The CleanPix Blog

In our efforts to further reduce our impact on the environment, we are proud to announce the availability of our new electronic billing system. You will now be able to opt into receiving your invoice directly to your email inbox as a pdf attachment as an alternative to receiving it through the mail.

This change is not automatic. If you would like to assist us in the reduction of paper use, please send an email to Inese Birstins. Please confirm the email address you would like your invoice mailed to and we will send you a confirmation of the switch.

If you do not request to be billed via email, you will continue to receive your invoices through the mail as usual. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us (toll free) at 1-866-266-1861.

In much of our documentation we have denounced flash-drive technology as being not quite the green solution it appears, despite the fact that the corporate gift enterprises are peddling the gismos as being the new “green” give-away thingies for all your trade-show documentation. The reasoning is that CDs are now considered as throw-aways, while a flash drive can be re-used, if the documents on it are no longer needed by the user. That makes it “green”?…

Let’s look at a parallel technology that was created for its overwhelmingly “green appeal”: the plastic bag. With the best intentions in the world a small group of ESSO (now Exxon) engineers brilliantly created the plastic grocery bag to replace the not-so-ecological paper bag. By then, in the mid-seventies, overuse of paper bags was thought to be a menace to our trees and forests. The beauty of the plastic bag was based on  its re-usability and was heavily promoted for that very reason. O.K. Now, despite the good intentions and a well-engineered product, as it turned out, the plastic bag got thinner and thinner and became the menace of our landfills. And this, simply because the habits of all of us did not make us re-use and recycle them systematically… Why? We are lazy! (me too!)… Lucky us, we’ve got landfills. oops!

In many developing countries the thin shredded plastic bags end up on the bare, arable land and grossly injure the growing of essential vegetables. Not surprisingly, shredded wheat does not take its nutrients all that well from a mix of dry dirt and shredded plastic (I am purposely skipping the turtle, the bald eagle and the whale, basting happily in plastic stew). In a similar equation, flash drives are getting bigger and bigger, so your 2-year-old flash drive, that novelty that contained a whopping 64 megabytes just a short while ago, is now commonly discarded for the 4-gigabyte, better one, slicker one and on and on… Discarded means…

How many flash drives do you really need, 2-3 per trade show? Not really! By now you can see where I am going with this. It is not the engineers at Exxon that are to blame for current problems with that marvelous creation, the plastic bag. It is the way we all do not use them as designed. For the same reason, to trust that we are about to use or need that many give-away flash drives is naive and ludicrous. And just as an aside, in today’s state of world economics, there has to be something “fishy” about the words: give-away. And there is. Flash drives will be tossed away and swallowed by some fancy-feathered bird that will be featured in a documentary on saving the planet. The solution is simple: do not provide them or take them at trade shows. We do not want more of them. We have one or two and we can barely make use of more (one is making my computer twitch)…

Of course, you could say that the CleanPix statement: “In a digital world, it only makes sense to manage digital files digitally and skip any and all manual transfers, such as flash drives, CDs. etc.” is self-serving. Yet, and for once, this apparent conflict of interest is deserving of a second take and some serious “green” brownie-points.

To be fair, flash drives, not unlike plastic bags, are quite useful inventions and, without question, several shades of green above CD production. Nevertheless, the footprint they leave behind is truly a physical one, not a virtual one. Furious, YES!  When I think that one fully-featured CleanPix account is 1/2 of the cost of production of 1000 flash drives for a one-time give-away and that a CleanPix account would give you world connectivity for a full year plus, YES, you bet I am.

I just got a request from a quite prestigious client to produce 1000 flash-drive give-aways. I stand stunned with the production cost ranging  from $4.50 to $8.5 a unit. I guess after writing this, I just got myself out of a contract, but must admit I had some fun doing the illustration.

Nelson Vigneault
CEO, CleanPix Corp.

At the Montana Governor Tourism Conference last April, we meet Penny Tushingham a representative of Brown & Bigelow promotional products.

As neighbor on the tradeshow floor we got acquinted with Penny and decided to order a line of mousepads for CleanPix. We had very specific requirements: the use of a textile surface for better mouse tracking, a soft feel under the hand and very thin rubberised backing to minimize shipping costs. Above all, we needed a well made and long lasting eco-friendly product.

The pads were custom fabricated and shipped to us quickly but the production had a small glitch. We called Penny right away to voice our concern. Without hesitation and no “mousing around”, Penny took our issue back to the manufacturer with the determination to insure that the CleanPix mousepads would be redone to be, let’s say, “clean as a whistle”. So we now have our bright and shiny mousepads back and we are very proud of them. We would like to thank Penny for her solid professionalism. It is when things go just so-slightly wrong that you can see what customer satisfaction and service is all about. Penny is our bar-none hero of the month when it comes to service and we commend her.  Thanks Penny! and of course… if you need a promotional product, you contact her at 406-458-6110 or email at penny@theglobal.net. If you would like a happy CleanPix mousepad, call us!

Is “GREEN” the kind of diet that soon will be to tossed away? This year, tradeshow after tradeshow, we are invited to rejuvenate ourselves in “green” themes. This is a bit worrisome since it appears that the fad may simply pass as this tradeshow season sees its course. When we created CleanPix, 7 years ago, we thought companies will jump at the chance to use a technology that would help them to get “green” brownie points as well as to ease their daily tasks in communicating with the media. For the most part, the “green” argument was lost as being of marginal interest. Now, suddenly “green” is in. In fact, nothing but the energy crisis and climbing fuel costs can be accounted for as the trigger to this newly found “green” attraction. The use of less oil, less energy is without question the secret recipe to a “green” state.

The dilemma for the tourism industry is clear, less use of energy means better eco-friendly venues, protection of sites, but also may equate negatively to the sparsity of travelers. Sadly perhaps, world travel may become the luxury of the few who can afford it. This is all very worrisome as it seems that, from any perspective, much is at conflict and the future impact of energy costs on the tourism industry is uncertain. Fundamentally it is not the earth that we are killing, it is humanity, that is ourselves, or perhaps for now, more poignantly, those whose means are far less than ours. When we look globally, we see how the less fortunate are forced out of their riches to supply our “needs”. The dubious regulatory tactics that brought the real-estate market to its knees further eroding the middle-class via the sub-prime fiasco is by no means different in essence to the economic practices imposed on powerless countries. Lending them more than they can afford, acquiring their valuable property out of the deal, leaves them stranded on the street. To some people’s astonishment, it’s all under the watchful eye of the World Bank, catalyst in large degree of these deals. (http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine).

Sound familiar or simply controversial? … Sure! Nevertheless, conflicts are struck, political lies are masterminded, etc. If you think I dig too deep here, you are right, I am a grown-up. And … I did, like most of us, at an earlier age, said that we were to change the world. But guess what? This our turn now. “Green” is certainly something we can act on individually and purposefully, and for the most part, we do it in all sorts of ways. In a global world the choices we make affect us all. Basically, if we are supposed to be leaders, we have to lead, our government will follow, that’s their job. Truly, I feel a bit awkward. I feel as if I have single-handedly appropriated this discourse. I apologize, for not having the choice, as I am transcribing borrowed words from the consensus of many of my peers and co-workers. The resurgence of financially sound “green economics” is the result of nothing less than a rejection of a disastrous economical and political wrongdoings, long time brewing.

In all, “green” has to be a fundamental undertaking that requires a fundamental shift in our way of life. They say diets don’t work, I just hope that “green” is more than a diet and becomes a healthier choice, one that is here to stay. At CleanPix, from its design and inception, we have attempted to create standards to assist our clients in their journey. We are fully committed to using less energy, less oil. We are aware that our global reach, and the reach of our clients affect the world globally. The decision of being 100% wind-powered for our electrical needs, since February 2008, has marked our focus into this journey through the betterment of greener solutions for our clients. CleanPix insures sound connectivity with professional media peers and is “green” to stay. Our experience to date has made sound economical sense and has been basically painless. Moreover, as it turns out, it’s about decision making rather than risk taking. As a result, I cannot but encourage all to make the shift. There is no lack of “green tips”, there is a want of “doership”.

Nelson Vigneault
CEO CleanPix

We are happy to inform that no one from the CleanPix staff will ever ask you for your password over the phone or via email. While we are able to access your account to ensure we can provide you with the highest level of service, when required, we do not have access to nor will we ever need your password information. Please keep your account password private. As a matter of practice, we recommend you keep your email password different than any other password you use on the internet.

Remember, you can update your password and account information at any time by accessing “My Account” from the Administration Tools page when you login (http://www.cleanpix.com/cleanpix/MyUserInfo). Due to a recent upgrade, you may be required to specify your country before the system will accept your updated information. If you have any difficulties with your account, feel free to send a message to the support team at support@cleanpix.com.

Cheers from the CleanPix team!

Here at CleanPix, we encourage publishing your pressbrief stories wherever you can in as many ways as possible. We want you to post your story on pressuite.com, but we also want you to post your release onto your own website. Did you know you can even post your press release directly into Facebook? Here’s some tips on how to maximize the mileage and viewership of your pressuite stories:

By copying the unique URL that is generated with each pressbrief you make, you can post your story directly onto your website just like your weblink. Of course this works for any third-party site you like to use as well. Not only will you get traffic to your story from the many visitors on pressuite.com, but you will also get hits from your own web traffic.

And what about Facebook? By using Facebook’s “posted items” tool, you can even spread the word using the worlds largest social networking site.

Here, we’ve taken the link from a winter story we had called “CleanPix gets a visit from Jack Frost”: http://www.pressuite.com/pressuite/PressBriefEmail/0h0b:gSC:apA

With this link, we log into Facebook and then head over to the Posted Items page here: http://www.facebook.com/posted.php

Once the page loads, we simply paste the pressbrief link we copied into the “post a link” field on the right hand side. If done correctly, we see page like this one (click to enlarge in new window):

As you can see, you have many choices for publishing when using Pressuite. We hope you take advantage of some of the different publishing options available to you! Please contact the CleanPix support department if you would like any assistance doing something similar or if you have any questions.

Toll free: 1-866-266-186
email: support@cleanpix.com

You know that CleanPix is a powerful system that enables PR managers and those in charge of digital assets to easily distribute high quality press ready photos, text documents and other assets in a number of ways. But did you know you use CleanPix to replace your expensive media kits altogether?

CleanPix offers a feature called MediaSheets. A MediaSheet is a high quality PDF that contains a selection of images within your library and instructions on how to access those images. These PDFs can be printed on your desktop printer (costing only few cents!) and handed out at trade shows or fam tours, for example.

This does away with the traditional Media Kit which tends to use an elaborate amount of resources, gets rid of the need to use CD Roms which tend to break during transport and even getting rid of having to mail flash drives. All of which allows you to provide a greener way to distribute your highest quality photos to those who need it most.

Using a MediaSheet, a media professional can log onto cleanpix.com, enter in your company name and the verbal access code displayed on the sheet to gain access to your media gallery. From here they can browse through the images you have made available and chose to download your assets in the format that suites them best.

To learn more about MediaSheets and how to use them, check out the How To page available to CleanPix Clients (you must be logged in to view). If you would like assistance with creating your own MediaSheet, feel free to call us or send us an email.

One of the newest technologies available on the web is a service called syndication feeds. You will find these everywhere, on this blog, and even on pressuite.com. But what are syndication feeds? How and why do they work?

A syndication feed is a special service that allows you to keep track of the latest and newest content available as it is published. When a user subscribes to the syndication feed on pressuite.com, they will be able to keep track of the newest story even when they aren’t directly visiting the website at the time. Once they find a new pressbrief has been published, they can click on the link available in the syndication feed and be brought straight to pressuite.com where they can sign in, view the story and gain access to the high quality press ready images made available through that pressbrief. This means that as soon as your story is published, journalist who have subscribed to our “feed” will be able to learn about it instantly.

If you are using a modern browser, you can see and subscribe to these feeds directly with it, but you can also use all sorts of third party programs to subscribe to these feeds as well.

We invite you to subscribe to our blog at http://blog.cleanpix.com/feed/, and watch out for your own story and others as you publish your pressbriefs at http://www.pressuite.com/pressuite/feeds/feed.xml.

Syndication feeds work because they allow everyone instant access to notification of the newest information, even when they aren’t currently browsing your current page.

If you would like to know more about syndication technology check out these helpful links:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_syndication
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_feed_aggregators (applications like Firefox, Apple Mail and Google Reader are part of this list)

Possibly one of the best aspects of CleanPix is the ease in which you can link a dynamic mediacenter onto your website. Media professionals, journalists or travel writers are looking for easy access to quality photos and news briefings. But they are also looking for “news” that really is “news”. What this means is that you, as the communicator, must have to the ability the post new material frequently, at will with minimal (or no) disruptions to your IT team or webmasters.

As a CleanPix member, you are likely aware of how easy it is to exercise control of your files and content updates but you still need to have a website page that is appealing to the media. Here is a couple of samples among other CleanPix member sites where their webmasters designed a clever mediacenter page making the most of these powerful features. Two sites with a dynamic mediacenter: The Post Hotel & Spa and Niagara Falls USA.

In both sites, the webmasters separated the photo collection in visual themes via the use of a thumbnail layout and thereby engages the journalists through a streamlined and pleasant web experience. In addition, by integrating press releases with pressuite.com linked directly on the mediacenter page,  the communicators can keep fresh their media events (including both text and key press-ready images). The use of CleanPix “rights managed” Weblinks allows a channel for both the journalist and the communicator to reach each other more effectively and nail down these custom media requests in a timely fashion.

You are encouraged to try it yourself!