Successful Blog

Does Your Product Have a User’s Manual

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Andy Sernovitz from Damn I Wish I’d Thought of That points to an article on Creating Passionate Users:

The Best User Manual Ever:
Focus on making your user manual easier to read (even enjoyable!), and you’ll find your customers get more use out of your stuff and are more willing to become repeat customers. Parelli Natural Horsemanship not only instructs customers on how to use their equestrian products, but they offer tips, solutions to typical problems, and even motivate customers to master new skills. Try replacing your boring manuals with pocket guides, instructional videos, and ways for your fans to track their achievements.

The Lesson: Turn your crappy user manual into something that encourages customers to use your stuff to the fullest.

“remember, all things being equal, he who gets his users past the suck threshold and into the kick-ass zone the fastest wins. “

It’s a long post but look at the pictures, then think about what you could do with your crappy manual…

source: Creating Passionate Users
source: Creating Passionate Users

Have You Seen YouTube EDU?

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Get your own dose of education through YouTube’s new sub-site, YouTube EDU, which aggregates thousands of free lectures from universities like MIT, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. With more than 200 full courses currently available through the site, you now have no excuse for not being familiar with quantum mechanics or the math behind Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Check it out: www.youtube.com/edu

If you have used it, what do you think? What did you learn?

SOBCon 2009 Link Roundup

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Hello everybody! SOBCon 2009 is over. I know that many of you are sad, but guess what? There is a ton of content out there for you to re-live and re-learn some of the experience. While David Griffith is busy compiling all of the video content, I have grabbed a few of the links to posts that our amazing attendees have put together.

Thank you again to our sponsors and all of the attendees who made this conference the best yet.

Please take a look at what these folks have put together and share your thoughts in the comments:

Well that should keep you busy for a while! As an added bonus, here is a short video from Denise Wakeman at Build a Better Blog,

(Turn on flash to see it)

If you have a SOBCon post link that you would like to share in this post, please let me know in the comments.

WILF Comes to SOBCon

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Today we have a guest post from Robert Hruzek, a SOBCon alumnus that I had the pleasure of meeting last year. I am looking forward to spending more time talking to him this year!

What I Learned From...
What I Learned From...

Howdy fellow SOBCon folks!

Hey, if you’re scratchin’ your head and wonderin’ what the heck WILF means – and what it has to do with SOBCon – well Bubba, wonder no more!

It stands for “What I Learned From…” and is a groupwrite project we run on the first Monday of every month over at Middle Zone Musings. Yup; every month!

In fact, since we started back in May of ’07, there have been 23 editions of WILF with a total of 650 entries to date! Pretty amazing, when you get right down to it.

As the name implies, the purpose of the WILF groupwrite project is to encourage folks to share something – anything – they learned from… well, whatever the topic that month happens to be. And, in doing so, they collect a link (and sometimes two) back to their blog. It’s that simple.

So what does that have to do with SOBCon? Well, for the month of May, the topic is (sound of drumroll) COMMUNITY – which happens to tie right in, don’cha think? So for the next project I’m extending a special invitation for all my fellow SOBCon’ers. (Is that a word? Who cares?) And, it’s not limited to those who will, y’know, actually be there. Nope; it’s a lot bigger than that!

In fact, this topic is for anyone who:

  • A) plans to be at SOBCon09,
  • B) has attended any previous SOBCon,
  • C) hasn’t made it yet but wishes they could one day,
  • D) never heard of SOBCon and accidentally stumbled across this post, or
  • E) has a cat who walked across the keyboard when you had the SOBCon website up on the screen. Or whatever.

(I think that about covers everyone, don’t you?)

So, no matter which letter of the alphabet you happen to, uh, B (sorry), you’re invited to join the fray and tell us what you learned!

Here’s how it works.

Write an article sharing something you learned, either from SOBCon, or because of it, or would like to have learned from it, or – hey, you get the idea, right? Length isn’t important –you can be as eloquent (or as brief) as you like. (Note: there’s only two rules: Be nice – and keep it “G-rated”)

Then, you post it on your blog sometime that week and email me the link at rhruzek [at] sbcglobal [dot] net. I’ll collect ‘em all, then post the entire list of entries at the Middle Zone. The list will then point everyone to YOUR brilliant blog! Plus, you’ll have a great compendium of lessons learned, to boot! I’m tellin’ ya; ya can’t beat that with a stick! (Well, I guess you could… but that would be, y’know, wrong!)

OK; mark your blogging calendars, folks, ‘cause the kickoff for this special WILF will be on Monday, May 7 (right after SOBCon weekend), and will be open for entries through Sunday, May 13. (But don’t worry if you’re late – I can always add your link to the list later.)

Hey, I look forward to seein’ y’all in Chicago. Tap me on the shoulder and introduce yourself, won’t you? Just look for the hat.
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Robert Hruzek
Robert Hruzek

Robert Hruzek currently lives in Houston, Texas, and thoroughly enjoys being married to The Most Wonderful Wife in the Whole World (sorry fellas, it’s no contest). He is usually employed as an engineering project manager, a job which has allowed him to travel, live and work in many interesting locations within the United States and around the world.

Robert writes on the Web at Middle Zone Musings. It’s described as a comfortable place to stop, have a cup of coffee, swap a few stories and share practical ideas for the real world. He doesn’t ask for much, just a bit of your brain every now and then. Why not drop by, grab a seat, take a load off, and relax…

Connecting with New People

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People talking
People talking

Here are some simple to follow steps toward developing your people skills and enhancing your network:

1. Be nice, and everything else will fall into place.

Our friend and mentor Liz Strauss has a motto for SOBCon, “Be nice.” How hard is that? How many people do it? Being nice creates likability and trust. People do business with other people that they like and people they trust. Ask yourself “How friendly are you?”

2. Project yourself in a way that creates a positive attitude in others.

Your handshake is an indicator of your self-image. So is your wardrobe. Everything from your hair to your shoes is an expression of who you are and what your style may be, or not be. Is your image acceptable to those you seek to connect with? Do you make them feel comfortable in your presence. Reach out with your personality in a positive way and help the people that you meet be positive too.

3. Make eye contact.

Making eye contact is a display of confidence and a display of respect for the other person. Do you find it easy to make eye contact? Do you feel suspicious when others do not make eye contact with you?

What are some other things that you can do to meet new people and grow your network?

What I Learned By Eating Pizza from the Wrong End First

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Today we are featuring a guest-post from Robert Hruzek:

blogging-buddies[Note from the Proprietor: The basis for this post comes from an – well, let’s call it an “incident”, shall we? – that happened last year at SOBCon08 in Chicago. Unlike your typical episode of Dragnet, however, names have NOT been changed to protect the innocent because – hey, let’s face it – there ARE no innocents here!]

All right y’all; I have what is (or if it ain’t then it should be) the Question Of The Ages: Is there, in fact, a “wrong” way to eat pizza?

The reason the question comes up at all is because of a little-known incident that happened at last year’s SOBCon08.

An Urban Tale

I arrived in early afternoon on Friday (May 2), ready for pretty much anything – or so I thought. The incredibly talented, always witty, and tremendously all-around good guy Brad Shorr gave me a ride from O’Hare to Hotel 71 in downtown Chicago. It was an extremely bighearted gesture that ranks right up there on the kindness scale with, er, doing your homework for you, helping you on moving day, or donating a kidney. (Don’t mind me, y’all; Brad kindly offered to do it again this year, so I figured I’d better keep, y’know, layin’ it on thick.)

Anyhoo – as assorted SOBCon’ers drifted in over the course of the afternoon, we gathered at the sidewalk café out front of the hotel. The weather cooperated nicely, and it was kinda like old home week. We shook hands, posed for countless pictures, and generally had a great time getting to know each other face to face. It was a great way to start the weekend, I’ll tell ya!

Now besides Brad, one of the OTHER folks I really looked forward to meeting was Joanna Young. (I’m not sure, but I think Joanna may have won the “I travelled farther than you did” award, having flown all the way from bonnie Scotland for the weekend.) After nearly a year of getting to know her and Brad via each other’s comment boxes, we’d developed quite the friendship, and it was time the three of us finally met in person.

(As you can see from the photo, we make quite a fine-lookin’ bunch, don’cha think? I’m the handsome galoot there on the left. Although I’ve asked around, I still don’t know who the Bubba behind us was – the fellah with the funny white hat.)
While we all glad-handed each other, the café waiters kept pretty busy delivering a steady supply of snacks and drinks, among which were several of those little hors de oeuvres type pizzas. (Hors de oeuvres, as you probably know, is French for little tiny food – not something we see a whole lot of in Texas.)

I helped myself, along with everyone else, and it was only after a few bites I noticed Joanna had committed an incredible faux pas, actually taking her first bite of pizza from the wrong end! I would swear (if I was the swearin’ type – which I’m not) it was as though a dark cloud passed in front of the sun, the birds stopped singing, and the air became suddenly very still. (A lot like those E.F. Hutton commercials when that guy is about to tell you what “they” would’ve said…)

Well, not wanting to be a party to, y’know, the end of the universe as we know it (and of course bein’ the soul of tact), I naturally did the gentlemanly thing and discretely pointed out the minor error in judgment. (If memory serves me right, I believe I pointed at Joanna, hollering out something along the lines of, “I can’t believe you just took a bite of pizza from the wrong end!”) [I’m almost positive that last never happened. – Proprietor]

I’m tellin’ ya; if you weren’t there you missed a definite Kodak moment! For about 27 milliseconds, Joanna’s eyes got about as big as that plate the pizza was sittin’ on. But then of course (after nearly falling over in a dead faint – or nearly taking a swing at me – I’ve never been quite sure which) she quickly realized I was merely yankin’ her chain.

Anyway, it’s no exaggeration to say that little memory remains a cherished favorite from my entire SOBCon08 experience.

What SOBCon is All About

Now, you may be wondering about that last statement. After all, this happened before the conference had even started, y’know? And over the next two days we were privy to all kinds of great workshops, keynote speeches, and working sessions, all filled with powerful – possibly even life-changing – information.

But in truth, it made me think about something much more fundamental. For instance:

  1. SOBCon is About Blogging. Hey, the S.O.B. acronym says it all, doesn’t it? Successful and Outstanding Blogger. After all, I bet the likelihood is probably fairly high you initially connected with each other via this incredible now-not-so-newborn medium called blogging. I’ll tell ya, the ONLY reason I knew of this event is via Liz Strauss and the amazing blogging community at Successful-Blog.
  2. SOBCon is About Writing. Over time (and through the patient encouragement of several special folks I trust), I came to realize that for me, blogging was more than just tellin’ folks what I had for breakfast, or which episode of Seinfeld was lined up for the evening’s entertainment. Nope, somehow it transformed itself, like a lump of bauxite into a polished aluminum aircraft wing, into something ‘way more powerful: writing. What’s the difference, you ask? Well, if you slave over a keyboard, searching for just that perfect word – if you find yourself considering what kind of reaction you’ll get from those words – if you truly care about what you write, and how it’ll be received by your readers – then surprise! I’d say you’re a writer.
  3. SOBCon is About Business. Although the initial SOBCon back in 2007 was kind-of a prototype event, since then the focus has more narrowly been lasered in on the business of blogging. And that’s a good thing! The fact is, most of us are probably in various stages of turning our writing into a business, and I’m no exception. Although just a hobby at first, nowadays my thoughts turn more and more to making an income – maybe even (dare I hope for it?) a genuine living – from the words I spend so much time crafting. If that’s you (or might, one day, be you) then you owe it to yourself to come to Chicago and find out how it might change your life! Besides, ya gotta start somewhere, right? If not now – when?
  4. SOBCon is About People. Without a doubt, though, THE most important thing SOBCon taught me is this: When you get right down to it, it’s about the relationships we develop that really count. And the fact that we’re actually a pretty diverse group of folks merely underscores that fact, y’know? Despite that fact – or more accurately, because of it – we represent an amazing force in this ol’ world! Hey, it don’t matter one whit if you eat your pizza from the pointy end or (shudder) the round end. The only thing that matters is our mutual care, respect and support for each other’s abilities – and potential. I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s what I call a game changer!

So What About You?

Now, if you’ll pardon my, um, waxing eloquent (which is an ancient Chinese saying that translates roughly to lay it on thick and polish it to a nice, shiny coat), I said all that to bring us down to this one final question:

sobcon09-goingIf you’ve ever looked in the mirror and thought to yourself, “Self, maybe there’s something to this blogging thing after all. Maybe I should find out more about where it’s goin’ – and where it might take little ol’ me.”

Well, if that’s you, my friends, then my totally unsolicited, but completely heartfelt advice is for you to beat a path to Chicago on May 1st for SOBCon09! (In fact, come a day early for the festivities!) Hey, I’ll be there, and I hope you are too. Just look for the hat!
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Photo: Blogging Buddies, by Joanna Young
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Robert Hruzek
Robert Hruzek

Robert Hruzek Robert Hruzek currently lives in Houston, Texas, and thoroughly enjoys being married to The Most Wonderful Wife in the Whole World (sorry fellas, it’s no contest). He is usually employed as an engineering project manager, a job that allows him to travel, live and work in many interesting locations within the United States and around the world.

Robert writes on the Web at Middle Zone Musings (http://middlezonemusings.com/). It’s described as a comfortable place to stop, have a cup of coffee, swap a few stories and share practical ideas for the real world. He doesn’t ask for much, just a bit of your brain every now and then. Why not drop by, grab a seat, take a load off, and relax…

You may contact Robert by email at: rhruzek [at] sbcglobal [dot] net.