Sample Page
This is an example page. It’s different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this:
Hi there! I’m a bike messenger by day, aspiring actor by night, and this is my blog. I live in Los Angeles, have a great dog named Jack, and I like piña coladas. (And gettin’ caught in the rain.)
…or something like this:
The XYZ Doohickey Company was founded in 1971, and has been providing quality doohickies to the public ever since. Located in Gotham City, XYZ employs over 2,000 people and does all kinds of awesome things for the Gotham community.
As a new WordPress user, you should go to your dashboard to delete this page and create new pages for your content. Have fun!
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 12:43 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
It should hardly have mattered to me when Grenada’s Kirani James broke ahead of the crowd flying toward the finish 
line of the Olympic Men’s 400 meter race. But there I was out of my chair yelling at the television as if my cheers could give him an extra push.
Not that he needed it. He easily broke the tape on his own impressive power with a time just tenths of a second off a world record.
I’d never heard of Kirani James before this week, he’s not from my country and I don’t have a particular affinity for men’s racing let alone the 400. So what gives? Why did I care if he won? (more…)
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 5:14 pm in Twitter, Uncategorized | 4 comments
Question: There is a lot of talk about Twitter and how important it can be for a small business. Does it really matter?
Answer: It depends. It can be a great place to both get and give info. It’s a matter of how you use it.
The other day I was out on a boat with friends on a hunt for tall ships that were supposedly coming to
anchor near Niantic, Connecticut. There were plenty of boats around but none of the tall ship variety. There was however, an extremely large military ship surrounded by a small armada of Coast Guard boats making sure no one came too close. Curious about the boat and the location of our elusive prey, I turned to Twitter. A search on “Niantic” and “tall ships” revealed a Tweet about a pending “mock invasion” of the small coastal city. The tweet led to a newspaper article that said the military vessel contained a huge hover craft on which there was a Humvee and a large number of troops that were going to shore to show off. Not only that, we found out that the extravaganza was just about to start.
Couldn’t I have just found out about this from a Google search? Maybe, but Twitter offers the added benefit of offering up-to-the-minute info as well as links to other resources. There might have been more Tweets from other boaters or event sponsors with more details.
I doubt you are planning any military invasions and perhaps you aren’t hunting for small ships. But whether you are selling coffee or cotton candy, Twitter can be a way for you to connect with customers. You can find out what they’re interested in and you can get your message to them. It’s a matter of developing a good strategy and figuring out how to make it happen. In a recent blog post small business owner Jeanne Rossomme offers some great tips on how to make time for Twitter.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 9:03 pm in Uncategorized, Writing | 2 comments
Even though I write for a living and even though I do it nearly every day, I don’t always love it. In fact, sometimes, I really don’t like it at all. 
This is especially true if I’m writing a “high stakes” piece. I would consider this to be anything that someone else is going to read – which is just about everything I write!
I want it to be brilliant. I want you to read it and be blown away. I want you to send it on to everyone you’ve ever met. And, I fear you will either stop reading after the first sentence or read it and roll your eyes. So I agonize and I delay. I stress and I grumble at any distraction, even the darling blond- haired blue-eyed seven-year-old variety. There are times when it seeps into everything and the frustration slips into despair. (more…)
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 3:07 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
photo from http://eslnotepad.blogspot.com/
I know that many people find it hard to put words on the page. Getting going can be tough. Figuring out what to say and how to say it – like climbing Mount Everest sometimes. But that’s a walk through the park compared to editing.
You want to know what’s really, really hard? Dauntingly near impossible? When you have 700 well-crafted, beautifully placed, perfectly composed words and space for just 500 of them. That’s agony – you have to actually trim out 200 of those hard earned darlings? The first pass probably won’t be so bad – rephrase a few sentences, combine a couple of thoughts. After that, it’s tough decisions all the way. At the end of the day, it’s the thought that counts. You have to leave in your central theme and the main points even if it means cutting out the most clever phrases you’ve ever written. Yes, it’s very sad to delete the sentences that soar, but sometimes it just has to be done. (Old Yeller)
Don’t fret too much – your piece will likely be stronger for the rigorous scrutiny you gave it and if you wrote that well once, rest assured you will write that well again.
And don’t give up on those sweet thoughts that had to be cut from this piece, they may be the beginnings of another.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 5:45 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
Welcome to anyone stopping by after attending the invigorating North by North Shore conference this morning. I enjoyed meeting many great business people and hearing about their goals for blogging and social media.
Even before the first blog challenge is over, I’m gearing up for another. Same deal – blog once a week for three months. This one picks up just after the first one lets off at the end of June.
Can you do it? Do you have the stamina? You won’t know until you try, so dive right in. What’s your biggest hurdle? If you get stuck, drop me an email and lets see if we can work it out. If you want to join the challenge, please post on your blog that you’re going to do it and let me know so I can put you up on the blog roll.
For any one completing the challenge, I’ll have a badge of honor for you to post on your blog. Just let me know if you’ve done it.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 1:34 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
Looking to get started with social media marketing? Ready to kick your on line campaign in to high gear? Join me next week at North by North Shore, a conference designed to give you all the tools you need.
Who Should Attend?
If you are charged with growing a business through sales, marketing, business development, or client relations, this event series is your key local event. Experts will lead sessions on digital and content marketing, social media, CRM, etc. Best of all, you get to drive the agenda using Google Moderator.
The official special discount promotion has ended, but I can still get you a good deal for my blog readers. Let me know if you’d like to go – or just visit www.northbynorthshore.com, follow the ticket page link, and use my discount code “jp613” when prompted at their EventBrite ticket page to receive a 20% discount. The discount code offer expires at 5 PM on June 11, OR when tickets sell out – which I can’t control – so I advise you to act promply!
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 6:51 pm in Blog Writing, Uncategorized, Writing | 0 comments
I have a secret to share with you. Good writing is hard – really hard. I’ve heard from many people who think they’re not good writers. They think this because they find it difficult to write, or because they read what they’ve written and they don’t like it. Neither of these are an indication that a person is a bad writer. In fact, they are two very good signs of the opposite.
Good writing is hard – hard like running is to someone who hasn’t done it in 20 years; hard like running up a hill is to someone who’s only been running on flat ground; hard like running a marathon is to someone who has only run 5Ks. My point is that it’s hard when you are reaching, when you are pushing yourself and stretching your boundaries. If it’s not hard, you’re not trying hard enough.
Becoming a good runner, swimmer, skier, biker or flute player requires that you spend time being uncomfortable. How quickly you improve will depend largely on how much pain you can tolerate. When you first started out – so long, long ago – just learning the letters was a tremendous struggle. Then you had to put them together to get words and then you had to figure out how to put all those words together into sentences. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t natural – a look at a first graders homework is a good reminder of the battle you fought just to have the ability to respond to this post.
Now, you can write at least basic thoughts (and probably some pretty complex ones too) without thinking too hard about it. Now, the challenge comes when you want to write lots of them together (for a book, perhaps?) or to make them sing a flawless song (a compelling blog post, maybe?) If you find writing hard, that is a sign that you are doing something that is moving you toward becoming a better writer.
Photo taken early on in the 2011 Boston Marathon
What about those who don’t like what they write? This is a good thing. Why? Because it means that you recognize that something isn’t the way you want it — and that is the first step to being able to fix it. If you write something that truly is bad and you don’t recognize it, you won’t even realize that it should be changed. Yes, it’s frustrating when you feel like something isn’t good, and you are not sure how to make it better. That takes us back to the fact that good writing is hard. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes experimentation and being willing to look bad. You have to put your writing and therefore yourself out there for scrutiny.
The most important thing is to not give up. You can and will get better if you keep working at it. Read books on writing or just read any books. Read newspaper articles and blogs. Find a friend to help. Find a coach or an editor. As with running, swimming or flute playing, you need to push past the moments of discomfort. There will be times when it is easy, and it does feel natural. But that probably won’t last – at least not if you really want to be good — because as soon as you master one level, you move on to tackling the next
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 12:31 am in Uncategorized | 0 comments
It used to be that there were newspapers and newsletters. It was fairly easy to tell what came from where. Newspapers hired journalists to report the news Although they’re supported by add sales, the expectation is that the news is independent from advertising. Newsletters, on the other hand, contained the direct news of whomever published them, whether that be a non profit or a company.
Now, however, there’s the Internet and blogs have been tossed into the mix. It’s confused things because anyone can write a blog and say pretty much anything.
In the midst of this, Google News has developed a search methodology that may discriminate against blogs when it comes to people looking for news, according to a post by Matthew Ingram on gigaom.com. He says the criteria seem to be based on whether a publication identifies itself as a blog. This could matter a whole lot to bloggers who consider their work to be a news source. It may matter less to those who use a blog more as a newsletter to promote themselves or their companies.
Which leads me back to the question I urge everyone to ask when starting a blog: Why? The more you know about what you are trying to accomplish with your blog, the better you will be able to plan and maintain it.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 6:56 pm in Uncategorized | 2 comments
On Wednesday, June 13th, you can find out just about anything you want to know about social media at North by North Shore, an event at the Danvers Yacht Club. Come for the views, come for the food, come for the great info…I’ll be there talking about blog strategy and setting up the next blog challenge.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 3:01 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
If you can’t have your cake and eat it too, why not just sell it? Danvers Baker Kelly Delaney, owner of Cakes for Occasions, makes some pretty fancy confections and recently started hawking them on television, starting with a 3 a.m. debut. It turns out there’s a lot more to selling cakes than just making pretty ones…Read all about it in the Boston Herald
Photo by Patrick Whittemore
