Reviewing Content Before Publishing

Ed Hayes — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:10:16 +0000

While navigating my way around the Internet, I come across glaring errors all the time; calculation errors, typos, horrible formatting, etcetera. Errors are more common that I could imagine. These errors dilute my trust in a company’s brand and make me think twice before doing business with them. It is so incredibly vital to review everything before publishing content to the Internet; you never know who could be looking at it. Below are two examples.

Example 1: The Grocery Game

The Grocery Game is a service that informs their customers on how to combine coupons and promotions, at a variety of grocery stores, in order to get the best deal possible. They distribute updates on a weekly basis to paying customers. Here is a screen shot from an E-mail they recently sent me encouraging me to sign up.

Since when does $2 divided by 3 equal $0.55? I would think their E-mail marketing would go through a more vigorous editorial review then their product. If their marketing is inaccurate, how accurate is their service I would pay for? Or if this is a screen shot of the actual service, I now know that I would be paying for something that was not correct. After seeing this, I could never trust the company.

Example 2: JBoss

I recently received an E-mail newsletter from a local consulting firm that my friend works for. They mentioned “JBoss” in the newsletter many times, so I thought I would do some research into what JBoss was. I was browsing RedHat’s website and found this example comparing the cost savings JBoss provides compared to IBM WebSphere and Oracle SOA Suite. I thought I would play around with the tool a bit. Check out these calculations:

I don’t see how 20% of $212,800 is $212,800. Am I missing something?

It appears as though they were going to add up the column and have a Total License Cost like they had in the first column. But, in year two and three, they all add up to $0.

Both of these errors impact the savings calculation shown on the bottom of the tool. If RedHat’s savings tool doesn’t work, why would I trust the service they are selling with my company’s data?

Formatting: Crain’s E-mail Alerts

Ed Hayes — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:16:18 +0000

I follow local business news very closely and Crain’s Chicago Business is an incredible source for Chicago business news. They have excellent reporting, a broad range of stories, and even a well produced daily video podcast (iTunes). However, Crain’s E-mail alerts have some opportunity for improvement. And as many of my friends and colleague know, I am a “Formatting Nazi”.

Here is a quick “1-minute” formatting improvement.

Original

Improved

The improved segment is easier to read; looking cleaner, better structured, and more professional. I made five improvements, each of which made a dramatic difference.