Coolest thing ever

OK, that's a big statement to make, and an award I don't give out often. ("Coolest thing ever, that I've seen so far today" would probably be more accurate, and that's an award I give out at least once daily.)

Anyway, by now you should know that it's important to take time to tag your stories; however, keeping it simple is sometimes hard, as tag discipline falls apart in the face of long, wordy articles.

If you want to get to the meat of the story in a cool way, you could do a lot worse than working with Wordle. This tool, created by IBM researcher (and ex-They Might Be Giants drummer) Jonathan Feinberg, shows you exactly what your story is about.

For example, here's a Wordle-generated tag cloud of a recent story I wrote about Intel's green business practices.


Kind of easy to see what the highlights are, no?

(FYI Wordle works for resumes too. If you want to get a quick snapshot of your career, post your entire resume into the "create" box -- and be prepared to be boiled down to a set of meta-tags!)

New Years Resolutions For Busy Business Editors

Happy New Year to everyone!

One of my resolutions as a writer and an editor this year is to become more Web savvy in order to better reach and engage this "expanded audience" of ours. (After all, we're in a pretty good position as most trade magazines are natural sources of expertise.)

To expand my reach in an efficient manner, and keep you informed in the process, I'll be using all the tools I can find, including my new "link blog" available at right and here (basically my Google Reader's "shared items" on RSS).

Here at ASBPE Cleveland, we'll also be posting links and tools throughout the year, starting with a couple quickies below.

Redesigning (or refreshing, revamping, whatever) your Web site on your magazine's resolution list? Here's a whole page of Web usability tips developed through eye-tracking studies. Big takeaway? "Design your site for the average user, not yourself."

Looking to get a better insight into exactly what that elusive "average user" is looking for, content-wise? Try a little keyword research around your magazine's area of expertise, and you might find different, more effective ways to categorize -- or even expand -- your coverage. Here's a whole page of keyword research tools at SEOBook (hat tip to Paul Conley).

And finally, looking to track down elusive sources? Here's a tutorial from one of my favorite sites, Lifehacker, on how to track down anyone online (which also serves as an effective tutorial on why we need to pay attention to Internet privacy issues in '08....!)