• Length: Stick to 300 words per page or less. If your topic requires more length, consider using anchor links (links at the top of the page that link to several sections) or break the text into several pages.
• Add emphasis: Bold important words and phrases to call them out to the user. Avoid underlining, which will make your text look like a link.
• Lists: Breaking large blocks of text into a bulleted or numbered list helps call out text so a user can scan quickly.
• Key words: It sounds like a “no brainer,” but be sure to incorporate the most logical key words into your page’s text. Users scan for the key words they associate with your topic and will have more success if key words are included in your subheadings, are bolded or hyperlink out to other pages.
• Subheadings: Divide long passages of text into logical sections and label each with a meaningful subheading that accurately reflects the content. Aim for one heading every two to four paragraphs. Use a heading style to differentiate the subheading text from the body text.
• One idea per paragraph: Users typically assume that each paragraph only contains one idea, so if your paragraph contains two, the second is unlikely to stick.

• Do your research. What are you trying to achieve in writing this profile? More often than not, the answer to this question is rooted in your audience, so having a deep understanding of your core constituencies is key. Next, gather some background information on your subject from internal folks so that you have a starting point when writing your questions. Be sure that you can answer some important questions yourself, including how and why this person’s story is important to advancing your organization’s goals.
• Write a set of questions prior to the interview, but don’t be beholden to them. Your pre-written questions are simply a road map. A successful profile interview will unfold into a more casual conversation. An answer to your initial question may yield numerous follow-up questions, and expanding on an interesting crumb will lead to a richer story.
• Go off topic. If your approach to a profile interview is “just the facts, ma’am,” you’ll miss out on truly getting to know your subject. Is she originally from the area? If not, why and when did she move? What does she like about living in City X? Sounds like small talk, but you’d be surprised how candid and relaxed your subject may become.
• Stay authentic to your subject and audience. When you reach the writing stage, try to reflect your subject’s personality in your word choice and tone. For example, if your subject is a 20-year-old college student, you’ll use different words and tone than if you were interviewing a corporate CEO. Choose your direct quotes wisely at this point. You’re looking for meaningful nuggets that advance the story and couldn’t be conveyed in any other way than how your subject phrased them.

Truth be told, a static website would probably suffice in perpetuity for the firm—that’s how trusted and well-revered our attorneys are. However, we do need an online home that engages current clients and keeps them interested in our work. And furthermore, in business there is always a need to “keep up with the Joneses” when it comes to external marketing and the previous website just wasn’t stacking up to those of competing firms with larger marketing budgets. Luckily our firm has an in-house web guru (me) who can do the job on the cheap!

My main focus in redesigning the website was to improve the quality of the content in order to improve SEO rankings and results, particularly for when an individual uses a search engine and enters an attorney’s name or an area of law practice. Our firm already publishes a quarterly newsletter on accomplishments and news items that is delivered via email. Why not re-purpose and publish these news items online on a rolling basis instead of four times a year? Better yet, why not cross-link names, practice areas and news items to create a giant web of dynamic, relevant content that posts better search results? By increasing the frequency and quality of new content, our firm’s website will be a continuous draw to current clients, a more effective tool they can use in referring us to others and a better information source for insiders in our industry.

See the final redesigned website at www.flaherty-hood.com.

Particularly when it comes to client newsletters, delivery method is a key issue groups need to address when trying to improve communications—if clients don’t receive the newsletter in their preferred format, they can’t or won’t read it. But what happens when I open your email newsletter or the hard copy that came through the snail mail and find no value in your purported “news”? I chuck it into either the virtual or real trash. Slack on the content one too many times, and your newsletter won’t even be opened.

As a frequent newsletter writer, I assess each newsletter’s purpose and the desired responses my employer hopes to elicit from readers before even touching the delivery method issue or the host of other ingredients that go into the newsletter stew, including cost, space confinement, time commitment, technical and creative resources and so on. Having a purpose and goal for the content from the beginning refines the newsletter at all stages, from determining the best delivery method to brainstorming article topics to editing the final pieces into a cohesive whole.

So let’s get down to the basics. To varying extents, based on the nature of your organization and its goals, effective newsletter content should:

• Demonstrate your expertise in specific, well-defined areas by describing recent accomplishments, or by bringing related news items, reports or case studies to your readers’ attention.
• Promote your organization’s achievements, but also help readers understand how you moved from point A to point B in developing solutions (and don’t leave your interactions with the client out of the story!).
• Give props to your employees. Point to the staff member who was responsible for achieving a successful outcome and provide this individual’s contact information (a headshot image is helpful too). This way, clients understand the staff person’s area of expertise, see that he or she is effective and feel comfortable calling for advice or assistance with a new project.
• Feature as many departments within your group as possible. You never know what aspect of your organization could attract new business. If you’re a law firm with a public relations expert, for example, highlight a situation in which integrating legal and public relations services gave your client an edge. Even if a client has no use for peripheral services in the near-term, they will appreciate knowing that these services will be available down the road.

The Art of the Steal recounts both the fascinating and heartbreaking fate of what may be the world’s most impressive collection of Post-Impressionist paintings. Philadelphia’s Dr. Albert Barnes, an art collector who became independently wealthy through developing venereal disease vaccines, began purchasing the works of Matisse, Renoir, Cezanne and other emerging artists in the early 1910s and 1920s, before the Post-Impressionist movement gained the reverence it enjoys today. In fact, art critics and members of Philadelphia’s high society initially deemed the paintings in Dr. Barnes’ collection inappropriate and tasteless. His contemporaries’ negative reactions influenced Dr. Barnes’ decision to restrict access to his collection to art students only. For decades, Dr. Barnes’ idyllic school operated smoothly with little fanfare, and a collection of art that is now estimated to be worth over $25 billion remained tucked away in a township on the Philadelphia outskirts.

The documentary’s intrigue and pace increase after Dr. Barnes’ death, when a carefully crafted last will and testament aiming to keep his art collection private and out of the hands of high society is essentially decimated by a lineage of egomaniacal foundation presidents, deal-making politicians, less-than-altruistic charitable organizations and Philadelphia’s art scene elite. What unfolds is the film maker’s story of how greed, politics and legal manipulations allowed these major players to essentially steal and profit from a private art collection.

While the intentions of these individuals may be more well-meaning than the film maker portrays—perhaps they were genuinely concerned with increasing access to these timeless works of art?—their methods for procuring the collection are suspect at best and clearly at odds with the private collector’s wishes. Alone in my condo watching the documentary, I found myself actually talking back to the television at those who were defending their actions, so at the very least, the film was successful at engaging me in the tangled heist tale. I guess that’s why I’ve preferred documentaries lately—the sense of active learning, and that something real is being revealed to me, something I should care about.

Netflix is also suggesting that I may like Herb & Dorothy, a documentary based on an unconventionally un-wealthy art collecting couple. Maybe after a walk with the dog along the Mississippi River.

The mistake many writers make when responding to RFPs is that they focus too much on self-promotion and not enough on what truly matters to the potential client: the relationship. Think about it: a successful contract for services is built on the same traits as a strong relationship. Trust, loyalty, open communication. What is the bigger danger, over-committing to the relationship or providing rock-bottom discounts that cheapen your product or service? Of course the cost of an organization’s services will always be a factor in winning a bid, but that’s only one half of the equation. The potential client needs to recognize the value associated with the cost, and when organizations simply attempt to out-do each other price-wise, the value of a strong relationship—as defined in the proposal—is the only way to distinguish your organization from the crowd.

I doubt I have anything deeply profound to add to the infinite reviews already written for Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go, but I thought I would jot down my thoughts since this book has lingered with me since I finished it. Rarely do authors put as much trust into their readers as I experienced while reading Kathy’s subtle narration reveal and yet not reveal her history at Hailsham and transition into a predestined adulthood. I appreciated that, more so than the important moral themes explored throughout the novel. Nothing beats good storytelling.