Successful Blog

December Blogtipping Positivity!

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Link Love for Making Things Brighter

blogtipping icon 1

Today I’m celebrating official Blogtipping Day. How about you? As the song goes “Give a little bit . . .” Here’s how it works.

  • Choose three bloggers you admire and link to them.
  • List three reasons why you admire each one.
  • Then add a tip at the end.

That’s all there is to it.

Phil Gerbyshak

  • When it comes to positivity, Phil, you are the REAL THING. No question.
  • On and off your blog, Make It Great! you take genuine pleasure in the success of others. You’re not shy about saying so.
  • I’ve read your entire blog. Your ideas are compelling. You write well and with passion. You are one in a million.

Tip: Keep some of that energy just for Phil. Don’t ever forget that folks who know you are with for the long haul.

Dr. Kirsten Harrell, Psy. D.

  • The Think Positive Blog is popping with energy. I feel it as soon as I click in there.
  • Kirsten, you are the same way. It comes through in every blog post you write and in all of your ipopin affirmations.
  • You’ve brought a bundle of positive insights to discussions throughout the blogosphere. I always look forward to your comments when you visit here.

Tip: You have so much to offer. My only tip is that we want more.

Troy Worman

  • Anyone who’s been to Orbit Now knows that it’s a positively amazing place. It’s always changing in a way that makes me look forward to going there for a fresh new outlook. I find myself re-reading nuggets of wisdom, just to stay a little longer.
  • Troy, you have a positive world view that is creative, clever, and contagious. And interwoven through that is a quite dose of compassion.
  • You and your blog are a category of one. It’s a category worth keeping.

Tip: I think your “I want to be your mentor idea” is fabulous. Please ask for help if you need to find people to sign up.

Thanks to all three of you for bringing positivity to the blogosphere. I’m smiling just to think of the contribution you make.

–Me “Liz” Strauss

Related article
Blogtipping Three of the Best
Link Leak Virus Page

SOB Business Cafe 12-01-06

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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 title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Mike Stelzner’s Writing White Papers has a Free Guide.

Successfully Marketing Your White Paper - A Free Guide

Drew’s Marketing Minute has advice from Walt.

The Blog Herald brings us the words of a FT – Goldman Sachs 2006 Business Book of the Year Finalist.

Writing Clear and Simple shows the value of “think before you press send.”

For want of a nail

Thoughts and Philosophies fearlessly faces the challenge of defining goals.

It’s a numeric life! explains why our parents and teachers were off base.

Related ala carte selections include

Marti Lawrence has a new twist on a Squidoo Lens.

Don’t forget about this . . .

One announcement:
Would you like to be a constant contributor? If you think you’d like to be part of the workings of Successful Blog, email me at at lizsun2 @ gmail [dot] com.

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

Blog Design Types: How Do They Affect Reader Comments?

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I've been thinking . . .
Yesterday, I had breakfast with Steve Farber. Our discussion included comments and conversation on blogs. I mentioned what I’ve been noticing as I begin working with a designer on a facelift for Successful Blog.

The key point is that the longer I study designs I might like the more I realize that design affects how and whether I comment.

It makes sense really. We recognize a restaurant we want to try by its decor. We decorate our houses to reflect what is important to us. Why wouldn’t blog design reflect the blog owner and the audience? It seems a natural next step to think that blog design affects whether I comment.

Not all readers respond as I do, but decades working with readers online and off has taught me that many do. So, I’ve collected these thoughts:

  1. Some designs are all rules or all whimsy. They might be mature and thoughtful, but they have no emotion. They might be fun and friendly, but they have no sophistication. It’s hard for me to find a fit in either. If I don’t fit, I worry that my comments will be misinterpreted. Designers should know I comment on these blogs despite design not because of it.

  2. Some designs are highly structured — all things are outlined and in boxes. I know from print, that some folks find high-structure a comfort and others find it limiting. High-structure design makes me feel there is only one right answer. I’m careful when I comment on blogs with high-structure designs. I think that information bloggers and corporate blog designers should know this about me.

  3. Some designs are wide open — the extreme example is the white page with no lines or boxes. The overall feeling could translate to standing on an open prairie where horizon is visible in all directions. I so like reading these blogs that I thought this was an option I might try, but when I went to comment on one my comment seemed so public. It didn’t mind sharing my thoughts in this venue, but I knew I’d never get in deep discussion. Someone who wants me to get to the point and keep moving should be aware of this response.

  4. Some designs have a sense of openness and intimacy about them. They offer a defined space with atmosphere that offers room to breathe and think, and a boundary from the rest of the world. These designs feel fresh and familiar at the same time. I seem to know I’ll like people I’ll find there before I start to read. Designers looking to build a community blog should understand the attraction of these intangibles.

We know Successful-Blog is about relationships and conversation. Our kind of dialogue takes place in comfortable spaces, in places intimate and nonjudgmental. High-trust environments don’t happen when there’s only one right answer, when the whole world is watching, or when we have no sense of where we are or who we’re talking to.

Great design weds emotion and structure. Great designers weave and craft the subtle and intangible values of a brand into a design. Great design underpins and underscores who you and your readers are. It is the visual expression of the story your blog is telling in the words.

My comments might begin with a thought, but the execution, the actual writing involves a personal, emotional investment — a putting myself out there. A blog’s design helps me understand whether I’ll be supported in that effort. I guess it tells whether my comment is welcome.

How does the design of your blog reinforce the story of who you are? What else have you noticed about how design makes you feel while you are reading a blog?

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Net Neutrality 12-01-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Ofcom report

Ofcom just released a report today about global telecommunications developments. Key findings here.

[ . . . ]

But on a serious note, this:

Next-generation networks (NGNs) will be able to carry the full range of current communications services via data packets, and the nature and timing of NGN deployment will depend partially on the policy decisions regulators make about whether to intervene (and in what manner) in relation to these infrastructure upgrades.

[ . . . ]

What? The internet already can carry any packet. With enough bandwidth installed, any kind of communication can be watched and interacted with enjoyably. So what’s missing that requires an acronym? Why not say we’re deploying bandwidth — why invoke a whole slew of centralized standard-setting exercises?

Much to ponder, at any rate

But on a serious note, this:

Next-generation networks (NGNs) will be able to carry the full range of current communications services via data packets, and the nature and timing of NGN deployment will depend partially on the policy decisions regulators make about whether to intervene (and in what manner) in relation to these infrastructure upgrades.

What? The internet already can carry any packet. With enough bandwidth installed, any kind of communication can be watched and interacted with enjoyably. So what’s missing that requires an acronym? Why not say we’re deploying bandwidth — why invoke a whole slew of centralized standard-setting exercises?

Much to ponder, at any rate

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Sandra Renshaw Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Sandy there?

If there really is a Des Moines Blogger Mafia, I guess you would have to say their head moll is Sandra Renshaw. We talked yesterday evening about her business, her partnership with Panera man, and her background in traditional organizations. Sandra Renshaw in one interesting lady.

Sandy told me that she started in the corporate world doing marketing. She said she has done most marketing tasks, but her love is graphics. We discussed our experiences with organizations in distress and how they shift people from job to job. Sandy stayed when others left because she’s good at what she does and because she calmly keeps things organized even in times of stress. Those two skills that are important in downsizing companies. Still she said it was disheartening that each time a good team was together another change would pull them apart.

Finally Sandy decided to do writing, graphics, and blogging on her own. That’s how Purple Wren Communications was born. Sandy said she has always been drawn to the color purple. Spoken like a true designer I thought. Wren, of course, comes from Renshaw and Communications comes from what she’s about — a unique brand name for a unique lady’s business.

Sandy told me of a corporate blogging experience she took on in which the business asked her to blog for them. Unfortunately the company wasn’t clear on their blogging goal. We discussed how Sandy’s role was too undefined and as a result, the writing for the blog was a chore. Sandy’s advice from the experience is that a blogger needs a clear role to feel a passion for writing. She said without that, she felt she couldn’t be effective on the company’s behalf.

We talked about blogging and bloggers. We talked about bloggers as adverntures. Sandy said that it takes people who want to try something new to begin with. We both talked about the blogger description that Jon Symons had mentioned the day before. Sandy said that she’d seen something like it too. I wondered where the heck I had been.

Sandy spoke of her first blog and the beginning of the blog she has now. We had a conversation about how many bloggers get caught in the feeling that they have a lot to say, but nothing that anyone would be interested in reading. I pointed out that every writer is half ego and half self-doubt — without the ego, nothing would get written; without the self-doubt, the writer would be too busy casting the movie to care that it did. We laughed about that together.

I wonder whether we were casting the same movie . . .

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

Maybe one day down the road blogging will be different, but right now it feels like family. Everyone is so caring, so giving, and so fun to meet in person. —Sandra Renshaw

Stop by Sandy’s blog, Purple Wren Communications, and say hi!

Thanks, Sandy, 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.

Bloggers Fighting? Oh, If You Must . . . Do It Right

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I agree
I saw and article called How to fight with other bloggers, on Paul Boutin’s blog Sunday. It’s advice he offers to bloggers about arguing, “if you need fight, do it right.” Doing it right means following three rules.

    Rule 1: Fight only with bloggers bigger than you.

    Rule 2: Stick to the arguments you know

    Rule 3: Don’t talk about the fight.

If I might add a few of my own,

    Liz’s Rule 1: Make sure it’s worth fighting about.

    Liz’s Rule 2: Keep personal talk out.

    Liz’s Rule 3: Don’t kick a guy who’s down or a horse that’s already dead.

    Liz’s Rule 4: Always leave the other guy a place to stand.

    Liz’s Rule 5: Remember your future boss and your heirs will be reading whatever you write a long time after your feelings have cooled off.

If a cause is worth supporting, it gets more traction from positive interaction. 😉

The blogosphere doesn’t need any of us to make it work.

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