Best-loved Christmas stories bring seasonal fun

December 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment

This Christmas you have a variety of holiday books to choose from and all are certain to bring a little Christmas joy to you or that tyke in your life who likes a good bedtime story.

Julia Livshin collected 16 classic tales to include in her book, Classic Christmas Stories: Sixteen Timeless Yuletide Tales. The stories include well-known and loved tales such as O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” And you could be surprised to discover a Christmas story by Jack London. Others include those of celebrated authors who you may never have associated with Christmas, such as stories by Frank Stockton, Mary Agnes Tincker, Robert Grant, Edward Eggleston, Sara Orne Jewett, and Bret Harte. The tales depict people in various social settings, from farm to city.

Another entry into the genre is The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories, compiled by Iam Whybrow. Here you will find stories from the German, French, English, and Norse traditions by writers such as Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, The Brothers Grimm, and Kenneth Grahame. This book is great for children with its colorful illustrations and perfect for a story with hot chocolate before bed.

For a longer story to enjoy with your kids throughout the Christmas season, try Mary and Carol Higgins Clark’s He Sees You When You’re Sleeping. This book, new in 2001, is about Sterling Brooks, a heavenly wannabe, who must do something nice for someone before he can get into heaven.

Classic Christmas Stories: Sixteen Timeless Yuletide Tales by Julia Livshin, 400 pages, Lyons Press, $9.95.

The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories, Iam Whybrow, 144 pages, Kingfisher, $19.95.

He Sees You When You’re Sleeping, Carol and Mary Higgins Clark, 208 pages, Scribner, 2001, $7.99

Filed Under: Book Review

Marking the 10th anniversary of the blog

December 23, 2007 By Leave a Comment

December 23, 1997
Marking the 10th anniversary of the blog
 It has been 10 years since Jorn Barger started gathering links to items he liked, adding some of his own comments, and putting them on a Website.
 On December 23, 1997 on his Robot Wisdom site, he wrote: “I decided to start my own Web page, logging the best stuff I find as I surf on a daily basis.” The Oxford English Dictionary says his statement is the root of the word “Weblog,” now referred to as blog.
 Others were doing similar things at the same time, but Barger announced what he was doing and has been named as the first blogger. By June 2007, Technorati counted 89.4 million blogs, but most spell check programs don’t recognize the word. 
 Blogs have evolved from being mainly a series of links to including more lengthy and opinionated writings. Some of them should probably never be stated, but expressing opinions is what a blog is all about.
 Newspaper people, who constantly check facts before printing, are shocked by what appears on blogs. On the other hand, blogs provide with a source for investigative ideas.
 Today, blog surfing is made easier by software or Websites known as news aggregates or readers. They include Google reader (google.com/reader), Bloglines (bloglines.com), and Netvibes (netvibes.com).
 Instead of going from one blog to the next, a user signs into the site where he stores a list of blogs to be tracked. The reader scans the list for new entries.
 Once you have a collection of blogs you are tracking, you can sort them into different categories.
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Filed Under: Technology

Generate Publicity

December 19, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Generating Publicity for Your Business
One of the most valuable forms of publicity is the news story about your business. Of course getting positive press coverage isn’t as easy as buying an ad. It takes legwork, patience and a lot of persistence, but the payoff is worth it.

Treat the Media with Respect
There’s really no mystery to dealing with the media. Just think of them as prospective clients and your story idea is the item they’ve been waiting for. This means following the same basic rules with the press as you would with a business client or customer.

Learn About the Media Outlet Before You Contact Them
For instance, you wouldn’t call a prospect if you had nothing new to say, so don’t contact the media without honest-to-goodness news. Remember, that just as you have learned who your customers are and what they want, take time to educate yourself about the media outlets you are targeting and frame your story idea to meet their needs.

Send a Media Kit & Press Releases to Key Reporters
Focus the materials you send to help the editors or producers. This means anticipating and answering their questions, labeling photographs and explaining why your story is worthy of coverage. It doesn’t hurt to get a little creative when you send your materials. Being creative doesn’t guarantee that your story will be picked up, however it will get your materials recognized, which, after all, is your first priority.

Request Their Media Kit
Request a media kit from the advertising department of the newspapers, magazines, radio or television stations you will be contacting. Kits give information on reader or viewer demographics and often include an editorial calendar of upcoming special sections or segments and will allow you to tailor your pitch to a specific outlet.

Approaches to Avoid When Dealing with the Media
Do not call a television news station right before airtime or call a newspaper on deadline.  Speak clearly and slowly when leaving a message on voice mail. State your name and company at the beginning of the message and repeat it at the end of the message and give your telephone number twice.
Filed Under: Marketing

Christmas fajitas a colorful addition to holiday fare

December 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment

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Want something colorfully different for the holidays this year? Why not venture South of the Border for a Mexican tradition that has become a staple on many north of the border menus.

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 The origin of fajitas is argued with both Mexico and West Texas staking claims. Most agree the traditional fajita meat is steak, but modern varieties have also turned to leaner ingredients like chicken, pork, turkey, and shrimp.
 In the 1930s and 40s, workers were given the less-expensive cuts of meat as partial payment for their services in butchering steers. Because of this, they had to develop ways to prepare the tough meat cuts given them. In Spanish, fajita is a form of the word, “faja,” meaning  “belt” or “girdle” in English and, hence, the skirt steak was called fajita meat.
 Purists in Texas still say the skirt steak is the only true fajita meat.

Gourmet’s Festive
 Holiday Fajitas
  The traditional steak fare starts with 2 pounds of steak cuts. Chuck or shoulder roast works well after being trimmed of fat with scissors or a sharp knife. Other meat or shrimp may be substituted.
 Marinate the meat for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight) in the refrigerator in a marinade of 4 tablespoons of malt vinegar and 2 cups of a commercial marinating sauce such as Lawry’s Baja Chipolte or World Harbor Mexican Style Sauce and Marinade.
 The marinated meat can be charred on the grill or pan-seared using a light covering of canola oil.
 When the meat starts to darken, add 3 cups of thinly sliced red, yellow, and green bell peppers, along with 1 1/2 cups of sliced onions and the meaty portions of 2 medium tomatoes.
 Place meal-sized portions on individual pre-heated iron fajita skillets or heated dishes and squeeze lemon juice over them.
 Dinner guests can wrap them in flour tortillas or, for healthier fare, whole grain tortillas. Condiments may include cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo, guacamole, chopped tomatoes, or chopped avocados.
 The festive colors will make a sizzling success of a holiday or any other meal

Filed Under: Food, Seasonal

Permission Marketing

December 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Developing a Permission Marketing Strategy
Are your marketing messages getting lost in the clutter of mail, email and advertising? Consider permission marketing, an exciting approach popularized by author and entrepreneur Seth Godin. Unlike conventional marketing strategies where you make a one-time pitch and hope the prospective customer responds favorably, permission marketing is all about building relationships with people who first agree to learn more about your company and its products or services. Because email is the primary vehicle for permission marketing, your costs are substantially lower than with other marketing media.  And the benefits go well beyond “making the sale.”What Can You Offer?
According to Godin, “Consumers will grant a company permission to communicate only if they know what’s in it for them. A company has to reward consumers, explicitly or implicitly, for paying attention to its messages.” In other words, provide something that your customers will want to learn more about, and may be unable to find elsewhere. Some examples include regular e-newsletters with timely news or tips related to your product or service, links to and/or reviews of new and updated Web sites, and problem/solution case studies.

Build Your Target List
Gather contact information for as many potential customer contacts as you think will be interested in being part of your permission marketing list. Sources include industry directories, web sites, current customers and their referrals.  Then, find the group that is most profitable or most likely to influence other customers. Fine-tune your permission marketing approach to them, as these are the people you most want to build relationships with. Group the others in descending order of priority for subsequent marketing.

Prepare Your Pitch
As with any other marketing approach, you should put yourself in the customer’s position.  You may have some valuable information to offer, but your customers will end the relationship before it starts if you don’t grab and hold their attention. Says Godin, “The point of permission marketing is not just to entertain people (although it does need to be entertaining) but also to teach them about your products.”

Think Ahead
Remember that permission marketing builds trust via a two-way relationship with your customers. You need to be ready to talk about their needs and concerns, not simply to get their business. Testing some iterations of your permission marketing strategy with people who can give honest and objective feedback is a great way to make sure you’re on the right track.

Reinforce the Relationship
As your permission marketing program flourishes, there is no telling which directions it will take.  But never forget to remind your customers how and why the “conversation” started. The authors of ClickZ, an on-line email marketing resource, suggest including a simple statement in each email, “ either as the introduction at the top or as part of your remove language. Even desirable content or offers are suspect if the recipients cannot connect the email message to their relationship with the sender.”

Learn More About It
To find more information about Seth Goodin’s book, Permission Marketing, visit his Web site:  http://www.sethgodin.com/permission/. You’ll also find many valuable tips about email marketing at www.clickz.com.
Filed Under: Marketing
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