and Google. Using the latter, try searching 'QR code generator'.

Also, Google Images:  qr code billboard

Q:  What kinds of customer interactions would you create with QR codes?

______________________

Test example:  If you already have a QR code reader on your smart phone, try scanning this (hint: it's a web page):

A fine version of the original 1976 tune. No one will ever surpass Larry Carlton's original, perfectly phrased and articulated solos, however current guitarist Jon Herington is a fine player in his own right.

There will always be human antidotes to the physical separation facilitated by the digital age.  A soulful sound track by Alexandra Burke adds depth to the message, and by about 1:30, you'll find it impossible not to smile. :-)

MailVU offers...

• the expressiveness of live video with the convenience of email
• free. no account needed.
• 10 min. recording time
• immediate reply by recipients who have a webcam
• set to auto-destruct after X number of views
• retract videos already sent (if not yet viewed)

Whatever your feelings about Chris Farley, this sketch is indisputably hilarious. And who doesn't love Sir Paul? He does a nice job also. Enjoy.

Even more instantaneous than HeyTell is TiKL, a free, real-time Push-To-Talk app for iPhone/Android. Doesn't use cell phone minutes, works over 3G when you're not in range of wi-fi.     → more about TiKL

(download)

Click here to download:

are-you-tiklish-AmybiHHzzugbxeDCvBcm.zip (216 KB)

Inspired by Aurora Borealis images (prev. post).

I'll take Satch's soaring sounds any way I can get 'em.

Joe Stariani's Engines of Creation, is the killer tune featured in this post, Unfortunately it was removed from Grooveshark but it's a great tune, so if you're so inclined you can purchase the CD here     ...or you can listen to it on YouTube

You can't go wrong with Northern Lights :-)
Flickr: The Top 20 Northern Lights Pool   Additional links below.

This is old news now. It needs continued product development, but is still a great idea.
Imagine never running out of storage space on your digital camera.

When you're in range of wifi, the Eye-Fi SD memory card automatically uploads images to your favorite photo-storage site, then makes new space available on the card.  Nice.

Found yesterday in a software forum. This is an article you don't skim; you read it all. This one really resonates.

Sorry I can't add more just now.  Gotta go empty my head, assemble scaffolding tools, transfer my info to the cloud, and find people to leverage.

:-)

We've heard them so often — maxims such as "When you're talking, you're not listening" — that we sometimes forget.  And yet the art of listening remains as powerful and useful as always.

Good discussion over at Paper Leaf of Edmonton, Alberta, including reader comments:

The Designer's Most Important Skill

update: The other side of the coin, of course, is knowing how to talk to your designer. I'd forgotten this post from last summer—and how much I liked liked the wrap-up... ;-)

"Clients who are easy to work with and use the secret code phrases on a regular basis don’t just get our best work. They also get the lowest invoices..."
read full post here

Recently became aware of this via a wind power start-up I'm talking to. Interesting.

A delight.

Bonus:  Most of the text—into the Ts, anyway—is online here.  Examples below.

November 5 update:
Currently evaluating (and liking) Jumsoft's Relationship as a Contact Manager.

With a few interface tweaks it could replace Things, which I now use regularly. It would be great to use one app for both ToDos and Contacts.
___________________________

Finally getting around to choosing and using a To Do manager. Currently demoing Things from Cultured Code, and I like it (and I'm hard to please). CC offers sister apps for iPhone/iPad, and of course they can be synced. I am testing the desktop Mac version, which I plan to buy, even though at $49.95 I think it's overpriced by 20%.

In a forum thread from last May someone mentioned Zenbe Lists as a contender in the To Do / GTD / Organizer app category. Briefly checking it out now. Looks like it also has iPhone and iPad apps and integration, and is one in a suite of three products.

When you click Share after creating a To Do list, Zenbe Lists generates boilerplate text that you can change:

I've created a list called, "work on SRC new biz preso" that I'd like to share with you. Check it out!  http://lists.zenbe.com/lists/712291?key=kqgii

What remains to be seen is how secure the rest of your lists (outside of the shared list) are. I assume they're secure.

Read the aforementioned thread for other popular choices.

Tommy Emmanuel, the Wonder from Down Under, has amassed such an amazing body of work that I can't do it justice here. But I can instantly recommend at least 2 of his albums: Alone, and The Journey. Search him on YouTube, find him on Amazon.com, whatever. If you like music, there's a good chance he'll delight you at every turn.

• beyond world-class fingerstyle guitar

• not just a player but a composer

• extremely diverse:

  - deep, soulful, serene acoustic tunes

  - rollicking, up-tempo country tunes

  - jazz-tinged acoustic/electric

  - screaming electric rock & country-rock, as in Don't Hold Me Back

http://www.tommyemmanuel.com/

"That's your claim? Nonsense!" he said. "What creative work isn't handcrafted?"

My statement to the prospect was that every deliverable, every piece of work that comes out of Still River Creative is carefully handcrafted. Design, copywriting, website development—it's all very personal to us. We sweat every detail, work more hours than we can charge for, and knock ourselves out to give clients brilliant solutions at exceptional value.

The gentleman's reply was that everyone who works in a small creative boutique does that.

Is this really true?

Related to the discussion is a set of intangibles I touched on in What's more important than skill and experience? That post brought up another area that's difficult to identify and measure: commitment and personal values. But if you're already familiar with the type of commitment discussed in that piece, you know how to recognize them.

What do you think? Are most small creative practitioners 'handcrafted' types? Are there substantial numbers of small shops that push out less-than-handcrafted work? And if so, how can clients tell the difference?

Are there guidelines we can provide that can help prospects evaluate these intangibles? Do they even care, or is increasing sales the only thing that matters to them?

By the way, if the gentleman's statement is true, I think that's a good thing. As the saying goes, "A rising tide lifts all boats."