Day 4 My Blogging Secrets

Day 4 My Blogging Secrets Ive gotten a number of IMs and e-mails about how cool this series is. Thank you, and huge thanks for the comments throughout the week. Unfortunately, its not very healthy for me. check out this IM transcript from this morning: Phil801 says: i feel guilty that i havent taken time to comment, but i consider just reading blogs to be a distraction right now, commenting is out of the question Jason says: i understand. It is amazing how getting comments boosts a bloggers ego though. Its probably unhealthy for me to get the comments Phil801 says: lol thats VERY true (you can follow Phil801 at his blog (locally, Phil is kind of like Cher and Prince hes a one-namer. I always call him Phil801 and usually forget what his last name is :p) Kidding aside, thank you very much for contributing. Im not alone in thinking this way Pete Johnson, HP.com architect and author of Nerd Guru pointed a group Im on to Jeff Atwoods post which had a really profound sentence: Its an open secret amongst bloggers that the blog comments are often better than the original blog post, and its because the community collectively knows far more than you or I will ever know. That leads me to todays secret: build a community. Id like to say the secret is HOW to build a community, but Im not sure I know. The secret is simply that you should build a community. End of post. Bonus material heres how I think Ive built a community. It involves a lot of risking. Reaching out to others. Ive blogged about relationships, leaving comments, developing a brand and having an abundance mentallity. When you roll all of these up you are led to a simple yet time-consuming tactic include others in your posts. Including others is cool for two reasons. First, I cant imagine what Jason Alba could write about for so long without including others. Honestly, more than once Ive thought Ive just run out of ideas! Theres nothing more to say! Second, blogging about others is a way of putting your virtual arm around them and walking them over to your community, with a warm-fuzzy feeling. How to do this? Ive had a few people write guest posts. I thought this would be easy but it was a little harder than I thought. When you have someone write a guest post you make them a community creator with you they have some kind of vested interest. I used to link out a lot! I wish I could say that I still do but Ive been really busy with the book and other stuff lately that I have slacked off on this. Want to know a really easy way to link out? Heres what I do if I have an extra twenty minutes: After I write my post I go to blogsearch.google.com and search on various keywords from my post. Remember, I care a lot more about linking to a blog post than anything else, thats why I go to a blog search engine. Anyway, I check to see if any of the hits are on a clean (not dirty, or lame) blog, and the post is interesting and relevant, and then I link back to it. Ive met a lot of people just reaching out to them in this way (because they usually get an e-mail notifying them that someone linked to them). I call people out by name. Can you find examples in the posts this week? Ill give you hints Pete Johnson from today, and Andy Sernovitz from Monday. Come on guys, do you really think that guru and superstar Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing reads my blog daily? No, Im pretty sure he doesnt. But he has commented on my blog every time Ive linked to him, or mentioned his name. He either has google alerts set up on his name or he gets the e-mail from his blog saying I linked to him. And he responds because its good for his brand and his marketing (I do the same). Do you have google alerts set up on your name and other industry topics? You should! caveat: this doesnt always work! So if the person you are calling out doesnt respond dont worry about it. Ive been tagged multiple times and only found out when the author simply e-mails me to tell me I have been tagged. So if there is no response, dont fret. I Take something from a comment and make it into a blog post. I sometimes feel sorry for my RSS readers because theyll miss incredible discussions found only in the comments. Make sure to cite the commenter and link back to their blog or website, if you can. Never link to their e-mail address (if thats all they left) consider that private and confidential. Similarly, I take a line or an entire post from someone else and create my own post based off of that. Wow, how flattering is it to find out that one of your brilliant thoughts spawned a post on someone elses blog!! One of the best people Ive seen do this is Bengt Wendel. Hes done this a few times from posts Ive written, but what really impresses me is when he finds some of my profoundness (:)) and updates one of his old posts! It shows that he is connecting lots of dots and really cares about his content (whereas, if you ask me what I wrote two weeks ago, I cant tell you my brain just doesnt work that way!). End result? Im a huge fan of Bengts because he has flattered me time and again. I Work on non-A-list relationships. All bloggers would love a mention in some A-list blogs, and drive tons of traffic. Kelly King Anderson, the Startup Princess, got a complete post out of Seth Godin once and got a ton of new traffic to her site (read her side of the story). TechCrunch, Boing-Boing, Guy Kawasaki and others can drive huge traffic to your site, even with a mere mention! But guess what its really, really hard to get ink on their blogs. So my advice is, dont try. It is not low-hanging fruit. And there are so many B+ bloggers out there that its easier to get their attention. Heres the secret though you should develop relationships with these B+ bloggers in your niche! I am always looking for bloggers in the employment space, which is quite broad. I want to know them, be familiar with them, and hope to get on their radar. All I want is a line in their blog like this I love JibberJobber! Thats it. But it will all start with building a relationship. I Dont neglect D-listers. These are the bloggers that well, are just starting out. Shoot, Ive seen a lot of sharp newbie bloggers with incredible blogs start up in the last year, and they are so passionate that Ive been way more impressed with them than some A-listers. Guess what folks? A-listers of today were newbies at one time. If you develop a relationship with D-listers now who knows what that can turn into in a couple of years. I had some blog buddies. These are people who I followed every single day, and who followed me (informally, of course). There was a lot of link love going around, and commenting on one-anothers blog. I know that it is lonely to not have any recognition on a post, and having a blog-buddy that was watching me each day was enough flattery and ego-building to keep me going. Who was my blog buddy? For many months (its no secret, just look at the early months) it was Carl Chapman, executive restaurant recruiter. We still chat on IM but we dont follow each others blogs as much thats okay though I think we really helped one another during that time (I know he helped me a ton). Again, this is simple relationship building stuff. I really, really recommend you get a free account on JibberJobber.com. I use to it log when I communicate with bloggers, set follow-up dates with them, and a host of other things. If you are trying to develop a bunch of relationships without a CRM tool I feel sorry for you. Head on over and sign-up on JibberJobber for free now, wont ya? Finally, when I was with Liz Strauss and the SOB people in Chicago earlier this year I found that there are a ton of really cool, less-known bloggers out there that are doing this stuff every single day. When you have about an hour free, check out these blogs and bookmark your favs. There is a lot to learn from these folks (man, would I love to hear their secrets and tips about what I posted on this week!), who are very dedicated to blogging, relationships, etc. SOBcon2007 Chicago Attendees: Sandra Renshaw Brad Shorr Timothy Johnson Tammy Lenski Muhammad Saleem Lorelle VanFossen David Dalka Mobile Search Marketing Todd And John Yedinak Joe Hauckes Tim Draayer Jeremy Geelan Carolyn Manning Sheila Scarborough Steve Farber Dawud Miracle Doug Mitchell Jeff O’Hara Dave Schoof Jamy Shiels Adam Steen Hannah Steen Chris Thilk Barry Zweibel Eric Bingen Ellen Moore Cord Silverstein Jean-Patrick Smith James Walton Sharan Tash Vernon Lun Tony Lee Scott Desgrosseilliers Mark Murrell Kammie Kobyleski Easton Ellsworth Mark Goodyear Ann Michael Kent Blumberg Ashley Cecil Robert Hruzek Sabu N G Mazur Krystyna Lisa Gates Franke James Chris Brown Troy Worman Karen Putz Jesse Petersen Terry Mapes Andy Brudtkuhl Lucia Mancuso Peter Flaschner Derrick Sorles Mike Rohde Thomas Clifford Rajesh Srivastava Claire Celsi Jason Alba Cristiana Passinato Sean R. Alex Shalman Cristiana Passinato Brad Spirrison Ari Garber Dr. Rob Wolcott Cheryll Cruz Sharon Scherer Jonathan Phillips Jason Wade Jill Pullen Doug Bulleit Wendy Kinney Chelsea Vincent Ayush Agarwal Paul Mangalik Premchand Kallan Xochi Kaplan Michael Snell Ella Wilson James Bergstrom Raj Majumder Keith Levenson SOBcon2007 Chicago Speakers: Andy Sernovitz Phil Gerbyshak Liz Strauss David Armano Mike Sansone Drew McLellan Mike Wagner Terry Starbucker Rodney Rumford Ben Yoskovitz Chris Cree Robyn Tippins Diego Orjuela Vernon Lun Wendy Piersall Ok, one more day of secrets left (then, Im out of secrets)! Awesome San Francisco jobs await you at San Fran Jobs.com. Day 4 My Blogging Secrets Ive gotten a number of IMs and e-mails about how cool this series is. Thank you, and huge thanks for the comments throughout the week. Unfortunately, its not very healthy for me. check out this IM transcript from this morning: Phil801 says: i feel guilty that i havent taken time to comment, but i consider just reading blogs to be a distraction right now, commenting is out of the question Jason says: i understand. It is amazing how getting comments boosts a bloggers ego though. Its probably unhealthy for me to get the comments Phil801 says: lol thats VERY true (you can follow Phil801 at his blog (locally, Phil is kind of like Cher and Prince hes a one-namer. I always call him Phil801 and usually forget what his last name is :p) Kidding aside, thank you very much for contributing. Im not alone in thinking this way Pete Johnson, HP.com architect and author of Nerd Guru pointed a group Im on to Jeff Atwoods post which had a really profound sentence: Its an open secret amongst bloggers that the blog comments are often better than the original blog post, and its because the community collectively knows far more than you or I will ever know. That leads me to todays secret: build a community. Id like to say the secret is HOW to build a community, but Im not sure I know. The secret is simply that you should build a community. End of post. Bonus material heres how I think Ive built a community. It involves a lot of risking. Reaching out to others. Ive blogged about relationships, leaving comments, developing a brand and having an abundance mentallity. When you roll all of these up you are led to a simple yet time-consuming tactic include others in your posts. Including others is cool for two reasons. First, I cant imagine what Jason Alba could write about for so long without including others. Honestly, more than once Ive thought Ive just run out of ideas! Theres nothing more to say! Second, blogging about others is a way of putting your virtual arm around them and walking them over to your community, with a warm-fuzzy feeling. How to do this? Ive had a few people write guest posts. I thought this would be easy but it was a little harder than I thought. When you have someone write a guest post you make them a community creator with you they have some kind of vested interest. I used to link out a lot! I wish I could say that I still do but Ive been really busy with the book and other stuff lately that I have slacked off on this. Want to know a really easy way to link out? Heres what I do if I have an extra twenty minutes: After I write my post I go to blogsearch.google.com and search on various keywords from my post. Remember, I care a lot more about linking to a blog post than anything else, thats why I go to a blog search engine. Anyway, I check to see if any of the hits are on a clean (not dirty, or lame) blog, and the post is interesting and relevant, and then I link back to it. Ive met a lot of people just reaching out to them in this way (because they usually get an e-mail notifying them that someone linked to them). I call people out by name. Can you find examples in the posts this week? Ill give you hints Pete Johnson from today, and Andy Sernovitz from Monday. Come on guys, do you really think that guru and superstar Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing reads my blog daily? No, Im pretty sure he doesnt. But he has commented on my blog every time Ive linked to him, or mentioned his name. He either has google alerts set up on his name or he gets the e-mail from his blog saying I linked to him. And he responds because its good for his brand and his marketing (I do the same). Do you have google alerts set up on your name and other industry topics? You should! caveat: this doesnt always work! So if the person you are calling out doesnt respond dont worry about it. Ive been tagged multiple times and only found out when the author simply e-mails me to tell me I have been tagged. So if there is no response, dont fret. I Take something from a comment and make it into a blog post. I sometimes feel sorry for my RSS readers because theyll miss incredible discussions found only in the comments. Make sure to cite the commenter and link back to their blog or website, if you can. Never link to their e-mail address (if thats all they left) consider that private and confidential. Similarly, I take a line or an entire post from someone else and create my own post based off of that. Wow, how flattering is it to find out that one of your brilliant thoughts spawned a post on someone elses blog!! One of the best people Ive seen do this is Bengt Wendel. Hes done this a few times from posts Ive written, but what really impresses me is when he finds some of my profoundness (:)) and updates one of his old posts! It shows that he is connecting lots of dots and really cares about his content (whereas, if you ask me what I wrote two weeks ago, I cant tell you my brain just doesnt work that way!). End result? Im a huge fan of Bengts because he has flattered me time and again. I Work on non-A-list relationships. All bloggers would love a mention in some A-list blogs, and drive tons of traffic. Kelly King Anderson, the Startup Princess, got a complete post out of Seth Godin once and got a ton of new traffic to her site (read her side of the story). TechCrunch, Boing-Boing, Guy Kawasaki and others can drive huge traffic to your site, even with a mere mention! But guess what its really, really hard to get ink on their blogs. So my advice is, dont try. It is not low-hanging fruit. And there are so many B+ bloggers out there that its easier to get their attention. Heres the secret though you should develop relationships with these B+ bloggers in your niche! I am always looking for bloggers in the employment space, which is quite broad. I want to know them, be familiar with them, and hope to get on their radar. All I want is a line in their blog like this I love JibberJobber! Thats it. But it will all start with building a relationship. I Dont neglect D-listers. These are the bloggers that well, are just starting out. Shoot, Ive seen a lot of sharp newbie bloggers with incredible blogs start up in the last year, and they are so passionate that Ive been way more impressed with them than some A-listers. Guess what folks? A-listers of today were newbies at one time. If you develop a relationship with D-listers now who knows what that can turn into in a couple of years. I had some blog buddies. These are people who I followed every single day, and who followed me (informally, of course). There was a lot of link love going around, and commenting on one-anothers blog. I know that it is lonely to not have any recognition on a post, and having a blog-buddy that was watching me each day was enough flattery and ego-building to keep me going. Who was my blog buddy? For many months (its no secret, just look at the early months) it was Carl Chapman, executive restaurant recruiter. We still chat on IM but we dont follow each others blogs as much thats okay though I think we really helped one another during that time (I know he helped me a ton). Again, this is simple relationship building stuff. I really, really recommend you get a free account on JibberJobber.com. I use to it log when I communicate with bloggers, set follow-up dates with them, and a host of other things. If you are trying to develop a bunch of relationships without a CRM tool I feel sorry for you. Head on over and sign-up on JibberJobber for free now, wont ya? Finally, when I was with Liz Strauss and the SOB people in Chicago earlier this year I found that there are a ton of really cool, less-known bloggers out there that are doing this stuff every single day. When you have about an hour free, check out these blogs and bookmark your favs. There is a lot to learn from these folks (man, would I love to hear their secrets and tips about what I posted on this week!), who are very dedicated to blogging, relationships, etc. SOBcon2007 Chicago Attendees: Sandra Renshaw Brad Shorr Timothy Johnson Tammy Lenski Muhammad Saleem Lorelle VanFossen David Dalka Mobile Search Marketing Todd And John Yedinak Joe Hauckes Tim Draayer Jeremy Geelan Carolyn Manning Sheila Scarborough Steve Farber Dawud Miracle Doug Mitchell Jeff O’Hara Dave Schoof Jamy Shiels Adam Steen Hannah Steen Chris Thilk Barry Zweibel Eric Bingen Ellen Moore Cord Silverstein Jean-Patrick Smith James Walton Sharan Tash Vernon Lun Tony Lee Scott Desgrosseilliers Mark Murrell Kammie Kobyleski Easton Ellsworth Mark Goodyear Ann Michael Kent Blumberg Ashley Cecil Robert Hruzek Sabu N G Mazur Krystyna Lisa Gates Franke James Chris Brown Troy Worman Karen Putz Jesse Petersen Terry Mapes Andy Brudtkuhl Lucia Mancuso Peter Flaschner Derrick Sorles Mike Rohde Thomas Clifford Rajesh Srivastava Claire Celsi Jason Alba Cristiana Passinato Sean R. Alex Shalman Cristiana Passinato Brad Spirrison Ari Garber Dr. Rob Wolcott Cheryll Cruz Sharon Scherer Jonathan Phillips Jason Wade Jill Pullen Doug Bulleit Wendy Kinney Chelsea Vincent Ayush Agarwal Paul Mangalik Premchand Kallan Xochi Kaplan Michael Snell Ella Wilson James Bergstrom Raj Majumder Keith Levenson SOBcon2007 Chicago Speakers: Andy Sernovitz Phil Gerbyshak Liz Strauss David Armano Mike Sansone Drew McLellan Mike Wagner Terry Starbucker Rodney Rumford Ben Yoskovitz Chris Cree Robyn Tippins Diego Orjuela Vernon Lun Wendy Piersall Ok, one more day of secrets left (then, Im out of secrets)! Awesome San Francisco jobs await you at San Fran Jobs.com. Day 4 My Blogging Secrets Ive gotten a number of IMs and e-mails about how cool this series is. Thank you, and huge thanks for the comments throughout the week. Unfortunately, its not very healthy for me. check out this IM transcript from this morning: Phil801 says: i feel guilty that i havent taken time to comment, but i consider just reading blogs to be a distraction right now, commenting is out of the question Jason says: i understand. It is amazing how getting comments boosts a bloggers ego though. Its probably unhealthy for me to get the comments Phil801 says: lol thats VERY true (you can follow Phil801 at his blog (locally, Phil is kind of like Cher and Prince hes a one-namer. I always call him Phil801 and usually forget what his last name is :p) Kidding aside, thank you very much for contributing. Im not alone in thinking this way Pete Johnson, HP.com architect and author of Nerd Guru pointed a group Im on to Jeff Atwoods post which had a really profound sentence: Its an open secret amongst bloggers that the blog comments are often better than the original blog post, and its because the community collectively knows far more than you or I will ever know. That leads me to todays secret: build a community. Id like to say the secret is HOW to build a community, but Im not sure I know. The secret is simply that you should build a community. End of post. Bonus material heres how I think Ive built a community. It involves a lot of risking. Reaching out to others. Ive blogged about relationships, leaving comments, developing a brand and having an abundance mentallity. When you roll all of these up you are led to a simple yet time-consuming tactic include others in your posts. Including others is cool for two reasons. First, I cant imagine what Jason Alba could write about for so long without including others. Honestly, more than once Ive thought Ive just run out of ideas! Theres nothing more to say! Second, blogging about others is a way of putting your virtual arm around them and walking them over to your community, with a warm-fuzzy feeling. How to do this? Ive had a few people write guest posts. I thought this would be easy but it was a little harder than I thought. When you have someone write a guest post you make them a community creator with you they have some kind of vested interest. I used to link out a lot! I wish I could say that I still do but Ive been really busy with the book and other stuff lately that I have slacked off on this. Want to know a really easy way to link out? Heres what I do if I have an extra twenty minutes: After I write my post I go to blogsearch.google.com and search on various keywords from my post. Remember, I care a lot more about linking to a blog post than anything else, thats why I go to a blog search engine. Anyway, I check to see if any of the hits are on a clean (not dirty, or lame) blog, and the post is interesting and relevant, and then I link back to it. Ive met a lot of people just reaching out to them in this way (because they usually get an e-mail notifying them that someone linked to them). I call people out by name. Can you find examples in the posts this week? Ill give you hints Pete Johnson from today, and Andy Sernovitz from Monday. Come on guys, do you really think that guru and superstar Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing reads my blog daily? No, Im pretty sure he doesnt. But he has commented on my blog every time Ive linked to him, or mentioned his name. He either has google alerts set up on his name or he gets the e-mail from his blog saying I linked to him. And he responds because its good for his brand and his marketing (I do the same). Do you have google alerts set up on your name and other industry topics? You should! caveat: this doesnt always work! So if the person you are calling out doesnt respond dont worry about it. Ive been tagged multiple times and only found out when the author simply e-mails me to tell me I have been tagged. So if there is no response, dont fret. I Take something from a comment and make it into a blog post. I sometimes feel sorry for my RSS readers because theyll miss incredible discussions found only in the comments. Make sure to cite the commenter and link back to their blog or website, if you can. Never link to their e-mail address (if thats all they left) consider that private and confidential. Similarly, I take a line or an entire post from someone else and create my own post based off of that. Wow, how flattering is it to find out that one of your brilliant thoughts spawned a post on someone elses blog!! One of the best people Ive seen do this is Bengt Wendel. Hes done this a few times from posts Ive written, but what really impresses me is when he finds some of my profoundness (:)) and updates one of his old posts! It shows that he is connecting lots of dots and really cares about his content (whereas, if you ask me what I wrote two weeks ago, I cant tell you my brain just doesnt work that way!). End result? Im a huge fan of Bengts because he has flattered me time and again. I Work on non-A-list relationships. All bloggers would love a mention in some A-list blogs, and drive tons of traffic. Kelly King Anderson, the Startup Princess, got a complete post out of Seth Godin once and got a ton of new traffic to her site (read her side of the story). TechCrunch, Boing-Boing, Guy Kawasaki and others can drive huge traffic to your site, even with a mere mention! But guess what its really, really hard to get ink on their blogs. So my advice is, dont try. It is not low-hanging fruit. And there are so many B+ bloggers out there that its easier to get their attention. Heres the secret though you should develop relationships with these B+ bloggers in your niche! I am always looking for bloggers in the employment space, which is quite broad. I want to know them, be familiar with them, and hope to get on their radar. All I want is a line in their blog like this I love JibberJobber! Thats it. But it will all start with building a relationship. I Dont neglect D-listers. These are the bloggers that well, are just starting out. Shoot, Ive seen a lot of sharp newbie bloggers with incredible blogs start up in the last year, and they are so passionate that Ive been way more impressed with them than some A-listers. Guess what folks? A-listers of today were newbies at one time. If you develop a relationship with D-listers now who knows what that can turn into in a couple of years. I had some blog buddies. These are people who I followed every single day, and who followed me (informally, of course). There was a lot of link love going around, and commenting on one-anothers blog. I know that it is lonely to not have any recognition on a post, and having a blog-buddy that was watching me each day was enough flattery and ego-building to keep me going. Who was my blog buddy? For many months (its no secret, just look at the early months) it was Carl Chapman, executive restaurant recruiter. We still chat on IM but we dont follow each others blogs as much thats okay though I think we really helped one another during that time (I know he helped me a ton). Again, this is simple relationship building stuff. I really, really recommend you get a free account on JibberJobber.com. I use to it log when I communicate with bloggers, set follow-up dates with them, and a host of other things. If you are trying to develop a bunch of relationships without a CRM tool I feel sorry for you. Head on over and sign-up on JibberJobber for free now, wont ya? Finally, when I was with Liz Strauss and the SOB people in Chicago earlier this year I found that there are a ton of really cool, less-known bloggers out there that are doing this stuff every single day. When you have about an hour free, check out these blogs and bookmark your favs. There is a lot to learn from these folks (man, would I love to hear their secrets and tips about what I posted on this week!), who are very dedicated to blogging, relationships, etc. SOBcon2007 Chicago Attendees: Sandra Renshaw Brad Shorr Timothy Johnson Tammy Lenski Muhammad Saleem Lorelle VanFossen David Dalka Mobile Search Marketing Todd And John Yedinak Joe Hauckes Tim Draayer Jeremy Geelan Carolyn Manning Sheila Scarborough Steve Farber Dawud Miracle Doug Mitchell Jeff O’Hara Dave Schoof Jamy Shiels Adam Steen Hannah Steen Chris Thilk Barry Zweibel Eric Bingen Ellen Moore Cord Silverstein Jean-Patrick Smith James Walton Sharan Tash Vernon Lun Tony Lee Scott Desgrosseilliers Mark Murrell Kammie Kobyleski Easton Ellsworth Mark Goodyear Ann Michael Kent Blumberg Ashley Cecil Robert Hruzek Sabu N G Mazur Krystyna Lisa Gates Franke James Chris Brown Troy Worman Karen Putz Jesse Petersen Terry Mapes Andy Brudtkuhl Lucia Mancuso Peter Flaschner Derrick Sorles Mike Rohde Thomas Clifford Rajesh Srivastava Claire Celsi Jason Alba Cristiana Passinato Sean R. Alex Shalman Cristiana Passinato Brad Spirrison Ari Garber Dr. Rob Wolcott Cheryll Cruz Sharon Scherer Jonathan Phillips Jason Wade Jill Pullen Doug Bulleit Wendy Kinney Chelsea Vincent Ayush Agarwal Paul Mangalik Premchand Kallan Xochi Kaplan Michael Snell Ella Wilson James Bergstrom Raj Majumder Keith Levenson SOBcon2007 Chicago Speakers: Andy Sernovitz Phil Gerbyshak Liz Strauss David Armano Mike Sansone Drew McLellan Mike Wagner Terry Starbucker Rodney Rumford Ben Yoskovitz Chris Cree Robyn Tippins Diego Orjuela Vernon Lun Wendy Piersall Ok, one more day of secrets left (then, Im out of secrets)! Awesome San Francisco jobs await you at San Fran Jobs.com. Day 4 My Blogging Secrets Ive gotten a number of IMs and e-mails about how cool this series is. Thank you, and huge thanks for the comments throughout the week. Unfortunately, its not very healthy for me. check out this IM transcript from this morning: Phil801 says: i feel guilty that i havent taken time to comment, but i consider just reading blogs to be a distraction right now, commenting is out of the question Jason says: i understand. It is amazing how getting comments boosts a bloggers ego though. Its probably unhealthy for me to get the comments Phil801 says: lol thats VERY true (you can follow Phil801 at his blog (locally, Phil is kind of like Cher and Prince hes a one-namer. I always call him Phil801 and usually forget what his last name is :p) Kidding aside, thank you very much for contributing. Im not alone in thinking this way Pete Johnson, HP.com architect and author of Nerd Guru pointed a group Im on to Jeff Atwoods post which had a really profound sentence: Its an open secret amongst bloggers that the blog comments are often better than the original blog post, and its because the community collectively knows far more than you or I will ever know. That leads me to todays secret: build a community. Id like to say the secret is HOW to build a community, but Im not sure I know. The secret is simply that you should build a community. End of post. Bonus material heres how I think Ive built a community. It involves a lot of risking. Reaching out to others. Ive blogged about relationships, leaving comments, developing a brand and having an abundance mentallity. When you roll all of these up you are led to a simple yet time-consuming tactic include others in your posts. Including others is cool for two reasons. First, I cant imagine what Jason Alba could write about for so long without including others. Honestly, more than once Ive thought Ive just run out of ideas! Theres nothing more to say! Second, blogging about others is a way of putting your virtual arm around them and walking them over to your community, with a warm-fuzzy feeling. How to do this? Ive had a few people write guest posts. I thought this would be easy but it was a little harder than I thought. When you have someone write a guest post you make them a community creator with you they have some kind of vested interest. I used to link out a lot! I wish I could say that I still do but Ive been really busy with the book and other stuff lately that I have slacked off on this. Want to know a really easy way to link out? Heres what I do if I have an extra twenty minutes: After I write my post I go to blogsearch.google.com and search on various keywords from my post. Remember, I care a lot more about linking to a blog post than anything else, thats why I go to a blog search engine. Anyway, I check to see if any of the hits are on a clean (not dirty, or lame) blog, and the post is interesting and relevant, and then I link back to it. Ive met a lot of people just reaching out to them in this way (because they usually get an e-mail notifying them that someone linked to them). I call people out by name. Can you find examples in the posts this week? Ill give you hints Pete Johnson from today, and Andy Sernovitz from Monday. Come on guys, do you really think that guru and superstar Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing reads my blog daily? No, Im pretty sure he doesnt. But he has commented on my blog every time Ive linked to him, or mentioned his name. He either has google alerts set up on his name or he gets the e-mail from his blog saying I linked to him. And he responds because its good for his brand and his marketing (I do the same). Do you have google alerts set up on your name and other industry topics? You should! caveat: this doesnt always work! So if the person you are calling out doesnt respond dont worry about it. Ive been tagged multiple times and only found out when the author simply e-mails me to tell me I have been tagged. So if there is no response, dont fret. I Take something from a comment and make it into a blog post. I sometimes feel sorry for my RSS readers because theyll miss incredible discussions found only in the comments. Make sure to cite the commenter and link back to their blog or website, if you can. Never link to their e-mail address (if thats all they left) consider that private and confidential. Similarly, I take a line or an entire post from someone else and create my own post based off of that. Wow, how flattering is it to find out that one of your brilliant thoughts spawned a post on someone elses blog!! One of the best people Ive seen do this is Bengt Wendel. Hes done this a few times from posts Ive written, but what really impresses me is when he finds some of my profoundness (:)) and updates one of his old posts! It shows that he is connecting lots of dots and really cares about his content (whereas, if you ask me what I wrote two weeks ago, I cant tell you my brain just doesnt work that way!). End result? Im a huge fan of Bengts because he has flattered me time and again. I Work on non-A-list relationships. All bloggers would love a mention in some A-list blogs, and drive tons of traffic. Kelly King Anderson, the Startup Princess, got a complete post out of Seth Godin once and got a ton of new traffic to her site (read her side of the story). TechCrunch, Boing-Boing, Guy Kawasaki and others can drive huge traffic to your site, even with a mere mention! But guess what its really, really hard to get ink on their blogs. So my advice is, dont try. It is not low-hanging fruit. And there are so many B+ bloggers out there that its easier to get their attention. Heres the secret though you should develop relationships with these B+ bloggers in your niche! I am always looking for bloggers in the employment space, which is quite broad. I want to know them, be familiar with them, and hope to get on their radar. All I want is a line in their blog like this I love JibberJobber! Thats it. But it will all start with building a relationship. I Dont neglect D-listers. These are the bloggers that well, are just starting out. Shoot, Ive seen a lot of sharp newbie bloggers with incredible blogs start up in the last year, and they are so passionate that Ive been way more impressed with them than some A-listers. Guess what folks? A-listers of today were newbies at one time. If you develop a relationship with D-listers now who knows what that can turn into in a couple of years. I had some blog buddies. These are people who I followed every single day, and who followed me (informally, of course). There was a lot of link love going around, and commenting on one-anothers blog. I know that it is lonely to not have any recognition on a post, and having a blog-buddy that was watching me each day was enough flattery and ego-building to keep me going. Who was my blog buddy? For many months (its no secret, just look at the early months) it was Carl Chapman, executive restaurant recruiter. We still chat on IM but we dont follow each others blogs as much thats okay though I think we really helped one another during that time (I know he helped me a ton). Again, this is simple relationship building stuff. I really, really recommend you get a free account on JibberJobber.com. I use to it log when I communicate with bloggers, set follow-up dates with them, and a host of other things. If you are trying to develop a bunch of relationships without a CRM tool I feel sorry for you. Head on over and sign-up on JibberJobber for free now, wont ya? Finally, when I was with Liz Strauss and the SOB people in Chicago earlier this year I found that there are a ton of really cool, less-known bloggers out there that are doing this stuff every single day. When you have about an hour free, check out these blogs and bookmark your favs. There is a lot to learn from these folks (man, would I love to hear their secrets and tips about what I posted on this week!), who are very dedicated to blogging, relationships, etc. SOBcon2007 Chicago Attendees: Sandra Renshaw Brad Shorr Timothy Johnson Tammy Lenski Muhammad Saleem Lorelle VanFossen David Dalka Mobile Search Marketing Todd And John Yedinak Joe Hauckes Tim Draayer Jeremy Geelan Carolyn Manning Sheila Scarborough Steve Farber Dawud Miracle Doug Mitchell Jeff O’Hara Dave Schoof Jamy Shiels Adam Steen Hannah Steen Chris Thilk Barry Zweibel Eric Bingen Ellen Moore Cord Silverstein Jean-Patrick Smith James Walton Sharan Tash Vernon Lun Tony Lee Scott Desgrosseilliers Mark Murrell Kammie Kobyleski Easton Ellsworth Mark Goodyear Ann Michael Kent Blumberg Ashley Cecil Robert Hruzek Sabu N G Mazur Krystyna Lisa Gates Franke James Chris Brown Troy Worman Karen Putz Jesse Petersen Terry Mapes Andy Brudtkuhl Lucia Mancuso Peter Flaschner Derrick Sorles Mike Rohde Thomas Clifford Rajesh Srivastava Claire Celsi Jason Alba Cristiana Passinato Sean R. Alex Shalman Cristiana Passinato Brad Spirrison Ari Garber Dr. Rob Wolcott Cheryll Cruz Sharon Scherer Jonathan Phillips Jason Wade Jill Pullen Doug Bulleit Wendy Kinney Chelsea Vincent Ayush Agarwal Paul Mangalik Premchand Kallan Xochi Kaplan Michael Snell Ella Wilson James Bergstrom Raj Majumder Keith Levenson SOBcon2007 Chicago Speakers: Andy Sernovitz Phil Gerbyshak Liz Strauss David Armano Mike Sansone Drew McLellan Mike Wagner Terry Starbucker Rodney Rumford Ben Yoskovitz Chris Cree Robyn Tippins Diego Orjuela Vernon Lun Wendy Piersall Ok, one more day of secrets left (then, Im out of secrets)! Awesome San Francisco jobs await you at San Fran Jobs.com.

My News Segment on Fox 5 San Diego!

My News Segment on Fox 5 San Diego! A HUGE dream of mine was fulfilled today. When I was little I always wanted to be a news anchor and be on TV.  Well today, I finally got my chance on Fox 5 San Diego. This morning I represented Dress for Success San Diego in a news segment on how women can get ahead in their careers. Missed it live? Click here to watch the 5-minute clip. I am really happy with how it went and hope to have more segments in the future!  Enjoy! What did you think of my very first official news interview? Leave a note in the comments and let me know!

Avoid Overwhelm and Get Focus For Your Brand Marketing - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Avoid Overwhelm and Get Focus For Your Brand Marketing - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Running a business is not an overnight success story, and many brands may struggle with not enough time or have themselves spread too thin. As marketing becomes more complex its important to change your perspective and build better habits. This is just a matter of focusing on what really matters for better productivity. Does your brand need more time to build your business? There are some great techniques that can bring up the level of your efficiency. It’s important to evaluate the areas where you see lack of attention or not enough growth. Too many activities at once can hinder your progress and marketing strategy. The right focus will enable you to harness your day and move forward into success this year. Focus Strategies for Personal Brands Creating a routine on the most important tasks is just the beginning of reaching out to your brand’s full potential. Here are some key factors to consider: Track your current activity Time is the one thing we can never get back. Use online tools and hire freelancers to help you delegate tasks. Reach out to your network and find out what works best for their business. It’s amazing how many brands do not do this, especially at the beginning stages. A customer who perceives that you are too busy for them can quickly turn away. Find out what is taking up too much of your time and drill down from there. Learning something new could be too much information While researching topics in your field your brand can come to information overload very quickly. This can not only kill your creativity, but will put your marketing focus out of balance. Tackle one new thing at a time, and after having mastered that move onto the next phase of growth. First hand experience matters By just doing the work and managing the pitfalls and successes your brand can learn a lot. Just dive in and see what happens. You can study something so much that you never quite learn the real application of it. You can always adjust the sails along the way, and add some knowledge to what you are learning through action. As a personal brand grows so does the need for tapering the overwhelm factor. Take the time to evaluate your progress each week with adjustments to your schedule and work flow as needed. Take some personal time to recharge and reflect, even if its just a small amount each day. Your business can be a place that runs from efficient, focused, and disciplined progress rather than the day running you.

Our Top Ten Spring Reading Roundup

Our Top Ten Spring Reading Roundup Whether its time to get a head start on your Summer tan on the patio or youre impatiently waiting for just a little warmer weather, a good book is definitely a good part of your scene.   And now is a great time to check out our Spring Reading Roundup and find one. From all of those that come across our desks here at Ms Career Girl, heres ten of our favorites.   Theyre in no particular order, theres sure to be at least a couple that will be calling your name. About Self and Life The Strengths Book Its no secret that people usually enjoy what theyre good at.   And passion can easily grow from the fertile soil of success mixed with liking what youre doing.   Author Sally Bibb shows you how to identify your strengths and play them to your advantage in both business and personal settings.   And its not just another collection of over-used cheerleading quotes.   Rather, it reads like an easy reading chat session with a caring friend or relative combined with a workbook youll actually enjoy doing.   In perfect purse size, a great one to carry along and fill those spare moments with something that can change your day, or maybe your life. Things To Do On Route 66 Before You Die Route 66 is the iconic 50s road of American folklore.   Running from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, its world famous and attracts tourists and adventurers from all the corners of the globe. Dotted with countless wonders and must see/must experience places, its pretty much impossible to see it all.   If youve got a Summer road trip in mind, author and Route 66 expert Jim Hinckley sorts it out for you with his 100 favorite points to plot on your map.   Now thats a memorable road trip! Dog Training The American Male When your best furry friend misbehaves, what do you do?   Get him some training.   When your significant other decides a dog is just what your rocky relationship needs to get better, what do you do?   Adopt the same training techniques youre using on fido to do a bit of housebreaking and training on him, of course. Funny yet packed with plenty of usable inspiration, read this one with a glass of wine, a wink, and come away with some new insights about the care and feeding of   that thing called a man.   You might want to keep this little jewel by L.A. Knight out of sight until you devour all its wisdom yourself! The Beauty of Dirty Skin Wait.   Beauty and dirty skin?   Yes, the author Whitney Bowe says.   The beauty is in the incredibly powerful connections between your gut, your brain, and your skin.   Every day, your brain is sending you messages about your gut via the biggest human organ, your skin.   Weve all seen the obvious evidence of lives lived poorly, such as the lined faces and unhealthy skin of smokers. But to whatever extent the gut and body isnt being properly cared for, thats reflected in our outer appearance.   Bowe presents plenty of hard facts and a three week program to get you on your way to a healthier body, and a fuller, happier life. The Business of Being Write your name here:   ____________________, Inc.   Thats you.   You are in the business of being.   Living.   That includes all you do, both in business and in your personal life.   As you learn to be congruent in all of your life with your purpose and passion youll find greater measures of success, inner peace, and real satisfaction.   Author Laurie Buchanan does an artful job of reframing life as a whole, and yours to embrace in a wonderfully new way.   This must-read gem is not due out until July, but its so good youll want to add it to your books to read list now. About Work and Business Burn The Business Plan Two of the most often heard truths of modern business success stories are that you have to have a great plan, and that most successful businesses are started by young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.   But author Carl J. Schramm says both are false.   If you want an inside look at what it really takes to be a successful entrepreneur (and who typically is ) get this book.   Over 30 and dont have a business plan, just a great idea and a burning desire?   That describes the majority of those who succeed.   Read the book and get your entrepreneurial game on. Stop Selling and Start Leading If you throw a bunch of seeds casually into the field, you may or may not be eating next season.   In the words of a sales manager I once worked for, thats equivalent to throwing a bunch of sh*t against the wall and see what sticks.   But if you invest the time to cultivate the field, gradually making it more fertile and supportive of sustained output, youll likely find years of bountiful harvests ahead. The authors of Stop Selling and Start Leading show how selling that is based on collaborative leadership is what is winning and how you can incorporate it into your own sales career.   A must read for anyone starting out in sales. Inc.:   Start a Successful Business Tired of the grind?   Had enough of building someone elses dream?   If youre ready to launch your own business, what better resource to turn to that the people who produce Inc?   Rather that ferret through a stack of inspiring books on starting your own business, grab this one.   Inspiration by the editors of Inc, headed up by Colleen Debaise,   its full of guidance from conceptual studies, to what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, from the mouths of those who have done it.   This is the book your grandpa wishes he had. Being Boss Being the boss has all the rewards you imagined.   Youve also learned there are on-going challenges, and tough decisions that must be made   all too often.   Being Boss podcast creators Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson share their combined expertise to shed light on how, as the boss, you can keep your head on straight, have focused goals and habits, and extinguish money worries by remembering and executing your personal value proposition.   Think of this book as the the perfect pocket counselor for the boss. Leadership Built on Why Whether youre just starting your own career or know a graduating high school senior, now is the time to start clarifying your thoughts and goals on being a future leader and making a real contribution to our world.   Author Anni Keffer says in order to create that kind of legacy, you need to re-frame your notion of leadership to two simple words Knowledge and Action.   If that sounds almost too simplistic, take a breath and let her show you how.   Effective doesnt have to be hard.   What a great book to gift to those just entering the world of work!

8 Lessons From Successful People On Being Fired CareerMetis.com

8 Lessons From Successful People On Being Firedâ€" CareerMetis.com Licensed Image â€" Adobe Stock PhotosIf you ever hear the words “you’re fired” from your boss, a million emotions will probably start running through your head. You may even start questioning yourself. But resilience can be one of the most important character traits to have. There are countless examples of people who have made a comeback after serious failures. So now think â€" how would you handle a serious setback?You may be surprised to find out that even highly successful people like Steve Jobs have faced adversity in their career. Instead of putting his life on hold, Steve Jobs founded another company that was later acquired by Apple, prompting his return to Apple as CEO.Today, we’re sharing an infographic with some lessons on getting firedto help you with the transition. Read on for more tips!Infographic Credit â€" Credit.com1) Try not to dwell on itevalevalThis golden nugget of wisdom from the venerable Steve Jobs is something that applies to a ton of areas of life. Es pecially if you have just lost a job.When bad things happen in life, dwelling on them accomplishes two things. First, it makes us relive negative emotions over and over. Second, it prevents us from looking toward the future. There is a proper place for mourning a loss. However, once that time is done, you need to move on.As you move on, ask yourself, “What’s next?” Life is full of limitless options. Set yourself free to explore those options and participate in something bigger and better.2) Understand your life is more than a momentWhether that moment was a decision you made that led to you being fired or a moment where someone else made a decision that ended in you being fired, this principle still applies. You cannot let that one moment, that one decision define you.Life is in continuous movement. Moments from our past will try to haunt and infringe on our present and our future. We have a choice whether we will let them ruin things or not.3) Remember that it’s all part of successNo one would ever call Mark Cuban a failure. Yet as successful as he seems, he was fired too. But he realized something vital to anyone who wants to succeed at life â€" the success equation is made up of all different kinds of experiences!As someone once said, success does not come in a straight line. The road is long and it winds around all kinds of events, emotions, and experiences. Among all those things, sometimes you are going to find failure. The key here is realizing that it is a learning experience, something that can make you better next time.4) Failing means you are trying hardevalYou know those people who just kind of drift through life? They show up to their nine to five job and plan on being there for the rest of their lives. You are not one of those people.Whether getting fired was your idea or not, chances are it is a sign that you are trying. Maybe you are rocking the boat, trying new things, and that rubbed someone wrong. Whatever, the reason, failing and fa iling hard is a sign that you are reaching higher and going further than anyone else.Never failing means never trying.5) Keep your head upevalWhen things are going great, it can be easy to let it go to your head. However, as the great Jerry Seinfeld says, that is the time where you need to put your head down and focus. On the other hand, when things are not going so well, it can be easy to let that get you down.evalWe need to fight this natural response and remember that things will change for the better. There are tons of reasons to be excited about the future!6) Make the most of recoveryFalling down hurts. However, when failure comes around, what matters is not that you failed or got fired, but how you respond to that circumstance.When you choose to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on, you are making a conscious decision to rise above your circumstances. If you choose the opposite, wallowing in your despair and the pain of being fired, you are also making a conscious choice, a choice to waste an amazing opportunity.7) Re-channel your energyThere is no denying that getting fired can create a firestorm of emotions inside you. Everything from anger to disappointment to just plain sadness. Again, you cannot deny that you have these emotions. The real question is what are you going to do with your emotions?The best option, as Lee Iacocca says, is to take those emotions and use them as fuel to move you forward. You will be amazed at how much power can put behind your actions by channeling your emotions.8) Acknowledge the truthWhen you are fired from a job, it just plain sucks. That’s just the cold hard truth! So recognize this truth. Don’t try to tamp it down.Keep your head up through the pain, but don’t be afraid to own the suck. Realizing and living in the truth is always the best way to go.

Fix It Friday Must I Be An Expert

Fix It Friday Must I Be An Expert Todays Fix It Friday answer is on whether you need to be an expert in every job requirement requested. On Friday, I respond to YOUR job search questions! If you have a question, ask me! Honestly, most questions are not all that unique. Chances are, someone else has the same question you do! Heres todays question: When a job search requires two separate and distinct skill sets (such as training abilities and technical abilities) and you match one set extremely well and are slightly under-qualified in the other how should you handle the one that you are under-qualified for? I am an Implementation and Training Specialist and while my training skills are exemplary and award-winning, I may lack some experience on the technical side. I am not talking about knowing nothing, but instead being intermediate or advanced level when the job description calls for expert level. All Jobs Require Multiple Skill Sets In todays work environment, I would be hard-pressed to identify a job that doesnt require vastly different skills. We are always being asked to do more with less. In your case, not having expert level technology skills COULD be a factor, but maybe not as much as you think. Honestly, what is the big difference between what an advanced user knows versus an expert user knows how to do? Understand What Expert Means You will need to better understand what you are really lacking. You can do this by talking to industry leaders in training and development or attending your local ASTD chapter meetings. You could reach out to someone who is an expert and ask for an informational meeting to better understand what capabilities you lack. This is really important because you need to understand WHY not having expert level skills may or may not be an issue. Dismiss It One option is to dismiss this missing knowledge as no big deal.Focus on what you CAN do and why this benefits the companys offerings. You may have other skills need and these would be your value-add (and make up for the missing expert level skills). Be sure to provide examples of times you have been able to overcome lack of knowledge and your ability to master new skills easily and quickly! This surely happens regularly. Actions Speak Louder Than Words Once they see you in action, they may be willing to overlook missing skills. Your exemplary platform/deliver skills may woo them. If you have video of yourself training, share it! You may even offer to present on an expert level subject matter topic so they can see you in action. Fix It The other option, once you have determined your missing knowledge, is to go fix it by developing those skills. Trainers Are Not Always SMEs Not all trainers NEED to be SMEs (subject matter experts). Focus on training opportunities with organizations that do not require these higher level of technical skills. Confidence Is King As you know, your presence and confidence in the front of the room, so to speak, is what engages and impresses. Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses! Believe in what you do have to offer and dont obsess over what you dont have. There will always be candidates without key skills. They got their job because of the value they provide to the organization. Got a Question? Submit your job search question here: Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Enter your questionPhoneSubmit

Resume Writing For Sales Professionals

Resume Writing For Sales ProfessionalsResume writing for sales professionals can be a daunting task, especially if you are not sure how to start and if your job may be so important that you want to impress the employer. As an aspiring sales professional, it is important to know what you need to do in order to get noticed by the company hiring you. The following tips should help you on your way.If you want to impress the company hiring you, you will need to take the time to compose a professional resume. This document will show prospective employers how you can contribute to their business. Writing good sales resume takes time and effort, but it will pay off for you when the employer sees your resume and decides whether or not you are the right fit for the position. Make sure that you know how to put together a great sales resume before you begin.When writing a sales professional resume, it is important to have the necessary facts right. You need to provide accurate information about your work history, education, skills, certifications, and other pertinent information. The information you include must be in line with the company's marketing goals.The main goal of a sales professional is to persuade the employer to hire them. Good sales resume will convey your message to the employer about your ability to contribute to the company. It should also contain information about your experience with the company, including your references, your credentials, and any examples of cases where you were able to use your sales skills to gain a new client.The next step in creating a sales resume is to create a cover letter. This letter can highlight your previous work history, demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in a specific field, and introduce your qualifications to the hiring manager. The purpose of a cover letter is to deliver your sales resume to the employer, but it should also be effective in convincing the interviewer that you are the right person for the job. Good sales resume, together with a good sales letter, is your first step to landing the job.Writing a sales resume is just the beginning of the journey to getting hired. While it is a good idea to keep your resume current, you should also be taking the time to network. Networking is the key to getting hired, and if you want to find work that you are passionate about, you need to develop a reputation in the industry that speaks to your strengths. Work your networking skills to help you make contacts in the industry and make contacts with the potential employer.Finally, make sure that you update your resume periodically to keep it current in your industry. The problem with an outdated resume is that it will not be out of date quickly enough. In fact, some companies rely on these sales resumes as an effective hiring tool, so it is a good idea to make sure that you update your resume on a regular basis. In addition, it is important to make sure that your resume has your current job title, n ame, and contact information. The more current your resume is, the more likely it is to be noticed and considered for the next time an employer needs someone to fill a particular position.Sales professionals should take their resumes seriously. Good quality resume writing can really help you get noticed. You can get the job you want with a well-written sales resume.