personal-branding Archives - Page 9 of 41

Bloggy Question 45: Take a Long Look

April 16, 2007 by Liz

In what way might this represent a blog?

Do you even think that it does?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Are you going to SOBCon 07?

Bloggy Question 44: Stay Out of My Life!

April 15, 2007 by Liz

Worse than a Scraper

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . .

You know the problem of people stealing your content. You’ve even handled that before. Every time you found a blog with your content, you’ve managed to sleuth enough to get an address or phone number, some sort of contact where could knock the door. Then you’ve made it clear that the content question MUST come down or you will alert the authorities of the theft. And lucky you, it’s gone your way every time.

But this time it’s different, because the content is totally rewritten. Only it mirrors what you write. Even the title of the blog is Echo Your Blog. Now they’ve started picking up the same stock images and sometime even the occasional family photo or photo of you and your friends.

It’s not only creepy. It’s begun to feel like you have a stalker not a fan.

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Bloggy Question 43: Love or Money?

April 8, 2007 by Liz

I Don’t Like You

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . .

Someone has approached you about buying your blog. He wants all of it, lock, stock, and barrel. Well, that is, you can remove — delete any personal references. All other content, deisgn, widgets, and every other little bit will go to the new owner.

The new owner is . . . a guy you just can’t stand. He runs about 4 other blogs that you think are ugly, poorly kept, badly written, and inaccuate when they don’t seem to have copy you suspect is scraped.

The price offered is US$15,000. He’s ready to wire it to your bank account.

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Bloggy Question 42: Responding to Comments

April 1, 2007 by Liz

Who Are Comments About?

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . .

This really happened.

I was talking to another blogger this week about comments and conversations. Our dialogue turned to the topic of interesting and noteworthy comments we’ve received on our blogs. My friend spoke of one comment that we found both curious and worthy of discussion.

The commenter was explaining the rights of a blog publisher to turn off comments when a post gets older, because “the comments on my blog are about me.”

My friend, the blogger, is interested in how you would answer that comment.

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Bloggy Question 41: The Junior High Sleep Over

March 25, 2007 by Liz

Save Me From Teenage Children. . .

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . .

This afternoon you pass your son’s room. He has two boys from his 8th grade class over. All three 13-year-old boys are gathered around his computer. When you pass, they go red in the face and get totally silent.

The silence is a dead giveaway that you need to check on what they’ve been doing.

You’re too fast. You make it there before they realize your intent to check the computer. You find them on a flickr page of a 13-year-old girls’ sleepover. All of the girls are nearly naked. All of the girls are posed quite provactively. All of the girls are in your son’s class at school.

Your son immediately begins accusing you of invading his privacy.

After you send the other boys home, you son begs you not to ruin his life.

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Self Promotion: Telling Stories for the Painfully Shy

March 14, 2007 by Liz

Pleeeasse Don’t Look at Me

I was a painfully shy child. They called me “Bashful.” Pictures of me hiding my face or crying on picture day aren’t hard to find. People looking at me make me very self-conscious. Many folks find that a surprise. I write this post for everyone who is shy.

In the conversation on the last post about self-promotion, GL Hoffman said

I find the best and most engaging way is to tell a brief story that sets up your work.

Gl also left a great link to a post on talking about what you do.

I so agree with what GL says that I’m going to tell you a story about telling stories. This is the reason that most folks don’t think I’m shy.

The Story about Telling Stories

My son was also a painfully shy child. He didn’t like people looking at him. When other young children were saying “Hi!” He was a child like I had been — hiding or being uncooperative about such things. Then one day, when he was about thirteen, I noticed a change in his behavior. He had suddenly become entertaining.

That day at work I spoke to a close friend about it. “You know my son has finally found a way to deal with the world. He gets entertaining, telling stories about what he wants to say rather than actually saying it. It’s so interesting. The shift is slight, but I can see it. By doing that he makes so that people are looking at him telling a story, they’re not actually looking at him — who he is.”

My friend Peg said, “Gee, I wonder where he got that from.”

“Guilty. I don’t mind if you look at my work. I think it’s fine if you watch me teach, or speak, or explain something I know. But I sure get self-conscious if I think you are looking at me.”

That’s why GL’s advice is particularly strong.

If you’re self-conscious about self-promoting, explain what you do by telling a story. Then people will be listening to the story and seeing the storyteller in you.

It works. I’ve been doing it since I was 13 too.

–Me “Liz” Strauss

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