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SOB Business Cafe 12-08-06

December 8, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

SB Cafe

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 title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

The Publishing Spot offers a way to find balance.

I dont think Id be sane if

Success Begins Today finds a way to include people in optimum performance.

Optitasking at Work

Blogopreneur asks questions worth considering.

Who Do You Define As Authority Today?

CypherHacks explains how to do tricks with Adsense.

Display adsense in certain posts in WordPress

Carpe factum suggests you don’t take the bipolar express.

The Bi-Polar Express

Creative Think offers ideas on how to loosen up.

Loosen Up

Related ala carte selections include

Orbit Now is offering a great service.

Why I want to be your mentor

Converstations asks Steve Farber to explain what OS!M means.

Without OSM You Got Nuthin

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

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Blogopreneur, Carpe-Factum, Converstations, Creative-Think, CypherHacks, Orbit-Now, Steve-Farber, success-Begins-today, The-Publishing-Spot

Blog Design Types: How Do They Affect Reader Comments?

December 1, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

I've been thinking . . .
Yesterday, I had breakfast with Steve Farber. Our discussion included comments and conversation on blogs. I mentioned what I’ve been noticing as I begin working with a designer on a facelift for Successful Blog.

The key point is that the longer I study designs I might like the more I realize that design affects how and whether I comment.

It makes sense really. We recognize a restaurant we want to try by its decor. We decorate our houses to reflect what is important to us. Why wouldn’t blog design reflect the blog owner and the audience? It seems a natural next step to think that blog design affects whether I comment.

Not all readers respond as I do, but decades working with readers online and off has taught me that many do. So, I’ve collected these thoughts:

  1. Some designs are all rules or all whimsy. They might be mature and thoughtful, but they have no emotion. They might be fun and friendly, but they have no sophistication. It’s hard for me to find a fit in either. If I don’t fit, I worry that my comments will be misinterpreted. Designers should know I comment on these blogs despite design not because of it.
  2. Some designs are highly structured — all things are outlined and in boxes. I know from print, that some folks find high-structure a comfort and others find it limiting. High-structure design makes me feel there is only one right answer. I’m careful when I comment on blogs with high-structure designs. I think that information bloggers and corporate blog designers should know this about me.
  3. Some designs are wide open — the extreme example is the white page with no lines or boxes. The overall feeling could translate to standing on an open prairie where horizon is visible in all directions. I so like reading these blogs that I thought this was an option I might try, but when I went to comment on one my comment seemed so public. It didn’t mind sharing my thoughts in this venue, but I knew I’d never get in deep discussion. Someone who wants me to get to the point and keep moving should be aware of this response.
  4. Some designs have a sense of openness and intimacy about them. They offer a defined space with atmosphere that offers room to breathe and think, and a boundary from the rest of the world. These designs feel fresh and familiar at the same time. I seem to know I’ll like people I’ll find there before I start to read. Designers looking to build a community blog should understand the attraction of these intangibles.

We know Successful-Blog is about relationships and conversation. Our kind of dialogue takes place in comfortable spaces, in places intimate and nonjudgmental. High-trust environments don’t happen when there’s only one right answer, when the whole world is watching, or when we have no sense of where we are or who we’re talking to.

Great design weds emotion and structure. Great designers weave and craft the subtle and intangible values of a brand into a design. Great design underpins and underscores who you and your readers are. It is the visual expression of the story your blog is telling in the words.

My comments might begin with a thought, but the execution, the actual writing involves a personal, emotional investment — a putting myself out there. A blog’s design helps me understand whether I’ll be supported in that effort. I guess it tells whether my comment is welcome.

How does the design of your blog reinforce the story of who you are? What else have you noticed about how design makes you feel while you are reading a blog?

Liz's Signature

Filed Under: Blog Comments, Design, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog comments, blog-design, personal-branding, Steve-Farber

SOB Business Cafe 11-17-06

November 17, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

SB Cafe

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 title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Steve Farber wrote the handbook on being extreme.

the Extreme Leader's Online Interactive Handbook

SuccessCREEations has something fresh to say about business blogging. Don’t let the title fool you . . .

Business Blogging 101 [2]

Make It Great! has a question for you about Raj Setty’s book.

Want to Win a Book

Howard Lindzon explains how brave and shameless work in the world of Web2.0

Borat and Paris Hilton have something in common

Innovation Zen starts the year end with the first list of cool stuff.

Best Office Inventions 2006

Related ala carte selections include

Blog Chalk Talk demonstrates how to get through an in-box like a surgeon.

Chilly Morning Blogger Email Autopsy Slash Vivisection

The Zero Boss serves the tip of the day with attitude. Be sure to capture the URL for Ice Rocket, if you’ve never been there.

Blog Tip of the Day UTW

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

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats Tagged With: bc, Blog-Chalk-Talk, Howard-Lindzon, Innovation-Zen, MakeItGreat, Steve-Farber, SuccessDREEations, The-Zero-Boxx

Finding Your Frequency in Business and in Life

September 8, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

I've been thinking . . .

I’d known him for 7 years when, in 1995, I hired him as my “partner-in crime,” and my intellectual sounding board. Officially he was a consultant on an internaltional venture.

That week he’d introduced me to my counterparts in the UK — 23 meetings in 10 days. After the last meeting, he suggested a leisurely lunch on the next day, before I left for Heathrow. . . .

We’re close friends, but I didn’t know about lunch.

Finally, I said, “Only if you show up. I don’t want to see the guy who’s been with me all week — I want the person I know.”

Lunch was at a small bistro. The fruit crème brûlée was spectacular. The wine was wonderful. The conversation was even more than I’d hoped for.

My friend had one way to be in business and another in real life. I suppose that’s not so uncommon. . . .

But that doesn’t mean it’s the best way. Does it?

Steve Farber, was working for Tom Peters way back then. Now he’s a leadership coach and author of Radical Leap and Radical Edge, a two-book narrative on extreme leadership and personal growth. He’s got words for what I was thinking and where I want to go.

In Radical Edge, the characters — Steve, himself, is one — call what I’m thinking of finding your frequency. They say these things about it in a scene over dinner.

“The first thing we have to do is find our frequency, find our station, the one thing that clearly expresses who we are at our core.”

“You have no business, no money no life without yourself right at the center.”

“I don’t know how much of that I could have accomplished if I hadn’t found my frequency.

Steve wrote the book, and he questioned the idea, “Human beings are more complicated than than that.”

He got this answer.

“Yes they are, But it’s not about finding your frequency by ruling out everything else; on the contrary, it’s about finding the frequency that includes all those other important values and ideals. The very act of trying to wrap it all up is what’s really important, because in order to do so, you have . . . define them, think them through, understand them to their core, and evaluate your life against each one.”

I can’t quit thinking about how much sense that makes. It’s the extreme added-value of relationships to really “show up” at the table. It’s the “authentic voice” of leadership, of being who I am I could argue that it’s what my gene pool was designed for.

Talk about finding a way to make a life, change the world, and have no regrets that you’ve used what you’ve got.

If you know what you value, you value what you have to offer.

 

I’m tuning out the static, to home in on my signal.

Can you hear me now?

Is this better?

Imagine what we can do when we can actually hear each other.

Liz's Signature

Filed Under: Business Book, Business Life, Motivation, Personal Branding, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Business Book, Extreme-Leadership, Finding-your-frequency, Radical-Edge, Radical-Leap, Steve-Farber

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