Successful Blog

Thanks to Week 63 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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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.

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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

Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: SnagIt

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There’s more to SnagIt than capturing screen shots and editing visual elements . . .

Great Find: SnagIt

Permalink: http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.asp

Target Audience: All computer users

Content: This week I want to tell you about a tool that’s earned a permanent home on my PC. For everyday use, I always turn to SnagIt from TechSmith. It’s fast and easy-to-use for screen captures and editing visual elements, and it has more power than you might expect for $39.95. The development team is supportive and always looking for ways to improve the product.

Here are eight ways I use SnagIt:

  • Capture graphics of my screen when collaborating with others
  • Convert file formats (e.g., .jpg to .gif)
  • Capture all the image files from a specified URL
  • Capture a rolling screen
  • Select options like borders or resolution before making the capture so my images are consistent
  • Edit photos in batches to save time
  • Use paint tools to add arrows, text, etc.
  • Making a collage
SnagIt

There is a capture timer feature that allows you to take screen shots at predefined times. (I’m trying that next!) They offer a Tip of the Day, tutorials, and lots of help screens. Try the 30-day free trialtoday!

SnagIt is a tool I have come to rely on and I wanted to share it with you. Let me know what you think!

Stay tuned… next week is a tool that’s free!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

Related articles:
Great Graphic Find: Paint.NET
Great Graphic Find: Photoshop Elements
Great Find: Film Loop

Alyice Edrich Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Alyice there?

BAD Blogger Button

An email came to my old account. I was late in getting to it.

Hi Alyice,
It’s Liz from Successful Blog. I’m sorry it took a while to get back to you. I thought I’d removed all references to that email address at aol. I hardly ever check it these days, except when I use it for a contest.

I’m interested in what you have to say and like the way you write a lot. I’d like to know a little more about you. Let’s have a conversation. Would you like to be a B.A.D. Blogger?

A lovely reply came back that from a writer who said she had moved many of those “I thought I’d changed that email address” moments. She also said that she had never talked to another blogger via phone before. It seemed about time that we do something about that.

Alyice told me that her online story starts in 1999. She said couldn’t find information on how to become a Real Estate Notary, so she ended up online learning about it. As she spoke, I could hear her discovery. She said she saw small businesses starting out. It didn’t take much for Alyice to see that here was place where she could live her dream of owning a magazine. That’s how Dabbling Mum Press and her Ezine got started. Her magazine has been a professional reality, paying its way for some years now. Her readers enjoy interviews with important writers and her advice on writing and business.

Alyice said that she has always been writer, that writing comes more easily than talking does. We told a few stories about the shy sides of ourselves, weaving them inside our conversation about writing.

Alyice said she began writing for the web back when she discovered it, and I got immediately curious about the kind of freelance writing she did and had done. We discussed freelance writing services and job lists — how they’re really not much help. We each went down our list of experiences with clients who want too much for too little return and the circumstances of how you learn to identify who they are. I asked how she found her clients now. Alyice said they mostly find her through her monthy column in the ezine and through her blog.

This year for Alyice is going to be a one of a dream being lived. Alyice told me that, ever since she can remember, she has wanted to be a phorographer, “telling people’s life stories in pictures and words . . .” She said her natural shyness kept her away from the camera, but this year she decided that a person shouldn’t leave her dreams behind her. Alyice’s husband bought her the camera, the equipment, and the software. She started a photo blog to document the process of becoming a photographer. She’s chosen a project that has meaning.

It’s obvious, if you talk to her, that Alyice has become a photographer already. She just needs the practice to get the skills to live the reality.

Just before we ended our conversation, Alyice said she had been nervous before the call started. I’m always a little bit nervous before these calls myself.

Every important thing lets us know it’s important . . . if we are listening.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

Not only are my readers learning, I’m learning from everybody. —Alyice Edrich

Stop by Alyice’s Blogs, DM Speaks, her interview blog and Dabbing Mom Writes, her photo blog and say hi!

Thanks, Alyice, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.Alyice

SOB Business Cafe 01-05-07

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

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

The Specials this Week are

Vaspers the Grate has a defense for mind control.

Believe — there’s a new blogging platform on the horizon. It’s over at what’s secretly known as Sillyness Spelled Wrong Intentionally.

Blogopreneur suggests a quality path to the A List.

Chief Happiness Officer is has 10 things to tell you about finding a job you love.

Escape from Cubicle Nation shows you how to build a plan.

Related ala carte selections include

Neat Living is giving away the tools to organize your life.

Cube Rules has a series on creativity in the workplace.

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

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Four Days Make a Long First Week . . .

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I've been thinking . . .
It’s a priniciple of the work universe. Four-day work weeks alter the time-space continuum. How does a week seem so long and confusing when there is one day less to do that it? This week, I thought Monday was Tuesday. . . .

It’s Friday and I wish I was on a tropical beach . . . or taking a nap.

Still I usually do better at adjusting to changes than I have to this particular four-day week. It took me until Thursday to lose that “I’ve been on holiday” feeling.

Wait a minute, that’s the problem.

This wasn’t my usual four-day work week thing. The stakes were raised exponentially by the fact that it’s the VERY FIRST week back to work of 2007. No wonder, I don’t know where I am. I’m back to normal working days again. Normal isn’t my usual state. Even when things are normal, I’m a little off balance — hmmph not that anyone, who never met me, might notice.

The hardest week of the year — the week after the holidays — is over!

That changes everything and I’m changing everything too! I’ll make space this afternoon to put some “new” into my new year. I know exactly what I will do.

I’ll say good-bye to 2006 officially. Toss my old calendar. So long to cards and things left from the holidays sitting around my computer gathering dust.

I’ll get control of 2007. Lay out things that still need to be done. Plan what I’ll do first on Monday and what three most important I pick for my focus.

I’ll set up my command center. Put the things I use most where I use them.

I’ll make a plan for the weekend that gives my brain a break. I’ll walk out the door feeling in control again.

I made it to Friday of the first week of 2007! There’s no stopping me now. I’m ready to change the world again. A celebration is in order. I’ll meet a friend for some coffee, buy a book, and a CD.

Okay so I won’t go to that tropical beach, but a nap or even two just might be in order.

Liz's Signature

William Tully Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Bill there?

BAD Blogger Button

It was Chicago calling Toronto when I got Bill Tully on the line and any conversation between those two cities almost always requires a discussion of the weather — even when one of the participants is woefully lame at small talk — that would be me. It went fine. It went fine because weather talk isn’t small talk when you’re discussing winter in Chicago and Toronto, and we both knew that.

Almost immediately I was telling Bill, about my affection for Toronto, about how it reminds me of Chicago. He mentioned what he knew of Chicago. And next I was off on a story high up, in an elegant Toronto restaurant. I described the head waiter dressed in a Prince Charming uniform who delivered handrolled chocolate truffles on a porcelian plate that was set on red velvet pillow. I explained how I reached up to take the plate and was told that one truffle was what I was being offered.

How could I not love Toronto? I had my first genuine chocolate truffle there.

Our conversation turned from chocolate to writing and then to why we write. We spent some time discussing and dissecting that condition folks call “Writer’s Block.” I said that since I write for a living, I can’t give credence to it or i might go broke. Bill said that blogging was his plan to take him out of his comfort zone to write for everyone. He talked of a plan to write his blog into a book. We talked about the best ways of doing that. His plan is solid and well-structured. His premise is compelling — it’s about how people interact with the world.

Among the ideas that Bill is writing about is the fact that the Golden Rule really doesn’t work. He pointed out that we really don’t want someone with a bad self-concept to treat us as they might want to be treated. I told him I thought so too. He’s a philospher. Mr. Tully is. He said, “We draw on what we know and get to know other people that way.”

Our conversation went deep and wide. It followed no particular straight or narrow pathway. It had it’s own logic to it — sort of like a blogging thought highway. I keep thinking of the guy in Toronto who is writing about logical emotions. It makes sense if you read it, if you get to know him.

The tagline on Bill’s blog says, It isn’t about what I have — it’s about where I’m going. That’s a glimpse into how the man thinks.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

People by the millions trying to be part of a community . . . It gives people a chance where they can actively participate. Somehow, somewhere, at some point . . . — William Tully

Stop by William’s Blog, Logical Emotions and say hi!

Thanks, William, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.