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Roger Ebert, whose writing has been absolutely on fire these past few years, has weighed in on Hollywood’s infatuation with 3-D films, giving it a big thumbs down.

The distractions that 3-D movies demand of its audience are obvious to anyone who has had to endure wearing a pair of those goofy glasses—and that will play a large part in this being fad that falls out of fashion just as surely as it has before. But Ebert touches on another important point: great films…great and successful films…have found their audience just fine over the years without 3-D, and it’s hard to imagine how any of them would be improved via this newest tech obsession.

The lesson here is this: you can dress up a mediocre product with gimmicks and while it may initially attract a little attention, soon people will tire of it.

The way to reach an audience and to get them coming back for more is by telling a great story—or in the case of studio executives, by having an eye for a good story when it hits the desk.

It’s that simple. And that hard.

About the author: Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.

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Concentrate less on describing what your product or service does. Think more about what problem it solves for your customers.

About the author: Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.

CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.

Remember the advice of bestselling writer Elmore Leonard: “try to leave out the parts that people skip.”

Be brief. Readers will love you for it. (Photo by guestalt).

About the author: Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.

CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.

Our good friends (and longtime client) over at Engage Selling Solutions have just let me know they have only three seats remaining at their Sales Mastery Workshop, April 28-30, 2010.

This is a must-attend event for any business keen on selling more in less time with better results.

Be sure to check out their site for more details…but don’t wait too long! Engage events have a legendary following and I wouldn’t be surprised of these remaining three seats disappear very soon.

[Update] Sold out!

History and statistics.

Be honest, when you read those two words together, do you think to yourself “hey now those topics together could make for a really engaging presentation!” Probably not. But in the hands of the right speaker—someone who is both passionate and knowledgeable about their subject—anything becomes possible.

Just as important, when that passionate presenter invests in the right tools to communicate their message in a meaningful, memorable way, magic can happen.

Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, provides a great example of this. It’s worth watching the entire presentation, but around the 5:25 mark, watch how history and statistics come to life in his PowerPoint/slideware show.

Stunning…

About the author: Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.

CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.

You may have noticed that we’ve refreshed the portfolio icons located on the right-hand side of every page of our website. Many of the new ones were designed by the amazingly talented digital artist, Tatyana Suhodolska, whose hard work definitely deserves praise and attention.

Be sure to check out her work today.

I love treating my clients well, and one of the ways I do that is by sending little gifts periodically just to say thanks. Gift baskets with coffee or chocolates are always popular, of course, but I also try to come up with products that—more than just being tasty—are useful and memorable.

That has lead me to one of my newest gift products: custom-made postage stamps.

After all, even in this digital age, just about everyone I know still needs stamps…and just about everyone I know in business is always short a stamp or two for mail-outs. So when an envelope arrives at a client’s doorstep with a full sheet of personalized stamps (authorized by Canada Post*) ready to use, I can almost hear their cheers right across town.

The feedback I’ve received on this product has been great, and that’s included plenty of interest in learning more about how it’s done. So here’s a summary in three easy steps.

1. Visit Canada Post’s Picture Postage website. It explains all the important technical and legal points that you need to know about.

2. Choose the digital image that you want to feature on your personalized stamp. Make sure it’s a photo you own and have the legal right to feature on a stamp. A company logo might be allowed, but exercise good judgment. Remember that your client is going to want to use the stamps on their own mailouts, so make sure that it doesn’t look as though you’re putting your brand on their correspondence. My approach has been to use photos from my personal collection, but decide what works best for you.

3. Review the finished product and send to your client. When your order ships to you from Canada Post, it features a full sheet of stamps, plus a card-sized reproduction. I forward this along with a short note to my client saying thanks for their ongoing business. I also find it helpful to mention that yes, indeed, these are real stamps and valid at domestic letter rates in Canada.

* American readers take note: there’s a similar service for custom US postage available right here.

About the author: Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.

CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.

This is brilliant. And it even manages to sneak in a joke at the expense of the much-ridiculed Comic Sans.

Be sure to zoom-in on the image or you’ll be missing out on half the fun.