Successful Blog

A Genuine Blogging Community

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Being Part of Something Bigger

To serve our readers, to make something bigger, to show the blogosphere what community looks like . . . to keep blogging fun and engaging, to have a place to go figure out solutions and share our successes, to make blogging all it can be come hell or high water . . . Successful Blog is a community blog where every voice is welcomed and every contribution is valued.–MES

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Have stories or ideas to add to the conversation?

  • Is there something you do that works really well?
  • Have you had a success you’d like to share?
  • Have you figured out a useful trick or two?
  • Have you got a tool or tip we don’t know about?
  • Have you figured out the hard way a pitfall we can avoid?
  • Have you written an article you’d like to submit?
  • Do you have ideas on how we might collaborate?
  • Do you have a post with fresh, relevant content we’d enjoy?
  • Do you have a post that explores a new angle on an old subject?
  • Do you have a post with a tool that belongs in the Survival Kit?
  • Do you have a post about an experience that might help a new blogger?

Share what you know and we all get better. For details on how, see the Want to Be a Contributor? page.

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Be part of something bigger than one–Successful Blog–a genuine Blogging Community.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Tuesday Design Discussion Night

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Successful bloggers are constantly trading nuances, techniques, and strategies for how they keep their blogs growing. . . . When we find one, it’s hard to keep quiet. We want to know if other folks see the same things we do.

Wasn’t it fun when we had that discussion last week in the comment section of Brian’s sidebar article?

I want to do that again. Don’t you?

So I proclaim Tuesday Night Successful Blog Design Discussion Night.

This week we’ll talk about california is a recipe for a black hole–a quality blog with a unique design. The blog is co-authored by Patrick “Mojo Shivers” and his life-long friend, Breasier.

I tell you now in case you want to take a peek over the weekend. Before you go, you might want to print out the Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs that I’ve just put together. It’s a great tool for evaluating blog ideas wherever you find them. It’s in the next post. If you go, read a story. The writing’s worth reading. And do leave a comment. It’s an experience to get to the comment screen.

I’ll run a mini-interview about it and gather some screen shots for you to see on Monday.

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So do come Tuesday night, if you can. If not I’ll end up talking to me–which will lead to my schizoform disorder coming out again, which will mean my dcctor will have to up my medication–and that just isn’t pretty. Oh no, it’s not pretty.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs

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A successful blogger is always looking at other blogs to decide which blogs are worth linking to and just to get new ideas.

This second checklist: Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs serves both of those purposes. It differs from the original Blog Review Checklist in the point of view and in the way the questions are worded. The values in this checklist are approached from a readers’ point of view. I hope you find it helpful for defining quality blogs around the Internet.

    1. Audience: What words would you use to describe the blog? What do you find most engaging about this site?

    2. Purpose: What is the purpose of this blog? Is the purpose stated plainly where you can see it? How well does the blog meet that purpose?

    3. Content: How well does the content support the purpose? Is the content quality, relevant, readable, interesting, accurate, entertaining, and appropriate for the audience?

    4. Design: How well does the look of the blog communicate the kind of blog it is? Is navigation easy and intuitive? Do items flow naturally from the first to the next? Do the color palette, image, and type choices support the content or call attention away from it?

    5. Posts: Are the posts on a consistent schedule? Do they offer variety and interest within the blog’s purpose and theme?

    6. Comments: Does the blog writer read and respond to comments to form a sense of community? Do you get a sense of community at this blog?

    7. Technical Issues: Did the blog load fast in your browser? Was the experience more confusing or fun?

    8. Writing: Is the writing clear and respectful of readers? Does the writing voice let readers know who the writer really is? Is the blog essentially free of errors in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation?

    9. Organization: Are there categories to draw you into the backlist? Is there an archive feature of “Golden Oldie”? that you would have interest in exploring? Are the Categories named things that you can understand?

    10. Marketing: How would you promote this blog, if it were yours?

    11. Persuading the Writer: If you are thinking of asking to link with this blog, what do you know about the blogger? What does your content bring that will add value to this blog? How might you persuade the blogger that your blog will enhance his or her readers’ experience? Find three specific links that show how your quality content ties relevantly to this blog’s content. Use this information to write a compelling argument for making a link.

Do you go through this list with every blog that you visit? Of course not. Use this list when you’re on reconnaissance, when you’re looking for quality homes for your links inside your niche or creative ideas outside your niche.

Follow this checklist with sincerity and you’ll not only get great links and ideas, your reputation will grow to be one of someone who cares about quality and long-lasting relationships.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Blog Review Checklist
Check Google Backlinks Through Yahoo
SEO–Link Checking Tools
SEO–The Value of Outlinks to MY Blog

Fun Find: Instant Blog Post Generator

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And this from a site called Flooble:

You know how sometimes you feel like you haven’t posted anything to your blog for a while, and you should really get around to doing it, but there’s nothing to really write about? We’ve all been there. That’s why we at flooble have decided to give you an Instant Blog Post Generator.

Now you can have a ready-to-post entry for your blog with just one click of a button. Our system is random enough that there’s thousands of variations to the post that it can generate, so if you don’t like how it came out, you can simply keep clicking until the generator comes up with something you find acceptable.

Instant Blog Post Generator

Be careful, if you go playing around on this site, there are plenty of pop-ups and pop-unders for you to play with as well. Still there is fun to be had for a minute or two.

Remember quality is king, but fun is fun.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
Why I Don’t Play Monopoly with My Husband

Great Find: Have You Been Stumbled Upon?

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This being Friday, I hadn’t planned on writing another post. I had a few lined up for the day and that MIT book I’m working on is staring at me.

But I was stumbled upon again—Successful Blog was stumbled upon last week and now this. I couldn’t help myself. My famous curiosity kicked in, and I had to check it out. Once I did, I figured you might want to play with Stumble Upon over the weekend. So here I am writing this post . . .

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Stumble Upon is a more user-friendly, more organized, more social–yeah, that’s what I mean–a more social, social bookmarking tool. For the web pro, del.cio.us has an interface that offers the credibility and appeal of an indexing page. For the rest of us, Stumble Upon has that “Frosted Mini-Wheat” appeal–it’s visually pleasing and fun enough for the kid in me, but sophisticated and organized to satisfy the adult as well. For the social butterfly or the college kid this one wins hands down for it’s personal interaction features.

The time it takes to get up and running on Stumble Upon is short and sweet, and a quick check at Technorati shows that it already has 1500 users linked to it. I think this is the next sleeper hit. Well, just look at the difference. The developers have met most of the problems people have with using its competition.

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You can edit the backgrounds, pick the categories, and do random searches to “stumble upon” sites under tagged themes. It’s addictive and fun. You can also meet people and share what you’ve found–if you so choose. More than that, it’s much nicer to look at and easier to find things.

If it’s not what you’re looking for, it might be the perfect thing for that friend or relative who finds del.cio.us overwhelming or visually intimidating.

Here’s what some of the big magazines said about Stumble Upon.

Give it a try. You might like it. I did, but then I stumble a lot even without it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Thanks to Week 6 SOBs

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Week 6 Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

SOB Button

and the right to call themselves Successful Blog SOBs.

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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 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