Successful Blog

The Effect of Heroes

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It Wasn’t a Movie

This morning I woke early as I often do. My mind was working on a problem. I found my way to a news story, called Heroes, by David Armano.

The problem that woke me up so early fell away from my mind. My eyes got wide. My heart got open. I looked out the window at the thinnest crescent moon for the longest time. It blurred as I tried to find the word for what I was feeling at a cellular level.

The word was hope. I was proud to be human.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Click the title “Heroes” to read David Armano’s eyewitness account of a horrible train wreck and two young heroes.

Thanks to Week 98 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 directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and 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. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Yes! SOBCon08 Is Coming!

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The Conversation Has Started

The wheels are in motion.

We kept our promise last year.
You came. You were awesome!
We have a LOT to live up to this year!

Shhhh! It’s still secret, but I can tell you this . . .

We’re keeping it going!

  • We’re keeping it intimate.
  • We’re keeping it informative.
  • We’re keeping it interactive — even more interactive.
  • We’re keeping it about YOU!

The re-design of the SOBEvent.com web site has begun.
This is the place to watch.

Yes! SOBCon08 is coming!

SOB Business Cafe 09-06-07

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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

Success from the Nest thinks a story might get us to understand our value.

Tax Girl is thinking there is a better way.

Twenty Steps is thinking about Google.

Weblog Tools Collection thinks we can be free.

Lawsagna wants to know about our thinking.

Speaking of thinking, Brain Based Business has a mind game that can give our minds a workout. (The 2nd link is to the article that has the product demo.)

Dawud Miracle proposes that outside-the-box thinking might have its limitations.

Codswallop is converting everything, except our thinking.

Related ala carte selections include

Ilker Yoldas offers a timeless exhibition. . . that doesn’t require thinking to appreciate.

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

5 Leading Bloggers and 5 Reasons on Why We're Blogging Less

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What’s Your Reason?

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Blogging less. . . . Some folks say it’s because bloggers are moving to social networks. That made sense at first. But does the rise of social networks really have anything to do with blogging less? I took a closer look. Five bloggers I highly respect gave other reasons.

1. I have to pay the rent.

Hugh MacLeod at gaping void gave 6 answers to why we’re blogging less. He used one of his illustrations from 1998, called “Dorothy.” It says:

My flame has gone out
My fuel has been spent
I forgot how to love
I can’t pay the rent

2. I got some kind of busy.

In That Blogging Less Meme, Josh Hallett says

Yeah there was the meme going around about blogging less. A good friends recently said, “Yeah, I live that meme…no need to post about it.” Ha. Well I’m living it as well.

All my friends that work in the space are busy, very busy. We’re all damn busy.

I used to blog quite a bit in what could loosely be termed the ‘thought leadership’ vein….that was commentary on this evolving world of social media. It was great for business development, but then I ended up getting busy, too busy to blog 🙂

3. I’m talking in shorter bits.

Last March, Steve Rubel was predicting this in Twitter, Human Attention and Moore’s Law.

Ahh, Moore’s Law. Thank goodness for it. Moore’s Law says the speed of chips and storage capacity double as they get shrink in physical size and get cheaper. Therefore, everyone benefits. This includes consumers/users and developers/producers (which frequently overlap in this new era). It gives rise to new services like Twitter.

However, there’s a serious catch. Your brain does not obey Moore’s Law. It’s aided by it, for sure. But the truth is. there’s only so much you can pack in there. That’s why David Allen sells so many Getting Things Done books. . . .

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Will people spend less time writing or reading blogs and more time Twittering? I posed this question on Twitter and got a resounding no. I am not so sure.

4. I think blogging more means blogging less.

Eric Kintz says blogging less isn’t the point in Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore.

If you want to be a top 50 Technorati blogger, you will most probably still need to post several times a day. But for the rest of us, we should think seriously about the added value of frequent blogging. Actually, according to Technorati, only 11% of all blogs update weekly or more. What will matter more and more is what you write and how you engage, not how often you write.

As the blogosphere matures, the measure of success will shift from traffic to reader loyalty. As Seth Godin says in his post, “blogging with restraint, selectivity, cogency and brevity (okay, that’s a long way of saying “making every word count”) will use attention more efficiently and ought to win.”

5. My blog is not my life.

I like the way Deb Weil approaches it. Why I’m blogging less . . .

Because I’d rather be planting my garden. Or picnicing with Lucy, age 3 – see feet at left.

Are you blogging less? If you are, what’s your reason?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!