Successful Blog

What Makes a Blog Compelling?

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Talk to Me

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What will make a blog compelling to a user?

It’s a favorite question. Getting people to come and stay is what I do, and talking about it is almost as much fun. I might have said it in a slightly more corporate way, but what I answered was basically this.

Humanity is what’s compelling. We’re all hungry for a connection that makes us feel real.

Quality content that serves real human needs served up by a real human being is the combination of three things: head, heart, and practical meaning. Put them together and a blog — or rather one who writes it — can make a reader feel inspired, moved to action, and wholly alive.

People recognize the real deal.

Visitors to a barroom or a blog figure out quickly whether they get to be who they really are, and whether that’s okay with everyone already there.

Authenticity allows everyone to tell their own truth and feel valued for it.

When that “feeling valued” happens, we give back — in attention, participation, and loyalty. When we’re invested, we don’t walk away.

That’s the heart of compelling.

A compelling blog is human in every way.

What makes a blog compelling to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Register Now!! for sobcon-vmc

Recently, working with a client, I was asked the question,

Half Empty, Half Full, or a New View on an Old Question?

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about new views on old questions …

All we we’ve been looking out the window watching the harbor. It’s not completely frozen.

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Though I’d like to think that it’s a sure sign that spring is coming soon. With the temperatures sitting at the freezing point it seems that another cold snap could take the harbor back in short order.

I can’t help but think of the question about the half glass of water … is it half empty or half full? View the question from a different direction, it could be that the glass is the wrong size … The answer could be “full: if the glass were smaller.

It’s got me wondering how I might look at a half-frozen harbor with a different view.

New views on old questions lead to new answers. Ever solved a problem by changing your view?

Liz's Signature

Thanks to Week 227 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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colderice
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social-media-24-7
viperchill

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Because You Asked — BlogIt EarnIt $250 Off Discount Extended to April 1

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A Room of Excellence to Fine Tune Your Business

sobcon-vmc

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise of the Internet …

  • to focus entirely on your business
  • to work with the support of a mastermind team
  • to get quality time to interact with the top people in social media
  • to get the best information AND time to discuss how you’ll apply it
  • to work with sponsors who are doing the same thing
  • in a room limited to 150 people — all focused in the same direction
  • without worry because the food and the wireless are outstanding.

Imagine a weekend work retreat with these people totally invested in sharing this content.

The BlogIt EarnIt Discount Until April 1!!

I’m delighted to announce that Terry and I get to make this offer …

Write a blog post about what “The Virtual Meets the Concrete” means to you. We want to celebrate how our relationships online help our lives and businesses online and off. Tell us why online and offline relationships and strategies matter.

Here’s how to qualify for the discount

1. Write a blog post about a person (or people) online or off who has (or have) made a difference in your life. Celebrate how they have made your life easier, better, smarter, more productive, more meaningful.

2. Then let us know by tagging your post #SOBCon2010 and leaving a comment with a link to it on this post. Include a working email with your comment and as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $250 off the $895 FULL conference rate – that’s over a 25% savings! (We won’t use your email to spam you.)

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon2010, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

We’re doing everything we can to bring you all the value, the experts and expertise, and the time to work and network that you need to make your business outstanding and extremely profitable in 2010.

What could you do with a weekend of the time, expertise, and support you need to focus your business?

SOBCon BlogIt EarnIt Discount Get $250 off until April 1

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Because You Asked …

sobcon-vmc

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise of the Internet …

  • to focus entirely on your business
  • to work with the support of a mastermind team
  • to get quality time to interact with the top people in social media
  • to get the best information AND time to discuss how you’ll apply it
  • to work with sponsors who are doing the same thing
  • in a room limited to 150 people — all focused in the same direction
  • without worry because the food and the wireless are outstanding.

Imagine a weekend work retreat with these people totally invested in sharing this content.

The BlogIt EarnIt Discount Until April 1!!

I’m delighted to announce that Terry and I get to make this offer …

Write a blog post about what “The Virtual Meets the Concrete” means to you. We want to celebrate how our relationships online help our lives and businesses online and off. Tell us why online and offline relationships and strategies matter.

Here’s how to qualify for the discount

1. Write a blog post about a person (or people) online or off who has (or have) made a difference in your life. Celebrate how they have made your life easier, better, smarter, more productive, more meaningful.

2. Then let us know by tagging your post #SOBCon2010 and leaving a comment with a link to it on this post. Include a working email with your comment and as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $250 off the $895 FULL conference rate – that’s over a 25% savings! (We won’t use your email to spam you.)

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon2010, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

We’re doing everything we can to bring you all the value, the experts and expertise, and the time to work and network that you need to make your business outstanding and extremely profitable in 2010.

What could you do with a weekend of the time, expertise, and support you need to focus your business?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon2010 NOW!!

Make the investment.

SOB Business Cafe 02-26-10

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Altitude
Today on Twitter’s #SMChat, DJ Waldow asked about professional uses for Twitter and what we got out of it.

In my first year as an independent consultant, I can attribute over $100K in revenue for my business directly to Twitter. How?

Small Biz Survival
Suzy and Tracie make bread in a little strip mall in Mishawaka, Indiana. They have a franchise with Great Harvest Bread Company. They give you free slices to sample. (Apple Scrapple is very good.) They are like lots of bread stores in lots of towns.

Their store/bakery is only a couple miles from our daughter’s college, but I never would have noticed it. It’s one of many stores in that mall, and there are many strip malls along Grape Road.

So how did Suzy sell me a muffin and a coffee mug?

Servant of Chaos
CMO.com released a handy chart with snapshot social media information designed as a quick heads up for chief marketing officers. It’s not a panacea and it doesn’t cover all the places, spaces and platforms – but it’s a great start.

Social Media Marketing Institute
You can bet I understand the importance of numbers. They are crucial to every business.

BUT…..(you knew this was coming)… everything you do in your life doesn’t have to have a concrete measurement. Todd Carpenter said, “if you coach a softball game”, do you measure the ROI of getting new clients?” Now, that is just silly. Of course not.

Lip Sticking
I’ve decided to step out and say what few people are willing to say: women business owners need to approach social media differently than male business owners.

Related ala carte selections include

Being Five …
If you truly believe something with all your heart …

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

I’m a proud affiliate of