Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

March 29, 2007

What New Friends Have You Met and How Have You Made Life Easy for Them?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 4:42 pm

Done these three things lately?

New links connect blogs. New relationships connect people.

New people can add dimension and depth to your thinking and your ideas.

What new friends have you met lately? How have you made getting to know your blog easy for them? Here are three things you might do to get the ball rolling.

  1. Find a new blog in your niche to follow. New blogs are new people with new points of view. Join their discussion by leaving meaningful comments and trackbacks. Every discussion offers an opportunity to learn something new from.
  2. Check your sidebar. Make sure your sidebar is friendly to new arrivals who want to take a tour. Showing your readers where to find things is advertising.
  3. Organize your archives as your readers would want them, and make a Popular Posts page. Ask your readers how they use your archives. Try to use them yourself to see how they actually work. Take the time to put your most popular articles in one place where new readers can find them as soon as they arrive at your blog.

New friends who feel at home usually come back to visit again.

UPDATE: I am updating this post as part of my response to comments 11-13. Carma this is a post reference that I am linking back to your blog through a trackback. This should show up in your comments for the post called Make New Friends with Trackback.

This is the URl for that page http://karmasword.blogspot.com/2007/03/make-new-friends-with-trackback.html I got there by clicking the time 9:22A.M. (when you posted that post) under your blog. I copied the URL from my browser’s address bar to use it to make the link in my post here.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
For more on how to think like your readers see Customer Think on the Successful Series page.
Watch What You’re Doing.



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42 Comments to “What New Friends Have You Met and How Have You Made Life Easy for Them?”

  1. March 29th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
    Mike said

    One of these rants you’re going to get me to take action… ;-)

    Great suggestions; and especially when taken with your posts on focusing your blog!

    Thanks, Liz.

    Mike

  2. March 29th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Mike!
    Thank you! It’s nice to know you’re looking in on me. :)

  3. March 29th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
    Mike said

    This is a post about friends, right? I like to think of myself as a friend of such a Successful and Outstanding Blogger; so I gots to check in regularly, sorta like Earl Hindman.

  4. March 29th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
    Dave said

    Liz, I like the way you think. Fresh ideas from a people perspective instead of what does Google think. I’ve read so many posts on what to do to make your blog successful but so much seems like it’s just rehashed. Thanks for something new :grin:

  5. March 29th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
    Tony D. Clark said

    Great tips Liz!

    Number #1 is one of my favorite aspects of blogging. It seems like common sense, but it’s always surprising to me how often it gets overlooked.

  6. March 29th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Aw Mike,
    That’s the nicest thing. The feeling goes both ways. I hope you know that. I gots to hear from you sorta like the air I breathe.

  7. March 29th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Dave,
    I don’t think much about Google. Except that I like saying it’s name — it makes me giggle. Beyond that I like to talk to real people about real things and I believe that we have real things to talk about.

    You and I both know they’re not new. Just talking about them is. :)

  8. March 29th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Ah Tony D. Clark,
    You are one B.A.D. blogger. I smile when I think of our conversation about creativity. It was kind of like #1 in this list because we had never talked before and a new friendship formed . . . :)

  9. March 29th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
    Carma Dutra said

    Liz these are three things I will be adding to my personal blogging owners manual. :)

    What are trackbacks? I am sure they have something to do with links but I don’t have a handle on them yet.

  10. March 29th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Carma!
    I remember how confused I was by trackbacks when I first got to Successful-blog from my writing blog. They are kind of hard to get your head around, but once you do the light just goes on. . . .

    Trackbacks are a message from a post you write.

    Say you write a post about a subject and another post you know on another blog exists. You link to it. Your blog sends that blog a trackback. A trackback is a message — an excerpt from your post that gets placed in the comments of the other post. It says, “Hey I’m talking about this too.”

    You make a trackback by linking inside your post to the post that is about the same subject.

    Trackbacks are tricky though. WordPress to WordPress happens automatically, if you have trackbacks (pings) turned on. For Typepad you have to use the trackback url and insert it in the proper place in your post to ping the post you want to know. Blogger doesn’t support trackbacks as far as I know.

    Someone will have to help with other platforms. I’ve just gone as far as I know. :)

  11. March 29th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
    Carma Dutra said

    Liz, this was so helpful. I use Blogger so I will pursue that area to find out if they do anything similar.

    Thank you soooo much.

  12. March 29th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Carma
    I have something for you! There is a standalone trackback tool you can use. :)

    This post has the link to two of them

    http://www.successful-blog.com/1/great-find-2-standalone-trackback-tools/

  13. March 29th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
    Carma Dutra said

    Wow this is wonderful! Thank you Liz. I will let you know how it works. I’m excited now.

  14. March 29th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Carma!
    They both work about the same. I couldn’t find any difference. I don’t know why anyone would need two except if one websit is down or if you are wondering if your own is.

    Have fun!! :)

  15. March 30th, 2007 at 4:51 am
    Karin H. said

    Oh dear.
    Liz, you’re as ‘bad’ as Kent. Two days left of the first quarter and you and him both want me to write down lists, set up lists, count lists, prepare lists and think lists.

    Oh well, weekend is coming ;-)

  16. March 30th, 2007 at 5:43 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    I hereby absolve you from listing and lists. May you wait until Quarter 2. :)

  17. March 30th, 2007 at 5:51 am
    Karin H. said

    No, no, no Liz

    What about all the dreams, visions and actions I have for Q2? Need to list them, need to list them.
    Will forget.

    (tells one self in firm voice: ok, calm down, calm down, girl! Remember: you’re allergic to lists!)
    ;-)
    I’m a LL’er in fact: Love Lists

  18. March 30th, 2007 at 5:54 am
    ME Strauss said

    Okay,

    Breathe.

    Let’s go for the two-day bridge plan.

    Put each dream on a separate sticky note.

    Then when Q2 starts, move the notes together onto one sheet and you’ll have list.

    There you go!

  19. March 30th, 2007 at 5:58 am
    Karin H. said

    ;-)

    (If you’re not careful I’ll send you the real chuckle!)

  20. March 30th, 2007 at 6:00 am
    ME Strauss said

    Karin,
    I so love meeting you in the mornings.
    Thank you for just being you. :)

  21. March 30th, 2007 at 6:03 am
    Karin H. said

    Mornings?

    Ah, you’re way behind! It’s midday here already ;-)

  22. March 30th, 2007 at 6:11 am
    ME Strauss said

    Yeah, I know.
    For as smart as I am, I always was a little slow on somethings. :)

  23. March 30th, 2007 at 6:14 am
    Karin H. said

    Well, my friend (as this post is about friends, let’s not forget the main issue here),
    this time it is simply down to….
    time zones

  24. March 30th, 2007 at 6:17 am
    ME Strauss said

    I’m also know for having bad timing on occasion, but then too for letting the good times roll.

  25. March 30th, 2007 at 6:19 am
    Karin H. said

    Let’s not talk about time any more (I’m running out of it today!)
    So, have a nice weekend everyone, I have to get some work done NOW!

  26. March 30th, 2007 at 6:21 am
    ME Strauss said

    Smile,

    Have a wonderful weekend, Karin!!

  27. March 30th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
    Scorpia said

    A few months back, I got to thinking of all the posts on my site, and realized there was no easy way of finding early ones.

    Sure, there were the archives, and the individual categories and the search box, but I didn’t consider any of those to be handy.

    So I created a manual index page. It lists all the articles, by category, from earliest to most recent. Anyone can look there and just scroll down the list to find something interesting to read. That’s much faster than paging through categories or archives.

    Of course, I have to update that list manually with each new post, but then typically I do one a day, once in awhile two. It isn’t big hassle. And I keep a backup of the index, too.

  28. March 30th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Scorpia!
    Great to see you!

    What a great idea! I’m so glad you brought it up. Even better that you executed it fully.

    You know I think about doing one every time I visit a certain true tech blog that has one. Then I get back here and I forget.

    Once a blog reaches a certain size, an index seems like the only logical answer. Searches bring up too many entries . . .

  29. March 30th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
    Scorpia said

    Well, the longer you let it go, Liz, the harder it will be to get done. But once you have it, updating is not a problem. Maybe you could make this your next weekend project? ;)

    I should also add, that by having the index, it makes it much easier to refer back to an earlier related post or two in your current post. Something to think about!

  30. March 30th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Scorpia!
    I can think of so many values in having an index. The problem is that if I take the time to do one, at the moment, I will be stealing moments from the only life that I have.

  31. March 30th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
    Scorpia said

    Creating something of value to others is never stealing from your life. It is a way of enriching your own life through giving.

    And that’s the last I have to say on the matter ;)

  32. March 30th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Scorpia!
    I’m not too worried about running out of ways to give back. I am a little worried about never seeing my family. :)

  33. March 31st, 2007 at 3:56 am
    Karin H. said

    Good morning Liz (gorgeous day out here)

    Tried both the track back sites you mentioned earlier, but none are working ;-(

    So, I try it the old fashioned way: Managing your business, managing your blogs and time to manage lists.

  34. March 31st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
    Yang-May Ooi said

    Hi Liz, I just discovered http://www.MyBlogLog.com through another blog I visited this morning. You sign up and add some code to your blog and when other members of MyBlogLog visit your site, their picture appears on your blog as a “recent reader” - similarly, your pic appears on their blog when you visit. It’s a great way to create a community on individually hosted sites (ie not on MySpace “gated communities”. As I’ve only just signed up, I don’t have many new friends from there yet - so if you or any of your readers would like to be part of my fusion community, that would be fab!

    Also, I’ve recently met up with a number of bloggers I’d only known via our blogs - at some book events organised for me by a couple of blogger contacts while I was in Malaysia; and also a UK-based blogger. It’s great when virtual networks link into the real world to become a real world social network esp. when too much virtual reality can make us more isolated - see http://www.fusionview.co.uk/2007/03/virtual-communities-lonely-reality/

  35. March 31st, 2007 at 9:29 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    I did get by to read your post even if I didn’t have a seocnd to write this comment until this minute. I like the way you put together that list in your comment . . . . business, blogs, and then lists. :)

  36. March 31st, 2007 at 9:30 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Yang May,
    Thank you for your visit. It looks you’ve found some ways of making connections that work just great for you. :)

    Yea!!! for that and yse I know the vitual world to the real world connection is a wonderful one. I’m enjoying it every time that I possibly can. :)

  37. April 1st, 2007 at 8:01 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Like I said before: I am a LL-er (List Lover ;-))
    It was very coincidence that both you and Kent wrote posts about ‘recapturing’ planned aims and results (specially on the last day of a financial quarter).

    Love the idea of Scorpia and will follow suit (and make my own blogging life easier too! - able to find my own posts back in a more simple - not “my memory is failing me error message” - way)

  38. April 1st, 2007 at 8:07 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karen!
    you get that errar message too? I thuoght that was just my own problem, caused that the continuous electro-shock we used to keep down the stress levels at one publishing company I used to work for. (zap — There now, doesn’t that feel better? )

  39. April 1st, 2007 at 8:32 am
    Karin H. said

    Shock and double shock ;-)

    Yep, memory is back on track Liszsz

  40. April 1st, 2007 at 8:34 am
    ME Strauss said

    Ah, There’s my problem. I had it set to Liz-zzzzzzzzzzz honk-shhhhhh, honk-shhhhhh, zzzzzzzzzzz honk-shhhhhh, honk-shhhhhh. :)

  41. April 2nd, 2007 at 5:42 pm
    daveolson.ca - the developing blog! » Why blogs and blogging will ruin your self-discipline. said

    [...] And then there is the actual reading of blogs. There is just sooo much great content out there. As a newbie blogger I want to know how to avoid all the mistakes that others have made. I want to find my feet in blogging and then how do I get the word out about my blog? Which will then require that I keep in mind what my readers want. [...]

  42. July 21st, 2007 at 6:27 am
    Blogging Relationships - a Virtual Interview With Liz Strauss & Lorelle » Circular Communication said

    [...] “What new friends have you met lately? How have you made getting to know your blog easy for them? Here are three things you might do to get the ball rolling. 1. Find a new blog in your niche to follow. New blogs are new people with new points of view. Join their discussion by leaving meaningful comments and trackbacks. Every discussion offers an opportunity to learn something new from. 2. Check your sidebar. Make sure your sidebar is friendly to new arrivals who want to take a tour. Showing your readers where to find things is advertising. 3. Organize your archives as your readers would want them, and make a Popular Posts page. Ask your readers how they use your archives. Try to use them yourself to see how they actually work. Take the time to put your most popular articles in one place where new readers can find them as soon as they arrive at your blog. New friends who feel at home usually come back to visit again.” Liz [What New Friends Have You Met and How Have You Made Life Easy for Them?] [...]

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