Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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

October 24, 2009

Happy 4th Birthday to SOBs Everywhere!

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 11:46 am

All Weekend It’s a Party!

Today is Successful-Blog’s fourth birthday.

happy-birthday-4

On October 24, 2005, I wrote my first blog post on Successful-blog. That week began the story and the wonderful relationships this blog has made. Some facts about what that has been:

Thank you everyone who has stopped by to read, leave a thought, be a part of this blog and my life.

It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

Here’s how it works.

open mike night

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.


Help Celebrate!! Bring a Link! Bring a Link!

That’s right, you’re invited to bring a link to your most successful post. When you leave the link, please write a comment about how you chose the most successful post to bring.

I’ll compile a list like this when the party is over.

Stopping to Celebrate! 100+ Party Links that Mark Our History

C’mon in and get to know us! There’s free beverages and snacks in the sidebar. Join the party. See who you meet. Stay and come back again. Happy Birthday, all of you! Thank you for making what we do meaningful! -

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related articles
The Mic Is On: Happy 3rd Birthday to SOBs Everywhere!
2006 Birthday Party! The Mic Is On: Happy 2nd Birthday to SOBs Everywhere!


Filed under Community, Marketing, SOB Business, Successful Blog | 40 Comments »


October 24, 2009

Thanks to Week 209 SOBs

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:47 am

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


the-hot-mammas-project
information-playground
media-cupcake
paul-gillin
rock-and-roll-guru

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


Filed under SOB Business, Successful Blog | No Comments »


October 23, 2009

SOB Business Cafe 10-23-09

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:55 am

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

John Haydon
I was on the phone yesterday with a prospective client who expressed concern from her board about losing control. “I know that we need to eventually start blogging and tweeting,” she said. “but our board members are concerned about losing control.” She went on to describe what I think are extremely valid concerns:

How to control social media

Beth’s Blog
This morning I gave a presentation for a group of senior marketing people from performing arts centers around the country on social media. I’ve done a number of presentations and workshops for arts organizations over the years and have even created a wiki “Social Media for Arts People” with stories, links, and other resources, but haven’t spoken to arts organizations recently. It was a good opportunity to see how things have changed.

Social Media and the Performing Arts: Engagement First, Ticket Sales Second

the incslinger
Social Media is the new darling of many brands, the silver bullet that will fix all ills. While some brands have made major in roads in discovering a new method of expanding their ability to reach their customers and potential customers some have quite obviously become so over enamoured with Social Media that they have forgotten the basics of managing a brand.

How To: Kill A Brand With Social Media

Barry J Moltz
To conquer the feeling of the “Beyond” you have to be “Above and Beyond”…. If you look at the most successful people throughout history, most have something uniquely special about them that makes them stand out….

Standing Out From the Crowd

Sheilas Guide
While I’d love to have unlimited funds, piles of frequent flyer miles and telepathic powers, I have to confess that I’m “attending” these conference by watching their Twitter hashtags, and you can, too.

How to attend a conference when you’re not there – use Twitter hashtags

Related ala carte selections include

Logic + Emotion
I recently returned from Blogworld 2009, a mix of business, social media and social events which spanned nearly 4 days taking over much of Las Vegas. It was a flurry of activity and got my gears turning—here’s a few things that caught my attention:

Insights & Opinions From Blogworld 09

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

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Filed under Great Finds, Successful Blog | 3 Comments »


October 22, 2009

Building a Career: Combining a Personal Blog and a Company Job

charles wrote this at 9:34 am

When we are talking about building your own career, there is nothing more personal to you than your own blog.  When you are working for a company, there are many different kinds of situations which may cause you to leave or to stay temporarily.  But as you are building your career in the “real world”, you can start picking up your working knowledge and build them into useful information around your own blog in the “virtual world”.

Start building a career around your own blog today!

4 Do’s and 4 Don’ts in your blog while working on your job

Do’s

  1. Ponder about what you have learned today.  Start taking down notes, and build useful information that people will love to read about.
  2. Be an expert in your own topic.  This is your time when you can show off what you have learned.  Even though you may make mistakes at your own job, this is the time when you can learn from your mistakes and blog them.
  3. Start building your community and help people to build theirs by contributing your efforts.  Help others when you are approached if it doesn’t take you much in your time and money.  Be real and treat this like a hobby.
  4. It’s good to leverage on useful software and other people’s services.  You have a job, so start investing time and money in yourself to build a good portfolio!

Don’ts

  1. Don’t be influenced too much by all the hype about making money online. It can cause you to have information-overload syndrome  Good to listen, but just carry on building your blog.
  2. Don’t be fake.  If you are just not that kind of person, don’t do it!  If you are not the kind who will want to excel in your job, you probably won’t create a great blog anyway.  Very soon, your blog may just fade away.
  3. Don’t expect immediate results.  Blogging is just for building personal brand awareness.  If people like what you are blogging about, you will get your audience for sure.  It may take a while for the traffic to be aware of you.  Hence, start blogging if you have the patience to build it one post at a time.

Linking social media back to your blog

There are tons of networking opportunities in the social media through the exposure of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Social media brings the world even closer now that we are able to communicate and do business together in two different worlds of ours.

As you are communicating more and more in the social media, people will tend to find your blog if they have connected with you socially via an exchange of messages.  The blog can offer assurance to visitors about your worth in that industry you are in.  

Today, there are a lot of attractive blogging themes that we can leverage on, both free and paid versions.  All we need to do, is to populate our social media profile in our own blog accordingly, and to start blogging!

What may happen when you continue to do this?

  1. You may be able to make some money out of it through the huge audience that you may have created.  There are more and more people who seem to be able to work full time on their blogs just because of what they have shared.
  2. Or, you have actually done yourself a very big favor in your career path because this may lead you into a job opportunity or even a business opportunity!
  3. Or if you have gotten far enough in your blog and your industry, there are tons of businesses out there who are looking for bloggers who are either influential in their blogs, or are experienced in the social media.

Is this for real?

Seriously speaking, it is not easy.  The whole journey can be really tough and unexpected.  As for myself, I am actually perform a full time job e-marketing while I am blogging about what I have learned from my job experience.  In fact, I got my job because I used my blog as my resume!

My job is helping me to learn a lot more about the Internet, making my exposure even far greater than I have thought I would achieve on my own.  And with that experience, I actually “document” them down in a meaningful way in my blogs, and allowing my visitors to enjoy what I have learned so far.

Even if I am not going to be able to make a full time job out of blogging, I still get to know more and more fantastic people (such as Liz Strauss here!) through my online journey.  I really thank God for that.

The whole blogging experience is really a fruitful one for me, and I will continue and do even more than what I am doing today!

My question to all of you: What career values or opportunities have your blog brought you today?  Do share with us, I will love to hear about it  too!

This post was written by Charles. He has been an Internet reviewer since June 2007.  He pours his passion for Internet marketing and Internet branding into his Twitter account actively at @charleslau.

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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Filed under Branding, Marketing, Successful Blog | 5 Comments »


October 21, 2009

Where to Turn When Twitter Trust Isn’t Conversation Enough?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:31 am

relationships button

Twitter Talk

I’m a fan of Twitter. Nothing beats it for quick, agile, and brief. Twitter is the king of networking at the Internet speed and reach. Want to share something? Want to get a quick problem solved? Twitter lets us tap into our linked networks and pass information along, but you can’t send a Tweet to someone who’s never signed on.
Twitter Talk is great for a fast moving volley around a narrow idea or collecting the opinions of a crowd. But the very speed and compactness keeps the rich and telling details out — the details that explain why and how. If an idea or a problem takes exploring or discussion, Twitter doesn’t measure up.

As much as we can trust that what folks send us publicly through Twitter is likely to be the truth — as they know it sometimes 140 characters isn’t deep or wide enough. And that’s something important to recognize.

If I’ve made assumptions about you, the message I receive won’t be the one that you sent. If we use language differently our communication can go woefully wrong.

Sometimes whole conversations are important

to get something done.
to clearly state a position.
to define a project and outline expectations.
to participate in a negotiation.
to coax, cajole, or romance.

and in many other situations.

I won’t marry you, buy a house, or sign a fine deal for a job based on your tweets. I hope you won’t either. Twitter comes with an inherent lack of depth that isn’t concrete and won’t stand by me.

Twitter doesn’t do whole conversations well. Trust interactions require more than 140 characters. Trust goes deeper and grows much broader. Twitter isn’t enough to inspire trust.

Where do you go when Twitter needs to change to a whole conversation?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

Teaching Sells


Filed under Marketing, Successful Blog | 6 Comments »



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