Liz, Author at Successful Blog Page

Announcing the SOB Directory

January 9, 2006 by Liz

To All SOBs and All SO-Wanna-Bs

Successful Blog is not just getting a new design. It’s changing to become even more focused on success, community, and our readers. That means you’ll be seeing content changes and new content features as well as spiffy new design and production values.

I’m prepared to announce the first change right this minute.

Though the old Successful and Outstanding Blogger page is still under cover. It’s now also undergoing a change of it’s own. No longer will it just carry a simple list of links as an honor roll.

Announcing the SOB Directory

As a service to our readers and our community, we’re turning this page into a directory. Each Successful and Outstanding Blogger’s link will expand to carry both the blog logo and a description of the content readers will find when they visit your blog. So the SOB directory entry for my business blog would look like this.

ME Strauss skews the world wondering about crayons, conformity,heroes, yo-yos, idiosyncrasies, and that person reading the paper at Starbucks. Enjoy storytelling that brings back memories.

What to Do

If you’re already an SOB, send me your blog description. I’m happy to do the rest. You surely have one that you’ve used for some directory listing hiding on your computer somewhere. Take it out and dust it off. No worries about your logo. Unless you want to switch the one I have. (The logo restriction is 60 pixels high.) Then e-mail me at lizsun2@gmail.com.

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, take a post home with you to share Successful-Blog ideas with your readers.
Just link to that post on this blog and write your own insights to “add value” to the conversation.
Then e-mail me at lizsun2@gmail.com with a link to your post.

That’s all there is to it. I’ll feature your logo with a link and you’ll get your SOB badge for your blog. Then your logo will be part of our new directory.

OR contribute an outstanding idea about how we might add value for readers to Successful- Blog.

Even more exciting changes that serve your needs are sitting right there on the horizon. Can you see them yet?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
What Makes a Great SOB?!

Great Find: Laptop Life Extension Tips

January 9, 2006 by Liz

Great Find: Software Tips & Projects: Your Laptop Life-Extension Program by Computer Power User Magazine, January 2006 issue
Type of Article: Magazine Feature Article on Win XP
URL: www.computerpoweruser.com (then do article search)
Target Audience: Any XP Laptop user

Content: If you’re like us, you dump most available funds into keeping that desktop PC at the cutting edge of tech innovation, while your aging laptop upgrade will have to wait for a lottery hit. . . . this article begins. Well my laptop is my desktop, and I’m still waiting for that lottery hit.

What you’ll find here is how to circumvent some of the redundancies built into XP to allow your laptop to run faster and to keep up with the resource-hungry programs that seem to get bigger by the minute. Included in the article are tips on how to

Do deep disk deletes
Uninstall the uninstallers that you’ll never need.
Stop Windows from fetching functions that you don’t want to use.
Delete dlls that are no longer associated with any program files.
Shut off unnecessary background Windows services to get faster performance.

If you’re a road warrior or if you just earn your miles at a desk machine, more resources can make the day go by faster and your life seem like you’ve just gotten your windshield cleaned.

I’m not a computer power user or a computer power magazine reader, but I have to say when I read this article I was ready to try at least one or two of these to make my life easier.
Take a peek and see whether you might not agree.

After all, you aren’t really going to uninstall the service pack that you intalled and have been using for two years now. Are you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Bloggy Life Question 6

January 8, 2006 by Liz

muddy teal strip A

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week, I USUALLY offer a Blogging Hypothetical Question.

This one’s for real.

Here you go. . . .

What community service might the NEW and IMPROVED Successful Blog offer you? Should the focus be more on the SUCCESSFUL and less on the BLOG? Or is that right as it is?

We can take this blog in a world of directions as long as we stick to three words–success, community, and readers.

You’ve passed me some fabulous ideas earlier that I’m working on, and I’ve come up with a few of my own. But I want to unroll this new version really right.

We have a chance to make something unique here–something outstanding that makes your life easier–a community blog that actually does something for you.

What a concept! What might that something be?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Thanks to Week 11 SOBs

January 8, 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.

muddy teal strip A

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.

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

65th Crayon Finds that Google Doesn’t Use Search

January 8, 2006 by Liz

Thought I’d share this Sunday fun while you’re waiting for the boxes to get opened. . . . a piece I’m running today on my personal blog.

This Just In from The 65th Crayon:

When he got the call to attend a meeting at Google headquarters, The 65th Crayon was a little perplexed. Our reporter friend hadn’t been there since he had taken them to task last fall for the problem of dlites and dlogs–fake websites and blogs set up by dogs–in the case of the invisible dog spamming the Internet.

“I thought they might be calling for a follow up report,” said our supersleuth reporter, “or I considered that they might have had some new ideas about related Adsense Words. To my surprise, it was nothing of the sort.”

At this point, our remarkable friend pulled a red plastic egg from his pocket, saying “You might not remember these. “This is the original Silly Putty, made from the work of engineer James Wright, who was trying to invent a new kind of rubber. It became a famous toy when it was introduced on the Howdy Doody Show. Since then kids have been pulling, turning, and twisting it and of course, pressing it against the newspaper to pick up pictures.”

“It appears that Crayola the company that sells Silly Putty now offers it in another size–Silly Putty Bulk–and several colors. Apparently the engineers at Google decided that they needed a lot of it.”

The Google engineers tell the story quite well at the Google Blog. This image shows how they put the bulk shipment they were going to share together in a pile for a picture. Later, they couldn’t pry the Google glob apart so that each owner could claim his or her blob of the bigger glob. That’s why they had called in the 65th Crayon.

“Silly people. They thought I might be able topull apart 250 pounds of stuck together Silly Putty. Had they used their famous search engine, they would have known,” the 65th said seriously. “You always call in the crayon expert before handling explosives or Silly Putty.”

Then in usual fashion, our reporter friend tied his trench coat belt and walked off, like Humphrey Bogart.

–me strauss Letting me be

Scribbles: A-Go A Coloring Party

For links to additional Scribbles Reports by the 65th Crayon see the sidebar.
Scribbles Reports by The 65th Crayon appear every other Sundays in Letting me be …
The 65th Crayon is a copyright of ME Strauss. All Rights Reserved.

Community Writing Opportunity

January 7, 2006 by Liz

For all who write, here’s a change to promote yourself and your business:

Do you know the Writer’s Blog Alliance? If you’ve never been, you should check it out. All blog writers are welcome but particularly suited are those who publish writing blogs. One of the founders, Deborah Woehr, also publishes:

The Writers Buzz
A blog on promoting what you’ve written

Prosperity
Deborah’s Novel–a great read with strong plot and characters

DeborahWoehr.com
Deborah’s Personal Writing Journal–some great writer’s tips from this pro

Now Deborah is putting together an anthology to which I’ve already submitted. I think that you should know about it.
——————————————–

From Deborah : Seeking Submissions for the 2006 Writer’s Blog Anthology

Whether you’re a professional writer, a part-time freelancer, or a beginner, here is your chance to submit your best blog post for inclusion in what we hope to be the start of an annual tradition. We need submissions for the following categories:

Journalists
Columnists
Freelancing
Fiction
Non-fiction
Litblogs
Graphic Novels
Poetry

At this time, we are not offering any payment for submissions. This is a volunteer effort.

Deadline for Submission: January 31, 2006

Guidelines for Submission

1. All submissions must be in well-written English. No excessive slang, profanity, violence, etc.
2. Your blog must be at least three months old.
3. Include your real name, the name of your blog, the link to your blog, and a thumbnail image of your blog.
4. Include the post that gained the most response from your readers, adding a short paragraph that summarizes their reaction.
5. Don’t forget your byline, where you can include links to your other blogs, books, business websites, etc.
6. Please do not submit any more than two entries. There is no guarantee that both entries will be accepted. If you do submit a second entry, it must be from another blog with a completely different subject from the first (ex. a fiction blog and a column blog about politics). All double submissions with similar subjects will be rejected.
7. Submit your entries to deborah@writersblogalliance.com
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Check out the Writer’s Blog Alliance and what they have to offer, and do throw caution to the wind and give Deborah’s Anthology a chance at your best work for her anthology.

–ME “Liz” Strauss