Successful Blog

Blogging In What I’ve Dubbed The “We Generation”

by

cooltext455576688_blogging

By Terez Howard

People born from 1982 to 2002 have been birthed into Generation Me. Unfortunately, my 1984 birthday puts me in the midst of a selfish group.

Lisa Belkin, the Motherlode writer for the NY Times, made this quote: “This generation has been depicted . . . by employers, professors and earnestly concerned mental-health experts as entitled whiners who have been spoiled by parents who overstoked their self-esteem, teachers who granted undeserved As and sports coaches who bestowed trophies on any player who showed up.”

My husband can attest to this behavior. If I haven’t mentioned him before, let me give you this brief introduction: He is the professional violinist trapped in a schoolteacher’s body. His students firmly believe just showing up to class with a violin in its case (no, it doesn’t have to be out or even in good repair) will merit an A. To make a long story short, he’s not like the teachers Belkin mentioned.

Generation Me in blogging?

My age puts me in this generation, but I certainly don’t intend for it to define my character. How often have we seen a blogger only blog about herself. That’s not necessarily bad. We expect for bloggers to tell about personal experiences. But what if she never acknowledges the world around her? What if she doesn’t reach out to fellow bloggers?

That would be a problem. She would be denying her readers of additional resources. She might appear to be a blogger lacking in knowledge because she doesn’t ever include outside information. Most importantly, she would not be affording herself the opportunity to build relationships with other bloggers, relationships that could profit her business.

How to blog with others in mind

Great bloggers read great bloggers. It isn’t necessary that a great blogger is well-known, has a high Page Rank or hundreds of Twitter followers. A great blogger shares helpful facts and opinions with her audience. That’s what a great blogger is according to me.

After you read posts from great bloggers, don’t just turn off your machine and forget about this knowledge they’re so generously sharing. Do this:

  • Make meaningful comments to posts. Bloggers write to help people. Support their conversation with your comments.
  • Respond to a post in on your blog. If you catch writer’s block, this is a sure way to zap it. Take a look at your favorite bloggers’ archives and respond to what you read. Include a link back to that writer’s block-curing post.
  • Retweet. The first two points I brought out take a bit of time. Retweeting an awesome post is quick and shows a blogger you appreciated the time, effort and ingenuity put into a post. This thought includes all forms of social media, Digg it, Stumble it, stick on Facebook.
  • Recommend a blogger. This is a more unseen approach. Most people won’t tell you that Terez told them to check out Successful Blog and all the wonderful professionals writing there. However, a recommendation can go a long way. It gets other bloggers more traffic and possibly more work.

It’s like a boomerang

If you do these things to others, they will do them for you.Other bloggers might not see every Tweet you make about them or realize how many times you’ve recommended them to your friends.But they will recognize you are not focused on yourself.

Whether you’re part of Generation Me or not, I like to think of blogging as the We Generation, not bound by any ages.

How do you promote other bloggers and why?

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small. 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!!

A Vacationer’s Guide To Blogging

by

by Jael Strong

—-

The sun, the sand, the relaxing rhythm of the crashing waves – this is paradise.  The cool drink on a hot day, the delicious food, the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that keeps reminding me that there is something I just have to do!  What is happening to my vacation?!

Here I am in sunny Florida, sleeping in everyday, and I should be thrilled to be a thousand miles from Ohio (and I am, mostly), but I have sabotaged my vacation.  I should have done one of many things to avoid working while on vacation, but I didn’t, and so for at least a few minutes everyday, I pay the price for not planning well enough in advance.

Blogging is a regular gig. Whether we blog daily, weekly, monthly, or seasonally, the expectation is that our blog will show up when it is supposed to show. Blogging inconsistently isn’t an option since we hope that readers will come back at the expected time to read more of our great content.  If we’re a no-show that is bad for business.

But vacation is a chance to get away from it all, even blogging.  So, what should I have done to keep myself from having to work while on vacation?  Oh, to be able to travel back in time…

Trading Places

If you’re fortunate enough, as I am, you have at least small network of individuals with whom to trade work. I had many opportunities to cut back on my vacation workload.  During the planning phases, I should have said to Terez Howard, my writing cohort, I’ll take that assignment if you take this assignment.  Even as my vacation days approached and I saw that I had work scheduled during vacation time, I could have given Terez a quick call to ask for a switch, but I didn’t.  So sad, so sad…

Doubling Up

I know someone who always has their work done well in advance.  That is great!  If you can get the writing out of the way before vacation, then you certainly don’t have to worry about it while on vacation. This would have been a wonderful option for me.  I could have organized myself so that I did twice as much writing the week before my trip, freeing up vacation time. Even if I had done a portion of the writing in advance, it would have lightened my vacation workload.

Paring Down

Admittedly, this is what I did. I didn’t trade or double up, but it is never too late to decide that something can wait for later. Obviously, if you are writing for a client or for someone else who is relying on you, you can’t short change them.  But I took a look I my “to do” list and decided that some of the behind the scenes activity could wait until I was back home in Ohio, enjoying the warmth inside as the frigid air blows outside.

I really must go now.  There is going to be live band playing poolside soon and I want to reserve my place in the sun.  In the meantime though, how do you organize your blogging around vacation time?Â

Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients authority status and net visibility.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas .

Thanks, Jael

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

How To Adjust Your Blog According To Your Visitors

by

cooltext455576688_blogging

By Terez Howard

I don’t do this as much as I should, but I think there comes a time when every blogger needs to take a trip to Google Analytics.

If you don’t have it installed on your blog, get Google Analytics now. This helpful tool lets you know how many visitors are checking out your blog, where they come from, how long they stay on a certain page and much more. But what do you do with that information?

Personally, I take a look at Google Analytics once per week. The two main points I examine are the number of visitors and where they come from. I know I can and probably should be doing much more with my Google Analytics account. First, in my defense, I plan to. Secondly, every blogger has to start somewhere. We can’t know it all at once. So, you beginner bloggers, this is for you.

How many visitors?

That’s probably a top concern for countless bloggers. We want to see the numbers climb from day to day. If you’re blog is like mine, it looks more like a polygraph chart.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed a trend. Wednesdays and Thursdays got the highest number of visitors. So what?

I thought to myself, What can I do with that information? I decided to put interviews and informational posts on those two days because I think those two varieties of posts would benefit my audience the most.

If you notice one day seeming to have a higher number of visitors than others, then maybe you should revamp your blogging schedule to suit your audience’s needs. Prior to inspecting my analytics, Tuesdays and Wednesdays were what I thought would be hot days. Adjustments were needed, and it wasn’t a strain at all to switch things up.

You came from where?

When I first started my blog, I thought that I would get all my visitors from my business website. The reason I started a blog was to show potential clients my writing style. So it seemed logical that they would be clicking through from my business website. Boy was I wrong!

The majority of my traffic is direct. That means a person types in my URL directly. People that come from my business website ranks seventh. Before that, I see referrals from a couple other blogs (ahem, this one), Feedburner and my e-mail.

This tells me to get involved with more blogs. Promote more information from other bloggers because I just might get more traffic to my own blog. Of course, my sole aim in expressing an interest with other bloggers is not just to benefit myself. Primarily, I want to help others.

Did you hear that? Put others ahead of yourself.

Give it time

If you have a new blog, don’t pay much attention to Google Analytics for a while. It usually takes a couple months until you start seeing any type of routine. Even then, your visitors might seem erratic.

Also, don’t let Google Analytics rule your blog. The numbers might tell you one thing when your gut is telling you another. Trust your instincts and watch how it works. Take risks. If your ideas fall flat, brush yourself off and try something new. Failure is another step to success.

How do you readjust your blog to your suit your visitors?

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small. 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!!

Ten Minute Rambles: A Tool To Jump-starting Your Blog

by

cooltext455576688_blogging

—-

A little over a year and a half ago, I decided to take charge of my health.  Honestly, I decided to take charge of my weight gain and that blossomed into taking charge of my health.  Although I had exercised mildly in high school and had taken the ever-so-vigorous “Walking Class” in college, in the nearly ten year interim I had slipped away from any type of exercise routine that didn’t involve the Wii. 

So, I decided to use the Wii to lose weight rather than as an excuse for lazy exercise habits.  I started with ten minutes of running each day.  Let me tell you, those were the most miserable ten minutes of my day.  I remember running in place, swinging my arms around wildly and complaining very loudly that I couldn’t stand it any more.  But I persevered through those ten minutes.  Flash forward eighteen months or so.  I exercise one hour each day, alternating running and weight training.  I’ve lost around fifty pounds, and I love to exercise (Most of the time!).  That ten minute jump-start was all I needed to make a lifetime of changes.

Jump-start Your Blog

Does this sound familiar?  You’re sitting in front of your computer, your hands are on the keys, and you are doing nothing except staring a blank screen.  Let’s face it.  Sometimes we don’t feel like blogging.  It may be that we don’t have a topic that inspires us or it may be that we have so many other distractions and demands that we just don’t feel like taking the time to blog.  Or maybe we’re new to blogging and we’re feeling a bit intimidated.  We need to do something to get us going.

Try this:  start typing.  Set aside ten minutes to just ramble.  You can write about anything.  Take it out of the realm of blogging.  Write about your bad day.  Write about your kids, your dog, pizza, a sailboat, anything.  Write gibberish.  Don’t filter.  Don’t worry about polishing your work or what others may think.  This may sound like a junior high writing assignment, but it is mentally freeing and may be just what you need to get motivated.

What is the worst that can happen?  You’ll have spent ten minutes writing and you still don’t feel like blogging.  Chances are that won’t happen.  What is likely to happen?  Likely, you will strike upon something that you really want to write about.  You may even strike upon several ideas, leaving you something to store away for future use.  You may even decide to make this exercise part of your writing routine!

Tell us, what do you do to get your creativity flowing when you are in a writing slump?

Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas .

Thanks, Jael

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

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

Quality Or Quantity – Which Ranks Higher On Your Blog?

by

cooltext455576688_blogging

By Terez Howard

You’re probably staring at your computer, thinking what is this girl talking about?  Of course, quality is more important than quantity.

I agree that a high quality post, one that is well-written, well-researched, extraordinarily helpful with a dash of entertainment, is more important than pumping out one garbage, cut and paste post after another.  Every blogger strives to share tidbits of knowledge with her readers, so people make it to the last period of the last sentence in a post.

That said, I think there’s something to be said about quantity.  How often have you come across a superb blog post and you’re dying to read the latest and greatest post only to find the author’s most recent work is from April?  Sigh.

If you really like a blogger’s work, you go to the About page and business website to find some reason why this excellent blog became defunct.  That’s what I do, hoping there is some hidden link to another, updated blog.

Did you ever think the blogger does not consider her blog to be dead?  Maybe she’s thinking that she will return to it when she finds the time.  Maybe she’s procrastinating over her writing skills.  Maybe she plans on hiring out, but hasn’t found the best person for the job.  Maybe she hasn’t realized how much time has elapsed since her latest and greatest.

Quality posts versus quantity

Let’s take a look at these two points and see which one tips the scale.  Please feel free to add to my small list.

If you focus on a high quality blog, you

  • Stand out as an authority in your niche.
  • Feel more focused as a writer, rather than meandering from pillar to post.
  • Are likely to gain a dedicated following because readers expect valuable information.

When you stress quantity, you

  • Will have a wealth of information on your blog quickly.
  • Are likely to gain a dedicated following because readers can tune in often.
  • Get some Google love.

Both have their strong points.  But what do you want more?

Which ranks higher, quality or quantity?

My answer is that both should walk hand in hand.  One cannot and should not function without the other.  When I write, I bring quality to the table by being as resourceful as I can be.  I don’t do as much as others.  My posts aren’t flooded links, tables and video.  (I’m not saying these things are bad; they just aren’t what I do… yet).  My point is: I do my best.

As far as quantity goes, I have a set writing schedule that I can keep up with as a busy stay-at-home mom.  I’m not writing every single day.  That’s impossible for my life.  Once again, I do my best.

Quality and quantity have their places in a blog.  You have to strike a balance that keeps you regularly writing high quality posts.

How do you strike that balance?

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  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!!

Man, This is all screwed up…

by

by Patty Azzarello

cooltext466496263_leadership
this-is-screwed-up1

As a leader how do you deal with with negative energy?

Leading in rough times

This has come up a lot lately, so I wanted to talk more about this point I often mention as one of my top Leadership Values:

It is never the wrong idea to be positive and to lead.

When I say this I do not mean you should bury the problems and pretend everything is OK. Quite the opposite.

Face reality.

I mean jump in with both feet, acknowledge how ugly it is, and personally help find a way out of it.

When it gets bad…

OK, so they said there would be no layoffs, and now they are laying people off. They are treating people like crap. They don’t care. People are pissed off. Now there is even more pressure on schedules and cost cutting. My boss has checked out. No one has my back. I am getting blamed for things that are not my fault. My organization is likely to be shut down, so why should I care. Nothing I do matters.
What will you do next?

Winston Churchill once said,
“If you are going through hell, keep going!”.

You have a choice: Jump on all the crap with an equally negative attitude, or face it head on as leader who intends to make a positive difference for the business and the people.

Why do people choose to be negative?

It’s funny.

It is a wonderful comedic platform to go on about how messed up everything is and how stupid all the managers are, and how no one gives a damn about the employees.

It’s cool.

Being cynical and subversive is way more cool than being the boy-scout, showing that you are aligned with the lame corporate way of doing business.

You look smart.

If you can use a lot of details and data about why everything is screwed up, and dive into endless root-cause analysis, and catalog all the blame at a very granular level, some people will think you are really smart.

It’s easy.

Being negative and generating lots of data and commentary absolves you of having to do any work to fix anything.

But…

Being Negative is Toxic

It doesn’t help.

Nothing moves forward or gets better. This type of negativity draws people in because it a source of energy, and camaraderie in the absence of positive leadership. It becomes the way things are. And then it defines the future.
What does it look like to be positive and to lead?

Acknowledge the bad.

This is a really crappy time. I’m disappointed too. What do you think?.

Invite some discussion.

Let people tell you how this is impacting them. But then close that discussion off and make it clear you are planning to go forward. Ask for their help.

You have my commitment and support to create a new plan of attack. We can’t keep doing things the same way because it is killing us, but we need to move forward. Let’s focus on one thing that we can do well and start doing it right now. Or, at a minimum, let’s focus on how we can build our career capital for the future.

Life is long

If you choose negative path, or if you choose to checkout, or broadcast how screwed up everything is, in reality it might not make a big difference in that moment. So what are you hurting? You are having some laughs.

Sometimes there is no way practical way forward. Your organization could be being dismantled, outsourced or eliminated entirely. So who cares, right? What’s the big deal if I check out? It doesn’t matter anyway..

I have faced this many times at the helm of an organization who was being acquired or laid off… it might not seem like anything we do matters right now because this is all going away.

What you do now matters to YOU

Just remember that even though it might not matter in the current business situation, all of those people around you will eventually move on to other jobs in other places.

They will remember how you acted NOW.

Will they remember someone taking cheap shots at everyone and everything and checking out? or will they remember someone who stepped up tried to find a way to help?

If you can’t help the business, help the people.

People need you to be positive and to lead. It is never the wrong choice.

If it’s too bad, get out

If it’s really bad, get out. But while you are on your way, it is still the right choice to be positive and help others — if for no other reason, because it’s better for you.

You can build a hugely positive reputation for leadership in tough times.
People are always watching. It always matters.

How have you dealt with negative energy as a leader?

It’s so important (and at times really difficult) to stay positive. How do you it? Please share in the comment box!

—–
Patty Azzarello works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. She has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at The Azzarello Group Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing