content development (&) management

In the spirit of some great blogging I just read over at Grant Writing Confidential, which I JUST found this morning, I’m finally going to publish this list. It’s been in draft form for some time, but out of respect for my colleagues in the grant community, most of whom are exceptional, I’ve been holding off. But Jake had me cracking up this morning, and I couldn’t wait any longer…

10. Not submitting the grant in the right format. No, seriously, when the app says “double-spaced, double-sided pages”, it matters. Don’t learn to read directions the hard way. Format FAIL.

9. Requesting a total amount not commensurate with the funder’s stated amounts, much less your previous request/funding, or previous trends for your NPs type of relationship (new, ongoing, sustaining). Mathmatics FAIL.

8. Working on a commission basis, for a percentage of the grant. Go here. Ethics FAIL.

7. We understand that the problem ISN’T that you don’t understand the answers… it’s that you don’t want to hear them. No, really, we understand. The board tightened up the definitions of the funding categories this year, and even though you qualified last year, you don’t this year, and you’re frustrated. Stop asking if you qualify. You don’t. You know you don’t. It says you don’t, and you’ve been told three times now. Hearing FAIL.

6. Attaching a $10 to the back of the application. If you’re going to get your organization blacklisted from this particular Foundation FOR LIFE, the least you could have done was have some class about it. Seriously, Hamilton? That’s all I’m going to say. Bribery FAIL (see #8 if you have further questions).

5. Starting your grant 2 days before it’s due. That’s inviting Murphy to move into your copy machine, into the building water heater, and into your car’s alternator. We can’t believe you finished in time, and if you GET the grant, you should be ashamed of yourself for all of the cutting/pasting you did (though we respect your efficiency). You know me who you are. Procrastinator FAIL.

4. Planning to submit your grant through Grants.gov on the day it’s due. Just like the previous FAIL, you’re asking for trouble. Isaac warned you about this a year ago. Trusting [Government] Technology FAIL.

3. Writing everything from scratch. What, are you crazy? You applied for this grant last year! And even worse, your program director has copies of each of the grants that received funding last year! You started 3 weeks ago, and totally reinvented the wheel. Your agency can’t afford your methods! Take an efficiency lesson from the writer in #5, and think about ROI, Dr. Who. Time Lord FAIL.

2. The funding opportunity is a round hole. What your agency does is a square peg [you see where this is going]. But, your Executive Director says, we could do that. And besides, donations are down, so we need to chase whatever funding we can! So while the team designs a whole new program, you are completing a grant application in a short time-frame. Do you really think that the foundation is going to see your mission statement on GivingMatters.com, note that it doesn’t match what you said on the app (because you “updated” it on-the-fly), and look the other way? Not really a grant writer’s fail, but the buck did at least cross your desk on the way through the office. Mission Creep FAIL.

1. Missing the deadline. It was in the original Funding Announcement, the Invitation to Bid, and on page one of the application. Yes, there was a tornado in the next county. No, parking was not readily available for convenient hand delivery. One word… Mimeo.com. Deadline FAIL.

As I fail at more discover more of these, I’ll update the list. Continuous improvement!

Be free (of FAILS!),

Jeff

[Apologies for the use of the "tw" lingo. I really didn't have a chance to use it before it became gauche!]

I got turned on to Tr.im the other day. It, and other sites like http://bit.ly are useful for shortening really long web addresses, which is almost a necessity if you plan to post the address on Twitter, or Tumblr, or Facebook, etc.

For example, my last blog title resulted in a URL that looked like this: http://writingbench.com/2009/05/22/why-twitter-is-great-for-busy-people-despite-what-you-might-think/, but with Tr.im I was able to tweet it as http://tr.im/mkCF…

Exactly. The first one would have only left me 39 characters. Have you met me? You know that I can’t write (or say) anything in 39 characters. Though “writing tight” is something I really should work on on a daily basis often practice.

Shortening addresses isn’t the best part, however. Often overlooked, Tr.im and Bit.ly have another feature that is even more powerful – they track clicks. And after posting a few shortened addresses, I found the trends interesting. Here are my latest shortened addresses:

Meaningless without the associated URLs (though you could paste the 4 characters shown into a browser window after http://tr.im and see for yourself, but really, that’s a lot of work for very little guaranteed payoff), but here’s what I found interesting – my top three visit counts? Posts about jobs. Job finding resources, freelance myths, and a local Tennessean article about former colleagues starting new businesses.

#1 http://heatherkrasna.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/fun-career-sites-ive-found-lately/

#2 http://www.elance.com/p/blog/2009/04/the_10_myths_of_freelancing_and_what_its_really_like.html?rid=1HN95

#3 http://tennessean.com/article/20090517/BUSINESS01/905170349

Looking at the way those display, you can see other benefits besides Twitter postings!

Now, it should be noted that some of these URLs were cross-posted to Linkedin or my personal Facebook account, which would increase the potential audience, thereby increasing the odds of a click. But interestingly, the cross-posting doesn’t seem to have affected the trend (except perhaps in th case of #3). Another potential “muddying” of the pool could be that some of these were RTs – retweets – the original link was previously posted on Twitter. Depending on the credibility of the resource, it may have already been read. Or avoided. I may have also written more excitedly about some links than others… but overall, the averages play out about the same in this sample.

This is consistent with what Jeremy Scott of Keystone Business Solutions teaches in his Internet Marketing 101 class. Keystone sends out an email blast to subscribers – a newsletter for customers, friends, and SEO types – and Mr. Scott has consistently found that the links that generate the most traffic are ones that point to tips for finding jobs, best jobs on the internet, top 10 most applied for jobs, local employment trends, etc.

Not trying to drive traffic this morning – just observing things that appear to be of interest to other web denizens.

Be free,

Jeff