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…

Rally to save the CTA!

Monday, Nov 5th at noon.

Thompson Center Plaza (Randolph/Clark)

Click here to RSVP online.
Click here to send a message to Springfield now.
Share this with your friends. We need our public transportation, Chicago!

Completely unrelated to being an independent creative, I’m loving Paula Kamen’s Finding Iris Chang, about her friendship with the incredible journalist who committed suicide a few years ago. Reading this book is like reading Paula’s journal - it’s so personal, and really examines the challenges writers face in covering gruelling stories, among many other things. I’m fascinated with the mental illness angle, too, and the question of how our work can affect us both positively and negatively.

Hmm. Maybe it IS related to being an independent creative. I’ll be interviewing Paula about her book soon for ChronicBabe and I’m excited to hear what she has to say about the writing experience for herself.

So, what’s the book that is rocking your world today? I mean, besides the The 4-Hour Workweek and Getting Things Done.

Five quick tips from one of my fave marketing blogs, The Marketing Mix: 5 ways to make time for marketing. Easy enough that you can squeeze in at least one during your day.

I would also add to the list: Send a thank you note.

Ive been sending notes more often… for referrals especially, but also to clients, vendors and other contacts. I know how much I appreciate a thank you from a client, so I like to extend the same courtesy.

Now, go get marketing!

According to this article on usability guru Jakob Nielsen, the first two words of any headline (and one would surmise, e-mail subject line) are most important. Which means it’s okay to use passive voice to “front load” the headline content. From Boing Boing.

Fellow member Linda Cassady and I had started mapping out a new design for my home office before the storm hit in August, and I still hope to do a little re-design once our place is rebuilt. I want to add some tall shelving so I can store more books and magazines on shelves (not in boxes in the basement) and make better use of the empty spaces under my second desk (storage? rolling bins for files or office supplies?) and, much as I don’t like the idea of sacrificing art, I think I’m going to take down a large framed movie poster I had hanging next to my desk and substitute a large long-term calendar, which will help me keep the big picture in mind.

So if I could do any reorganizing of my office (hey, I totally can), that’s what I would do. What would you do? I would love to hear some ideas.

Meet Your Neighbors, but Just Not in Person

is the title of an article in Monday’s NY Times about socializing close to home….real close, like in your neighborhood..or closer yet, in your apartment building. Two companies appear to have captured the market there to date. One has been around since 2004. The other only since March of this year.

I think it’s a pretty clever concept. Am curious as to what everyone else (well not everyone else, but lots of folks) think.

Could something like this fly in Chicago? Would anyone use it….maybe in the dead of a Chicago January when you had a craving for some great Thai food and were tired of all the neighborhood places you knew.

Hey high rise dwellers…. would you use a network like this?

Freelance Switch has a great list of 29 simple ways that we can work to have less of a footprint. Happy reading!

I recently came across a reference to Guerilla Marketing, by Jay Conrad Levinson, now in its fourth edition. First published in 1984, this book contains many time-tested, cost-effective marketing strategies that still apply today, more than 20 years after it was first published.

In honor of Blog Action Day, let’s talk about our work environments and what we’re doing to reduce, reuse and recycle in our home offices. I’ll start:

• New readers and nonmembers won’t know this, but I’m in temporary housing while my condo is rebuilt after a storm nearly destroyed it in August. So I’m working within the boundaries of a smaller rental apartment. Still, we’re enjoying the fact that the building offers recycling services - so I carefully recycle every scrap of paper, plastic, cardboard, metal, etc. that I can.
• The $20 lamp I bought at Target for my office? Yea, it has a fluorescent bulb, baby.
• I’m really careful not to leave office lights on when I walk out of the room for lunch or to work at the dining room table (sometimes a gal needs to spread out on a big project!) And when I’m in my office, all the other house lights are turned off.
• I save paperclips. I’m one of those people who pulls them off of everything before I throw it away - old project files, junk mail, whatever, I don’t think I’ll ever need to buy paperclips again!
• I try to use my shredded documents (I use a cross-cut so they are tiny confetti) as packing material when I send gifts to friends and family - that way, I don’t have to buy packing material.
• We saved all the packing material from the few boxes of stuff we moved here (as well as the boxes) and we’ll reuse them when we move home again.

That’s all I can think of; I’m sure there are more things I’m doing, but I think this is a good start. So here’s me, in my little new home office. (Photo courtesy of Matt Mayes.)

So fill me (and everyone else) in: how are you being environmentally conscious in your home office? I would love to hear your ideas (and possibly implement them!)