Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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

What ‘Julie and Julia’ Taught Me About Reaching Goals

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 4 Comments

cooltext455576688_blogging

During a recent night of Netflix searching, my husband and I watched the movie “Julie and Julia.” This film, from 2009, intertwined the story of cooking sensation Julia Child with Julie Powell, a blogger who challenged herself to cook every recipe in Julia’s first book and record her experiences in a blog. This true life adventure helped me realize a key to reaching goals.

One pivotal scene is the movie is when Julie decisively commits to this cooking/blogging challenge. She announces her decision to her husband, Eric, and says that if she does not give herself a deadline, she will not complete that immense task. One year for 524 recipes.

Give yourself a deadline

When I worked for the newspaper, deadline was a word I heard daily. “Will it be ready by deadline?” “We have to meet deadline.” “Maybe we can extend the deadline a little for this breaking news.” “It’s too late; it’s after deadline.” The deadline dictated what would make the daily news.

With a blog, it’s hardly a necessity to make your content stick to a strict 10:30 a.m. deadline. However, there are benefits to establishing a blogging schedule.

A deadline means more than just the time your posts appear for public viewing. A deadline gives your goal or goals a point of fruition.

Let me illustrate it this way. Let’s say that I want to start integrating video into my blog. I would give myself a week to research and purchase a video recording device and another week to shoot two to four videos. I would allot myself two to three hours per day per video to make my own edits. Then I would spend a day posting the videos and another week to fiercely promote them.

Know this, I’ve not yet put video on my blog. But this rough sketch gives me the idea that it would take me a good month to get a few decent video posts published. My time allocations fit my schedule. They might seem drastically long to you or perhaps not long enough. However, only I know what I can handle.

The same goes for you. You know what you are capable of achieving and how long it will take you.

Light a fire

Do you need to light a fire under yourself? Make your deadlines tighter and stick to them. Give yourself one week to get high quality video on your blog.

At the same time, be realistic. If you work a fulltime 40-hour week, such a task might be insurmountable in such a short period. Give yourself necessary leeway, not excuses.

And please, don’t decide to do something by the end of 2011. That’s too general. If you’re going to be that general, make several short-term goals and deadlines along the way.

A new year, a new deadline

Most people look at the start of the new year as a fresh start. Challenge yourself by setting a deadline to just one goal. It could be for your blog, for your weight, for your family, or something else. Whatever it is, treat it like you were a reporter at a newspaper. It is urgent. With no deadline, there will be no news.

Tell me, what is your goal? What is your deadline, and how will you achieve it?

—-
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

How to Make Quality the Signal above the Time and Money Noise

Filed Under Community, Great Finds, Marketing, Successful Blog, Writing | 1 Comment

10-Point Plan: Train Self-Managing Teams with an Outstanding Bias Toward Quality

Show Me in the Contract Where It Assures the Work Will Be Good

insideout logo

Spend enough time in business you hear the saying, “Fast, Quick, and Good, Can’t have all three!” or some version of it. In my business it was Quality, Schedule, Budget, Pick Two!”

I watched and wondered for years what made this algorithm work. Observation proves that without constant surveillance it consistently comes out the same.

Schedule and Budget win out over Quality.

Quality is hard to define, protect, and keep. It’s high touch, high concept, by it’s very nature qualitative and subject to discussion. Schedule and budget are right there, out loud, down on paper easy for everyone to measure and see.

In a business endeavor, every member of a team knows exactly how late, how much over budget some effort might be, but few can agree how much it has slipped on quality.

If we’re talking about products, it’s hard enough judge the quality gap — that’s the job of the product team.
But suppose we’re talking about quality leadership, quality thinking, quality communication, quality relationships, or living out a quality social media strategy?

How Do You Keep the Noise of Time and Money from Killing Quality?

Quality leadership does the quality thinking that forms the quality decisions. It’s quality communication that builds long-term quality relationships. That kind of quality is at the foundation of any team endeavor that succeeds. It’s also the at the core of any quality social media strategy.


Whether we’re talking to employees, customers, or volunteers, it’s important that we telegraph with every nuance of our brand that quality will always be the signal above the noise of time and money. Because quality is about them.

How do we build an outstanding bias toward quality into the fabric of our organization and our teams? Use the same steps we used to build a brand-values baseline and if you can, invite help from that same core team.

Research has proven we go where we look and we change what we measure. If we want our bias toward quality in thinking, leadership, communication, and relationships to grow, we have to look at, measure and talk about them in the same ways we do schedule and budget. If we want quality to be the signal above the noise, we have to invest our schedule and budget in making it so.

People look at what we do — not what we say — to know what we believe.

How do you prove to your employees, customers, and volunteers that quality is above the noise of time or money?

READ the Whole 10-Point Plan Series: On the Successful Series Page.

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Successful-blog is a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

The Short Post Vs. The Long Post. Who Will Be Victor?

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 10 Comments

cooltext455576688_blogging

I was recently interviewed about blogging, and one question I was asked was how many words a post should be. I will admit that when I first started blogging, word count was an issue for me. I would deliberate over posts not being long enough and think that if a post were too long, my audience would quickly stop reading it.

It’s funny. When I first started working at the newspaper, I was worried about word count. I had come from college. In English class, the instructor tells you to write x amount of pages. If you don’t, expect a lower score. Well, it’s not like that at the newspaper.

You are not going to get a lower paycheck if your articles are not at least 500 words. I learned very quickly that everyone wrote differently. Each writer highlighted different aspects of a meeting or event. Every person created an article that would interest readers. Whether it filled just one column or several, it still was news. It was written well, and that was enough.

Blogging for who?

If your blog is a personal project that isn’t meant to benefit anyone but yourself, write however much or little as you want. It’s for you!

If your blog is directed toward a particular crowd, then you need to ask yourself this question:

Does your audience favor longer posts or shorter ones?

ViperChill wrote This Is How Long Your Posts Should Be. Different blogs were different lengths. Variances were from less than 200 words to nearly 1500 words. Your blog’s niche can help you to see what kind of word count your audience is looking for.

But that is not the only thing that determines how long your posts will be.

Blogging for who, again?

What about you? You are the one doing the writing. Are you naturally a long-winded person, or do you get your point across in a few short paragraphs? Do you feel the need to explain every little detail, or do you favor short, informative lists?

Your own writing style comes into play when you’re deciding if you should write short posts or long ones. You have to allow your personality to shine because if you force yourself to follow rigid rules, your blog will suffer. You will find writing more of a chore than a joy.

Personally, I am a succinct person. I like to write what I think I need and stop. I hate to feel like I’m babbling. On the other hand, I’ve read plenty of long posts that have had me captivated to the very last period. On my blog, Jael Strong and I purposely mix short posts and longer ones. We do what we need to get the job done.

Just write!

Don’t get too hung up on word count. It really should not be too high your priority list. The most important aspect of your blog should be original, quality content. Short vs. long? I deem it a tie.

Do you tend to write short posts or long ones, and why?

—-
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

Thanks to Week 269 SOBs

Filed Under Comments, Marketing, Motivation/Inspiration, SOB Business, Successful Blog, Writing | Leave a Comment

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A


andreas-balancing-act
blind-influence
careerwise
my-storyboard-life
new-adventures-of-an-old-sid

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

I Need To Blog But I Hate Writing

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 7 Comments

cooltext455576688_blogging

This statement is not true of me. I love writing. I find the written word to be the best way to express oneself.

However, not all share the warm, fuzzy feelings I have for writing. They have more of a love-hate relationship with sentences and paragraphs.

When you recognize the benefits of blogging, then you know that you have to kindle some type of fire for writing or hire a professional blogger. When I don’t know how to do something, I always opt to hire out.

My husband once decided that he could repair our toilet. It was a simple fix, so he was told. Simple for the professional and simple for the completely clueless amateur have two totally opposite definitions. After Ethan “fixed” our toilet, which took a couple hours, every flush included waterfalls done our basement walls and showers into our garage.

We learned our lesson.  Always seek professional help.  The plumber charged as much as a new toilet would have cost us for about 10 minutes of work. But we got a functional toilet with no leakage.

When you cannot do it, don’t.

Like I said, when you are absolutely certain that your limited skills stop short at creating intelligible sentences, hire out. Don’t feel defeated. It takes a strong, humble person to seek out help when needed.

But let’s say that no matter how you figure your expenses, you cannot afford a good writer. That does not mean it’s time to shut down your blog.

Get some guest bloggers.

The majority of guest bloggers will write at your blog for $0. Why would a writer give services away for free? Because what she gets in return doesn’t have a price.

Jael Strong and I are in the midst of a guest blogging challenge. Yes, we are looking for exposure. But even more importantly, we are looking to make connections with people.

We’re not the only available guest bloggers out there. Others have joined us in the challenge. Take advantage of this free insight, and when you have the funds to hire a writer, you know to whom you can turn.

Just talk

Guest blogging can fill in many of the holes in your blog. You still feel the need to add your own original posts. My best advice is to just talk.

A blog is informal. It’s not a research paper. It doesn’t have to strictly follow every rule of grammar. I’m not saying that strings of run-ons are acceptable or that outside links are not warranted. I am saying that you can loosen up.

Don’t think of your blog as a formal article. Think about it as helpful information you are sharing with a friend. Just talk!

If you still aren’t buying into that tip, then seriously… just talk. Get a video camera, talk and put up some video posts. That is still a blog, well, a vlog to be more correct.

Make sure you’re talking/writing about something that interests you. I find the best way to generate interest is to parallel it with your own life. You might find your love-hate relationship with writing tipping the scale more toward love.

How do you keep your blog fresh?

—-
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

« go back — keep looking »