It’s been a very email week.
On Wednesday, I launched Sensitive Subjects. (There was a crude version up for a while but I found a few evenings to give the project some polish and was happy to share it.)
The idea is to warn email marketers before they send a subject line that could be truncated at a dirty word or send an unintended message. I mainly did it for a bit of entertainment and to try some new things in code. People seemed to get a kick out of it, the brands got their #content, and I learned plenty. I’d say it was a success.
I’ll be surprised but excited if the tool makes it onto any marketer’s pre-send checklist, though I routinely hear from developers using Better Placeholder so who knows.
I worked on my Litmus Live speaking proposal over the weekend. What I struggle with most is finding a topic and angle that hits the centre of the Venn diagram between what I’m interested in, what I’m good at, and what the audience will care about — especially the latter. I mindmapped a pageful of ideas and landed on something I’m confident hits the mark. Now to see if the organisers think it’s right for their event.
Here’s a look at my initial brainstorm:
Finally, a quick thought on sick days. I took one last week. I was very ill, but Alana practically had to force me to stay home. I feel a lot of guilt when I do this and I think it’s because for years, especially when I worked in call centres or retail, I only ever took a sick day as a cover to get the time off for something more fun.
I’ve been getting better, though, about not going to the office even if I feel like I could work. I don’t stay home for me; I stay home for my coworkers.