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 Special this Week Is Imported

TAX GIRL answers.
Normally, we impound the vehicles until payment is made. However, this time, the vehicle was running OK, and the driver of the recovered vehicle wanted to drive away. He gave us a PO from his established company. We trusted the large company.

Then, they refused to pay us the $300 for tow services unless we filled outa W-9.

Unconventional Thinking provokes
Early in our lives, we are all handed a book titled “This is the way things are done.”

The dutiful read it and follow it to a T. The wise, the innovators, the change makers read it and then rewrite it with their own version of The Rules.

mariareyesmcdavis warns.
If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time, you know I’m a big fan of scalable automation in social media, that doesn’t comprise the relationship you’re forming with someone. One such case includes auto-following and auto-unfollowing all those who do the same. Some things you just can’t keep up with and it doesn’t pay not to automate them.

I’m official changing that stance due to some recent changes on Twitter’s part …

Pluperfecter shares.
@BeckyMcCray, who is a long-time friend and colleague via Twitter, asked her Twitter stream if anyone had any how-to advice for beginning vloggers. If you’re new to video blogging, presenting information, personality, or entertainment via video, you’ll find great ideas here.

Simplenomics applies.
I’m amazed every, single time I hear Miranda Lambert sing a song that’s new to me.

For some strange reason, I hear a sales and marketing related phrase in her work, yet I’m quite sure she didn’t do it on purpose.

Quite, Dang. Sure.

Related ala carte selections include

Web Urbanist delights.
Suitcases have grown in size, style and security as trains, boats and plains made the world a smaller place. From buckskin packs to steamer trunks to carbon fiber carry-ons, the story of the suitcase parallels the explosion of travel and tourism.

Oh and..
Invest in your future. Spend a weekend with a social media dream team.

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

Riding Dragons
Last summer David Zinger showed up at Jodee Bock’s annual Bigger Small Talk Summit. I heard him say that he can do almost anything for 10 minutes so tends to break down difficult or unappealing tasks into 10 minute chunks. That sounded wise to me and I determined to try it out. When I returned home, however, I quite promptly forgot about it.

Pick the Brain
You’re stressed, overworked, and tired. You feel like you’re dropping the ball on so many things. You find yourself lying awake in the early hours, thinking about those items still on your to-do list, those emails not yet cleared.

Virtual Impax
On Monday I get an email from a client who has been neglecting to protect her online reputation by neglecting her blog. She’s now busily meeting with lawyers to try to trademark her branding elements – something I suspect would be easier to do had she been maintaining her blog under the domain name she registered. At least she would be ranking #1 on her term – which is what started the fuss.

Remarkablogger
I have a confession
I have a confession to make.
I was once…
A vacuum cleaner salesman.

Work Happy Now
My wife discovered a story about a teacher who changed her/his work culture with a simple plan that anyone can implement at their organization.

Related ala carte selections include

New Twitter Movie: For the Birds
Here’s a new Twitter short movie that shows the impact each and every person you follow has on your social network! Have you ever had someone “hog the line” and cause a stir like this? The Betty Boop song might explain why some do what they do online.

Just Creative
To say the least, ranking fonts is an obviously hard task… how does one measure aesthetic quality, the benefit of an item, its value to humanity and so fourth?

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

Pick the Brain
Whether we are entrepreneurial spirited individuals, currently employed and even unemployed, we must operate with the proverbial “The Buck Stops Here” sign on our desks.

lip-sticking
Running a business can be like that, too. Trying to connect with a market that is always in flux can be challenging and fraught with the unexpected, almost as a matter of fact. The marketing to real women online shows this better than anything because it’s immediate, now, focused, relative, and maybe a little volatile, at times.

Manage to Change
Except for the Super Bowl, I never show much interest in TV commercials. But last week two new spots from Kaplan University got my attention.

Bold Enterprises
Words are power.

Their impact often out of proportion with their intent.

Attract More Customers
With corporations hemorrhaging jobs, it’s no surprise that interest in self-employment is skyrocketing. For me, personally, a pink slip was just the motivation I needed to get off my ass and finally start a business of my own.

Related ala carte selections include

Vandelay Design

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

social media explorer
With so many different services, blogs, and sites out there, small business owners and other marketers who are usually already stretched thin often figure that monitoring and participating in social media will require a time commitment and technical savvy that they just don’t have.

Not true. It’s better to participate at a level you can manage than to ignore social media altogether.

Barry J. Moltz
Process needs to trump outcome. This is nearly an impossible goal because regardless of what we say, the common belief is that the ends always justify the means.

Direct Marketing Observations
There are people out there, that don’t like you. I know, shocking isn’t it? For some of you, it might be. In social media we talk about, and write even more about how social media creates these magical relationships of synergy, business alliances, and friendships. But what people rarely talk about, are the relationships that have originated from social networking-that have gone sour.

Divine Purpose Unleased
There are lots of ways the roles you play change; actually roles change often. Sometimes your role gets yanked out from under you like when you get fired from a job. Your role shifts when your children grow up and move out of the house. You might get married… or divorced.

RANDOM ACTS OF LEADERSHIP
As of today 316,641 results returned when searching Amazon for books on leadership. According to Warren Bennis in Leaders (1997) “academic analysis has given us more than 850 definitions of leadership”. I think it is fair to say that defining leadership will be studied and debated for a long time to come and it is likely we will never all agree on THE BEST definition.

Related ala carte selections include

Amy Derby wants to know …

Terry Starbucker is making a great offer …

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

PR 2.0 sets the Twitter Bar on quality of relationships.
The surmounting ploys, friending races, theatrics, and contests to tempt those into following individuals can be fun, but short-sighted, when in fact the true technique for building relationships, regardless of volume, is the genuine act of earning and investing in them. It’s rooted in selflessness and rewarded with a rich stream of relevance and a network of valuable contacts that can also help you in the real world.

the paisano sets out useful social healthcare sites.
We’re not just talking about the traditional WebMD type of service either. This new breed of health service has incorporated many of the cool and useful social media tools we’ve come to expect from web 2.0 startups and social networks. Here’s a roundup of some of the best.

All Things Workplace sets up a series on Influence within and into an organization.
When you want to influence into or within an organization, it’s almost mandatory to find out what style it has and adjust your approach accordingly. If you are an employee or part of the organization, this may help you understand why you feel totally at home or out of place.

Patricia Martin sets out research on colorful thoughts.
What color most improves brain performance and receptivity to advertising, red or blue? Both can, it just depends on the nature of the task or message. According to a new study undertaken at the University of British Columbia, red is the most effective at enhancing our attention to detail, while blue is best at boosting our ability to think creatively.

SEOmoz sets out the 500 Most Linked-To
First off, we’re launching a free Linkscape API to access two of Linkscape’s most popular metrics – mozRank of a URL and the number of external links to a URL. Second, we’ve launched a list of the top 500 sites & pages on the web, ordered by the number of unique root domains linking to them (alongside other interesting SEO metrics).

Related ala carte selections include

@ColderIce recommended that we read this and I agree.

@dubster2k recommended this. It’s just plain fun!

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

The Buzz Bin explains the burden of listening.
Our ears are always on, sometimes to our chagrin. But although we listen non-stop, we often don’t hear. Therein lies the challenge and opportunity associated with assessing an online environment.

Listening requires depth and patience regardless of the situation.

Remarkable Communication explains the value of slowing down
A few days ago, Mara Rogers wrote a post for Copyblogger about SpeedBlogging. Her post had a lot of smart tips for writing blog posts more quickly and efficiently, and I don’t disagree with any of the advice she gave.

But I’d like to propose another way to approach your posts: SlowBlogging.

Drew’s Marketing Minute explains what we have to do with “it.”
I was talking to a friend of mine who owns a small business last week. He admitted they’re having a fantastic start to the year and everything looks good moving forward.

He went on to tell me that he needs a new company car. He has the money to pay cash for it. Car prices have never been lower. But he’s holding off.

ripple explains how lingo and lines.
“Peppers?” I was California perplexed.

“Yeah, sweet or hot giardinare.” Mario barked.

(Someone in my new found social community chimed in and suggested the sweet peppers. And to have Mario spoon the beef juice rather than dip the sandwich. Too soggy otherwise.)

Login + Emotion explains what we do what we’re teaching.
Imagine someone comes up to you at a cocktail party. And they’re wearing a mask—while everyone else isn’t. You don’t know much about that person because they’re not really telling you a great deal about themselves. How much would you tell them about yourself in return?

Related ala carte selections include

Todd Smith Photography shows where he is.

Twittersheep shows what folks who follow me say about themselves. Click the image to go there.

My twitter name is @lizstrauss . What else would it be?

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