thanks

WUNC, North Carolina’s public radio station, has always been new media savvy. From creating podcasts to developing a Flickr channel for “The State of Things,” Frank Stasio’s daily radio program, the station is always trying to figure out new ways to connect with its audience in a new media landscape.

I’m proud to be represented once again (the first time was in August 07) by my photograph “Dump Trucks at Davis & High House” as the SOT Picture of the Week.

I suppose this photo is newsworthy due to the pitched battle that was fought over the development of this land.

A grass roots public advocacy group, DavisAndHighHouse.org, formed to fight additional development at this corner in Cary. It proved a lightening rod for public dissatisfaction with development in general, tipping the balance in municpal elections. One term mayor Ernie McAlister was upset and slow-growth candidate Harold Weinbrecht took over in North Carolina’s sixth largest city (News & Observer, 10/9/07).

Slow growth may be in, but too late to roll back the tide at the corner of Davis & High House.

Special thanks to SmartGrowthGirl.com and to Dave DeWitt and Katy Barron at WUNC.

Samantha Smith, fashion maven for the News & Observer, covered one of our pieces in her blog:

The Fashion Plate

Thanks Samantha!

Malls, mixed-use developments, shopping centers - call them what you will, they dot the landscape of America.

Many of the larger developments have websites. For the most part, they’re pretty awful. So, when we were asked to produce a new website for North Hills, a mixed-use development in Raleigh, NC, our goal was to help bring the category into a Web 2.0 world.

Two months after the launch, we have every reason to feel we’ve achieved. Stats are great, everything works, and best of all, a continuing content stream is beginning to bloom. It’s interesting stuff, too - stories, bios, pictures and video.

So here’s a checklist of things we think a contemporary mall or mixed-use website needs. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to North Hills Buzz for featuring our video with Fiquet of Luxe on the latest edition of their home page. Where do they get this stuff? I guess that’s why it’s called Buzz.

Thanks also to our friends at North Hills and, of course, to Fiquet of Luxe Apothecary.

We’ll post our own story about the video shortly: How to make quality TV with a home video camcorder and a mic from yoor band.

One of my photos was featured on RedCrossChat, the official blog of the American Red Cross. Read the rest of this entry »

WUNC, an NPR station in Chapel Hill, is featuring one of Hal’s photos:

Special thanks to Keith Weston.

See the photo on the WUNC/MySource page.

Welcome to our newest client, North Hills in Raleigh, a development of Kane Realty Corporation.

North Hills is focused on the development and management of retail and mixed-use properties of the highest quality where people will naturally want to live, work, shop, dine, play, stay and renew. - Kane Realty Corporation

A new website and internet features are planned.

We’d like to thank our good friend Julie Roland for letting us create her new Web 2.0 real estate web site. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been asked to judge the 2008 Ad:Tech Awards recognizing excellence in interactive design, technology and marketing.

Awards are scheduled to be presented in April 2008 in San Francisco.

“The State of Things” on WUNC chose this photo as the Picture of the Week.

Thanks to Dave DeWitt and everyone at SOT!

Here’s a permalink to the picture in flickrspace:

Old Blue School Bus

Our colleague Gary recently pointed out another reason why dynamic websites perform better in search than static websites. Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations to Peter Meyer, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Over There Interactive in Manhattan for correctly identifying the location of this picture of Hal Goodtree:

Peter guessed Stuyvesant Town on the eastside of lower Manhattan. Right you are, Peter!

Peter has received an iTunes Gift Card from all of us here at Online Copywriter for his correct response.

Stay tuned for more pointless contests and meaningless self-promotion.

When we first installed WordPress, it came with some links pre-loaded in the blogroll.

The first link was for a gent named Alex King, a software developer who co-founded Feedlounge. Turns out there’s lots of great info on this site; we especially liked Alex’s favorite utilities and add-ons for Mac & Windows.

Lots of people make lists of stuff, but Alex’s utilities are really the cream of the crop. You probably have a few of these already, but check out the list for more really good stuff that’s free or shareware.

Here’s a couple more utilities (mostly for Mac) that we find useful in our work as online writers:

Transmit - Easy FTP and secure FTP. User friendly enough for noobie writers.
MacLorem (thanks to David Holt) - need Latin text (ipsum lorem stuff)? MacLorem generates latin text, Greek, Celtic… everything but Klingon.
Calendar Clock - Handy little pull down calendar that resides in your menu bar
Gmail Notifier - another menu bar app - this one notifies you when you have gmail.
SyncTwoFolders - one of the better utilities of this type. Even worked syncing two dreaded iTunes libraries.
Wiretap records any sound that is playing through your computer. We use it to record interviews conducted on Skype. Also good to record radio streams like our favorite KCRW.

Thanks again, Alex! If anybody else has a cool app, send it along and we’ll give it a try.

Before we get too far along with this blogging thing, we need to thank Andy Beal, Marketing Pilgrim and blogging guru.

Andy generously spent the better part of an afternoon last autumn talking with our writer Hal Goodtree and others about the nuances and techniques of writing a successful blog.

It’s taken us a while to gestate the information. But, as Ann Landers used to say, it’s never too late to say thanks.