Successful Blog

10 Prompts to Start a Blog Post When Your Screen Is Blank

by

Start with a Few Words

cooltext443809674_ideation1

Sometimes a few words can get a whole lot started. Try these prompts when you’re facing a blank screen and don’t know where to go …

  1. When I look at all of these social media tools, I think we need . . .
  2. Enough of this . . .
  3. When I started hanging out online, I thought it was about …
  4. If someone offered $500K to move away from network of friends and family, . . .
  5. Every relationship has an ROI. . . .
  6. Marketers dream of . . .
  7. Can you help me out here? Is this a new thing? . . .
  8. All the talk about smart phones . . .
  9. Every Friday, . . .
  10. At this very moment, somewhere in the universe, . . .

Add your own in the comment box if some jump to mind.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
Eye-Deas 1: Have You Started Seeing Things?
GAWKER Design: Curb Appeal as Customer-Centered Promotion
SUCCESSFUL SERIES PAGE

Want More Fans, a Bigger List? There’s No Skipping this Step …

by

We Make It Harder Than It Is

relationships button

Sometimes we try too hard. Sometimes we reach too far. Sometimes we take the long way home because we never stopped to think about the easier one.

Are you looking trying to expand your community, your business, your sales, your blog readership? Want more followers on Twitter, more fans on your Facebook page, more members in your community?

I’m going to tell you straight out, there’s one step you can’t skip.

If you want more folks to love what you do, you have to be able to tell them why you love it yourself — clean, clear, fast — in ways they enjoy and understand.

It’s not that hard to do. It works this way …

If we make beautiful glass like this …

1236754_rippled_glass_texture

… we have to be able to tell people what’s to love about it. Here’s how to do that.

  • Find the love stories in what you do. You can love the challenge. You can love the chase. You can love the heroic heritage. You can love what it does for people. You can love the time it saves. I love beautiful glass because it reminds me of the beautiful, beveled mirrors my dad used make. He taught me to appreciate the value of hot-sweat and workmanship.
  • Once you have the stories, find the ideal people to share those stories with. The people who love what you love are sure to think a lot like you do. You probably already know some of them. The first ones are probably very close to you. They probably have a few friends who have a few friends. To find the folks who value what you do, just share the irresistible stories and love behind the work that you do.
  • Tell the stories in ways that invite them to share stories of their own. Stories connect us in ways that small talk and transactions never will.
  • Listen carefully for details and doorways. Their stories will reveal their values — some the same and some unimaginably different from your own.
  • Pass on their stories to connect with new people new ways. Those might be people who work with what you make, who want to use it in different ways, who have ideas for partnerships.

The stories of what we value define us and better and faster than anything can. When we share those stories our relationships, our knowledge, our networks and our collections of stories expand. It’s a natural progression.

Whether we’re a huge corporation or a solopreneur, there’s no skipping this step …

If we want more fans, we have be a fan first.

How do you share your love for your work?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Be Irresistible!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

How Your Instincts Will Blow It for You, if You Don’t STOP!

by

Strategy Is More Than Meets the Eye

cooltext443809602_strategy

When I was small I liked to hold up my thumb and index finger to frame a tall building in the horizon to make it seem as if the building was smaller than my hand. Today I took picture of the face of my full-sized keyboard that makes it appear as if all of the keys fit into less than a 2-inch high span.

2-inch-keyboard

We know it isn’t true, but our eyes want to believe it. Humans do that kind of thing a lot. Our senses and our instincts sometimes lead us down a shaky path. They tell us that the Earth is flat; that stars are tiny; and that when we are threatened we should fight or run.

It’s all perspective and assumptions.

How Your Instincts Will Blow It for You, if You Don’t STOP!

We have a conflict in a meeting, get a nasty comment on Twitter or some writes a critical blog post about us and instinct kicks in. Our hearts start pumping and our minds begin to form a defense. It’s the “flight or fight” instinct and it will blow it for us, if we don’t watch out.

Few things in our work or social lives need the protection from deadly consequence of the fight or flight instinct. We’re more rational now. Yet the reptile part of our brains still emits the adrenalin that makes us want to respond more quickly than our thinking. We’re ready to put out fires, but the best firefighters focus on the results.

If we respond while we’re still focused on the event, our perspective and assumptions are like the pictures of the building and keyboard — out of proportion to reality. We lose sight of other points of view and possibilities. Other people become tiny enough to squash. It’s easy to snap, crack, bend, or break something or ourselves, only to find out later that we didn’t have the whole plot.

Hard as it might be to STOP and walk it off, a little time and distance from the “event” usually brings a clearer, calmer and more appropriate response.

  • Think about every possible reason, ludicrous and crazy that might have caused the event.
  • Think of how hard it might be to explain your fury to a stranger 10 years from now.
  • Realize the power you give when you take on the defense.
  • Decide how the person you want to be would rise to a response.
  • Think of the impact of your response on the people around you. If you respond on the Internet, think how you’ll see that response 1, 2, or 10 years from now when you see your words again.

You might question the behavior. You might ignore it. You might express your thoughts and future expectations. Or you might end a relationships because you’ve found out that your values don’t match up. It’s unlikely that you’ll instinctively throw water on a grease fire and make things worse.

Strategy is not automatic. Strategy is doing what works.

How do you keep your instincts from blowing for you?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

Beach Notes: Sandimal 3 – Cedric The Crocodile

by

by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

This is our third “Sandimal” post, this time with the sand sculpture of a crocodile we have dubbed Cedric.

cedric

The challenge we had with coming up with a few thoughts prompted by Cedric was that some of them were frankly scary. Although for Cedric it’s just about getting dinner on time.

Then we thought that a couple of things that have enabled Cedric’s kind to survive through 200 million years is that somewhere along the line they became very observant and very fast to take action at the right time, from apparent total inertia to explosive movement.

So here’s the thought. Secrets of survival – be highly observant and move very fast when opportunity knocks. In business it’s called “speed to market”.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

SOB Business Cafe 01-08-10

by

SB Cafe

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
No one actually wants to encounter failure in their life. That’s because when you look at the isolated incident, it means that you haven’t found success. However, with the right attitude, you can use your failure in order to get yourself to success in an accelerated fashion.


Punctuality Rules


It’s so easy to tell writers that words are tools and it’s good to have as many in the toolbox as possible. Mixing and matching words to form the perfect sentence, after all, is what writers DO.

But what if your vocabulary is actually getting in your way?

CKs Blog
As we wrap up this year and gear-up for the next, I’ve compiled this nifty slideshow featuring 20 helpful B2B social media posts, presentations and series to help B2B marketers start the new year off ready to integrate social media into their marketing mix in a way that helps them transition their marketing (and their mindsets!) to the Web 2.0 environment and works to increase their rates of success within it.

Communication Overtones
It has always been hard to get people to do what you want them to do.

In fact, if you try to get me to do something, chances are I won’t. It is one of my fatal flaws. I am stubborn like that, but I am willing to bet that a lot of you are, too.

Midcourse Correction
Traditional conferences versus social conferences. Which will you plan this year?

Not sure about the “Social Conference?” Read this post on “Screw Your Event Resolutions. Do You Conference Social?”

Related ala carte selections include

Itty Biz
OK. I realize you’re backlogged on your reading. And I realize that you’re going to be so sick of the G word that your brain is going to bleed. And I realize that all you really want to do is forget the holiday season ever happened and hurry up and get to February already.

How to Make Unstupid Goals

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

I’m a proud affiliate of

To FAIL Is Human, to Respond Is …

by

Who Always Gets a Perfect Score?

cooltext443809437_relationships

So we put our heads and our hearts together into what we do.

In this environment, we think fast. We move fast. We execute with the information that’s available. Sometimes we make the wrong choice. Sometimes the other guy gets there first. Sometimes what we built doesn’t work the way we thought it would.

We could put up a sign to let folks know that working on it.

twitter-fail-whale-large

But when the sign goes up often enough to become an icon, when people make new versions that involve Home Simpson and tattoos, then we’re an exponential FAIL. We all know about Twitter FAIL FAIL FAIL. But we’re not Twitter and we don’t have millions of new accounts signing on everyday.

One little fail can knock down a whole lot of good that we’ve built up.

What’s critical is our response.

  • Hear the problem.
  • Learn.
  • Thank the people who found it for helping you.

When people point out a FAIL, stand beside them. Look where they are pointing.
It’s so much more productive than standing in front of them and feeling pointed at.

Always remember there’s a person on the other end of the issue.

To FAIL is human, to respond is more than service. That’s when humanity and character show through. Relationships built in a FAIL situation, often become FAIL SAFE in the end.

When has a FAIL served you?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of