Negev Writing

Think outside the bus

2009-10-08T15:52:00.006+02:00

Take a minute today to leave your house. Walk outside. Even if it's just on your patio. Appreciate something green. Use your own feet to transport yourself. Don't take your car or the bus. Wax Poetic.

Donors Choose

2009-10-06T13:28:00.006+02:00

How cool is this site?www.donorschoose.org/You can donate online to classrooms throughout the country in need of financial resources for material, equipment or projects. The material is delivered to the kids, and then you can see online exactly how your gift is impacting lives. Pictures, thank you notes, the whole deal.Remember how I posted earlier about the new age of Philanthropy? This is it,

Embrace the unfamiliar

2009-10-04T20:52:00.003+02:00

There's so much we can learn about marketing from everyday life! Here's a basic marketing lesson we can learn from Sukkot, the festival which Jews around the world are currently celebrating:Embrace the unfamiliar: Jewish law dictates that we build outdoor booths and eat, sleep, and generally spend as much time as possible in them. Anything we would normally do in our houses, we now do in a

Philanthropy 2.0

2009-10-01T18:26:00.004+02:00

Philanthropy is changing quickly. Organizations have to do more with less. Social media is changing everything. Donors are more particular about who they give to. So how can nonprofits keep up?Well, BBMG did some solid research and published a white paper which summarizes these changes and addresses what you can do to stay in the game. Their findings struck a chord with me so I thought I'd share

Have a pleasent day

2009-09-25T14:10:00.005+03:00

Ever feel like you're getting a new present when you're really just enjoying something you already owned? That's what it feels like when I pick up my shirts from my dry cleaners.My whole life I was used to getting my clean clothing back on a hanger. A hanger! Can you believe it? How passé. Now my shirt comes nicely folded, buttoned, wrapped and I even get those cardboard inserts to make

Biblical Marketing

2009-09-23T16:51:00.005+03:00

How good is the Bible at marketing? What can this holy book teach us about the art of selling? Well, judging from the book sales it has certainly done a pretty good job of marketing itself. But what about its ability to sell other products? Here's a product I came across last night at a local supermarket. Ezekiel 4:9 Organic Sprouted 100% Whole Grain Flour-less Almond Cereal, made by Food For

Please interact with me

2009-09-17T00:26:00.009+03:00

Most promotional or marketing emails bore me. Maybe it's just me. Mabe it's because all it takes is a click to get it out of my face. Or because I'm old-fashioned and want something physical in my hands.Think about this word: interaction. How often do you get emails that really connect to you? That stimulate you? For me, the answer is 'rarely'. Even the well-designed fundraising appeals with

Friendship marketing

2009-09-14T13:03:00.013+03:00

I spent most of yesterday at the 2nd international Jewish Bloggers Convention here in Jerusalem. Overall it was pretty good. Informative, entertaining and good networking opportunities. And the onion quiche at the dinner buffet was just fabulous. One of the workshops I went to dealt with blog content - what to write about and what to avoid in order to interest readers. In his own words, the main

"Inspire me" marketing

2009-09-10T16:22:00.010+03:00

Football season is right around the corner. And you know what that means: It's almost Rosh Hashana! And of course, my yahoo inbox is seeing a good share of Rosh Hashana greetings. Amidst the well-wishes, two emails that I got seemed eerily similar to one another - yet significantly different. On Tuesday, I got an inspirational video greeting from Aish HaTorah and then another one from my alma

Non profit never tasted this good

2009-09-07T18:22:00.018+03:00

Last night I ate at a great restaurant in Tel Aviv. Lilit is the name. I had Atlantic Cod with portobello mushrooms in a pumpkin sauce as my starter, and the grilled entrecote steak for the main course. Both were phenomenal. In fact, Lilit has a reputation as one of the better restaurants in Israel, and certainly as one of the best kosher restaurants out there.I know what you're thinking. This

Job Fair in Tel Aviv, September 8, 2009

2009-08-31T21:55:00.003+03:00

The Ministry of Absorption is holding a large job fair in Tel Aviv at the beginning of September 2009.WhoThis job fair is aimed at new immigrants (olim hadashim) and returning Israelis (toshavim chozerim) but any job seeker can attend.WhatAccording to the official announcement, there will be hundreds of positions available in these fields and more:ProgrammingLab work in the field of life

Delusions of Expertise

2009-08-26T20:25:00.003+03:00

The other day I was eating lunch with a friend in a nearby park. We noticed a newlywed couple behind us being photographed. So we congratulated them on their recent marriage. Just as they were finishing, we heard a random man passing by yell at the photographer, "That's a bad angle. You should take it from over here!" We waited until they left and then we both starting laughing hystarically. I'm

Cheaper is better than cheap

2009-08-18T19:19:00.009+03:00

I have the good fortune of living close to an incredible open air market. Yes, it's noisy, crowded and dirty, but cheap fruits and vegetables are in abundance. I passed through today around closing time, when many vendors are trying to get rid of extra merchandise. At the bakery I really like, the guy was offering rolls for half price. I probably would have bought one anyways, but he made my

What "language" does your audience speak?

2009-08-10T18:41:00.009+03:00

Working with Jewish non-profits has exposed me to the wonderful and not-so-wonderful traits of many of these organizations. Of the latter category, one of the more common faults is a failure to truly appreciate their audience. So I ask you:How well do you relate to your donors, clients, or potential customers? Do you understand their needs and interests?Like most organizations, sometimes you

Typos gone good

2009-08-04T17:32:00.015+03:00

I've been known to rant about misspelled words and how much they annoy me. I even posted about it a while back. I do differentiate between digital typos and physical typos, if we can call them that. Misspelling a word in an email or even on a blog post is regrettable, yet understandable. Doing the same on a traffic sign is appalling. Emails get sent by the boatload. They're a casual means of

Launch an Organization in the Mail? Now? Are you Crazy?

2009-07-26T16:15:00.002+03:00

From DM News and Views - July 2009As bleak news about year-end fundraising came out in early 2009, two organizations that had never acquired donors through the mail took the plunge and sent a test mailing. And, both organizations were tremendously successful. Why? They followed the rules that work for effective fundraising – both had concrete missions and proven track records of success; they

Too lazy to learn complicated words?

2009-07-20T22:31:00.007+03:00

If you answered 'yes', good for you. You'd probably make a better copywriter than your friend who answered 'no'. Yes, laziness in this regard is actually a good thing. Here's why:99% of the time, simple words will do a better job of communicating your idea than complex ones. Big words are annoying. The average person doesn't wan't to take the extra second or two to digest their meaning. And not

The AIDA formula and how it can help you in marketing

2009-07-16T20:14:00.004+03:00

There are many formulas out there for structuring sales copy. The first one that I heard, and one I still like to use is AIDA. That stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Here's how the theory goes:First, you need to "create a reader". That means doing something to pull a person into your copy. Before they become readers, your audience is just a bunch of random people. It's your job to

Typos improve fundraising results

2009-07-14T23:07:00.006+03:00

Eight type and layout facts you need to know now

2009-07-13T23:01:00.004+03:00

Here's some good advice from Colin Wheildon's book, Type and Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Maiking Pretty Shapes?. Thanks to Ivan Levison for pointing this out and for his comments here:On Headlines:Wheildon has a lot to say about headlines, and well he should. Just as the job of an envelope (in direct mail) is to get opened, the headline's job is to get the reader into the body copy.

New Look

2009-07-08T22:50:00.006+03:00

In honor of our 1 month anniversary, the Negev Writing blog has received a minor face lift! I hope you like the new look. Do you?Ahhh, yes. In case you didn't know, there's some neat stuff you can do on our blog. For many of you these things are ridiculously obvious, but I still remember the day when I thought RSS was an acronym for the Russian Secret Service. True story. So for all you

Psychology of a Sales Letter, Part I

2009-07-06T18:39:00.026+03:00

I thought it might be interesting to delve into the step-by-step process of receiving, opening and reading a sales letter. Each step is a world in and of itself - perhaps one day we can investigate each one in more depth. For now, the general overview will suffice.What goes through our mind as we're reading it? What do we look at first? What motivates us to act? To answer these questions, I

Electronic Dictionaries Gone Wrong

2009-07-02T18:00:00.010+03:00

From Haaretz.comThe Strange Linguistic Marriage of Shakespeare and the Bible By Or KashtiA recent matriculation exam testing English knowledge asked students to write a short essay inviting a guest - a scientist, writer or actor - to lecture at their school. Alongside demonstrating the students' proficiency in English - or lack thereof - the results revealed that strange things happen when the

2009-06-29T21:58:00.004+03:00

This video is to get you in the mood for the post below (Kvetch Marketing). Priceless! And now the post...

Kvetch Marketing

2009-06-29T17:19:00.016+03:00

If you could learn any new language, what would it be?My first choice would be Yiddish. Syriac is a close second (Syriously). Yiddish is very expressive and it's filled with delicious neurotic hints. Plus I already know Hebrew, so that helps. And there's the historic argument: Just three generations ago this was the language my family spoke. But far more important than these trivial facts is