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Writing and Publishing

Why Work Is Cyclical

In theory, my workload should proceed as a steady flow of predictable effort year round. In reality, it doesn’t happen that way. It takes five weeks from start to finish to produce one issue of one magazine, and Connections Magazine is published six times a year. Medical Call Center News and Answer Stat releases every other […]

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Writing and Publishing

Is Two Really Twice As Good As One?

Several years ago, I sought to add another product to my publishing business. I looked at options and considered alternatives.Two possibilities rose to the top. I began investigating both, planning to pursue whichever path opened up first. Instead, they both did. So, I embarked on two nearly simultaneous publication launches: AnswerStat (information hub for healthcare […]

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Business

Is Gamification a Trend or a Fad?

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I was quite skeptical about “gamification,” the use of game concepts to motivate desirable behavior among customers (or employees). I reasoned that while expecting customers to “play games” might result in a short-term increase in brand involvement or purchases, I doubted if it was sustainable. However, I am rethinking my […]

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Writing and Publishing

The Work of Publishing Periodicals

I publish four periodicals: two magazines, an e-publication, and an e-newsletter. There is an established workflow to each, with every day requiring that some task be accomplished for at least one of them. Additionally, one of the magazines has an overlapping production schedule, meaning that sometimes I have to start the next issue before the […]

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Business

Collections

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I love my work—at least 99 percent of it. There are two things that I don’t enjoy and top on that list is making collection calls. On those days when my bride asks, “How was your day?” I can only grunt in disgust. “Why are you in such a bad mood?” she […]

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Business

How to Skew a Survey

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD One of the side effects of replacing my cell phone was having to transfer my number directory from the old unit to the new one. The cell phone company had a nifty device that would do this (surely there must be a means to accomplish this using the cell network […]