Successful Blog

Blogging My Experience

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I've been thinking . . .

about a panel on blogging I saw.

About a month I was at a dinner at which a panel of experienced and well-known bloggers spoke. The audience was made up of mostly Internet marketing folks who do not blog.

Being there to see what was said and what was heard was an education in itself. When I left that night, I thought that disparity might be the most important “take away” that I had gained from the experience.

The experience. Note those two words.

The further I get from that night, the less I discuss the differences between what was said and what was heard and the more I repeat one comment made by a panel member it was Jory Des Jardins who said,

We blog about our experiences.

I agree. The best bloggers do that. They offer information that comes wrapped in the insight and wisdom they’ve gained from having “been there.”
We write about our experience of life, what we have learned, much like I am doing now. That’s how we help each other out.

That’s my “take away,” my insight, and my advice. Blog your experience.

Thanks Jory for your help on this one.

Liz's Signature

Vaspers Asks a Wonderful Writers’ Question

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What’s Your Answer?

What wonderfully intriguing post this is. Here is just a bit . . .

When you write a new blog post, who is addressed? Do you have a composite persona in mind? Do you imagine an aggregation of imagined readers, based on those you know well, and those you hope will find you?

Is there a conscious target? Who is it that you hope to enlighten, engage, or enrage?

I cannot believe that you just slap some text, maybe a photo or artwork, into a post template, with total oblivion as to the intended, expected, or hoped for audience. Do you ever blog against a person or group or company or political party? Do you blog to your Future Self? Do you blog for your friends, family, boss?

Does it depend on the specific post? The general topic?
–steven edward streight, to whom do we blog?

The prose is musical. The thoughts are engaging. Go on click the link and enjoy the entire read.

By the way, I’d be interested in your answer.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

A Question about Blogging in January

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Strange Behavior

It’s not you, It’s not the quality of your posts. Its the U.S. winter. It happened last year. From what I read it happened the year before too.

Still it seems strange behavior.

Why do you suppose that in January and February stats act silly and bloggers, as a group, seem unpredictable?

Blogging seems like it should be a perfect winter sport.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

A Short Post to Read for Kids with Autism

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In my email today

Big Roy send this email today with a request to all for us.

Liz,

I have a new post which is sort of a call to action for Autism parents and supporters. You may know already that the Congressman (Chairman Joe Barton) blocking the Combating Autism Act is also heavily on the side of big Telecom in the Net Neutrality issue. Any help you could give would be appreciated. This post

Thanks as always,
Big Roy

Austic kids do great things. To quote the Autistic Diva, “. . . without autistics you wouldn’t have electricity in your homes and offices. Without autistics you wouldn’t have computers or the Internet. Every single time you blog something or make toast, thank an autistic person.”

Won’t you take a minute to read Big Roy’s post about it?

Thanks.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
Blogging Allows Folks with Autism Equal Access

8 Sales Rules for Writing – No One Kills a Messenger who Writes for Readers

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Poorly Written Messages

power writing at work

In the olden days when there were kings and queens, way before I was born, a business message was sending a runner with message in hand from a battlefield to the king. If the message was good news, the runner might enjoy a feast. If the message was not so good, the king might enjoy seeing the runner run until his life was over.

Even when I was short, that killing the messenger stuff never made much sense to me. It seems like the guys with the messages might figure out what was going on and run the other way, instead of running to the king.

Had I been forced to run messages back then, you can bet I would have found out what the darn message said. Then I’d have figured out a way to write that same message to the king, based on what the king cares about.

That’s what I do for a living — write messages for readers.

So where do sales rules fit in all this?

Mike Sigers Got Me Thinking about Sales Rules

I was at Simplenomics last night, reading Mike Sigers’ post, Mike’s 8 Simple Rules for Repeat Sales, when I realized that everyone is a sales rep. I know. I won’t tell if you don’t tell my husband either.

I’m not making some smoky analogy here. I was a sales rep for the Philips-Van Heusen Shirt Company with a two state territory.

I had a genuine revelation. It came to me that I use my sales training every day and that everyone else uses sales practices too. Granted some of us are a bit better than others at getting them right, but that includes sales reps with training too.

In an email this morning I told Mike I was going to rewrite his post. I explained my reason as everyone is a sales rep. He said:

Wait a minute ?!

Everyone a sales rep ?

Not a freakin’ chance – even you can’t do magic… or can you ?

Let’s turn the page and see how far off I am. [Read more…]