Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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For Your Ears Only

Filed Under Basics, Guest Writer, Successful Blog | 2 Comments

Why Blogging and Guitar Playing Spell Double Trouble
a Guest Post by Alex Beattie

There are many parallels with ‘blogging’ as a craft and ‘guitar playing’ as a craft.

Both the ‘blog’ and the ‘guitar’ are similar in many ways. However, it is important to point out that the ‘blog,’ in the sense of ‘advertisement’ posts or splogs are not the type of blogs I am referring to. The same holds true for the guitar. A guitar you got a for Christmas, and is still in the case is not the ‘guitar playing’ I am referring to - or if you simply happen to own a guitar.

For the Connection

I am pointing out that these 2 crafts (as I see them) are only comparable, inasmuch as the person (and I stress person) works, cultivates, nurtures, hones, errs, loves, promotes the blog and / or the guitar.

Take Seth Godin, for example. He has a blog and has written over 2500 posts (in a row!!!) and has a well-maintained, beautifully written, insightful, and quite an enjoyable blog - let’s not forget he also has an enormous readership.

Then take the band Widespread Panic. They have been playing music together and in front of audiences since 1986, and have amassed a cult-like, Grateful Dead-esque following. They have never, by choice, had a hit single or a number one hit - by choice. They even turned down a gig opening for the Rolling Stones because they (the band) felt that it wouldn’t be fair to their fans. Fans of Widespread Panic enjoy long jams and 3 hour shows.

One most first be drawn to the crafts for the right reasons - one of them is not money. In order to blog successfully (which could mean many different things), one must do it for the right reasons. (i.e. something to say, a cause, a message, a desire to connect to people and to connect people, or maybe just because one likes to write).

The first comparison I would allude to would be neither offer what the ‘knowledge workers’ understand to be a direct path to monetization.

For the Understanding, Appreciation, Motion

The second comparison I would draw is both require a tremendous amount of studying other blogger’s or guitarist’s works. This doesn’t mean plagiarism or blatantly ripping off licks and melodies, but it does require a deeper understanding of composition - whether it is in the form of melodies, notes and rhythms, or HTML code, paragraph structures and the assembling of jpegs, gifs, png files in a 3 column layout composite.

The third comparison would be that both have enormous rewards when another (especially people of the same ilk) appreciates the sound or the blog. If someone attending a show I played approached me after a show and I was playing for beer money and gas, that made it all worth it. All the years practicing was worth it at that moment.

The same holds true with a blog. Nobody read my first post, maybe nobody reads it still, but a few people have stumbled across something I posted and said, “Hey, that was great work, it really made my day.” Or, “That was insightful, Alex, thank you so much.”

The fourth is that they are both a manner of record. While not all passionate guitarists record or want to record, most do at some point. Both the blog and the guitar are public record which gives them some sense of levity or motion. Listen to The Beatles’ earliest stuff like A Hard Days Night and compare it to Tomorrow Never Knows. The Beatles evolved in real time and it was recorded. The same is true with a blog. It is constantly in motion. This is part of what makes them attractive to passionate people.

There are certainly more comparisons here, but at the risk being too creative, I will stop.

For Your Ears Only

A blog is only worth reading if you can tell that someone (the author or authors) really cares, or really wants to transfer an emotion through your viewport. Music and guitars are only worth hearing and listening to if when you hear it, something stirs about you and brings forth something you didn’t have access to until - Voilá ! - the end of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Life Without You comes and on you find yourself teeming with heartache, joy, and happiness which once was recorded by someone who felt the same thing, as if it were meant for your ears only.

—-

Alex Beattie writes about music and life at the Hound Dog Blog. His twitter name is @rubybluesox

Brilliant, Alex! Thank you!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Starting a Low-Cost Business at Home

Filed Under Guest Writer, Successful Blog | 4 Comments

The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

Starting a Low-Cost Business at Home
by the writers of Bizymoms.com

An increasing number of people today are opting to work-at-home. This is understandable – especially with the rising costs of living and all the problems associated with the recession. Work-at-home jobs make it possible for people to save hundreds of dollars every year.

It’s obvious that those who work away from home will incur additional expenses in comparison to those who work-at-home. And most of these expenses are incurred on an almost daily basis. This is especially true today; with the rising costs of gas, most people find that the “daily commute” is becoming increasingly expensive. Traveling expenses aren’t the only ones you’re going to incur if you don’t work at home. Consider additional costs such as food and clothing. For those who work away from home five days a week (or more, in some cases), extra costs for food and clothing can mount up.

Some work-at-home jobs, such as writing, can start with near zero investment. The internet is a valuable resource for writers of every genre. If you’ve got good writing abilities and a command of the English language, you can take on a variety of work-at-home writing-jobs that might appeal to you. Having your doubts? Conduct a search online. You’ll see that online, the services of freelance writers are in constant demand.

For more information on freelance-writing and freelance writing jobs, visit:

www.freelancewritinggigs.com

www.freelancewriting.com

www.freelancewrite.about.com

A “rising-trend” is that more and more moms are opting to work-at-home. Most work-at-home jobs are great for busy moms because they allow great time-flexibility. This time-flexibility factor allows mom to be more “available” for their children. Work-at-home moms save a lot of money – especially on day-care expenses!

For more information on work-at-home jobs, visit:

www.entrepreneur.com

www.work-at-home.org

Advancements in technology and the widespread use of the Internet have given hundreds of thousands of people the chance to work-at-home. The truly global use of the Internet has made it an invaluable marketing tool; one that most businesses will want to use. This offers lucrative work-at-home opportunities for people around the world. These work-at-home options will allow people to save hundreds of dollars a year – especially on traveling expenses.

Atya Shakir is Manager of Webmaster Relations. he arranged for this article written by the writers of Bizymoms.com , which has been dedicated to helping women work from home for over 10 years! Visit their interactive message boards, informative articles, help and advice from the Bizymoms’ Home Business Support Team and achieve your own work at home dreams with our home business start up kits.

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Experience the ROI of Relationships

Be There Before the Sale

Filed Under Guest Writer, Marketing, Successful Blog | 6 Comments

The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

Be There Before the Sale
by Chris Brogan

Greg Cangialosi is one of the very best salesmen I know. He hasn’t sold the biggest dollar product ever (I think that would be David Bullock). He doesn’t sell thousands of accounts a day. Instead, he gets the title from me because he taught me a powerful sales technique, so powerful that Julien Smith and I wrote about him in our upcoming book, Trust Agents. He taught us to be there before the sale.

Greg was one of the very first confirmed sponsors of PodCamp, long before anyone knew that we’d have an international success story on our hands. When we called Greg, we had never run an event, didn’t really know what sponsors wanted, and had no idea how to communicate professionally about the give-and-take that is event sponsorship. Greg was kind, friendly, and supported our event. He didn’t ask for anything unreasonable in return.

Since that point, I’ve run into Greg at several events. He uses another trust agent move, be one of us, quite often as well, by hanging out at our events, by creating content and contributing to our space. He’s not some company owner; he’s a guy who spends time with us, has drinks with us, and who we know and care about.

The ROI of Relationships

Greg also gets the sales. I am personally a customer. I bought another account for my company. PodCamp co-founder Christopher S. Penn is a customer, and has sold the service to his company as well. Both of us refer Blue Sky Factory to anyone asking about email marketing. We love the service, and it’s cost-effective and all that, but most important to us, we have a relationship with Greg, and his service is the product of record for us with regards to email marketing.

Given Chris’s audience, my audience, the people who will buy Trust Agents, and all the time between now and the end of his business, Greg gets free, passionate advertising all the time from a growing legion of fans. For the price of a few beers here and there, Greg has an army.

If that’s not a return on investment, I don’t know what is.

Chris Brogan blogs at [chrisbrogan.com]. He is president of New Marketing Labs.
His twitter name is: @chrisbrogan

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Hear Chris Brogan speak in person!

When Language Fails to Communicate

Filed Under Business Life, Guest Writer, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

A Guest Post by Christa Miller

I recently had a disturbing experience: a misunderstanding with a dear friend during which I began to wonder if language could be too communicative.

The cop and the writer

I’ve been a professional writer for almost eight years. My friend has been a professional cop for over 25 years. I tease him about his “trust issues.” He teases me about my “big words.” Our misunderstanding centered, of course, on both.

Some of his words had hurt my feelings. My response hurt his. His communication began to resemble police radio traffic: terse, brief. I went in the other direction, apologizing profusely, multiple times, as clearly and yet as eloquently as I could. I wanted to convince him how deeply I felt my regret, how much I wanted to put it behind us and move on.

Still he didn’t budge, and I finally gave up. He did not seem able to trust what I was telling him. So I agreed with him that professional communication was best for the time being, and I too backed off.

Is my word my bond?

Most of us who blog as part of our businesses have some facility for words. We may not write with Liz’ poetry or Chris Brogan’s sensibility or Amber Naslund’s passion, but we trust our own ability to use the written word to communicate most accurately what is on our minds.

So whether writing is one tool in an arsenal of many, or the form of communication we rely on most, the idea that someone can’t trust our words is a reason to stop and evaluate. Why did the words fail? What does it mean? Was there too much of “us” and not enough of “them”? Does a fundamental communication gulf exist that threatens the whole relationship?

In my case, my writing may have been too honest, too desperate in its quest to be taken at face value. It was based on what I have learned: to use words to clarify. I never stopped to think that in my friend’s world, words are used to conceal. In fact, veteran cops will tell you that the longer someone tries to convince you of something, the more likely it is that s/he is lying. Needless to say, this was not the message I wanted to send.

Doing it their way

Not everyone trusts strong written communication, forceful speeches, or social network websites. Marketers know that the key is to find what people do trust, then use the appropriate tool. So too with individuals and words. This is harder than it looks. Writing and analysis are my strengths, but to talk to my friend the cop, I now need to emphasize using the phone and humor—two of my worst weaknesses.

This is a strong friendship, and I’m willing to make room for an opposite style of communication. But where’s the line? How do you decide when to accommodate, and when to cut your losses?

Christa M. Miller writes content and talks about social media at Christa M. Miller. Her twitter name is @christammiller

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Invest, Learn, Grow!

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What The Wizard of Oz Taught Me About Business Success

Filed Under Business Life, Guest Writer | 29 Comments

A Guest Post by Amy Derby

As a kid I loved the part of The Wizard of Oz movie where Dorothy’s having the ruby slippers made the guardian of the Emerald City say, “Well that’s a horse of a different color. Come on in!”

The other kids liked the lollipop dance. My mom liked the message that everything Dorothy ever needed had been inside her the whole time. I was fascinated with the ruby slippers, because at five years old I already felt it was important to ponder someday owning that one valuable thing that would make people want to invite me inside their magical world.

Sometimes we allow what we don’t have to define us.

Whether the thing we lack is money or a home or a heart, it’s easy to become so obsessed with what we don’t have that we think getting it will bring us all the happiness in the world. We set out on a path to get there – even if it’s the wrong one — and become determined to reach our goal at any cost. (Sometimes we even have to kill a witch in the process.)

At 18, I bought a bunch of shiny shoes and entered Corporate America. Someone who promised she was a good witch held the glass doors open for me, and I got sucked in. Once inside I quickly woke up to the fact that I didn’t like what that world was made of. Flying monkeys, screechy munchkins, and green ladies who needed houses dropped on their heads gave me nightmares. I had flashbacks of elementary school, where every time someone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, all I could visualize was the yellow brick road and the little man pretending to be a big bad wizard shouting “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

This wasn’t the dream I wanted to live after all.

Someone else’s yellow brick road might look like a promising path, but sometimes it’s just a really long way to get to where you want to go.

That doesn’t mean the path is worthless. I took everything I learned in my scary nightmare land of Corporate America with me to build the business I have today.

Just as I spent hours as a kid glued to the television watching The Wizard of Oz until my mother swore she would give our VCR away to some poor kid in China who didn’t have one, I spent many hours observing the green ladies and flying monkeys of big law firm life. I got to know a lot of different types of folks, and in doing so I made mental notes of everything they had and everything they lacked. I watched the ones who failed and the ones who succeeded — some of them did both — knowing that I wasn’t so fundamentally different from any of them. (After all, they grew up longing for magical shoes too.)

Watching them reinforced a few things The Wizard of Oz taught me:

You’ve gotta have a brain.

Scarecrow: I haven’t got a brain… only straw.
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven’t got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don’t know… But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?

You’ve gotta have heart.

Wizard: As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.
Tinman: But I still want one.

You’ve gotta have courage.

Wizard to Lion: You, my friend, are a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate impression that just because you run away you have no courage; you’re confusing courage with wisdom.

You’ve gotta have a home.

Dorothy: If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.

And sometimes… it helps to have shiny shoes.

Dorothy: Oh, please! Please, sir! I’ve got to see the Wizard! The Good Witch of the North sent me!
Guardian of the Emerald City Gates: Prove it!
Scarecrow: She’s wearing the ruby slippers she gave her.
Guardian of the Emerald City Gates: Why didn’t you say that in the first place? That’s a horse of a different color! Come on in!

Of course, it also helps to know where you’re going and why you want to get there.

It helps to remember that there’s more than one path, and sometimes the best path is the one you pave yourself. Sometimes everything we need really is inside us the whole time. Other times, the stuff we need is only a friend (or a twit) away.

I left the corporate version of Oz in 2004. I’ve been paving my path since, building a business that helps other folks like me succeed — with the help of an awesome network of folks, many of whom I’m happy to call my friends. I can’t say I’m living happily ever after yet, but I’m a lot closer than I was. Meanwhile, I’ve given away most of the shiny shoes I bought, because I don’t really feel like I need them anymore.

What was your favorite book or movie as a kid? What lessons did it teach you that have helped you succeed?

Amy Derby is a law blog consultant and highly caffeinated social media addict who twitters — @amyderby — more than she sleeps.

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