Category Archives: Tips & Hints

State-of-the-Art Interactive Design

Mass Explained Screens

If you are a multimedia producer, interactive designer, graphic designer, writer, or illustrator, check out this new iPad App and learn. It’s like the National Geographic of the Roman Catholic Mass – all explained using multimedia.

A friend of mine, Dan Gonzalez, has developed this amazing work.

Mass Explained iPad App is the National Geographic version of the Catholic Mass

Dan is one of the top designers, illustrators, and interactive media producers in the world. And he’s a devout Catholic right here in Miami.

May I ask that you check it out and forward it to all your friends?

Also “Like” and “Follow” Dan to see the next release. That’s right, there’s more to come. Stay tuned!

Click to see the website describing this amazing project (Mass Explained)

Click Here to Go to the Mass Explained App Page

Professional Writers vs. Everyone Else

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Rewriting on Steroids

A friend recently told me that they hired a marketing copywriter from one of those online sweatshops where “writers” will work for $5 an hour, and in some cases, less.

While it’s true that you can knock out a letter, or email, to home on the first try, professional writers are worth the fee they charge. After all, the art of writing is rewriting. Anyone working for $5 an hour either isn’t a pro, isn’t very talented, or isn’t working very hard for you.

Think of it this way… a cheap writer is like a cheap “date.” You get exactly what you pay for – and all the bad stuff too.

The content I saw from the online sweatshop was at best amateur. No focus, not helpful, nothing that would motivate anyone to do anything, full of cliches that would make a reader or buyer gag, etc. It came complete with poor grammar and misspellings.

It was clear no research was done, no creative thought was attempted, and no real quotes from real customers. Just words. Lots and lots of them. Abraham Lincoln said, “I’m sorry I wrote such a long letter. I didn’t have time for a short one.” Tight copy takes time and a focus on the objective.

It’s true. Great copy is shorter, has a purpose, is well researched, creative to meet the objective, is a story told well, and works to achieve exactly what the client wants – sales, more web traffic, more foot traffic, signups for information, or whatever the client needs.

The real problem with hiring a sweatshop writer isn’t the cost. “Hey, so what if I lose $5 an hour,” said my friend.

I asked him after the failed attempt was over, could you afford the waste of time? You can’t get that back.

Speak Truth

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Speaking truth can be hard for both the speaker and listener. If you’re the speaker, many will hate you for it.

Do it anyway.

You might just help the listener wake up.

#‎plaintalk

The Best Email, Calendar, Contacts Software for Busy Pros

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Microsoft Outlook

Most of you know I’m not a fan of Microsoft. Their products, business practices, and leadership are just not admirable – and I have direct experience with all three.

However, when anyone does something good I have to be honest about it.

I just switched back to Outlook for email, contacts, tasks, and calendar after going through many other products.

My latest before this transfer of my most valuable information was Apple’s software because I have a Mac laptop and an iPhone. It is truly awful. You have almost no control over your information or useful data about it.

Before that was Google’s Gmail and calendar along with Android. Weak.

GoDaddy’s solution – Disaster.

I just transferred all my accounts back to Outlook. With a few hiccups in the download it was relatively painless to import and get my over 2,000 contacts squared away; a busy personal, work, and consulting calendar imported and setup; and have it sync between my Mac laptop and iPhone. iCloud will be the next task.

Many of you know this can be a scary and time-consuming process. It is something I dread. I got it done in a few hours and now I’m setup to be more productive than ever.

I’m surprised that Apple has, in my opinion, failed in this most basic need for busy people.

And even though Google has made improvements, I still don’t like the idea of all my content captured in the cloud with no local computer control – and Google mining it for my private information. Plus their solution just doesn’t measure up to Outlook. Nothing I’ve looked at or tried has.

If you want to do this, make sure you setup an Exchange account. Using Outlook without Exchange cripples the power of the software.

Good job Microsoft! Now don’t screw it up.

Click to find out more (MacWorld)