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

gregverdino shares a logical look at the importance of community.
You can understand a lot about the importance of social connections by looking at the punishments we bestow upon individuals who do wrong.

Copyblogger shares a technique that builds performance.
In fact, being a master at writing killer bullet points is one of the most important copywriting skills around, second only to headline-writing.

chrisg shares advice on putting your blog to work for you.
Rob has done a good job of putting his photography front and center, and his photographic ability shines out of his work. That said, there are a number of ways he can make his site work harder for him.

chrisbrogan shares friends of his who are our friends too!
Using AllTop’s new Frienderati page might help you find Becky McCray, a small town business professional who focuses on how the web can help out small business owners, especially those in rural areas.

Social Media Explorer shares a view of social media marketing management.
Can social media as a toolset deliver sustainable ROI for a wide variety of goals? Abso-freaking-lutely. But on your first formal attempt to enter the space, if your ROI consists of “we learned an awful lot” then I say “Well done, Skippy.”

A Deaf Mom Shares Her World shares wisdom on social skills that apply to everyone.
What she said next, blew me away. The mom revealed that it was the first time since they moved three years ago that her sons had friends over to their house.

Related ala carte selections include

Sillyness, werd. shares the fun of a well-timed surprise.

Thanks to everyone who’s bought and blogged about the eBook!

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

Productivity in Context makes a point about working together and does it via an interview.
When I got to meet Ryan face-to-face at SOBCon in Chicago this past May, I asked him about those discussions and how they led to a new product being offered by the company that he worked for.

Diva Marketing Blog makes a point about what happens when we know people.
I wondered if it would have made a difference to any of them if they knew the clerk behind the counter. I wondered if they would have bought more stamps, shipped more packages or been more patient if they had read a Postal employee’s blog.

Chris Webb makes a point that applies to more than book reviews.
We always hope for positive reviews of our books, but there is a rare and magical event that only occurs every once in a while. It is the ability of a single review or recommendation to propel a book to bestseller status.

the brandbox makes a point about when more is too much — unless you’re good with cream cheese.
Here’s why I’m adamant that a focused brand beats an “everything” brand any day (unless you’re a bagel).

Viral Garden makes a point about learning the culture in a new country.
But I saw an interesting example yesterday of how companies need to know the unwritten ‘rules’ of interacting with people via these sites/tools.

The Broad Brush makes a point about what prepares us to be successful.
You can’t go home until the paint is dry – folks want to come on the soc net scene and splash around and think they’ve done it.

Related ala carte selections include

Director Tom points out the big question.

Thanks to everyone who’s bought and blogged about the eBook!

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

Pick the Brain is celebrating our ability to make our own success.
The brain has great difficulty in distinguishing between what’s true and what’s imagined.

Just Creative Design is celebrating the wonders of paper.
Paper has a feel, a smell, a look and a vibe that cannot be reproduced, no matter how many pixels you cram into a display. It has attributes that cannot be bestowed upon any other medium. It is something that enriches our lives and minds in ways most of us don’t even realise or notice. Paper is beautiful.

Debbie Millman is celebrating the joy of logos!
Click on the image, and then click on “all sizes” to see it in its full regalia.

The Marketing Fresh Peel is celebrating simplicity.
SIMPLE IDEA.

Zoomstart is celebrating the differences of the sexes.
Most products and services have a very specific demographic that’s either male or female. And your marketing has to appeal to the gender you’re selling to.

chrisjdavis isn’t celebrating a reunion with Alf.
But wait, there is salvation on the internets I am told, some wonderful person with stylish hair and perfect teeth I am sure, has released a stand alone app that interfaces with Hulu. Its a new day, everyone lives and they get a pony in every pot and a chicken to ride all their very own!

Conversation Agent is celebrating online as reputation managment experience.
Why online? Everyone is online. Online is easy to spot, track and measure. It boggles my mind why more companies are not listening and acting.

Related ala carte selections include

Middle Zone Musings is lighting some fireworks of his own doings.
OK, folks; this may come as a shock to you (bolt of lightning, crash of thunder), but there have been some exciting recent developments I just had to share with ya…

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 Art of Non-Conformity draws up plans for World Domination. Download it. Read the comments. They’ll tell you why.
Greetings from Seattle, Washington. I present to you your own copy of my promised manifesto, modestly entitled A Brief Guide to World Domination.

Win Extra draws the line at pimping ads to your friends.
Not only are your friends now pimping products to you they can also gain points every time you click on an ad they have suggested through this FriendRank system.

Middle Zone Musings draws a picture of humility found in a handshake.
Have you ever experienced a shining moment of glory, only to find out it, er, wasn’t what you thought? Yep; thought so.

Jonathan Fields draws an analogy about being where we are.
When we tweet everything we are experiencing in a conversation, concert or gathering of like-minded people, does the very activity of tweeting somehow take away from our ability to enjoy the bigger activity?

Related ala carte selections include

pingable draws up a list of spectacular free themes.

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

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

I’ll Do It Myself Blog lays out some staggering marketing missed opportunities.
This under tapped market has $175 billion in discretionary spending power. That figure is more than twice the spending power of American teenagers and almost 18 times the spending power of the American “tweens” market.

Remarkablogger lays out the real strengths of the blogging platform.
The blog format is extraordinarily flexible. It can adapt itself into all kinds of uses. This flexibility is applicable to business blogs in a variety of ways–especially if your audience isn’t even sure what a blog is.

Social Media Explorer lays out a problem with the vocabulary of social networking.
This Google Blog Search result of a Friend Feed post of mine, which incidentally had nothing to do with Robert, but was a question I posed on the Social Media Club’s Friend Feed room, seems to indicate, however, that I am Robert’s friend.

Confident Writing lays out another set of questions in a great series.
You need to pay as much (if not more) attention to the framework for your question as you do the question itself.

Here are 7 things to think about before you add your questions to the bottom of the page . . .

Christine Kane lays out some learning from a unexpected source.
Let’s hearken back to the early days of email.

You dial up. You listen to the squeaky scratchy noises. You wait for the AOL man to say “Welcome!” You wait to see if he’s finished his greeting, or if he’s simply pausing before telling you the exciting news: “You’ve got mail!”

Related ala carte selections include

It’s NOT about Your Stuff has great news!

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

DOSH DOSH follows the way the AP reconstructed the news delivery model. It’s a useful content model. Worth some thinking.

While you might not own a large online newspaper, the points listed in this article can be applied to your blog or online magazine. Apart from having strong information sources, it’s important to organize content in a way which provokes greater audience involvement.

Kent Blumberg has some advice for working with millenials. He got it from by asking them.
Competition will be stiff for the really good ones. If you want to attract and retain the best, you will want to know more about what floats a 24 year old’s boat.

BIGG Success asks something we sometimes never realize. Read the post and listen to the podcast.
George said he’s been fishing at times when he would have been happy to catch any fish at all. He’s even had times when his friend a few feet away was catching all kinds of fish.

So he found out what his friend was using – what bait or lure – and changed his, but he still didn’t catch any fish. He concluded he was fishing in the wrong hole.

The Art of Non-Conformity has news!
You may not have realized how rich you are, so I thought I’d show you how it breaks down in real, measurable terms. And don’t worry—there are no guilt trips or anything messy like that. It’s all good news, at least for you.

Pajama Professional asks “are you done dreaming?”
If you have been online for more than a week then you most likely already know everything you need to know to start making money online. Understanding what you need to do isn’t the hard part. The hard part is looking past all the crap that will stand in the way of you and your paycheck.

Moments of Clarity asks a huge question in a short post. Should we be responding by learning new skills?
Instead of driving or flying around to pitch prospects…can we create video presentations instead that will blow them away? I think so.

Related ala carte selections include

TODDAND calls attention to the “Doodle 4 Google” competition.

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