Successful Blog

Blogging Hypothetical Question 5

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For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week, I offer this Blogging Hypothetical Question.

Here you go. . . .

A brand new blogger comes to you for advice. He’s convinced he’s going to be the next six-figure problogger.

He asks:

I put Adsense and Chitika on my blog. I’m posting quality, original content daily with a vengeance. I know it takes a few months for the money to start rolling in. How long before I can quit my job?

What’s your response?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Quick Hits for Your Leisure Time

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As if you don’t have enough to do, here’s some stuff for your leisure time. 🙂

Computer Stuff

Black Hat SEO’s list of Free Blog Hosting Services [via The Blog Herald]

gHack’s List of Free File Hosting Sites

Puzzles and Brain Stuff

John Rausch.com highlights include

The Sliding Block Puzzle Page

Modern Sliding Block Puzzles

ScientificPsychic.com highlights include

Word Puzzles and Brain Teasers

Optical Illusions

Personality Tests

[via digg, unless otherwise noted]

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Fun Find: Design Personality Indicators

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FUN Find: Web Design and Development Personality Indicators by Molly of Molly.com
Type of Article: Psychological Analysis, based loosely on the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicators
Permalink: Web Design and Development Personality Indicators
Target Audience: Anyone who is a designer, works with designers, or plans to do either

Content: Molly, a self-professed geek, typed up this article on a ship in the Eastern Caribbean where she was teaching CSS on a Geek Cruise. (Now doesn’t that sounds like something we should be putting into our own business plans?) She loosely applied the Myers-Briggs personality type indicators to Web Designers and Developers to describe who you might find the next time you meet a designer to work on your blog. These are the six types Molly identifies.

  • OFAD–Old Fart Anti-Design Designer
  • OSVD–Old Skool Visual Designer
  • TTLM–Trying to Learn More Designer
  • SAVD–Standards-Aware Visual Designer
  • SASS–Standards-Aware Structural Semanticist Designer
  • SACE–Standards-Aware Cutting-Edge Designer

Molly describes each personality type in detail and places herself on the scale as well. It’s a fun read that rings true to this writer who’s spent some time with designers and their idiosyncracies.

Still, since I’m not in the market for a new design yet, I’m going to file the document–right after I check into that number for Geek cruises. I could use a vacation that’s a tax write off. I wonder how it would feel to be the only nerd on a shipload of geeks? I guess I’d have to bring my son along–he’s multi-lingual.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Thanks to Week 8 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.

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Achenblog logo

marcel widmer.com logo

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.

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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

Interview 4. Johan Sundkvist Knows Minimalist

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Johan Sundkvist blog


A Minimalist Interview with Johan Sundkvist
His Blog: Johan Sundkvist
URL: johansundkvist.com
Genre: Personal/Tech Blog
Audience: people who like to read about technology and culture
Thing to note when you visit: how the design and well-written content work together to make reading this blog an inviting and relaxing experience, no stress on this blog

Johan’s blog may be newer than some, but he’s been reading blogs for over two years. He understands and uses the values of minimalist design to keep his blog stressfree and focused on the content.

Johan, your blog and you share a name, what led you to that decision?

I wanted a personal blog, and therefore the choice to use my own name was pretty straight forward. It is hard though to choose a good site name. Some like me use their names (for example Kottke.org), but others come up with great domain names, such as Asterisk, StopDesign and Simplebits.

What made you start the blog?

Since I first discovered the phenomenon of blogging I’ve wanted to create a blog of my own. I’ve always liked writing and blogging as a writing style appealed to me; it’s somewhat more casual, and is focused to get to the point, to write stuff that is interesting.

How would you define a successful blog?

A successful blog is a blog that writes something that catches my interest and if the writing is unique, different, and entertaining it will certainly end up in my RSS subscriptions and daily surfing routine

What advice would you give a beginner?

I’m still a beginner, but I’m happy to share some thoughts with you anyway. I think it’s important to write stuff that matters, that is interesting for the readers. I don’t know if I am very good at this, but it is something that I strive to do. If you write about things you are passionate about, then people will sooner or later notice. Set a tone, distinguish yourself, and make an impression. It is about hard work, but it can be very rewarding in the end.

He may have just started a few months ago, but Johan has the world view of someone with more experience. This blog is both beginner and winner at the same time. Maybe that’s how he could achieve such elegant simplicity.

–ME “Liz” Strauss