Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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The Ultimate Guide 3: Every Blog Needs a Platform

Filed Under Basics, Successful Blog | 17 Comments

The Ultimate Guide to a Wildly Sticky, Successful and Outstanding Blog
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Setting up the Blog — Picking the Platform

If you’re new to code and blogware, take heart. Most bloggers started out knowing nothing about the technical side of blogging. It might seem like a lot to learn, but we all did, just as we all learned to read. You’ll be tweaking your blog in no time. Somehow, playing with the code seems to be in a blogger’s genes.

Choosing or Changing a Domain Name

Naturally the closer your URL matches your blog title, the easier it will be for readers to remember and return to it. When you sign up for that domain, check the box for at least two years. Search engines look more favorably on new domains that plan to stick around. Also consider the option of buying an existing domain, but read up on the subject before you do. Here’s some additional advice.

  1. The site wizard tackles the questions you’ve been wondering about in Tips on How to Choose a Good Domain Name for Your Website

  2. Consider what’s going on in the marketplace when you areChoosing a Good Domain Name.

  3. Seomoz offers realistic Expectations and Best Practices for Moving to or Launching a New Domain If you don’t need this information now, you’ll need it one day.

  4. Sitepoint offers solid guidance on how to Hit the Jackpot! How to Find Money-making Domains. Do the research Mara Miller suggests and you could end up way ahead of the game.

  5. And Don’t Buy that New Domain Name Yet think about the values of buying an old one. Also weigh in the baggage an old domain can bring.

  6. BONUS: How to Use the New Custom Domain Name Feature for Your Blog*Spot Blog: A Tutorial

Choosing the Blogging Platform — What Sort of Home Will You Build?

Bloggers are generous with their time and we’re helpful. Don’t be shy about asking, especially about the technical stuff. Someone will step up to offer the hand you need. Bloggers care about the blogosphere working right.

  1. Start here. USC Annenberg has pulled together the background, a list of the common blogging jargon, and an overview of the blogging tools. [via Frank]

  2. The purpose of this research is to find what your options are. About.com’s Which Blog Platform is Right for You? offers 15 links to blog platforms. The selection is useful to new and advanced bloggers.

  3. A well-thought top-ten list can be helpful. The Top Consideration When Choosing a Free Blogging Platform.

  4. Though most seasoned bloggers might steer you from a “hosted” or free blog — blogger, wordpress. com, or the free SixApart typepad.com — Each has its value. If you’re blog is solely a personal, or a short-term project, a free blog might work best for you.

  5. Be sure to consider the opinions of other bloggers as well as those of reviewers. Which Blogging Platform Do You Use and Why? – Open Mike Some reviewers aren’t as hands on as we might wish they would be.

  6. Keep in mind that the platform or blog software you use will be easier to negotiate, if you are part of a community who use the same tool. Reach out to bloggers when you have a question or a problem to solve. You’ll be blogging sooner and better if you Learn from Someone who Knows.

Choosing Hosting — Who Will You Count on?

Your host is someone you rely on to care for your blog in ways that you cannot. Don’t make price the only issue. As with everything else, in hosting you tend to get what you pay for. Know what you need and what to look for before you choose. Here’s outstanding wisdom on choosing a host.

  1. To understand the specs and the key questions, you might start with What to look for in a Web Host? It’s nice to know the difference between a T-1 and an OC-24.

  2. With those basics, you’re set to consider the values and features that would meet your exact needs. Christopher Heng has outlined solid criteria for choosing a free web host or commercial web host. He includes further references if you want to know more.

  3. In this classic, What to Look for in a Web Host, Dan Cray offers a starter list of questions to ask when you make the calls to web hosts you’re thinking of doing business with.

When choosing a host, ask for recommendations from bloggers you know. Also ask the web host for recommendations from clients they have hosted in the past. We had two great sponsors at SOBCon — Network Solutions and THC. Read their blogs and see which is for you.

Setting up your first blog can be daunting. . . . Recently someone said that he had trouble choosing because the blog software had adequate tech support. No worries there, the whole blogosphere seems to be ready to help a new blogger.

The list is thin by comparison to what’s available. What advice would you add?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Liz Live on the Aaron Brazell Show Tonight!

Filed Under Interviews, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

Dial In or Text In to Be Part of the Conversation!

Aaron Brazell -Technosailor

Aaron Brazell — technosailor — has invited me to be his guest on his TalkShoe talkshoe tonight.

Here’s some Twitter conversation we just had . . .
technosailor What do you want me to ask Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss) tonight on the show?

ME What questions do you want me to ask @technosailor when I hijack his talk shoe at talkshoe tonight?

AmberCadabra @lizstrauss In 140 characters? are you crazy? LOL

technosailor @lizstrauss is this a hostile takeover of the Aaron Brazell Show by you? Geez… I guess I had it coming ;)

ME @technosailorYou never know what will happen when you and I are together. That’s part of why people always show up.

technosailor @lizstrauss we’re not going to talk about Vegas casino stories in the wee hours of the morning are we? :-p

ME @technosailor What happens in Vegas . . . hmmmm . . . I’m bring my brothers Angelo and Pasquale. http://is.gd/RYT

Be There!!

9 EST / 8 CHICAGO TIME

Check the clock in the sidebar for Chicago time.

Category: Technology
Description: n/aDescription: lessHosted by: technosailor
Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 22406

Download or listen to the show later.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Like the Blog? Buy my eBook!

Talking Decisions and Self-Promotion with JenChicago

Filed Under Inside-Out Thinking, Successful Blog | 16 Comments

You Just Watch

Friday morning, I met Jen Knoedl for an interview. We walked to a quiet part of Millenium Park. We talked about blogging, building a career that works, being a leader on your path . . . productivity, decisions, and SOBCon.

She’s left her corporate job to go for her dream — to be a talk show host Jen Chicago. Will she make it? She asks the best questions and edits like a fox. You just watch!!

UPDATE: JEN just posted it to the NBC 5 Street Team Blog Go See!

Here’s a bit she’s put together on decisions.


Liz Strauss: Choices and Decisions from Jen Knoedl on Vimeo.

and another on Self-Promotion


Liz Strauss: Self Promotion from Jen Knoedl on Vimeo.

No doubt.

Wow!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Get your best voice in the conversation!

Get the Insider’s Guide and Get Your Voice in the Conversation

Filed Under SOB Business, Successful Blog | 62 Comments

The How-to of Online Conversation and Relationships

What a thrill it is to see so many new businesses that got their final “something” from a little meeting called “SOBCon.” Congratulations, Joanna on Powerful Web Content. Congratulations Michael on Gateway Blogging. Congratulations to Sheila and Connie on Five Web Tools. I know of a least two more coming. . . . Each of them is playing to their strengths and their past successes.

Today, I announce the first of two cornerstone pieces that pull together everything I’ve working on and toward for almost three years. You might have noticed it in the sidebar this weekend. It’s called “The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog — The Insider’s Guide to the Conversation that’s Changing How Business Works.”

The-Secret-to-Writing-a-Successful-and-Outstanding-Blog

You might recall we had a conversation about this eBook I was working on. That conversation confirmed the book’s original purpose — to explain online conversation in the context of relationships and building a business.

Two-Sections-of-the-Insiders-Guide

The two sections of the book show the two sides of online conversation — receiving and sending information. The Subject heads include these:

Section Samples

Because of the urgency of everything Internet, it’s filled with immediately actionable tips, ideas, and checklists.

Lots of Lists

Who needs to read it?

Everyone who wants more community participation, more comments, more referrals for their business — Marketers, PR folks, Educators, Business Professionals, and New Bloggers.

AND

Anyone who’s been trying to figure out or explain what a blog is.

It took a career of education, business, educational publishing; several weeks of research; and over 3,000 posts and almost 70,000 comments in blogging conversation to learn what I’ve condensed down to these practical pages.

I know you’ll get a fresh perspective and great tools, when you read it. If you want to communicate with authority, credibility, and influence at the top of your game . . . then get the book that will get your best voice in the conversation.

Liz's Signature

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Gratitude to the folks who took a minute to add to the conversation!
The secret to writing a successful and outstanding blog
Liz Strauss: The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog Ebook « Lorelle on WordPress
3 Steps to Overcoming Corporate Blog Denial
The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog Ebook
It’s a stew, a potpourri, a melange. It’s what’s happening.

Smiling Harbor Sunday

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 11 Comments

Smiling Sunday

Sundays start so slowly. They take a while to get up and rolling. Sundays would be a perfect day for a walk in the early morning.

I’ve wasted too many beautiful Sundays doing things meant to make an easier Monday. Sunday should be a day that’s kept for doing special things.

Smiling harbor out my window

I’m starting a small Sunday tradition of drinking my coffee while looking out the window. It doesn’t sound like such a miracle until I mention a sunrise is in the view.

A Sunday sunrise miracle and a cup of coffee combine to make a great way to start me my mind thinking of new ways to see the world.

This Sunday morning, the harbor seems to be smiling back at me.

I hope you find a way to do the same thing.

Liz's Signature

Image: mestrauss

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