I'm a supporter of standards. Any kind of standards. Technology. Web. Industry. Standards don't stop innovation but provide more accessibility. I cover this in detail in a blog entry. Thanks to the many email clients out there, however, newsletters are a long way from standards. But as explained in this month's feature story, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Presentations have gotten out of hand. PowerPoint is a good product, but we've become dependent on its templates and features and forget that it's a tool, not the presentation. Readers offer ideas and advice on how to build winning presentations.

How do you show appreciation to your clients and employees? I'm glad to see this reader’s question, as I'd like to do something for my clients in the next couple of months rather than wait until the holiday season. Our lines are always open for your questions.

Recently, while working on several articles, I discovered a lot of inaccurately reported information on the Internet. I know this is a generally known fact, but these sites were reputable. Many of us rely on Wikipedia for information — but remember, it's open for anyone to edit. I evaluate content based on my needs. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of information out there, more people think they can get away with plagiarism — as it would be time-consuming for us to check the facts.

Why do I bring this up? Because we present information in newsletters. Sometimes we take them from other resources (where permission is given). We want to ensure we're not contributing to those problems.

That said, I want to introduce a new newsletter, eFocus Journal. In a couple of months, we plan to retire eNJ and switch over to eFocus Journal. The newsletter covers all of the topics covered in eNJ (marketing, emarketing, newsletters) and more, including branding and technology trends. Got something to say? Here's the place to share your thoughts. We delight in hearing from you, and we always enter your name into a drawing for a cool prize. Thanks for reading.

Texanly yours,

Meryl
Editor, eNJ

P.S. You can get help with your newsletter or just test the waters with a complimentary newsletter prototype.

Snore ... snore ... ducking presentations that bore