Argh, hate to be cancelling as well ... have an unhappy sore throat that's threatening laryngitis. Needs some attending to. Ohhhhh.

Sorry to miss this and seeing all my favorite Portlanders ... hope you're doing it (or something like it) again soon.

Have fun. My duck and I will miss you but will be there next time ...

Noooooo! No Sparky? Now who am I going to roll my eyes at if it's horrible? Oh wait, it's not going to be horrible because it's filled with a bunch of people I really, really like. Still.

Okay. See most of y'all tomorrow. Warning: My drawing is in pen because: no crayons.

Whee! This is exciting. Looking forward to getting out of the office and hanging out with fellow home-office-ers (not the same as home officers).

Oh boy, so wish I could be there. Alas, still in Germany. Will spread the word, though. Sounds pretty darned perfect.

I hope it's fun enough that you won't be able to not do it again! My duck is all over outdoors events ...

Christian, I'd be interested in broadening this discussion of business-related words and the emotional "stuff" they sometimes trigger for some of us (or for some of our potential clients).

For example, "prospect" is a word that I can't stand. Mark Silver (Heart of Business) has a nice twist on that, calling those people "prospectors" who are coming to you to look for gold in your business.

And Seth Godin has a great post (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/02/citizens-1.html) where he argues for calling them "citizens", as a way to remember that you're dealing with real, live human beings and not flies you're trying to lure into your spider parlor.

[And yes, btw, I don't understand the "formatting help" instructions on how to do links. Even asked my designer and he didn't get it either. Are we both incompetent idiots or are other people having trouble with this too?]

Hmm. Measuring is different with "ideas" rather than stuff. I get how that could be frustrating or confusing. Seems as though it might still follow the same basic path though.

If you measure just what you have now (how many people who come to the site follow the call to action and register), then you can tweak the various elements (alter the copy, put content for people who haven't registered, work on making the concept more obvious, etc).

If your goal is getting people engaged, then the first thing to measure is going to be joining and the second thing to measure will be whether and how much they are contributing.

You will then be able to notice changes both in how many people want to connect with the idea, and, by their input, how much they really "get it" or identify with it.

Basic usability testing is a good idea as well. You can try watching people use the site. Do they know what to do? Where do they go? What are they looking for? Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" is a good resource for how to do this.

Also, it took me a while to get the concept. The copy on the hidden about page might actually be a more lively explanation than the intro, to my mind.

A super concise, compelling, electric explainer phrase would be a big help for impatient internet-ey people. And also: words will come in time. Words are magic, but sometimes they have to percolate a little.

Good luck with the project.

First of all, thanks Chris for the insightful response. Appreciated.

-- I totally get that you're coming from a place of heart, integrity and helper-ism. My issue is only with the message.

-- Right now you're preaching to the "choir" (those of us who already know that copy has to be about benefit, the customer's pain, WIIFM and all that) and to people who like getting an extra dose of snarky with their advice.

-- While I get that you can't reach everyone and some people aren't ready to hear it anyway, a whole lot of people are close-to-ready. They just need to hear it from someone who is identifying with their pain rather than pointing out their flaws.

-- I apparently misspoke with the word spitting. What was in my mind was the Hebrew phrase "to spit the truth in someone's face", something that I also do at times and try not to do. Because, yes, people need that truth but a lot of them can't hear it when it's presented in a way that makes them feel defensive.

-- Which is exactly where I differ with you on the "ego" point. Yes, when people write painfully boring me-centered copy ("We at Blahcorp pride ourselves on outstanding customer service") it comes across as ego, but I don't think it actually comes from ego at all.

People write about themselves instead of about their clients and customers because 1. they don't know any better, 2. that's what's being modeled for them, 3. they are feeling weak, fearful and vulnerable about putting themselves out there, and trying to build themselves up with a protective wall of "see, I'm a real thing with credentials and everything."

-- So, yes, your advice about what to do is 100% on target. However, saying (or implying) to people who are scared and confused that their problem is related to egotism might not be the best way to help them.

-- Wasn't intending to "flame" at all, but only to raise some points about 1. different ways of looking at effective communication and 2. what it would be like apply the principle of the article (how to speak so people can listen) to the style of the article itself. Not trying to convince you to change your edge or anything.

What a well-crafted and succinct summing-up of something I find myself trying to explain to people all the time. Thank you.

Now I can just shut up and point them to this article. That's some seriously good explaining.

Also, for all those people wondering about rate-setting, two good resources who are both on Biznik:

1. Mark Silver of Heart of Business has fantastic material on this, as well as a great "consult your heart for the price" style meditation that I totally thought was not going to work and bowled me over.

2. Mikelann Valterra of the Woman's Earning Institute has a rate-setting toolkit, good especially for women who are serial under-chargers.

Well, both branding and marketing are words that are so "big", so layered, and can mean so many things to so many people that they are always going to be a bit loaded.

Of course, we're probably more used to this happening with words like: "feminism", "religious", "yoga", etc. There are all sorts of words that hold deep, personal meanings -- but totally different ones -- for different people, and to some extent these words can sometimes lose their usefulness as communication tools.

But I think it absolutely happens in the business world too. When I started my business I had only negative associations with branding (um, burning cows with a hot iron, right? Yuck! Why would I want to do that to my business?).

If I examine my personal definitions for "branding" and "marketing" back then, they both contained things like "sleazy" and "manipulative" and "soulless". Later, I learned to "translate" them.

I learned to understand that marketing isn't about convincing someone or selling myself, but about shining a light so that the people who need me can find me and receive help. I realized that branding is a way to focus that light so that I can connect with just the right people for the work I do.

But there is still an element of translation that goes on. A split second of delayed reaction. I'd still much rather use other words, if it were up to me.

Definitely an issue worth discussing! I'm curious as to what people have to say.

This is great! Love the powerful images (yes, images) that come across in the written descriptions here as well. Which is a nice reminder that when the words work and the images go pop and zap it all works.

Also agree on the whole "creating focus and feeling without bonking people on the head" thing, aesthetically speaking.

Ooh, and extra points for use of the word "cookiedom". High approval rating!

Wordpress: yes.

Seamless move so people don't feel as though they've moved somewhere else: you will need a designer to help you there. Cheapest option will probably be to get someone from elance.com to set it up from you and only use a designer to provide the header and graphics.

And I want to second the recommendation of Andy Wibbels for blogging advice. He really knows his stuff and his courses are terrific.

When you're writing copy and you want people to really pay attention, you gotta listen to their pain. Until you acknowledge their pain they can't hear what you have to say. Clearly you "get" that completely.

Same goes for when you're writing advice, though.

There will always be some people who will thank you for spitting on them. Or people who will find the value within the rant. What about all the people who truly need what you have to say and can't receive it because of the way it is presented? That's their pain. They need you to do for them what you are asking them to do for their clients.

I get how frustrating it is to see people shooting themselves in the foot with awful, tacky websites that don't work. I also have friends/colleagues/etc who say, "Hey, look at my site!" and there is that sinking feeling where you want to say, "Gak! Why didn't you talk to me before hiding your copy in jpegs and getting a .net domain and writing copy that's all about you?!"

Want to say.

It's hard. At the same time I know that if want them to be able to apply what I know, it's my job to make it accessible so they can be receptive to it.

Tough love might be better than no love. But it's no replacement for love. That's my challenge that I deal with. I would love for it to be your challenge.

Yes! I took away all sorts of great insights from this program (and one loud penny-dropping moment). Though I'd also like to add that I especially enjoyed the "being in a room with like-minded people" part of it. Very cool.

Mark, the super high quality of participant reflects really nicely back on you. And I really appreciated both the content and the presentation. Thanks again! Havi

Right on. I knew there was a good reason to have moved to Portland right now. Although this probably would have been worth flying up from SF for too ...

Looking forward! Havi