Have a Thick Skin and Train Your Customers to Love Your Business

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Roger von Oech has a great post up today called Use Your Shield. In it he explains how brilliant new ideas may sometimes be met with tremendous skepticism and even at times harsh criticism simply because they are new and different from the accepted wisdom.

Even some concepts that are thoroughly accepted today were ridiculed harshly when they someone first brought the idea to people’s attention. Imagine the state of medicine today if doctors didn’t wash their hands between patients or surgeries?

But Roger shares with us even that basic common sense idea was ridiculed by doctors when it was first proposed because they didn’t want to believe that they were “carrying around death on their hands.”

Roger then gives us a great quote.

A thick skin is a gift from God.

How true. Each of us will face our critics. Yet the ability to face that criticism without it crushing our spirit, causing us to react angrily, or turn us from what we know is right is definitely a huge asset in our arsenal of success.
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Would You Really Want to Know Your Future?

Had an interesting discussion last night over at Successful-Blog’s Tuesday night Open Comment Night ritual. As always there was good conversation to be had over there. The topic last night was the future and fortune telling.

Now personally I don’t think I really want know exactly what my future holds until I get there. If I did, I’m not sure I’d have enough heart to make it through the tough times.

And when I look back over my life so far as I approach 40, there have been some challenges that I’ve had to overcome. If I knew the extent of those difficulties before I got to them, I suspect I might have been more inclined to give up before I made it through rather than sticking with the stuff and actually overcoming the obstacles that have been in my path.
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First Blogging Conference in Savannah is Announced

They’re calling it Un-Conference ‘07.

BlogSavannah has announced they will be hosting a conference for all things bloggish 25-27 January ‘07 right here in Savannah. Here is an excerpt from their conference page:

At this 1.5 day event we will provide a very friendly, laid back atmosphere in which to learn about, talk about, and disect the blogosphere both in the Low Country and the world around us. With each session being led by a noted blogger and the sessions being relevant to the blogger cause, we are hoping to start an annual tradition of technology and friendship! The cost is FREE and all you have to do is register and show up!

How did they manage to get the cost down to free, you ask. Read more

Business Blogging 101 – Is a Blog Right for Your Business?

So you’ve decided you really need to find out more about this whole blog phenomenon to try and decide if your business really needs a blog or not. (Hint: It does.) But you say learning all that new blogging stuff is a bit overwhelming?

How can you make informed decisions when you don’t even understand what those bloggers are talking about?

Well today is a good day for you because we’re here to help at SuccessCREEations. Welcome to Business Blogging 101 where we’ll try to explain some of the basics about blogging so that you can feel more comfortable entering the conversation.

This series is not meant to be the final word on anything, but like those 101 level courses in college we’ll just be introducing the various topics and point you to some additional resources so you can bring yourself up to speed as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So lets get started with today’s lesson!

Is a Blog Right for Your Business?

This is the sixth post in our series explaining the basics of business blogging called Business Blogging 101. Please be sure to read through the rest of the posts in the series to gain a better understanding of what business blogging is all about.

So now that you have a basic understanding of what a blog is and how some of it works, you may be wondering if a blog is really something that would help your business. Today we are going to look at some ideas to help you decide if business blogging is a good fit you.

First lets look at some of the benefits that a good blog can provide for your business.
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Announcement In The Works

There are exciting things afoot here in Savannah. Things are definitely happening in this town blog-wise.

We are working on something that we are looking forward to announcing in the next several days.

So stay tuned…

Business Blogging 101 – Measuring Your Blog’s Success

So you’ve decided you really need to find out more about this whole blog phenomenon to try and decide if your business really needs a blog or not. (Hint: It does.) But you say learning all that new blogging stuff is a bit overwhelming?

How can you make informed decisions when you don’t even understand what those bloggers are talking about?

Well today is a good day for you because we’re here to help at SuccessCREEations. Welcome to Business Blogging 101 where we’ll try to explain some of the basics about blogging so that you can feel more comfortable entering the conversation.

This series is not meant to be the final word on anything, but like those 101 level courses in college we’ll just be introducing the various topics and point you to some additional resources so you can bring yourself up to speed as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So lets get started with today’s lesson!

Measuring Your Blog’s Success

(Blog Metrics)

This is the fifth post in our series explaining the basics of business blogging called Business Blogging 101. Please be sure to read through the rest of the posts in the series to gain a better understanding of what business blogging is all about.

How do you tell if your business blog is successful or not?

This is an important question to address because if your business blog is not effectively producing any benefit for your business over time, then it would be a waste of company resources for you to maintain.

The good news is, like most everything dealing with the internet, there is a dizzying array of ways to measure all sorts of aspects of your blog. This measuring is called “blog metrics”. Many of the tools that can do the measuring are available in no cost versions with some companies offering fee versions of their tools with added capability.
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Giving Thanks in 2006

The year was 1863. America was in the middle of an incredibly bloody civil war.

It was a war where the old style massed formations of men marched into the fields with the new repeating rifles to create death on an incredibly large scale.

That year included the battles of Chancelorsville, Vicksburg, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Secessionville, Chickamaunga, and Chattanooga.

The outcome of the war was very far from certain.

And it was into this uncertainty that the Union President Abraham Lincoln issued his Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day. Here’s an excerpt:
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Business Blogging 101 – I Don’t Have Time to Blog!

So you’ve decided you really need to find out more about this whole blog phenomenon to try and decide if your business really needs a blog or not. (Hint: It does.) But you say learning all that new blogging stuff is a bit overwhelming?

How can you make informed decisions when you don’t even understand what those bloggers are talking about?

Well today is a good day for you because we’re here to help at SuccessCREEations. Welcome to Business Blogging 101 where we’ll try to explain some of the basics about blogging so that you can feel more comfortable entering the conversation.

This series is not meant to be the final word on anything, but like those 101 level courses in college we’ll just be introducing the various topics and point you to some additional resources so you can bring yourself up to speed as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So lets get started with today’s lesson!

I Don’t Have Time to Blog!

OK. Now we have a basic understanding of what a blog is. We know what RSS is and why feeds are such a good thing for us in so many ways. (Can you feel the power?) And we looked at comments and talked about how they add value to blogging and to your business.

Today we are going to address one of the first things I hear when I talk to businesses about blogging. The perception that it takes too much time.

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Start Using RSS and You’ll Find You’re Well Fed

The other day in our Business Blogging 101 series we took some time to look at the value of RSS and Feeds.

Well we’ve got another satisfied customer!

Carolyn Manning explains how she now finds herself Jumping Into The Present with Syndication after switching all her email subscriptions over to a feed reader.

Carolyn was already subscribing to things via email. She thought she was operating in the now. And I wouldn’t have said that she was behind the times by doing that. My point is that getting your info pumped into your feed reader automatically will save you time. When you’re trying to run your business, that is important because your time is precious.

Here is what Carolyn had to say about it after she made the switch.

Yesterday, when I wanted to refer to an article, it took some hunting. Today, it takes a whistle. Gotta love that.

Good job Carolyn!

Make the switch today. Start using RSS and you’ll find you’re well fed!

It’s Cold In Here!

The next installment of the Business Blogging 101 series is going to have to wait for a bit because it is taking a little while to cook because it is so stinking cold in here!!

I mean don’t get me wrong Savannah never gets like Wisconsin cold or anything. I grew up in Upstate New York so I really do know the difference.

But our heat pump conked out a couple days ago. Gorgeous is up in Wisconsin with her folks and we are short handed at work so there is no one around to let the repair tech in to fix it until she gets back tomorrow.

And last night the temperature must have dropped. There might even be frost on the ground! I know that doesn’t generate much sympathy for y’all in colder climes this time of year. But lets just say both our cats are extra cuddly this morning.

Couple my temperature issues with some Internet connectivity issues last night and I am still working on the next post in our series. This one will address the time issue. One of the things I hear over and over again from Business folks is “I don’t have time to blog!”

So we’ll talk about that and ways to fit blogging into a crazy schedule.

Until then, stay warm!

Enjoy!

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