I'm a Confident Writer - Are you?

Joanna, has just moved. To an island off the lovely coast of Scotland. Moving is always a challenge, so many details. Where did that go? What box is that in?

One of the benefits of the internet these days, is that Google (or you favorite search engine) can help you find things. Like the link to Joanna's website.

You don't need to worry about misplacing it during a move.
You don't need to worry about where you put it.

You can google Joanna and jump on over to read more good advice on being a confident writer!

new understanding

While driving to the Lowell Folk Festival today, pondering many questions raised multiple times from SOBCon08 through the recent PodCamp Boston 3 - How do I distill the essence of what I do, what I want to do with my writing, with my media making?

I have my value add statement:

Personalized coaching to create the wow experience!

I have my sherku:

focus your writing, say it
all concentrated in just
nineteen syllables

But that apparently did not satisfy Liz who asked for "some real personality and real advice".

Where am I going to get that?

Inside
Listening to my heartbeat
What moves me?

Coming to the Festival provides one clue. Music drops into that heart beat and moves me; sometimes it moves me to tears. Dale Wasserman writes:

The lyrics are alternate expressions of key moments in the play and must be obedient to the demands made of the Book .... move the story, reveal character, hit emotional high peaks. It's this latter that is the unique tool of the musical. Nothing can transcend music in twanging the heartstrings of an audience.

Reflecting upon the recent PodCamp experience provides another clue. I was pumped up all weekend; not lacking for energy, greeting, meeting folks at the registration/welcome desk. Helping them get oriented to what was about to happen. The lines I used in several variations Saturday/Sunday morning went something like this:

You're checked in now. The names tags are on the table over there. Be creative. You can also pick out a t-shirt of whatever size would be good for you or a special person to where. The food and coffee is on the third floor. You can take the stairs over there to go up. Everything else is happening between here and there.

So how about combining the good experience with the music of life?

Let's try:

Revealing the good experiences in the harmonic beats of everyday life!

How does that work for you?

Do that help you understand what I am about?

Please let me know!

The Tale of Three Conferences - Part 1

It was a whirlwind time from Wednesday, April 23 through Sunday, May 4. Planes, trains, cab, and my own two legs took me to New York City for the Good Experience Live and PodCampNYC conferences and then to Chicago for SOBCon08, the Business School for Bloggers. A series of travel adventures wrapped around some nuggets of good experiences and good conversations, meeting old friends and making new friends, with plenty of stories accumulated to replay beginning here.

Travel
I drove from Franklin down to Providence, RI to pick up the Amtrak Northeast Regional train down to New York’s Penn Station. It was easier to drive there, parking at the Providence Place Mall next to the train station than to go into Boston via car or train. This shortened the trip by at least an hour on each leg out and back. The Providence Place Mall provides covered parking with security and a location that works. The walk is a short one to the train station. I picked up my boarding pass from the automated teller and participated in a couple of conference calls while waiting for the train. I could have timed the drive differently. This way helped me balance work and travel.

The train was a few minutes late out of Boston but generally ran on time from Providence until just outside of NYC where we got held up due to construction which limited the trains to a single track. Once by the construction, Penn Station was only a few minutes away.

The return trip on Saturday was a slightly different story. While Amtrak boarded us on time, a series of announcements kept changing the story on departure time. We were going to be the “Last train to Boston” that night. The train that was supposed to take us had broken down earlier on the run up to NY. Amtrak had sent an Acela train to transfer the passengers from the broken unit to bring them to Penn Station. We needed to wait until they arrived before leaving. Fortunately, while we were already on a train, we wouldn’t have to leave. The Acela we found out can only stop at stations with high platforms; it doesn’t have the stairwell to reach ground level platforms. So we could sit, in relative comfort and wait. The announcements kept changing on how long we were going to be delayed. Initially it was one and a half hours, it shortened to 15-20 minutes and then lengthened back to one hour and three-quarters. We actually left two and a half hours after we were scheduled to. Watching the Amtrak folks, security patrols, etc. provided some entertainment during the wait.

As a study in contrasts, Southwest could provide a few lessons to Amtrak. The flight to Chicago was delayed at Providence due to a nasty set of storms rolling through the Midwest. At one point both airports (O’Hare and Midway) were closed. As the storms cleared and travel resumed, the Air Traffic Control centers in NY and Cincinnati clogged up delaying us further. Through all this, Southwest was marvelous. We had boarded and taxied out. They brought us back to the gate and allowed us to deplane. They kept us informed with updates every 20-30 minutes or when ever there was a significant development. Once airborne, the pilots really worked to keep us on an even flight path. It was one of the bumpier flights I have experienced. When we did touch down successfully, the passengers broke out into applause. The return trip via Southwest was uneventful. We left on time and returned early in much better weather.

What can one can about the New York City subway? It works. It is not glamorous. The architecture is interesting. The diversity of people are well worth watching.

I used the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) for the first time. The Orange Line runs from Midway Airport into downtown Chicago with multiple stops and connections along the way. It is reasonably priced at $1.75 per person one way. It is odd though that the fare card machine does not provide change for two one dollar bills. Keep that in mind for future travel to have some quarters handy. The CTA was clean, more presentable than NY, and operated effectively. The CTA personnel in the stations were quickly to help the obvious traveler in need. The Orange Line was completely above ground, indeed “elevated” in the famous Loop area, and as I was traveling in daylight, I was able to take a good bunch of photos.

to be continued...

Steve and Chris

Steve and Chris, originally uploaded by Chris Brogan.

Part of the overall summary of the recent SOBCon08 conference will be included in a longer series of posts called "The Tale of 3 Conferences". The series will cover GEL2008, PodCampNY and SOBCon08. Three conferences in the span of a week.

This will likely be a multiple format writing piece, some sherku, some limerick, some regular verse.

One piece may very well be an epic poem retelling the train ride back from PodCampNY. The refrain will be "the last train to Boston".

Here I am posing with the social media guru, Chris Brogan!

The table that rocked!

Picture 047, originally uploaded by terry starbucker.

SOBCon08 - live blogging - Wendy Piersall

Wendy Piersall

"everybody is here for a purpose"

eMom renamed as SparkPlugging

built a blog network, up to 17 authors, 15 blogs in the network

time to give it up and let someone else do it (yes, my line on this is -> "facilitate the network and then let the net work")

get out your comfort zone

"who are you not to be?"

you have to open up!

moving through this stuff takes time, the BS filter in your head is tough to defeat

How you define success?
How you define success is really important.

set big goal, set little milestones along the way

story coming

"give more you", you'll be amazed at how all this stuff will fall into place

SOBCon08 - Pictures

I took a few photos but there are so many with better cameras check out their pictures

There is a SOBCon08 group at Flickr

There were over 380 pictures at 5:00 PM Eastern time on Saturday the main day here.

There will be more!

SOBCon08 - our table rocks!

Who is at our table?

Anita - http://www.45things.com/

Kristen - http://www.livelywomen.com/

Mary Lynn - http://biggsuccess.com/

George - http://biggsuccess.com/

SOBCon08 - live blogging - Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan

"The first webkins funeral is going to be tough!"

"people drive the stuff we are talking about"

"do it yourself is cool!"

-----------------

the difference between community and marketplace is the difference between making it or not

hacking in the reverse, business tries to strip passion from you

easier to be passionate

pop tart story - Chris had a box of poptarts in his room when he got in to Chicago

----------------

Chris' presentation is composed of many photos he took around the day today

very photogenic but very little text, very credible presentation

(disclaimer Chris and I share passion about PodCamp Boston)

Ask. Do. Share.
Give your ideas handles
Make it useful
Give more than you ask back
Be clear about your business
Hack. Make pirates.

----------------

"people will only do what they feel inclined to do"
promos can be hard, make it easy for them!

SOBCon08 - Levine Greenberg reference

As mentioned by Anita Bruzzese

Levine Greenberg Literary Agents

SOBCon08 - live blogging - David Bullock

David Bullock

"What can you tell the kids that will help them get a 10 year head start?"

His "Business development action plan"

take your content and put it into a medium so that they will monetize it, not can, will

no money will move before the communication piece is in place

START

s = strategy
he is where I am, here is where they are, here is where I need to take them
get them into a future that they would like to have

"The Twenty Master Plots"

story, get the story right, everything else will start to move

t - tactics
how do you reach your clients?
if your market is not on the internet, then don't blog

a - action
start doing something, see what works, if it does continue, if it doesn't stop

r - results
what results are you looking for?
did you get the opt in, yes or no?
did you get the sale, yes or no?
the online medium is the only place where he has been able to see exactly what has happened for the entire time the visitor spent on your page

t - tracking
crazyaid, little piece of java code
track first, then test
clickdensity
google website optimizer
google analytics

doesn't really get into that because it is not real-time

"transaction velocity" David created the phrase

develop the process map
1 - speak/write the process
2 - determine the outcome of every step
3 - set the sequence
4 - do the process (yes, critical as this proves the process!)
5 - refine the process
6 - rinse, repeat

what do you need to do this? low tech
1 - yellow pad
2 - simpleflowchart.com
3 - gliffy.com
4 - flowchart.com
5 - Microsoft Excel

your marketing channels
1 - your customers (permission marketing)
2 - your list (aweber)
3 - your identity
4 - your successes
5 - internet
6 - offline

if you don't talk about your successes online, no one else will

internet nothing but a media, if you make it more than that, you will never be able to take it to your advantage

What are they saying?

1 - about you
2 - about your service
3 - about your results
4 - about your company

these are comments and feedback, listen to them

SOBCon08 - live blogging - Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett

had to reboot so I missed some notes, there will be video available, some one is capturing the whole day (FuelMyBlog)

Don't rehash ideas. Take the time to give your opinion and add to the conversation. (Hey, that is Steve's 2 Cents)

Not every post has to be book length.

A really good question is often much more powerful than a really good statement.

Use mind map tool to brain storm a topic, it will end up providing your categories for you!

Develop an editorial calendar to plan out what topics will be delivered, and when!

Planning works for those with single writers on one blog and becomes more effective when you have multiple bloggers working on multiple blogs.

Likes to have 4-5 posts in draft, ready to go when ever, an evergreen post

For the five minute blog post, start with the end point in mind and work backwards
what do you want to leave them with?

Who for?
What?
So what?

what is the impact if you did this? what is the impact if you did not do this?

flagship content
held up by pillar content
original thoughts
community content

filler content

prioritize your feed reading!

focus your time (yes, agree agree agree... one reason why a number of blogs have hibernated so I can spend the time on the ones left active)

ready. aim. fire. reload.
practice makes perfect but you don't have to be perfect, just keep trying


Scribefire

Blogfire (off line reader)

Skype (yes, good phone tool)

SOBCon08 - lunch

Lunch will rate as a good experience. the food variety was excellent, inclusive of different diets.

The conversational buzz was tremendous. Proof of this is in the pudding, no, it is in the number of conversations that are still happening and people are slow coming back into the main session.

SOBCon08 - live blogging - Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle writes more than I do, yes that is possible!

BlogHerald

Lorelle on WordPress

Camera on the Road

Family History Blog

going around getting participation on a number of questions

good conversation on anonymous comments
use your name, weed your garden = weed your comments
comments are content, what content do you want to keep on your blog?

what is woopra?
very exclusive invites to - a real time web statistic program, sits on your computer
easy to load, easy to use
capability to talk with people on your blog right then and there, enables a chat session

SOBCon08 - initial feedback on conference

working through some technical issues with the mics and speaker placements

the name tag strings are too long, your name ends up on your belt buckle. I see some folks short tying them to correct this

looking down the room, a number of heads are looking into their laptops and not at the speaker
hopefully, they are indeed paying attention

the speakers are being translated to sign language for the benefit of a couple of hearing challenged folks, great move!

------------

better time management, in that the concept of masterminding is great. It combines the best of learning from the "masters" and sharing and internalizing the best practices within the group. The presentations this afternoon have skipped the mastermind portion to save on time as we need to be out of the facility by 6:00 PM.

the proof is (as mentioned in the lunch post) it is hard to get the group back together again from lunch, from the master minding, there is so much energy and conversation going on when the groups get together, this is the learning going on. This is the real value of the conference. With all due respect to the presenters, they planted the seed, we helped it grow in the discussions.

SOBCon08 - live blogging Brian Clark

Brian Clark talking about the Triple A Model of a Social Media Business

1 - Attention
2 - Authority
3 - Acceleration

------------------

Attention Rules

• choose a high demand subject area
• position the site to be remarkable
• offer independent value with content
• utilize headlines and hooks

-----------------

"headlines are where the game is won or lost"
"hooks are the angle you take to make one piece of content stand out from another"

-----------------
Authority Rules

• transform attention into authority via social proof
• capitalize on link equity for search engine optimization
• maximize subscriber base and build sub-slits
• promote affiliate offers to see what the market wants

"we're living in a marketing adverse society unless you are telling them what they want to know about"

--------------
Acceleration Rules

• build "back end" pages and spin off sites
• develop your own products or services
• test landing page copy and offers
• outsource and automate

"don't think of your RSS feed as your site"

---------------

SOBCon08 Summary

The summary of the SOBCon08 posts in reverse time order


SOBCon08:
Tale of Three Conferences - Part 3
Tale of Three Conferences - Part 2
Tale of Three Conferences - Part 1

• The table that rocked!

• SOBCon08 - live blogging - Wendy Piersall

• SOBCon08 - Pictures

• SOBCon08 - live blogging - Chris Brogan

• SOBCon08 - our table rocks!

• SOBCon08 - Levine Greenberg reference

• SOBCon08 - live blogging - David Bullock

• SOBCon08 - live blogging - Chris Garrett

• SOBCon08 - Live blogging Lorelle VanFossen
  

• SOBCon08 - live blogging Brian Clark
  

• SOBCon08 - Live blogging (my notes onlne)

• JJL Meet up in Chicago

SOBCon08 - Live blogging - Anita Bruzzese (my notes onlne)

Terry Starbucker gives the opening remarks

"we have the dreamers disease"

Liz Strauss thanks the sponsors

they have the insight into providing sponsorships for this conference with less than 1000

Network Solutions
Utterz
WordPress
Plante Moran
THC
Jim Beam
BUZZLogic
E-Junkie
Chitika
Wiley
Jiffle
B5Media
BlogCatalog
Blogger&Podcaster
The Summit Executive Centre

--------------

Anita Bruzzese is stepping up to the mic

"walking the bone" - editorial review, facts checked, it has to be right

34% consider their blog to be a form of journalism
56% spend time making sure it right

"The power of the written word has not been diminished by the internet"

managing your reputation on line, "walking the bone"

1 - What is the source of your information?
2 - Who is the source of your information?
3 - Is the information credible?
4 - Are you being fair?

To be inclusive, ensure a first time reader feels welcome and part of the conversation, don't force them to go through two years worth to get up to speed.

5 - How will you respond when you make a mistake?
6 - What will be your response when someone attacks you?
7 - How do you encourage worthwhile comments?
8 - How do you have an ongoing evaluation of your reputation?
9 - What is your fine line in the stand?
10 - Will you stand the test of time?

Q - on how to handle negative comments, attacks, etc.
find a way to say thank you, turn them into readers, use one more eloquent one to do a guest post, in some cases, if the attack is coming from somewhere that is not credible, then don't go to their level, ignore them

if the commenter repeats themselves, then the conversation is not progressing and hence over.
silence is not an answer

You can find Anita on BlogTalkRadio at "Smash The Ladder"

JJL Meet up in Chicago

JJL Meet up in Chicago, originally uploaded by shersteve.

After delays getting off the ground and headed to Chicago via Southwest, I did arrive and achieve what I went for: The JJL Meet up. Everything else at SOBCon is gravy.

The delays out of Providence were not Southwest's fault. Mother Nature played a major role in that with some nasty storms rolling through the Midwest that kept quite a few planes grounded until the weather cleared. Then when everyone tried to leave at the same time, the Air Traffic Control system hit capacity and we waited for a slot.

The Southwest crew did a remarkable job keeping us informed and aware of what was going on. The pilot then did an excellent job of getting us into Midway in one piece. The approach was one of the shiftiest, slipping and sliding in the wind that I have seen on a plane. It was good to get my two feet on the ground.

The photo montage here shows the approach into Chicago's Loop via the CTA Orange Line. The Sears Tower was so far away and then gradually grew in impressiveness as we got closer.

The Britannica Building is an interesting site today. It must have been glorious in its day. wikipedia has far out surpassed the information and capability of providing updates to the records, I wonder how long they'll last.

Finally, the JJL Meet up: Phil Gerbyshak, Joanna Young, Terry Starbucker, and myself. A wonderful experience to meet them all in person and "take the blog off the blog".

Honk Honk!

Possible SOBCon08 Song/Anthem

I have a history of rewriting some songs so with SOBCon08 coming up, I thought I try my hand at another one. If you want to join in and wordsmith or improve on the lyrics, feel free to jump in on a comment or via email to me (shersteve at gmail dot com).


Proposed SOBCon Anthem or Theme song

To the tune of Christine Kane's "Tucson"
Christine Kane/Lee Baby Sims Music/ASCAP/1997)


New words for SOBCon

Out on the web no one
knows you are alone
So when you howl about your new tool
That won’t format and ends up a clog
It’s about time you flog
a business blogging school

These days I twitter with the best of them
You retweet my anthem
I tweet Phil’s blog
We put the pod into podcasting
Moved a video into videocasting
Shortened into vlog

Maybe I played with fire
Maybe it made me wiser, but
I should have gone to SOBCon

I read about open comment night
Terry’s singing was quite a sight
Wendy’s giving a hug
To those she meets first time
We all came via email or a dime
Recognizing each by their mug

Maybe it was good last year
Maybe it’ll cost me dear, but
I think I should go to SOBCon

The organizers are led by Liz
Who is quite good at this biz
Analyze the layout
Add the widgets and buttons
Keep the content fresh
On topic to increase the pay out

Maybe it’ll be great this year
Maybe it’ll cost me dear, but
I've registered to go to SOBCon


Foolish Music (MADCAP Records 2008)