Successful Blog

The Mic Is On: We're Talking About Things That Went Wrong . . .

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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.

We’ll Laugh About This One Day . . . Right?

Here’s a few ideas to get us started:

  • Blind date stories
  • Most embarrassing moments
  • Things we lost
  • Cakes that went flat
  • Glasses we sat on
  • Times we got caught breaking the rules
  • Something we forgot we were supposed to do
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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 things that went wrong to share!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: Let's Talk About Things That Went Wrong!

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Yes the Mic Will Be on Tonight

Join Us Tonight

We”ll Laugh About This One Day . . . Right?

We can talk about blind date stories, most embarrassing moments, things we lost, cakes that went flat, glasses we sat on, times we got caught breaking the rules, something we forgot we were supposed to do, and whatever else comes up — even flamenco dancing.

Oh, and bring links about things that went wrong that you want to share!

The rules are simple — be nice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

10 Ways to Kill the Kudzu and Get Your Blogging Mojo Back

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Time to Kill the Blogging Kudzu

power writing hit logo

Kudzu. It creeping and invasive. It’s a slow moving pest that overtakes our most creative thoughts. It’s not writer’s block. It’s not procrastination either. I call it The Blogging Kudzu.

Blogging Kudzu is debilitating. Like its vegetative counterpart, left uncontrolled it obliterates new ideas. It covers them right over. The nasty creeper wraps around our brain, cuts off our creativity. It leaves us dead in the water, wondering whether we even want to blog at all again, ever.

BUT unlike the green, leafy version, we can clear out the kudzu in our heads without much trouble. We can get our mojo back. In fact, we can come back stronger than ever, if that’s the goal we set our minds to, and why wouldn’t we? A blog’s quite an investment to let wither and die.

Here’s how to kill Blogging Kudzu and come back better than ever.

10 Ways to Kill the Kudzu and Get Your Blogging Mojo Back

The first thing to know is Blogging Kudzu needs two conditions to flourish — a tired blogger, who takes blogging a bit too seriously. With that in mind, here are 10 Ways to Get Your Blogging Mojo Back.

  1. Peel off your blog. Get out from behind the dashboard. Turn off the computer. Stay away a day. Watch what happens. Nothing. The blogosphere doesn’t need us to make sure it survives.

  2. Have a heart-to-heart conversation with yourself. Point out that the lasting links you’ve made are with people, not bits of code. Those links will still be there when you get back from recharging and refueling.

  3. Make plans. Have an experience. It hard to blog your experience, if you never have one. If you’re out of practice, ask a friend to plan something for you to do together. Then, for blog’s sake, go do it!

  4. Do something spontaneous. Go to a farm, a city, a movie, a concert, a planetarium, a museum, a place you’ve never been, a place you’ve been a 1000 times, a place you grew up, a place a famous person lived, a place you don’t know where it is until you get there.

  5. Have a real conversation. Call a friend you haven’t spoken with in too long. Catch up on all of the details of life.

  6. Sit in the sunshine and watch the sky. Do your best to think about nothing. When your mind gets busy, read your favorite book or make up stories about the people who walk by.

  7. Tell people you’re a web publisher. Ask them to tell you a story. Listen to every detail. Watch how they tell it. Capture every gesture and expression in your memory. Ask questions until you feel you are a part of their experience.

  8. Ask advice from a child under the age of 7. Listen carefully. Repeat back what you are told to be sure you understand. Then do your best to follow it, if you possibly can.

  9. Spend some quality time with yourself, your favorite music, and your favorite food. Make an appointment to do that. You deserve to be the center of your own time once in a while.

  10. Read your favorite blog posts in your archives — the ones that you love, those that show your best self in action. Now go do what you do so well just one more time.

Once in my publishing career, I told a friend I couldn’t get my head to think about what I needed to write. She gave me this advice.

Go take a day off, take two, take three. On the day you come back, you’ll do 5 days work 10 times better than if you keep going now. You’ll find yourself miles ahead, and everyone else will be trying their best just to keep up.

She was right.

That’s how to get your blogging mojo back.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
Writing–Ugh! 10 Reasons to Get Jazzed about Writing
Writing YEAH! 10 WHOLE NEW Reasons to Get Jazzed About Writing

Change the World: Find the Promise

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Don’t Stop Believing in a Good World

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My friend, Jill, tells this story.

Jill and her daughters were riding the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios in Orlando. Lisa, age 11, sat near her mother. Annie, age 7, sat on the outside.

The ride was a machine that moved and rocked in a totally dark room. As the machine rocked and jolted, three-dimensional creatures of huge proportion — including all of the dinosaurs in the movie — appeared to be coming at Jill and her children. The experience was meant to be scary, multisensory, and thrilling.

For 7-year-old Annie, it was overwhelming and frightening.

Jill tried to talk to Annie, but the noise of the constant roaring swallowed up what Jill was saying. All Jill could do was pass a message. She said to her daughter, Lisa, “Tell Annie to close her eyes and cover her ears.”

Lisa did just as her mom told her. But Annie wouldn’t do it. She was in the dark, unhappy, and wanted none of the situation. She also wasn’t too sure of the messenger . . . anyone with older siblings can understand that.

“You’re trying to trick me,” Annie said to Lisa. “I want to go outside.”

The little girl was afraid to believe. She only saw things getting worse and worse. Lisa was devastated that she couldn’t help her little sister.

When they got outside, Lisa and Annie had a long talk. They promised to keep each other safe always.

We first learn the world by believing what people tell us. We ask questions. Sometimes the answers stay the same. Sometimes the answers match what we see around us. From all of that, we make our own belief of how the world works.

Then one day, the world offers up a Jurassic Park ride, and life gets confusing. We wonder what we should be believing. Could it ever possibly be right to close our eyes and cover our ears? Sometimes maybe it is the right answer.

Every Jurassic Park ride offers a promise.

If we go outside, we find the sky isn’t falling. The ground beneath our feet is steady. With a little love, we can fit that scary bit into our world view without destroying our vision of the universe.

Two little girls did that. Imagine the impact, if we all did the same thing.

We can change the world, just like that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

CONTEST Jumpstart Your Business CONTEST

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How-cool-is-this!!!

People often forget that Successful blog is a proud member of the b5media family. But I’m here to tell you that I’ve been part of the fold for long enough to know that I like the folks, especially as I meet more and more of them in person. So, it gives great pleasure to announce a contest that is sponsored by the b5 business channel of blogs.

jump start your business-badge

The Prizes Are Fabulous!

A Package Valued at Over $2K for the Winner!

Are you a small business ready to soar?

Don’t just sit there! Enter and win!!

Here’s how you enter (rules and requirements follow).

To Enter

To enter, send us your abbreviated business plan for a your new or fledgling business with the following information:
1. What’s your business idea?
2. Who is on your business team – in other words, who is going to make this idea work?
3. When did you start your business? Or when do you plan to start your business? What is your time frame for success?
4. Why is this business going to be a success?
5. Why should we pick you as the winner?
Your abbreviated business plan should be no longer than 1000 words.

Rules

Entries:
Entries must be sent via email with “Jump Start Your Business” in the subject line to businesscontest@mac.com by 11:59 PM EST on September 25, 2007.

Requirements:

  • Plain Text or PDF Only. No other attachments or formats will be accepted.
  • You must be at least 18 years old to participate.
  • Contest is open to new businesses or fledgling businesses which have been in existence for less than one year.
  • By entering the contest, you agree that b5media may post any part or all of your submission, as a part of the contest announcements or promotions, with the exception of your email address.

To be considered, entries must also include the following:

    1. Name of applicant (either team or individual)
    2. Where you live (city and state or country is sufficient)
    3. Email address. We won’t publish your email address, but we do need contact information for the winning entries. We respect your privacy, and we will not send you anything unrelated to your entry in this contest.

Our Disclaimers

The winning entries will be determined by a panel of judges from b5media at our sole discretion. Our decision is final. Prizes cannot be redeemed for cash or cash equivalent. Donated prizes cannot be guaranteed; we reserve the right to make substitutions of equal or greater value if necessary.

Jumpstart Your Business Prizes

The Grand Prize winner receives a Prize Package that includes:

  • A subscription to Entrepreneur magazine, courtesy of Entrepreneur.com
  • A Web Developer host package for one year (consists of 5 domains, 600 subdomains and 200 host external domains; 300 GB web space 3,000 monthly transfer volume and 50 ftp accounts; 4,000 email accounts and 2 GB mailbox space; $475 of vouchers to get you started with Microsoft adCenter, Google AdWords, Yahoo Search marketing and Citisearch; 10 free blogs and more), courtesy of 1and1.com
  • A Private Jet billing package for one year (up to 500 clients, unlimited invoicing and customer support), courtesy of Freshbooks.com
  • A b5media tee shirt, courtesy of b5media
    *Your choice of a taxgirl organic tee or long sleeve tee and $25 gift card to amazon.com, courtesy of taxgirl.com
  • Wireless mouse, wireless keyboard and keyboard riser, courtesy of InterviewChatter.com
  • A twelve month subscription to the Sales Leadership Zone, a place where sales leaders and small business owners can find everything they need to increase sales and drive business, courtesy of thesalespractitioners.com
  • A copy of the book, 10 Ways to Make it Great, courtesy of SlackerManager.com
  • $50 in Pecunix Digital Gold Currency, courtesy of digitalmoneyworld.com
  • Jason Alba’s new book, “I’m on LinkedIn…Now What???”, courtesy of LinkedIntelligence.com
  • Over $1000 of free business advice (in the form of email, phone or Skype) from our experts to get you started!

The first runner up will receive:

  • A subscription to Entrepreneur magazine, courtesy of Entrepreneur.com
  • A Business Developer host package for one year (consists of 3 domains, 200 subdomains and 100 host external domains; 250 GB web space 2,500 monthly transfer volume and 25 ftp accounts; 2,500 email accounts and 2 GB mailbox space; $250 of vouchers to get you started with Microsoft adCenter, Google AdWords, Yahoo Search marketing and Citisearch; 10 free blogs and more), courtesy of 1and1.com
  • A Shuttle Jet billing package for six months (up to 25 clients, unlimited invoicing and customer support), courtesy of Freshbooks.com
  • A copy of the book, 10 Ways to Make it Great, courtesy of SlackerManager.com
  • and free consulting advice from two of our experts of your choosing.

The second runner up will receive:

  • A subscription to Entrepreneur magazine, courtesy of Entrepreneur.com
  • *A Business Developer host package for one year (consists of 3 domains, 200 subdomains and 100 host external domains; 250 GB web space 2,500 monthly transfer volume and 25 ftp accounts; 2,500 email accounts and 2 GB mailbox space; $250 of vouchers to get you started with Microsoft adCenter, Google AdWords, Yahoo Search marketing and Citisearch; 10 free blogs and more), courtesy of 1and1.com
  • A copy of the book, 10 Ways to Make it Great, courtesy of SlackerManager.com
  • and free consulting advice from two of our experts of your choosing.

Our Experts

Tax tips from Kelly Phillips Erb of taxgirl.com
Consulting and marketing advice from Jim Norton of smallbusinessboomers.com

Marketing direction from Rico Masterson of contract-worker.com
Personal finance and blogging information from Miranda Marquit of yieldingwealth.com

Using a range of social media tools in marketing and connecting with a community from Rachel Clarke of behindthebuzz.com
Hiring practices and creating core competencies for positions from Darlene McDaniel of interviewchatter.com

Identifying business purpose and strategy for a blog from Des Walsh of deswalsh.com
Coaching from Miki Saxon, courtesy of rampupsolutions.com

Linked In makeover from Scott Allen of LinkedIntelligence.com
Marketing and brand identity critique from Sean Kelly of franchisepick.com

Copywriting tips from Brian Clark of copyblogger.com
Home business advice from Mary Emma Allen of homebiznotes.com

Copy editing, writing, or website usability advice from Eric Eggertson of CommonsensePR.com
Customer service and community relations advice from Douglas Hanna of ServiceUntitled.com
Tech marketing advice from Sunir Shah of Freshbooks, Inc.

Our Sponsors

A big THANK YOU to our sponsors! Please let them know that they are appreciated!

1 & 1 Internet, Inc.
Entrepreneur Magazine
Freshbooks, Inc.
The entire B5media Business Channel community:

Behind the Buzz
Brandcurve
Business and Blogging
Buzz Networker
Common Sense PR
Contract Worker
Copyblogger
Digital Money World
Franchise Pick
Home Biz Notes
Interview Chatter
Just Make Money Online
Leadership Turn
Life Dev
Linked Intelligence
Pimp Your Work
Property Crossroads
Slacker Manager
Small Business Boomers
Start Up Spark
Successful Blog
Taxgirl
Work Boxers
Yielding Wealth

Special Thanks to Don at Archetype Digital Solutions for designing our promotional badge!

How silly would you have to be to pass this up? Only 1000 words to tell your story . . . what have you got to lose?

C’mon go for it! This is just what we’ve been working for. Are you going to do it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Happy Belated blogDay 3, August 31 [blush]

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BlogDay2007

blodDay badge

Nir Ofir started blogDay three years ago for a darn good reason. As he says:

I initiated the blogDay in 2005 with the belief that bloggers should have one day which will be dedicated to discover new blogs and expose them to the world.

I was all psyched to take part. . . . But that “living in the moment thing” got the best of me. blogDay 3 was August 31. I woke up today, and the world is on September 3rd. Even now I’d still be clueless without help from a hero down the road.

So, I’m saying . . . at least I remembered I forgot. Sorry.

Happy Belated blogDay3

I celebrated a bit on August 5th, by answering Jeff Pulver’s tag. Still my plan was to celebrate with the world, so I use the word “belated,” in hopes I still can. May I introduce you to some blogs from around the world?

Sorry I was late, but I brought twice as many. Hope you have as much fun checking them out as I did putting this list together.

Do you want to add a blog to the list? That’s what the comment box is for! Be sure, if you do, to include a few words about the blogger and why you’re passing the link along. Thanks!

Happy Belated blogDay3!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!