Successful Blog

Ramping Up Visibility – 10 Strategic Locations

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Hello World, Can You See Me?

The Living Web

Every WordPress blog comes with an initial test post titled “Hello World!” as if the world might notice another blog post appear. We jump in. We write. We put our thoughts, sometimes our hearts, in the words and spaces. At some point we wonder if anyone, or enough anyones, will notice that we’re here . . . .

Ramp Up Your Visibility – 10 Strategic Locations

If we want to seen, we can’t lurk in the shadows. Sitting at home won’t get hordes of fans crowding around our web address. Commenting on blogs gets us noticed, but it takes time. What more we can do to get folks to see what we’ve got going on?

The key to visibility is being in strategic locations where people will show you off and where other people gather to look. Try ramping up your visibility from these 10 locations.

  1. Someone else’s blog. Offer the perfect guest post for a blog with slightly more reach than your own. Each week choose a quality blog that has more conversation than your own. Study the blog and its audience. Know what makes it tick. Longer posts or shorter posts? What’s the tone — serious? irreverent? Choose a topic that fits right in. Introduce yourself and explain why you chose that exact blog for the exact the fully-written guest post that you’re sending along.

  2. Free press release sites. Write a free press release. Learn the art of writing a press release about your latest news and offers. Spend time writing an attention grabbing headline and explaining the information in ways that get readers to care. Send it out a free press release service. Do one a day for a week. See what they bring. With a few tweaks your press release might also make an engaging post for your blog.

  3. Internet radio. Become an active fan of an Internet talk radio show. Listen often. Participate and ask questions. Get to know the host and the audience. Write a list describing a subject that you’re qualified to discuss with them. Send it off to the host in an email proposing yourself as a guest. Better yet, start your own show.

  4. One Social Network Group. Participate in one group at a social networking site. Rather than trying to keep up with every social networking site on the planet. Do some research and find the one which offers people and ideas that will help you grow. Start by finding groups active on a subject that you’re passionate about. Spend time writing your introduction and your profile. Let folks know what you’re interested in learning more about them and curious about how to become an active participant.

  5. The Giveaway Counter Give something away for free. Find a way to let people sample your work, by offering them a “taste” of what you do. Choose a service or product of value. Know exactly what the product or service will cost when you charge for it. Check to be sure that it’s clearly branded with how to find you. If you can, invite folks to take two, so that they can pass one along to a friend.

  6. Targeted email or forums. Invite bloggers to answer a compelling question. Use email to a short list of folks you want to get back in touch with. Or write on a forum that knows you. Ask a question that you know that many folks have interesting answers for. Use their answers to write a blog post. As you include each response, write a few sentences about the blogger who gave it. Promoting other people is a great way to get folks to notice you too.

  7. Twitter. Follow the bloggers on Twitter who most interest you. Listen to what folks have to say and respond when they ask questions. Interact intelligently and politely when a short conversation ensues. It won’t take long before you have a sense of who’s there, and they have a sense of who you are too.

  8. Virtual, audio, or brick and mortar classroom. Offer to teach something on the web, on the phone, or in person. You might make an open offer on your blog, or you might see someone with a problem and simply offer your help.

  9. An event. Attend meetups and events. If you can’t find any, start one yourself. Choose one conference or group you’ll be part of this year.

  10. YouTube. Make a video. Put it on YouTube. Put on your blog as well. Any video you make will tell folks something about you. Get some folks to Stumble and Digg it. Then call all of your friends.

Build a plan for letting folks know that you’re out here. Take your time. Pick the one location that most fits you and get going there first. Then move to your second choice. Every location offers an opportunity to reach out and let the living web know that you’re here.

What places and spaces for raising your visibility have worked for you? Which haven’t worked out at all?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Bloggy Question 72: And in a World Where Thinkers Meet Feelers

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How do we say we care?

ideas in bubbles

Thinkers and feelers. It’s not that we care less. We only care differently.

How do we explain that we care at all?

Sure seems like we need each other.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles

Bloggy Question 71: Blogging by Candlelight
Bloggy Question 70: How Do You Thank All of the Bloggers Who Have Helped You?
Bloggy Question 69: If You Could Be Anywhere . . .
Bloggy Question 68: 2 Palm Trees, You, Me
Bloggy Question 67: Doors . . .
Bloggy Question 66: If I Gave You a Yellow Rose

Broken Promises in a Head Filled with Shoulds

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Less Than Me

Personal Identity logo

I woke up this morning, finding myself wanting to be someone else. I had a head filled with shoulds — all things I should be doing or should be doing differently. It was playing out in my cells as some sort of anxiety, as if I’m less than enough.

Isn’t it interesting that, this word should one that I purposefully avoid when I write, becomes the word that gets my mind tied. Rather than propelling me forward to action. I sit here confused.

Each “should” taken on it’s own is a skill or discipline at which someone else excells. Not one of them is something that I particularly enjoy or need in my life.

So what’s behind these bossy feelings?

I set aside the self-imposed “shoulds.” I sit back to reflect on recent events. What I see first isn’t the good. — So much incredibly cool stuff is happening. I’m a daily celebration. — But the first thing that comes to mind is promises made and not kept. People have reasons for that. I understand. Do I really?

Maybe this is all about promises and what I believe people should be doing or doing differently. Maybe I didn’t want to judge them. So I judged me.

Suddenly, I’m not feeling the need to be someone else anymore. They can be them. I can be me. Whew! What a relief.

That head filled with shoulds is now down to one “will.”

I will enjoy letting the “shoulds” roll right off me.

Sundays are meant for much better things.

Liz's Signature

Thanks to Week 117 SOBs

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muddy teal strip A

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.

muddy teal strip A

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.

deep purple strip

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”

SOB Business Cafe 01-18-08

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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 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

18.5 Getting Free of Success Mythology

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The Secret of a Lifetime

Bounce! The Path to True Business Confidence

Are we at the end of the week already? In this five-day series, we’re talking with Barry Moltz about five key facets of his book, Bounce!: Failure, Resiliency, and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success, which goes on sale January 28, 2008.

Barry has explained what he means by the idea of Bounce! He’s shown us the three paths we’re told lead to success and why we should honor our failures. Then he’s explained how to enjoy a one-hit wonder. With this last question, we explore the mythology of success.

Barry, You talk in the book about ways to free ourselves from success myths that strangle us by “Downsizing our Dreams” and “Striving For Minimal Achievement.” People search a lifetime to find this type of secret. Can we really do that?

We are constantly told to conquer that next mountain. To grow our businesses and our careers as big as possible. To get richer, bigger better faster, Achievement has become our addiction. If so, why can’t we just lower the bar a bit. Get in touch with that inner laziness that up to this point has eluded us.

That is why I want all of you to commit to me that after this meeting that you will downsize our dreams and begin too define our own brand of success – not someone elses. Forget the grand vision. Besides there is always someone that is going to be richer, smarter or better looking than you- I know, not you but for the most of us.

First, we need to set patient, interim goals…get small!. I remember when I asked my Zen master when I first began mediating, how long I should mediate for- 15 minutes, half hour or an hour each day? He said that I should try it for a minute for each day for the next few months. If I was successful, I should go to two minutes. He always taught me to strive for minimal achievement by focusing on one small goal at a time This is where I learned when striving for new goals, what we important in the climb was not even to get a foothold. Get a toehold…if you can get some progress toward your goal, you have a better chance of achieving it in the long run.

..

Who won the race, the tortoise or the hare? And who lives longer. Hares live to 4 years old and tortoises, well the can live to 100

After downsizing our dreams and getting that toehold, we next figure out what will make us happily successful. Most of us will immediately say is to make a lot of money. Money is an important measure of success. It is how we keep score. But if we never get to that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, will our life trip be for nothing. However, we can all take solace that many people that have a lot of money are really unhappy!

Thanks, Barry, for five days of great conversation!
And thanks for lunch yesterday too.

Find more great information about Bounce! and advice on success and failure at BarryMoltz.com And buy his book Bounce!: Failure, Resiliency, and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success !!! I’ve read it. You should too!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

If you’d like Barry to do a guest post or an interview at your blog during his virtual book tour, email me at lizsun2 at gmail.com