Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 10-12-07

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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

Web Strategy by Jeremiah is helping us be part of the Forrester Consumer Marketing Forum.

Lorelle on WordPress is helping us overcome our struggles.

Problogger is helping us make perfect.

Daily Blogging Tips is helping us deal with stress.

Dorai’s Learn Log is helping us in our jobs.

ririan project is helping us become more intelligent.

Related ala carte selections include

Carpe Factum is helping us flatten bulldozers.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Do You Forget to Be Brilliant?

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I've been thinking . . .

about how brilliant you are.

Starry night

Do you do forget that you’re brilliant?
Do you forget to be a star? People and stars are the same stuff

Sometimes it’s not forgetting. Sometimes it’s letting.

Do you stand back in the dark, letting other folks talk, thinking your thoughts?

Where do those bright ideas go? Do you only let your great ones out at night when you are sleeping?

Do you forget to be brilliant?

The humble star still shines.

Liz's Signature

Interview 1.8: Brian Gardner — One Man Revolution

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They Say the Revolution Starts Oct. 24th

Revolution and Revolution News

Out in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago, a man is working has made a Revolution. Well, actually he’s made three. He’s designer, Brian Gardner. The Revolutions are his three newest WordPress Themes: Revolution Revolution News, and Revolution Sports. We’ve planned a two part interview. This Thursday and next to talk about what Brian’s been doing and how he found himself a blog designer.

Howdy, sir. Tell me, who is Brian Gardner?

My name is Brian Gardner. I was born on December 27th, 1974, at 10:06 in the morning in Bellflower, California. That makes me 32 years old, but please don’t tell anyone. I am starting to get a receding hairline, which is why I shave my head. I’m a hubby, a dad, a son, an in-law, a friend, a designer and sometimes a writer.

You might find this difficult to believe, but 12 months ago I didn’t own my domain name, had never touched a piece of WordPress code and knew nothing about blog design. In other words, everything I’ve done with WordPress and blog design in the past year has been self taught, using trial and error.

I find myself hopelessly addicted to blog design and taking nightly runs to Starbucks for a triple shot grande toffee nut latte. Other things I am addicted to are watching Grey’s Anatomy, fantasy football, and the repeat button on my Sarah McLachlan CD’s each night as I sit in bed with my laptop and work on my freelance projects.

Any signs when you were eight years old that you’d be doing this today?

Absolutely not – when I was eight years old, I was going to be a baseball player. And at some point I realized that I wasn’t “gifted” like today’s athletes are, and my dream of playing at Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia came to a screeching halt. Throughout my years in high school, my passion became writing. I have written over 300 poems, but never formally put myself through training. Then I went to college and studied geography, because of my love for nature and the mountains. After two years in college, I retreated home, where I currently am a project manager and IT for an architectural design company. In addition, I do freelance design work, and hope to go full time in the near future.

How did you come to discover blogs?

To be honest, I cannot pinpoint the discovery – what I can say is that I am a recovering Blogspot (Google’s free blog software) user, and was lucky enough to have a friend challenge me into trying out WordPress. The reason I love the concept of blogging is that I am able to combine the two things I am most passionate about – writing and design. Fortunately for me, I have been able to teach myself how to design WordPress themes, so I am able to write on a platform using a theme that I believe in!

Brian, what got you started in your career?

When I realized that I was finally making money doing something I love – I fully believe that you should be passionate about your careers, especially if you are self-employed. To be able to wake up and “want” to go to work is a huge thing, and even though I am not currently doing that, I look forward to the day I can!

What made you realize that you really were a blog designer worth paying attention to?

After releasing a few free themes, I started to receive feedback, and requests from people wanting me to do custom work for them. I realized that this was a sign that people liked what I did, and when I started to feel sought after, it really affirmed my gifts of design and motivated me to do more. Another thing that made a difference, more so in fun, was watching my Technorati rank increase – when I first started blogging, I made it a goal to break the top 100 blogs, and I am currently at #21.

I really want to thank Mark over at Splashpress Media for giving me the opportunity to do the current design over at the Blog Herald. I felt that was a turning point in my career, and that it gave credibility to my name. The exposure there has really been wonderful, and I have been able to do many other projects with them.

Thanks, Brian! See you next week . . . when we’ll talk more about more about the story behind the Revolution. Anyone else have questions for Brian?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Interview 17: Anita Bruzzese on 45 Things

Business Rule 17: Do You Do Things Right?

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Do It Right, Do It Over

Business Rules Logo

In they army they have a saying, “Hurry up, and wait.” In business that same saying can be, “Hurry up and do it again.” In textbook publishing, we had our own version, “The project is over, time for the prototype to begin.”

Meet Hurry Up Harriet.

Harriet is the boss or the client who calls at the last minute to announce that she needs something done right away. She’s clear and concise on what it is, . . . if you’re lucky. She’s sketchy and rushes through the details, if you’re not.

Either way, Harriet is precise about one thing the exact time and date that she needs the work complete — 48 hours sooner than any human has performed such a task.

Because it’s your job — and you’d like to keep it — you set forth on the quest of making Harriet’s impossible happen. This requires a significant investment of overtime and work at home, but you do it. Through some miracle and no life, you come through with 7 seconds to spare. You feel like a wrangler at a rodeo. You throw your hands up to check the clock. You’re about to give your perfect, checked-over-three-times document to Harriet, when you get another call.

It’s Harriet on the line.

She says, “On that document I asked for, I’ve been thinking, could you also include . . . ?” She adds three or four things.

“I can wait for the new version until Friday,” she sings.

How would you feel about that?

Based on the three previous projects that went the same way, you realize that Harriet will repeat this behavior at least twice more before the current project is over.

On some projects, we never have time to do things right,
but we always time to do things over.

It’s hard enough having to do work for a Harriet.
What’s worse is the days when I act like one.

Do you have Harriet days too?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Bloggy Question 66: If I Gave You a Yellow Rose

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A Beautiful Yellow Rose

Yellow Rose

If I gave you a yellow rose,
for no special reason,
and I asked you what you were thinking.
What would you say?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
Bloggy Question 65: You’ve Always Had It EASY! RIGHT?!!!
Bloggy Question 64: You’re In Business Now!
Bloggy Question 63: Taking It to the Streets
Bloggy Question 61: Okay Kids, Login!
Bloggy Question 60: Are You Listening?
Bloggy Question 59: A Whole New Blog Network?

10 Super Articles that Make Getting New Customers a Whole Lot Easier!

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Advice from 10 of the Best

insideout logo

Last week, I wrote about

How to Get Customers to Sell Themselves (on You).

For today, I’ve gathered 10 super articles on attracting new clients or customers. I’ve read them all and added a summary to each link so that you can target the ones you’ll find most helpful. So here’s the list.

  1. Why Do People Really Buy? by Mike Sigers at Simplenomics A coaching session about how to understand your business’s sales story from one of the best sales and marketing guys on the Internet.
  2. #5.19: The “Steal From The Best” Issue by Andy Sernovitz for Damn, I Wish I Thought of That! Advice on how to learn from the research and development already done by the big guys.
  3. Features And Benefits And Sales, Oh My! By Diane Helbig for Ezine Articles “Stop talking. Stop thinking. And please, stop selling. Your prospect doesn’t want to listen to you ramble on about things they don’t care about. . . .
    Ask a few questions, listen, and then address only what you hear. Let’s explore this process.” [via The Top 10 Sales Articles ]
  4. Romance Your Customers By Making The Easy Sale First by Evan Carmichael An explanation of the most basic step of permission marketing.
  5. Put Passion into Your Sales by Niche Marketing by Brad Shorr for Word Sell Inc. How to sell more naturally by limiting your market.
  6. Don’t Overlook The Easy Sales from business know how Shows how to tap into the relationships you have to get help with your quest to find new customers who love what you do
  7. Easy Sales: The Trend for Small Business by Jack Yoest at Small Business Trends Here are the questions to ask so that you don’t find yourself investing too much time and too much of yourself in a deal you can’t close.
  8. The Art of Prospecting For Customers by Biz Info Library for SalesMotivation.net How to warm up cold calls.
  9. The Role of Leadership in Selling by Daniel Sitter How to show clients that your motive is provide a solution to their problem.
  10. How to Seize the Phone Even If You Fear Cold Calling by Tammy Stanley for Salesopedia The psychology of getting energized to make cold calls. “You would be hard pressed to find a sales professional who isn’t familiar with those trouble thoughts that talk him out of making calls now and convince him to wait for a better time to make sales calls or cold calls.” [via The Top 10 Sales Articles ]
  11. BONUS! Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques by Brian Clark for Copyblogger To use Brian’s own words, “Persuasion is generally an exercise in creating a win-win situation. You present a case that others find beneficial to agree with. You make them an offer they can’t refuse, but not in the manipulative Godfather sense.”

Selling, like any other new skill, takes practice to become natural. So don’t quit. A friend and her husband made a game of who would get rejected most.

People do say “yes.” If you follow the advice of the experts, folks will say “yes” even faster and more often.

What’s your reason for not telling “your audience” of potential customers about what you have to offer?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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