Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The SOBCon Speaker Specials this Week are

Chris Brogan
We face moments in our lives all the time when risk is the gating factor. Do we dive off the bridge like our friends, or just stay put? Do we seek out that mortgage we can’t exactly cover? Should you quit your job, even though you’re not sure where the next check will come from?

Confidence is about taking a risk and seeing it pay off, or taking a risk, failing, and moving on from the failure.

Brian Clark
Have you ever noticed when a new free report is announced online, it’s often pitched as “controversial” and “likely to upset people,” but mostly, it’s not controversial at all?

David Bullock
Face the facts. There is no way to manage time itself. You can’t move 2pm to 9am just because you want to. You can’t stretch an hour by 5 minutes. Oh, but I wish I could. And I bet that if you had the “magic power” you would manipulate time too.

Lorelle VanFossen
Isn’t that where everyone starts? Totally clueless. Everyone is talking blog this, blog that, social media, Twitter, Flickr, tweet, but really, until you dig in, you have little understand about what this bloggy thing is all about.

Terry Starbucker
As a “Baby Boomer”, I’m old enough to remember a world without computers, the Internet, blogging and social media – the days of pencils, paper, stamps, payphones, rotary dialing, social centers, happy hours, discos, and all the other “analog” ways we used to communicate and meet up with each other.

Chris Garrett
Social Media is not just a new bull horn for the loud and abrasive sales types to use to make our ears bleed some more. If you go against what people want and need then don’t expect to get great results.

Geoff Livingston
I know how human I am. And I fear that my personality while clearly me and not contrived, will in some way eclipse, or worse, harm a client or my company. Because, yeah, I do screw up just like everyone else.

Jason Falls
What this piece, and a lot of the accompanying statistics, might indicate is that our society is waking up from the self-indulgent bender of the last 50 years and shifting to a more sensible way of living. What that might mean to marketers is that premium is no longer chic.

KD Paine
Richard Stacy has written a great post about how all the people wringing their hands about Social Media Measurement are looking at the wrong thing.

I would take it one step further and argue that all of marketing is looking at the wrong things.

Related ala carte selections include

Give someone a hug today!
Two people will depart in a small prop plane, to fly 31,000 miles around the world, stopping in 50 locations on a 5-month tour to gather inspiration, deliver 100,000 hugs and share $1,000,000 with important causes…

Oh and..

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Ewa in the Garden … just look!!

iJump brings it together.
What are the new rules of marketing and PR? What does lead generation look like in a social media world?

Location Independent gives outstanding advice.
Obviously, not all jobs are conducive to the location independent lifestyle but more often than you’d think, on-site positions exist, simply because no one has ever considered that there might be an alternative.

Catskill Cottage Seed
I’ve taken the test on three different occasions, as a teen, in my twenties and in my thirties. The results changed somewhat, though not a great deal, each time.

Pluperfecter always makes me think.
Take “social media”, a good thing, and add “marketing” to the end of it, the goal and aim of it: “social media marketing.” Sounds ugly, crass, and bothersome, does it not? I think so.

Related ala carte selections include

The Art of Non-Conformity has 25,000 downloads on this. Do you have yours yet? What are you waiting for?

Oh and..
Only 7 days left to …

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Left the Box says …
People like to be in the loop, being the first to know something means you’re important. You know something other people don’t know. Unlike an expensive car, you can’t show off information, without giving it away – which is exactly what people do.

Rock Your Day sets us straight …
“I’m so busy with my job, I can’t start working out now. You know how it is.”
“I’m so strapped for cash I can’t start saving money. Isn’t everyone?”
“I hate my job, but in this economy … what are you going to do?”

Presentation Zen explains …
Shai’s delivery was not slick or polished, nor were his visuals, but he was himself, relaxed, and totally engaging. It was an excellent talk given in the “Naked,” natural style. His pacing was good: not too slow, not too fast. He was a worthy messenger of an important topic, perhaps the most important topic of our day. If his goal was to get us talking, it worked.

Marketing Pilgrim reveals …
Mike Morgan, the creator of the gripe site www.GoldmanSachs666.com (clever Number of the Beast usage there, Mike) did what many bloggers often talk about but rarely do; he went on the legal offensive.

Technosailor tilts the lens …
Here’s the question of the day. If your name is mentioned in some kind of conversation, whether on the internet or offline, how do people identify you? Are you the founder of a company that does something? Are you a blogger? Photographer?

When they hear your name, do they associate you with a movement? Are you an expert in something? Does your reputation put you in a position of leadership or authority?

Related ala carte selections include

mariareyesmcdavis recommends
Ran across a great post of Insights on and from Twitter (directly from users) about what it’s all about and what’s really up with this phenom called Twitter.

Oh and..
Invest in your future.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Modite via Livingston Buzz
An observer that sits in a wagon pulled around by “the influencers.” What chance do you have if you’re not even thinking on your own two feet?

Middle Zone Musings
OK; I know you’ve faced adversity at least once or twice. Sometimes the source is the circumstances you happen to find yourself in. Other times, it knocks on your door in the form of, well, a person. Or three.

Confident Writing
So, your keyword phrases and search terms are working, and readers are starting to arrive at your site. If you want to provide information, get someone to click on a link, or generate a quick sale… perhaps that’s enough. But what if you’re hoping they’ll stick around?

Logic + Emotion
This morning a couple of things came together for me. The first, was that I unfollowed a company/individual on Twitter because the volume they were producing felt automated and not human even if there were college interns manually updating it (or maybe just a script). It just didn’t feel right. The second was reviewing a deck where it talked about the need for “being human” on the social web. But it didn’t get into how exactly, and that’s where my gears started turning.

weblogtools
Like most of you, I have experimented with many WordPress plugins. I have seen a lot of great plugins and also a lot of bad plugins. I am a bit of a WordPress plugin developer myself, and I admit that I borrow many ideas from other good WordPress plugins. From that experience I have consolidated these good ideas into a checklist that you can follow when reviewing or coding a new WordPress plugin.

Related ala carte selections include

ImJustCreative shares the glory …

Oh and..
Invest in your future.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

AdRants
He once had an awkward moment — just to see how it feels. He can also speak French. In Russian. …

Life Beyond Code
It goes without saying …

Chief Happiness Officer
Many companies will do the usual and promote their young employees and increase their pay. If you read this blog on a semi-regular basis you know this isn’t good enough. You have to have a whole plan to retain the young superstars.

chrisg
Social Media Marketing on your to-do list? If so, you will want to read this report!

davidbullock
Social Media has changed the way that the world communicates and gathers information and what is called “news”. What will news look like in the future? What will be the next generation of newspaper?

Related ala carte selections include

Livingston Buzz recommends

Oh and.. thank you, Social Media Explorer
Invest in your future.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss