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A former work colleague of mine, e-mailed me and told me that there was a misspelling on my LinkedIn profile. Instead of sulking and beating myself up for not catching it sooner, I immediately thank her and asked her how she was doing and if I can do anything for her.

The lesson is that you never know where help may come from. This is why one must maintain the network.

I received an email from FreshDirect (a grocery delivery service here in New York City). They gave their customers a ‘heads up’ via email that they would be doing upgrades this last week and that deliveries would not be available for a day. They also did this when they recently had their company picnic. This is one of those tried and true lessons to communicate with customers beforehand. This definitely brings value to your brand.

I recently found a good example as to why companies should be blogging. Take a look at Engadget’s suggestions to Palm and Palm’s response. Through their blog, Palm is able to let Engadget, customers (current & prospective), and others know that they are aware of the environment and they had outlined the steps they need to address.

Shameless Plug: If you or your company is in need of a blog, check out my Summer Blogging Special.

...please make sure you spell their name correctly.

I recently received a letter in the mail asking me to make a contribution. I am no stranger to name misunderstanding and manipulation, as my last name has been mangled many times over. However, this wasn’t my last name, it was my business name.

I created this business name to avoid this kind of trouble. I thought I escaped from the years of teasing and torment I endured as a kid by creating “next STEPH”.

Let’s get focused. I make sure that I have my clients’ names spelled correctly. I know no one is perfect, but I can’t see why people can’t take 2 seconds to double check someone ’s name and company before sending out a request.

Connie Bennett of the Sugar Shock Blog, discussed in her blog post how others and myself helped her in enhancing her blog.

After being asked numerous times, “Which web hosts have WordPress?”, I just created a lens on Squidoo, called WordPress Web Hosting Made Easy.

I was doing research and saw that New York Public Radio (WNYC) has an Amazon search button on their website. The website stated that a portion of purchases started from WNYC would go to support the station.

For some of us, its called affiliate marketing. However, for non-profits, its called fund raising.

I recently read a post from a fellow BlogHer ‘07 Speaker, Wendy Piersall of eMomsatHome. She talked about the frustrating experience she had while filling out an online form because of her domain name.

I then reflected back on certain challenges I had with a couple of websites when attempting to submit support requests via their websites. I kept getting error messages because of my last name.

I decided to submit a complain online to the Better Business Bureau. Within a week, I received a letter stating that they would look into the problem.

There are times when your identity or brand is tested. One has to make the choice to stand up and protect your brand.

Its a slow summer Saturday in the big city. This gives me time to do some analysis on what’s working and what’s not. For those of you that are new to the blog, this will give you a summary of what nextSTEPH is about. For those of you that are regulars, I hope you will find it interesting as well and inspiring to see what fellow visitors are reading.

5. The first 100 impressions;

4. SEO for Webmasters Class is Launched;

3. A Chat with ClickTracks at SES NY;

2. Why do I freelance?

1. Under the Kitchen Sink

Back in the day, one had to manually re-bookmark their bookmarks or favorites from browser to browser.
Now ‘tis the season for traveling and one may or may not have the patience to tug a laptop along on a trip.

I had went as far a exporting my bookmarks to a html file on my USB drive.

As I would often forget my USB drive, I had then uploaded the file to My Yahoo! Briefcase to virtually transport them from work, school and home.
Then, came Google Browser Sync, which syncs your FireFox bookmarks for one browser to another, i.e. from a desktop to a laptop.
Now, social bookmarking, you can also bookmark your personal websites as well. Most sites like del.icio.us allow you to make bookmarks private, so that you will only have access to them when you login.
Now if you are on the go from one computer to another, or traveling, one does not have to worry about accessing their bookmarks. Just remember, to use your web resources.