Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Every Dot Connects offers a not so private conversation.
PR guy Peter Shankman was riding the train to some business-related destination when another man sat across from him, pulled out a cell phone and said “Apologies in advance, I talk a lot.”

Blogging roads offers a word for the day.
I’m not sure if there is such a thing, but I’ve decided that today is make up a new word day. Honestly, as a writer, every day is make up a new word day. I feel totally fine with bending, twisting and manipulating the English language (and some others as well).

Social Media Explorer offers a return on investment perspective.
The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.

Abundance Blog offers a wealth of creativity.
“Learn to pause . . . or nothing worthwhile will ever catch up to you.” Don’t underestimate the role of play and leisure in creativity.

Writing Clear and Simple offers a rule of nothing.
It’s Rule Zero, because it’s the rule you apply before you touch the keyboard, before you pick up your pen or pencil and make a mark on the page.

Web Success Diva offers the optimal social media leveraging.
It’s not just about posting your blog to Twitter. And, it’s much more than just social bookmarking your blog under pseudo names and accounts. Social media optimization, done right, is the art of leveraging the power of the entire social media landscape in your blog marketing.

Related ala carte selections include

Being Five is

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 on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

The news from Seth’s Blog is about love or money.
Doing what you love is as important as ever, but if you’re going to make a living at it, it helps to find a niche where money flows as a regular consequence of the success of your idea.

The news from Global Neighbourhoods is a powerful echo.
If you Tweet something of interest and you have an audience of 10, or 100 or 1000 and no one retweets it, that is far as your message goes. But if you have 10 followers, and one of them has 100 and he or she retweets you, your message reaches that many more people. If of you of this wider ring… and so on.

The news from idea blob is help him help us safe before we need to be.
I have a team already working on the first phase of a project which would aggregate both major media sources (tv, radio, etc) as well as citizen journalists (via blogs, twitter, etc) and republish the information about disasters and emergencies into SMS, email, web, and other mediums.

The new from Escape from Cubicle Nation is about what we’re focusing on.
Just about every single client I have ever worked with has started their career quest by wondering what job would be of interest. The problem is, when you focus first on the perfect job, you automatically narrow your opportunities to jobs you are familiar with.

The news from Bringing Brands to Life! is that video can be habit forming.
Budgets are approved. Management is on board. They bought your vision. Whoa! Not so fast.
You and your team may think your ducks are all lined up. But are they really?

Related ala carte selections include

Web Urbanist has dessert.

AriWriter has an encore from BlogActionDay

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 on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Copyblogger tells a story about connecting purposefully.
Why is it important to have a purpose for your blog writing?

Chris Brogan tells a story about how he learned 25 things.
Once something cool happens, I try to figure out ways to share, to get you involved, and to try and inform on what I learn as I learn it. Upon reaching some recent milestones, I thought it might be really interesting to share some thoughts with you on how I think this is what I’ve done. I’m not exactly sure.

Zoli’s Blog tells a story that isn’t the same as Little Red Hen’s.
Lot’s of noise today, RIP Good Times, IT’S OVER! POP GOES THE BUBBLE, Sorry, Startups: Party’s Over etc. I think the panic is overdone.

The Savvy Entrepreneur
I personally suffer from multiple strains of Someday Syndrome. And you?

Build a Solo Practice tells a story of survival.
There is an interesting phenomenon afoot. The tougher the times, the more people get up off the couch, break through their “I’m afraid” paralysis and finally start taking charge of their lives in a way they may not have in the past.

Bringing Brands to Life! tells a story about storytelling.
These days, being “real” and “authentic” seems to be on everybody’s mind.

Related ala carte selections include

confused of calcutta sends over a story that could be found in the news.

The Copywriter Underground sends over a rehab tool.

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 on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

GasPedal is doing something special for folks who deserve it.
We’re trying to raise a ton of money for some very deserving groups that need the cash, so we put a few BlogWell tickets up on eBay. 100% of the proceeds — EVERY PENNY — goes to charity.

PR 2.0 lays out the state of affairs in our socialsphere.
As networks become densely populated and new communities arise and thrive, we’re experiencing a fundamental shift in content creation, distribution, and consumption, thus creating an Active and Participatory Media society that is inspiring and seeding a more literate and enlightened generation.

Business is Personal lays out the meaning of real.
When marketing a product to women, there’s one thing you simply have to try to do if you want to hit a grand slam home run: Get yourself or your product on Oprah.

The reason is simple and I hope, obvious: Oprah’s viewers trust her.

Doc Searls Weblog explores our relationship with living inside each others’ heads.
Traditional journalism is static. Its basic units are the article, the story, the piece. The new journalism is live. It doesn’t have a basic unit any more than a river or a storm have a basic unit. It’s process, not product.

The Ripple Effect reports on what the economy didn’t cause.
A customer in front of me asked why they were closing and one of the employees remarked because, “You don’t come in on Sundays. We don’t make any money so we are closing.” The comment was said in such a way that it could have easily been taken to mean their livelihood or lack thereof on Sunday’s was somehow this poor lady’s fault.

Remarkable Parents address problems with human resources.
First, a word about the incident that prompted this memo and took place at headquarters yesterday. Many of you, I know, heard it—or heard of it—and I need to clarify actual events to dispel any notion that the CEO of Coddled Teenage Boy Enterprises was at fault.
Because, as you know, it’s never my fault.

Confident Writing addresses a timely writing issue.
We live in a time poor, information overloaded world. That means your readers are information overloaded, time poor too.

That makes time (and energy, and attention) a big potential barrier to engaging your readers.

It also means you can use time to your advantage by showing your readers that you respect, and value, their time.

Related ala carte selections include

Do It Myself shows us the real deal.

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 on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

skelliewag reveals the power of breaking the rules.
It was a little painful to read Darren Rowse’s series of posts on letting your blog go. It hit a nerve with me for reasons that are probably self-evident: in the last four months there have only been eight new posts at Skelliewag.

Writing on the Web reports and reminds us that we work to get paid.
Because that’s how blogging works. You write relevant content to make your readers’ lives better and one day, they respond to your offer of a service or product. There’s more to it than that, of course.

Pajama Professional reports and details two ways to right a wrong.
I wanted to build a list to occassionally share information outside the blog and maybe promote a few products. I wanted it to be an avenue for useful information, but I felt like “saving” stuff for my list might lower the quality of the information on the blog.

Read, Write, Web reports and reveals the benefits of a feedreader at work.
We recognize that the single biggest barrier to feeling justified in reading blogs on the clock may be that most people simply don’t know how to find the best blogs that are relevant to their work. For that we refer you to our recent post Comparing Six Ways to Find the Best Blogs on Any Topic and we discuss specific tactics you can use below.

Marketing Diva reports, relates, and tosses out a few pink boas.
Networking on iPhones and Blackberries. Networking in-person. Tweets on screens. Tweets on cells. Parties and People. An industry finding its way. New companies. New technology. New bloggers. Conference Word: Vulnerability

Related ala carte selections include

Six Revisions goes gorgeous.

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 on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Seth’s Blog offers a thought on noisy people.
Should you listen to the loud ones, the ones who call the sports radio stations to complain about the pitching, the ones who post websites about your lousy service, the ones who organize nationwide boycotts?

Talking Story weaves a lesson about friendship and learning.
I find I am thinking about friendship, and what it has done for me over the course of my life.

Punctuality Rules gives journalism new meaning.
Did you ever really think about the fact that “Journalist” has two completely separate meanings?

Blogsessive rocks on blogging.
Have you ever wondered what was it that made blogging turn into such a mass phenomenon, with billions of bloggers and readers spread all over the world?

spatially Rrelevant is inviting community intelligence.
If you find it particularly useful, feel free to let some folks know about it. The concepts in the book are a continuing area of interest for both Sheryl and me, so feedback appreciated.

Pistachio sheds more light on listening.
Any brand looking to “get” social media must learn to listen, first. People are talking about your company, brands and products. They’re also discussing preferences and desires about the market your product serves.

Essential Keystrokes shows the gymnastic skills of WordPress.
The first decision I had to make was whether to code the new WordPress site from scratch or to use another theme as a base.

Related ala carte selections include

zefrank rejiggers his own memory game.
based on your advice here is an updated version of the Flickr Memory Game :: if you have the time i would love your advice on making it better ::

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