Everybody--from Chris Clarke at Student PR to Joseph Thornley at ProPR to Liz Thompson at Blogher and even good old chartreuse--has been blogtipping like crazy teenagers this month. Instead of knocking over cows in some empty pasture, all these bloggers are following the example of our featured writer, Liz Strauss. Instead of writing the kind of nasty, snarky, or bitter posts that give bloggers ulcers, they are writing nice things about each other--building a blog community in the process.
If there's any lesson we can learn from Strauss and her security blanket that she tucks around the blogosphere, it's this: love thy blogging neighbor. That's why I picked her for my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...
Jason Boog:
I've been reading all the blogtipping posts floating around lately, and I love it. Ever so briefly, could you explain to my readers what "blog tipping" means to you, and then, could you, even more briefly, tip The Publishing Spot (I will print the answer)?
Liz Strauss:
Blogtipping, Easton's Ellsworth's fabulous idea, fit right in with my Successful Blog SOB, program and Mike Siger's Link Leak Virus...
Blogtipping to me probably means something just a little bit different from what it might mean to other folks. To me, it's one more way that I can say "thank you." So many folks do so many things for me every day that I can hardly keep track of them. Blogtipping makes me stop to acknowledge three of them publicly. Actually this monthy it was six, because I blogtipped on two of my blogs.
I know that it's supposed to be three points of praise and one tip to improve on. I've kind of changed that last to an idea of "something to remember or something I want folks to know about." They way I figure it is that most of us know what we're doing wrong and if we don't. we probably don't want to hear about it first in public.
So if I think you need that kind of tip, I'll probably email you and ask if you want to know and then we'll have a phone call. In fact, I did that twice this week for guys who had great blogs that just needed a little tweaking.
So if I think you need that kind of tip, I'll probably email you and ask if you want to know and then we'll have a phone call. In fact, I did that twice this week for guys who had great blogs that just needed a little tweaking.
My blogtipping for your blog?
1. The beautiful new design makes you stand out to be counted.
2. Your writing voice and your passion for your subject make me listen to what you write and want to hire you to work for me.
3. I'm so impressed by how much research you put into every post and yet you still make the posts sound like you're just having a conversation about the business.
Tip: Don't be disappointed when you find the rest of the world isn't as good as you are. Always remember it's about the people -- different people are good at different things.
Jason,
I have to say that your questions did intimidate me when I first saw them, but they sure did the trick in getting me to talk about things, didn't the? Gosh it's been fun getting to know your through all of this and seeing how much of yourself you put into what you do. You are one successful and outstanding blogger, MR Boog. Don't think I haven't noticed. Liz
Posted by: Liz Strauss | June 9, 2006 8:57 AM | Permalink to Comment