Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 01-18-08

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SB Cafe

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

Jonathan Field’s blog heads straight to the headlines.
From my experience getting into local media, I knew I needed a hook. But, this time, I needed one with national appeal. Something that could not only take my business to the next level, but be genuine news on a national level. And, then it happened.

PR2.0 digs into content versus conversation.
If you took the time, whether as a reader or a writer, to read the comments of a favorite blog post for example, you’d find brilliance, perspective, and new opinions that allow a topic to genuinely flourish.

Christine Kane’s Blog considers how drastic change needs to be.
One of them left her husband. The other one quit her Grad School program and was preparing to enroll in an entirely different course of study.

Creative Curio documents her process.
Designers are always interested in another designer’s creative process. So from now until it’s finished, I’ll document my progress on my blog design on Fridays, show you my files and ask for your critiques.

Performancing interviews Jonathan Phillips.
If you don’t know him from SmartWealthyRich (a site that he has now sold) or his current site FreelanceFolder, then you are definitely missing out.

Footsteps in the Mirror gathers thoughts.
The only problem about being away from the net for long periods of time is that thoughts make a good point tend to be watered away by the time you come back to them.

Related ala carte selections include

ChrisBrogan.com has five starter moves.
On one hand, you have people who are a little shy, and unsure what to say upon meeting someone for the first time. On the other, you have people who aren’t especially shy, but who don’t like meeting someone cold. Social media tools are perfect for this.

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

SOB Business Cafe 01-11-08

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SB Cafe

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

Drew’s Marketing Minute got creative.
So I decided to continue along the vein that the ladies started. So, without further ado, here are 10 things you didn’t know (and neither did they) about Toby and Liz.

Interesting Observations had an experience worth sharing.
I certainly was surprised when this is exactly what I was told by a dear friend Karen Zara of abaminds the other day. I had mentioned to Karen that I was a bit in a dilemma as to what topics I should be writing about since I had no particular niche

Instigator Blog designed a new look.
Design matters. A great, well-polished design raises the bar of your blog instantly. “You only have one chance to make a first impression.” And it’s a shame and waste when you don’t make the right impression off-the-bat.

My Beautiful Chaos received a nice surprise.
I don’t usually read email forwards, but this one from my friend Megan Dyson was short enough to skim. It caught my attention and I read it two, three, then four times.

Jibber Jobber had a question.
That morning he came into my office and shared with me that he was pretty sure I would be let go on the board call.

Sifry’s Alerts has a reminder.
I’m working from home today, so I kicked off something that I really needed to do for a while – I’m running a fully bootable backup of my primary computer onto one of my portable hard drives.

Related ala carte selections include

Lorelle on WordPress talks toys.
There are lot of fun things to do on the web besides just playing traditional games and shoot ‘em up games. This week’s blog challenge is:

Blog a listing of your favorite online toys and play things that aren’t “games”.

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

Have a great weekend! See you when I’m home again!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: How to Geek Comment Moderation Notifier

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Got a Full Email Box?

Now that I have a phone on which I can actually read something from the web. I’ve found the beauty of being able to keep with important email when I’m not in my office. The problem is that if I don’t preplan I also have to keep up with the in flow of email I can’t address at the moment. One amazing chunk is spam comments that hit my blog in a literally constant stream via my moderation queue.

So when I came across the How-To Geek’s remedy, I stopped to give it a read. I think you should do the same. I’m about to try it out. It sure looks to be an elegant solution.

Great Find: How to Geek Comment Moderation Notifier
Permalink: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/the-geek-blog/how-to-geek-software-wordpress-comment-moderation-notifier/
Target Audience: WordPress users
Content: This WordPress plugin is meant to ease the load on our email inbox caused by spam filters that moderate all new comments. It creates a desktop window to launch the comment moderation page of a blog so that we can monitor comments coming in quickly and easily.

When there are new comments, you’ll see this little message pop up, and then the icon will change to some random icon alert icon I found somewhere. If you click on the text it will take you to the moderation page. — the How-To Geek

You’ll find the plug-in and installation directions if you click the logo below.

the How-To Geek

Check it out!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 01-04-08

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SB Cafe

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

A.P. Lawrence focusing on something he heard us say a lot. This morning I was reading Successful-blog.com and noticed how so many people were talking about “focus”.I’d like to focus on that for a minute.

Levite Chronicles reflected on moving through life with our friends.
Those of you I know in the 2.0 world, they ask about you. They want to know how you are doing. They care about your lives. They are interested. I am, for you and they, the mutual friend. And I can assure both of you all, 0.0 and 2.0, that you would really like each

Confident Writing searched her blog for answers. As I get ready to look through my own writing archives for the year gone by I jotted down the questions I would ask myself – or rather, ask my blog. A note of the things that I would be looking out for, that would help me to learn. These are the 7 searching questions I came up with . . .

Drew’s marketing Minute analyzes what happened to us in 2007. Fabulous, Drew! And then Greg left #7 blank — asking readers to share what they thought was the 7th significant trend of the year. So, here’s my take. A year ago, Time Magazine named YOU (meaning us) the person of the year….heralding the power and influence of social media.

Damn! I Wish I’d Thought of That! reveals the secrets that great event marketers use.
Here are a few videos interviews with smart folks I met at the Corporate Event Marketers Association conference:

Related ala carte selections include

SuccessCREEations announces something worth congratulating! As of the new year I will no longer be employed full time in my old position in the maritime industry. I’m leaving that job to focus on growing SuccessCREEations, Inc. It is a big step, no doubt. and that is one that Gorgeous and I have been working towards for quite some time.

I finally did a decent radio interview . . . you can download it at blogtalkradio/PowerfullLiving

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

Have a great weekend! See you when I’m home again!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

New Year’s Eve Celebration: 24 + 144 Dishes at the SOB Business Cafe

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SB Cafe

Everything’s Special,
Especially the Patrons
Welcome to the SOB Cafe

All through the year, we offer a fare of the best in thinking — articles on business, blogging, and just plain living. On a day of celebrating 2007, we’re bringing hit selections to share with you in this very special menu.

Please enjoy these as much as I enjoy having you visit.

The Specials of 2007 are:

Success from the Nest pointed out that As a home-based business person, not knowing where your nuts are can make you crazy. Now, at this point you may be wondering to which nuts I am referring (and those of you snickering, I know what you’re thinking). Well, the nuts I am referring to are…

Shards of Consciousness explained . . . I found several how-tos on the domain moving process itself. However, none of these were clear enough for me. And none of them covered all the issues involved in changing domains. There are six main aspects of moving a WordPress blog from one domain to another.

Copyblogger pointed out Since different people connect with different things, joining in on a conversation that naturally compares and contrasts your style and expertise with that of your peers is smart marketing. More importantly, it exudes confidence.

Spooky Action gave us the model and said Why is a model of game design important to experience designers? Because the game design paradigm is DESIGN ONCE, EXPERIENCE MANY TIMES.

Seth’s Blog wondered What do most people get out of blogging? After all, most blogs are virtually unread by outsiders… Be sure to read the comments that follow it.

Logic and Emotion challenged us to consider If we claim to be marketers, advertisers, designers, public relations or communications professionals—we must take it upon ourselves to fully comprehend the significance of a lone consumer who takes on a huge company with nothing more than a blog and tape recorder.

The Life Coaches Blog started by saying Believe in people. See them better than they see themselves.

Steve-Olson.com offered an incredible curiosity quencher. I decided to provide you with some of my favorite websites, news articles, and blog posts about understanding intelligence.

Alister Cameron put it bluntly If what you do with the best hours of your day is not also the thing you’re passionate about, stop right now!

Manage to Change outlined why The real power of blogging is that it’s one more way to forge meaningful relationships with people and actively participate in communities and conversations.

ChristineKane.com laid out a challenge. Who among us has said this very thing – or some variety of it – to her/himself? And – here’s the kicker – who among us has been lying when we said it?

Design Your Writing Life takes up Where ChristineKane.com left off. What? Write for 15 minutes? What the hell can you accomplish in 15 minutes? See all there is about Writerly Lies.

DaveOlson.ca was questioning I don’t know when it happened but somewhere in the last few years of life, I forgot how to ask learning questions and honestly it’s kinda got me freaked out.

Circular Communications invented a genre. In this context is the deciding difference however that the interviewer has to do all the present work including picking the topic, choosing the participants, formulating the questions and finding the answers.

Chrisg got to thinking about the kinds of bloggers we are. While I patiently explained the different types of blogs to those guys I realised many of us probably have some sort of cross-over between types and rarely consider what our dominant blogging style is.

JeffPulver.com shows the online conversation in the offline world. When checking out, I noticed a personal note from their general manager, Barbara Gross, who made reference to a blog post I had written earlier this week . . . it is an example of how many small (and not so small) businesses can benefit from implementing their own social media strategy around their customers.

Instigator blog writes when we see examples of people building out mini-media empires like TechCrunch, GigaOm, ProBlogger, Know More Media, Positive Media Blog Network, and others, we feel like it’s possible for us as well.

Carpe Factum connects that Sometimes, it’s important to find the support that is hidden to the naked eye. That applies in our professional lives also, doesn’t it?

Jonathan Fields asks Have you ever lost time doing anything? You know what I’m talking about. Those moments when you become so absorbed in what you’re doing that an hour becomes a minute and a day becomes and hour. You blink and it’s time to go home, but you’d kill to be able to stay just a little bit longer.

Pick the Brain motivated us with There’s a big myth in our culture: that passion can only be spontaneous. . . . I disagree. Passion can be created. Even for things you don’t currently enjoy.

Orbit Now! characterized things in a way. Here is my spin. It is perhaps NOT as sticky, but that should come as a surprise to no one.

chrisbrogan.com explained
There are SO MANY situations where a social network’s communications functions, when aggregated as part of the “informational whole,” have more value than a more formal tool like a document or email.

Codswallop offered efficiency. Are you working with Excel and want take your Excel skills to the next level? Or do you want to learn Excel and don’t know where to start?

The Artsy Asylum questioned How do we communicate with each other in 2007 and beyond? How does that make a difference in how we think about the world, and our lives, and each other? How does the 3-D web play a part? Big brains are thinking about this so I don’t have to do it all.

And for the Dessert Buffet

Please enjoy these 144 links from Successful and Outstanding Bloggers.

Sit back. Enjoy your reading. Nachos and beverages will be right over. Klondike bars and Fat Tires are in the cooler under the sidebar Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great celebration!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 12-28-07

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SB Cafe

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 Viral Garden asks do we market our products and services as well as rock stars market their wares?
Does it happen by accident? Is it just easier to create fans for music than it is for umbrellas or paper clips?

The thinking blog asks whether we remember lava lamps.
Drempels is a nifty piece of software that makes your computer’s desktop behave like a screensaver, providing a hypnotic and psychedelic display of constant motion . . .

Startup Princess asks about our frustration with what we’re doing.
I ask this question because I can’t be the only entrepreneur out there hitting my head against the wall trying to move to the next stage, unsure what that stage should be!

All Things Workplace asks how we’ll grow without risks?
“Risk-taking” is a criterion for hiring and promotion at many companies. We’re not talking ‘skydivers without parachutes’; we’re looking for people who know how to calculate the odds and shout, “Let’s go!” when they think the benefits outweigh the consequences of the risk.

clear.your.mind asks about how we’re keeping up with our plans?
It has been said, that 90% of business never grow up like they could because their owners lose, sometime in the battle, the goals they once thought for their business.

Just Creative Design asks if we want our great ideas to show up faster?

Related ala carte selections include

This review at Amazon via Phil Renaud’s wonderful blog.

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

Have a great weekend! See you when I’m home again!

–ME “Liz” Strauss