Webster’s defines propaganda as ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring and institution, cause or person.

By stigmatizing the word propaganda we are further able to distance ourselves from the idea that it affects us or that we affect it. It’s a two way street that relies heavily on audience participation. The creator has to be able to tap into reader emotions.

First you gotta crack a few eggs.

So stop thinking of propaganda as evil and start thinking of it as a tool. Like all tools it can be used for good or evil. All successful propaganda taps into common themes or narratives based on shared experiences. One of companies I love the most, Apple, produces brilliant and beautiful propaganda. It does this with phenomenal testimonials, design, artwork, photography and copy.

In an effort to be everything to everyone and to profit we can sometimes do things that can harm our companies. This is especially true on the web because it’s a newer medium. Your bottom line is positively affected when you create good user experiences.

Your company’s identity is deeply entwined in how, why and what type of customers you’ll attract. For some reason we understand these things suck when we experience them, but we sometimes inflict them on our customers anyway.

5 ways you waste customers' time & money

1.The haphazard sales pitch: I just want a customer which means I have to appeal to everyone.

The alternative: Instead of trying to reach just anybody, aim to reach somebody.

Hi there,

I’m your potential client. I’m in your target demographic. I’m what they call a “quality of life” customer. That means that I’m not afraid to pay a little bit more for something as long as I feel that it enriches my life in some way.

I spend a lot of time on the internet. I’m a pretty savvy and very cynical customer. I’m more likely to Google you to see if you can back up your claim than I am to ask you. I’d rather contact you by email than talk to you over the phone. So, let's talk small business to small business.

Here are 5 ways you lose me:

1. Hello, My name is Unimpressed.
Are you serious?

When you meet someone on the street, do you automatically start up a sales spiel which includes talking about yourself in 3rd person? How about telling me you’re a “team”, when you’re a sole proprietor?

After visiting Texas, which will henceforth be known as "The visit of which we dare not speak," or TVOWWDDNS, it's come to my attention that yes, I'm a mortal. With more than a few run-ins with my own mortality there from a drive-by shooting, witness to a violent fist fight, and finally my mother's fiance's partner (he's a police officer) being killed in the line of duty. I wondered if perhaps, someone, somewhere was trying to tell me something.

Last year, I had a few health scares, only to be informed that I was very high in the running for crossing the threshold of type 2 Diabetes. I come from two communities (ethnically) that put me at a pretty high risk, couple that with sitting at a computer sedentary for 12-16 hours a day and it's a recipe for delicious delicious insulin resistance. On Jan. 15th, I started to feel strange, not the normal me.

On Wednesday, Joga scratched his cornea (he wears contacts, it's happened twice) and had to wear an eye-patch for about 4 days until the visible redness went away, though his eye is still irritated. Not one to not work, unless it's serious, I worked on Friday.

Well August, you've really done your number on us. With the really awesome success, we've had some lows to rival that. We're experiencing family illness, equipment failures, and both of us being sick with Summer flus. With all of that in mind, you might be asking yourself what could you possibly throw in the mix to make it more chaotic... Work Work Play is now considering creating a second location in Texas and moving between Dallas and Portland. We will begin the first stages of this move in October.

Thanks,
Seven

One member of Work Work Play, Jeremiah, will be going on hiatus after August. He'll likely be back at the end of September. As of now, Work Work Play has no foreseeable slots open until 2009.

We'll still be blogging and creating status updates, but we won't likely be taking on new work.

We're pretty proud of ourselves. Not too shabby for a self-funded company that started only a year ago! :-)

Work Work Play will have been established 1 year on August 16th.

We're sorry all slots are filled. We will need to re-work our 15% discount offer for Portland area web projects, because we're unavailable for the months we first offered the discount.

Official Schedule Under here:

I'm up early and going over reports. I decided to make a quick blog.

Updates:

I recently finished donating design services to the Susuan G. Komen for the Cure foundation (Central New Mexico affiliate), in conjunction with Michael Roanhorse. We (Jeremiah and I) would like to get into doing more charitable work in this way, which is another reason we have considered signing up for the Taproot Foundation. The ad I finished, which will appear in the August Issue of the Santa Fean Magazine is a 2-page spread for an auction of one of Mr. Roanhorse's pieces, all proceeds will go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Ideas:

It's a lazy Sunday and you've got nothing better to do but read our newsletter and think to yourself, "Now, who do I know in Portland that need the services of this upstanding company? Who wants to save on their next projects? Who? Who?" You look just like a baby owl, all wild-eyed, and you probably have a little graduation hat... Yep, you're studious like that.

Also, let me just disclaimer a bit: I coded the newsletter using Dreamweaver (it had to be done in tables for the purpose of it being sent in email.) I have not had to code anything by hand in about 4 years. This experience totally conked me on the head with the fact that I haven't coded in a very long time.

Of the projects that I've worked on recently (and in the past), I'm amazed at how much people are willing to spend on "superficial" design, but forget about the little they spend on "functional" design. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but rarely do people get both.

Generally, when I'm called in, I'm called in for ideas. This is a big part of our job. Clients bounce ideas off of us, "Would this be possible?,"Why would we do it this way?","Take a look at this and tell me what you think?","How can I increase sign ups?" One of the really great things about working with companies who place a value on this sort of thing is that they like science anytime it gives them results, and they actually want to hear about the science.

So, when I was asked my opinion on an auction project (in October 2007), I was very surprised that while over 40% of the site was forms, there had been no importance placed on actually designing forms for accessibility or ease of use. The same thing happened on an auction project I looked over in December! I'm getting excited now, because it was obvious that these companies put a lot of money into the sites.