Successful Blog

The SOB Directory Update 02-07-06

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SOB Button

Have you visited the SOB Directory lately? It’s got its own page–right there in the sidebar. Check it out! It’s constantly changing, updating, adding the links of the latest Successful and Outstanding Bloggers. You can browse there to find the bloggers who take the conversation at Successful-Blog back to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, and make us better. It’s a great place to discover a favorite blog to read–a blog writer you have something in common with.

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 Directory. Click the link or visit from the sidebar.
Everything you need to know is on that page. Everyweek we add new SOBs to the list, no reason you can’t be one–you’re outstanding aren’t you?

Send Bios for the SOB Directory

If you already are an SOB, the Directory is my thank you to the Successful-Blog Community. It’s a way that we can keep connected, an annotated blogroll with logos, so to speak.

Why not send me 1-2 sentences about your blog? You must have a short description from some directory listing on your computer. Dust it off and send it along. Think of it as free advertising to a substantial readership.

By the way, if you’d have a better version of your logo feel free to send that too. Only one restriction–60 pixels high and not more than 200 pixels wide. That’s what fits.

In case you don’t know where to send them . . .e-mail them to me at lizsun2@gmail.com.

We’re making Success a habit.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Successful Blog Moves Back to the City–b5media

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Sometimes Success means Failing Faster. For sure it means knowing when to make things right.

Two Personal Heroes

I don’t have many personal heroes or maybe I have too many personal heroes. I guess that depends on how you define them. I do know this–two of them are my dad and business giant Tom Peters who taught me the principle above.

I’ve been talking and listening to all of you since we left 9rules/Fine Fools about where we might focus Successful-Blog. You’ve had great suggestions, given me super advice. You’ve loved some of the changes. Others, well, you’ve not liked so much. In the end, I have to admit that when all of the ideas are thought through and filtered, the answer is that Successful-Blog doesn’t belong in the Wild, Wild West.

We’re moving back to the city where we belong.

That’s why when you clicked in this morning you see some changes, the ads are gone . . . there might just be a few bumps here and there. Last night we moved servers and this morning we are are with

b5 media.

I want to thank everyone at Erati and Blog Media for all they have done for Successful-Blog to make us feel part of the family. You were heroes in how you saw Successful-Blog’s need to move. I really appreciate that.

More Personal Heroes

I want the world to know that I went to b5media, not the other way around. You already know that Jeremy, Darren, Shai, and Duncan are personal heroes. This move has only shown me what good reason I had for having those feelings. They made things happen quickly, painlessly, and I look forward to learning and growing with them. I also look forward to learning more from you.

Isn’t that what success is all about?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Successful-Blog Joins 9rules–Thanks to Our Readers
Great NEWS!

Quick Traffic from Newsweek

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This tip from SOB Cheryl at Mad Baggage, who suggests we take advantage of the partnering of Technorati and Newsweek to get your blog noticed by a whole new audience of Newsweek readers. Cheryl has used it with stunning success. Within a short time of posting against a Newsweek article in the morning, she had traffic beating down her doors. Here’s what she says to do.

Go to MSNBC Newsweek, read the top story, read a couple of the related front page stories, and do a post linking to them all. Newsweek has a Technorati link page showing what bloggers are saying on the subject and as long as you are among the earliest or most recent to post on the matter, people click through in tens and hundreds. They don’t stay, they don’t come back, but they click through.

I tried Cheryl’s techniques on yesterday as a test. Check out the two Newsweek posts I ran–one about Martha Stewart and one about their column Blog Watch. Both were worth posting in their own right, but I was also testing whether the new Technorati-Newsweek partnering would work on my broken Technorati account. It did not.

However, if you click through to either of the stories and look down the right sidebar you’ll see how it works. A small section will tell you how many blogs have posted on this story so far. Then you can click through to see what the posts are and where they came from.

It seems to work for any, not just the top stories–though the top stories are surely where the most traffic would be. Still, I think I would go for the sections with stories and traffic that fit my niche–less traffic, but more qualified leads.

As for post not working, well, I’m just lucky I guess.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Introducing Brianshih.com

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SOB Directory Entry:
BrianShih.com by Brian Shih

Type: Technology and Usability

brianshih logo

Brian Shih is a junior studying Electrical and Computer Engineering at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. This blog is focused on usability, new technology, and making the world better for humans, not robots.

Notes from Liz: You might recall that Brian was the first of our guest writers. His article on using sidebars prompted a lively discussion that caused us to visit sites and discuss design questions regarding how sidebars can serve both readers and writers. Brian also recently introduced us to “Cropper,” the shareware program that cuts time in making screen shots down to seconds. I’ve been using it constantly since the moment he turned me on to it. Take a minute and check out Brian’s blog.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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

Top 10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger

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Photo of White Arrow in Road pointing down

January, February, and March are boring. They leave me feeling like I have nothing to look forward to. New budgets, new plans, and New Year’s resolutions hover over. Everyone’s working and often everyone’s miserable. So I offer a list of 10 things you might do, so that when everyone’s having fun being miserable, you won’t feel left out.

Before you begin reading, prepare yourself. Adjust your thinking to realize that, no matter the season where you are, next winter is too near and next spring is too far.

Top 10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger

      10. Spend your first quiet morning hours checking your stats to see who was not reading your blog at 2:18 a.m. When you’re done, check 4:47 a.m. and 1:31 a.m. too.

    9. Read the feeds for the exact idea you will write about, rather than just looking for fodder. Then decide all of the good ideas have already been done, because you know that five seconds ago someone took the last one.

    8. Keep your mind focused on all of the things you have to do and how little time there is to do them. Check the clock often to see how behind you are in getting them done.

    7. Don’t prioritize or make a plan.

    6. Answer every email, important or not, as soon as you get it. While you’re there, think of the ones you might write and write them before you do anything else. If you’re going for the gold, do the same with telephone calls. Heck while you’re at it, call my mother-in-law.

    5. If you finish with email and it’s still the same day, read other blogs that have no relationship to yours. In fact, choose blogs in a language you don’t even know. When you stop to eat lunch, clean the refrigerator.

    4. As you read and comment on blogs, notice how much better every other blog is. Then think of the reasons you wouldn’t read your own blog.

    3. Spend hours tweaking your template over details no one will ever notice.

    2. When you finally sit down to write, know you will have writer’s block. Think about it. Talk about it. Then watch the clock.

    1. Count your value as a human by links, stats, and number of comments.

There you have it. Follow this Top Ten List, and you will be miserable when you need to be. It will serve you well into Spring–which we know will be rainy, cold, and ugly this year.

If you’re an overachiever and you just need one more, here you go . . .

Definitely, positively, and for sure, buy into all of your own PR, and believe whatever other folks say about you, because everything put into print simply has to be true. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

More fun:
Desperado: The 7 Payoffs of Making Your Blogging Relationships Suck
65th Crayon Finds that Google Doesn’t Use Search
Internet Slang Dictionary and Translator

Success is . . . Giving Back

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Chepner’s Box Top Challenge

Just as a writer doesn’t get to be a writer without readers, no one gets to be a successful blogger anything without help from others. It follows then that part of being a success is giving back when and how you can.

It’s been awhile since I’ve come across a boxtop challenge. We did things like that in my school growing up–collect soup labels, box tops, soda caps, coupons, even beer can tabs, as fundraisers. The concept is everyone collects as many as they can–bags and bags of them. Then the school sends them in to the corporation who makes the product. Usually the corporation sends back a check for what amounts to pennies on the pound for all of these proofs of purchase. This time each boxtop represents ten cents American. That’s a donation to be proud of.

I’ll let the screen shot from Cheryl’s blog, Mad Baggage, tell you the story. Click it to leave a comment about this worthwhile project.

Mad Baggage blogspot.com

The screen shot below will take you right to Chepners’s blog where you’ll find the information you need to help out.

chepners.blogspot.com article

If you’re like me–not very good at saving things, and don’t gather many boxtops anyway–you might do what I do.

  • Find a big envelope and address it to Chepner’s House and attach a few bucks for postage.
  • Then find the organizer who’s really good at these things and give the envelope to her. Yes, I said her, because it’s almost always a she. Isn’t it?
    Look for someone who is busy who probably has a few kids herself that eat a lot of cereal.
  • Take these screen shots from my blog and their corresponding links and spread the word for Chepner.

Who knows what good things might happen with a little help from folks like us?

Cheryl is an S.O.Blogger for bringing this conversation to her readers. Won’t you share it with your readers too?

–ME “Liz” Strauss