Successful Blog

Happy 4th Birthday to SOBs Everywhere!

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All Weekend It’s a Party!

Today is Successful-Blog’s fourth birthday.

happy-birthday-4

On October 24, 2005, I wrote my first blog post on Successful-blog. That week began the story and the wonderful relationships this blog has made. Some facts about what that has been:

  • That first blog post was written on WordPress 1.5.
  • The SOB Awards started the same week. Over a thousand SOB badges are out there.
  • Open Comment Night, which started on May 9, 2006, preceeded Twitter’s birth by 5 months.
  • The first SOBCon — SOBCon07 — grew from the comment box on this blog.

    • As of this writing, Successful-blog has 87,872 approved comments, over 1.6 million spams caught, 3,714 published posts, and more friends than I might ever count.

Thank you everyone who has stopped by to read, leave a thought, be a part of this blog and my life.

It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

Here’s how it works.

open mike night

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Help Celebrate!! Bring a Link! Bring a Link!

That’s right, you’re invited to bring a link to your most successful post. When you leave the link, please write a comment about how you chose the most successful post to bring.

  • Bring a link to a page, a picture, a post that demonstrates, celebrates, illuminates your success and outstanding-ness as a blogger.
  • Or bring that ebook, that manifesto, that photo, that priceless work that you want to offer as a birthday gift to everyone.

I’ll compile a list like this when the party is over.

C’mon in and get to know us! There’s free beverages and snacks in the sidebar. Join the party. See who you meet. Stay and come back again. Happy Birthday, all of you! Thank you for making what we do meaningful! –

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related articles
The Mic Is On: Happy 3rd Birthday to SOBs Everywhere!
2006 Birthday Party! The Mic Is On: Happy 2nd Birthday to SOBs Everywhere!

Thanks to Week 209 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.

muddy teal strip A

the-hot-mammas-project
information-playground
media-cupcake
paul-gillin
rock-and-roll-guru

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 10-23-09

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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

John Haydon
I was on the phone yesterday with a prospective client who expressed concern from her board about losing control. “I know that we need to eventually start blogging and tweeting,” she said. “but our board members are concerned about losing control.” She went on to describe what I think are extremely valid concerns:

Beth’s Blog
This morning I gave a presentation for a group of senior marketing people from performing arts centers around the country on social media. I’ve done a number of presentations and workshops for arts organizations over the years and have even created a wiki “Social Media for Arts People” with stories, links, and other resources, but haven’t spoken to arts organizations recently. It was a good opportunity to see how things have changed.

the incslinger
Social Media is the new darling of many brands, the silver bullet that will fix all ills. While some brands have made major in roads in discovering a new method of expanding their ability to reach their customers and potential customers some have quite obviously become so over enamoured with Social Media that they have forgotten the basics of managing a brand.

Barry J Moltz
To conquer the feeling of the “Beyond” you have to be “Above and Beyond”…. If you look at the most successful people throughout history, most have something uniquely special about them that makes them stand out….

Sheilas Guide
While I’d love to have unlimited funds, piles of frequent flyer miles and telepathic powers, I have to confess that I’m “attending” these conference by watching their Twitter hashtags, and you can, too.

Related ala carte selections include

Logic + Emotion
I recently returned from Blogworld 2009, a mix of business, social media and social events which spanned nearly 4 days taking over much of Las Vegas. It was a flurry of activity and got my gears turning—here’s a few things that caught my attention:

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

Thanks to Week 208 SOBs

by

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.

muddy teal strip A

bit-rebels
start-being-your-best

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 10-16-09

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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 some of the SOBs of BlogWorldExpo

ChrisBrogan
To me, this is a large tapestry and we’re weaving the fabric of new stories together a little at a time. It’s okay if you don’t see it this way yet. I just want to share my perspective, if only to give you a fuzzy squint into what I believe is here, and what I think is coming with all this

Web Strategy
Whether you’re a professional speaker, company representative, or panelist at a conference, you must develop a social strategy during your speaking.

Copyblogger
As I said, the question headline is very powerful. When used properly, it creates an almost irresistible draw to prospective readers, no matter how busy they are.

altitude
When it comes to social business practices, some companies just seem like they’re made to tuck them right in and truck along, uniterrupted. Others have a harder time shifting the tide, and this whole social media thing has got them paralyzed and flustered and wondering what the hell they’re going to do.

Socialmedia.biz
While I think skepticism is in order, and the specifics of the government’s involvement need to be more clearly defined, in the end I believe the FTC’s move is a healthy and welcome development for social media.

The Bloggess
Sometimes when I’m on twitter I forget that I’m looking at the home page and I think I’m in reply mode and I’m looking at all these responses and I’m all “Oh my God, these people love me. Just look at all of these new responses” and then I look closer and I’m all “WTF?

Related ala carte selections include

Congratulations to Snippets of Life!

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

The Mic is On: Which Big Cities Are the Best?

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Bright Lights, Big Cities

Everyone has been to a big city that is unforgettable. Which one is yours? Do you have more than one?

    Rome
    Paris
    London
    Istanbul
    Singpore
    Sydney
    Tokoyo
    Chicago …

photo by BJMcCray
photo by BJMcCray

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring pix —

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: sxc.hu
Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?