Successful Blog

Liz Live on the Aaron Brazell Show Tonight!

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Dial In or Text In to Be Part of the Conversation!

Aaron Brazell -Technosailor

Aaron Brazell — technosailor — has invited me to be his guest on his TalkShoe talkshoe tonight.

Here’s some Twitter conversation we just had . . .
technosailor What do you want me to ask Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss) tonight on the show?

ME What questions do you want me to ask @technosailor when I hijack his talk shoe at talkshoe tonight?

AmberCadabra @lizstrauss In 140 characters? are you crazy? LOL

technosailor @lizstrauss is this a hostile takeover of the Aaron Brazell Show by you? Geez… I guess I had it coming 😉

ME @technosailorYou never know what will happen when you and I are together. That’s part of why people always show up.

technosailor @lizstrauss we’re not going to talk about Vegas casino stories in the wee hours of the morning are we? :-p

ME @technosailor What happens in Vegas . . . hmmmm . . . I’m bring my brothers Angelo and Pasquale. http://is.gd/RYT

Be There!!

9 EST / 8 CHICAGO TIME

Check the clock in the sidebar for Chicago time.

Category: Technology
Description: n/aDescription: lessHosted by: technosailor
Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 22406

Download or listen to the show later.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Talking Decisions and Self-Promotion with JenChicago

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You Just Watch

Friday morning, I met Jen Knoedl for an interview. We walked to a quiet part of Millenium Park. We talked about blogging, building a career that works, being a leader on your path . . . productivity, decisions, and SOBCon.

She’s left her corporate job to go for her dream — to be a talk show host Jen Chicago. Will she make it? She asks the best questions and edits like a fox. You just watch!!

UPDATE: JEN just posted it to the NBC 5 Street Team Blog Go See!

Here’s a bit she’s put together on decisions.

and another on Self-Promotion

No doubt.

Wow!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Get the Insider’s Guide and Get Your Voice in the Conversation

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The How-to of Online Conversation and Relationships

What a thrill it is to see so many new businesses that got their final “something” from a little meeting called “SOBCon.” Congratulations, Joanna on Powerful Web Content. Congratulations Michael on Gateway Blogging. Congratulations to Sheila and Connie. I know of a least two more coming. . . . Each of them is playing to their strengths and their past successes.

Today, I announce the first of two cornerstone pieces that pull together everything I’ve working on and toward for almost three years. You might have noticed it in the sidebar this weekend. It’s called “The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog — The Insider’s Guide to the Conversation that’s Changing How Business Works.”

The-Secret-to-Writing-a-Successful-and-Outstanding-Blog

You might recall we had a conversation about this eBook I was working on. That conversation confirmed the book’s original purpose — to explain online conversation in the context of relationships and building a business.

Two-Sections-of-the-Insiders-Guide

The two sections of the book show the two sides of online conversation — receiving and sending information. The Subject heads include these:

Section Samples

Because of the urgency of everything Internet, it’s filled with immediately actionable tips, ideas, and checklists.

Lots of Lists

Who needs to read it?

Everyone who wants more community participation, more comments, more referrals for their business — Marketers, PR folks, Educators, Business Professionals, and New Bloggers.

AND

Anyone who’s been trying to figure out or explain what a blog is.

It took a career of education, business, educational publishing; several weeks of research; and over 3,000 posts and almost 70,000 comments in blogging conversation to learn what I’ve condensed down to these practical pages.

I know you’ll get a fresh perspective and great tools, when you read it. If you want to communicate with authority, credibility, and influence at the top of your game . . . then get the book that will get your best voice in the conversation.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Gratitude to the folks who took a minute to add to the conversation!
Liz Strauss: The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog Ebook « Lorelle on WordPress
3 Steps to Overcoming Corporate Blog Denial
The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog Ebook
It’s a stew, a potpourri, a melange. It’s what’s happening.

Smiling Harbor Sunday

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Smiling Sunday

Sundays start so slowly. They take a while to get up and rolling. Sundays would be a perfect day for a walk in the early morning.

I’ve wasted too many beautiful Sundays doing things meant to make an easier Monday. Sunday should be a day that’s kept for doing special things.

Smiling harbor out my window

I’m starting a small Sunday tradition of drinking my coffee while looking out the window. It doesn’t sound like such a miracle until I mention a sunrise is in the view.

A Sunday sunrise miracle and a cup of coffee combine to make a great way to start me my mind thinking of new ways to see the world.

This Sunday morning, the harbor seems to be smiling back at me.

I hope you find a way to do the same thing.

Liz's Signature

Image: mestrauss

On Suzie's Beach — Will You Try on that Comfortable Beach Feeling?

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Beach Notes While Suzie’s Away

gday logo

This morning as about to write something, I came across Suzie’s Beach Notes photo. Soon, I was walking beaches I’ve walked in Oz. I was thinking thoughts of the people I know there.

A beach walk is like grand music that fills me with space, light, and meaning. The feel of the sand under my feet, the expanse of the sky over the water conspire against any need to control things. Even wild stormy beaches make the world seem far more in control than I’ll ever be. It’s a reassuring, peaceful freedom.

Space to breathe, no noise, even the sailboats are made for sea — not for the people who sail them.

Every beach I walk gives me hope and calmness in my soul. It’s hard not to think that the world will keep turning when the water keeps returning. Sky, water, land . . . build a beach fire.

Last week Suzie walked this beach thinking about getting out of your comfort zone.

This week, I’m asking, Will you try on that comfortable beach feeling?

Liz's Signature

Image: Suzie Cheel

Surely You Have a Blogging Goal?

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The Ultimate Guide to a Wildly Sticky, Successful and Outstanding Blog
A SERIES

Finding A Direction — Goals, Titles, and Taglines

Whether you blog for money, or you blog for fun, a successful blog works like a successful small business. Every post is product made for customers called readers. Quality counts. So do schedule and budget. Having a mission and goals, knowing the what and how, and using the right tools for the job make your chance of success far greater.

Surely You Have a Goal? No? Gotta Get One!

A blogging goal gives a blog a heart and a direction. It’s powerful exercise in getting your thoughts focused in on why you’re actually doing this. In essence, a blogging goal provides a measure of success that is there to work toward.

  1. Should you be blogging? 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers – Is a Blog Right for You?

  2. Wondering whether a blog is for you? Do you see yourself in this list of Top 10 Reasons to Start a Blog?

  3. Goals for New Bloggers is a straightforward outline of how approach setting up a blog on the path to success.

  4. We all have different reasons for why we invest time and sweat equity into blogging. Darren’s Blog Goals – Group Writing Project. Check out the complete list of submissions to read the goals of experienced and new bloggers who participated in the writing project.

  5. In the end, when it comes to Measuring Blog Success: It’s the Goals, Stupid! — No one else can decide the destination you’re seeking.

  6. Things changed dramatically the day I wrote My Blogging Goal. Every decision that I’ve made since has been to support what wrote in my blogging goal.

A Blog Title — Who Are You?

Names are the most important words that we know. They’re the first words we learn about ourselves. They’re how we begin to sort the universe. We say them soon after “hello” when we meet a new person. A blog name says something about the blog and about the person who named it.

Most importantly, outstanding blog titles are memorable and describe what the blog is about.

  1. If your goal is to write for yourself and few select friends, name your blog however you all might find meaningful. If your goal is to write for a large audience, name your blog using words THEY will understand and be drawn to find out more about. One way to draw them is to include Key Words in your blog title. Titles that Grab Readers are titles that simply say what the blog is about.

  2. Dorai answers the question How Do You Choose a Blog Title?

  3. For a look at the most popular keywords already being used, see How Do You Call Your Blog? Be careful on following advice in the post and comments. The information is interesting, but I don’t necessarily come to the same conclusions reading the data.

  4. Nick Wilson collected seven more articles on Killer Titles.

A Tagline — What’s Your Promise?

A fabulous tagline says what’s in it for me — the reader. It makes a promise that I can resist, a promise the blog never fails to deliver successfully.

5 Blog Taglines

Do you recognize these?
You’re only a stranger once. . . . Helping Bloggers Succeed . . .
. . . Copywriting tips for online marketing success . . .
Make money online blogging . . . create your blog free

They are: Successful Blog, Performancing, Copyblogger, Problogger, and Blogger taglines. Each one tells the promise of the blog they describe.

  1. Follow this step by step coaching session on to write a killer tagline.

  2. For more resources, you might review the 25 additional links to posts about taglines included in this piece.

A blog on its own is not really a business, but a wildly sticky, successful and outstanding blog has plenty in common with one. The more you know about your product, your readers, and what brings them together, the easier it will be to catch the attention of those who love what you do.

How are you serving the folks who read your blog?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!