Writing– The 2 PowerQuestions

Filed Under Strategy, Successful Blog, Tips, Writing | 6 Comments

The Second Question

When I start with that blank page, whether I think about it or I stare into space, two questions are waiting in white letters on the white space. I have to make myself see them and answer them before I will ever be able to write. The questions are basic and always the same.

What will your topic be?

and

What do you want to say about it?

If I can answer those two questions, the piece pretty much writes itself.

It really is as simple as that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Interview 5. Meet Peter Chen: Blogspot Expert for New Bloggers

Filed Under Business Life, Interviews, Successful Blog, Tips | 16 Comments

Meeting Peter Chen, Blogger

Once in a while I surf the Google nav bar to see who’s there. It’s a fun way to do some random exploring and sometimes I land on a jewel as I did when I found the blog of a man named Peter Chen. What caught my eye about this blog, Blogger for Dummies, (now called Blogger Help) was that it had screenshots that were described and labeled with meticulous detail.

Little did I know that this was one of several blogs that Mr. Chen has on two of which are dedicated to Blogger. This blog alone led me to want to interview the man.

Interview with Peter Chen
His Blogs:
Blogger for Dummies aka Blogger Help,
Blogger Tips and Tricks,
Enviroman Says, and
Food as medicine.
Liz notes: Peter has so many blogs. I went straight to the interview.

Peter, What led you to make your blog?

I am retired and have plenty of free time. I need some activities to fill up the free time.

I notice that you haven’t updated one blog since April 23rd. Why is that?

You must be refering to Blogger for Dummies. Someone told me of possible interference from Wiley Publications because of the “for Dummies” in the title. Rather than building up the content of the blog, and then having face the decision whether to take them down later, I decided to start a new blog at http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com. There is still sizable, useful content at http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com plus significant inbound links, so I am leaving it as it is and will be making an announcement of the shift on the blog later.

What are your blogs and what are they about?

These are my blogs:

Blogger Help at http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com
A resource for those using the very popular Blogger blogging service. Although meant for Blogger, many of the tips are also relevant for those using other blogging services.

Blogger Tips and Tricks at http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com

This is the replacement for http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com . It will eventually will be my main blog.

Enviroman Says at http://enviromansays.blogspot.com
An environmental blog. That blog was set up specifically for a cartoon character Enviroman and an artist friend was supposed to help out with it. That didn’t work out, so it has ended up with Enviroman making comments on the enviroment.

Food as Medicine http://foodasmedicine.blogspot.com
A blog focusing on using food as a mean to health. As Hippocrates had put it, let your food be your medicine and medicine be your food.

To what do you credit your very high site meter count?

This is probably due to the high number of people seeking solutions to blogging problems. And I think the content are well written, easy to follow and understand, so visitors tend to come back for more, as the statistics show.

What advice do you have for a new blogger starting out?

Pick on a topic in which you have an interest. Then you will never tire of the work involved.

What blogging platform do you personally recommend and why?

I use Blogger. It is free, unlikely to go out of business as it is backed by the Internet giant Google, relatively quickly picked up by search engines, easy to use even by beginners, and the template is highly customizable. Recently there were some glitches, and complaints about a non responsive support which has put off some people, but it has affected me relatively little, so I will continue to use Blogger. I personally had got a problem with a frozen blog unblocked by Blogger support after an email. And a reader has written in to say that his blog which he accidentally deleted got undeleted after a series of email. So Blogger support do respond to emails.

There you have it — the experience of blogger, Peter Chen. He’s made good use of Google’s free Blogspot platform and finds that it works for him. Using free accounts has it’s upside and it’s downside. Be sure you look carefully before you decide that’s the route you will go. Many successful bloggers, such as Improbulus and Freshblog have done fabulously and many others swear that you need an independent acount.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
I’ll be adding this inteview to the Inteview category and to the NEW BLOGGER PAGE.

Sustained Success

Filed Under Business Life, Successful Blog, Tips | 5 Comments

I read this today at Tom Peters blog.

The one thing you need to know about sustained individual success:
Discover what you don’t like doing and stop doing it.

Marcus Buckingham, from the book The One Thing You Need to Know

I’m glad I read that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: The Messaging Times by Tom O'Leary

Filed Under Great Finds, Marketing, Strategy, Successful Blog, Tips | 4 Comments

My friends agree that one thing I do well is wander aimlessly. They also say I could stay in my condo for days on end and never leave. That’s why I seem so well suited for the Internet. . . .

Recently I followed a link from a well-stated comment by a man named Tom O’Leary back to his site, Messaging Times. I knew some folks here would want to know about this blog as soon as I saw it. Still I thought I’d check it out for a few posts. I’ve been reading it now for a while. It’s time I shared my secret.

Great Find: The Messaging Times by Tom O’Leary
Type of Blog: Online Communication and Email Marketing
URL: messagingtimes.blogspot.com
Target Audience: Bloggers who do business online or by email

Content: I first caught up with Tom O’Leary reading a comment on Tom Peter’s blog. When I followed him home, the post for the 2006 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide was on his front page. I decided to poke around a bit. This blog takes online and email communications seriously. Mr. O’Leary tries and tests things in the tradition of a true marketer, and he encourages his readers to do the same. You can almost hear him saying, “Testing, constantly testing,” into a microphone. You can also tell that this is his passion.

His posts are targeted, well-written, and show that there is experience behind the words. This screenshot of some recent posts shows that he discusses topics that don’t often find their way onto the casual marketing blog. This man knows his business and is glad to share what he knows about it.

If you use email or online to promote yourself or your business, or you ever plan on doing so, bookmark this blog. There’s just so many reasons to do so and no reason not to.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Success in a Blink and a Blink Test

Filed Under Audience, Checklists, Design, Marketing, Strategy, Successful Blog, Tips | 21 Comments

In 2005, Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book “Blink.” introduced the idea that we make make decisions about people and things almost instantaneously– long before we do the cognitive thinking about them.

Last week, Reuters reported that Canadian researchers have found that people make just such decisions about Internet sites, deciding in less than a blink whether they will stay or click away from them. Here’s a link to the article.

I wonder what Reuters was thinking to write an article so short that you miss the whole thing if you blink?

A Blink Test

Before you blink away, you might try this the next time you bring up your blog or web page. Try to see your blog as if it were one you’d never seen it before.

1. Close your eyes for a minute. Then open them once the page is up.

2. Pay attention to where your eyes fall first. Is that where you want them to?

3. Look at a blank wall or a blank piece of paper for a minute. Then look back again. What attracts or distracts you? Does anything make you want to stay or leave?

Use what you find out to make sure your blog gets a “yes” in that first blink.

THIS JUST IN:
Gary an SOB over at Blogoplex did a test on several blogs including this one . . . Click through to read his blink test results. See whether you agree.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Re;ated articles:
Blog Promotion: Checking Out Curb Appeal
Five Design Basics to Never Forget
Blog Design Checklist
Great Photo Resources to Support Readers

Quick Traffic from Newsweek

Filed Under Community, Marketing, Successful Blog, Tips | 5 Comments

This tip from SOB Cheryl at Mad Baggage, who suggests we take advantage of the partnering of Technorati and Newsweek to get your blog noticed by a whole new audience of Newsweek readers. Cheryl has used it with stunning success. Within a short time of posting against a Newsweek article in the morning, she had traffic beating down her doors. Here’s what she says to do.

Go to MSNBC Newsweek, read the top story, read a couple of the related front page stories, and do a post linking to them all. Newsweek has a Technorati link page showing what bloggers are saying on the subject and as long as you are among the earliest or most recent to post on the matter, people click through in tens and hundreds. They don’t stay, they don’t come back, but they click through.

I tried Cheryl’s techniques on yesterday as a test. Check out the two Newsweek posts I ran–one about Martha Stewart and one about their column Blog Watch. Both were worth posting in their own right, but I was also testing whether the new Technorati-Newsweek partnering would work on my broken Technorati account. It did not.

However, if you click through to either of the stories and look down the right sidebar you’ll see how it works. A small section will tell you how many blogs have posted on this story so far. Then you can click through to see what the posts are and where they came from.

It seems to work for any, not just the top stories–though the top stories are surely where the most traffic would be. Still, I think I would go for the sections with stories and traffic that fit my niche–less traffic, but more qualified leads.

As for post not working, well, I’m just lucky I guess.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Tired Eyes? Got XP? Switch to Clear Type

Filed Under Business Life, Successful Blog, Tips | 18 Comments

If you’re like me, you spend too much time staring at a computer screen. By the end of the day, your eyes can let you know they’ve had enough. While I was reading through my feeds I came across this tip from Lifehacker. If you use XP, give it a try. I noticed a difference in a matter of minutes.

How to Switch Your Screen to Clear Type

Before you start: You need XP with a video card and a monitor that support at least 256 colors. It’s recommended that you have 24-bit or 32-bit color support for best results.

Then, go Control Panel>Display>Appearance>Effects.

Click the box that says:

Use the following method to smooth the edges of fonts.

clear type check box

Choose Clear Type.

Click OK. OK.

My eyes are still saying, “Thank you.”

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: Laptop Life Extension Tips

Filed Under Great Finds, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats, Tips | Leave a Comment

Great Find: Software Tips & Projects: Your Laptop Life-Extension Program by Computer Power User Magazine, January 2006 issue
Type of Article: Magazine Feature Article on Win XP
URL: www.computerpoweruser.com (then do article search)
Target Audience: Any XP Laptop user

Content: If you’re like us, you dump most available funds into keeping that desktop PC at the cutting edge of tech innovation, while your aging laptop upgrade will have to wait for a lottery hit. . . . this article begins. Well my laptop is my desktop, and I’m still waiting for that lottery hit.

What you’ll find here is how to circumvent some of the redundancies built into XP to allow your laptop to run faster and to keep up with the resource-hungry programs that seem to get bigger by the minute. Included in the article are tips on how to

Do deep disk deletes
Uninstall the uninstallers that you’ll never need.
Stop Windows from fetching functions that you don’t want to use.
Delete dlls that are no longer associated with any program files.
Shut off unnecessary background Windows services to get faster performance.

If you’re a road warrior or if you just earn your miles at a desk machine, more resources can make the day go by faster and your life seem like you’ve just gotten your windshield cleaned.

I’m not a computer power user or a computer power magazine reader, but I have to say when I read this article I was ready to try at least one or two of these to make my life easier.
Take a peek and see whether you might not agree.

After all, you aren’t really going to uninstall the service pack that you intalled and have been using for two years now. Are you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Why Didn't WE Comment?

Filed Under Comments, Community, Strategy, Successful Blog, Tips | 35 Comments

. . . Successful Blog is a community blog where every voice is welcomed and every contribution is valued.–MES

Except last night most of the Succesful Blog community wasn’t heard.

Remember when I said this on December 4th?

I can talk about building community by answering comments relentlessly, but itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s so much more powerful when I do it, and my readers actually experience how it feels. . . .

I was talking about Successful Blog as a place where we try out practices and test how they work–where you can see my shining successes and flaming-out failures. See blogging-in-action and analyze the consequences–Successful Blog as Community Test Blog, so to speak.

What better use for a community blog than to use it
to try out what works and to see how to fix what doesn’t work?

Some folks might think that last night’s discussion was a screaming success.
But when I think of my readers, I’m not so sure.

We have been talking about why people don’t comment. Now I think many of us have experienced a reason or two for ourselves. It’s as if a bunch of new readers rented the community hall for a party last night. A few of us came, but the rest of us kept our distance. The new visitors were welcome and wonderful, and I hope they all come back. Their intent wasn’t to quiet us, but that’s what happened. Isn’t it?

So many who discussed Brian’s article chose not to hang out this time–so many of the same voices went without a word.

What a great case study–right here in real life. Are you as curious about this as I am? It’s an experience worth exploring. There’s something here worth learning about.

What do you think happened last night?

What could I have done differently to bring your voices in?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

A Genuine Blogging Community

Filed Under Business Life, Community, Guest Writer, Successful Blog, Tips | 1 Comment

muddy teal strip A

Being Part of Something Bigger

To serve our readers, to make something bigger, to show the blogosphere what community looks like . . . to keep blogging fun and engaging, to have a place to go figure out solutions and share our successes, to make blogging all it can be come hell or high water . . . Successful Blog is a community blog where every voice is welcomed and every contribution is valued.–MES

red strip

Have stories or ideas to add to the conversation?

Is there something you do that works really well?
Have you had a success you’d like to share?
Have you figured out a useful trick or two?
Have you got a tool or tip we don’t know about?
Have you figured out the hard way a pitfall we can avoid?
Have you written an article you’d like to submit?
Do you have ideas on how we might collaborate?
Do you have a post with fresh, relevant content we’d enjoy?
Do you have a post that explores a new angle on an old subject?
Do you have a post with a tool that belongs in the Survival Kit?
Do you have a post about an experience that might help a new blogger?

Share what you know and we all get better. For details on how, see the Want to Be a Contributor? page.

deep dark blue strip 570

Be part of something bigger than one–Successful Blog–a genuine Blogging Community.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

keep looking »

Successful Blog

You're Only a Stranger Once

The Second Question

Meeting Peter Chen, Blogger

A Blink Test

How to Switch Your Screen to Clear Type

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