Successful Blog

Blog Libs Stories — Aren't You Brilliant?!!

by

You Make Me Look Like a Piker

You might remember the A Puzzler for a Fun Post and a Little Labor Day Link Love. I offered you a fill-in-the-blank story and a directory of links with which to complete it. I even wrote one of my own for the fun!

Then I set up some silly rules and invited you to do the same thing.

  1. Copy the unfinished story below into your post box.

  2. Fill in the blanks to finish the story. For most of the blanks use a blogger’s name, a trait, a post title, a blog title — get creative. Finish each sentence in an unexpected way. You can find plenty of links to spark your imagination at the A-Z directory.

  3. Link the text you added back to the blog or blogger you’re referencing.

  4. Be creative. Change the words or storyline as you wish in order to fit in the links you like.

  5. When you’re done, leave a link with the title to your version of the story in the comment box below.

Then, oh, then I said these fateful words, “I’ll do something creative with the links you leave.”

The Links You Left

I thought that rather than make you wait for the link love. Since I’ve got a doctor’s thing and a trip to the west coast this week, I’m compiling the list here. I’m starting with my own title and going down the line of those you left.

If yours or another you know about is missing, please tell me so that I can add it.

If you’ve not read them, do it now. They are brilliant and fabulous. Really.

Now about that doing something creative part . . . what was I thinking?

I’ll be back with something creative. After all, I promised.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related
Liz’s Thematic Links Story: Lorelle’s Blogging Birthday Quest
A List Becomes 301 Links in Story — Chapter 1

10 Ways to Kill the Kudzu and Get Your Blogging Mojo Back

by

Time to Kill the Blogging Kudzu

power writing hit logo

Kudzu. It creeping and invasive. It’s a slow moving pest that overtakes our most creative thoughts. It’s not writer’s block. It’s not procrastination either. I call it The Blogging Kudzu.

Blogging Kudzu is debilitating. Like its vegetative counterpart, left uncontrolled it obliterates new ideas. It covers them right over. The nasty creeper wraps around our brain, cuts off our creativity. It leaves us dead in the water, wondering whether we even want to blog at all again, ever.

BUT unlike the green, leafy version, we can clear out the kudzu in our heads without much trouble. We can get our mojo back. In fact, we can come back stronger than ever, if that’s the goal we set our minds to, and why wouldn’t we? A blog’s quite an investment to let wither and die.

Here’s how to kill Blogging Kudzu and come back better than ever.

10 Ways to Kill the Kudzu and Get Your Blogging Mojo Back

The first thing to know is Blogging Kudzu needs two conditions to flourish — a tired blogger, who takes blogging a bit too seriously. With that in mind, here are 10 Ways to Get Your Blogging Mojo Back.

  1. Peel off your blog. Get out from behind the dashboard. Turn off the computer. Stay away a day. Watch what happens. Nothing. The blogosphere doesn’t need us to make sure it survives.

  2. Have a heart-to-heart conversation with yourself. Point out that the lasting links you’ve made are with people, not bits of code. Those links will still be there when you get back from recharging and refueling.

  3. Make plans. Have an experience. It hard to blog your experience, if you never have one. If you’re out of practice, ask a friend to plan something for you to do together. Then, for blog’s sake, go do it!

  4. Do something spontaneous. Go to a farm, a city, a movie, a concert, a planetarium, a museum, a place you’ve never been, a place you’ve been a 1000 times, a place you grew up, a place a famous person lived, a place you don’t know where it is until you get there.

  5. Have a real conversation. Call a friend you haven’t spoken with in too long. Catch up on all of the details of life.

  6. Sit in the sunshine and watch the sky. Do your best to think about nothing. When your mind gets busy, read your favorite book or make up stories about the people who walk by.

  7. Tell people you’re a web publisher. Ask them to tell you a story. Listen to every detail. Watch how they tell it. Capture every gesture and expression in your memory. Ask questions until you feel you are a part of their experience.

  8. Ask advice from a child under the age of 7. Listen carefully. Repeat back what you are told to be sure you understand. Then do your best to follow it, if you possibly can.

  9. Spend some quality time with yourself, your favorite music, and your favorite food. Make an appointment to do that. You deserve to be the center of your own time once in a while.

  10. Read your favorite blog posts in your archives — the ones that you love, those that show your best self in action. Now go do what you do so well just one more time.

Once in my publishing career, I told a friend I couldn’t get my head to think about what I needed to write. She gave me this advice.

Go take a day off, take two, take three. On the day you come back, you’ll do 5 days work 10 times better than if you keep going now. You’ll find yourself miles ahead, and everyone else will be trying their best just to keep up.

She was right.

That’s how to get your blogging mojo back.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
Writing–Ugh! 10 Reasons to Get Jazzed about Writing
Writing YEAH! 10 WHOLE NEW Reasons to Get Jazzed About Writing

The Famous Joanna Thematic Link Posts Back to Challenge Me!

by

Jan and Joanna Started It

thematic-links

If you recall Jan of Circular Communication wrote a wonderful guest post for Lorelle called Why A Link Post Should Be Like Mingling at a Party, and Joanna of Confident Writing used it as a springboard into a post of her own, How to write a links post. Joanna set out a list of criteria for writing quality, readable posts that link out.

I wrote up Joanna’s criteria and offered a challenge in a post of my own. The challenge said that I would take all of the link posts that readers wrote and use them to write a link story from them. Last night was the deadline to get your link post in.

It’s been hard keeping track of the individual posts. So, just to be sure that I’ve got everyone’s post before I start writing, I’m going to list them here. Do take a moment to read through them. I’ve found them to be some of the most billiant writing on the Internet.

Links Post Entries

Thank you to all who played along.

I’ll give this a day. Please, if you don’t see yours here, leave the link in the comment box below. Thank you. I don’t want to leave anyone out . . . and you don’t want to make my quest too easy. You see . . .

Now my challenge, should decide I wish to keep blogging here, is to do as I promised — write a story post linking all of these thematic link posts together in the tradition of 301 Link Posts in a Story.

What was I thinking when I volunteered to do that? Actually, coming up with tale about these should be fun!

Anyone want to offer some character names and a setting or two?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related
A List Becomes 301 Links in Story — Chapter 1

Update: This now includes Jnswanson’s entry. Is yours Here?

1 Word, 1 Sentence, As Many Words as You Need Test

by

SIMPLE SALES SERIES

Still The Decision Model

insideout logo

Chris Garrett and I had a conversation yesterday morning. We discussed the difference between the way we see our blogs and the way our readers see them. That got us talking about testimonials.

Testimonials are more than meet the eye. They tell us what customers value . . . what we do for them.

Chris and I talked about using surveys to focus a businesses. We agreed that the key is to listen carefully. Read every word that is said. Look deep in the text for the hidden testimonials.

One goal of great survey is to gather what customers say and use it to promote our businesses.

But don’t stop there.

Look closely at what the testimonials say — testimonials often reveal what we don’t know about ourselves and how people see our work.

That’s what Chris and I were talking about . . .

The 1 Word, 1 Sentence, As Many Words as You Need Test

Other people see what we do in ways that often surprise us. Try this test about your own work then pass it on to a friend. Here’s how it works.

Do a favor. Write a testimonial for someone’s blog — in this case would you do mine, please? (Write your answers in the comment box.)

1. Describe my blog in one word. _______.

2. Describe my blog in one sentence. _______________________________. < 3. Describe my blog in as many words as you need. _____________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Now write a testimonial for your business or blog. Write your answers in the comment box too, if you are ready to. 1. Describe your blog or business in one word. _______. 2. Describe your blog or business in one sentence. _____________________. 3. Describe your blog or business in as many words as you need. _________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ What do you think other people will see in you? Make a prediction. Now print out this page and do it a few more times. Each time as another friend to do it with you. Compare each new person's testimonial to the one that you wrote. Write a new each time, you'll find you'll get closer to your message if you do. Pay attention to what bits your friend calls out. When you have finished the exercise, check to see how close your prediction was. You might be surprised what you learn about yourself. --ME "Liz" Strauss Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Writing Challenge: Joanna's Thematic Link Post!

by

Jan and Joanna Inspired Me!

thematic-links

It’s such fun to be inspired!

Jan of Circular Communication wrote a wonderful guest post for Lorelle called Why A Link Post Should Be Like Mingling at a Party. Joanna of Confident Writing used it as a springboard into a post of her own, How to write a links post.

Joanna’s Definition of a Great Link Post

Joanna said that as a writer she prefers to write link posts that have these characteristics. This is one fabulous definition. [I’ve edited her words slightly.]

A great links post

  • has a theme, something that connects the links together
  • has been percolating for a while
  • links five different pieces of writing
  • is of value to readers
  • has a structure, a hook or a theme that connects the strands together and turns them into something bigger, different, new. . .

Can you write a thematic link post that meets Joanna’s definition? It’s like telling a story. . . . Vern does it every Sunday linking three or four blogs. It’s not as hard as it seems and it’s quite satisfying.

Are you up for the challenge? If you come through, I’ll build a story link post linking all of your thematic link posts together.

Go on, make my life miserable . . . the more who participate, the more work I’ll have to do. Rally a crowd. I’m up for it now. Nothing can be as hard as the 10 Chapter saga of A List Becomes 301 Links in Story.

Here’s What to Do

C’mon try it. Pick five links that go together. Then write a post to connect them. Or pick 10 or 20!!

You just might find that you had a great time! Think of the link love we’ll spread. Yeah, it’s time to get jazzed about linking and writing.

Are you going to give it a shot?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related
A List Becomes 301 Links in Story — Chapter 1.
Link Anchor Text: SEO and Relationships
How to Code Links for Sidebars and Posts
How to Code Accessible Links–Part 1
How to Code Accessible Links–Part 2
How to Code Accessible Links–Part 3

Blogging in a Foreign Language?

by

Beyond Metaphors and Analogies

What’s Your Metaphor?

You might remember back to the Metaphor Project. About that same time Jan Circular Communication, one of the winners of Lorelles’s Book, and I began a dialogue about writing the fact that English is not his first language. I wondered whether he would be interested in writing a blog post about the experience. He agreed with enthusiasm. His blog post came in days.

In a lovely circle of communication, I’m pleased to say that as I put jan’s post up now while he’s running a virtual interview with Lorelle and me on his is blog.

Why On Earth Would You be Blogging in a Foreign Language?

Guest Writer: Jan

As everyone else does, I want somewhere to belong, but my community should not be defined by where I am or by which language is my mother tongue. Since community is about commonality we have to have something in common, but it should be what interests us not geography or language. Communities are (in my opinion) built through communication where language shouldn’t play the main part.

If the community is inviting and including, language will play practically no part as long as we make ourselves understood. However it is a fact that you get what you give, so working on your communication skills, including your language skills, will not only benefit others, but also yourself.

With my native language I only would reach a fraction of the world population. My native language is only spoken in one country and practically unknown outside its borders. Even adding in languages with similarities, my own language it is simply not the best basis for gaining a readership and building community, since the number of blogs would be a whole lot less. It wouldstill be possible to build
a position within that language, but I would be left with the feeling that there was an immense audience out there that could have been mine.

Although you could claim that getting started blogging in itself is like learning a new language, there’s no reason to limit your learning to this aspect. I’m optimistic enough to believe I can learn in at least three areas through my blog: the format, the content and the language.

I started blogging because I wanted to relearn things I learned during my education, but rarely use. I practically lost English because I didn’t use it. I decided to include it in my learning endeavor. So the language and content will mostly be relearning while the blogging will be actual learning.

What I have found so far is reaching out in a foreign language enriches my experiences. I guess you could say that the conversations from which you learn the least are those with yourself — almost as bad are those with people like yourself. Only if you go beyond that will you really add to your learn exponentially more. Besides communicating with people from other countries, not to mention continents, is fascinating.

If you want to interact with your local community you simply go out the door and participate in the activities, but if you want to interact with other cultures around the world blogging is surely the next best thing to actually going there. Besides does one not exclude the other. A number of bloggers travel to come together just as a number of people blog when traveling.

Thankfully is writing in English more a challenge than a struggle for me. Had it been a struggle it would be about trying to string sentences together, finding the right words and making myself understood. The
challenge, on the other hand, consists of bringing in more elements, being more precise and generally taking advantage of the opportunities that English offers to those who seek them. If it was a struggle I would probably have thought twice about it, but since I like challenges I didn’t need to think long before deciding.

If you are unsure whether your language foundation will hold up, I would recommend that you begin reading and commenting on blogs in the language you are considering. This will give you practice and introduce you to what could be possibly be your future blogging community.

Remember that the basic language skills isn’t the goal, but just another stepping stone. Hence I certainly have to keep working on my writing skills as will you. Even if you try adding to your vocabulary, using metaphors, analogies etc. and being as precisely as possible. We probably never learn to write like someone writing in their native language. The fact that we will never reach perfection should never be a reason for giving up though. After all, how many things is it really possible to be perfect at? What counts is the effort you put into it and believe me people recognize effort when they see it. Since you probably will not see your own mistakes there really isn’t any reason to get obsessed with them.

To sum up I think there are compelling reasons to blog in a foreign language. You will learn that language better; you will expand your horizon; and you will get to know people who you would otherwise never know. In order for it to work does it require a little more than the basic language skills, a willingness to continuously work on making it better and first of all a strong desire to reach out.

Jan

____________

Jan Suggested

In the process of putting this together, Jan asked at the beginning if I would edit and send back the article before I posted it. That’s exactly what happened. With his return email, he suggested I might add some end notes about the edits that I made. So here they are.
The edits I made were for clarity or differences in verb construction.

  • Those for language usage. These are mostly to verb forms. The verb construct that is most often a problem is that in which you use “would I” (a form for only questions in English) instead of “I would”. Most English sentences are subject then verb.
  • Deletion of phrases. These are edits for readability, fluency. and a more powerful message. The phrase “not to speak about” became the more common usage “not to mention.”
  • I also broke paragraphs to adjust what is more “print text writing” to “online writing.” Shorter paragraphs on more-focused main ideas work better on the web.

Thanks, Jan, for a great look into a special kind of blogging!

–ME “Liz” Strauss