Amy Campbell’s Web Log

If you know of a good nonprofit organization in Boston with a bad web site, then please tell them about Extreme Markover, an effort to give away one free web site redesign to a Boston-area nonprofit.

Extreme Markover is a partnership of the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW), a not-for-profit professional association that provides education and support for web professionals; Web Design World, a web-design conference that takes place at the Westin Copley on December 8-10; and Bizland, a website-hosting company.

I attend Web Design World each year and can vouch for the quality of their presenters and experts and the leadership they provide in the web design world (hey, no pun intended!).

Here’s more information on the free redesign from the official press release.

“We’re calling it the Extreme Markover,” said Bill Cullifer, executive director of WOW, “and our goal is to provide a deserving non-profit organization with a website that showcases today’s best design practices, which is exactly what WOW and the Web Design World conference strive to teach.”

Boston-area nonprofit organizations are invited to submit their existing site for consideration by going to the Extreme Markover site (www.extrememarkover.org). A panel including some of the world’s top web designers will review the sites and choose one for the makeover. Selected WOW members will then implement the design, and designers everywhere can follow along through frequent podcast interviews, tutorial articles, and more.

The deadline for submissions is Monday, November 24.

Valuable footprints from this month’s National Writers Workshop in Hartford, Connecticut have been left on this Poynteronline blog, 48 Tips in 48 Hours, a collection of practical reporting and writing ideas. Even if you’re not a reporter with a beat, many of these tips are applicable to many kinds of writing and general business situations. A few of my favorites:

• #7: Keep it simple… (click through to read more)
• #23: Write a killer lead…
• #21: Rewrite the lead… and the whole damn thing…
• #26: Be the expert…
• #40: Ask yourself why do my readers care about this topic now?

I participated in a focus group with a client recently, which among other things, studied the way people use the web to find specific information. It was a good reminder that no matter how sophisticated we get using computers and search engines, web sites and web marketing strategies need to be designed carefully for those who spend milliseconds looking (not reading, but looking) for information. It sent me back to Jakob Nielsen’s useit.com, the bible of web usability, which is where this F-pattern “heat map” of how people “read” on the web came from. If you want to understand web user behavoir, this is a must read: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content. See more at Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox.

Marketers and politicians alike can take a lesson from Republicans on how to “frame” an issue, debate or person using just a few words. This article from UCBerkeley News, Linguistics professor George Lakoff dissects the “war on terror” and other conservative catchphrases, shows how the Republicans are masters of using language. As a student of marketing, I’ve always wondered why the Democrats have not had more success telling their story and “branding” their party or candidates. (And been amazed at the success of the Republican party to “define” certain phrases… such as Bush 1’s ability to take a nice word like liberal and turn it into a dirty word like the “L” word.) Lakoff does a great job explaining how it works and how progressives need to learn how to start talking. At the bottom of the article are links to more on this topic, including this one: Framing the Dems, How conservatives control political debate and how progressives can take it back.

This article also shines a giant spotlight on the media conglomeration problem and the danger of combining the power of words with the power of a concentrated media. See Outfoxed (Quicktime) or Outfoxed (WindowsMedia) if you haven’t already.

Boston Women’s Business has published my top five “power writing” tips for business. The article is a shortened version of Power Writing in the Age of Spam posted on my web site, which stresses the importance of writing with clarity and authority in an age of electronic publishing and information overload — all part of a book project in the works.

I recently signed up for Harvard B School’s free companion e-newsletter to its Working Knowledge web site. This week’s issue had a couple interesting items for marketing communications buffs.

1. Speechwriting Under the Gun -
It doesnt matter to your audience if you have ten days or ten minutes to write a speech. You still must deliver. Here are tips for speeding your speech prep.

2. Ad*Access and The Emergence of Advertising in America -
A database of advertisements from 1911 to 1955. (This link brings you to a page of recommended web sites in addition to the Ad*Access Site.)

Visit the site, sign up for the e-newsletter. Both are excellent examples of giving away “information of value” to gain exposure, showcase expertise, build awareness and strengthen brand. Beyond that, the editorial is set up to trigger sales of products and encourage additional viral marketing.