web counter

From PlanetOZH — A Comment Counter Named LIZ!!!

Filed Under Comments, Successful Blog, Tools | 12 Comments

The WordPress Liz Comment Counter Plugin

If you haven’t heard about it . . . a very nice man by the name of Ozh did something even nicer — he made a plugin named after me. How beautiful is that?!! As Ozh says

Liz Strauss Comment Counter is a highly configurable “internet badge” that shows the number of comments your WordPress blog has. Use it either to show off how social your blog is, as an incentive for commenters to be part of it, or just because it’s fun :)

See for yourself!!

The dashboard is cool.

Liz Comment Counter Preview

The colorwheel is fun!

color wheel

Of course, presets come with.

presets

I’ve got to get me one!

Find out all you need to know from Ozh!! Go check it out and do tell Ozh hello from me!

Thank you, Ozh! It’s almost too cool for comment!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Secret to a Successful and Outstanding Blog

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, SOB Business, Successful Blog | 23 Comments

Once upon a time in the real world, I started a blog. . . .

I thought it was going to be a writer’s project. I’ve been wrong before, plenty of times, but I don’t think I was ever quite so spectacularly off. I thought a blog would offer me a place to practice my writing and maybe allow me a chance to offer a thought. I thought a blog was a flat surface for communication. That’s not what I found.

I found the secret to a successful blog is more, and more touching than that.

calculator for head

Readers come for the information in a blog post. There’s no question of that. Readers read what writers write and writers write to teach, inform, entertain, mystify, motivate, and inspire. Every word we write, every idea we construct to share, moves from our minds to others on a fine silver thread of digital thought.

Still the thoughts alone would be sad and lonely without a heart to back them up.

heart box for heart

It’s the heart and the passion that fuel the words, make the magnetic. It’s the heart that plays the beat that resonates to bring readers back. Even when our hearts find themselves in distant places, we still recognize our humanity and our relatedness. When we write with our heads and hearts together, people notice.

Heads engaged, hearts beating, a blog has power.

collage for meaning of life

A truly successful and outstanding blog also has meaning. Somehow, in some way to each individual, a successful and outstanding blog makes a difference by adding something of value to being one who visits. You might call that spirit. You might call that direction or focus. I call that soul.

The soul of a blog is carried by the person who writes it and the folks who come to read it too.

That’s what I found, a successful and outstanding blog is head, heart, and soul. It’s all of what makes us human and worth paying attention to. Bring it who you are and the folks you meet will help you become more.

I know. It happened to me. It happens again every day.

Thank you to everyone who has made this our successful blog.

Liz's Signature

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The Relationsheep Factor: A Successful Blog Birthday Bash Interview with the Phil Gerbyshak and Lisa Gates!

Filed Under One Way to CC It, Successful Blog | 16 Comments

Phil Gerbyshak, sheep, Liz Strauss, Lisa Gates = Relationship Geeks



In honor of Liz Strauss, the fabulously sticky writer and queen of relationship blogging, Lisa Gates of Design Your Writing Life and Phil Gerbyshak of Make it Great team up to offer this first-time-ever interview to talk about Liz’s impact on the Relationsheep factor and what it’s like to have Liz inside your computer.

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Thank You, Sean, for Code, Class, and Color!

Filed Under Successful Blog | 43 Comments

Would You Look at This!

It is with delight and pleasure
that I get to say thank you

to

SeanRox
of
Have Laptop Will Travel

Have Laptop Will Travel


for the incredible investment of time and energy to produce
this hand-coded, one-of-a-kind design.

and to

My Son — for the building the header
My Husband — for taking the photo
My Dad — for writing the tagline in 1933.


Successful-Blog mini header


Thank you. I mean that.

Liz's Signature

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The Google Dance: Page Ranks January 2007

Filed Under SEO, Successful Blog | 14 Comments

Why Does Anyone Care about Page Rank?

Google uses a numbering system — page rank — to determine how relevant each is blog is. The system is based on a complex algorithm that places weight on how blogs are linked. I explained it this way during the Google Page Rank Update last February.

Page rank determines how relevant your blog is by using linking as a vote system. Google has developed an algorithm that weighs links between blogs A to B to C to A, and also looking also at the importance of the blogs making the links. Quality blogs that are well connected to other quality blogs are considered highly relevant to Google users. Relevant, quality, important blogs receive higher page ranks. Higher page ranks can mean higher advertising payments for blogs that monetize.

Many tools are available to help you query Google’s various data centers to check for any changes in PageRank values for a given URL. During most times the data centers deliver the same rank, however during an update you might get a glimpse of changes URL’s PageRank value. Beaware that the information is only as accurate as the tool you use. I’ve had rankings predictions vary as much as three points between tools.

Google changes their algorithm frequently. This is the tool that I use. Click the image to go there.

Keep in mind that many fluctuations occur and that the dance takes many days before things settle down into their final place.

Also read:
Aaron Wall’s Google PageRank Leakage & Misconceptions on PageRank

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
Google Page Ranks Underway Feb. 2006

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