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‘Injured reserve’ is a sports terminology for ‘out with an injury.’

This morning I’m having shoulder surgery, as I described in a post, three weeks ago. It’s a 3-pronged repair.

1. Rotator Cuff tear
2. SLAP tear of the Labrum
3. Bone spur

This afternoon, I will be in a lot of pain, which will be mitigated by some painkillers (hopefully). I’m told, by people who have gone through this, that the first two weeks are the toughest, from a pain standpoint.

The severity of the injury/repair will determine the rehab and healing period. The standard projection is 6-8 weeks.

The hassle is not so much the pain, as it is that my right arm will be in a sling 24/7. Since I’m right handed, it’s going to be no picnic. Hopefully, I will have remembered to buy some new loafers by the time you read this.

So, if my posts are not quite as frequent or there are a few typos, you’ll know why.

On the positive side, I have my Easy Button close at hand.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blogger

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written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: Andy Ebon, rotator cuff, Wedding Marketing Blogger

Back in 2001, the earliest phase of the new millennium, I was feeling overwhelmed. The onrush of email, websites, and other forms of electronic communication had exploded, and I was directly in its path.

My entrepreneurial instinct is to turn any problem into a business opportunity. Obviously, I thought, people everywhere are probably experiencing a similar state of being overwhelmed.

The next two thoughts were:

• Master or conquer the state of overwhelm
• Write a book about it

OK, that sounded good. I need a book title, and a domain to go with it. My brain is geared to work in headlines, domain names, and titles. That skill is derived from being enamored with the creative style of billboards which fuse copy and images better than almost any other medium. The copy guideline: 7 words or less was the norm. For domains and book titles, one things in even fewer words, preferable no more than 2 or 3.

Magically, it hit me: “I’ll call it Dot Calm!” It’s a play on the phrase dot-com. “Simply brilliant,” I thought.

Then, in a moment of humility, I thought I’d better search Amazon.com
, in the unlikely possibility that someone had the same thought, had written a book with that same title.

Well, whaddya know. There it was… dotcalm: The search for sanity in a wired world.

I wasn’t terribly disappointed. I simply bought the book. It was brilliant. And it stands up very well, today. So, if you’re touched by the occasional or constant problem of TMI (too much information), buy yourself a copy, new or used, from Amazon.com.

I reread it periodically. It’s that good.

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written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: amazon.com, dot-calm, overwhelmed, TMI, too much information

I look for inspiration all over the internet. I mean that from a geographical and creative standpoint. If one spends some casual time surfing, you will find some very interesting wedding websites. Some good. Some bad. Some both.

I came upon a striking website in Vancouver, Canada. Aisle Walk - Wedding Style In Motion. It shows a stylish image, with the date, 2008. The date at the bottom of the screen says, 2007. Huh?

The site has some great photos, but some very conflicted navigation. Tiles (buttons) at the bottom of the screen take you to entirely different screens and layouts. If you click on the Media link, it takes you to a screen that begins with the following verbiage:

We are simply giddy with excitement that the Vancouver 2006 Edition of aislewalk has won Gold at the International Gallery of Superb Printing in New York.

OK, so now the site is straddling three different years.

Then, there’s a navigation item, on the top strip, titled editor’s diary. That link brings you to a blog (imagine that…) and its latest post… from April 2008.

Here’s an idea! When it comes to navigation, speak plain English. Call it a blog!!! Then people might actually discover it.

Oh, another thing. If it’s almost December 2008, and you haven’t made a new post since April, do you really have a blog?

Then there is the ‘About Page’ on the blog editor’s diary. Here’s how it reads.

This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.

That’s the boilerplate text that is a placeholder when you set up a WordPress page. It could have been deleted. However, it’s been posted for two years, with no actual content.

I was so excited when I first saw this site. Then, disappointed. It would take so little to bring this current and make it really rock.

Beautiful design doesn’t make a bit of difference if the navigation is whack and the content is out of date.

Please write that down.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

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written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: aislewalk, Andy Ebon, out of date, stale content, vancouver, website design, wedding marketing blog, whistle