Here’s an edited excerpt from an interesting blog item I saw today on Typophile, posted by web developer Nicholas Shanks (link to full post). While this is certainly old news to most on the (web) design front, I appreciated the reiteration of a valuable lesson in self-promotion 101: never lose sight of the potential client in everyone!

How Not to Promote Yourself to Potential Customers

I was looking around at the websites of typographers earlier today, and came across the site of one independent designer (whom I shall not name) which looked so broken on my computer I had to email him and explain what was wrong with his HTML and CSS, and how standards-compliant coding practices would rectify them. I am a professional web developer and like to educate others about web standards and accessibility, to help improve the web in my own little way. The response I got back, however, shocked me:

“These are all visual problems caused by your settings. The site was meant to be viewed the way I designed it. I won’t tailor the site to meet every possible variable of every combination of browser customizations.”

I reminded him that the only computer on which his site can “be viewed the way he designed it” was his own. I will no longer be recommending this designer to my clients.

You may want to consider this update I received from colleague and Kyle Shannon mystery series author, Linda Mickey. An excerpt:

“Happy Spring. There is some big news in the publishing world that has a direct impact on me and thousands of other writers.

Amazon announced that unless certain publishing companies (mine included) use Amazon’s printing company, Amazon will not sell the book. An article in Business Week points out that Amazon’s real goal is to print ALL the books it sells on a print-to-order basis. Why? Because warehousing is costly. If Amazon switches to a print-on-demand business model, it will save millions of dollars. It’s a smart business move on their part and they have the marketplace muscle to pull it off.

There’s only one problem. Amazon’s print company, Booksurge, is not a good printer. iUniverse (my publisher) and others switched to Booksurge’s competitor because of quality issues. The Internet is full of complaints about Booksurge’s quality. (Some copies of my first book, Greased Wheels, had green pages that matched the cover.)

Why am I telling you all this? Because I want to assure you that my books are available at www.bn.com and www.powells.com and many other book selling sites. If they order from Amazon, I cannot guarantee the books will ever ship. Barnes and Noble also has a $25 free shipping program.

As always, thank you for your support. Keep reading!”

We’ve got some awesome PR mavens in ideaXchange, and I’m sure even more come silently to visit us here. I’ve a question for each of you.

Why should a company hire a public relations consultant before its national launch? I’m collecting your responses to build a case to hire a public relations consultant for an upcoming project, so let ‘er rip! TIA

This morning Chris, another senior person at the integrated communications agency I work for handed me a section out of the Wall Street Journal and pointed to the headline: “Paying for PR — But Only When It Works.” My heart sank. Then I read the article. Actually, charging per placement is not a bad strategy, if all the client wants is to be in the news. From the agency standpoint, I could see that if one was great at pitching, and charged enough, it might work out nicely — and be economical for both agency and client. The downside as I see it is that the hit is short-lived unless you do something with it to prolong its usefulness (i.e., post on Web site, send out link announcing coverage to mailing list). But that’s strategy, and Pay-Per-Placement PR lives in a no-strategy zone.

Also worth noting: The woman profiled in this piece, a retailer of gift baskets, paid the agent six grand for the Wall Street Journal hit — but will she get $6,000 of business from WSJ readers? That’s a lot of gift baskets, man. If you ask me, it doesn’t add up.

For myriad reasons, Public Relations still regularly gets a bad rap — even though there is evidence that even the ad agencies are starting to wake up to the power of the PR platform. And does the single isolated tactic of pitching the media really qualify as PR? I’d love to hear what the other PR pros have to say about this article. Comments?

It’s Halloween and I used the word Boo in the headline. Halloween. Boo. Get it? Anyway..

Following is great blog post that appeared recently on the BlinnPR Report on “The Top Ten Lies PR Agencies Tell Their Clients and Prospects.”

Those of us in the group who are PR professionals know that done right, planning and executing a PR program is a boatload of relentless work requiring creativity and dogged persistence. It’s hard. And the direct results are more often than not, intangible, until, for instance, the client becomes an “overnight success” after a year or more of our work on the account.

So, what’s an agency with a dearth of creative talent to do? Turn away business? Well, yes, they should, but unfortunately, most do not.

No Pinocchios in this group, it’s safe to say. But the article contents (besides being disturbing) certainly explains the attitude that some prospective clients bring with them when approaching some of us for services. Once bitten…

If you’re a tried-and-true PR pro or more into guerilla PR, Joan Stewart’s The Publicity Hound offers a wealth of free resources. I’ve signed up for her daily e-newsletter and press release writing tips, giving me at least one idea to use in my business.

The phone rang early this morning, and a man with an accent asked for my husband. I said he wasn’t home. After a pause, the man said “I’m calling from Israel” — to which I said nothing cause it was early and I don’t really talk much early and I hadn’t had enough coffee to carry on a conversation, much less hold the phone.

After a longer pause, he said, “I’m calling from The Jerusalem Report”. And I responded “To interview him?”

“No,” he said, “his subscription is up for renewal.”

I hung up and thought that was really funny cause I didn’t even skip a beat…I went right into PR mode. Liz will understand.

btw…I just realized that I’m the only one posting to the PR category. It’s like having my own personal blog!

I hate to critique other people’s work (well, not really, but I try and be kind)…but I got this press release today and was so fascinated by the subject line that I had to open it. Since we have so many PR folk in this group (albeit only Liz and I who will pitch), thought I’d share it with you.

It’s going into my file of “why companies should outsource”. Sometimes that’s the best way to explain to a potential client why they shouldn’t do their own PR (or web design or copy, etc.) unless they know how to do it.

Here’s the subject line:Ground Breaking Report from Crystal Cube Consulting (CCC)
(and yes, it was boldface!) I read the first 3 lines and had not a clue as to what it was about or why it was important…and that was just the teaser copy.

So I scrolled down to the end and saw that it was written by an R&D guy. That made a little sense.
Until I looked further and saw a press contact. Here’s the link to the release if anyone’s interested.
http://www.prweb.com//releases/2007/7/prweb539255.htm

Did anyone else know about the Gaper’s Block book club?

I just found out about it when I opened today’s Chicago Trib Magazine.

I’d add a link but can’t pull up the mag section online. But if you have a copy, the good lookin’ guy on the left is our own Andrew Huff!

Cool, Andrew.