On the way to SxSWi, only bringing my iPhone. On the lookout for blogging fodder and new ideas.
Two guys behind me talkng about their customers — not a good practice. I could be one.
ME “Liz” Strauss
Here is a good place for a call to action.
by Liz
On the way to SxSWi, only bringing my iPhone. On the lookout for blogging fodder and new ideas.
Two guys behind me talkng about their customers — not a good practice. I could be one.
ME “Liz” Strauss
by Liz
When we’ve got a lot to do, we rely on friends to help us out and over the mound of work that we’re facing. I was delighted when my dear friend, Lorelle, jumped in to help me by writing a guest post for the time I’ll be gone to SxSW.
But as relationships work, sometimes our friends come with their own circle of relationships. A few months ago, Lorelle and I invented an alter ego of hers named Lorraine, who keeps popping up when Lorelle writes certain kinds of blog posts.
Well, Lorraine caught a thought that Lorelle was writing about networking for me and you. Lorraine’s fabulous street-wise, huge-size ego could not allow Lorelle to write that post on her own. Next thing we knew, Lorraine had taken over . . .
Lorelle and I want you to know that we hope you’re in no way offended by Lorraine’s take on the subject. She’s . . . um, er . . . direct and sometimes a little colorful. Enjoy!
Who are you more willing to come to aid of? A complete stranger or someone you’ve met?
Okay, so we know the answer. People are typically more willing to help those they know than total strangers. So it helps to know as many people as you can so you will get help if you need it, right?
Attending a business conference is about turning strangers into acquaintances into friends. You want to work with your friends, people you trust, people who trust you, and the ones you know can get the job done as well as help you get your job done. Right?
You want the experts and you want to get to know the experts.
Oh, wait. At a business conference, especially one on blogging, you are also the expert. People want to know you. You are the one they are waiting for to come to their aid. This is your chance. Are you ready? Are you trained? Are you prepared for the moment when the moment to perform arrives?
The Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Conference (SOBCon) is the place where experts come to rub shoulders with other experts – no matter what your expertise.
Are you ready to share your expertise and meet the experts at SOBCon in May?
Let’s review your preparation techniques.
Wear something that says, “Hi, I’m a blogger but I’m a successful and outstanding blogger.”
Be a professional networker now.
You’re there to get known, so if you can’t tell them what you do, who wants to know you?
The inspiration can’t get in unless the brain is open. Pack your can opener in your suitcase so you’re ready.
Remove preconceived notions and cobwebs and get ready for new input to strain through the sifters in your skull.
It’s these little things that you do that change a stranger into a friend.
The more people you know with the right skills and resources, the more likely you are to sing in harmony to “Blogs Will Keep Us Together.”
Start spreading your who around.
Start your linking!
The power of online social networking is amazing. You meet people you would never run across in your daily life. You rub virtual shoulders with the whose who of the web. It’s a never ending network of connections as you find new sources of information daily, and others find you as their source.
However, the potential in these networking possibilities only show up when you show up. Show up.
—
Lorelle VanFossen writes for Lorelle on WordPress,
Blog Herald – Taking Your Camera on the Road where you’ll also find
Lorelle’s Family History Blog. Order Her Book Now! Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging
Lorraine is usually locked away where she cannot cause harm.
Thanks, Lorelle!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz to get over your networking phobia!!
Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!
by Liz
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 . . . .
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.
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!!
by Guest Author
Most entrepreneurial online “digital creatives” find that their business moves through a progression.
At first, many writers, Web designers or other content providers often take most any job as long as it pays. In the quest to amass a decent portfolio or group of clips, it’s easy to succumb to the siren offers of “revenue sharing” or “exposure” or “future growth,” rather than demanding a higher per-word or per-project rate.
Blog for $50/month and post 5-7 times a week? Sure!
Heck, blog for nothing and hope for some ad revenue? Sure!
Anything to get a toe-hold as a freelancer.
There comes a time, however, when the digital entrepreneur is ready to truly make a living in his or her area of expertise, maybe even to be able to drop the side job that actually pays most of the bills.
I’ve asked myself that question a lot lately, as I approach two years as an active freelancer (a writer and blogger, in my case.) Here are some benchmarks that I’ve stumbled across at this juncture; you may find some similarities to your own situation, or as a newbie you can look forward to someday grappling with these turning points:
1) You can’t work by the seat of your pants anymore.
Perhaps you have more than one blogging commitment, plus offline work and some clients and consulting. Life starts to implode, you meet all of your deadlines but just barely, you gain twenty pounds, the house is a wreck and upon awakening you think, “Oh, no, I have no idea what I’m blogging about today, plus there’s a client meeting that I’m not ready for this afternoon and an article deadline by close of business.”
It’s time for a schedule, because it’s time to admit that this is your job and you’ve gotta get organized. Big wall calendar, some online software, a PDA, an old-school Filofax, whatever — you’re at the stage when you must get a grip on the madness. It’s time to hire a CPA for taxes, it’s time to buy Quickbooks or other bookkeeping software to track invoices, it’s time to buff up that blog/Web site, it’s time to….move into the bigger leagues.
2) You are ready to build a specific or at least semi-defined expertise.
At first, entrepreneurs will do most anything to make a buck, even if it isn’t what they like or isn’t what they’re very good at. For a PayPal transfer or an actual check, I’d write about most any topic when I first started out, for any publication that was halfway legitimate.
At some point, however, you know which subjects really make your heart sing, which ones call forth your best work, and it’s time to begin to focus and hone your expertise and creative efforts.
For writers, this is the moment to say, “You know, I write mostly about X, Y and Z. Someday I’d like to touch on A and B, but right now, I specialize in X, Y and Z.”
This is different from what you said in the beginning, which was roughly, “I’ll write about anything.”
3) Your time and effort are worth something to you.
At first, many digital creatives are so eager to succeed, they’ll leave no stone unturned to get their business off the ground. They sign up for every e-newsletter and magazine that seems professionally helpful, they have a gazillion RSS feeds, they go to every meeting that seems like a good networking opportunity, and the answer to every problem is to throw more work hours at it.
I personally have reached the point of admitting that I can’t know everything. I can’t read it all, can’t track all the feeds, can’t answer all the emails and memes, and most importantly, I should not feel horribly guilty about it.
To do my best work, I can no longer allow myself to overload my own brain. It’s time to prune the RSS feeds, not follow everyone on Twitter who follows me, unsubscribe from emails that I don’t really read nor care about, all so that I can concentrate on the information flow that is most helpful in my work.
It’s also time to be paid what I’m worth (for a writer, that’s no less than US$0.50/word and preferably US$1.00/word, and roughly $20/post for blogging) and to cast an unfriendly gimlet eye on work that may require a lot of wheel-spinning for a monetary pittance. Some occasional work may be worth lower or even no pay, for a variety of reasons, but my going-in position has shifted to an expectation of decent pay for the work that I do, rather than pleased gratitude that anyone pays me at all.
It’s scary to realize that your baby, your business, is at a turning point, but the good news is that it’s time to make some tough career focus decisions because….you’ve done well and are ready to do even better!
–Sheila Scarborough You’ll find Sheila and her blogs at SheilaScarborough.com
Isn’t Shelia amazing? So why not tell her? How will you know when you’re at the next level? Could you be there already?
–Liz
Work with Liz!!
Related
Sheila Scarborough Is a B.A.D Blogger
Roving Sheila at SXSW 03 -09-07
Roving Sheila at SXSW 03-10-07
Roving Sheila at SXSW 03-11-07 and 03-12-07
Roving Sheila at SXSW Finale
About a week ago I posed a question over on my own blog Quantity vs Quality – Which is Better?
I was curious. Given a choice, which one would bloggers prefer?
In order to be able to attach a number value to the answer I put up a little poll. Now it certainly isn’t a scientific survey. But it does give us a little insight into how bloggers think (at least the ones who read my blog, anyway).
The discussion in the comments section of the post was lively. Some folks wanted more than two choices. “Both” seemed to be a popular demand as several folks really like to see “more and better”.
But I purposely forced a choice to be made to see which way folks would go if they had to decide between one or the other.
The results were overwhelming. Unanimous, in fact. [Read more…]