Meryl's Notes at meryl.nethttp://meryl.netThings geeky, webby and wordy. Writer Meryl K. Evans hides behind the notes.enWed, 14 May 2008 16:54:27 -0500WordPress http://wordpress.org/33.03505-96.804926405936http://www.feedburner.com77+ PR and Blogging Wars Articles and Resourceshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/290420278/BloggingBusinessLinksMarketingMeryl’s Notes BlogWritingPRpublic relationspublicitytwitterMerylWed, 14 May 2008 16:12:12 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/14/77-pr-and-blogging-wars-articles-and-resources/Lots of PR talk hitting the scene as of late as PR peeps and bloggers argue about PR spamming, blacklists, and doing PR pitches right.

Just the messenger trying to collect them all in one spot. I do both sides of the PR biz… receiving-end and PR’ing end.

Advice, Arguments, Debates, and Articles

  1. 5 PR Pitches: The Good and Bad
  2. 7 Promises of the PR Pro [pdf file]
  3. 15 Reasons To Just Freakin’ Do It…Stop The Complaining and Take Command! Make the Pitch Your Friend
  4. Blacklisting Bloggers
  5. Blacklisting PR Firms
  6. Blogger Blacklist and other PR Pipe Dreams
  7. The Caring and Feeding of the Press: If you read nothing else, start and finish here. Best article on the topic from the wonderful Esther Schindler.
  8. Dear Nasty Reporter/Blogger
  9. Die! Press Release, Die!
  10. Dueling Blacklists: Bloggers vs. PR Firms
  11. An Email Blacklist of Technology PR Agencies
  12. Flacks Need Manners
  13. The Growing Backlash against PR Spam, and the Rationale for MicroPR from Stowe Boyd.
  14. How Do I Get Placement on Blogs?
  15. How to Pitch to Bloggers
  16. How Not To Help a Reporter: Yeah, go right ahead. I dare you.
  17. Making Mistakes and Amends in Blogger and Media Relations
  18. Matt Haughey on How to Pitch to Bloggers
  19. Not Short, Not Sweet, but to the Point…
  20. PR Blacklists: Treating the Symptoms
  21. PR blacklist won’t fix imperfect system
  22. PR industry crisis and a lovely weekend
  23. PR Bludgeons Itself Again
  24. PR Lessons of a Clueless Blog Pitch
  25. The PR Rolodex Myth
  26. PR vs. the Bloggers part XXVII
  27. Quelle surprise: Another PR Blacklist
  28. Sorry PR People, You’re Blocked
  29. Stupid PR Watch: Reporter pet peeves
  30. To Blacklist, or Not to Blacklist
  31. Top Ten Lies PR Agencies Tell Their Clients
  32. Twitpitch is the future
  33. Value of PR for Bloggers
  34. Won’t Anyone Think of the Phone Calls?
  35. Where Do We Go with Blogger Relations?
  36. Why PR Folks Should Blacklist Bloggers
  37. A Young Pro’s Take: Media Relations and the New PR Blacklist

And tons more… oi.

Resources

  1. Art and Science of Blogger Relations eBook
  2. Blogger Blacklist: Requires permission.
  3. Global PR Week
  4. Internet Press Guild
  5. PR Spammers Wiki: Watch out for these PR folks… they spam bloggers.
  6. Twitter Blacklist
  7. Twittering Journalists Wiki: Lists journalists, reporters, and media outlets on twitter. PR folks, please don’t spam these nice people.

Blogs

  1. Bad Pitch Blog
  2. Beyond PR
  3. Blinn PR Report
  4. Blogging Me Blogging You
  5. Common Sense PR
  6. Corporate PR
  7. Engage in PR
  8. First Person PR
  9. HighVizPR
  10. Hispanic Marketing and PR
  11. India PR
  12. KD Paine’s PR Measurement Blog
  13. Launch PR
  14. Online PR Thoughts
  15. Naked PR
  16. POP! PR Jots
  17. PR 2.0 Blog
  18. PR Blogger
  19. PR Communications
  20. PR Disasters
  21. PR Interactive
  22. PR Meets Marketing
  23. PR Squared
  24. PR Voice
  25. PR Wordsmith
  26. PR Works
  27. Pro PR
  28. PRoactive
  29. PitchEngine
  30. Publicity Hound
  31. rajesh@blogworks
  32. The Straight Pitch
  33. Strategic Public Relations
  34. Valley PR
]]>Lots of PR talk hitting the scene as of late as PR peeps and bloggers argue about PR spamming, blacklists, and doing PR pitches right. Just the messenger trying to collect them all in one spot. I do both sides of the PR biz… receiving-end and PR’ing end. Advice, Arguments, Debates, and Articles [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/14/77-pr-and-blogging-wars-articles-and-resources/PC Game Review Supermarket Maniahttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/290411282/Casual Games Reviews, News & TalkDiner GamesGame ReviewsPC GamesDiner DashSupermarket ManiaWedding DashMerylWed, 14 May 2008 15:07:34 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/14/pc-game-review-supermarket-mania/Supermarket ManiaWith the price of groceries going up by the minute, Supermarket Mania offers a great deal in keeping you busy for hours avoiding a trip to the grocery store. Like the coffee shop on every corner, Torg has supermarkets all over town giving Nikki little choice but to go work there as a stocker.

Nikki doesn’t like the looks of Torg when scary-looking robots greet her on her first day of work. After four days of excellent work, Mr. Torg fires her and her cashier friend. He activates the robots to run his stores. The girls find a better place in a run down pop store (well, there’s no mom as far as we can see) run by Mr. Clarence. He trusts the girls to run the store alone.

The girls deal with different types of customers who have different styles of shopping. Granny takes her time and has plenty of patience while teens have zero patience and move quickly. Kids tear up the place until you have your security guard friend, Mr. Barefist (I wonder how they came up with that), blow the whistle to stop their antics. Barefist also comes in handy in stopping brazen thieves.

You have two ways to catch a thief. Notify Barefist while the thief has a circle over his head to stop the thief who moves on to the next attempt or leaves the store. Or be patient and let the circle over the thief’s head fill and shake — alert Barefist at that time and you earn a cash bonus. However, the shaky thing doesn’t happen every time so waiting for a full circle could lead to thief getting away with … well, theft.

Supermarket ManiaUpgrades are present ranging from better products that sell for more money and a gumball machine for more tips to a faster loading stockroom and the most expensive one, a bigger cart. As you advance levels more upgrades show up to help keep customer patience from spiraling when so many require your time in stocking the shelves.

Occasionally, a celebrity shops at the store catching the attention of all shoppers who stand by snapping pictures. While the celeb works around the store, Nikki must keep shelves stocked for celebrities as they don’t wait long. Another unique feature in Supermarket Mania is Super Shop. Click the thumbs up symbol at the right time (when you have as many shoppers as possible and as few thieves as possible) so that everyone buys a bunch at once. This drives up sales and Nikki’s carting work as she races around refilling the fast emptying shelves.

The action spreads across five shopping stores including Torg’s for 50 levels. That’s right, Mr. Clarence somehow comes up with the cash for more stores. Nothing illegal mind you. He’s good people.

The game lasts a couple of sittings and gets nutty at times. I’ve yet to beat a Diner Dash (but I made it through Wedding Dash), and I finished Supermarket Mania. It meant repeating a few levels, but all in a game reviewer’s work. So I think the difficulty is on target for the average casual gamer.

Animation and cartoon-style graphics are bright and attractive. The music upbeat with good effects. Decent variety of upgrades and a nice even pace. Animation and cartoon-style graphics are bright and attractive. The music upbeat with good effects. Decent variety of upgrades and a nice even pace.

Supermarket ManiaSupermarket Mania probably falls in the middle of the time management games. Far better than those at the bottom, but not quite as good the best. You’ll spend less money on the game than in a five minute trip to the grocery store and have loads more fun.

]]>With the price of groceries going up by the minute, Supermarket Mania offers a great deal in keeping you busy for hours avoiding a trip to the grocery store. Like the coffee shop on every corner, Torg has supermarkets all over town giving Nikki little choice but to go work there as a stocker. Nikki doesn’t [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/14/pc-game-review-supermarket-mania/Follow Your Company and Brand Onlinehttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/288644913/BloggingBusinessCustomer ServiceLinksMarketingMeryl’s Notes BlogTechnetworkingonline reputation managementPRsocial networkstwitterMerylMon, 12 May 2008 08:43:38 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/12/follow-your-company-and-brand-online/If your PR and marketing folks aren’t tracking your company, brand, and competition online, they need to get up to speed to better do their jobs. If you play all of the roles, tracking your company and brand isn’t as time consuming as it sounds.

Remember alert services, blogs, and social network sites. Many of these can deliver updates to your inbox or phone.

Alert Services: Sends e-mail, text, etc. whenever your keyword shows up somewhere. Media services such as BBC News and TMCNet have their own alerts — so check out sites that cover your industry and sign up for their alerts. Here are general free keyword alert services.

  1. AOL Alerts
  2. Clip and Copy — three free searches in Basic account.
  3. Google
  4. GoogleAlert (not from Google) — gives three free searches).
  5. Reuters
  6. Windows Live Alerts
  7. Yahoo

Blogs: You can most likely find blogs for every industry. Numerous blog directories exist that to make a list here would be futile. MasterNewMedia has a hey-ugggeee list.

Social network sites: Also too many to list, but it should include Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and conversations like Twitter and forums. Also look for social networks covering your industry. The following sites/tools let you search Twitter with keywords:

Track forums and other conversations with these sites:

Resources

]]>If your PR and marketing folks aren’t tracking your company, brand, and competition online, they need to get up to speed to better do their jobs. If you play all of the roles, tracking your company and brand isn’t as time consuming as it sounds. Remember alert services, blogs, and social network sites. Many of these [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/12/follow-your-company-and-brand-online/Game du Jour: Week of 2008-05-12http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/288623755/Arcade GamesCard GamesCasual Games Reviews, News & TalkGame NewsPC GamesStrategy Gamescasual gamesMerylMon, 12 May 2008 06:24:20 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/12/game-du-jour-week-of-2008-05-12/The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ web site dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. May 12th: 50% off on Pick11

Tue. May 13th: 65% off on Brainiversity

Wed. May 14th: 40% off on Pet Shop Hop

Thu. May 15th: 50% off on Solitaire Epic

Fri. May 16th: 70% off on Snakylines

Sat. May 17th: 50% off on CrazyTrain

Sun. May 18th: 50% off on Mahjong Epic

]]>The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ web site dedicated to indie and casual games: Mon. May 12th: 50% off on Pick11 Tue. May 13th: 65% off on Brainiversity Wed. May 14th: 40% off on Pet Shop Hop Thu. May 15th: 50% off on Solitaire Epic Fri. May 16th: 70% off on Snakylines Sat. [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/12/game-du-jour-week-of-2008-05-12/40% off Games in Honor of Great Momshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/287472443/Casual Games Reviews, News & TalkGame NewsGame TalkHidden Object GamesPC GamesPuzzle GamesStrategy GamesBuild-a-lotChocolatierChocolatier 2couponDream Chronicles 2MerylSat, 10 May 2008 07:40:09 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/10/40-off-games-in-honor-of-great-moms/Big Fish Games offers a 40% off coupon any game in honor of Mother’s Day. But you can buy a game for yourself or anyone. Steps:

  1. Explore Big Fish Games.
  2. Find and try games until you find the perfect match.
  3. Click “Buy.”
  4. Enter mothersday in the code box.

The coupon is good until May 16. If you’re struggling to find the right gift for Mom — you still have time and you don’t have to mail anything.

Recommendations for Mom:

]]>Big Fish Games offers a 40% off coupon any game in honor of Mother’s Day. But you can buy a game for yourself or anyone. Steps: Explore Big Fish Games. Find and try games until you find the perfect match. Click “Buy.” Enter mothersday in the code box. The coupon is good until May 16. If you’re struggling to find [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/10/40-off-games-in-honor-of-great-moms/How to Show Something Is Really Yourshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/287470699/LanguageLinksMeryl’s Notes BlogWritingbloopergadgetsgrammarMerylSat, 10 May 2008 07:35:14 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/10/how-to-show-something-is-really-yours/Just had to share this grammar blooper from PC Magazine’s Mother’s Day article. Perhaps, the magazine wanted to emphasize Mom belongs to you in superlative terms.

Of course, I wanted to know what gadgets they recommended for us geeky moms.

pcmag_blooper.gif

]]>Just had to share this grammar blooper from PC Magazine’s Mother’s Day article. Perhaps, the magazine wanted to emphasize Mom belongs to you in superlative terms. Of course, I wanted to know what gadgets they recommended for us geeky moms.http://meryl.net/2008/05/10/how-to-show-something-is-really-yours/Links: 2008-05-09http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/286803910/BusinessGamesLinksMarketingMeryl’s Notes BlogShoppingTechWritingentrepreneurmagazinememorypinballPRtwitterMerylFri, 09 May 2008 07:49:54 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/09/links-2008-05-09/
  • Memory Improvement Tips
  • Top 10 PR Tips for Small Businesses
  • Write with Authority and Inspire Trust
  • The best time to submit news
  • 8 violent truths about freelancing part one and part two
  • 178 ways to improve your internet writing tips
  • 2008 Webby Award Winners
  • 50 greatest entrepreneurs of all time: Every person I could think of is already on the list. Anyone missing?

    • And for fun ‘cuz you’re allowed:

    ]]>    Memory Improvement Tips Top 10 PR Tips for Small Businesses Write with Authority and Inspire Trust The best time to submit news 8 violent truths about freelancing part one and part two 178 ways to improve [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/09/links-2008-05-09/    Study Shows Casual Games Relieve Stress and Improve Moodhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/285462563/Casual Games Reviews, News & TalkGame NewsGame TalkPC Gamescasual gamesgamePopcapstudyMerylWed, 07 May 2008 11:07:05 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/07/study-shows-casual-games-relieve-stress-and-improve-mood/I don’t need a study to tell me that playing casual games helps relieve stress and improve my mood. When the writing muse stays away or my spirits drop, I play a game I need to review. Almost every time (don’t like to use 100%), I feel better after a few rounds of a casual game.

    See the results of the study and the Popcap Games press release.

    ]]>    I don’t need a study to tell me that playing casual games helps relieve stress and improve my mood. When the writing muse stays away or my spirits drop, I play a game I need to review. Almost every time (don’t like to use 100%), I feel better after a few rounds of a casual [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/07/study-shows-casual-games-relieve-stress-and-improve-mood/    Stop the Graying of Sites Trendhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/285419736/BloggingLinksMeryl’s Notes BlogTechdesignfontreadabilitytextweb designMerylWed, 07 May 2008 20:38:17 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/07/stop-the-graying-of-sites-trend/The messages many sites send when they use gray text on a white background is, “We don’t want you to read our content,” “Our content isn’t worth your time,” and “We want you to struggle reading our content because we think black is boring.”

    #333333, #666666, #999999, and #cccccc (various shades of gray) are almost black, but not as good as black. Those sites don’t make this list.

    It’s an epidemic that I alone can’t stop.

    To reward those sites doing it right, they get a mention and a link here. Add your site to the comments section. However, we will check every link. If a site’s text hides in a fog, it will disappear.

    Note — this only looks as the contrast between text and background — not the font choice, font size, text formatting style, or design.

    1. Adversity University Blog
    2. Be the Story
    3. Blogcritics
    4. Bob Bly
    5. Book Marketing
    6. The Book Sistah
    7. Caroline Middlebrook
    8. Chronicles of a Mompreneur
    9. D. Keith Robinson
    10. Dosh Dosh
    11. Geekpreneur
    12. Global Neighbourhoods
    13. The Golden Pencil
    14. Graywolf’s SEO Blog (yeah, even the guy with “Gray” in his name passed!)
    15. GTO Management
    16. How Not to Write
    17. InternetVIZ
    18. ISIPP
    19. Melle.ca
    20. Men with Pens
    21. Molly
    22. Niroze
    23. PoeWar Writer’s Resource Center
    24. The Program Witch Pages
    25. Sparkplug CEO
    26. Stowe Boyd
    27. Strategic Public Relations
    28. SuccessCREEations
    29. Verge New Media
    30. Writer’s Helper

    You wouldn’t believe how many sites I looked at before my eyes begged me to stop. List is disappointingly short.

    Moral: Black on white is NOT boring. It’s readable.

    P.S. I skipped those with different colors because they may not be readable to those with various forms of color blindness.

    ]]>    The messages many sites send when they use gray text on a white background is, “We don’t want you to read our content,” “Our content isn’t worth your time,” and “We want you to struggle reading our content because we think black is boring.” #333333, #666666, #999999, and #cccccc (various shades of gray) are almost black, [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/07/stop-the-graying-of-sites-trend/    How Lenovo Outdoes Apple with an Adhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Meryl/~3/284675363/BusinessLinksMarketingMeryl’s Notes BlogTechadvertisingcomputercomputersLenovoMacvideoMerylTue, 06 May 2008 09:22:45 -0500http://meryl.net/2008/05/06/how-lenovo-outdoes-apple-with-an-ad/I rarely check out videos because chances are high that it won’t have captions or subtitles. But I bit on this Lenovo-produced video comparing its ThinkPad X300 to the MacBook Air [link: Dave Winer]. It presents a powerful visual message without using words.

    But not one to let commercials sway me without research, I wondered how many attachments MacBook Air owners realllllly use. Lenovo smartly added attachments of products it has in its ultraportable Thinkpad X300 to the Mac Air to make people think thinner isn’t always better — you sacrifice some things.

    Just looking at the two computers, the Mac Air still wows with its thinness. I found a twitterfriend who owns a Mac Air FabGal — check out our twitversation:

    FabGal: Sorry, but mah MacBook Air could kick that ThinkPad’s ass. And also? It’s shiny! And silver! And my preshus. (drool)

    Me: Mac Air does still look wowie wow wow. What do you add on to it regularly?

    FabGal: I haven’t added anything to it so far. Everything transfered from iBook wirelessly. Am thinking of a superdrive, though.

    So there you have it. One owner who doesn’t even have anything on her Mac Air. So seriously, how many Mac Air owners buy attachments and use them regularly? One attachment might not be so bad.

    Nonetheless, the message comes through powerfully and will likely sway Windows users not to make the switch to a Mac … not just yet.

    ]]>    I rarely check out videos because chances are high that it won’t have captions or subtitles. But I bit on this Lenovo-produced video comparing its ThinkPad X300 to the MacBook Air [link: Dave Winer]. It presents a powerful visual message without using words. But not one to let commercials sway me without research, I wondered how [...]http://meryl.net/2008/05/06/how-lenovo-outdoes-apple-with-an-ad/