Successful Blog

Thanks to Week 36 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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Bloggers Buzz

blogmundi

Creating Passionate Users

Digital Surgery

Mama Mouse's Chatter

Office Freaks

The Net-Savvy Jobseeker

ProffBlogger

Seth Godin's Blog

Shards of Consciousness

Your Financial Freedom

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 badge’s validity, send him or her directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and 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. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Net Neutrality 7-1-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

Stopping the Big Giveaway – by John Kerry

The Commerce Committee voted on net neutrality and it failed on an 11-11 tie. This vote was a gift to cable and telephone companies, and a slap in the face of every Internet user and consumer.

It will not stand.

I voted against this lousy bill for two reasons: because net neutrality and internet build-out are crucial to building a more modern and fair Information Society, and both were pushed aside by the Republicans.

. . . Why are United States Senators afraid to say that companies should be expected to foster growth by building out their broadband networks to increase access?

. . . This bill was passed in committee over our objections. Now we need to fight to either fix it or kill it in the full Senate. Senator Wyden has already drawn a line in the sand — putting a “hold” on the bill, which prevents it from going forward for now. But there will be a day of reckoning on this legislation soon, make no mistake about it, and we need you to get engaged — pressure your Senators, follow the issue, demand net neutrality and build-out.

It’s not just net neutrality that is at stake

Kos wrote yesterday that the Net Neutrality amendment was defeated yesterday in the Commerce Committee, and there have been several diaries about that since. A bill that was kept however has not been remarked upon here. This is the revival of the broadcast flag, which the FCC had mandated several years ago but was struck down by a court. Now the entertainment industry is trying to bring the broadcast flag back with a new law. . . .

With respect to the broadcast flag however, Republicans take precisely the opposite position. By supporting the broadcast flag, they are saying that it is necessary for the government to control which of those transmissions that we listen to or watch on TV we can record: something that is unprecedented. It has been taken for granted up until now by everyone that if you can hear something on the radio or hear it on TV you should be able to record it, but the broadcast flag would change all that. The government would require all electronic devices that are capable of receiving digital TV or radio signals to implement restrictions blocking recording of those signals if the producer of the signal has embedded in it a flag indicating that it does not want the signal recorded. In other words, the government will mandate that you no longer control what you do with your electronic devices, but the corporations of the entertainment industry do.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Improving Business Traffic Through Quality

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This link comes from Nemanja Sreckovic.
He passed it from sitepoint.

Great Find: Five Keys to Improving Web Site Conversions by Kent Lewis
Permalink: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/improving-web-site-conversions
Audience/Topic: Webmasters and Bloggers.site usability
Content: Kent Lewis begins his article with this observation that unfortunately is all too often true for too many blogs and websites.

The primary focus of search engine optimization (SEO) professionals is to generate traffic to a web site. Some SEO professionals are better than others at achieving that goal via higher rankings in search engines for target keyword phrases. However, the ball is often dropped once the visitor actually hits the site and, most likely, leaves.

Ken’s advice is straight and centered on his experience as an ebusiness retailer. Ken suggests checking our business sites in five key areas as a way to convert traffic into sales.

    1. Validation
    2. Reciprocity
    3. Safety
    4. Communication
    5. Measurement

Though blogs don’t need the in-depth SEO that websites do, we need the same business sense that Kent’s article proposes in order to offer the strongest brand to our readers from the first blink to the last word that they read.

Thanks Nemanja for pointing this article out to us.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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6+1 Traits: Word Choice — A Writing & Business Power Tool
9 + 1 Things Every Reader Wants from a Writer
Great Find: Is Your Design C.R.A.P.?
6 Steps to a Branded Business Blog in Record Time

Search Engines & People Care about Anchor Text in Links

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Anchor Text

New Blogger Logo

When you code a link to another blog or website, the link anchor text is the name or description that you give to the link. The anchor text is the word or words that people click on to take them to where the link leads. These visuals show a sample link code and how the anchor text would look in to your readers.

<a href=“http://[URL goes here]”>Link Anchor Text</a >

would look like this to readers:

Link Anchor Text

Some people use the name of the site or blog as anchor text. Some use words such as here or click here instead.

Search Engines Care about Anchor Text

It’s good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to anchor your links with strong descriptive text. Strong anchor text is a sign of a blogger who knows best practices, who understands how search engines travel links, and who cares about readers. Aaron Wall, who wrote the book on SEO, recommends avoiding click here anchor text, except in the rare case when it can’t be avoided.

Search engines pay attention to what you write in your anchor text. Spiders use anchor text as they follow links. The anchor is an opportunity to show how your post relates to the information you have linked to. It’s a way underscore to the relevancy of what you have been saying. Take the time to be descriptive when choosing text to anchor your links.

It’s also good be inconsistent when you name multiple links to the same source.

Why? [Read more…]

SOB Business Cafe 06-30-2006

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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

Benjamin Yoskovitz guest hosts at Steve Remington’s blog to ask us if we’re sure we know what our blogs are about.

What's Your Blog About Again?

Mike Sigers lets us in on secrets we need to know about selling.

Fraser talks about and offers video on the influence of effective communication.

Marianne Ricmond returns from WOMMA with a message that is as old as the fifties wbout how we should see our customers.

Message from WOMMA: Open, Honest Communication

Easton lets us know why Business Blogwire is so popular. (All of this time I thought it was Yoda.)

Best of Business Blogwire

Related ala carte selections include

I was listening to Christine Kane while I was typing this and drinking coffee from a beautiful golden coffee mug from Tom Vander Well. Thanks, Tom!

Tom reminds us that upselling can be a way of helping out.

Upselling Doesn't Have to Be Hard Selling

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

Net Neutrality 6-30-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

Net Neutrality Amendment Defeated in Senate Committee

“We are not going to get it solved with one solution or the other,” telecom analyst Jeff Kagan told the E-Commerce Times. “We have to come up with alternatives and compromises. I don’t know what will be acceptable to both sides.”

A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday rejected an amendment that would prevent Internet service providers from charging Web firms more for faster service to consumers. The amendment failed by an 11-11 vote. . . .

Psst! The Internet just went corporate

Did anybody feel a disturbance in the Force yesterday? Nope, I didn’t either. But Neo was spinning in his cybergrave: The ‘Net went corporate on Wednesday, with the blessing of the U.S. Congress.

Yes, you can still surf anywhere you want on the Internet. But depending on what you’re looking for, it may take forever to load. See, there’s this bill sponsored by the telecommunications industry (uh-oh) intended to remunerate carriers for their support of the Internet. It all comes down to that wonderfully vague and innocuous term “‘Net neutrality”: Right now, everyone’s site is carried with equal speed and service, whether it’s Google.com or Ihaveapetferret.net. But the telco companies want high-dollar outfits (like Google) to pay for better service. That means Ihaveapetferret.net (and any other small site without Google million$ at its fingertips) likely won’t have the cash to pay up — and will get ghettoized by the carriers. Meaning… unless your blog is a blockbuster, no one’s going to read it. It’ll simply take too long to load.

Has Anyone Read the FCC’s USF for VoIP Order yet? To lift from Stephen Colbert, “Is it bad or the worst thing we have ever seen out of Washington?”

All I can do is ask: Was recent DC activity on Capitol Hill a calculated effort of misdirection of David Copperfield proportions (David Copperfield of modern magic and Claudia Schiffer fame, not the David Copperfield of Dickens fame, although many a VoIP provider might, as a result, find itself living in a Dickensian “Bleak House” as a result)?

How come we couldn’t see the humungo elephant right in front of our eyes? While we were amassing all our troops on the hill trying to protect our flank on the eastern front, we were getting wiped out this week on the western front. Why does the FCC say VoIP providers give us all your money?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE