We all know about of spring cleaning, but what about fall cleaning?

Lately, all I have been hearing about is evaluating your strategy and auditing processes. So, instead of harvesting, I have been filtering and purging.

My desktop computer was feeling sluggish, so I decided to finally call a professional and have them to diagnose the problem.

They said that it would be a good idea to not only get rid of the icons on my screen that I wasn't using. I realized that I had freed up a good amount of space.

I also decided to clean out my laptop as well and gasp! uninstalled  Dreamweaver. Lately, I have been handcoding most of the time. Plus, with web based FTP programs and with Firefox plugins like FireFTP and Firebug, it has been easy for me to actually maintain.

What are you doing this season to re-evaluate your strategy?

Posted via email from nextSTEPH’s posterous

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

At least this will be the true test of my new service, since I now have the opportunity to be my own client.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

Here are a few tips that I took away (I would of tweeted these, but I was afraid I would run out of power on my phone.):

“Disruption is a threat and an opportunity.” – Steve Douty, EVP nGeneva

“Make sure content is relevant and consistent.” – Nestor Portillo, Microsoft

“(According to Tim Berens- Lee,) The web has always been social. – Rhonda Lowry VP, Social Media Technologies, Turner Broadcasting System

“Learning to take talk to people in real time about real issues. – Rhonda Lowry, Turner Broadcasting System.

“If you have to ask it its OK, then its not.” – Andy Sernovitz, Gaspedal
(Sounds like something my Mom would of said.)

“Its about having conversations, not lectures” – Larry Blumenthal, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

“Going from broadcasting to the challenge of forming relationships” – Marc Monseau – Johnson & Johnson

“My house (blog) my rules” – Marc Monseau – Johnson & Johnson
(This sounds like something Gram would say.)

To see what everyone had to say about the conference, follow #blogwell on Twitter.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

“Great, just what I need with a conference call at High Noon!”  What was I going to do?

I then called my father, master of all things communication tech (in my book, at least) and he reminded me to use the “old school” corded phone I had for the call.

So I picked up the phone to make sure I had a dial tone, disconnected the landline phone from its usual place and connected it to the modular jack near my desk and I was ready to roll with 5 minutes to spare.

The lesson here, always have a landline phone stashed away, you never know when you may need it.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

May not be right for some.

This is yet another theme that has been occurring as of late.

When starting a campaign, it is important to define what is a complete lead vs. what isn’t, otherwise the campaign is a waste of time, money and energy.

Instead of chasing down the incomplete information to make it complete, focus on the complete leads. After one gets through the complete leads, then during downtime, focus on putting the pieces together for the rest.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

Sunday night/ Monday morning, I had an asthma attack. Being a city kid, this is nothing new. However in my adult years, this particular attack was brought on by stress of getting everything done before the holidays, another death in the family and not to mention the roller coaster of temperatures in the Northeast.
Getting around is no fun. Right now I say I have about 70% of my strength back. Climbing up subway stairs is like climbing Mt. Everest (not that I have climbed it.)
I had to cancel and postpone most of my appointments this week. If a client absolutely needs it done today, and cannot wait, then I refer them to someone else, period.
Even though freelancing is important, there is nothing more important than one’s health. After all, what good am I if I am sick?

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

Instead of re-inventing the wheel this year, I thought it would be a good idea to re-visit past posts that are appropriate for the season.

• Holiday Online Wishlist


• Are you the missing the Office Holiday Party?


• Where are all your charitable dollars going


• Being a freelancer during office party season


• Gift Giving Ideas for Cash-Strapped Freelancers

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

Its important to outline what happens just in case, just as one would outline in any contract.

First off, let me state that I’m not a lawyer. You may want to check with one before establishing your posting guidelines and rules.

1. Outline who owns the content. The default would be that the content belongs to the blog and/or website owner.

2. If you are a contributor, make sure that your name will remain as a contributor after the fact.

3. Ultimately, it is the blog owner’s prerogative to determine if they would like to leave the contributor’s name If the blog owner wants to delete the contributor, make sure that the blog post(s) get assigned to the blog owner as the author. (I learned that the hard way and I had to rebuild a page of my client’s blog after deleting a former contributor way too quickly.)

Do you have agreements with blog authors, whether they be employees, freelancers, or friends?

How do you handle contributors’ posts when they leave?

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

As Google stated, the flu going around. Here in Gotham (NYC) there has been many variations of the cold. My version is the sore throat that made my voice disappear.

In addition to following my own advice from watching videos online and jotting down my ideas, I decided that this was a good time to focus on things that don’t require vocal cords

1. If people do call (and they will), and if they have an email address, write an email to acknowledge that you have received their call and will return the call at a better time (like when I get my voice back.) If someone cannot wait, outsource and delegate!


2. Catching up on tasks that fell to the wayside. That email that took a month to return. Taking action on that proposal that never got done due to an influx of work. Signing up for a Webinar. These are a few of many things I managed to clean up in a few days.


3. Taking time to listen. Not only to listen to others, but listening internally to myself.


4. Cleaning and organizing my environment. My mom used to say a clean environment lets the ideas come through.


5. Finally, take time to catch up on hobbies, and eat. After all, Gram says that I still have to keep up my strength.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

• The Designer’s Guide To Marketing And Pricing: How To Win Clients And What To Charge Them by Ilise Benun and Peleg Top


• Identity Crisis: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands by Jeff Fisher


• Time Management for the Creative Person by Lee Silber
• Self Promotion Online: Marketing Your Creative Services Using Web Sites, E-Mail and Digital Portfolios by Ilise Benun
• How (1-year) Magazine Subscription

Wasn’t able to make the conference? The festivities still continue online on FaceBook and Ning.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.