Successful Blog

Are You Blogging for as Many or as Much?

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This guest post was contributed by friend and SOB, Jon Swanson. He often emails me about my writing. I find his observations incredibly valuable, thoughtful, and dear. –ME “Liz” Strauss

As many or as much?

by Jon Swanson

I’ve been blogging for a couple years. I read the wonderful writings of Liz and Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse who all talk specifically about blogging, about success in community. I have considered how to build my reach, how to monetize, how to do all of those things that make a blog successful.

And then I am forced to think deeply about this: as many … or as much?

In my life I often wrestle with whether to help as many people as possible or to help people as much as possible. I understand that there is a falseness in this forced choice, but humor me briefly.

I see needs. It’s one of the things that is part of who I am. I can hear hurt. I can see chaos. I can feel anxiety. And I like to help. Sometimes, I like to help as many people as possible, to spread information or money or ideas widely. But even as I am talking with or working with a large group, I see that one person at the edge of the group, the one being ignored by everyone. And I want to go to that person, to talk with them, to listen.

And now do you see the dilemma? In a fixed amount of time you can talk with a large group or you can listen to an individual, but you cannot do both.

I love cross-links as much as the next person. I love reach. But when I hear pain in someone’s ‘voice’, I have this desire to send them an email or a text or a DM. And that takes heart cycles that then can’t be spent elsewhere.

I know that it is possible to have different levels of relationship with different people. I know that many people are very caring. But I know that in order for me to be most effective as a person who blogs as part of my involvement in lives, I have to put more of my life into ‘as much’ than I do into ‘as many’.

As a result, I feel a deep connection with a fairly small group of people online. Other people read my posts and comment occasionally, but my desire is to make sure that I am adding as much value as I possibly can to that group of people.

As we wrestle with our blogging, trying to figure out our purpose, our unique voice, our distinctive value to the people of the blogosphere, some of us will be very effective with ‘as many’. It is important to get the information that you have, the perspectives that you shape and share, to as many people as possible.

At the same time there are others of us who will be working on the ‘as much’.

It is possible to be very successful in both of these worlds. However, at some point feel the freedom from being measured by the expectations of the world that isn’t yours.

–Jon Swanson, You can find Jon at the Levite Chronicles

Is the world of “many” or the world of “much” where your blog makes the most difference?
— Liz
Work with Liz!!

Related
Change the World: Shaping the World in Little Ways, a guest post by Jon Swanson

Post Card 3: Maybe the Bridge?

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Post Cards from the Fake Liz Strauss (written by the real one)

I figure if Dan Lyons can write the fake Steve Jobs, I can do one better . . . I’m writing these post cards before I go on the UK trip with Ann Michael. Consider it a fictional account of real people we might have met, real places we might have visited, and real things that did or didn’t happen as told by the fake myself. Some things actually might have occurred. Like I said, I’m writing this before we go. –Liz

Re: Dec. 4, 2007

Hi, Everyone!
We checked in at the conference on Tuesday. Still no one would give up any information about the mysterious shark.

Meeting after meeting found us talking about Web 2.0, social media, blogging, and content. Could we get a person to budge on something about the toothy predator? They showed no interest at all.

Then it dawned on us, which is quite a feat since it was late afternoon. We looked out our hotel window and saw a location that might hold a clue.

Ann and I called John Dodds to say we’d be delayed on our way to dinner, and we were off to see the famous bridge.

tower bridge

We were told that the original famous bridge is now in the southwestern USA. So we settled for this one — which has no appearance of falling down. That was a minor disappointment, for sure.

The bigger disappointment was that no one near the bridge had any information about sharks at all.

Yours truly,

Liz's Signature

The Fake Liz Strauss

PS That night we accompanied John to a movie premiere exclusively for high-power bloggers. Our responsibilities to our industry had to take precedence over our charitable endeavors and our quest to save the world from land sharks just this once.

The Mic is On: Guest Host Timothy Johnson

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Naughty or Nice?

Timothy Johnson of Carpe Factum has been moonlighting as Santa’s spy this year. We’re going to be talking about good deeds and ornery pranks. Klondike Bars and Nachos available on request. Open bar will be flowing: egg nog, spiced cider, and hot chocolate all evening (well, at least until the Fat Tire runs out).

Timothy Johnson

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring links about pranks and good deeds to share!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: Guest Host Timothy Johnson

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Join Us Tonight

Naughty or Nice?

Timothy Johnson of Carpe Factum has been moonlighting as Santa’s spy this year. We’re going to be talking about good deeds and ornery pranks. Klondike Bars and Nachos available on request. Open bar will be flowing: egg nog, spiced cider, and hot chocolate all evening (well, at least until the Fat Tire runs out).

Look for the picture of Timothy in the Santa hat!

Oh, and bring links to share!

The rules are simple — be nice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Change the World: One Dollar, One Euro, One Yen at at Time

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Hey, Erik, How Can We Change the World?

changetheworld8

This guest post was contributed by friend, J. Erik Potter. Erik’s post grew out of a conversation at Open Comments Night. He brings thoughts of our daily lives. –ME “Liz” Strauss

One Dollar at a Time

by J. Erik Potter

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.– Sir Winston Churchill

We’ve all heard it before. It’s nothing new really. If everyone would just donate $1 to a cause, we could raise millions for any cause overnight. There have always been two big problems: there wasn’t an easy way to spread the word to these millions of people and there were no means of funneling these millions of $1 donations to a deserving cause effectively. Enter the Internet.

Much like the whole “change the world” phrase appears daunting; the whole “get a million people to donate $1” appears just as daunting. Or is it?

Through blogs and social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, word can be spread like wild fire. I just signed up for LinkedIn and have a meager 16 connections, yet through the power of the site, my message can be spread to over 77,000 other connections, a 4,800:1
ratio. If this ratio remains constant, I only need to connect directly with 208 people in order to spread my message to the magic million. 208 vs. 1,000,000 . . . that doesn’t sound as frightening. Does it?

The second part of the equation is the collection and funneling of the $1 donations. Sites like SixDegrees.org and Network for Good go a long way towards making the transaction easy. Once you’ve established an account, you can donate to one of over 30,000 charities. Their system even keeps track of your donations throughout the year for tax purposes.

The tools are here. So what’s stopping you from changing the world?
— J. Erik Potter

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Thanks, Erik, for showing us how.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Post Card 2: Land Shark?

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Post Cards from the Fake Liz Strauss (written by the real one)

I figure if Dan Lyons can write the fake Steve Jobs, I can do one better . . . I’m writing these post cards before I go on the UK trip with Ann Michael. Consider it a fictional account of real people we might have met, real places we might have visited, and real things that did or didn’t happen as told by the fake myself. Some things actually might have occurred. Like I said, I’m writing this before we go. –Liz

Re: Dec. 3, 2007

Hi, Everyone!
When we got back from lunch, Sunday, two handsome young men who said their names were Harry and Will, showed us up to our rooms. They said they were in town from their travels visiting their family who stay in the “palace.” Our room was called the tower, the jewel of the place. Apparently, it has a huge history.

We asked Harry and Will if they were bloggers. They answered with a shrug and said polo was more of their game. At that point we figured we might not have a whole lot in common. They wished us well and hoped we fared better than previous guests of the room — whatever that meant.

Bags emptied. Stuff put away . . . we did our knitting and retired for the night.

Monday saw Ann and I off to the conference. Immediately upon arrival, we started asking why someone had chosen to put a shark on the conference website. It seems no one would reveal the mystery, which only made the question more tanatlizing.

What does a shark have to do with Online anything?

In the afternoon, Ann went off to do some sleuthing on the shark mystery. I met with Kevin Dixie to find fuel for our investigation. He suggested beer.

Yours truly,

Liz's Signature

The Fake Liz Strauss

PS We spent the evening reading old transcripts of Saturday Night Live, studying up on Land Sharks.