Liz, Author at Successful Blog Page

Successful Blog Is Launching New Features

October 24, 2005 by Liz

Successful bloggers are constantly trading nuances, techniques, and strategies for how they keep their blogs growing. We’re all looking for those tangible and intangible traits that successful blogs have in common. When we find one, it’s hard to keep quiet. We want to know if someone else knows more than we do about it. Those conversations happen all over the blogosphere. They are a natural, exciting, and fun part of blogging. I want our share of what people are saying. Why let everyone else have all of the fun?

Successful Blog is launching new features. We’re kicking the conversation up a notch. We’ll check out blogs to see what makes them tick. We’ll discuss new ideas and meet successful bloggers. We’ll look at unique blogs from across the world. Here’s some of what you can count on.

In-depth Interviews: Start thinking of questions. We’ll be interviewing bloggers and reviewing blogs in every genre–business blogs, writing blogs, photo blogs–you name it. Ideas that work in one genre often have application in others.
Screen Shots: I’m getting screen shots of great blogs so we can talk about design and layout ideas and visual strategies that work.
Targeted Postings and Checklists: We’ll analyze the characteristics of a great blog, such as audience, content, design, navigation, and marketing.
Bloggers Survival Kit: As we move through the weeks, we’ll collect things together to make a survial kit for every blogger.
Conversation: I’ll be constantly asking you to be part of the discussion. The more I know about you the more I can do to help you build that Successful Blog.

Are you thinking of features you want to see, leave a comment right now. Let’s start talking.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Who’s ME Strauss and What’s She Doing Here?

October 23, 2005 by Liz

Look Closely.

Can you see the difference? Can you tell I’m not Scrivs?

I’m almost as tall as he is. My hair’s way longer than his.
Still he’s Scrivs, and I’m not.

Who am I?

I write as ME Strauss, but call me Liz. The ME was my parents’ idea, and it stuck. It worked in the publishing world. That’s where I started–but you didn’t come to read about me. Well if you want to there’s always my profile. . . . It’s over there in the sidebar on the left.

What am I doing here?

I’m the new face at Successful Blog. I’m doing all kinds of things–researching, writing, editing, talking, interviewing, questioning, learning, analyzing, strategizing, and a whole lot of other “ings”–whatever it takes to get to the bottom of whatever questions we can come up with about what makes a successful blog.

What can you expect?

One way that Scrivs and I look exactly alike is in what we have to say about success and blogs. We agree there are as many definitions for those two words as there are people to give them. I could have written what Scrivs wrote in his post What Makes a Successful Blog?

The generally accepted dictionary definition of success is, an event that accomplishes its intended purpose. Easy enough. Know your purpose and you’ll know how to define success for you. We’ll talk quite a bit about defining your goals and purpose here.

A Blog, or Weblog, is defined in the Wikipedia thusly:
A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is both a web application used for entering, modifying and displaying periodic posts (normally in reverse chronological order) as well as the totality of content constituted by these posts.

The key terms in there, at least for our purposes, are “Web application” and “content.” For me a blog at it’s most basic is an enabler of content, a mechanism through which you publish something. It could be photos, video, artwork, poetry, news, stories — anything. Content, that is what’s key when it comes to blogging.

Here at Successful Blog we’ll talk about content, blogging applications, personal blogging, business blogging, blog design, writing, photo blogging, and . . . tips, techniques and pointers that you can apply to your blogs and your blogging experience.

You can expect we’ll do plenty of that. Conversations like that are what successful bloggers do. You can expect a new post every Monday through Friday and lots of new features. You can also expect that I’m not going to do all of the talking. I’ll constantly be asking what you think about things too.

Here’s what I see.

Successful Blog is the place where all kinds of bloggers meet to share their successes and swap strategies. The content is organized, thorough, and relevant. The conversation is fun, fast, and sometimes irreverent.

This week we’re going to talk about audience and Blog Reviews. You’re my audience. So as they say, enough about me, let’s talk about you.

What do you think I should know about you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blogging and Perseverance

July 21, 2005 by Liz

From: D. Keith Robinson

Duncan Riley has some good advice for those of us who might get a bit discouraged trying to build a successful blog. His main point is to stick with it, keep posting quality posts on a regular basis and try not to let “the blogging blues” let you down.

He says:

“Very few people find fame and fortune through launching a blog overnight, but over time most people can build a reasonable audience, or even more, based on perseverance at blogging, literally going the distance.”

This is so true and can be hard to remember. It took literally almost a year before my first blog, Asterisk, saw much readership. I had to keep posting and wait. Eventually it “tipped” and I began to see comments and links coming in. But even before that I was having fun and I think that is key. If you’re not having fun, you might have a hard time sticking to it.

I’ve got a newish site I’m working on (Sweetdex) and I hit a bit of roadblock because it was kind of a chore to post in. I decided to mix it up a bit, not worry about sticking to the format and have a bit of fun. Now it’s much easier to post because I enjoy it more. Think about something like that if you are thinking about throwing in the towel.

So, keep at it, make it fun and hopefully you’ll get something worthwhile out of it.

How To Deal With Negative Comments

July 13, 2005 by Liz

From: D. Keith Robinson

Commenting and discussion, to me anyway, are the “killer feature” of most blogs. They”re what make the medium special and different. Blogging is best when it’s a two way discussion.

Most bloggers who allow commenting, at one time or another, will have to deal with negative feedback. Sometimes this comes in the form of comments. It’s inevitable and it doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

I’ve gotten my share of disparaging comments and I know how bad it can make you feel. I remember a time I worked my ass off for what I thought was a great, very well thought-out post with a positive message. I thought for sure I’d have a great discussion and that my readers would really jive with my message. I was wrong and I was inundated with negative comments. It really upset me, but in the end it turned out to be a positive, educational experience.

Over the years I’ve thought quite a bit about how to handle negative comments and I think I’ve got some great tips that might be of help to y’all.

Read and understand. Make sure you really understand what is being said. It’s easy to read something negative and jump in with a response that might not be as informed as it should be. That just causes more trouble.
Learn from it. Sometimes you’ll get a negative post because you were wrong. Take it as an educational experience.
Don’t get defensive. This just makes matters worse. Take a step back and try to be objective. Thing long and hard before you respond to negative feedback.
Ignore trolls. Do not engage in a discussion with someone who is just looking for a fight. Ignore the comment, or delete it if you feel comfortable with doing that.
Post your comment policy. Let people know if there is are types of comments you don’t want to see. For example, if you don’t want off-topic comments, let your readers know.
Respond with kindness and a willingness to understand. I don’t know how many times I’;ve turned a bad comment into a good one by simply trying to understand the point of view being offered and taking a positive attitude.
Admit when you are wrong. Your readers will actually respect you more if you acknowledge your mistakes. We all make them, don’t beat yourself up over it.
Don’t take it personally. Sometimes it may seem like a negative comment is a personal attack, but this is often not the case.
Take it offline. I’ve found that engaging in an e-mail conversation with someone who I’m butting heads with is very helpful in resolving the situation.
Use self-deprecating humor. Let’s face it. If you have a blog that you post to with any frequency there are going to be times when you screw up. Sometimes this can actually be pretty darn funny if you can take a step back and look at it through another’s eyes. Take teasing from your readers with a grain of salt and if you can’t beat ’em–join ’em.
Realize before you hit “post” that it’s a big world out there and you’re not going to please everyone every-time.

Questions about Burnout and Writer’s Block

July 12, 2005 by Liz

From: D. Keith Robinson

Teja asks:

Do ever feel like you are ever burned out? Or do your own tips on beating writer’s block help beat that?

I actually feel burnt out quite often. One of the reasons why I’ve posted on the subject is because I think I’ve come up with some pretty good ways to combat burnout. As you know I’ve got lots going on and I’m a fairly creative person. Burnout is something that is inevitable and unavoidable. There really is no getting around it.

Another quick tip on burnout: Writing about it, blogging my tips and tricks and all that, is actually really therapeutic as well. When I get an e-mail from someone letting me know I’ve helped them with burnout, it actually refreshes me as well. Strange huh?

As far as writers block goes. Those tips do help with burnout, and sometimes it takes just one good post or completion of one task to get over it. All the tips I posted I’ve used and they all work. In fact, I actually use many of those techniques on a regular basis. They’re not just for getting past writers block.

Thanks for the questions!

The Benefits of a Conversational Style

July 5, 2005 by Liz

From: D. Keith Robinson

Some of this post is adapted by one I wrote almost two years ago. Back then I saw the benefits of a conversational style and since then I’ve not only realized many of those benefits, I’ve learned a thing or two about blogging, writing for the Web and developing online community. Oh, and my writing is much better.

(It was kind of scary reading my old stuff–but good to see a definite improvement.)

When it comes to a relaxed, conversational style and tone I find that, for me, that style works very well. In general I think it’s a good style to develop for any Web writing–especially blogs–whether they be personal or business related.

A conversational style fits in perfectly with what the Web is all about. As I’ve said quite often, the Web is about people. If you write like you are speaking to your readers, like you’re having a conversation with them, you’ll be laying the foundation for building a relationship with the people that read what you’ve got to say.

Benefits of Conversational Style

Identification with your readers. This is especially true with Web sites that allow comments or encourage feedback. You’ll score points with your readers if they feel like they have your attention and can get to know the writer.
Easier editing. With a this kind of style you’ll be able to self-edit more, and if you are doing it right, your readers will edit your writing and be very tolerant of mistakes, but be careful.
Less writers block. By adopting this style you can be yourself, talk about things that are important to you and your ideas and words will come a bit easier.
More reader participation. Your readers will feel more involved and want to be a part of what you are doing. On a professional site this can translate into more business. On a personal site–more fun.
More honest writing. A conversational style allows you to be yourself.
Makes for a more entertaining read. I personally much prefer a personal, conversational writer. It comes of much less “dry” and makes it easier for me to “get” what they are trying to say.

There are a few drawbacks you might find with a conversational style. While I don’t see them in any way outweighing the benefits, they’re still something you may want to consider.

Drawbacks of Conversational Style

Poor writing quality. This type of style can lead you easily down the road of sloppy writing and factual mistakes. This is something to watch out for, as you may lose credibility with your readers. Still, you can have great quality and still keep the conversational tone, just be careful.
Criticism. If you adopt this style and have any measure of success you may be criticized or seen by some as unprofessional, and that is something you’ll need to deal with. Personally I’ve not seen very much of this. Not enough to worry about, that’s for sure.
Misrepresentation. It can be very easy to misrepresent yourself with this kind of style. After all many of your readers may have never met you in person and may not get some of the subtleties of your writing style. Sometimes what we think we’re saying doesn’t come through. As you get more comfortable with your style, and learn how your readers react to it, this will get less common.

In my experience, if proper care is taken to make sure it’s done right, a casual, conversational style can be perfect for many blogs, both personal and professional. There are drawbacks, but I feel the positives outweigh the negatives in most cases.

It’s all dependent on your audience and your goals, but as I’m sure you know, writing for the Web is unlike any other type of writing and the old rules, while shouldn’t be disregarded entirely, need to be bent a bit.

Much of our interaction on the Web is two way, and a conversational style helps invite that all important second party into the mix. No one wants to talk to themselves and when it comes to blogging it’s all about making connections and engaging the reader in that all important conversation.