Successful Blog

Time Out Chicago Agrees about VOX

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Something to Celebrate Every Day

Just a quick note to say that I have a new pile of VOX invitations if you missed out on the last bunch and to say that Time Out Magazine Chicago agrees that VOX is a really upbeat way for families and friends to connect online.

To check out their review, click the title.

Cheeriest Place in the Blogosphere

It’s hard not to smile when you’re in a VOX neighborhood. So if you’re not the smiling sort, be warned. You might want to move on to the next post. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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VOX: As Fun as Grandmas and Grandpas!

10 Reasons Readers Don’t Leave Comments

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My Secret

My name is Liz and I have a secret. I read your blog almost every day, but you you wouldn’t know that. That’s because I hardly ever leave a comment.

I know the value of a well-placed comment. I’m pretty good at writing down what I think. Yet, when it comes time to writing a response to what you wrote, some days I can’t quite get my fingers to the keyboard. I start to write something . . . then I leave without posting it.

There are more readers like me than ones who are not. I know. I’ve talked to them. I’ve been talking to them about why they don’t comment. It seems that we have the same secret reasons for not leaving our calling card. We want to leave our thoughts, but things get between us and that comment box.

It’s time we came clean and let you know what they are.

10 Reasons Readers Don’t Leave Comments

I don’t suppose this is all of the reasons folks choose not to comment. This is only a list of 10 +1 of them that I’ve heard over and over again.

  1. What you write is so complete, that I don’t know what to say except good job. I feel silly writing that, so I read and move on.
  2. You’ve taught me something I didn’t know, and I need to think about it before I even have a question. Much like number 1, I don’t want to embarrass myself. I’m better off moving on.
  3. I get ready to type a comment, but I notice you only respond to a few friends who mostly share inside jokes. I won’t take the risk of being overlooked in public.
  4. The folks who comment on your posts like to argue and I don’t. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to fight my way into the crowd.
  5. You rarely respond to comments. So, there’s no point in writing one.
  6. Your blog has geeky attitude and I’m not geeky enough to keep up.
  7. I really like your blog and your post, but I’m too tired, busy, or any one of a number things that you can’t control. I’ll comment the next I come back to read.
  8. You end your posts with a giant general question like “What do you think of the Big Bang Theory?” That question is such a big one. I don’t have time to answer it. I feel strange answering with a lesser comment.
  9. You put up a fence by making me login to comment. I have too many passwords already and I don’t know you well enough to add one to my list.
  10. Your content wasn’t fresh and exciting, and I couldn’t find anything YOU inside it. It seemed the same post that I’ve read on 10 other blogs. If I commented, I would have to tell you that.
  11. PLUS ONE: Your post was negative. Negative is scary. Most folks don’t like negative stuff, because they know they could be next to be the recipient. I don’t comment, because I don’t want to be part of it.

Sometimes I don’t comment because I’m self-conscious about new groups and fitting in. I suppose most people feel that way now and then. I’m working on that.

Yet when the content is rich and compelling, I lose all self-consciousness. My fingers can’t wait to share what you’ve started me thinking. My hands literally jump to the keyboard and start typing out the words. Other readers have said that is true for them too.

Compelling content causes comments.

Did I miss the reasons that keep you from commenting?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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VOX: As Fun as Grandmas and Grandpas!

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It’s Important to Share

Vox

After a couple of decades in publishing, I can tell you that you never get over that feeling. The best part is always that moment when all of the pieces come together into something done and whole. In blogging, it’s that second when you hit the button that says Publish. It feels satisfying and important.

Six Apart understands that. VOX proves it.

VOX is a new virtual-neighborhood blogging platform. It’s made for grandmas and grandpas and friends and families. Everything about it is geared toward sharing — sharing life with folks you invite in and sharing that feeling of doing something important.

I made a gorgeous VOX blog in less time than will take to write this blog post.

What VOX Has

What VOX has going for it is that Six Apart knows and cares about the audience who will use it. It shows in the balance of fun to features. VOX is the platform for friends and families, people who want a more familiar blogging experience, and people who want a simple satisfying hobby. Here are just a few of the reasons:

  • The interface is natural and intuitive. The hardest part was picking a tagline.

  • Grandma could build a blog with a post and photo in less than 30 minutes. I think I opened my account and did all of that in about 15 minutes.

  • No one needs to learn to spell hard words such as CSS, PHP, or HTML.

  • Flickr, Photobucket, Amazon, youTube, iFilm, iStock photo are integrated. There’s no need to find them.

  • Past inserts of audio, video, and photos are easy to find and use again.

  • A comment feature after every post allows Grandpa to check “This is good,” to show he read my post. He doesn’t need to type at all.

  • Each post and the comments allow levels of privacy — public, friends and family, friends only, family only, you only.

The sense of community is something special. It comes from the energy of the writing on the team blog. Here are the VOX Invitation Coloring Contest Winners.

VoX Coloring Contest

See what I mean about fun?

For screenshots and to score an invitation turn the page. [Read more…]

436 Comments and a Review!

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1 Guy Told the World About It

Last night at Open Comment Night, we had another great and rambling conversation. Mike Dunn of Nomadic Audio stopped by to see what was going on. He live blogged the Open Comments Night. Click the title to see what he said.

Living example of social media

Highlights

Many thoughts were shared between blogger friends. New blogger friendships formed. Art was defined. Plans were made. Marketing ideas were discussed. Stories were told. A good time was had.

Here are some highlights. [Read more…]

Bloggy Question 13 — The Incredible Culture

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Incredible

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 Question.

This one starts with a quote from famed choreographer Kenny Ortega, who directed High School Musical, Disney Channel’s incredibly-popular DVD movie that’s a cross between Grease and Dirty Dancing. I found the quote in this weeks’ TV Guide Magazine.

Ortega says, “When I went into rehearsals with the cast, I discovered this incredible group of young people who were so bonded, who so liked one another, who were so ready to have the bar raised and do anything it took to make something special. they came to work on fire. That’s something you can’t buy, teach or direct.”

I’ve felt that at places I’ve worked. It IS incredible. It’s like magic.

What makes a place a culture like that? How does it start? What keeps it going?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Interview 5. Meet Peter Chen: Blogspot Expert for New Bloggers

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Meeting Peter Chen, Blogger

New Blogger Logo

Once in a while I surf the Google nav bar to see who’s there. It’s a fun way to do some random exploring and sometimes I land on a jewel as I did when I found the blog of a man named Peter Chen. What caught my eye about this blog, Blogger for Dummies, (now called Blogger Help) was that it had screenshots that were described and labeled with meticulous detail.

Blogger for Beginners Screenshot

Little did I know that this was one of several blogs that Mr. Chen has on two of which are dedicated to Blogger. This blog alone led me to want to interview the man.

Interview with Peter Chen
His Blogs:
Blogger for Dummies aka Blogger Help,
Blogger Tips and Tricks,
Enviroman Says, and
Food as medicine.
Liz notes: Peter has so many blogs. I went straight to the interview.

Peter, What led you to make your blog?

I am retired and have plenty of free time. I need some activities to fill up the free time.

I notice that you haven’t updated one blog since April 23rd. Why is that?

You must be refering to Blogger for Dummies. Someone told me of possible interference from Wiley Publications because of the “for Dummies” in the title. Rather than building up the content of the blog, and then having face the decision whether to take them down later, I decided to start a new blog at http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com. There is still sizable, useful content at http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com plus significant inbound links, so I am leaving it as it is and will be making an announcement of the shift on the blog later.

What are your blogs and what are they about?

These are my blogs:

Blogger Help at http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com
A resource for those using the very popular Blogger blogging service. Although meant for Blogger, many of the tips are also relevant for those using other blogging services.

Blogger Tips and Tricks at http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com

This is the replacement for http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com . It will eventually will be my main blog.

Enviroman Says at http://enviromansays.blogspot.com
An environmental blog. That blog was set up specifically for a cartoon character Enviroman and an artist friend was supposed to help out with it. That didn’t work out, so it has ended up with Enviroman making comments on the environment.

Food as Medicine http://foodasmedicine.blogspot.com
A blog focusing on using food as a mean to health. As Hippocrates had put it, let your food be your medicine and medicine be your food.

To what do you credit your very high site meter count?

This is probably due to the high number of people seeking solutions to blogging problems. And I think the content are well written, easy to follow and understand, so visitors tend to come back for more, as the statistics show.

What advice do you have for a new blogger starting out?

Pick on a topic in which you have an interest. Then you will never tire of the work involved.

What blogging platform do you personally recommend and why?

I use Blogger. It is free, unlikely to go out of business as it is backed by the Internet giant Google, relatively quickly picked up by search engines, easy to use even by beginners, and the template is highly customizable. Recently there were some glitches, and complaints about a non responsive support which has put off some people, but it has affected me relatively little, so I will continue to use Blogger. I personally had got a problem with a frozen blog unblocked by Blogger support after an email. And a reader has written in to say that his blog which he accidentally deleted got undeleted after a series of email. So Blogger support do respond to emails.

There you have it — the experience of blogger, Peter Chen. He’s made good use of Google’s free Blogspot platform and finds that it works for him. Using free accounts has it’s upside and it’s downside. Be sure you look carefully before you decide that’s the route you will go. Many successful bloggers, such as Improbulus and Freshblog have done fabulously and many others swear that you need an independent account.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!