In my last blog post, I talked about the three brains that all of us have: the reptile brain, which handles our body’s most basic functions and is responsible for our base instincts and drives; the mammal brain, which is responsible for emotions; and our human brain, which is the largest of the three and
Three brains and bad behavior
One of our writers was recently discussing human behavior with a colleague while stuck in traffic. The subject of why seemingly smart people do stupid things—things they know are morally wrong—came up, and our writer said he knew how it happened. You see, our writer said, people have three brains. His colleague looked at him
Picture a Better PowerPoint Presentation
Presentations have reached an all-time low. Once upon a time, competent businessmen and women could give a presentation based on a few index cards. Now, every presentation requires a PowerPoint slide program, which at worst, consists of text that the presenter reads. At best, it contains key ideas or bullet points, which the audience, in
The Market Segment You Can’t Ignore
The hit television show “Mad Men” depicts the lives of New York City ad executives during a time in American history when women had little clout in the workplace, the economy, the home—you name it. Those times have changed, but it might be interesting, surprising and even shocking to know how much clout women wield
Really Effective Email Campaigns
Google the words “how to increase effectiveness of email campaigns” and you’ll get nearly 24,000,000 hits. That’s right—24 million. An equally staggering statistic is that, depending on what you define as spam, some 75 to 90 percent of all e-mail traveling across the Internet is considered junk mail. Given these daunting figures, it’s hard for
Your digital mess
It’s 1985. You insert a five-and-one-quarter inch floppy disk into the disk drive of your IBM PC and type in the command to save your word processing document in MS-DOS. You give it the filename “ANRPTDFT” and hit ENTER. After waiting several seconds, you take the disk, labeled “ANNUAL REPORT” in black magic marker, out
Dealing With Difficult Clients
Sometimes people can be difficult. Sadly, many never learned the basics way back in kindergarten: sharing, kindness, politeness and helping others. And even the very best people—the ones who are generally receptive, professional, understanding and easy to work with—have bad days and don’t always act or react in a predictable way. Clients are no different,
That’s odd
The Wes Anderson movie, “Moonrise Kingdom,” is in theaters now, experiencing generally great reviews. But is the fact that a movie is good enough to get consumers out to the megaplex, make them cough up double digits for a ticket and sit behind a really tall guy, when nearly everyone’s home is a Netflix-powered home
Types of Corporate Communications
In my last blog post I wrote about the surf shop owner who perhaps wasn’t making the best use of corporate communications to build customer loyalty and increase his customer base. There are numerous models of corporate communications. For simplicity’s sake let’s break corporate communications down into two broad types: internal and external. Internal Corporate
Corporate communications
One of TPS’s writers was on vacation at the beach when he ran across the owner of the local surf shop while crossing over the dune one morning. The shop owner, camera in hand, explained he was taking pictures of that morning’s surf to post on Facebook—something he had just started using this past fall.
How much is enough?
Today’s journalists have access to several tools to perform their craft. These include a digital recorder, maybe a camera, and of course a computer and word processing software. Replace the computer and word processing software with a typewriter and the recorder with a pencil and reporter’s notebook, and little has changed for more than 100
Using video to promote your book
The internet is the end of print media! We know that’s not true. In fact, the internet is a great tool to promote print media, especially books. James Morton Turner is a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the author of a new book titled “The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics since 1964.”
Mind your (forum) manners
Back in the days of yore, when there were only three or four TV channels, gasoline had lead and no one wore bicycle helmets, it was tough for writers to get information on a topic. There was the library, or maybe an encyclopedia. If you were lucky, you might find a reliable source at a
Treating writers well
Trade Press Services works with a variety of writers from around the country with diverse backgrounds. Many of them also write for other publications, which we at Trade Press Services view as an organizational strength—the more experiences our writers have, the more depth and insight they can bring to Trade Press Services and our varied
Tell a Good Story
One of Trade Press Services’ writers once worked for the editor of a small east coast business publication that enjoyed considerable success despite a tough marketplace for magazines. Why did the magazine, which was started at the peak of the recent economic downturn, fare so well? Because of stories. The editor made sure that he
“The general erosion of editorial standards”
Lauren Indvik posted a piece on Mashable Business this week titled “Magazine Get Serious About Ecommerce” in which she examines the approaches a few different pubs have taken to combine editorial content with links to products in an effort to get consumers purchasing and offset declining print ad sales. In this piece, Indvik writes: It’s
Capitalize this!
In her business writing blog, Lynn Gaertner-Johnston wrote a recent entry about capitalization errors: A friend sent me an excerpt from a brief professional bio she had read online. The bio said the individual is a consultant for a china inspection service… It turns out that the consultant inspects sites and operations in China for
Taking it all for granted
In 2012, we truly live in an age in which almost anything we want to know is within seconds of our grasp, thanks to the Internet. Like advancements such as air conditioning, cable TV and satellite radio, we wonder how we ever lived without knowing the complete cast of “American Graffiti” or who won the
They stole my idea…kind of.
Last April, I posted a blog entry about the New York Times’ paywall and how it was doomed to fail. The Times’ paywall had just gone up, and page views had gone down by 11 to 30 percent. I suggested that a more practical way for readers (and publishers) to charge for content would be
Correcting NPR
Am I the only one who corrects the announcers’ grammar during the news on NPR? I think it’s the sign of a true writing geek when you correct (out loud) the mistakes radio newscasters make. “Oh, please!” I say while chuckling. “There’s no such word as ‘irregardless.’” I shake my head and have another sip
Why a trade publication?
iPads. Smartphones. Android tablets. Websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, e-mails, RSS feeds, laptops, desktops, notebooks, ultrabooks, even TV and radio. With so many ways to get information that don’t involve paper, why would anyone in their right mind choose a trade magazine to get the word out about their products or services? I could quote
Power verbs
In our last blog post, we wrote about being honest on a resume and matching your skills with what an employer is looking for, using their own job description’s language verbatim. When this isn’t possible, it’s best to use action words that convey power, leadership and mastery of skills. Sometimes the proper choice of words
The two secrets to a better resume and cover letter
Job seeking can be frustrating and challenging activity. When submitting a resume and cover letter to a prospective employer, applicants engage in a grueling game of mind-reading that they can’t win, asking themselves what the employer is looking for when only the employer can reveal that. In an ideal world, employers would produce a detailed
The Bad Manners Bug: The Infestation Continues
Yes, it sounds like the title of a bad horror movie, and for those of us trying to conduct business, it’s just that. About 11 years ago, I wrote an article for the Los Angeles Business Journal titled “Infection Alert: The ‘Bad Manners Bug.’” In it, I bemoaned the sorry state of business communications at
