Guest Author, Author at Successful Blog Page

Are You Blogging for as Many or as Much?

December 5, 2007 by Guest Author

This guest post was contributed by friend and SOB, Jon Swanson. He often emails me about my writing. I find his observations incredibly valuable, thoughtful, and dear. –ME “Liz” Strauss

As many or as much?

by Jon Swanson

I’ve been blogging for a couple years. I read the wonderful writings of Liz and Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse who all talk specifically about blogging, about success in community. I have considered how to build my reach, how to monetize, how to do all of those things that make a blog successful.

And then I am forced to think deeply about this: as many … or as much?

In my life I often wrestle with whether to help as many people as possible or to help people as much as possible. I understand that there is a falseness in this forced choice, but humor me briefly.

I see needs. It’s one of the things that is part of who I am. I can hear hurt. I can see chaos. I can feel anxiety. And I like to help. Sometimes, I like to help as many people as possible, to spread information or money or ideas widely. But even as I am talking with or working with a large group, I see that one person at the edge of the group, the one being ignored by everyone. And I want to go to that person, to talk with them, to listen.

And now do you see the dilemma? In a fixed amount of time you can talk with a large group or you can listen to an individual, but you cannot do both.

I love cross-links as much as the next person. I love reach. But when I hear pain in someone’s ‘voice’, I have this desire to send them an email or a text or a DM. And that takes heart cycles that then can’t be spent elsewhere.

I know that it is possible to have different levels of relationship with different people. I know that many people are very caring. But I know that in order for me to be most effective as a person who blogs as part of my involvement in lives, I have to put more of my life into ‘as much’ than I do into ‘as many’.

As a result, I feel a deep connection with a fairly small group of people online. Other people read my posts and comment occasionally, but my desire is to make sure that I am adding as much value as I possibly can to that group of people.

As we wrestle with our blogging, trying to figure out our purpose, our unique voice, our distinctive value to the people of the blogosphere, some of us will be very effective with ‘as many’. It is important to get the information that you have, the perspectives that you shape and share, to as many people as possible.

At the same time there are others of us who will be working on the ‘as much’.

It is possible to be very successful in both of these worlds. However, at some point feel the freedom from being measured by the expectations of the world that isn’t yours.

–Jon Swanson, You can find Jon at the Levite Chronicles

Is the world of “many” or the world of “much” where your blog makes the most difference?
— Liz
Work with Liz!!

Change the World: One Dollar, One Euro, One Yen at at Time

December 4, 2007 by Guest Author

Hey, Erik, How Can We Change the World?

This guest post was contributed by friend, J. Erik Potter. Erik’s post grew out of a conversation at Open Comments Night. He brings thoughts of our daily lives. –ME “Liz” Strauss

One Dollar at a Time

by J. Erik Potter

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.– Sir Winston Churchill

We’ve all heard it before. It’s nothing new really. If everyone would just donate $1 to a cause, we could raise millions for any cause overnight. There have always been two big problems: there wasn’t an easy way to spread the word to these millions of people and there were no means of funneling these millions of $1 donations to a deserving cause effectively. Enter the Internet.

Much like the whole “change the world” phrase appears daunting; the whole “get a million people to donate $1” appears just as daunting. Or is it?

Through blogs and social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, word can be spread like wild fire. I just signed up for LinkedIn and have a meager 16 connections, yet through the power of the site, my message can be spread to over 77,000 other connections, a 4,800:1
ratio. If this ratio remains constant, I only need to connect directly with 208 people in order to spread my message to the magic million. 208 vs. 1,000,000 . . . that doesn’t sound as frightening. Does it?

The second part of the equation is the collection and funneling of the $1 donations. Sites like SixDegrees.org and Network for Good go a long way towards making the transaction easy. Once you’ve established an account, you can donate to one of over 30,000 charities. Their system even keeps track of your donations throughout the year for tax purposes.

The tools are here. So what’s stopping you from changing the world?
— J. Erik Potter

_______
Thanks, Erik, for showing us how.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

How Do You Know When You're Ready to Move to the Next Level?

December 3, 2007 by Guest Author

This guest post was contributed by friend and SOB, Sheila Scarborough. Her advice here is flawless and based in deep expertise. –ME “Liz” Strauss

Moving To The Next Level

by Sheila Scarborough

Most entrepreneurial online “digital creatives” find that their business moves through a progression.

At first, many writers, Web designers or other content providers often take most any job as long as it pays. In the quest to amass a decent portfolio or group of clips, it’s easy to succumb to the siren offers of “revenue sharing” or “exposure” or “future growth,” rather than demanding a higher per-word or per-project rate.

Blog for $50/month and post 5-7 times a week? Sure!

Heck, blog for nothing and hope for some ad revenue? Sure!

Anything to get a toe-hold as a freelancer.

There comes a time, however, when the digital entrepreneur is ready to truly make a living in his or her area of expertise, maybe even to be able to drop the side job that actually pays most of the bills.

How do you know when you’re getting ready to move to the next level?

I’ve asked myself that question a lot lately, as I approach two years as an active freelancer (a writer and blogger, in my case.) Here are some benchmarks that I’ve stumbled across at this juncture; you may find some similarities to your own situation, or as a newbie you can look forward to someday grappling with these turning points:

1) You can’t work by the seat of your pants anymore.

Perhaps you have more than one blogging commitment, plus offline work and some clients and consulting. Life starts to implode, you meet all of your deadlines but just barely, you gain twenty pounds, the house is a wreck and upon awakening you think, “Oh, no, I have no idea what I’m blogging about today, plus there’s a client meeting that I’m not ready for this afternoon and an article deadline by close of business.”

It’s time for a schedule, because it’s time to admit that this is your job and you’ve gotta get organized. Big wall calendar, some online software, a PDA, an old-school Filofax, whatever — you’re at the stage when you must get a grip on the madness. It’s time to hire a CPA for taxes, it’s time to buy Quickbooks or other bookkeeping software to track invoices, it’s time to buff up that blog/Web site, it’s time to….move into the bigger leagues.

2) You are ready to build a specific or at least semi-defined expertise.

At first, entrepreneurs will do most anything to make a buck, even if it isn’t what they like or isn’t what they’re very good at. For a PayPal transfer or an actual check, I’d write about most any topic when I first started out, for any publication that was halfway legitimate.

At some point, however, you know which subjects really make your heart sing, which ones call forth your best work, and it’s time to begin to focus and hone your expertise and creative efforts.

For writers, this is the moment to say, “You know, I write mostly about X, Y and Z. Someday I’d like to touch on A and B, but right now, I specialize in X, Y and Z.”

This is different from what you said in the beginning, which was roughly, “I’ll write about anything.”

3) Your time and effort are worth something to you.

At first, many digital creatives are so eager to succeed, they’ll leave no stone unturned to get their business off the ground. They sign up for every e-newsletter and magazine that seems professionally helpful, they have a gazillion RSS feeds, they go to every meeting that seems like a good networking opportunity, and the answer to every problem is to throw more work hours at it.

I personally have reached the point of admitting that I can’t know everything. I can’t read it all, can’t track all the feeds, can’t answer all the emails and memes, and most importantly, I should not feel horribly guilty about it.

To do my best work, I can no longer allow myself to overload my own brain. It’s time to prune the RSS feeds, not follow everyone on Twitter who follows me, unsubscribe from emails that I don’t really read nor care about, all so that I can concentrate on the information flow that is most helpful in my work.

It’s also time to be paid what I’m worth (for a writer, that’s no less than US$0.50/word and preferably US$1.00/word, and roughly $20/post for blogging) and to cast an unfriendly gimlet eye on work that may require a lot of wheel-spinning for a monetary pittance. Some occasional work may be worth lower or even no pay, for a variety of reasons, but my going-in position has shifted to an expectation of decent pay for the work that I do, rather than pleased gratitude that anyone pays me at all.

It’s scary to realize that your baby, your business, is at a turning point, but the good news is that it’s time to make some tough career focus decisions because….you’ve done well and are ready to do even better!

–Sheila Scarborough You’ll find Sheila and her blogs at SheilaScarborough.com

Isn’t Shelia amazing? So why not tell her? How will you know when you’re at the next level? Could you be there already?

–Liz
Work with Liz!!

Outstanding Question From An Outstanding Mentor

November 13, 2007 by Guest Author

Guest Post by Alex Shalman

Liz and I go back to about mid-march of 2007. I had just launched a donation contest, and asked Liz to participate. Her initial reaction to the contest was that it was transparent link bait, and she was a bit annoyed. I immediately apologized for offending her, she saw past it, and the rest is history. I now consider Liz one of my best friends, and feel like I’ve known her forever.

As far as mentoring goes, we’ve had quite a few phone conversations, where Liz has been a great listener, as well as given me powerful injections of wisdom. I remember the exact moment when I first heard Liz use this question. It was during live open mic night of SOBCon. Yes, she’s even more amazing in person!

It’s simple:

“What do you do when you’re not doing this?”

I’ve used this very question to start countless conversations, and have been nothing but amazed each time at how people opened up. Whether talking to a new classmate, or even a random person I decided to talk to during my day. It never ceases to amaze me at how much people appreciate when you take an interest.

It also helps to practice the arts of proactive and empathetic listening to dig deeper into the conversation. It’s funny, but most people ask a question, listen to the response, and then go on about themselves.

Experience the outstanding response I’ve been getting with Liz’s magic question. Ask it of a stranger, really listen to what they say, and follow up at least 5 questions deep. You might be amazed just as I have been.

Btw, I would like to hear some other questions that you use to open up conversations with strangers. Let’s all share in the comment box below!

Alex Shalman

Thanks, Alex. The question seems to have served us both well. I’m smiling to think that we have met at the core of the matter where we both agree. . . . I consider you a friend, as well.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Don't Seek Success!

October 22, 2007 by Guest Author

Thoughts on a Successful-Blog Birthday

from Michael A. Stelzner

————————————————–
Liz;

Happy 2! Hard to believe that your blog is so young!

My thoughts:

Don’t seek success
It should not be a goal in life
It is hard to achieve
You never really think you’re there

Rather, you should aim for achievable goals
Set your sights high
But celebrate when you reach mile markers along the way

Let others label you “successful”
But always aim to improve
Never accept “good enough”
Give back to those who helped
And lastly, be thankful

Happy second again Liz!

Mike
Michael Stelzner’s – Blog – Writing White Papers
————————————————–

Thank you, Mike!

The party is Oct. 24th! Come for the surprises! Bring a link to your success!!!

The 5 Hats of Graphic Designers

August 15, 2007 by Guest Author

Guest Writer: David Airey

Before computers entered the mix, the production of print material was firmly in the hands of graphic designers and printers. It took a very clued-in client to have any idea about the print-production process. Therefore, people were mentally prepared to pay substantial amounts for their logo designs, brochures and annual reports.

That was then. Now, however, things are very different.

Ask most people how they would design a logo or prepare a newsletter and they’d automatically point to the computer, placing their faith in software packages to do the job.

So if a novice can work their way around a photo manipulation or page layout program, why do designers still charge large figures for their services?

Today’s designer must wear many hats, and I’ll talk about some of them here.

The problem solving hat

Designers are presented with a problem, and it’s their task to find a solution. The problem could be to set a business apart from its competition by using an effective logo design, or to increase product sales with a cleverly designed advertising campaign. Whatever the initial brief, there’s a clearly defined problem and the designer puts on their thinking hat.

The teaching hat

By educating clients, customer-satisfaction is improved and the designer is more likely to be called upon in the future. What might a designer teach? File preparation is an important part of the print production process, and a lot of my time is spent educating clients about file types. You’d be surprised just how many of my clients don’t understand that a thumbnail image off a website can’t be used for a full-size A3 poster. This design guide for print provides a little more info.

The graphic designer hat

This is actually just one function of a modern-day designer. Ask any self-employed designer just how much time they spend designing and you’ll probably be surprised at the answer. I can’t say for sure how long I spend actually designing, but I think it’s between 25% to 40%.

The salesperson hat

Whether it be attracting new clients or selling an idea, graphic designers need to have enough confidence in their own ability to persuade a client that they’re making the right decision. Every design pitch must be treated like a sale. When meeting people for the first time, I make sure to focus at least my first three questions on topics not related to business. It’s much easier to develop a relationship with a person than it is a business, so don’t be pushy.

The manager hat

Accounting is a vital aspect of my business operations, and I’ve not yet reached the stage where I need to outsource, or take on an extra employee. I process my own tax returns once every year, and calculate my VAT returns every three months. This needs the manager hat, taking a step back from the creative side of work and focusing on the numbers. Time management and project management are also encompassed by this hat.

To summarize

Whilst it’s clear that the role of graphic designers has changed, it still remains an extremely creative industry. Of course, designers aren’t the only ones who must wear different hats in their profession.

What’s your line of work and how many different hats do you wear?

—David Airey

Thanks, David, for this grand explanation of what the folks in your profession do!
Come back again to tell us more, anytime.

–ME “Liz” Strauss