Would you like cheese with that whine?

This is one of my mother’s favorite quotes. When she’s feeling neutral and detached, she can make light of what is troubling me. (And you can guess what she’s like when not feeling neutral and detached!) So my two points here right up front are that 1) staying neutral and detached allows humor to be a healing and helpful antidote and 2) there actually can be a place for whining. Like most things, there’s more to it than believing it’s simply good or bad.

I got started on this post after reading a post by Melissa Reinert over at Kirsten Osolind's Reinventioninc blog this morning. (Jeez! What a list of resources and links she and her colleagues have put together over there. A great resource.) Melissa provides a good summary of some of the recent research into blogging habits and numbers comparing men and women.

I do however disagree that we should altogether "stop whining." Like most things in life and in business, there is plenty ‘o nuance to be had on the topic.

I agree with Melissa that women have a bad reputation for whining on the job. It's inaccurate in my experience, as I've met some world-class male whiners! Who cares, though, for now women shoulder the blame as a gender.

I think the secret to erasing this bad rap though, is for all of us whiners to know when to whine. And when to show up with a smile.

It's easy to pontificate about things like "are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution?" but what I've learned is that it can be hard to get unstuck. Hard to put on the smile, authentically, and not just cram more s*** down the throat. That is after all, so last century.

Real women do whine; they just know the when, why, and how of it!

So here's my tip on the the topic: Whine to your heart's content — in private. Get the frustrations out of your system. Business is tough, it's fast, it's as competitive as ever. Pretending you're not frustrated when you are is no better than whining in public. Taking the either-or approach rarely works over the long term in my experience. Knowing when to whine and with whom, well, that's a useful business skill for women and men!

Roxanne's Tips for Productive Whining

1. Pick a time to whine when you are offline and it won't interefere with your professional and personal responsibilities. Yes, that time does exist even though it may not be staring you in the face.
2. Pick a place that is private. Your whining really is no one else's business, unless #3 applies. Think closet, shower, car, underwater in the pool or ocean. There are lots of private spaces that may still be in close proximity.
3. Optional: Pick a person who will listen to your whine, without piling on. In other words, affirms your frustration but does not add to it with all sorts of "Yeah, you are totally right and that other person was totally screwed up!"
4. Pour your heart and soul into it! Be brash, extreme, detailed, and over the top. Get it out of your system! Cry, rant, and rave if necessary. (Remember, you're doing this in private.)
5. Place a time limit. This will help you focus and be successful at #4. If you don't feel done, schedule another whining appointment with yourself.

I was a guest presenter at Rancho La Puerta Spa several years ago, when I first taught this method. Back then I called it, "How and Why to Have a Meltdown." The female power execs in my classes ate the stuff up!

The real key to all this for me is realizing there is nothing wrong with getting utterly frustrated to the point of tears. It's knowing what gets me to that point, applying some preventive medicine (productive whining is one cool pill) and being able to get back to my positive and successful self asap. Goodness knows that's where I prefer to be, not to mention what the people around me want! I know I'm there when mom (or biz partner) can say, "Would you like some cheese with that wine?", and I can laugh right back and say "Yes!"

Here's my mom's latest challenge.
Here's my mom walking her talk.

Hey, Aloha Friday to you!

Who Pays for Technology Failures?

I read a post (and partial rant) by Bart Cleveland over at AdAge blog this morning. The server is down, he is the feeling hostage to the IT guy, and it ain’t no fun. In fact, when technology fails, it causes a lot of waste and misery in the work place.

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We work in computer networks all day every day. Our business depends on technology. When a machine crashes, when a drive fails, when software gets a bug, time is lost. For us, that time is also money. As a small company, we're still learning how to build in the accurate level of overhead to cover these unexpected failures in software and hardware. They are a real fact of business. Yet they are not anyone's fault most of the time. So until we can say, "Computer, run diagnostic program" (and it does!), who should bear the burden of the expense?

Here's a real example that happened just this week.

Client Document Received in Corrupted Form

A client recently sent me a large Word doc with content for a new project in development. When I went to open it, my Microsoft application told me — one at a time — that every single font on my computer was corrupt and should be removed. I then had the same error when trying to open excel and powerpoint files, though not in any other non-Microsoft applications.

This indicated a bug of some sort has temporarily wrecked my Microsoft apps. Normally I would just re-install the software and get back to work with about a 30 minute detour for troubleshooting. But I am traveling, and don't have my software CD with me. For many people, that would have caused a complete work stoppage.

But being a geek girl, I was able to open the file in BBEdit, a plain text editor. Of course that meant I lost all formatting but I can handle that. The problem is I also inherited about 25 pages of gobbledy goop code that was wrapped around the real content, and that I had to strip away before I could do anything useful with the content. We're now looking at easily another hour or more of lost productivity.

So Who Pays?

Who pays for this? Do I bill the client 2 hours for a task that could have taken 15 minutes if everything were working as intended? It's probably not her fault, though it's possible her machine had a virus. However, it's not my fault either, as my Microsoft worked prior to receiving her file. If I were not working the extra two hours on her project, I could have been out walking in the mountains or swimming in the ocean.

Bill Bill?

Do I bill Bill Gates for the software failure? Although his company makes the software that crapped out on me, the file could have been corrupted in email transport. This is actually a fairly common occurrence. (Hint: zip your files before sending them via email attachments. It seems to help.)

Shane's Got It

I love my partner Shane's perspective. If we were on staff (not under contract) and software or a server goes down, we would continue to be paid while we troubleshoot the problem. Our salary is not suddenly suspended until the technical problems are solved. In fact, our greatest value comes into play when we set about making inexplicably broken things work again. That's a skill that most technology users do not possess. As Bart Cleveland said so well, people just want things to work.

Local Clues

I like to look for clues in my environment and in the here and now when I am confused. Since I am on an airplane, I immediately hear in the back of my head, "In the case of a loss of cabin pressure, please secure your oxygen mask before assisting others." Of course! I want to be sure I can take care of my needs so I can then be of help to you. We are in this together. It's my responsiblity to keep my company strong and solvent. When technology fails, most likely it's going to be our job to fix it.

Typically, No One Wants to Pay

Clients sometimes don't want to pay for this, because in most cases it is not their fault either. Inexplicable stuff happens. Considering how many points of failure there are between each user and a given web site, I am amazed the internet and software and hardware works as well as it does. But that doesn't mean I am any less desirous of technology that just works. As a fulltime technology user, I am intimately affected when it works as well as when it doesn't. However I'm of the belief that the end recipient is primarily responsible for paying when technology fails. If we're working on your job, and technology fails, we'll bill you for fixing the problem. We hope you'll be glad to have a smart technologist on your team when these unpredictable failures occur!

What's the Bottom Line for Your Business

When IT fails, everyone pays. We're on this mothership together! If we both can let that weigh in, we can get problems solved faster and cheaper for everyone.

1. If you are an IT service provider, we think it's important to build in to your overhead or directly bill for the time when IT is acting up. Otherwise, your business is not financially sustainable.
2. If you're an IT user and buyer, you'll save by having the best people on your support team. The faster they can solve your problems, the faster you can return to productivity and the less it will cost you.
3. If we see that our success is mutually interdependent, it creates an incentive to have open communication. We have found that open communication creates the best environment for preventive medicine as well as a quick return to happy machines.

Links

Bart Cleveland Perspectives of running a small ad agency.
Bose Headphones I won't travel without them!
Foti Filter Another great traveler's aide; it moisturizes the air as it filters out pollutants and germs. I find it really helps maintain my health while traveling.
Where Did The Money Go: Easy Accounting Basics for the Business Owner Who Hates Numbers
iPod Nano Yum yum! My own little world inside my own little head. Great sound scape when traveling in crowded, noisy environments.

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Thanks for Inviting Me to The NMAWC Workshop

Thank you very much to Phyllis Wolf and the New Mexico Association for Women in Communication for inviting me to speak at the workshop today. What a dynamic and engaging group! As promised, I have posted a PDF of the presentation I prepared (and fortunately was spared from presenting!) along with as many of the links I mentioned, as I can remember.

You can practice leaving a comment on this article and it will automatically create a link to your web site! That will help your Google rankings, and I would love to hear from you. (Be sure to enter your full web address starting with "http://".

Download My Presentation Notes (PDF; 336K) Internet Marketing in the Age of Google

From Dave Meurer Comments:

Here is a book I love for finding your voice using pen and paper writing as compared to computer drafts:
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, a Taos writer and writer's coach. I worked with her many years ago and still value the exercises.

From Pat Wallwork's Comments:

Check out the blog by Pat Wallwork's partner:
Bart Cleveland's Blog for Ad Age

You may also be interested in listening to my talk last spring about the "Long Tail." It's related to Pat's discussion of paying more for less in terms of ad dollars. Except that out on the long tail, ROI is incredible due to the loyalty and specificity of the highly targeted audience. This is what I was discussing with Adam Curry's Podcast and the Senseo sales he makes without a sponsorship deal.

Kathy Lovin, The Vineyard Express and Melanie Rubin Coaching

Links I Mentioned

Remember to right-click if you want to open these links in a new window or a new tab.

Blogs Will Change Your Business Business Week, May, 2005
IABC Presentation Panel I was on in Honolulu last June
Corporations Entering Brave New World of Blogs
Get Firefox Web Browser It's faster, safer, and much friendlier than IE.
Basecamp Online project management tool
Adam Curry
Senseo Coffee Machine
Duke City Fix Albuquerque's Best Community Blog I think
The MommyCast They got $100K sponsorship from Dixie.
Dave Meurer Zoom Strategies
Pat Wallwork McKee Wallwork Cleveland

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Technology Goes to the Dentist

I went to the dental hygenist today. I guess you can tell it’s been a long time since my last teeth cleaning. It was so “this century!”

First of all, the hygenist no longer works at the dentist's office, but instead out of a separate (read: outsourced) facility. Lots of hygenists running around using all sorts of computers and tools and technology. Lovely office; a tight ship for sure.

At first I was a little irritated. I am thinking, "This is going to take more than 20 minutes." Then I thought, "That means it is going to cost more than sixty bucks."

But the lovely Lucy wore down my objections, as she inventoried my teeth and the mm that each one is receding, logged it into my computer record, cleaned off the plaque, and zapped me with sonic something or other. Oh, and she did get around to flossing and cleaning the teeth too. It wasn't last century's teeth treatment to be sure, and some would say, "Who needs all this new-fangled stuff?"

In the process I was also mildly irritated with the specialists who spent time inventing all the little gadgets, "just because they could" though I would be stuck paying for the use of them.

But by the end I realized that better care for my teeth is a good thing for me, plus, who am I to frown on new technology?

As a postcript, I felt smugly satisfied when Lucy asked if I used a tongue scraper. "Well yes I do!" It's a very ancient piece of Ayurvedic technology that's been on the hippie health food circuit for decades. Seem modern mainstream dentistry has discovered its many benefits.

Get yours at the Bare Feet Shop.

technology
dentistry
roxanne darling
health
technology

I Wanna Be #1 on Google!

We hear this a lot. And it’s a worthy goal. But do you know what it really takes to get there? Here are some of the considerations for getting high rankings on Google.

Preliminary Note: You don't have to go through Google to get places on the internet.

We've observed a lot of people go to Google, then type in their own web site and wait for Google to bring it up. Then they click through to go the web site. Some newbie web users think you have to go through Google to get anywhere on the Internet. Others have not grown comfortable with the address bar in the web browser window. Sometimes we audaciously suggest typing in the web site address directly and saving it as favorite for a one-click visit in the future. More than once we've heard, "No, I like going to Google." I must say we don't understand this, but we've observed it too many times to pretend it is not a real behavior.

Having valid, quality links to your site is the most important thing you can do to get good rankings on Google.

h3. Search Engine Primer: How do I get in a search engine?

Each search engine has robots and spiders that are software programs crawling the web. They follow links from web page to web page and then index or file what they find into massive databases. You want to build your site so that it is accessible to these automated programs. And you want to build your private web areas so they are not accessible to these programs.

There are over 8 billion pages on the internet.

A July 2000 Cyveillance' study estimates that the Internet is growing at a rate of more than 7 million pages per day.

It takes time after your site has launched before the bots and spiders will find you and store you in their databases. Be patient! Or go directly to Google to submit your site.

First: How do you want to be found on Google?

Google is a search engine. You type one or more words into the search bar and Google returns any number of guesses for what it thinks you want. Those words you type in are called "search terms" and/or "keywords." Some search terms are incredibly competitive, as there are many businesses who want to be number one for that phrase.

Think about "home mortgage." Then think about how many web sites are in the business of selling home mortgages. Then think about the budget some of them have to pay to get top rankings on Google. Depending on your search term and the size of your business, it may not be realistic to expect top rankings for very generic, very competitive search terms.

Second: What search terms are within your reach for top rankings?

All is not lost! You can aim to be found by your company name, especially when combined with a local search. Let's say "ABC Home Mortgage" and "Albuquerque." Those are more specific, and would be a much better search query if say, someone heard you speak at Rotary and wanted to check you out, but did not have a business card or did not know your web site address.

You'll want to have your company name mentioned in real text on your home page and you'll want to have your City and State and/or geographic service area also listed in the home page text.

Third: What if that still isn't working?

Google is an incredibly competitive space. Even when you do things "right," you may not make it on the first few pages. It may be you have a common name in a crowded space. It may mean your site is too small to get noticed. It may mean the structure of your site prevents Google from easily finding you. It may mean your site is too new for Google to have found you yet and placed you in its database.

Fourth: What are the most important things for you to do to get on Google?

• Make sure your site structure is inviting to the search engines. You can listen to our podcast on the topic here.
• Aim for at least 50 pages on your site. Content is king and the more you have, the more the search engines will pay attention to you. The more current the content, the better. The more specific the content, the better.
• Be sure to list your company name, your keywords, and your geographic location on the home page.
• Look at your site statistics and see what search terms people are using at Google to get to your site. Then be sure to add those phrases to your web site content. Obviously, you have to get some history on your site before this tip will be useful.
• Generate high quality links to your site from other sites. This is easy of you start commenting on related blogs and web sites, write articles about your specialty for other web sites, and ask others in your industry to mention you on their web sites. Having valid, quality links to your site is the most important thing you can do to get good rankings on Google. If enough people link to you, you can have very few pages and break a lot of the other rules because Google looks at what other people value when deciding how to rank you.
• Update your site so it is using the newest Web 2.0 software, enabling your site to "ping" other sites when you post new content. You can learn more in this podcast.
• Register your site with Technorati and consider adding Technorati tags to your pages, as I have done at the end of this post.

When You're Ready For Professional Help

We've helped many companies get top 3 listings on Google and Yahoo for very competitive search terms. You can read more here about our services.

Google
search engine rankings
links
roxanne darling

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PayPal Login Issue with Safari Web Browser

Some people have reported getting a login error when trying to use PayPal to pay their bills. We figured out what the problem is and have two solutions for you.

Strangely enough, I got a strange error when I tested it, however Shane did not. We did a little more investigation and it appears to be an issue with Safari mis-storing old PayPal data. The problem seems to affect people who have logged in to PayPal previously. Here are two workarounds. Either one should work for you.

1. Use Firefox web browser. www.getfirefox.com
   It's free, downloads and installs in minutes, and will import your bookmarks. With the web still a "work in progress," it's a good practice to have more than one web browser on your computer for the occasional site that likes one more than another.
2. To use Safari, you will need to clear out whatever little glitch got in there. Go to the Safari menu, and choose "Reset Safari." You will lose your history, but this does seem to clear out the confusion.
   As a side note, if you use Safari, consider getting a "Dot Mac" account. It will let you sync your Safari bookmarks, your address book, your calendar, and all of your passwords online, nad between multiple computers.

   Thanks to Victoria for reporting the problem to us, so we could investigate it and provide the fix.

   

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