Liz, Author at Successful Blog Page

Welcome Sandy Renshaw!

December 17, 2006 by Liz

Sandy Said Yes!

Today, I am delighted to announce that Sandy Renshaw of Purple Wren Communications takes on a role as a contributing editor.

Sandy’s main role will be a column we’re calling Sandy’s Great Graphic Find. She’ll be finding and sharing graphics tools, short how-tos, and ideas — stuff that nongraphical folks, folks who look like Chris and me, can use to tweak blog designs and make presentations cool. The tools Sandy finds will be ones that are free or under $200, ones that most bloggers might use at home or in their small business. The how-tos and ideas will be ones that we can use immediately.

Sandy is also going to be building the Tuesday Open Comment Announcement Posts to help keep Successful-Blog moving smoothily and efficiently every week!

Perfect Timing!

While Sandy and I were discussing how her arrival, Chris — without knowing that Sandy had said, “Yes,” — left a question in the comment box of yesterday’s Great Find post I wrote about Photoshop Tutorials. At the very moment when Chris’s question came, Sandy and I were talking about how her column would work. Answering questions like the one asked was just what we had been talking about . . . blogger synchronicity!!!

Chris’s question became Sandy’s first Successful Blog Post.

Welcome Sandy! Thanks for coming!

–ME “Liz”Strauss

Sandy’s Great Graphic Find: Photoshop Elements

December 17, 2006 by Liz

Want a light version of Photoshop?

Great Find: Adobe Photoshop Elements

Permalink: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/

Target Audience: Computer users who edit photos

Content: The latest Great Find postabout Photoshop tutorials sparked discussion about photo editing tools. While Photoshop is the industry standard for image editing, and an excellent professional tool, the full version is expensive at around $600, and it’s complicated to learn for the average computer user.

Chris inquired whether there was a stripped down, less expensive version.

Yes, there is! The light version is called Photoshop Elements. At around $100 for the Windows version and $80 for Mac, it’s an affordable alternative that’s powerful. Click the screen shot to take you there.

Here are three features I like:

Quick Fix mode: rotate and crop, size, sharpen, fix red eye, adjust color and contrast
Enhance photos: convert color to B&W or sepia, apply special effects and filters
Create composites: combine photos, erase backgrounds

Take advantage of the 30-day trial. Let me know what you think!

Next time I’ll write about another alternative. Wait until you see itl!

–Sandy, Purple Wren Communications

Andrew Flusche Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

December 16, 2006 by Liz

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Andrew there?

This happens to me often. One day I’ll see a new person at a blog and then . . . I see that person again, . . . and again, three or four times in the same week. Other folks seem to know him. They seem to know him well, in fact. I feel like the only on the planet who’s never met him. Then for some reason, our paths officially cross. Then I find out why the guy has so many friends.

Within minutes of when our conversation started, Andrew told me he was supposed to be studying for a law school final, but he was totally relaxed. That idea propelled our conversation into a dicussion of blogging, lawyering, and getting a job. We talked about his blog and how he might get folks to comment more on it. I told him how this blog broke the comment barrier. He was kind enough to listen as I rattled on and on.

Andrew mentioned a friend of his who blogs anonymously. As a reason, he said his friend, only offered the idea that a future employer might not approve. We discussed the thinking behind that. We didn’t land on much hard wisdom there.

Andrew mentioned how the non-profit, public interest organization where he’ll be working was quite impressed on his interview to find out that he blogged. He said they greeted the fact with excitement that he knew technology. I said that I bought my son the URL for his name so that he could control what came up first about him when someone Googled to find out who he is.

I asked Andrew what sort of blogs he reads. He said that he doesn’t have really one. I said that I don’t either. Andrew said that most that he got to weren’t legal blogs. He said he tried, but they just don’t have something. Then he found and shared some stunning examples with me — examples that looked insular and ivory tower of the “publish or perish” brand. We thought they had their place and wished them well, but they weren’t for bloggers like us.

In his undergratuate work, Andrew became a programmer, that was what led to his blogging bug and is part of why he blogs so well. Andrew wanted to know more about what was happening with this techology. He said he’d never want his blog to be pure legal in content. His interests are wider than that. I heard a guy who likes to use all of his skills in meeting challenges and who wants to see how blogs might be used in law work.

Then there’s Andrew the programmer who meets Andrew the blogger. He told me how he started checking how to drive traffic almost immediately. Then he was working with adsense to see whether he could pay for his hosting. Andrew said he was surprised to see was earning more than that.

In every conversation blogging, school, and topic the theme was the same: Andrew liked finding the challenge and answering it. I had to point that out to Andrew. He didn’t disagree. He’s going to make a great lawyer. He’s a great guy too.

I’d like to talk to him again — now I know he has so many friends. He’s just that easy to be with.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I’m impressed how fast my blog has grown, how many people read blogs . . . all of these random people reading, learning.”
. — Andrew Flusche

Stop by Andrew’s Blog, Legal Andrew, and say hi!

Thanks, Andrew, 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

Thanks to Week 60 SOBs

December 16, 2006 by Liz

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.

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.

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

Great Find: Eyes on Design Photoshop Tutorials

December 16, 2006 by Liz

Expert or Beginner?

I know I need some of these.

Great Find: Eyes on Design Photoshop Tutorials

Permalink: http://www.eyesondesign.net/pshop/tuts.htm

Target Audience: Photoshop users

Content: I need them. If you don’t, you’re probably not reading this. If the ones at the top sound too hard for you, look at the ones at the bottom. Click on the screen shot below to go there.

I hope you have time to try some. I hope that I have time to.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Michelle Mitchell Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

December 15, 2006 by Liz

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Michelle there?

The email started like this:
Anyone who wants to talk blogging is a welcome guest. My husband enjoys the medium and we talk frequently about it but most of my off-line friends are blank stares when I mention “blogs.”
And I thought
Oh, a writer, who wants to talk, how delicious!
That was my introduction to Michelle Mitchell.

Her introduction to me was a little less. A major brain glitch had me call her an hour later than I promised. I was embarrassed and goofy. She was gracious, wonderful, and forgiving.

I told she was the third person I knew from Alaska. Michelle told me about living in Anchorage. I got a picture of a place that was much more cosmopolitan than the average city of 300,000 people. She explained that planes brought people and packages from all over the world through Anchorage. I thought location, location, location.

Michelle talked with head and heart about the benefits that being six hours from the next big city can offer, how it gives a feeling of being set apart, how it takes longer for certain influences to get there. I said I understood a bit of what she meant, that my brothers live in Wyoming. She said she and her husband had lived in North Dakota for a while. We talked about the similarities and differences. It’s one time when talking about the weather made sense to me.

When I asked how she started blogging, Michelle told me her tech-savvy husband had suggested she start one, but what had turned the tide was a high profile murder trial. She explained how they searched the defendant’s blog for evidence — that led her to explore what blogs were about. We discussed our first encounters with blogs and how some blogs take on a “me too” commenting culture.

Blogging cultures became the conversational topic. We discussed hobby blogs, business blogs, mommy blogs, writing blogs — the people who write them, and the people who read them. Michelle said that she thought that lurkers aren’t rude, that people read newspapers without writing the editor. I said that Darren had reported that only 1 or 2% of all readers comment. Imagine if everyone did.

Michelle said that, when she first started blogging, she spent hours and hours preparing a piece for her blog — she posted about once a week. She explained that she couldn’t keep blogging that way, It took too much time and people wouldn’t know when to read. As a mom and a blogger, she wanted balance, yet do it well and right. She explained how she found her way to posting daily in shorter posts.

Recently, Michelle removed her stat counter. All of the reasons are in this post already.

This morning when I fired up my computer, I got this IM from a popular blogger:
I see you’re on scribbet.
That’s Michelle’s blog.

Once again, Michelle had gotten to the conversation before me.

I’m wondering how to fix that . . . I’m thinking another call to Anchorage.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

It’ll be curious to see what happens when the majority of people know what a blog is the way they know what a website is now.–Michelle Mitchell

Stop by Michelle’s Blog, Scribbit, and say hi!

Thanks, Michelle, 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.