In the midst of this great GuideStar piece on writing fundraising letters comes a sentence that galvanized me:

• Beginning sentences with “and”- one of my favorite connectors that encourages readers to keep reading (actually “listening” because that’s the way we talk with friends).

Listening. That’s why conversational writing, be it in blog posts, speeches or direct mail, has such power. It’s the way you offer to… Read more...

Friends, our long national nightmare is over. As the CBC is reporting, TiVo is officially on its way across the border:
The TiVo set-top device, which allows viewers to record shows and skip commercials, will be available across Canada – except in Quebec – through Best Buy, Future Shop, The Brick and London Drug stores for $199. Device owners also need to subscribe to the TiVo service, which has… Read more...

• Virtual Hosting Blog » Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies
  Some of it intuitive, some of it surprising… but all of it handy. The one I wish more people would heed (including me): include white space in your design.
  (tags: usability eyetracking research web tips study design advertising)

• Go With The Flow | BPWrap
  Barry Welford on the Green Gifts FB app we created: “That’s the beauty of BC Hydro’s Facebook initiative. …accepting a gift from a friend is the most natural thing to do… That’s the height of permission marketing.” Thanks for the kind words, Barry!
  (tags: facebook software marketing sustainability energy conservation

• Custom CSS Signatures in Mail – All Forces
  One of my holy grails: a way to insert live HTML into an OS X Mail.app signature. Takes a while, but nothing’s especially hard to do.
  (tags: mail.app osx macintosh apple email signature html css graphics)

Amazing what people will put up with to keep a community alive. (And it sure doesn’t hurt if there are market forces involved.)… Read more...

• eConscious market
  A Colorado-based enterprise selling sustainably-made products, and donating half of their profits to non-profit organizations.
  (tags: green shopping products mall)

I hope you had a quarter of the fun I did last night.

I headlined the Friday social for the BC NDP convention, a karaoke pub night sponsored by the Young New Democrats. (Wisely, they asked me to do stand-up rather than singing.)

And even though it was my first time onstage in a year and a half, it went swimmingly. The best response of the evening came… Read more...