Checklists Archives - Page 5 of 8

Even the Margaritas Were Leaking Links!

October 19, 2006 by Liz

It Was Beverage of Choice

It was Margaritaville on Tuesday Open Comment Night. We were celebrating being alive for another week. The Margaritas were BJ’s fine idea, and the margarita glasses were elegant to say the least. Still we made sure everyone had their beverage of choice. So things started out very nicely.

Then Link Leak Virus seeped into our discussion of what we would drink. — The Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes at Open Comment Night they become a link free-for-all.

Welcome to Mike. It was great fun having you!

Delicious links were shared.

The Conversation Was Salty

How could the conversation be anything but interesting with a cast of characters like you find on open comment night here?
[Read more…]

Open Mic Tonight 7pm Chgo Time –What’s Hot? What’s Not?

October 3, 2006 by Liz

Everybody is Hot, Hot, Hot!!!

YES, the mic will be open again tonight. So start collecting your thoughts. Remember, you get to bring what you want to talk about.

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.

Tonight we’re talking about what’s bloggy hot and what’s not!

We might also talk about

what the cool bloggers wear when they’re posting
hot blogs, hot bloggers, hot ideas for bloggers to blog about
spam, weird search strings, off the wall comments
what cool things you wish someone would come up with

AND THE EVER POPULAR,
Basil the code-writing donkey, and I heard Milton the Moose might show up.

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.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Prelaunch Blog Review Checklist

September 7, 2006 by Liz

I wrote a post this morning as part of a series at LizStrauss[dot]com. It may be of use to some readers here. It’s for folks who’ve not started blogging. Click the title to access it.

Should I submit this to be an official SOB? I’ll have to ask myself whether I participate enough in the dialogue . . .

Liz's Signature

10 + 1 Things to Make Me Love Your Business Email

August 23, 2006 by Liz

Does Your Email Make People Crazy?

How many emails are in your in-box?

How long does it take you to find one you might want?

Do you think about that when you write an email? I’d be delighted if you would.

You may think that email is easy, but I have to tell you. I’m writing this post for a reason. In the last few weeks I’ve gotten some emails that have really concerned me with how folks are doing email business.

Here’s a quote from one:

Dear Liz,

I don’t know you. I’ve never read your blog. Would you come look at mine and see whether I can be an SOB?

I didn’t love that email.

But that’s a gross point. I’ve also picked up some finer points of managing and sending email to business associates that I bet that even you might not have run into. [Read more…]

12+1 Things Every Reader Wants from a How-To Article

July 26, 2006 by Liz

How to Or Not How to

People are always teaching each other. We show each other new and easier ways to do things. As writers we teach people what we’ve learned. As readers, they teach us new stuff. All of this teaching surrounds one question, How?

How do I spot trends before they happen? How do I brand my business blog? How do I write compelling articles? How do I become an idea magnet? How do I code links? How do I make a contact form?

As a reader ready to learn, I find nothing more frustrating than a how-to article that doesn’t work. As a writer writing one, I know how hard it is not to miss something important. I’ve scoured my files to compile a list — a baker’s dozen — of things readers want when we answer How? [Read more…]

6+1 Ways to Compelling & Elegant Blog Posts

June 7, 2006 by Liz

Atilla, the Great Idea Killa

Ideas. Everyone talks about getting ideas. I get one. It’s great. I jump on it. I start to write. Soon enough I find myself in a pile of mush — words all over, thoughts in too many places.

What made me think this was a great idea? Now I’ve wasted all of this time. Here I sit — still no blog post and now one mangled idea. it isn’t pretty. What the heck am I doing wrong here? I was sure this idea was great. I am Atilla, the Great Idea Killa.

Yeah, I do that too.

I Want Compelling & Elegant!

The truth is that most ideas misbehave. They’re just not strong the way they come to us. They have a problem staying on track. Sometimes they fall apart. Often, they’re too large or stray all over the place. Your average idea needs a little help to be what it will be when it grows up to be a “Hey, lookat me” blog post. [Read more…]