Virtual Conference is Today!

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Thanks for visiting!

Today is the day.

You’ll want to head on over to Successful-Blog and check out the virtual conference.

12 Speakers. All day.

Chock full of bloggy goodness.

And don’t forget the SOBCon ‘07 Special going on today only.

If you are looking at attending, Registration today is $100 off!

See you over at Successful-Blog today, and again in Chicago May.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tags: Misc, SOBCon 07, SOBEvent.com, SuccessCREEations, Successful Blog

Conference Double Whammy!

OK. This is too cool!

Have you gotten info about a conference but you couldn’t go? Maybe cost was an issue or your schedule wouldn’t allow you to take the time away.

Well Liz Strauss over at Successful-Blog is doing something to remove those barriers. She’s hosting a Virtual Conference on Monday.

“What’s a Virtual Conference,” you say?

Imagine 12 incredibly sharp people each sharing a little of what they know, and available to answer specific questions on all kinds of bloggy topics like laughter, graphics, creativity, blunders, branding, and yes, even business blogging.

Each speaker does up a post, and then gets an hour in the comment hot box (hot comment box?) for dialog and Q&A.

Here’s how Liz describes it: Read more

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Misc, Business Blogging, Liz Strauss, SOBCon07, SuccessCREEations, Successful Blog, Virtual Conference

Make A Difference Right Where You Are

Here at SuccessCREEations we are taking a bit of a breather as we vacation up in Wisconsin. My wife and I are dealing with some aging parent issues, which is never easy for a child to deal with.

Our forced isolation from the internet has got us thinking about our priorities and values. The beginning of a new year is a great point to set some time aside to reevaluate purpose and direction.

The principle aim of business is to make money. Without a profit, our businesses are not sustainable. However, while profit is rightly the primary driving force behind our business, should it be the only consideration?

What about on a personal level? Read more

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags: Business, Misc, Its a Wonderful Life, Making a Difference, Successful Blog

Expanding Horizons - Writing for Successful-Blog

Last Wednesday evening at this time I was sitting across a table in a little neighborhood restaurant eating some of the best Mexican food I’d had in a long time.

Outside there was a light snow falling, shimmering in the streetlights, just enough to make it look like one of those snow globes had just been shaken up. And it was so cold the weather guys said they were running out of adjectives to describe it.

But inside we were nice and toasty over our dinner.

I’d driven nearly an hour through the Chicago evening commute traffic for the opportunity to meet Liz Strauss face to face.
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Popularity: 5% [?]

Tags: Misc, Chicago, Liz Strauss, One Way to CC it, Successful Blog

A Little Fun With Work

Last time I was here in Chicago I made it a point to check out the Sears Tower. I figure when you are in a city you should see the important things there.

This trip I decided to try to see an important person if I could. You all probably know that Liz Strauss over at Successful-Blog is one of my blogging friends. She’s a deep thinker who keeps one simple rule at her blog: Be Nice.

Who can’t like that? Well I was able break away from my commitments up here for a little while last night and connect with Liz for some dinner and great conversation.
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Popularity: 2% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Business, Business Blogging, Chicago, Liz Strauss, Phil Gerbyshak, Successful Blog

Some Travel Reading Just For You

This morning I am hopping a flight up to Chicago for a week. It was so nice of them to have a snow storm yesterday and drop the temperatures to below freezing for me so I can really be reminded of what winter is really like as I work up there this week.

Of course our office secretary has no sympathy about me heading into cold weather as I have a tendency to complain about the heat much of the time here in Savannah.

But seeing as how I am going to spend much of the day traveling, I thought I’d share a couple good links with you for some reading, especially since reading is one of my favorite things to do when I’m doing the airplane thing.
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Popularity: 5% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Business, Business Blogging, ConverStations, Evoca, Leading Smart, One By One Media, Successful Blog

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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Popularity: 6% [?]

Tags: Business, Motivation, Fortune Tellers, Future, Successful Blog

Happy Birthday Successful-Blog

Liz Strauss over at Successful-Blog is having a blog birthday tomorrow. In light of that she is having a little contest where entrants must describe her blog in 25 words or less.

Talk about a lady who understands success principles! Liz has built a tremendously successful community which has placed Successful-Blog in the top 40,000 websites world wide on the Alexa Traffic Rankings. No small feat! (To give you some basis for comparison, SuccessCREEations is currently ranked 740,898, our local Savannah News Paper, SavannahNow.com is ranked 39,125 BP.com is ranked 15,773, CBS.com is ranked 1,379, Google.com is ranked 3, and Yahoo.com is ranked 1)

Since I’ve started hanging out at the Open Comment Night that Liz hosts every Tuesday night I’ve gotten to know her and have come to consider her a friend. I nearly had the opportunity to meet her when my work sent me to her home town of Chicago, but an unfortunate change of flights by my company got in the way.

Liz is a passionate advocate for Net Neutrality and her Net Neutrality pages (page1 and page 2) are an invaluable resource where anyone can learn more about the controversy.

The Tuesday night Open Comment Nights are often a highlight of my week. There bloggers from all around the world hang out for a while, bounce ideas around, build friendships, and sometimes even get a little silly. The only real rule that Liz strictly enforces is that everyone must be nice.

Liz is a master at building community. We could all learn a thing or two from her example.
So without further ado, here is my entry for the contest:

With Successful-Blog Liz Strauss has built a friendly community where writers and bloggers can come together, share ideas, and grow better at what they do.

Happy Birthday Successful-Blog! May you have many more Successful-Years!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Misc, General, Liz Strauss, Successful Blog

I’m an S.O.B. - And I Like It!

Liz Strauss called me out as an S.O.B. this week.

Usually I wouldn’t get too excited were someone to call me that. But in this case it is quite an honor. Liz uses the acronym to mean something a little different than our usual understanding. In her case, S.O.B. stands for “Successful and Outstanding Bloggers”. Here is what Liz has to say about the folks she calls SOB’s”

They build relationships and take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank every one of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on. Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

And Liz knows what she is talking about.

Over at Successful-Blog Liz has built a thriving community by excelling each of the areas she highlights with her SOB award. For example each Tuesday evening at 7 PM Chicago time Liz hosts Open Comment Night. It’s a time when folks from all over the world come together and chat via comments on one post about everything and anything. It is kind of like instant messaging, only slower. The discussion can be serious and silly - often at the same time. Here is how she describes it:

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 is not unusual for the OCN post to have 400+ comments before the evening is over.

Another feature of Successful-Blog is the SOB Cafe each Friday. Here Liz highlights good posts from various articles she’s found while exploring blogs of folks she’s called out as SOB’s. Again from in her words:

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the title shots to enjoy each selection.

Liz is a leading champion of the Net Neutrality fight. She posts information and links to articles that keep abreast of the issue daily.

Oh, and she also writes tons of articles about writing, business, customer service, thinking, blogging, strategies, you name it. Whether you are a lurker or like to speak your piece Successful-Blog is a stimulating place to spend some time.

And did I mention I nearly had the privilege of meeting Liz in person? I was this close (he said holding his thumb and forefinger barely apart) when I was up in Chicago on business. Unfortunately for me my company changed my itinerary and sent me home early. Ah, well.

Anyway I am definitely a fan of Liz and of Successful-Blog. I’ll wear the SOB Badge with honor. Thanks Liz!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Tags: Misc, General, Liz Strauss, SOB, Successful Blog