I am thrilled that the new website is live!

If you are reading this blog, you are on the site, and I hope you take a few detours, click around, and see what’s new.

The site was built by Lennie Appelquist of Cider House Design in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and the graphic elements developed by him and his team are innovative and dynamic. Lennie, with the help of his wife and business partner, Elizabeth, helped me create a tighter focus on my three key service lines: book development, crafting press releases, and writing content for blogs, websites, and magazines. Since the launch of the new site, Lennie has also been responsive and nimble at troubleshooting the minor issues that cropped up; he even made phone calls to my web host to intervene on my behalf, as the problems all revolved around the host, and I don’t speak that language.

I’ll walk you through some of my favorite aspects of the new site:

• Lennie encouraged me to build a site that is centered around me and my experience because, as he said, “You are Beetle Press.” It took some time, but I embraced this logic because it reflects reality. Photography by Judith Kelliher and Craig Fear make this point on the homepage, as does the written content, which better tells the story of my background, experience, and service offerings.
• The site has a continuous page design, so visitors have the option of scrolling to find what they want, or clicking on the tabs in the main navigation.
• My colleagues are introduced well, and the testimonials are easy to find and peruse.
• One new feature allows visitors an easy way to sign up for my newsletter and when they do, they can receive my informative white paper, “What is news? And how to share it.” Free. There is some great information in this giveaway. Scroll down to the bottom of any page to sign up, so you can check it out!
• I offer four tiers of help with press releases, and the site provides a clear and simple way for visitors to view each tier.
• The blog and client press releases tabs are livelier and easier to navigate.

Let me know if I can answer any questions that come up as you take a look around.

And be in touch if I can help you with a project.

The post Check Out the New and Improved Site appeared first on Beetle Press.

A lover of fantasy, my early stories centered around sentient animals going on grand adventures—such as a rabbit who got an elf shoe stuck on his head and a mouse who was mistakenly recruited into a rat war against cats.

Most of my stories stayed in my head, as I was a slow writer and new to the art of expressing myself on paper. I also had some trouble focusing at first, often getting started on writing one story but soon abandoning it for the next project. Encouraged by my older sister, in my senior year of high school, I finally finished a story of my own creation, a narrative from the perspective of a ghost child haunting his old house.

Once at Westfield State University, where I am now a senior, I was unsure about what I wanted to pursue as a major to set me up for my future career. Tormented by the stereotypical image of the starving fiction author, I decided to study to become a high school English teacher, majoring in English Literature with a concentration in secondary education. This felt more practical to me and would still allow me to immerse myself in reading and writing.

Only recently, I came to the realization that teaching was not for me. I decided that I could make a bigger impact by distributing literature and informational texts that could widen and inspire people’s views of the world and their views of themselves as individuals.

I decided to drop the secondary education concentration from my major and promptly signed up for an internship with Beetle Press in order to gain writing experience in various genres. I am currently writing blogs and managing the editorial calendar, and I also have my hands in many other projects, including writing press releases.

Storytelling is a passion for me. I feel that stories are a safe medium, through which one can gain insight into the minds of others and explore new experiences and emotions. Stories also evoke empathy from the reader and stimulate greater understanding and exposure to new ideas.

I believe that every individual has valuable stories to tell, and would love to get involved in helping authors get their stories into the public eye. For the future, I would like to work in publishing and distribution and also become a successful creative writer myself.

I am pleased that with my new concentration, I can tell others’ stories, as well as my own.

My creative pursuits also extend into music. I serve as a music director at Westfield State’s radio station WSKB 89.5FM, sorting through the various music that is sent to the station and deciding which songs will be added to the rotation.

I also have my own radio show, featuring good music and commentary about tea, books, and movies. I also participate in the English honors society, Sigma Tau Delta, through which students collaborate and further develop their skills as writers and readers through attending conferences and hosting literary events.

In my free time, I enjoy singing and teaching myself to play the guitar. I also consume vast quantities of Let’s Plays (recorded footage of videogame play-throughs with commentary from the game player), short comedy sketches, and video blogs (a.k.a. vlogs) on YouTube.

The post Intern Sees the Value in Storytelling to ‘Widen and Inspire’ Viewpoints appeared first on Beetle Press.

The Creative offers strategic marketing, messaging and design services for organization leaders in the region. Among others, clients include United Way of Hampshire County, Glenmeadow and Northfield Mount Hermon School.

Each of the women in the trio owns a communications business in the Valley: Beetle runs Beetle Press of Easthampton; Griggs is the principal of RC Communications of Northampton; and Scanlon is the principal of Murre Creative of Florence. Together, they provide clients with the opportunity for comprehensive marketing and communications services.

Beetle is a writer with 30 years of experience as a communications professional. She has journalistic, corporate and creative writing experience.

Griggs specializes in marketing and communications strategy. Her comprehensive marketing plans use advertising, social media, video, website, community engagement and public relations strategies to convey her clients’ messages in creative ways.

Scanlon creates award-winning graphic design, working across all visual media with an emphasis in branding, identity systems, advertising and print publications.

For more information about The Creative’s services and its founders, or to see examples of their work, visit the website at thecreativemarketing.net.

The post Three Area Businesswomen Announce Collaborative Website appeared first on Beetle Press.