Successful Blog

Toys in Portugal Get the Link Leak Virus!

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Tueday Night Was Filled with Sunsets and Toys

Open Comments Last Night was held on west coast of Portugal, complete with umbrella drinks and everyone brought their favorite toys — People showed up with legos, transformers, even slinkys. Too bad the infamous link leak virus. Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes edged its way in.

Cool links were shared.

About the Toys

Here’s a peek at the conversation. [Read more…]

What to Do Before They Ask What Do You Do?

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What’s Your Name

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When is a rose not a rose? When it is Compassion. When a car not a car? When its a Model J DUESENBERG. Why did I quit teaching? Because I couldn’t find another word.

It’s true that’s the reason.

I left college being called a master teacher, with student teachers following me into the classroom. It had something to do with my philosophy that if I couldn’t sit in a desk all day, I’d be damned if I would ask a 6-year-old to try to do so. I loved the kids and the teaching, but when new friends asked What do you do? I heard myself saying, I’m a teacher, but not like any you ever knew. That wasn’t good. That’s when I realized that I needed a new word or I wouldn’t be teaching.

You’ve probably not left a career over a word, and probably suspect there was more to it. There was, and there wasn’t. The way folks viewed me was the problem. I wasn’t what they imagined. I didn’t like being put in their box.

But we rely on words figure out our world view.

There is no getting away from that.The next best thing is picking our words.

What Are You? a Blogger? a Writer? a Publisher? a Sales Rep? a Marketer? a Citizen Journalist? a Critic? a Martyr?

What do you do? they say. What do I answer? [Read more…]

NEW POWER WRITING FEATURE: An Editorial Makeover

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Why Powerful Writing Is Important

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One of the ways I work with clients is to help them improve their writing. It might not be fair or accurate, but people judge our ability to reason by how we express ourselves in writing.

Thinking . . . writing . . . business . . . thinking . . . we can’t separate them.

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Together they determine our place in society. Whether you blog, write for business, or only email, writing is critical to your future.

New Feature: An Editorial Makeover

I’m introducing a new feature — An Editorial Makeover. It’s a Content Edit — a Before and After — where you can look over my shoulder. Every editor edits differently. You won’t agree with all of my choices. That could make for great conversation.

I’m starting with a paragraph from my own work Bad Boys of Business: That’s Not “Real” Work.

Turn the page to see the first Editorial Makeover. [Read more…]

Bad Boys of Business: That’s Not “Real” Work

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It’s a Bad Boys Convention

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Look who came riding in behind the Bad Boys of Writing. It’s the Bad Boys of Business. They’re just as seductive as their counterparts, and like their writing friends, they do damage. Get these con guys in your head and they can blow your productivity.

Meet their point man, Bad Boy 1: That’s Not Real Work. You’re wasting time.

[Read more…]

Taken Over by Pirates

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Successful Blog Was Take Over by Pirates

Last Nights’ Open Comments Night get together in at sea found that our ship was taken over by pirates and we ended up living off grog, and weevils, supplemented by a few oranges and limes to keep us all from getting scurvy. Unfortunately a virulent strain of the infamous link leak virus. Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes.
Cool links were shared.

Tonight was also HART’S BIRTHDAY AND HE CELEBRATED WITH US!

Pirates in Attendance

Many Pirates were in attendance and it was decided that we would start a Successful Blog University. That was between the Pirate talk and Pirate jokes. [Read more…]

6+1 Traits: Conventions –The 6+1 Secret Rules of Online Writing

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Writing for Online Is Different

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Effective writing is writing that works. It follows a set of rules we agree on. We call those rules writing conventions, as in conventional writing. Where some writers can trip up is that they don’t realize that the conventions for writing for print are slightly different from those we use when writing online. The differences are small in nature, but big in impact. They can mean a reader stays to read or clicks on by.

Now I’m anything but conventional. Still I know the value of following convention to make my readers feel comfortable in knowing how to navigate through what I write. [Read more…]