Successful Blog

Jack Frost, the Lights, and What My Dad Taught Me

by


When the Frost Makes the Lights

It was 21 below out west of Chicago.

My dad was born in 1907. He left home when he was 12. He got a job fixing shoes 70 hours a week for 50 cents. He roomed in a small house with a man and his sister. He did chores for his food and rent. When he was seventeen, he found a job working in 700 degree heat, silvering mirrors. It didn’t pay much, but it was work. On the day that Prohibition was repealed, my dad was 24. He and the guy who took him in opened the saloon this blog hails back to.

My never talked about being poor or cold. He told stories mostly about people and how they think.

Think smart, work hard, and take care of folks who need. He didn’t say those things. He did them.

I look at below zero temperatures on my iPhone, and I think of people like my dad who had, and have, life so much harder than we do. Can you imagine? I’m grateful for the heat I’m feeling. It’s been a while since I saw frost on my windows.

But I remember real frost and the frost that was just inside me.

I remember my dad and I looking out windows at how Jack Frost made the lights beautiful.
I’d look in his eyes and see those lights and myself reflected back at me.
I’d see what he was living for and what I was living for too.

Here’s what my dad taught me.
Own yourself and you own your life.

Head, heart, and seeing your light.
The frost can make the light beautiful.

Don’t let a little hoary, cold, frost stop you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOB Business Cafe 01-16-09

by

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

CK’s Blog suggests that we ought to rethink how we think about thinking.
The greatest thinkers throughout history didn’t offer the same ideas. Nope. They offered different viewpoints.

Buzz Bin suggests that we should be better by now.
Well, it’s a new year, and yes, we’re having many of the same old conversations here and other places. Realistically speaking, the repetition is necessary because a great deal of the market still needs to come up to speed on social media communications (Viva Pinata by peasap).

Insights & Ingenuity suggests that we consider our standards.
The gist of the message was “I’m Satisfied with Mr. Carpet.” Mr. Carpet, presumably, is a retailer of floor coverings. The approach was a weak (an non-attributable) customer testimonial.

Social Media Explorer suggests that we take longer look before we ask folks to blog about us.
The simple fact of the matter is that, at least for now, there is no one tool, website or service that can help public relations professional identify blogs for their outreach.

Servant of Chaos suggests that we understand the meaning of trust.
Some of the questions that have been raised go directly to the heart of social media … what does it mean to be “connected”, where does responsibility overlap “connection” and what happens to our TRUST when money is involved?

Related ala carte selections include

Being Five suggests …

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

Why Madonna Can Reinvent Herself and We Cannot

by

Authentic Either Is or Is Not

Ever watched a musician or a politician change their persona? It seems that for every tour or campaign, they’re reinvented in a way that makes us take another look. No one seems to think anything of it.

And if the music tour flops or the election is lost, the musician or politician simply reinvents their persona and the organization starts over with a new definition.

I’ve been thinking about business and personal branding in the context of social media. A personal brand for business in social media is more complicated. We can’t change a social media personal brand the way that rockstars or politicians do. They have whole organization behind them and between them and their fans.

In social media, we live with our “constituencies.” We act. We interact. We earn or lose respect. We reveal our thoughts, values, and beliefs. We give our word, make promises, and develop reputation. We connect with authenticity and trust, or not.

But I submit that …

We cannot rebrand or reinvent real relationships with real people.

It’s the difference between a handshake with stranger and holding hands with with a best friend. It’s why Madonna and Clinton can reinvent themselves, and we cannot.

How can personal branding fit in authentic relationships?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

LINK BAIT and COMMUNITY

by

Link-baiting is the concept of writing in such a way as to attract other internet-based resources back to our blog.  It means creating something that naturally attracts back-links for your web page by getting people to talk about it, discuss it on forums, blog about it, post it on del.icio.us / Sphinn / Digg / Stumble , and link to it from their sites. It also attracts a lot of visitors. 

Link-baiting is not a new concept and not a concept used only on the internet. Rae Hoffman has a great explanation of how politicians use link bait all the time and always have.

Being passionate about what you write and how you convey that passion is key to growing your community. Richard Reeve talks about touch points and eloquently explains how this process of attracting readers, and the analytics involved, builds relationships. Whatever the intent or purpose of our blog, we’re all interested in that relationship which forms from the links that are made.

Building community is more than just having high page view counts. It’s about increasing readership and engaging with those readers in a meaningful way.

Some things to keep in mind:

  1. Are you looking to have as many visits to our site as possible so we can say we have high numbers
  2. Are you trying to build an audience that signs up to the RSS feed or returns regularly?
  3. Does you writing change as a result of thinking about the numbers?
  4. Is it possible to get high numbers and attract repeat readers?

There are lots of great resources out there to explain how to use link bait and honestly, we all would like traffic on our blog. The Golden Rules of Linkbaiting is really helpful. It feels good to know others read and value our writing. It feels good to know we have an audience. People love to discuss how many visits they got that day and where the traffic comes from. Building community is more than just having high page view counts. It’s about increasing readership and engaging with those readers in a meaningful way

 “One way to make sure your link bait is successful is to pick a subject that you believe in, are passionate about, and that will bring out an emotional response from members of your target audience. Or you could play it safe and write the 5 ways Twitter is helping web 2.0 businesses. The first is memorable the second is utterly forgettable.” – Michael Gray  

Do you have link bait in mind when you write?

Kathryn aka northernchick

Special thanks to graywolf and photo credit: INV/ALT DESIGN

What Business Are You In

by

Cam Beck from ChaosScenario shares an interesting insight:

: Are you in the business you think you are in?

…imagine you’re Wilbur or Orville Wright, who, in addition to running their own bicycle business, decided to take on the “problem of flight,” which included not only successfully flying a heavier-than-air craft under its own power, but also maneuvering in mid-air.

Oh, and due to a general human intolerance to blunt force trauma and impalement, landing alive consistently was another important issue to solve.

But what business were the Wrights in? Weren’t they just bicycle men?

Well, yeah. But they were so much more than that.

They were even more than entrepreneurs or even inventors. They were all of these things.

But chiefly they were problem solvers who, importantly, were not afraid to try, though they might fail.

Ray Croc, the founder of McDonalds restaurants, is famously known for telling an audience that McDonalds was not in the food business, rather the real estate business.

When you take a step back from the day-to-day operation of your business what does it look like? Are you in the “Marketing Business” or are you in the “Relationship Business”?

Can changing a couple of words in the label change the entire meaning and scope of what you do? What might happen if you changed some other labels in your life and work?

A Twitter Survey, RSS Feeds and Jethro Bodine: How to Use All Three to Increase Subscribers

by


A Guest Post by Duane Lester

I wanted more subscribers.

All over the Internet, I see Feedburner chicklets with more subscribers than my blog. I wonder what exactly makes a reader pull the trigger on a subscription? So I turned to a great resource, my tweeps.

Using Tweetlater I scheduled a Twitter survey — the same question day and night. For 24 hours, I asked what it took for them to subscribe to a blog.

Here’s what they told me:

  • sarahtymeson Guess it depends on what site has & what I’m looking 4… i.e they offer training in an area & I’m looking @ getting n2 that area.
  • PEP010 I hate excess email, so a website must offer well-done material that’s directly relevant to my work needs.
  • susan_s_smith content in my areas of interest, but it must be written well
  • readmylipstick Sites s/b related to my interests, well put together, recommended by friend, no pop ups, no noise / fluff / flash, good content
  • clarky07 for me its usually not that much. an insightful article or comment about something i’m interested in will do it.
  • OmegaSpreem If they have lots of new content on a regular (more often than weekly) schedule, I’ll subscribe to their RSS feed.
  • blogdesigner useful information and a feeling that doesn’t overwhelm me with "faceless blogger" personality is a must (coupled with useful in
  • my3boybarians sense of gaining something by reading it.
  • HighPlainsBlogr RE http://is.gd/crlI : Generally links to articles, etc. I enjoy. Frequency of "match" boosts odds – name recognition w/prev posts.
  • ppmartin Theres is no "rule" before I subscribe to a website, it all "depends".
  • EndTheRoboCalls Free, remarkable, useful, save time, save money
  • lynngg For a website? All over the place. For a blog, write like Hemingway.
  • crystalclear3 If a website has a topic I am interested in with good writers, then this makes me a subscriber to their RSS feed
  • lukegoossen value… the more value I find initially, the more likely I am to subscribe… to get more "value added" content
  • rinosafari For me, mostly interesting content. Good first impression is key, or I’m usually outta there.
  • rinosafari Also, regular updates are important, though it doesn’t have to be high volume. Visual site appeal comes in at distant third.
  • Mauricio_TN 1st, I would have 2b highly interestd in the subject matter, 2nd I would have to trust the owner/author is an expert in the field
  • redbloodedgirl To subscribe: consistently good content, good writing, unique perspective, original. Not "me too" or just agreement with me.
  • meanolmeany Strictly the content, on any topic. I read about 100 sites completely a day with Google Reader.
  • sharilee To subscribe, I need to see really rich content, something that will help me be smarter. Sadly, not much that compelling out there
  • RadioPatriot I want timely accurate info in user friendly format — HATE ads & widgets that slow up the download
  • InstructorG Re: answer to survey = immediately useful information
  • JesseNewhart cutting edge content
  • GrayRinehart I take RSS from blogs >> websites. If I go to a blog > 5 times, or know the blogger, or love it at 1st sight, I feed from it.
  • Jaustin intriguing content of which there has potential to consistently be more of. Like new software downloads or new commentary
  • infidelsarecool Constant fresh content, unique and interesting headlines, first-movers of news, content including multimedia [pics,videos]
  • chasrmartin mostly, the RSS icon. I put them in "possibles" and see later if I come back to them.
  • freedomist has to be something I need or want but can’t get elsewhere or has to offer me a chance or means of helping my own cause/bus.
  • lleger If I find myself continually checking a site for new content–because I know it’s good content–then it’s time to subscribe.

In order for a reader to subscribe:

“a website must offer lots of new, consistently good content, something I can’t get elsewhere.”

Really not a blockbuster surprise. We all know that content is king. The intriguing part of the survey came from the following responses:

  • Subscribe with money? Or just fill out the form that pops up?
  • not really sure how it works, if I knew how to do it and what it did I might subscribe
  • If you mean pay for it. I don’t believe I would.
  • Do you mean like newsletters? I sub’d to 1 recently; a site w/ supplies of interest to me. So I can see what’s new. That kinda thing
  • minimal info required – email maybe, zip code yes, real name no, address no, phone number no.

These responses reminded me of two things. The first a lesson I learned in military journalism school. The second was was an article at Copyblogger.

Write for Jethro

In military journalism school, we were taught to write our news stories for Jethro Bodine. (For those who don’t know who Jethro Bodine is — he was a character on a TV show, the Beverly Hillbillies who couldn’t add past 10.) If we wrote so Jethro could understand it, we were confident anyone could.

Pay attention. I am not saying that Twitterers are as dense as Jethro. I’m agreeing with Willy Franzen.

In this article from Copyblogger on how to increase subscribers. Willy Franzen at Copyblogger asks:

Are you being completely clear with your word choice? When you ask your readers to subscribe, are you asking them to do the virtual version of writing their name underneath? Or are you asking them to agree to pay you a sum of money?

In other words, are you writing for Jethro?

It’s a valid question.

I checked my site. I wasn’t. I had the square orange RSS logo in the top right corner. Savvy Internet users know this symbol for the blog’s RSS subscription. Would Jethro? No. Neither did some of my readers. Some who did, didn’t know
what to do with it.

To fix this, I added

  • a question the reader may have been asking: What is RSS?

    • and linked that question to

  • a page detailing the ins and out of RSS, including a video from Creative Commons.

Now when a person has a question about RSS or subscribing in general, this will lead them to the answer. And along the top are links to all our feeds so they can start right away with us.

Two small additions that could result in an increase in RSS and e-mail subscriptions. Are you inviting readers to subscribe assuming they understand what you mean, or are you writing for Jethro, ensuring you get maximum subscriptions?

Duane Lester writes for All American Blogger. He’s a friend, an SOB, and a Navy journalist who finds the answer to what he wants to know.

Thanks, Duane.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!