creative briefing

It seems like everything we do these days has to be done strategically. Take commenting, for example. Looking at John Chow’s top commentators list, this is what you see:

Notice anything? Of the 10 proud members of that exclusive list, only 2 have real names (Debo Hobo may count as an amusing third…), while the rest are strategically branded to give the maximum exposure to the commentators’ own blogs.

Do people develop commenting strategies to get to the top of these lists, or does being a top 10′er come as a convenient benefit from interacting immensely with the community? I applaud those in either category.

I don’t know about you, but when I comment, my name is Verne. Or should it be ‘creative marketing blog wants traffic’?

Update: Turns out John actually encourages this strategy! How evil. Check it out here.

For those of you in the business of design, think about all the software you use. My personal list includes all of Adobe Creative Suite 3, EditPlus 2, and Microsoft Office OneNote.

Wait a sec…  did I just say OneNote?! Yes, I did!

If you’ve ever been in the situation where you needed to eye-drop a colour from somewhere, or make a measurement, or simply grab a snippet of something on your screen, you’ll understand the importance of your computer’s Print Screen function. But Print Screen is a hassle. After all, it prints the whole screen, leaving you to crop out the unecessary parts. That’s where OneNote comes in!

Among all the cool note-taking functionality OneNote offers, it also comes equipped with a nifty screen clipping function that allows you to take a screenshot of any part of your screen simply by clicking and dragging your cursor over the desired area (similar to how you would select an area in Photoshop). And voila – no cropping required! OneNote gives you the option to save the screenshot to your clipboard (ready to be pasted somewhere) or to place it into a new note within OneNote. It even comes handy with a keyboard shortcut (windows key + s… sorry Mac users)!

I personally love the convenience of being able to take custom-sized screenshots whether I’m using it within design, word processing, or even instant messaging (MSN lets you simply “paste” the image into the message box and then sends it as a file to your buddy).

Now I know not everyone owns or can afford a copy of OneNote. Nor would many of you even consider purchasing it for this functionality alone (it runs for $99.95 USD per license). So my question to you is: are there any other existing applications that offer this same screen clipping capability? Drop me a comment if you have any leads!

The guys at FS have posted a great article on the 10 Essential Steps to Avoid Freelance Headaches. Don’t be fooled, their insight applies directly to entrepreneurs struggling to figure out where work ends and life begins on a day-to-day basis, too.

I was going to write an article on something similar, but this one hits the mark. #1 (find great clients), 6 (set aside designated time) and 10 (automate) are strategies I personally subscribe to. Check it out! It’ll help you save time, reclaim your life, and avoid the headaches.

I’m not an avid reader of CNN.com, but a friend of mine who is recently pointed out the redesign of the site. This may not be breaking news to you, but I found the approach CNN took in their redesign to be both refreshing and reflective of a major news engine evolving with the web 2.0 community.

CNN.com before the redesign (courtesy of the Internet Archive):

  
CNN.com “2.0″:

 
Not that the former CNN.com design was overly complicated, but you can tell that simplicity is a prevailing characteristic of CNN’s new online face. In fact, this site isn’t the only one to do this, as many of today’s “web 2.0″ sites are throwing away the old style guides for the latest conventions that are guided by cleanliness, simplicity, and an abundance of white space.

Perhaps this is a move to encourage the younger, “hipper” audience to be more in tune with today’s current events, and to entice them to choose CNN.com as their preferred media outlet?

What are your thoughts on the new CNN.com?

One aspect of branding your URL, or anything for that matter, is to make it as easy to remember as possible (recall Part 1’s branding discussion). A long and complicated sentence will never fly as a company’s tagline because nobody would ever remember it. If nobody remembers it, the value is lost. Likewise, a long and complicated URL makes it difficult for your visitors to remember it, and inevitably, it makes it difficult for them to access the content they’re looking for quickly. Not only that, but it looks ugly in a browser’s address bar.

For site publishers/owners looking to take an extra step in branding their website, here’s the second installment of how to brand your website’s URL, this time using friendly URL structures.

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