Successful Blog

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: We’re Talking eBooks!

by

Join Us Tonight

We’re Talking eBooks!

The Internet almost drowns us in information. Savvy folks know that, with the right search skills, we find the answer to almost any question. Does it make sense to publish information in the form of eBooks and other information products? Tonight it’s about eBooks — Do we read them? Do we write them? Do we buy them? Do we sell them?
Has an eBook changed your life in any way?

Oh, and bring example links to share —

The rules are simple — be nice.

Do be nice. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

7 Tweaks to Your Social Presence to Reflect Your Expertise

by


Does Your Presence Look Expert to You?

The Living Web

People speak and write a lot about personal branding. Online that breaks down to presence which in simple terms is reputation and focus. Both become enhanced when we highlight our expertise in a strategic and consistent fashion.

7 Tweaks to Your Social Presence to Reflect Your Expertise

Experts have authentic skills, knowledge, and experience. But some of us with those exact traits have more insight to making sure those traits shine through. Here are 7 ways to manage your online presence to be seen as the expert you are.

  • Walk your own path. Be the expert you are, not the expert someone else is. You can’t be compared. You’re not a fanboy or a fangirl. Differentiate what you offer from the start. Play to your strengths. Check your social networking profiles — at Facebook, SU, Twitter, etc. –to see that they underscore the same differentiated traits.
  • Focus on ONE thing Make that one thing particularly suited to you. Be a “go to” person for a specific problem. Then find a way to meet that need that no one else can do the same way you do.
  • Write expert answers and content — LinkedIn question and answers are a great place to do this. Seek out questions about your chosen point of expertise throughout the Internet and write thought, precise, actionable answers to them. Give information, examples, AND analysis. Occasionally offer evaluation, synthesis, or predictions.
  • Always know what’s happening with folks who need what you do. Join the sites and the offline groups where your potential customers and clients hang out. Refer and promote customers and clients whenever you can. Sometimes they’ll need a helping hand and they’ll remember the expert who helped them out.
  • Know your niche in detail. Get to be friends with Google Alerts and discovery services. Follow key terms around the Internet.
  • Be an expert at helping colleagues. Don’t be shy about sharing information. Talk with them. Visit and comment on their blogs. Ask them for an interview. Guest post now and then. Help others in visible ways — on your blog, on Twitter, through Facebook groups.
  • Go deep. (Don’t be shallow.) Find out what researchers are thinking so that you can offer the highest quality, relevant information and analysis. Add information to the conversation that no one has found.

An expert to most people is someone who more knowledge, skills, and experience than we do . . . never discount how much expertise you’ve gained or it’s value.

What else might we do to let our expertise show through?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Listening

by

Still Yourself and Hear the World

Yesterday morning, when I got to my computer, I could hear the rain outside.
I stopped to listen. I could hear the white noise around the air moving.
The sound was soothing, clear, and refreshing.
Outside and below, cars were rushing toward the city.
It was a whooshing sound of tires on the pavement. I didn’t have to look to know it.

In the kitchen, the coffeemaker began telling me that it was working.
I listened, then, to the quiet hummmmmm of the air conditioning.

I settled back in my desk chair just to listen.

Quiet, silence filled with sounds I don’t usually hear.
Raindrops sliding down a window, my heart beating, my eye blinking as I look at the harbor.

RainyMorning_by_Liz_Strauss

And last night a fabulous thunderstorm returned me to that peaceful, listening feeling.

What if we listened to each other like we listen to the rain?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Chitika – An Update from a SOBCon Sponsor

by

Chitika LogoI have had couple of e-mail conversations with Jeff Sable of Chitika, and he asked me to share with all of you some of the new features of this service that have been incorporated since May.

Good morning. I would very much welcome an opportunity to introduce Chitika’s Premium ad program to the SOBCon audience. We have been known for years as a blog ad network but we were a strict product niche (i.e. we had product ad widgets for blogs that discussed products). With our Premium program we have significantly increased the advertiser base (we still have product ads but now we also have great ads for ALL blog sites) and we have improved our targeting technology.

The results? More money for more bloggers. Publishers with Chitika|Premium ads are seeing eCPMs are as high as $71 (averaging slightly higher than $2), with click through rates as high as 13.5% (averaging approximately 1.5%) and we now have high-performing advertisements for any type of web site (product sites and non-product sites in all verticals).

Note, Premium ads will only display to a portion of a blogger’s US traffic but when they display they perform very well. The ad units are available in 2 dozen sizes. For more information please visit Chitika or contact jeff at chitika dot com.

Thanks for the update, Jeff. I imagine that many of the attendees will be interested in this service as they work toward building their blogs into media properties.

Social Bookmarking to Manage Your Online Presence

by


Are Your Bookmarks Working for You?

The Living Web

Are you reading more and enjoying it less? Are you voting up links that you haven’t read as a favor to a friend? Has the social part of social networking overtaken the information exchange that once was there? Do you race to read headlines and never finish the post that they name?

How many thousands of links do you suppose are recommended on SU, Digg, Reddit, and Delicious? After you put one there how often do you go back?

Chris Miller brought up a great point . . . Social Bookmarking: The Race to Be Famous or a Useful Tool?

Did you / will you go read Chris’ post or just take my word?

We don’t try to see every movie. We don’t try to read every book. We know that life isn’t long enough for that. But for some reason, many of us seem to think that we need 700 feeds and to bookmark them all for thousands of friends.

I’m learning that the best use of bookmarking sites — to manage my reputation and focus my efforts — is to capture information I want to keep.

I’m only capturing to a specific list of criteria.

  • I capture information that I know will be useful for a project or a proposal that I’m working on or about to write.
  • I capture blog posts that I hear myself quote in conversation, because I know I’ll want to find them again.
  • I capture well-written articles that change the way I think about my work or my life.
  • I capture anything that makes me think, “I wish I (wrote / thought of) that.”

You might note, I didn’t say that I capture things because they were written by a friend.

This change in my bookmarking behavior has made a significant difference in two critical aspects of my online presence.

Reputation Online reputation is made of everything we put under our name. Now what I bookmark naturally reflects me. When potential friends and clients visit my page they see something that is consistent with who I am, what I do, and what I’m working on.

But even more . . .

Focus I’m more focused on my business goals. I don’t spend time on information I don’t need. I find that I read more carefully what I choose to read. I also stop to think about why I bookmark what I capture and keep. Sometimes I only clip a quote. Sometimes I keep an entire piece. I even think about where I put things based on the people who use that list.

I’ll still vote up your work, if you call to my attention things that match my goals, values, and who I am.

What do your bookmarks say about you? How might you use them to manage your online presence more successfully?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Do Something!

by


Don’t Leave a Great Idea Sitting Here!

Steps-up_by_Liz_Strauss

A friend from my days in publishing has thousands of ideas to every one of mine. Being with her is both exciting and frustrating, because she imagines potential futures, but can’t see whether they’ll play out usefully.

On the Internet, it seems that everyone has thousands of ideas . . . even me. With so much information and conversation around us, each day brings a passel of potential futures to discuss and dream.

We learn about how to build things. We talk about what we could do and be. We imagine repurposing what already is. We innovate, create, and ideate, almost without thinking.

The problem is that too often we don’t DO anything.

If the idea is as great as we think it is, why don’t we build it, create it, execute, and deliver it?

Some ideas can’t stand up the stress of such things. They start unraveling.

Other ideas could be wonderful futures but no one cares enough to produce what they describe. Doing something is where the real work begins. We have to show up, step up, and invest ourselves to build a reality.

What will you DO with your ideas today?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!