Successful Blog

How To Be An Honest Blogger Without Being A Jerk

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Do You Like These Sandals?

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I ordered my daughter a new pair of Stride Rite sandals for the summer. We went to the store to pick them up, and I slipped an excited toddler (she loves fashion at the ripe age of 2) into a pair of brown and gold sandals.

“Do you like them?” I asked her, thinking I knew what her response would be.

My honest little Micah said, “No.”

To be honest or to be nice

What kind of blogger are you? Are you the honest blogger? You would have told me that you didn’t like those sandals point blank, like my daughter, without giving a care to the time, effort and money that went to making those sandals part of my kid’s wardrobe.On the other hand, do you consider yourself to be a nice blogger? You say what people want to hear. You would tell me that shiny footwear was the most adorable creation since ruffled dresses. You would also agree with the critic who hates the sandals. You want to be everybody’s friend.

There are pros and cons to each disposition.

If you’re always honest,

  • You get to be yourself, an easy assignment.
  • People will know exactly how you stand on an issue.
  • You could drum up business with your truthful outlook.
  • Your words might evoke anger, frustration or hurt feelings.
  • Your brutal honesty might scare people away from following you.
  • Your name could be destroyed if you come off as a jerk.
  • People will feel comfortable sharing their true colors. (Is this a pro or con? That depends on you).

If you’re always nice,

  • People will like you, and you always will have people to agree with you.
  • People will be drawn to your pleasant disposition.
  • You could create work for yourself with your kind demeanor.
  • You don’t get to always be yourself because you strictly want to be nice. It can be difficult to fake how you truly feel.
  • Readers might wonder what the deal is if they find you contradicting yourself for the sake of niceness.
  • People will wonder if you are human or an alien from “V” because you don’t show anger.

The solution: be both

Season your words with salt, the old adage goes. Be honest and be nice. It’s easy to express your opinion when you know the majority will agree with you. Perhaps your blog post reads, “Having a baby is a miracle.”What if a group will not like, possible hate, your opinion? It might be difficult to say, “A woman should never have an abortion.”

What do you do when you need to express yourself on a controversial topic?

  • Don’t use disrespectful speech, and mind your manners. That means you say how you feel without bashing the opposing party.
  • Back up your claims. Don’t make brazen remarks without listing your reasons why you feel the way you do. Your argument might be enough to make a person question his differing viewpoint if you give convincing evidence.
  • Be thorough. This goes along with the last point. Throw in some expert opinions and statistics to support your case.
  • Acknowledge the other side. Your post should include the opposing side’s perspective and why you disagree. This way, you say, “I’m willing to agree to disagree.”
  • Respond to feedback. Controversial posts get people talking, and that’s great. You should be sure to respond to feedback from people genuinely interested in the topic, whether they support you or disagree. Be careful with people only looking to argue, rather than discuss. You can choose to respond to the comment on the post, respond privately or ignore them completely.

Be specific

My daughter said she didn’t like the sandals. I later discovered she loved the sandals and didn’t like that they were a smidge too large for her.The most important way to be an honest, non-jerky blogger is to be specific when you write. Describe your opinion as thoroughly as possible. Make a series on your topic if you can’t fit it into one post.

Get out there and blog your heart out. It’s what people really want.

How do you manage to be an honest blogger without being a jerk?

—-
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

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How to Listen Your Way to the Best 30-Second Pitch Ever

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Social Media Doesn’t Connect People Do

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Welcome to the social web where everyone and everything is connected. Just build a profile and you are too! Right?

Well, maybe technologically, but it takes more than a few links to build a relationship with a person that makes a difference to building your brand or moving your business forward.

Social media tools work so much more effectively when we decide a few things before we use them.

What to Do Before You Go Social

Every now and then a event like the social web disrupts things and we need to figure out new ways of relating and connecting with the people who help us grow. Leaders reach out listen and learn from the best and invite those folks in to participate and be part of what they’re doing.

The social web has made it easier and faster to reach out further to find the ideal clients and customers we might want to work with. It’s foolish not to have a plan to use the social tools available to us to that in the best ways we possibly can.

Here are six ways to be effective at social business.

  1. Know what business you’re in. Sounds simple, but it’s not about what you make or what you sell. We need to be seriously sure of what we do for our customers.
  2. Choose the ideal customer you want to work with. The whole game changed when the world became our marketplace. We can’t do everything for everyone in the world. Draw a picture. Make a prototype of the customer you’ve just identified. What do you offer that makes that customer’s life faster, easier, or more meaningful? Choose those who are going to love what you do and build your website, your content, and your offers all around them so that they recognize you.
  3. Now that you think you know that. Go find people who meet that description and ask them what they care about … and listen. Find them where they meet online and where they meet offline. We can’t grow if we only talk to the people we already know and only visit the places we always go to.
  4. Use the social tools to talk to them about what they like to talk about. Then keep listening — build relationships and get to know your potential customers better. When you talk about what you do, talk the way you tell friends what’s going on in your life.
  5. When it’s natural talk about how you might align your goals with theirs and build something together … something you might not be able to build alone.
  6. Make it easy for your online and offline customers to meet you and each other. And encourage them to meet and talk with each other as often as they can.

And keep doing all six steps over and over again.

The generational nature of the social culture means that our base of customers is always shifting, growing, learning. Bringing our offline customers online and meeting our online customers offline will only deepen our relationships with all of them.

When we’re authentically listening, we can hear who actually needs our help. The best 30-second pitch is when when we can answer, “By the way, that’s what I do.”

Have you tried listening to find out who needs what you have to offer?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

Problogger – Second Edition Is Here!

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Go Darren and Chris!

Two of the best probloggers on the web have just released the second edition of their bestselling book, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income and it’s available today.

I’m very partial to this book because

  • Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett are both personal friends and heroes.
  • it’s filled with honesty and wisdom … much like the guys who wrote it.
  • Wiley shared a copy of the first edition with everyone at SOBCon08.

Can’t wait to read this second edition. I hear it has a few significant updates including:

  • New examples, screenshots, updates of new tools, a few deletions of references to old tools, an update to Darren and Chris’ stories in the intro.
  • Chris has added a fairly significant chapter on social media and how it impacts and can be used by bloggers.
  • Darren has added a case study chapter that goes through the first 4 years of his main blog – Digital Photography School. He works through how he launched it, what he focused upon in years 1-2 and then in years 3-4, how he monetizes it and he shares the secrets to how I drive significant traffic and income through email newsletters, social media and other ways.
  • Bonuses come with it – Anyone who buys the book is offered a series of bonuses (some interviews with successful bloggers, some extra teaching … check it out)

Hope Chris is bringing a bunch to SOBCon2010 this week!!

Congratulations Darren and Chris!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

See you at sobcon-vmc

Thanks to Week 235 SOBs

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muddy teal strip A

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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ask-dave-taylor
extraordinarymommy
ohdoctah
scott-porad
twilight-tea

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 SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

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– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 04-23-10

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

ConflictZen
A conflict’s greatest opportunity for collaborative resolution is usually near the time it first occurred (if such a time can be known) or at least nearer the time it first entered your awareness.

Sometimes, the triggering event is clear and memorable. Sometimes it’s elusive, building under the radar over time, brick by brick, small frustration by small frustration.

Small Business United
In the many discussions I’ve had with aspiring entrepreneurs over the past 15 years, one of the top ten reasons that they give for wanting to start a business is that they dream of pursuing their hobby full time.

Linzstar
It just makes me wonder what gives someone the right to say such things. For anyone who thinks they’re holier than thou when it comes to social media and how it should be done, I really think it’s time to consider whether or not you’re on a high horse.

Reiki Help Blog
In its most general sense, spirituality is a way of contemplating and understanding the invisible aspects of life and to transcend the personal, tangible and finite details of this world.

Make It Happen
Are you surrounded with people who accept you just the way you are?

Related ala carte selections include

Johnny Goldstein
Graphic record of 140conf talk

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

The Single Best Way To Build A Love For Blogging

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By Terez Howard

Love Is a Natural Thing

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I blog because I love to write.

That makes blogging as natural as breathing for people like me who enjoy feeling a computer keyboard underneath their fingertips. But even for bloggers having an affair with writing, blogging can become a chore. How?

A freelance writer who blogs for a business owner does not particularly relish the idea of writing about chicken coops week after week. A business tips blogger might find she has to include financial advice in some of her posts since finances are a top priority among many businesspeople when numbers are one of her worst enemies. Incorporating financial anything would be drudgery for me.

So what can a girl do to build a love for blogging?

Write what you know.

It’s not a secret. It’s not earth shattering. It’s the truth. You write about what you know. Take your life experiences and everyday happenings and regurgitate them on a blog post.

I’m not saying to give a play-by-play account of what you do during the day:

This morning, I woke up and made the bed. Then, I went into the bathroom to shower.

No. Don’t do that, and don’t do this:

After I got into the bathroom to take a shower, the toilet seat was up again! My husband still doesn’t know how to put the seat down. We argued for hours, and I left the house for the rest of the day. I might not go back.

The first example is boring. The second example is too personal. Strike a balance. Be entertaining enough and personal enough, while sharing helpful information. Like this:

After another marital disagreement (we all have them, right?), I considered what it would mean to the female population if our men actually followed our advice. So I asked myself, ‘How would I best respond to an unwanted suggestion?’ Presentation is everything.

Apply what you know

You must research your topic if you’re writing in foreign territory. Use experts and authorities for your sources. When appropriate, cite your these specialists as your sources. And remember, you are producing your own distinctive work, not a copy cat article.

Then comes the fun part. Make your blog your own. There are hundreds of blogs about cooking. I recently saw an ad about a woman who blogs about cooking and doesn’t cook. She writes super simple snack recipes. She is unique.

Your blog might not be so one-of-a-kind, but each post can stand on its own as original if you parallel what you know with what you write.

“But I don’t know anything.”

That’s just lazy. Either you are not thinking, or you are not working to know anything. Look around. Literally, look around. Go ahead.

I see a computer. I could blog about which computers offer programs that cater to writers. I see various piles of papers. I could blog about organizing these papers or why these piles are already organized. I see an enormous bookshelf. I could write a blog comparing the writings of my favorite author, Langston Hughes, with my own writing or get tips from this multi-talented writer.

Those ideas are the ones that are in front of my face. Walk through your house. Think about your family and friends and their interests. Recall your everyday activities to mind and apply them to your blog.

Maybe blogging isn’t love at first sight for you. Look at blogging through a mirrored lens to cultivate a love that could grow into a lifelong relationship.

What one thing about blogging could make you fall in love with it?

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!

— ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Register Now!! for sobcon-vmc