Let’s Get Ready to Stumble!

I’ve been stumbling a lot lately and, no, it’s not because I’ve been hitting the bottle a little too much.

Stumble Upon is cool service that helps you explore the Internet in a surprising, entertaining and efficient way. Essentially, you indicate your areas of interest – personal, professional, social – and, with a click of the Stumble button on your browser, you are directed to a random web page that matches your interests. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s all you need to know for now. Here’s a good explanation about Stumble and how to get it set up on your computer.

Anyway, I’ve decided that every Friday, I will bring you my Five Favorite Stumbles of the Week. Most will be related to public relations and marketing, but occasionally I may share a quirky, off-beat site that will make you laugh or cringe. Who knows?

Here are this week’s offerings:

1. Did you know colors play a key role in direct marketing? According to author Dean Rieck of Direct Creative, color is a form of nonverbal communication that increases brand identity, assists in memory, increases a reader’s participation in ads, and improves readership, learning, and comprehension. Find out more about using color in your marketing materials.
2. If you are a loyal reader of this blog, you know my roots are in the newspaper business. So imagine my surprise when one of my first Stumbles this week took me to the Newseum website. In addition to all sorts of neat information about the history of newspapers, it includes the current day’s front pages from more than 600 newspapers in 61 countries. You may never get any work done after visiting this site.
3. As a self-employed writer and editor sometimes I feel like I have three fulltime jobs: salesman, consultant and office manager. I’m always looking for ways to make efficient use of my time. One of my Stumbles last week took me to Freelance Switch, which offers 101 Essential Freelancing Resources. I didn’t check all 101 links, but they include everything from help with project management and organization to a compilation of sites that offer templates, photos and flash files. There are also sections on legal matters, web tools, advertising and marketing.
4. I’m a big proponent of using the right word in the right situation. Because of subtle differences in meanings, using the wrong word could have serious implications. Over at E-Commerce Optimization and Marketing, check out the list of 14 Words That LOSE Money. You might be surprised at some of the common words to avoid.
5. Do you really understand how the marketing brain works? Are you harnessing its immense potential to make your business generate greater revenues? Wouldn’t your strategy and tactics be vastly different, if you understood these psychological marketing ideas? The folks at Psychotactics.com offer some useful tips for getting inside your customers’ minds to see what makes them act.

That’s it for this week. Happy Stumbling.

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