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

Duct Tape Marketing has reasons to suggest we repurpose an old slogan.
A lot of people are telling you that content is king, and to a certain degree it is, but your head is swimming and you’re thinking, “how do I create all this content and education based material when I’ve got a business to run? You say I need a blog, newsletter, white papers, podcast, training courses, instructional videos, I mean, how do I get it all done?”

Abundance Highway has reasons to think life has plenty to offer.
Last Sunday we parked in a different place and I saw the wonderful tile montage above, on the wall of the Local Family Day Care Centre.

I don’t normally take my camera to the markets, but at the last minute I had put it in my bag. I had the idea for this post but didn’t imagine capturing something so wonderful.

Alister Cameron has reasons to be calling out uber WordPress Theme testers.
So Vanilla adds a simple admin screen offering most of the layout options available with the YUI grids. This means that theme developers can now create new WordPress themes (or retro-fit old favourites) so that they can accommodate any one of dozens (maybe hundreds?!) of different layout combinations.

Online Public Relations has reasons to say, “Buyer Beware!”
Many have come up with fantastic theories about how votes followed by actual comments can bring a certain number of visitors; social media gurus wrote pages and pages about how to increase Stumble traffic, how to become a “top stumbler” and so on, and so on! Apparently everyone wants to fool or game the system.

Thinking Home Business has reasons to remind us it’s okay to think small about home business.
As a small business – indeed home based – provider of coaching and social media consulting services, I doubt I’m unique in feeling sometimes that I am at a disadvantage in competing against bigger companies, with more people, deeper pockets, big brands, often with “incumbency rights” with clients I would like to have.

Barry J. Moltz has reasons to like a company that break the rules.
I called the American Airlines Admirals Club to allow her admission even though I am a member (and an Executive Platinum Flyer) but not her.

Related ala carte selections include

Essential Keystrokes has reasons to come to Chicago and I can’t wait until she does!
Have you seen the pictures from last year? Everyone I interact with daily in the blogosphere and consider to be leaders in the field was there! Anyhow, I have checked the calendar (May 2-4, 2008) and it looks like I just might be able to sneak out to Chicago this year. I’m not missing this opportunity twice.

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

Chris Brogan gets to the heart of getting everything done.
I’ve been working towards learning how to scale my skillsets up to this next level, trying to rapidly prototype what I have to know how to do to get everything on my plate done. I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned with you, because at some levels, I think this is useful “how to” information for anyone working in the Creative class.

Logic and Emotion gets to the heart of Interaction 08.
The people at interaction 08 came from a number of different backgrounds. Graphic design, Information Architecture, Industrial Design, Programming, Development, Web Design, and others that I’m probably missing. Everyone seemed to share the same struggle—what exactly do we call what we do and how do we evalngilize the value we provide?

Conversation Agent gets to the heart of what a corporate blog can be.
Clearly not every company should have a blog. Last year I wrote about how to build a social media strategy. Without one, there can be no clear path to success. To me the most important point to consider is the organization’s cultural readiness.

All Things Workplace gets to the heart of whatevery leader should ask.
Greater profitability and increased effectiveness drives your business success. Yet your bottom line results also depend on how well you manage your emotions.

Diva Marketing gets to the heart of business relationships.
On Valentine’s Day it seemed like a fun post to explore business relationships. How do you build great business relationships with people? Do “clients” and “partners/vendors/suppliers” (I’m never sure word to use)have different points of view about what is important for each?

Greg Verdino gets to the heart of six-word life stories.
Could you write your memoir in just six words?

Related ala carte selections include

Servant of Chaos gets to the heart of 10 years of Cluetrain.
As I suggested in this post, the Cluetrain still holds sway over our imaginations because its promises are yet to be achieved. This is not a criticism, but in fact, indicates its visionary nature.

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

Business and Blogging thinks it’s time to understand how authenticity makes relationships.
Authenticity and connection is a cornerstone of successful blogging. Blogs are an opportunity for consumers to get insight into the behind the scenes working of corporations and small businesses – not be further distanced, distracted or duped.

Dumb Little Man thinks it’s time for commitment to our goals.
There is a way to reach your goals faster and easier than your current method. In fact it’s so powerful and surefire that many people avoid it. Why? Because it forces you to do the work that will make your dreams come true.

Craigh Harper thinks it’s time to be pleased with who we are.
I understand how important it is for you to be liked, loved and accepted but the irony is that in trying to be everything for everybody, you seem to be losing you.

PsychCentral thinks its time to know what we’re disclosing.
When you share and disclose aspects of your personal health with the world, it is something very different than when you share and disclose your favorite books or hobbies or musical groups

Blogging Sueblimely thinks it’s time we knew about our searching options.
Google Search does has a lot going for it. It is the most popular, many people are happier staying with something they are familiar with and it integrates with so many other highly used services, mostly its own.

Related ala carte selections include

Doing Biz Abroad is reminding of times to celebrate!

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 is talking about influencing behavior.
This doesn’t mean that you should deceive customers or readers by providing false or misleading facts but rather, that its useful to situate your marketing campaigns within frames which appeal to your audience’s interests.

Christine Kane is talking about influencing how we look at our lives. You can make it job-related (getting fired) or home related (getting evicted) or even health related. It’s not the situation that matters. It’s how you handle the situation.

Seth’s Blog is talking about the difference between influence and hype.
The idea that a single influential individual (even a blogger like Guy or a talk show host like Oprah) can individually change the herd is crazy, and I don’t think anyone has argued that.

Problogger is talking about other people using our influence without our knowledge.
Last week I had a quick conversation with Seth Godin via email about Twitter and in passing I mentioned his Twitter account. I was shocked to get a response to him saying that he doesn’t use Twitter and that the account I was referring to was actually being run by someone else (who that is I’m not sure).

Simplenomics is talking “too much” influence.
I’ll guarantee that you’re too something. Your company is too something. Your website is too something and your marketing is too something.

Trevor’s Writing is talking about the editor’s influence on what we write.
In the editing stage you need to go back over every word in the piece of writing; it doesn’t matter if it’s a fifty word filler paragraph or a five hundred thousand word novel.

Related ala carte selections include

Drew’s Marketing Minute is talking about the influence of color on a brand.
But sometimes, people do crazy, unexpected things with your brand. Take M&M’s for instance. We’ve all known about the powers of the green M&Ms for years. Pretty darn sure the folks at The Mars Company didn’t start that myth.

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

Copyblogger is sharing the changes he sees in the blogosphere.
And yet, we’re barely into the new year and I have repeatedly bumped up against old school bloggers who are still spouting the same dogma from circa 2004.

David Airey is sharing a powerful technique for stopping theft.
Lately I’ve been finding more and more bloggers lifting images directly from my server and using them on their own blogs / websites. Not only is this stealing, but it’s also using up the bandwidth you’re paying your web host for.

Director Tom is sharing secret sins — seems like more than corporate video clients face these.
This post will take a brief look at the five temptations from the perspective of a potential corporate video client.

Blogging Sueblimely is sharing the mysteries of a tag.
When discussing accessibility techniques in blogs, I mentioned the importance of using the “alt” attribute. Here I am going to define it further, show you the positive aspects of using “alt” and how to use it to its best advantage.

Freelance Writing Gigs is sharing the haunts of great subjects.
When I first began writing I used to dread interviewing anecdotal and expert sources. Not because I didn’t like the interview process, but because I had no idea where to find interview subjects.

Related ala carte selections include

Michale Sync is sharing the strangest things.
I started collecting the list of strangest websites on the net since last year. Now, I have quite a few links in my bookmark and decided to share them with you all today.

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

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