Successful Blog

Nice AND Intelligent: The Big Picture and Selfish Requests

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I've been thinking . . .
In my time in publishing, there were always way too many balls in the air and way too many plates spinning. Balls flying, plates spinning steal focus and emotions.

People knew me as smart, great at making things happen, and good at my job. They didn’t necessarily get time to know me as nice and sometimes I didn’t do much to encourage them.

But perception is reality. People saw smart, but they didn’t see nice, or when they saw both, they saw them as separate. It’s one reason I left that business.

My head and heart want to be back together. . . .

Yesterday, I got three requests for help. Two were from readers — people who “know” me. They were thoughtful and generous, suggesting ways they might return the favor in kind if not payment. I so enjoyed helping these two people.

But the third —

The third message was a moderated comment that read something like this.

I read your post and I found it interesting. I’m a new blogger. Would you visit my blog and look it over to tell me what you see. I’d really like the opinion of an expert. . . .

What? My post was interesting? Would I critique his blog? I took a peek at the blog in question. It was a business blog! New to blogging, I thought, but not new to business or other relationships. He hadn’t seemed to notice the Blog Review Checklist on the page two posts below the one he commented on. That said something about his level of interest.

I get these expectations every few days . . . and they always amaze me.

The problem is that my head and heart always want to respond differently. These things put back in the world of intelligent versus nice. Yet I can’t seem to reconcile the big picture of these selfish requests because I’m sitting inside them.

So I’m asking for your view. Can you help me on this? I want to stay nice . . . AND intelligent.

What are folks thinking when they write a request like that? Do they write such things to everyone and hope someone, anyone will do their work?

What’s going on that I don’t seem to get?

Liz's Signature

We Know A Lot About Blogging . . .

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. . . And Here’s the Wrap-up

This week on Tuesday Open Comments Night we talked about the use of blogs in the classroom, blogging mistakes that were doozies, blogging about books, podcasts, giving away ideas and solving problems, when to move forward with a secondary website or blog, introducing folks to blogging for business, redesigning blogs, publishing books, business and blogging goals for 2007, business books, making money from a blog, people who comment on blogs — or don’t, favorite blog platforms, links to your blog, blog carnivals, memes, migrating to another platform, hosting services, domains and vendors, writing books, MP3 laws, and spam.

There was also conversation about the new year, chauffeuring kids, weather challenges, poetry, health issues, food and drink, studying languages, and a duck.

Here’s some of the links we shared.

Thanks for the cool links and for being part of the conversation. I wish I could quote you all, but I know you have an idea of how much time it takes to make that long link summary happen each week. I hate to let it go, but I thought you’d understand.

So, for 2007, we’ll just tell the story and share the links that you bring.

After all, how DO YOU explain Open Comment Night, if you’ve never experienced it?

See you next? I sure hope so.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Beth Kanter is One in a Million

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Yahoo! Says So

One-in-a-Million by Trée George and Sandy Renshaw

For the One-in-a-Million-Category of:

raising nearly $50,000 for orphans and needy children in Cambodia over the holiday and doubling that money by winning the compeition at Yahoo! AND for knowing how to capture a quote like this one:

“When I approached an accountant to file our nonprofit incorporation papers, he thought we were just a bunch of old ladies in tennis shoes and wouldn’t do very much.”

The winner is Beth Kanter, Beth’s Blog

Thanks Trée George and Sandy Renshaw for the logo that shouts it out!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Yes, you can still give an award. Here’s how:
One-in-a-Million Award for Every One-in-a-Million Blogger

Enough About Me, Let’s Talk About What You Think

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That Couldn’t Be Us Or Could It?

Customer Think Logo

I share a joke with a friend in California. It’s like a script. It goes like this.

I call him up. He answers.

I say, “Hi, Eddie, how am I?”

He replies, “Oh, you’re fine. What do you think of me?”

I tell him he’s wonderful.

Then he says, “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think about my sweater?”

That’s when we laugh to think that we’re not like the people who actually do that.

This morning at Poynter Online something made me realize how it is to do what Eddie I joke about.

Butch Ward gave five New Year’s Resolutions. It’s number 2 that brought this thought home to me. His second resolution was talk to your readers. My thought was I do that. He offered fine advice on ways to engage in dynamic conversation. Then Mr. Ward made a suggestion for this New Year’s conversation . . .

Don’t ask him what he wants you to put in his newspaper or on his news broadcast. Instead, ask what he does. What she thinks. Then you decide how your newsroom can be more relevant to their world.

That’s when I realized it.

Those standard, customer-survey questions sound like “What do you think of my sweater? What do you think of ME?”

Sure, we need to ask how we’re doing, but those can’t be the only questions, or we’ll never know our readers.

Authentic values aren’t revealed by survey questions.

Relationships and understanding come from listening to what folks want to talk about — dreams, desires, unexpressed needs and wishes — what they find marvelous, annoying, heartwarming, concerning, breathtaking. At least, that’s my experience.

But hey, enough about me. Let’s talk about what you think.

What do find worth spending thoughts and words on?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Classic Revisited: The Blog Review Checklist

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Look at Your Blog as Readers Do

In my first week at Successful-Blog, I wrote a Blog Review Checklist. It remains one of the most popular, most linked to, and most visited documents. As I work on the new design for this blog, I’m reminded that we all should be thinking about the points I defined way back then. . . . So I’ve dusted it off complete with the text that introduced it.

Look as Readers Do

When was the last time you looked at your blog the way your readers do? If you write only for yourself, you look at it that way every day. . . . You are your audience. You’re done.

The rest of us are looking for an audience a little bit larger than one.

Humans have unconscious tendencies. We do lots of the things we like to do and ignore the things we don’t. This makes for a blog that looks great from our point of view, but can leave gaping holes–holes that our readers see, holes they probably won’t tell us about.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s okay to leave things out, as long as we know that we’re doing it. Not every blog has to do everything. In fact, most really shouldn’t. But walking around with a hole in your blog could be embarassing, especially if you don’t know about it.

Blog Review Checklist

Here’s a checklist to make sure your blog’s (ahem) vital parts are covered.

  • Audience: What words would your readers use to describe your blog? What do they like best about your site?
  • Purpose: What is the purpose of your blog? Why does it exist? Is the purpose stated plainly where your readers can see it? How well does your blog meet that purpose?
  • Content: How well does the content support the purpose? Is the content readable, interesting, accurate, entertaining, and appropriate for your audience?
  • Design: How well does the look of the blog communicate the kind of blog it is? Is navigation easy and intutive? Do items flow naturally from the first to the next? Do the color palette, image, and type choices support the content or call attention away from it?
  • Posts: Do you post on a consistent schedule the information readers came to find? Do your posts reflect the unique purpose and style of your blog? Do they offer variety and interest within your blog’s purpose and theme?
  • Comments: Do you read and respond to comments to form a sense of community? Consider which posts get most comments and which get none. How does that effect the topics that you’re posting on?
  • Technical Issues: Have you checked lately to see whether and how fast your blog loads in other browsers? Have you overdone the use of plug-ins and gadgets, making the experience more confusing than fun?
  • Writing: Is your writing clear and respectful of your readers? Have you established a writing voice that lets readers know who you really are? Is the blog essentially free of errors in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation?
  • Organization: Have you set up your categories to draw readers into your backlist? Do you feature “Golden Oldies” that new readers would have interest in? Do you name your Categories things that readers can understand?
  • Marketing: What are you doing to let readers know that you are here? Are you listed in the right directories? Do you read and comment on other blogs within your readership? Have you included feeds?

Sure it takes time to review your blog. It takes even more to make tweaks and changes. But you invest so much time blogging. Doesn’t it seem worth it?

A rule of good publishing says,

Spare the reader not yourself.

In the end, you won’t be sorry.

What will you be doing for your readers today?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

PS Thank you for your patience with the sidebar issue. Fixing it is more complicated than it might seem.

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Blog Design Checklist
Editing for Quality and a Content Editor’s Checklist
Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs