volume 28 no. 4 december 2014 - association of …6 aiip connections volume 28 | no. 4 | december...

PresiDeNt’s Message �

Volume 28 No. 4 December 2014

2 AIIP Connections Volume 28 | No. 4 | December 2014

� eDitOr’s COLUMN

Next Issue: March 1, 2015

Welcome to the December issue of AIIP Connections.

in this issue, the member spotlight is on Diane Valdivia of PinpointProspect research in san Diego, California.

the committee spotlight focuses on the aiiP New Member OutreachCommittee, chaired by Ulla de stricker of de stricker associates.

We bring you brief reports on the Pam Wegmann award, as well asaiiP get-togethers that happened in New england and southern Cali-fornia, Usa, and London, england.

Marydee Ojala reports on Web search University.

self-publishing isn’t what it used to be and Mary ellen Bates and DebHunt each fills us in on the self-publishing experience of today.

Charlene Burke gives us actionable advice about Linked in – at just 30minutes a day.

Jan Knight reports on strategic alliances to help us build our busi-nesses.

amelia Kassel reviews some web analytics sites for competitive intelli-gence.

enjoy the December issue!

Joann M. WleklinskiEditor,AIIP Connections

AIIP Connectionswww.aiip.org/AIIPConnectionsAIIP 8550 United Plaza Blvd., ste. 1001, Baton rouge, La 70809United states • 225-408-4400

EditorJoann M. Wleklinski • [email protected]

Copy Editorssusanne Bjørner • Bjørner & associatesrobbie Marks • Marks informationNora stoecker • NKs info services

Sub-editorsVikki Bell, Deirdre Black, Barbara Pilvin, Phyllis smith

Advertising DirectorKaren Klein • Fulcrum information [email protected] • 610-927-1701

Design & LayoutChris Boller • 360 advertising [email protected] • 201-794-3691

AIIP Director, Marketing (Content & Strategy)Jennifer Burke, intelliCraft research, LLC

aiiP Connections (issN 1524-9468) is published quarterly and is copyrighted© 2014 by the association of independent information Professionals, 8550United Plaza Blvd. Baton rouge, La 70809 United states

Subscriptions:Free to aiiP members. Material contained in AIIP Connections iscopyrighted. For permission to reprint, contact aiiP at 225-408-4400 orat [email protected].

President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Member spotlight: Diane Valdivia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Committee spotlight: New Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Pam Wegmann international award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

aiiP soCal Meet-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

aiiP New england Meet-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

aiiPers gather in London. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Web search University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

From author to Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

How a Workshop Became a Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Linkedin 30 Minutes a Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

strategic alliances to Help Build Your Business. . . . . . . 17

Coach’s Corner: Web analytics Websites for Ci . . . . . . . 19

www.aiip.org/AIIPConnections

recently i had a month in which i got stretchedtoo thin. i’m sure you know how that goes. itwas nothing surprising or unwelcome—justmore than the usual, all at once: big projects,close-together deadlines, plus a daughter’s veryoverdue visit home from college. For an intro-vert like me, keeping engaged with so much onthe outside meant i was put off balance.

a balance impairment can happen in any job,but it is perhaps most likely among independ-ent business owners. We want to be responsive.We want to make a good living. We own ourideas and abilities, and we set high standardsfor ourselves. Our commitments and aspira-tions are exactly that: our own, and we care.

in these circumstances, it isn’t always possibleto avoid overcommitting. if we can’t actuallymaintain balance, at least we can restore equi-librium after the high-stress phase is over. thusit was time for my reminder on the importanceof balance.

Here’s what i (re-)learned.

• take care of yourself so you can continue todeliver. take breaks to stretch early andoften before, during, and after your work-day or all-nighter. Don’t skip your class,your run, or your walk with the dog, be-cause it only gets harder to work your wayback to earlier levels of fitness.

• after the work push, take the time youneed to recover. take an e-cation with nocomputer or email.

• Catch up on wellness. get enough sleep,move, and balance your chemicals (adren-aline, endorphins, neurotransmitters, etc.).

• Catch up on rewards—arts, food, fun, amovie, a good book, travel. Maybe it’s timefor a long weekend or a week off. Buildsome “me time” into your pricing.

• Catch up on your business. When work getsintense, keep things organized for whenyou tune back in. Let the “notes to self” pileup until you have time to process them.

• Catch up on recognizing your accomplish-ments: making your clients happy, makingmoney, making a difference, making yourname.

• Pardon yourself if you happen to be lessthan perfect or indefatigable. Friends,good clients, and true allies will under-stand (and maybe even applaud your ef-forts).

if i could live that month over, would it all turnout differently? i think so. But i definitely have astronger resolve to keep a better balance thenext time things get so intense, and to give my-

self what i need.

Balance has meaning for aiiP as well. it’s impor-tant for aiiP’s volunteers and board members totake a step back once in a while, to take stock,to appreciate our accomplishments, and to lookahead to new goals. thanks to everyone who isdelivering on aiiP’s commitments to its mem-bers.

When work or life in general stretches you toothin, give yourself time to come up for air andregain balance. the holiday season that sur-rounds us at this time of year can make us feelover-scheduled and over-committed as well.

so, please do take care of yourself as the calen-dar year winds down. enjoy your time withfamily and friends, reflect, and celebrate all ofyour achievements in 2014.

Connie ClemClem Information [email protected]

AIIP Connections Volume 28 | No. 4 | December 2014 3

PresiDeNt’s Message �


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MeMBer sPOtLigHt �

First and foremost, i cannot say enough goodthings about the value i’ve received from mem-bership in aiiP. i happened upon the organiza-tion via a colleague’s Linkedin profile; joiningaiiP was the best investment i’ve ever made.From the fabulous mentoring i’ve received(thanks, Marge King!) to the vendor discountsand resource docs i continue to use as i buildmy business . . . aiiP has been a lifesaver. i’mhoping to attend next year’s conference andmeet some of my aiiP colleagues in person.

With my business, Pinpoint Prospect research, iam an independent contractor specializing inresearch for non-profit organizations. as aprospect researcher (or “prospect developmentprofessional,” as is increasingly being used), myrole is to identify and provide relevant informa-tion about potential donors to assist fundrais-ing efforts of charitable organizations. Usingthe internet and paid subscription databases, icollect, analyze, organize, package, and dissem-inate publicly available information to fundrais-ers to help them make strategic decisionsabout potential supporters.

as many of you are in competitive intelligence(Ci), you know first-hand the invaluable roleknowledge management plays in the successof for-profit corporations. essentially, prospectresearch is Ci’s counterpart in the charitablearena. Competition is intense for the limitedphilanthropic dollars available in today’s envi-ronment. i partner with my clients to find thebest match of individuals, corporations or foun-dations who are likely to support their missions.i guess you could say i’m a matchmaker, ofsorts.

i love the non-profit world and have beenworking in the field for over 25 years, 15 ofthose as a prospect researcher in the san Diegoarea. i actually began my career on the grant-making side of philanthropy while at a commu-nity foundation in the late 1980s andeventually moved to front-line fundraising po-sitions in the arts, healthcare, and social servicearenas. as a development officer, i conductedmy own prospect research, realizing first-handits empowering ability. that is when i deter-

mined i wanted to help other fundraising pro-fessionals do the same and became a full-timeresearcher.

My experience as a fundraiser gives me a greatadvantage in knowing just what to look for in aprospect as well as how to best communicatethat information to a fundraising/developmentofficer. Fundraisers are extremely busy people,often out traveling on the road, and need suc-cinct relevant data to help them make their con-nections. the information i give them cansometimes make the difference between receiv-ing little or no funding to making a life-longdonor/friend who generously commits a major

transformational gift. When the latter happenswith my help, i find that very satisfying.

Prior to founding Pinpoint Prospect research, iwas director of prospect research at a large uni-versity for over five years. in opening my ownshop, my goal was to be able to offer smallernonprofits – who usually cannot afford full-time research – the same strategic opportunityas their larger counterparts. Being able to dothat (while wearing fuzzy slippers in my homeoffice) is simply the best job ever.

Diane Valdivia is President of Pinpoint Prospect Research in

beautiful San Diego, California, USA. Contact her at

[email protected] or through her website at

www.pinpointprospectresearch.com.

Diane Valdivia, Pinpoint Prospect Research: Your Partner in Fundraising

...my role is to identify and

provide relevant information

about potential donors to assist

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Diane Valdivia


� COMMittee sPOtLigHt

When i served on the aiiP Board with responsi-bility for the membership portfolio severalyears ago, i put on the shoes, so to speak, ofsomeone who discovers aiiP and then joins.What is the experience of a new member, andhow could we shape that experience to be aspositive as possible? that is when i came upwith the notion of personal contact and in-vented the First Year Committee (now renamedNew Member Outreach).

the New Member Outreach committee reachesout to newly-joined aiiP members to give themthe opportunity of a personal conversationwith an engaged volunteer. We find out aboutthe new member’s situation and offer our inputaccordingly. Often, we are able to connect thenew member with other aiiP members whohave similar interests.

it is a key goal for us to stress our role as thenew member’s “personal inroads” into the asso-ciation; we make it clear that our phone linesare always open should new questions comeup. We explain the incredible benefits of at-tending the annual conference and in everyother way strive to make the new member feelwelcome in our community. sharing our ownexperience as independents and as aiiP mem-

bers, we point out how valuable membershiphas been for us.

No two conversations are alike, as the individ-ual circumstances of new members differwidely. What is a pattern is the nature of the re-action i usually get: “i’m blown away that youwould take the time to talk to me, and thankyou so much for raising those questions i’dnever even thought about!”

think about it: aiiP is a community of peoplewho are passionate about their independentcareers… i believed back then, and still dotoday, that we owe every new member a warmand encouraging welcome as he or she joins us.every new member represents a potential col-league, subcontractor, or volunteer; he or she isprecious for all of us.

it is immensely rewarding to get to know thenew members who take me up on the invita-tion to set up a phone call. it is a special treat tomeet them at the next conference.

Have you been glad you joined aiiP? Why notjoin the New Member Outreach team in the ef-fort to welcome new members? We would bedelighted to have you. i’ll share the invitation

letter i use and go over the why-and-how.there are no reports to write or meetings to at-tend… all we ask of you is to speak one-on-onewith a fellow member who just happens to be arecent addition to the community. i’m waitingby my phone…

Ulla de Stricker’s knowledge management practice

(www.destricker.com) focuses on projects to assist clients manage

information and corporate memory. Ulla is known as a generous

volunteer who gives freely of her time to guide and mentor stu-

dents and colleagues

By Ulla de Stricker, Chair, deStricker Associates

Ulla de Stricker

COMMITTEE SPOTLIGHT:NEW MEMBER OUTREACH

Pam Wegmann International AwardBy Marydee Ojala, Ojala Associates

at the internet Librarian international 2014 confer-ence in London in October, aiiP announced the

winner of this year’s Pam Wegmann internationalaward. the award winner is arthur Weiss, who hasserved on aiiP’s Board of Directors and has been atireless supporter of aiiP, as evidenced most recentlyby his organization of an event for aiiP members andfriends at a local pub in London the night before hereceived the award.

the award was established to recognize the contribu-tions made by a member of the association who livesoutside of North america. the selection is based onthe contributions that the member has made to aiiP.the award recipient is selected by the aiiP Board ofDirectors and is named in memory of Pam Wegmann,aiiP President from 2002 to 2003. she was the ownerof information Matters, LLC, based in New Orleans,Louisiana, Usa.

Marydee Ojala, AIIP member since 1987, owns Ojala Associates, is edi-

tor-in-chief of Online Searcher magazine, and presents at numerous U.S.

and international information conferences.

Arthru Weiss and Marydee Ojala


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On a Friday in early November, a few New england aiiPers got to-gether for an impromptu gathering in the bar at the Crowne Plaza

Boston in Woburn, Massachusetts. attending were Brandy King,Kathaleen Porter, Michelle rawl, and Linda stacy. risa sacks was therein spirit, having sent her regrets. We hadn’t seen each other in a while,so it was great to get together and get caught up on our information

business activities. We encourage more New englanders to join us atfuture local aiiP meet-ups.

Michelle Rawl is the owner of Rawl Research, in Kingston New York. Contact her at

[email protected].

Michelle Rawl, Brandy King, and Kathaleen Porter.

New EnglandAIIPers GatherBy Michelle Rawl, Rawl Research

in september, aiiP members living in southern California, Usa, got to-gether for lunch at Las Brisas restaurant in Laguna Beach, California.

Cindy shamel, shamel information services, and Jennifer Pflaumer,Paroo, were the attendees, and had a great time talking about theirbusinesses and looking ahead to the conference in irvine, California,Usa in april 2015. Cindy took the opportunity to also scout out someconference extracurricular activities for aiiP member attendees to try

out while visiting irvine; a kayak tour and hiking in Laguna Beach wereboth on her hit list. all in all, Jennifer and Cindy had a great time get-ting together and hope to encourage more so Cal members to gathertogether in the future.

Jennifer Pflaumer is the owner of Paroo (www.paroodigital.com). She can be reached at

[email protected] or 310-560-7743.


Jennifer Pflaumer and Cynthia Shamel

AIIP SoCalMeet-upBy Jennifer Pflaumer, Paroo

� aiiP MeetUPs


’twas a dark autumnal night in October… in London, the an-nual internet Librarian international conference

www.internet-librarian.com/2014/ had just finished its first day. across theroad from the Olympia Conference Centre stands the albion pub. thispub was first licensed to sell beer in 1864; the decor is a traditional eng-lish pub serving good real beers, wines, and excellent pizzas. the pub hastwo bars—a public bar downstairs, and a supplementary bar up a spiralstaircase for private events, such as the aiiP London meeting.

aiiP members hailed from London, the United states, and austria; otherpeople came from elsewhere in the UK, italy, and scandinavia—lots ofscandinavians attended iLi this year, including the far North beyond thearctic circle! We shared half-a-dozen pizzas among us—an italian partici-pant commented on how good these were! thin, and tasty—not the nor-mal pizza-chain “out of the freezer” type. We also shared lots of beer and afew wines. aiiP members were outnumbered, but hopefully we will gaina couple new members. Conversation revolved around travel, London,the conference, and a range of other topics, and the evening was en-joyed by all, with the last guests leaving several hours later.

the important aspect for international events of this type is that it showsthat aiiP is a great organisation representing information professionals.although most attendees are not (yet) aiiP members, the association isnow becoming known among the iLi attendees as a major player in sup-porting entrepreneurial career options as an alternative to full-time em-

ployment. this event also allows aiiP members from outside the UK toget together with local UK members; this was the second get-togetherwe’ve had this year. (We had a small (three person) meeting earlier in theyear when scott attenborough was in London).

autumn is the time that acorns fall from the trees. it takes several monthsfor the acorn to take root, but in spring it starts its journey to become agreat oak. Hopefully this autumn will see the same for aiiP in europe.

Arthur Weiss has been an AIIP member for absolutely yonks, and was AIIP’s membership

development director from 2012 to 2014. He’s from the UK, living in London. His business, AWARE

(www.marketing-intelligence.co.uk), focuses on company research and training people to find

information that they thought impossible to find.

AIIPers Gather inLondonMeet-upBy Arthur Weiss, AWARE

� aiiP MeetUPs

Arthur Weiss hosts a get-together in London, England.

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WebSearch UniversityBy Marydee Ojala, Ojala Associates

this year Websearch University moved outof the District of Columbia to adjacent Crys-

tal City, Virginia, where it hadn't been since2005. it's a location convenient to the Metro forlocals and reagan National airport for out-of-towners.

aiiP members took advantage of the conven-ience to hear expert searchers—many of themaiiP members—dissect changes in search en-gine algorithms, explore maps as informationsources, explain advanced searching tech-niques, discover science and health resources,learn about turning search results into insights,and many more topics related to doing re-search via the ever more ubiquitous web.

Chris sherman, search engine Land, started usoff with some astonishing statistics. Did youknow it takes about the same amount of com-puting power to answer one google searchquery as all the computing done, both in flightand on the ground, for the entire apollo spaceprogram? Here's another: google does 118,812precision evaluations, 10,391 side-by-side ex-periments, and 7,018 “live traffic” (changingsearch for a small number of random searchers)experiments per year.

ran Hock, Online strategies, identified sevenbarriers to search success and gave suggestionsabout how to overcome them. My favorite wasgetting zero hits because your client assumedsomething that was incorrect, sending you offin the wrong direction. skepticism is such avaluable trait for information professionals.it's back to the basic reference inter-view at that point.

Matthew Von Hendy, greenHeron information serv-ices, provided a

“whirlwind tour” of science and health re-sources, including Dryad (www.datadryad.org)and Databib (www.databib.org) for data anddatasets. He also discussed patents, measuringtools, properties databases, and some highlyspecific sites, such as the smithsonian's volcanodatabase (www.volcano.si.edu) and Departmentof Defense (DOD) sponsored research availablethrough the Defense technical informationCenter (DtiC; www.dtic.mil/dtic).

Privacy has become a hot topic in the websearch world. gary Price, iNFOdocket and Full-textreports, advised, somewhat facetiously,that if you want to remain completely private,stay offline. His more practical suggestions in-cluded using VPNs (virtual private networks)such as ZenMate or tOr, removing trackingfrom pages you visit, and removing your datafrom online services. Marcy Phelps, Phelps re-search, inc. took the opposite view of privacy,documenting how she goes about due dili-gence research and uncovers information oth-ers might like to keep private. she shared factsshe considers “red flags” and those that are “yel-low flags.”

New ways of searching, such as graph and se-mantic search, were explained by greg Notess,Montana state University Library. Looking atgoogle Knowledge graph and Bing snapshot,greg had reservations about the accuracy andsources of the information.

aiiP stalwart Mary ellen Bates, Bates informa-tion services, turned in two very informative

sessions—one on social search and the otheron turning information into insights. For socialsearch, she had several “stealth research” rec-ommendations including managing client ex-pectations and being careful to guard yourprivacy. it's important to understand whyyou're using social media for research. it couldbe to find information about people, opinions,or breaking news. it could also be a step on theway to the real answer. as for insights, Maryellen has plenty of them. she advised buildingyour own data, taking advantage of autocom-plete, and using visuals in your delivery.

as always, the informal discussions duringWebsearch University, both during networkingopportunities and at sessions designed to en-courage interactivity, added much to theknowledge gained. a special thanks toMatthew Von Hendy, who organized an aiiPdinner one evening of the conference.

Marydee Ojala, owner of Ojala Associates, is the editor-in-chief of

Online Searcher magazine. Contact her at

[email protected].

Marydee Ojala


Over the past 18 years, i have had six bookspublished by three different publishers. When idecided that i had another book inside me, iconsidered pitching it to my publishing con-tacts, including John Bryans at informationtoday, who shepherded four of my books intoprint. after serious thought, i decided to self-publish The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Making aLiving Doing What You Love throughamazon.com’s print and e-book services. Whileit usually takes a publisher nine months or ayear from receipt of a manuscript to shipmentof a book, my turnaround time was just fourmonths—a significant factor with a book thatcovers social media and other rapidly changingfields.

this choice isn’t for everyone. it was appealingto me as an established author and speaker be-cause i already had a number of avenues forpromoting and selling my book. i have devel-oped strong writing skills, so i knew that mymanuscript would not need extensive editing.a good friend of mine had already handled theproduction of several other books, and we es-tablished a barter relationship through whichshe could provide me with the editorial and or-ganizational support i needed. along with guyKawasaki’s remarkably useful book, APE: Author,Publisher, Entrepreneur—How to Publish a Book, ifelt that i had the resources i needed to self-publish.

i chose to produce both soft-cover and e-bookversions, on the assumption that the relativelysmall additional work required to modify theformat would make the book appealing to aslarge an audience as possible. (so far, i havesold an equal number of print and e-books.)While getting the print version formatted to mysatisfaction took longer than i had anticipated,

the process was relatively painless. amazon’sCreatespace platform makes it easy to previewand print draft copies, and i can purchase au-thor copies of the book for under $4 each—sig-nificantly less than what traditional publisherscharge authors for copies of their books.

even though i decided to self-publish, i wroteup a book proposal outlining the scope of thebook and of each chapter, spelling out my mar-keting plan, and committing to a completiondate nine months out. in my experience, a clearproposal with accountability and metrics is anessential tool in ensuring that a self-publishedbook gets from idea to publication.

as with all my books, getting the last 10 per-cent written was the most difficult part of theprocess. as before, my spouse sent me to ahotel with the admonition that i not check outuntil the manuscript was done. as always, thisapproach was successful; i returned homethree days later with the manuscript completedand ready for my editor.

Having had the experience of working with tra-ditional publishers, i had a fairly good idea ofwhat would be required in self-publishing abook. Following are the most significant trade-offs i encountered during the process of takingThe Reluctant Entrepreneur from concept topublication.

Editorial support. Publishers provide an editor,copyeditor, and (usually) an indexer. i barteredfor editorial services, and paid for copyeditingof the final manuscript. i chose not to includean index to the book, relying instead on a de-tailed table of contents (and, of course, the full-text search functionality of e-books). thecoaching and writing support i received from

my editor was instrumental in getting the bookdone, and i doubt i could have afforded to payfor all the hours my editor spent keeping me ontrack. if you are not in a position to pay orbarter for time with an editorial coach, considerfinding a writing buddy to keep you focusedand on track. Be sure that you also have some-one who is skilled at editing and polishingbook manuscripts; this is not an area in whichyou want to economize.

Design support. Publishers usually design thebook cover and internal format without inputfrom the author. i bartered with a local graphicdesigner for the book cover and logo for NiwotPress (the name of my self-publishing identity),and my editor and i worked together to de-velop the book’s internal layout. as with tradi-tional publishers, i chose the title and subtitlemyself, with plenty of input from my editor andfrom colleagues.

Administrative support. Publishers handlethe administrative work involved in getting anisBN and Library of Congress control number(or equivalent) for the book, assigning a coverprice, and generating the barcode. Fortunately,these are fairly straightforward tasks, and bothamazon.com and Kawasaki’s book spell out thesteps involved.

Advance against royalties.Most publisherspay authors an advance of several thousanddollars against the royalties they will earn fromthe sale of their book. as a self-published au-thor, i have to invest in the expenses of prepar-ing a manuscript for publication. the trade-offis that i earn more money from each book sale,particularly when i sell books directly. since thesuccess of the book is dependent on the qual-ity of the writing and appearance of the book, it

By Mary Ellen Bates, Bates Information ServicesFrom Author to Publisher

Mary Ellen Bates


is important to budgetfor high-quality edito-rial and design services.

Sales support. Publish-ers handle distributionand sales of both printand e-books; i sellcopies of my booksthrough my own website as well. as a self-publisher, i use amazon

as my primary distribution channel, and i keepan inventory of about 100 copies of my bookto sell at book signings and speaking engage-ments. since my book is more likely to be pur-chased by individuals than libraries orinstitutions, my focus has been on reachingout to groups that comprise solo practitionersand entrepreneurs providing professionalservices.

Marketing support. Publishers provide whatmost authors consider to be a minimal level ofmarketing for their book. after all, while i amjust one author among many to a publisher,this book is top priority to me. all authorsmust become comfortable marketing theirbooks; self-published authors are simply moreaware of that fact. i developed a six-month

marketing plan for my latest book, using manyof the techniques mentioned in Kawasaki’sbook, APE. i can use the social media profiles ialready have, and i have created a separateblog and web site specifically for the book(www.reluctant-entrepreneur.com). i am partici-pating in the local author consignment pro-grams offered by two large independent bookstores in the Denver, Colorado, area, one ofwhich includes a book signing and promotionas well as prominent placement near the frontof the store for three months.

reflecting on the process for getting this latestbook to market and comparing it to my expe-riences with traditional publishers, i am happywith the trade-offs required for self-publish-ing. i found it tremendously satisfying to be in-volved in all aspects of the design of the book,and i enjoyed having complete control overthe editorial process. and while i miss that roy-alty check, i believe that i will ultimately earnmore through self-publishing. this may not bethe route for first-time authors, but i encour-age more experienced writers to consider self-publishing for their next book.

Mary Ellen Bates is the owner of Bates Information Services.

She can be reached at [email protected], @mebs on Twit-

ter, and at www.reluctant-entrepreneur.com.

Mary Ellen’s books include:

The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Making a LivingDoing What You Love (2014, Niwot Press)

Building & Running a Successful ResearchBusiness: A Guide For the Independent Infor-mation Professional (1st edition, 2003, in-formation today; 2nd edition, 2010,information today)

Super Searchers Cover The World: The OnlineSecrets of International Business Researchers(2001, information today)

Researching Online For Dummies (2nd edi-tion, 2000, iDg)

Mining For Gold on the Internet (2000, Mc-graw-Hill)

Super Searchers Do Business: The Online Se-crets of Top Business Researchers (1999, in-formation today)

Online Deskbook: Online Magazine’s Essen-tial Desk Reference For Online and InternetSearchers (1996, information today)

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there is nothingmore rewarding

than seeing all yourhard work come tofruition in the form ofa book you’ve au-thored and pub-lished. it’s exhilaratingto see your book sowarmly received byyour librarian/infor-mation professionalcolleagues and even

more satisfying to know that the book you’veauthored is helping so many librarians and in-formation professionals enhance and advancetheir careers. this is the story of how two librari-ans set out to help their colleagues improvetheir careers and inadvertently became authorsand publishers along the way.

through numerous years in the library/infor-mation world, we have seen many of our col-leagues continually striving for success andtrying to figure out how to achieve the crucialnext step in their careers. We’ve also listened tocountless stories of librarians and informationprofessionals who suddenly found themselves

without a job, with no real idea how to get backin the workforce or how to take their careers ina different direction.

While our own careers have zigged and zaggedin a variety of new directions, in and out of thelibrary world many times, there has alwaysbeen one common thread. each time wechanged professional direction—for whateverreason—we’ve found exciting and rewardingnew work in careers that often “parallel” the li-brary world. Often these parallel worlds are

very well funded and offer many outstandingopportunities at significantly higher levels ofcompensation than most traditional libraryjobs.

several years ago, we decided to pool our col-lective experiences in navigating our meander-ing career paths, to develop a series ofclassroom workshops and online webinars toshare with our colleagues what we’ve learnedabout mastering an alternative career path. Our“expanding Your Career Potential” workshopseries helps information professionals learnhow to strengthen their current skillsets or ac-quire new skills. We also help librarians/infor-mation professionals gain awareness of the

By Deborah Hunt, Information Edge, and David Grossman

Deborah Hunt

Deborah Hunt and David Grossman, an academic and public reference librarian in various San Fran-cisco Bay area libraries, are co-authors of the Librarian’s skillbook: 51 essential skills for informa-tion Professionals www.librarianskillbook.com. David contributed to this article, as well.

Each time we changed

professional direction—for

whatever reason—we’ve found

exciting and rewarding new

work in careers that often

“parallel” the library world

www.librarianskillbook.com


ever expanding universe of information andknowledge career opportunities which arebegging to be filled by professionals with ourexisting skillsets. additionally, our workshopparticipants learn how to develop new tech-niques to solidify an existing position, improvetheir likelihood of earning a promotion in theircurrent job, find a new job, or seek a more di-verse career path.

Our workshops and webinars fill to capacity im-mediately. to date, more than 1,000 informa-tion professionals, from as far away as australia,have participated in our classes and have leftready to take their careers to that next step.

it was our workshop attendees who suggestedthat we write a book based on the workshopcurriculum, so that they could have ready ac-cess, any time, to the many skills and tech-niques used to acquire new skills that we teachin the course. We soon began outlining ourcontent and adding another 22 new skills andother material to the book that wouldn’t fit intothe 90-minute workshop format.

initially, we pursued the traditional publishingroute and identified a publisher who expresseda keen interest in publishing our book. Ulti-mately, however, we decided to take the indieroute to:

• retain creative control over the content,

• bring the book to market as soon as possi-ble, and

• keep the book price extremely affordable.

We plunged headlong into writing and ex-plored a number of options for self-publishingboth a print and an electronic version. We de-cided to use amazon.com as our primary distri-bution vehicle because amazon.com:

• provides authors with a template thatmakes it relatively easy to format theprinted book and also to create an elec-tronic (Kindle) version for sale;

• handles the entire sale process from begin-ning to end, including the purchase trans-action, printing, product delivery, and allcustomer service issues;

• is recognized as a reputable sales outletthat is easily available to customers allover the world; and

• allowed us to set our own pricing so wecould keep the price as low as possible tomaximize sales and distribution of thebook.

the result has been the very successful The Li-brarian’s Skillbook: 51 Essential Skills for Informa-tion Professionals, which had a soft launch atthe sLa annual Conference in June 2013 andhas gone viral since then.

the process of writing a book—from the dis-cipline required to actually get the contentfrom one’s head onto paper, setting goals to

complete a specific number of words or chap-ters written each week, and collaboratingwith a co-author, to choosing the best title,finding trusted beta testers and proofreaders,and more—took lots of dedication and dili-gent work, but it has proven to be well worththe effort.

there is both excitement and some frustrationwith self-publishing: there is no editor remind-ing one of deadlines, and the authors need tohandle every detail and make every decision,including pricing, promotion, distribution, andmany other services normally handled by a tra-ditional publisher. that said, we were so gladwe retained creative control. it is an amazingexperience to finally see one’s book in print andthen go to book signings and meet buyers ex-cited to talk to the authors.

Would we do it again? Yes, indeed! indie pub-lishing is another skill to add to our skillset, andwe hope to share many more career expansiontopics in the coming years.

Deborah Hunt is the Principal of Information Edge, and the Li-

brary Director at the Mechanics’ Institute in San Francisco. She

believes that learning never stops and that info pros have a world

of career options to explore. Contact her at

[email protected].


When i founded my business and officially“hung the shingle” in June of 2008, i was

lacking a number of skills needed to grow abusiness. the most important of those wassales. i had no training or even desire to learnproper sales processes. i had an aversion tosales because my exposure to salespeoplethroughout the years hadn’t been good. Mostof them were pushy, didn’t listen to my needs,took over conversations with potential clients,assumed too much in the relationship in termsof familiarity, and more. i was on the receivingend of the “used car salesman” pitch manytimes, but also an observer of this type of be-havior. i was a field engineer for over nine years,working on automated equipment in officeand manufacturing settings, and i saw manysalespeople pitch their products while i wasworking on the equipment. Many times, after asalesperson had left, customers would use meas their sounding board to express frustrationand annoyance that they had just wasted an-other hour with a salesperson who didn’t knowor seem to care about what the customer reallyneeded the product to do. suffice it to say thatmy overall experience was not good.

and yet, here i was a business owner with nosales team. i was responsible for getting newclients. it was up to me to find them, pitchthem, and close them. trust me when i say thati was not looking forward to floundering in thesea of people that attended chamber of com-merce networking meetings, formal network-ing groups, and local events.

then i found social media.

i joined Linkedin in 2006 and began using itgrow my business in 2008.

i joined Facebook in 2008 and used it strictly forpersonal and family communication until 2011,when i realized how effective it was for nurtur-ing clients and for getting referrals.

i joined twitter in 2008 and connected with in-fluencers early (unintentional).

social media suits my introverted nature. i havedifficulty engaging in small talk, being incrowds, and am completely put off by cold-call-ing anyone. But, i have found that if i meet youon social media first, and we have a conversa-tion or i’m able to answer a question youposed, or you reach out to me with answers toa question i posed, i have no problem gettingon the telephone with you.

By far, the most successful social media plat-form for me to use for projects and for growingmy business is Linkedin. i use it regularly for dif-ferent project needs:

1. to find candidates for recruiters and openpositions

2. For competitive intelligence

3. to compile prospect lists for clients

4. and, of course, for my own networking—prospecting, nurturing, and referring oth-ers while some refer their connections andclients to me

i spend more time on Linkedin than any otherplatform, and i’ve learned that if i don’t managemy time while using it i can easily lose hours ofproductivity. it is so easy to get on a trail of linksthat take me to interesting places online; soeasy to get involved in a lengthy online discus-sion with fellow professionals; so easy to getsidetracked to another platform when i washoping to stay focused on one for the nexthour or so.

Over time, i learned that there are some things ican do on Linkedin on a regular basis that willhelp me achieve consistent results. Of course, ifi’m conducting research in any way, these don’tapply, although i have learned to make sure idon’t go “down the rabbit hole” while conduct-ing the research. For consistent personal andbusiness growth results, though, these certainlydo apply.

For me, early morning hours in my office arethe best time and place for me to accomplishwhat i want to on Linkedin. it’s become a con-sistent habit, interrupted only by large projects.every day i try to do the following steps, as rec-ommended by author and consultant WayneBreitbarth in his free resource “How to get themost out of Linkedin in just 15 minutes per day” (www.powerformula.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/15-Minutes-Tip-Sheet.pdf). i rec-ommend that you consider doing these stepsyourself.

The first 30 minutes of each day:

1. Respond to any messages in yourinbox. i can’t emphasize enough the im-

By Charlene Burke, Search by Burke, LLCLinkedIn 30 Minutes a Day

Charlene Burke


portance of being timely when someoneis reaching out to you. the world we live inhas really amped up the expectation ofquick response; so don’t let a day go bywith something sitting in that inbox.

2. Invite people whom you met yesterdayto join your network.timeliness on thisstep is important for a couple of reasons.First, you want to make sure that the per-son you met will remember the meetingor conversation you had with him/her thatled to the invitation to join your network.second, your being the first to send the in-vitation shows that you care and that youare very good at timely follow-up. thisshould make a good first impression andsuggest that this is how you do all thingsin your business. today’s Linkedin makes iteasy to personalize the invitation mes-sage, as long as you invite people fromtheir profile page.

3. Review the previous day’s emails ofgroup discussions you are following.Don’t follow a discussion or get regulargroup updates unless you are really inter-ested in the topic or the person whostarted the discussion, because you will beoverwhelmed by the number of updateemails. Be selective, and then you’ll onlyhave the important discussions to keep upwith. a quick tip: set up a folder in yourregular email inbox for Linkedin group dis-cussions only.

4. Review the status updates from yournetwork for the previous day.this isyour chance to see what your connectionsthink is important or relevant. Find theseupdates by hovering over all Updates inyour news feed, just below your status up-date field. then select shares. this is youropportunity to nurture a connection bycommenting, sharing or “liking” an update.remember – when you share a comment,

you are sharing it with all the people intheir network, and that is great marketingfor you.

5. Post a status update of your own.Don’tmiss this great opportunity to share infor-mation with your entire first-level networkand remind them that you are still outthere doing business. top of mind is whereyou want to be with your connections,and this is a great way to do that. Just becareful not to make self-promotion yourfocus. remember – Linkedin is a network-ing platform, and that means giving, shar-ing and helping first. One of the bestplaces to find information to share is inPulse, the Linkedin publishing platform.it’s more than just news, it’s articles writtenby members.

6. Review “Recently Connected.” is thereanything more important in the network-ing world than knowing who your con-nections just met? i have received morebenefit out of this section of my homepage than any other part. to find yourconnections’ new connections, hover overall Updates in your news feed, just belowyour status update field. then select Con-nections.

7. Grow your network. if you’ve beenprospecting for yourself, now is the timeto send out invitations. it’s good to have agoal so that you stay on track. a goalcould be the number of connections youwant to add to your network each week.Or it could be the type of connections youwant to add. For November, 2014, i’ve set agoal of adding 300 connections to my net-work. and they will have a title of BusinessOwner or be part of the C-suite. this won’tstop me from accepting requests fromanyone, but i will intentionally go after mygoal. Depending on the type of accountyou have, you will have a limit on the

number of connection requests you send,so i recommend you consider no morethan ten at a time.

8. Post an article using the publishingplatform.On your status update you’ll seea faded paperclip for attaching files and afaded pencil for posting an article. Don’tjust publish an existing blog post or articleyou have elsewhere online. You can repur-pose that content by rewriting it to fit theaudience. Who is the audience? Profes-sionals on Linkedin. this isn’t the place fora sales pitch. if you have any content thatis considered helpful or interesting toother professionals, this is the place topost it. this is not necessarily somethingyou should do every day. But, if you havethe content, use it.

Doing just a few of these steps every day willhelp you grow your network, increase aware-ness of your name and business, and possiblygarner you new clients. Doing all of these steps,every day, will most assuredly add clients toyour list.

the more active i am on Linkedin, and actuallyall of the social media platforms i participate in,the more business i get. sometimes it’s throughreferrals—a connection will refer his or her con-nection or client to me. sometimes it’s from aconnection who reviews my profile each time ishare, and the day comes when he or she asks ifi can help with a project. either way, i’m still inbusiness today, in part because of my activityon Linkedin.

Based in the Louisville, Kentucky area, Charlene Burke is CEO

of Search by Burke (www.searchbyburke.com), providing business

research, online marketing, and training to the business commu-

nity and professionals. She loves to shoot pool (and win trophies),

read real books, watch sci-fi movies, and ponder the meaning of

life while fishing with her husband of 24 years, Rick.


in a previous article for AIIP Connections ispoke about business incubators as part of

my marketing mix. incubators are still impor-tant to me because one of my target markets isearly-stage companies and start-ups, especiallythose in the technology sectors. aligning my-self with incubators as a volunteer presenter ora mentor still adds to my credibility and visibil-ity within certain networks and even results inbillable work.

i’m still pretty much a generalist when it comesto industry but my niche is partnering with en-trepreneurs whether they are consultants, own-ers of established companies, start-ups orsmall/medium sized businesses. some clientsare in the technology sector and thus i sur-round myself with people who also serve thatsector in some manner. incubators were a per-fect place to do that, and they became my firsttype of strategic alliance.

What is a Strategic Alliance?

a few years ago, i realized my company wasgrowing due to a different type of strategic al-liance. there are a number of definitions forthis term and i’ll admit to using it somewhat in-formally compared to how investopedia www.investopedia.com/terms/s/strategicalliance.asp and other legal sources may de-scribe it.

For my own purposes and for this article, i’mnot talking about the building of new formalbusiness entities such as joint ventures, butrather the kind of long-term alliances onebuilds with other colleagues and companies.Often for me they are relationships where i’mbrought in as part of a colleague's team to addextra value to their own offering. My presencehelps to differentiate them, and in many casesour services are complementary. all these al-liances are definitely mutually beneficial busi-ness relationships.

When Does a Client Become aStrategic Alliance?

For me, repeat clients still remain under the tra-ditional client-vendor relationship category. afew factors need to be present to move themto the new category of strategic alliance.

1. in my case, it’s primarily when i’ve hadvery little, or nothing, to do with obtainingthe client, the proposal, and the engage-ment contract. (i can see many readers in-stantly understanding the benefits of thatpart!) in fact, i’m often brought in once arelationship has already been establishedand a project agreed to, or during the pro-posal time when a scope of work is beingclarified.

2. From a practical point of view it means ihave multiple e-mail addresses. When iwork on a project for one of these alliancecompanies, i represent myself as part oftheir virtual team and maintain a special e-mail address and signature during all cor-respondence among the team and theend client. Yes, this can cause problems, asit’s very easy to send a quick email fromthe wrong account. i’ve actually done itand although it tends not to create hugeproblems, it can cause confusion—whichit is always best to avoid.

3. sometimes the work i perform isn’t neces-sarily one of my core service offerings. it’ssomething that i can do well and thatadds value to the alliance company’s proj-ects, but it is also the kind of work that iwouldn’t necessarily market myself to dodirectly. However, in my case it still has tohave something to do with information orresearch in a rather global sense.

My Strategic Alliances

Research for Business Plans.My first strategicalliance was with a consulting company wherethe owner and a handful of colleagues wrotebusiness plans for a very specific target market– companies looking for investor funding. Myrole was to provide background research forthe plans that were being written, thus thewriters themselves became my clients inessence, and my research was folded into theirplans. the company was able to differentiate it-self by saying they had a team member who fo-cused on research, while i provided research onan as-needed basis. this was definitely mutuallybeneficial for three entities.

Research for Commercialization Sections ofGovernment Grants. i established this rela-tionship with a colleague who has a consultingbusiness focused solely on “services related todealing with government entities.” One of herservices was offering technical writing for sBir(small Business innovation research) grants,working with scientists, doctors, engineers andinventors. in this alliance, i provide researchservices to help the clients be able to more in-telligently discuss their go-to-market strategyand commercialization business model--thingsthe government, or any investor, need to see.

Red Team Review for Government Grants.this was a natural progression from the re-search that i provided for the grants. it turnsout that i have an eagle eye and i love to proof-read and so i’m the last one (ideally) to reviewand verify that the writing flows and the inno-vation is understandable to the reviewing audi-ence. i even check that the font size, margins,and page counts are exactly what they have tobe. it takes just a few hours and is great “fill-in”work, plus i learn about many new technolo-gies and innovations.

By Jan Knight, Bancroft Information Services, LLC

Strategic Alliances toHelp Build Your Business

Jan Knight


Business Plan Writing. this alliance is a littledifferent as i do not ever market myself as abusiness plan writer. However, within the largerworld of plans, there are many niches and aclient of mine has found one. in this role i pro-vide a little research, write a short, succinct planbased on a government template, and actuallyhelp create some financial projections for smallbusinesses. this latter task initially scared theheck out of me as i am not a financial or num-bers person. However, i treated it as an oppor-tunity to learn and grow, and with mycolleague’s coaching and training, i’m nowmuch more savvy about the financials of otherbusinesses i research or work for, and even myown business. the projects require a relativelyquick turnaround, but it allows for a certainamount of creativity.

Co-existence

One thing to make clear is that that none ofthese companies has ever suggested that i pre-tend in any way to be an employee of theirs, orthat my own company doesn’t exist. We all areaware that there could be occasional confusionwhen an end client looks me up on Linkedinand sees a different profile from what they ex-pected, or hears my name from someone elsewho knows me primarily as a researcher.

However, it’s become apparent that many busi-ness people are wearing multiple hats or work-ing on multiple virtual teams, at least in theecosystems in which i work. so it’s pretty wellaccepted that specialization is taking place.

if you’re not currently working on projects ormaintaining any sort of strategic alliances ofyour own, be aware of the pros and cons:

Pros

• Your network grows exponentially acrosssectors.

• You learn about new areas of business orindustry sectors.

• Your own skill set grows as you take onnew roles or tasks.

• it can extend an international network (ashas happened in my case).

Cons

• it’s possible you won’t make your hourlyrate every time, since your colleague willearn a portion for administrative or projectmanagement.

• You now have two clients!

• it’s challenging to represent your directclient or be a visible team member at con-ferences or as exhibitors in areas wherepeople already know you. You may wellget asked, “Did you give up your busi-ness?”, as i was once.

Moving toward Strategic Alliances

Collaboration appears to be a buzzword of the

time regardless of the industry. People andcompanies—even competitors—are now col-laborating in some way to create more successfor everyone.

if you feel you’d like to participate in additionalmutually-beneficial relationships and feel confi-dent it won’t dilute your own brand or services,then start thinking about how you can offervalue to a company whose target markets maybe similar to yours. Consider a customer basethat you find difficult to reach, either becauseindividuals are inaccessible or maybe theplaces you’d meet them are inaccessible to youdue to cost. Determine what other servicesthey might also require and try to align yourselfwith other service providers or professionalswho do have access to those customers. re-search what they do for these potential cus-tomers and determine what specifically youcan add to their offering to make them morevaluable and differentiate themselves. Find outwhether their current team consists partially orsolely of independent contractors. You’ll be sur-prised how many do. approach them with aspecific plan on how you can add value and en-hance their differentiation. You may find your-self learning new skills and meeting a wholenew set of people.

Jan Knight, President, Bancroft Information Services, LLC

(www.bancroftinfo.com), has been in business and an AIIP

member since 2001. Situated in Tucson, Arizona, she provides

insight to entrepreneurs with secondary research; much of her

work helps shape business plans, marketing plans, and business

development. Her client base is diverse in both industry and ge-

ographic location.


COaCH’s COrNer �

Last year, i wrote about search techniques for finding competitors inmy Coach’s Corner column (AIIP Connections, v 27, n 4, December

2013). the article started with the following sentence: “Looking for com-petitive companies, products, or services? Here are some search tech-niques.”

i included techniques for finding competitors using google and searchtools useful for finding similar sites. as a follow on, two sites useful for as-sessing a competitor’s website are www.Alexa.com andwww.StatsCrop.com. Both may also be useful for identifying names ofcompetitors pending information availability, which does vary.

alexa has been around since the early internet days and in a recentsearch for competitors, i came across statsCrop. Checking both for thecompetitor in question, statsCrop offered much more detailed informa-tion free. in spot checking a second website, statsCrop also had more in-formation free compared to alexa. You’ll want to check both sites to see ifone has information not available from the other.

One feature i like about alexa is its built-in link to the internet archive,valuable for finding information about a company’s prior websites. ingeneral, prior sites may contain background and history about products,pricing, and market positioning as well as reflect changes in strategic

direction and marketing strategies. More specifically, an older websitemay include:

• Names of former employees, useful for identifying potential inter-viewees if in-depth interviews about a competitor are to be conducted.

• Number of employees (sometimes) and change in location. addingemployees and plants is a growth indicator whereas downsizingmay indicate a company in trouble.

scroll down to the bottom of the page for a link you’ve found in alexa toHow did [the domain] look in the past and click. the link takes you directlyto the Wayback Machine calendar view which maps the number of timesa site was crawled by the Wayback Machine (not how many times the sitewas actually updated) and a link to the Wayback Machine FaQwww.archive.org/about/faqs.php#The_Wayback_Machine. Of course, youdon’t need alexa to find a site’s past web pages. Just go directly towww.archive.org/.

alexa offers subscription-based “pro” accounts with seven-day free trialsin addition to some free information whereas statsCrop is entirely free atthis time. Pricing plans for alexa are atwww.alexa.com/plans?ax_atid=fd34d7a7-36c4-42a4-8c20-65c2d73f3a00

By Amelia Kassel, [email protected]

Web Analytics Sites for Competitive Intelligence

www.alexa.com


� COaCH’s COrNer

Alexa.com Featureswww.alexa.com/

alexa was founded in 1996 and is considered a pioneer in web analytics.traffic estimates are derived from a “global traffic panel, which is a sam-ple of millions of internet users using one of over 25,000 differentbrowser extensions.” alexa also obtains data directly from sites that haveinstalled the alexa script on their site and certify their metrics. Note, how-ever, that site owners may opt to keep their certified metrics private. inaddition to traffic estimates, alexa provides a global traffic rank, which isa measure of how a website is doing relative to all other sites on the webover the past 3 months. they use a “proprietary methodology that com-bines a site's estimated average of daily unique visitors and its estimatednumber of pageviews over the past 3 months.”

Using netflix.com as an example, free information answers these ques-tions:

• How popular is netflix.com? (contains alexa traffic ranks)• How engaged are visitors to netflix.com?• Who visits netflix.com? (demographics)• Where do netflix.com's visitors come from?• Where do netflix.com's visitors go next?• What sites link to netflix.com?• What sites are related to netflix.com?• How fast does netflix.com load?• Where can i find more info about netflix.com?• How did netflix.com look in the past?

in addition, Site Comparisons are available if you register for a free ac-count. Sites Linking requires an alexa Pro Basic Plan at $9.99 per monthand Site Keywords requires a Pro advanced Plan—which has many otherfeatures too—at $149 per month.

StatsCrop Featureswww.statscrop.com

statsCrop is “a free web service that lets you explore any website's infor-mation and its history, understand how your competitor's website oper-ates, help you learn how to optimize your website, and increase yourwebsite traffic and income.’’ statsCrop incorporates 32 features useful foranalyzing a competitor’s website. its Similar Websites feature may un-cover names of competitors, and for some sites statsCrop provides a key-word analysis, useful for creating search strategies when trying toidentify competitors using other search engines. a caveat is that despitethe large number of features, not every feature is included for every do-main name.

Amelia Kassel is President of MarketingBase, a global firm specializing in industry, company and

competitive and market intelligence research. Amelia operates The Mentor Program for new research

professionals and those wishing to expand. Contact Amelia at [email protected] or

www.marketingbase.com.

1. alexa traffic2. Website Load time3. How to Optimize Website4. Website seO score5. Website Daily Pageviews6. Website Daily Visitors7. Website Daily revenue8. Website Worth9. Website iP address10. Website server Location11. Website Daily/Monthly Band-

width12. Website Categories13. Daily Visitors Country Map14. Domain information15. Directory Listing16. HttP Headers

17. theme Colors18. Website Metas19. similar Websites20. same iP Websites21. same Network Websites22. DNs records23. Website Keywords24. Keyword ranking Position25. Other related Domains26. Websites with similar rank27. similar Websites28. similar Websites29. indexed Pages graph30. Backward Links graph31. google Pagerank graph32. W3C HtML Validation graph

volume 28 no. 4 december 2014 - association of …6 aiip connections volume 28 | no. 4 | december...

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