Successful Blog

Thanks to Week 193 SOBs

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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.

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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.

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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

How to Blog Like a Beginner …

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A few words I’ve said before that I want to share on my birthday …

Something blogging has taught me a lot about — not just the beauty of paying attention to one thing at a time — but the fulfillment of offering other people a chance to talk.

Half the show is in the comments. Thank you HART for saying that!

That was one of the first things we discovered here.

When I first started blogging, I often tried to do too much. I’d write a post that carried the load of too many thoughts at one time. Those blogging posts went both deep and wide. They were so complete, I left no room for readers to add their thoughts.

It’s not a conversation when all a reader can say is I agree with you, Great post. or You covered that subject really well. There’s just nowhere for a conversation to go, if I don’t leave room for a reader’s thoughts to squeeze in between my own. Now I know to think about the conversation when I write.

Here are a few things that I do differently now. What they add up to is staying in the mind of a beginner.

  • I ask more questions without answering them.
  • I don’t try to think through every possibility as I used to do. I write what I know and I let other folks add what they know to that.
  • I’ve backed off on holding myself accountable as an expert on the what I write about and instead, think of myself as one of the audience talking to another reader about an idea, waiting to hear his or her point of view.

The result? This social media beginner is having so much more fun than any teacher … and feeling so much more authentic.

What do you do to stay a social media beginner?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Hearing the Conversation

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Blogs tell stories. 

There are different elements within a blog that make people care about your blog. Joel Kelly would suggest these are “the story, the content and the offer”. All of this makes sense but, what happens when the story you’re trying to tell isn’t the one people hear? What happens when the conversation that occurs as a result of your story isn’t the one you were hoping would happen? 

People are commenting but totally missing the point of your story? You were writing about X and the conversation that happened was all about Y. 

It’s always great to start a conversation, especially one that leads to building a community, but what if you want to talk about your remarkable insights into marketing strategies, your product or service or just delight people with your amazing writing talent and your audience only picks up on a tiny detail you revealed about your personal life?

I keep mulling that over in my mind. I’ve listened to Brian Clark talk about finding your intersection, your purple cow (although I thought he said elephant). I started blogging on my own site this week. Maybe it’s too soon to tell what people want to hear from me. Or maybe I should take the advice of CCseed and wait for the people to find me that do want to hear what I think I want to say.

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Or, maybe, the way I see myself as a writer, as a person, isn’t really what others see.

We’re all storytellers. Whether we practice the art through blogging, writing, painting, photography, film making, song writing, poetry  (I could go on) it doesn’t matter. 

What matters is we’re all telling a story.

Have you had any experience with this?

from Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

Saying No With Authenticity … When No Becomes Yes Unexpectedly

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Don’t Agree to What You Can’t Do

On Monday while waiting at DFW, I got a back channel message from @LisaDJenkins saying that a friend and potential client had asked for social media help in an area that “wasn’t her thing.” The message said, “Could I recommend you?” I checked it over, saw a nice fit, and said yes.

A relationship started … I haven’t met the client yet, but I’ve gotten to know Lisa pretty well. I wanted to know more about her and what she was doing. Her follow up email and the recommendation she sent her friend were well-written and compelling. A good turn on her part become more than that. Lisa tells the story better than I do.

On the other hand, once I had a conversation with a potential client that became a negotiation via email. We discussed a project in detail. It was a blast talking to him about the project. The conversation was more than worth looking forward to, but as he told me about his expectations, the more I felt I was unable to gather the resources I’d need to do the work to my satisfaction.

It was a sad moment for me. The project had sounded exciting. I’d enjoyed beginning a relationship that was authentic, filled with fun, and an example of with great communication.

I didn’t stay sad very long.

He must have felt the same values. When I declined, that potential client shifted the topic to other projects on which we might work together.

There is a lesson here. It’s one I like believing in.

Ever had a no become a yes like these?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

The Mic Is On: We're talking with Lisa Jenkins about the 1st Days of Her Business!

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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.

Guest Host: Lisa D. Jenkins

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Starting Out Can Be Scary

The first steps in starting an Internet-based business might be thrilling. They’re also the scariest. We’ll be talking tonight with an entrepreneur who’s making the transition to becoming her own boss now.

  • What advice might you offer?
  • What questions do you have?
  • Does being in a small town make it harder?

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 example links.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: burningwell.org
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