bc Archives - Page 852 of 959

6+1, 2, 3: Save Me from Beginners and Experts NOW!

July 1, 2006 by Liz

Folks Who Are Learning and Folks Who Know

Most bloggers find their audience is a lot like you are — an audience of folks who learning and folks who know a whole lot. That can throw a new writer. It can seem a problem of huge proportions. It’s not hard to think that what you have is two different audiences in one. How do you know how much to say and how much to leave out? It’s easy to get twisted trying to write for an audience of people who are both beginning and experienced.

Get twisted, heck! Somebody save me NOW!. From where I sit, some days the beginners need to learn so much, and the experts already seem to know all of it. How do I possibly talk to both of them at once, without risking insulting or boring either one of them?

That writer’s problem can seem impossible to solve, but it’s not. In fact, it’s not even a problem at all. [Read more…]

Happy Birthday and Blog Tip

July 1, 2006 by Liz

Happy Birthday and Blogtipping Day to

C.Blohm and Associates, the best small-business PR firm in the country.

You are my hero because

You know more about educational tech than I ever will.

You understand friendship and loyalty down to your fingertips.

You have a midwestern work etchic I admire.

Here’s my tip: Don’t change one think about you or the way you do business.

Liz

PS Wish we were spending our birthdays together.

Blogtipping the Three Stooges

July 1, 2006 by Liz

They Aren’t the Three Stooges Really

They aren’t the Three Stooges really, but they sure did talk about them on one Tuesday Night comment night. By the time they were done, we knew more about the Three Stooges than I thought I ever would. So today being Blogtipping Day, July 1, I tip my blog to them.

Here’s how it works.

Choose three or more bloggers you admire and link to them,
List three reasons why you admire each one.
Then add a tip at the end.

That’s all there is to it.

1. Mr. Mark Wade of R Webs Designs I tip my blog to you because

you blog with passion and research you’re saying.

you know the meaning of blogging community.

you fill the blogosphere with color and laughter even when you don’t bring along crayons.

My blog tip: Work on that stutter around that stupid W-word.

2. Mr. Chris Cree of CREEations

you balance blogging and life in a beautiful blog symmetry.

you share your thoughts with power and gentleness.

you always share your Klondike bars and welcome new friends into the community.

Tip: Jack is not a good name for a code-writing donkey.

3. Mr. Joe Hauckes of Working at Home on the Internet

you put yourself so fully into every detail of every thought you blog.

your new blog reflects your strength and commitment to what you’re doing.

you always show up to support the community.

Tip: Don’t sweat the small stuff. It works itself out.

Thanks to Week 36 SOBs

July 1, 2006 by Liz

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.

muddy teal strip A

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 badge’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.

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

Net Neutrality 7-1-2006

July 1, 2006 by Liz

Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

Stopping the Big Giveaway – by John Kerry

The Commerce Committee voted on net neutrality and it failed on an 11-11 tie. This vote was a gift to cable and telephone companies, and a slap in the face of every Internet user and consumer.

It will not stand.

I voted against this lousy bill for two reasons: because net neutrality and internet build-out are crucial to building a more modern and fair Information Society, and both were pushed aside by the Republicans.

. . . Why are United States Senators afraid to say that companies should be expected to foster growth by building out their broadband networks to increase access?

. . . This bill was passed in committee over our objections. Now we need to fight to either fix it or kill it in the full Senate. Senator Wyden has already drawn a line in the sand Ã¢â¬â putting a Ã¢â¬ÅholdÃ¢â¬Â on the bill, which prevents it from going forward for now. But there will be a day of reckoning on this legislation soon, make no mistake about it, and we need you to get engaged Ã¢â¬â pressure your Senators, follow the issue, demand net neutrality and build-out.

It’s not just net neutrality that is at stake

Kos wrote yesterday that the Net Neutrality amendment was defeated yesterday in the Commerce Committee, and there have been several diaries about that since. A bill that was kept however has not been remarked upon here. This is the revival of the broadcast flag, which the FCC had mandated several years ago but was struck down by a court. Now the entertainment industry is trying to bring the broadcast flag back with a new law. . . .

With respect to the broadcast flag however, Republicans take precisely the opposite position. By supporting the broadcast flag, they are saying that it is necessary for the government to control which of those transmissions that we listen to or watch on TV we can record: something that is unprecedented. It has been taken for granted up until now by everyone that if you can hear something on the radio or hear it on TV you should be able to record it, but the broadcast flag would change all that. The government would require all electronic devices that are capable of receiving digital TV or radio signals to implement restrictions blocking recording of those signals if the producer of the signal has embedded in it a flag indicating that it does not want the signal recorded. In other words, the government will mandate that you no longer control what you do with your electronic devices, but the corporations of the entertainment industry do.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Improving Business Traffic Through Quality

June 30, 2006 by Liz

This link comes from Nemanja Sreckovic.
He passed it from sitepoint.

Great Find: Five Keys to Improving Web Site Conversions by Kent Lewis
Permalink: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/improving-web-site-conversions
Audience/Topic: Webmasters and Bloggers.site usability
Content: Kent Lewis begins his article with this observation that unfortunately is all too often true for too many blogs and websites.

The primary focus of search engine optimization (SEO) professionals is to generate traffic to a web site. Some SEO professionals are better than others at achieving that goal via higher rankings in search engines for target keyword phrases. However, the ball is often dropped once the visitor actually hits the site and, most likely, leaves.

Ken’s advice is straight and centered on his experience as an ebusiness retailer. Ken suggests checking our business sites in five key areas as a way to convert traffic into sales.

Though blogs don’t need the in-depth SEO that websites do, we need the same business sense that Kent’s article proposes in order to offer the strongest brand to our readers from the first blink to the last word that they read.

Thanks Nemanja for pointing this article out to us.

–ME “Liz” Strauss