The web, the press, and work

I’ve been working a lot these days and predominantly within the WordPress platform—for clients. Along with a plethora of new plugins, templates and WP upgrades, I am feeling the need to write & post stuff that I’m discovering along the way. Like right now.

First of all, I would love to spend some time on my own sites. I need to upgrade this blog. But until I do, I want to write about something that I honestly don’t want to forget, but don’t have anywhere to store it. I am certainly not going to count on my brain to remember everything that I’m thinking about right now!

So one of the things that I’m working on for a client requires that I look up people. Grab a photo of them and a brief bio, along with their web site address. It’s frustrating to find the web site and to not get access to a good photo as well as a snip of their bio. Must remember the following…

If you are promoting yourself via a web site, please have the following available for visitors:

• A good, downloadable photo of yourself. Yes I know that’s subjective but at least have one outside of the header, not in Flash, and is fairly recent.
• Ditto with your bio. Don’t make the text a graphic (or in Flash). If I have to transcribe a paragraph from an image to text, I am not happy and will make it as brief and probably less interesting than if I could copy and paste it from your site into mine.
• Think like a reporter in search of a story. Make it as convenient and as easy as possible for busy people to grab your info. If I am on a deadline and must make a choice between Story A or Story B, I will choose the one that requires the least amount editing for me as well as the most interesting story for my readers. Hopefully that would be one and the same story.
• Post the above info on your Bio web page with a link to a printable pdf file that is posted on a Press/Media page. That would be ideal and a reporter’s dream.

That is what I want to remember. Yes, common sense.

A perfect example of everything that I mentioned is on Lisa Daily’s web site. In my opinion she has covered all bases and it is visible on her Media Page. Lisa definitely knows what she’s doing.

Must get back to work… in fact I need to “practice what I preach.” My own biz site doesn’t have an ideal bio… :::GASP:::

Better git busy!