Successful Blog

Introducing Seb’s Random Thoughts

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SOB Hall of Famer: Seb’s Random Thoughts

Sebastian Had a Major DIGG Article Yesterday

Sebastian Prooth, owner of Seb’s Random Thoughts and Podcast Periodical, is a student of media, and an avid blogger, writer, and technology enthusiast. He’s also a computer/tech geek with his 12+ years using MS Windows and the OS X system he uses daily next to his PC. Sebastian talks about technology, news, and just about anything that’s going on. This isn’t CNN or Technorati mirror; it’s more of a mirror of the author sharing with readers — from the head and from the heart.

Notes from Liz: Sebatians’s topics might be random, but his thinking on them is anything but. Seb is a deep thinker who brings sincere and insightful viewpoints to whatever electic topic he tackles. Whenever I stop in at Seb’s blog, I find myself leaving a comment because he has spurred me to think about what he has wrote and to respond with as much thought as he has invested. One read of his posts will surely show you what I mean. Click on his logo and see for yourself.

Go there and Digg Seb’s article on Skype. It’s almost 400 now.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Has your SOB Blog Been Introduced to US?
Blog Promotion: May I Introduce You?

Net Neutrality 6-21-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

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

Net Neutrality–The Video Parody

I made a parody of Woody Guthrie’s famous song “This Land Is Our Land”, with Net Neutrality as the subject. I remixed video footage from the fantastic Elephants Dream animated movie short, a Blender Foundation project that was released under a Creative Commons license. You MUST see the original movie to understand how amazing the graphics, animation, music, and sound effects are in this animation. Visit their site and buy the DVD, which has a high definition version of the movie. That version is better than Pixar and I love Pixar! Note: The quality of even the “decent” version of my parody is absolutely no match for the breathtaking quality of the original, let alone that of the high definition movie.

Coyote Gulch . . . Robert Cringely:

“But all packets aren’t created equal. TCP packets over longer distance connections, for example, are effectively at a disadvantage, because they are more likely to have data loss and require retransmissions, thus expanding their appetites for bandwidth. By the same token, packets of all types that originate on the ISP side of its primary Internet connection have the advantage of functioning in an environment with far greater bandwidth and far fewer hops. Perhaps the best example of this disparity: packets that pass through private peering arrangements, versus those traveling from one backbone provider to another through one of the many NAPs, with their relatively high packet loss.

“This ‘to NAP or not to NAP’ issue has been with us for a long time. Smaller and poorer ISPs that can’t attract peering deals with their larger brethren are stuck with communicating through the NAPs, which requires more time and bandwidth to transfer the same number of data packets successfully. This has long been a marketing point for bigger and richer ISPs. But beyond marketing, this disparity hasn’t received much public notice. There are many ISPs that have both private peering and inter-NAP connections, yet whether they send a packet through the NAP or not hasn’t been a huge public issue. Perhaps it should be. It has certainly been possible for ISPs to pretty easily put a hurt on packets, and they probably have been doing so, though most pundits assume that we are still living in the good old days.

The funny thing about scale — Kafka’s numbers are wrong [via Ken Camp ]

In a telephony online article in early May, BellSouth’s Chief Architect Henry Kafka was quoted as saying:

The average IPTV user will likely consume about 224 gigabytes per month, he added, at a monthly cost to carriers of $112, a giant leap from the less than $5 attributed to Internet use. If that content were high-definition video, the average user would be consuming more than 1 terabyte per month at a cost to carriers of $560 per month.

“Clearly that’s not what the average user is going to pay per month for their video service,” Kafka said. “That’s why we need help.” . . .

Kafka’s numbers are wrong because the cost of bandwidth is not linear as volume increases. Scale creates economies that result in a lower cost per Mps (or Gigabyte downloaded). I have personally noticed in my own studies that the cost doubles in order to quadruple bandwidth, although this is not confirmed by my colleagues (or any other sources for that matter).

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

The Mic in ON in Tuscany!

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It’s Like Open Mike Only Different

Here’s how it works.

The rules are simple — be nice.

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.

 

Here’s what we might be talking about:

Tonight after 7pm Chicago Time

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Tonight after 7pm Chicago Time

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Tuesday Open Comment Night

Personal Branding logo

YES, the mike 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.

We got things going really fast last week. If you missed it, stop by this week, and check it out.

Some things we might talk about could include

  • what Scot did on his summer vacation.
  • b5media’s new VIP Fan Blogs for Fox TV shows.
  • Why no one is getting credit for their links from Liz.
  • new design ideas for Successful Blog.
  • where Joe found this lovely photograph.

AND THE EVER POPULAR,

What are the code-writing donkey and the drinking moose doing tonight?

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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7 Steps to Being Recognized as an Expert

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The Catch 22 of Being an Expert

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One of the hardest parts of business blogging is finding a niche where you know you can write successfully. Once you find that niche, naturally you’ll looking to find readers. Those readers that you’re looking for are looking too. They’re looking for a writer they have time for — someone they can trust and rely on — an expert.

Becoming an expert seems to be a Catch 22.
You have to know your stuff to be an expert. But . . .
It seems that “expertness” starts out as not what you know, but what you’re known as.

You have be an expert, before folks will see you as one.
A Ph.D. helps, but it doesn’t automatically translate to expert. Testimonials from other experts help too, but they aren’t a magic entry to the world of experts either.

The problem for the most of us is . . . if no one will look at what I know, how will I ever be recognized as an expert?

7 Steps to Being Recognized as an Expert

There’s no question that to be an expert, you have to be knowledgeable, authentic, and hardworking at what you do. Everyone pays dues to get to the top, but knowing what to work at helps a lot too.

To be recognized as a expert, someone has to see your work and know its quality, see its value, find it relevant and worth coming back to.

These are the 7 Steps to being recognized as an expert when someone comes to look.

  • Be the expert you are, not the expert someone else is. You are the only you the world has. That differentiates what you offer from the start. Know your strengths and play to them.
  • Be an expert in ONE thing. Find ONE niche that fits your strenghs. People like a “go to” person for a specific need. Once they come they can find out about the other wonderful things you know about.
  • Write expert content. Readers want top-notch, quality, relevant content — information, answers, AND analysis. They can get news anywhere. Add your expert opinion, analysis, evaluation, synthesis, or predictions.
  • Be an expert at keeping track of your niche. Don’t overwhelm yourself with feeds, but have an aggregator. Follow popurls to get the latest on the social bookmarking services. Read the magazines and the blogs that talk about the topics you cover.
  • Be an expert at specialized searches. Make finding interesting content tidbits your expert quest. Get to be friends with Google Alerts and similar services. Follow terms around the Internet.
  • Be an expert at getting the word out. Get to know the other experts in your niche. Talk with them. Visit and comment on their blogs. Ask them for an interview. Volunteer to guest post now and then.
  • Be an expert at going deeper into your niche. Saturate yourself in the trends, but go deep too. Find out what researchers are thinking so that you can offer your readers the highest quality and most relevant information and analysis.
  • Plus one: Be an expert at having fun. Nothing is more appealing than an expert who loves what he or she is doing. Share the joy of your niche with the folks who come to see you. They’ll want to know more about what it is that you do.

Striving to be an expert in your niche lets your readers know who you are and why they should keep coming back to see you. It’s a key centerpiece of your brand — quality, knowledge, and credibility as promotion. If you’re ready when that person comes to look, the rest will happen. Just keep counting to seven — seven key steps to being an expert that is.

What better way to promote your brand and your business than to have everyone see you as the expert? How can I help you do that?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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This Just in: Sabine Wins!

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Scavenger Hunt Was On

As you might recall the Scavenger Hunt is on at this post about the Link Leak Virus at New York City Open Comments Night.

AND THEN I POSED ANOTHER CHALLENGE:

Question 7 was called by Shirley Buxton, but I wondered, because when I went to her blog, I couldn’t find an answer to the question. That Shirley, she’s a fun one. I found it today. Can you find it? I’ll give a link to the first person who writes in my comments here where her answer is. Here’s the question.

7. What word made Liz color on her flat screen with crayons?

Here’s the post link.

Finch on Feeding Sock

Sabine at CTBizBlogs answered correctly first.

Congratulations, Sabine!

There are still seven more questions, if you’d like to play for a link. I’ll be continuing to update as winners come in. After all as Rumpelstiltskin said, “A Deal is a Deal.”

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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