Successful Blog

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time — Things You Gotta See!!!

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You Gotta See This!!!

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YES, the mic will be open again tonight. So start collecting your thoughts. Remember, you get to bring what you want to talk about.

The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Tonight we’re talking about things you gotta see!

We might also talk about

  • a rainbow in the shape of a circle
  • the glacier in Alaska
  • St. Elmo’s Fire in Australia
  • the Alps, the Rockies, the Amazon

AND THE EVER POPULAR,
Basil the code-writing donkey, and Milton the Moose.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Open Mic Tonight 7pm Chgo Time –What’s Hot? What’s Not?

Get Edgy: Contest Ideas to Push ANY Blog to the Remarkable Edge

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Writing Contests as Edgecraft

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Writing contests, I know you’ve seen ’em so have I. I’m a writer and I don’t have time to enter them. I imagine that most techies and other nonwriters pass them by completely.

If you want my attention, doing two things is important.

Mix something successful from over there to something you have here.

Find the edge of here — be noticed, outstanding, and remarkable.

Seth calls moving out to that remarkable edge edgecrafting. It’s knowing who you are, knowing what business you’re in, and not letting tradition or the perceived risk — that perceived risk that edging out comes packaged in. It’s investing in, inventing, or trying new things to make a mark that will get people remarking about what you’re doing.

A nonwriting blog — say a techie blog — having a writing contest is a remix with posibilities. Curious at the very least, don’t you think? Gotta get past curious to way out there, in order to be at the edge.

I’ve got some ideas . . .

How to Set Up a Contest that Works

Nothing is less fun than a contest where no one shows up. So let’s start with the basics that tilt the balance in your favor.

  1. Keep the rules few and the task simple.
  2. Keep the deadline definite and the timeline short, but not too short — a week is good.
  3. Announce it as many ways as you can. Remind folks daily on your blog. Send out email. Ask friends and colleagues to pass the word. Seek out and list your contest at sites such as competizione.

That being said, what kind of writing context might catch readers’ attention and get them to participate?

I’ve got a few ideas. . . .
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Writer, Coach, Strategist Girl — Not Seller Girl

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I've been thinking . . .
This is the 1009th post on Successful-Blog and soon I will celebrate the one-year anniversary of my first post here. A lot has changed since then. I’ve grown up as a person and as a blogger with this little blog by my side.I’ve met so many dear, and deeply close friends in that time. We’ve made each other better.

I love every reader who takes time to comment and every reader who simply reads what I write. I look forward to coming here every day to see what happens and who will stop in to say something.

I love this little blog. I remember the first post I wrote and every post after that. This blog has grown so much it’s now half my life. It’s part of me, and I’m part of it.

Now that a year’s coming to a close, and I stop to breathe. I look around at where things are, at what I see. I realize that sometimes folks make a big deal about this blog and me, but truth is, I’m just a working writer — supporting my family and a big university.

I’m finding that as a only one person, who writes for a living, to be fair to my family, and to be able to keep doing what I love so much, I need the time spend on Successful-Blog to be earning for me.

So after much thinking, I’ve decided to add some affiliate products to the sidebar. I want you to know how I’m going to choose them. The products will only be those that I would personally use or buy to give to my friends. End of story.

I value my name, and if a product is there, my name is on it.

That is the what, the why, and the promise behind my doing it. There will be no sales pitch. If I write about a product, every word I say, as always, will be what-I-would-say-to-my-best-friend true.

Of course, you can always hire me, too. I am the nice one. 🙂

Liz's Signature

Net Neutrality 10-10-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Telco Strategy Shift: To the States

We beat them in Congress, and depending on what happens on November 7th, we may win a full victory next session. The telcos are already changing their strategy to head off a Democratic Congress. This is from Tech Daily:

Lead Verizon Communications lobbyist Tom Tauke announced that the company is likely to halt its efforts in pursuing federal rules on video franchises should pending legislation fail this year. Bloomberg News reports that Tauke said the company instead would shift its focus to obtaining statewide agreements in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. Although federal language that would help telephone companies like AT&T and Verizon offer video services has broad support, the proposal has stalled because of various objections to the broader bill. “It is unclear whether there will be an opportunity” to pass a bill this year, Tauke said. “I do not expect we will mount an effort for federal legislation in 2007.”

This is essentially a threat to Congress – if you don’t pass something soon (in the lame duck session, for instance), we’re going to bypass you and go directly to the states. This has been coming for some time.

Gives new meaning to the PoliBlog. Doesn’t it? Tom Tauke writes there.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Bookcraft 2.0: The 90% Rule of Repurposing Content

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Content Always Wins

books

When I left you on Friday, an editor friend and I were on our way to Milwaukee to meet with Phil to make a bookmap from the rough cut of his book. The rough cut had been built on a set of criteria that made choosing content from his archives an easy decision-making process. I outlined those criteria in Archive Mining: How to Get From Working Book Title to Rough Cut Content. Now, it was time for a finer cut. Armed with 5 categories of pages, I was sure that we’d sort them into 7 or 8 chapters and make a bookmap. That was the plan.

Because our topic is timeless, we can be flexible about schedule. That gives us even more room to focus on what’s best for the book. Here’s what happened.

We didn’t make a bookmap.

I was wrong about 7 or 8 chapters.

The plan went out the door early on

because

To make a great book, the content must win. Always.

Making the Finer Cut

In order to make that finer cut, we needed a finer set of criteria. Again, we turned to black and white rules — that crucial tool for sorting intellectual gray questions efficiently.

We made two black and white “gating rules.”

A simple definition of what the book would do — Every entry, story, or example would offer a practical application for the reader.

Every written bit of content had to meet the 90% Rule of Repurposing Content.

We read aloud each piece, if it failed on either point, without question it was out.

What is the 90% Rule of Repurposing Content? It’s a rule that I made up.
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