This may be one of the best job listings ever posted. Best bit: “our ideal candidate has also cursed out an editor, had spokespeople hang up on them in anger and threatened to resign at least once because some fool wanted to screw around with their perfect lede.”
Far from being the malefactors portrayed in the media, Charles and David Koch are idealists committed to a free society, Matthew Continetti reports.
Google researchers discovered that technical ability isn’t what makes a good manager. Instead it’s, well, being a good manager. “What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.” A neat infographic explains Google’s criteria.
Slate explores the dramatic fall of pickpocketing in the United States: “In a 2001 story, the New York Times reported that there were 23,068 reported pickpocketing incidents in the city in 1990, amounting to nearly $10 million in losses. Five years later, the number of reported incidents had fallen by half, and by the turn of the millennium, there were less than 5,000. Today, the NYPD doesn’t even maintain individual numbers on pickpocketing.”
Vasilis Vryniotis offers a list of best practices webmasters should follow before launching a site. These are also good to keep in mind after a site is launched, too.
Smashing Magazine offers up examples of stylish e-commerce designs. Of course, the visual design of an e-commerce site is properly secondary to its main purpose: sales.
I recently presented at the Leadership Institute’s Online Fundraising Workshop. As I wrapped up, I offered a list of four sites I often visit to brush up on online marketing and fundraising best practices.
The Agitator. With its analysis of innovative fundraising techniques, marketing studies and psychology, The Agitator provides online fundraisers with excellent food for thought. Authors Tom Belford and Roger Craver frequently remind us, for example in their recent post on personalized e-mail communication, that online marketing follows the same principles as other marketing.
Copyblogger. Copyblogger provides excellent insight into how to write engaging and effective copy for the web, whether for e-mail, blog posts, landing pages or social media. The series on headline writing, for instance, helped redefine how I create copy for the web and for e-mail.
Media Post’s E-mail Insider. Geared more towards advanced users, E-mail Insider is nonetheless a must-read for those trying to raise funds online. Many posts are gems, like this best-practices checklist that both new and established e-mail program managers can return to again and again.
Congress would do well to heed F.A. Hayek’s warning in The Constitution of Liberty: “[D]emocracy will have to learn that it must pay for its own follies and that it cannot draw unlimited checks on the future to solve its present problems.”