Great Find: 20 Rules of Smart & Successful Web Development

Filed Under Basics, Design, Great Finds, Successful Blog | 2 Comments

Sometimes you find a golden nugget . . .

Great Find: 20 Rules of Smart and Successful Web Development by Vitaly Friedman
Type of article: Online business basics and web development
Permalink: http://www.alvit.de/blog/article/20-rules-of-smart-and-successful-web-development-and-web-design
Target Audience: Any person who wants to do business on the Internet and every web developer or person who hires one

Content: Vitaly Friedman is a web developer who can write. He’s also a deep thinker who learns from what he does. I read this article not once. but twice–both times wishing I could say I wrote it, thinking he said what I’ve always wanted to say. From Respect your visitors. and Care about your content. to Learn to handle the Creative Block. and Be aware of the Power of the Web.I felt I was listening to a kindred spirit talking– one who said it so much better than I might have said it.

So I’ll leave you to him. Click the screenshot for the best article I’ve read on the subject in a very long time–maybe ever.

So Rules of Successful Web Development

It’s always nice to find a new hero.

–Me “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Blog Review Checklist
SEO–Five Traits of Relevant Content
Editing for Quality and a Content Editor’s Checklist
Why Dave Barry and Liz Don’t Get Writer’s Block

Call for Designers

Filed Under Design, Marketing, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

Spring is time to dust our blogs off. Everyone is thinking about color. I’d like to feature some designs again like we did last fall.

Call for Designers

So choose the blog design and blog desgner that you think deserves some recognition and e-mail me at lizsun2@gmail.com with a link, your name, and why that design is special. That’s all there is to it.

I’ll keep you posted as links come and then we’ll have a real design extravaganza. Maybe we’ll invite some designers in to give us some design advice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
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Five Design Basics to Never Forget
Blog Design Checklist

Business, Blogs, and Niche-Brand Marketing

Filed Under Basics, Branding, Marketing, Strategy, Successful Blog, Trends | 9 Comments

Just the Facts

These are the facts.

  • The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months.
  • On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day.
  • Municipal Wi-Fi Networks are becoming a reality. Anaheim, CA; Arlington, VA; Brookline, MA; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO;, Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Grand Rapids, MI; New York, NY; Philadelphi, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; San Francisco, CA; Tempe, AZ; and others are already planning or building Wi-Fi networks to be ready in the next 2-3 years.
  • The Technorati Filter By Authority slider gives readers the power to filter out all but the most important blogs in any niche. Will other Search Engine follow?

Business Meet Blogs, Blogs Meet Business

Sounds great. Doesn’t it? Bloggers read blogs. I’ll have more readers. Right? But those readers will have more blogs to read. With new blogs coming at such a stunning rate, it’s reasonable to think that blogs in the Magic Middle might be pushed aside as younger, shinier blogs appear. It’s also fair to assume that readers will limit the searches to only important blogs, leaving me out. What’ll I do to capture their attention?

Niche-Brand Marketing

The wisdom of the Long Tail–that as business moves on line, less and less of what is offered needs to be “one size fits all” and delivered via giant outlet–leads me to niche-brand marketing. I review this list often for my blogs and for my business, or Liz Strauss Consulting wouldn’t be consulting much longer.

  • Define a niche for your business. Choose a niche you truly care about. Find a place to stand. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Do one or two things that play to your strengths and passions. Do those things better than anyone else.
  • Find out everything about the customers in your chosen niche. First and foremost, make sure that said customers exist. Then don’t just get information. Fall in love with everyone of them. Figure out how to crawl into their skin and feel their pain. Know their loves and their wishes. Find their needs and desires. Learn to read what they’re not saying.
  • Define your brand through your customers’ world view. In reality, you don’t define your brand, your customers do. When you understand your customers intimately, find a way to state your brand–what you and your customers stand for–in less than one sentence. Write those words everywhere your customer will see your name, your blog’s name, or your business name. Let them know you mean it.
  • Use your brand to test every decision you make–large or small. Be your brand. Live it. Make your brand show in every detail, every action, every move you make. If you live your brand, and test every decision against it by asking, Will this help my customers see my brand? your customers are more likely to buy into the brand you’ve chosen on their behalf.
  • Be authentic; never skimp on quality; never go against your brand; and you will set the standard. You won’t just be different; you will be unique, irreplaceable. Authenticity cannot be “knocked off and done more cheaply.” Attempts to copy you will only be poor facsimiles. Quality and authenticity are the birthplace of brand loyalty. Customers will know where to find the real thing. Once they find it. They stick with it.
  • When your customers recognize that you care about their needs, value them and the relationship that you have with them. Relationships will always be everything in any human endeavor. Never lose sight of the fact that you and they are people–not users, not clients, not numbers–but folks with thoughts, feelings, and ideas that make you and your business better.

Why Customers Love Niche-Brand Marketers

We are a fascinating species. When we don’t know where to go, we’ll go where everyone else goes. But give us one reason to come to you, and you’ve made a customer–a reader–possibly a friend forever.

We think that people who think the same way we do are smarter than other people. So when you choose a niche that we care about, we think that you’re highly intelligent. We trust your judgment in other things too.

When we find someone who tries to solve our problems and who values us. We’ll go out of our way to do business with you. It’s just not that often that we get that kind of service.

That’s how small niche-brand marketers get to be great niche marketers one customer at a time. That’s how I plan to make this a place where I can put down roots. I want want to be here for a long, long while, making relationships with some really great people.

How about you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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SOB Business Cafe 01-27-2006

Filed Under Business Life, Great Finds, SOB Business, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles written by the
Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the screenshot to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Mike Sigers tells us a story with a moral or 3. As usual Mike doesn’t disappoint with his storytelling skills.
simplenomics.com story-with-a-moralor-3

Eric Setiawan discusses Nigiri Sushi the WordPress photoblog theme he designed.

Eric Setiawan discusses Nigiri Sushi

“Joshua” at Joshuaink has one last blogging ambition. Won’t you help out by leaving him a comment. Caution: if you’re offended by four-letter words read fast and do it anyway. It’s a community service thing.

Joshuaink One Last Ambition Link

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

Related ala carte selections include
SOB Business Cafe 01-20-2006

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blog Improvements by Chris Garrett

Filed Under Audience, Basics, Marketing, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats | Leave a Comment

haqmmer 3

Chris Garrett offers a great post on Quick and Easy Blog Improvements over at Performancing. He features Sumeet Jain’s in-depth NoFollow article and gives hands-on, “use-right-now” advice that’s well worth checking out. I’m particularly taken with Number 4 which says:

Show your most popular or best posts - a new visitor to your blog needs help in deciding if this is going to be a blog they want to return to. Show them your best and brightest content. There is code available for Wordpress and it is really easy to do on Drupal using the statistics module, others will have plugins or you can hard code it into your template.

I like a guy who cares about readers.

Thank you, Chris.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Blog Construction–What’s Your Function?
Five Design Basics to Never Forget
Editing for Quality and a Content Editor’s Checklist