If you're new here, I just want to say how much I appreciate your dropping by! Oh, and you may want to subscribe to my feed. Thanks, and a tip o' the hat to ya!

Actually, this post serves as something of a Public Service Announcement. (You know, one of those things you see on TV or hear on the radio where people or organizations publicly demonstrate they’re watching out for your welfare.)

So consider this post as fair warning: You folks up in the Chicago area (laughingly known to us Texans as “the frozen north”) - well, you’d better hide the silverware! Yep, that’s right; I’m on my way to Chicago on May 2 for the Next Big Thing - SOBCon08 (sound of women and children screaming in fear crowd cheering)!

Liz Strauss, Terry Starbucker, and the whole gang have really gone all-out to make this year’s edition of SOBCon a huge success, and believe you me, it shows! Dubbed as a “Biz School for Bloggers”, it promises to once again be the keystone event of the year:

Whether for love or money, if you blog for readers or community, you’re in the business of blogging. This conference can help you achieve your goals, faster with more confidence, and more predictably.

I must admit, I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether or not SOBCon08 was right for me or not. After all, the Middle Zone isn’t a business (it’s really more of a state of mind), and I don’t monetize it in any way, shape or form - other than the priceless currency of your readership and good fellowship. But that’s not really what caused me to hesitate.

To tell you the truth, I didn’t understand the value proposition. I mean, when you get right down to it, what is it about SOBCon08 that justifies the not insignificant cost? To put it bluntly, what’s in it for me? (C’mon, admit it; if you’re still unsure about going then you’re probably thinking the same thing.) Naturally, being the pragmatic fellow that I am, I started to wonder - just what are the benefits?

After all, even though I don’t monetize the Middle Zone, that doesn’t mean I won’t try to make money from blogging someday, right? After all, as more and more businesses turn to blogging to get closer to their customers (and quite a few other reasons), the chances are pretty good that I’ll need to better understand the business of blogging, right? Besides, we’re not necessarily talking here about hard cash, you know.

So, if you’re like me (and if you are, I offer my sincere condolences), in no particular order allow me to count the ways…

Knowledge - Like I said, knowing how to do something is never a bad thing, even if you don’t actually, you know, do it. Besides, you never know when you might be able to synthesize that knowledge into some other endeavor, right? Like my old scoutmaster always used to say, “Be prepared.”

Ideas - There’s nothing like being with a large, like-minded (yet still diverse) group of folks to stir up the ol’ creative juices! Not only will you get to hear from 200+ others, at some point we’ll be working in teams to help each other build business plans, action plans, and maybe plain old share an idea or two - whacky or otherwise - that could be useful to us and our customers. This could be worth the price of admission all by itself.

Relationships - It’s a chance to meet up with the folks we may only know electronically. At the last SOBCon, I was still relatively new at it, and didn’t really know too many people. Since then, however, I’ve forged some wonderful relationships - many of whom (or is it who?) will actually be there too. What a great way to strengthen the bonds of friendship! For me, this is probably the biggest immediate benefit. But who knows where it can lead?

Show Off - I know this sounds a bit odd, but the fact is, many of us have grown considerably during the last year. Hey, here’s a chance to demonstrate your own expertise. C’mon; take a bow, why don’t you - there’s nothing wrong with that! After all, we make money off our expertise every day, right? Besides, it gives the rest of us a chance to celebrate and encourage each other, too.

Networking - I’m tellin’ ya, ever since I realized the value of networking for life, I’ve tried never to miss the opportunity. Although in person I tend to be rather shy and retiring (no, really!), it’s something I’ve made myself do because, well, we all benefit from knowing as many people as possible. And I don’t mean just their names, either.

Hey, there’s plenty more than these few things I just listed, but I didn’t want to hog ‘em all. If you’re still sittin’ on the fence, though - well Bubba, why not take a moment to consider these five thoughts. Heck, add your own reasons, why don’cha!

I can tell you this - SOBCon08 promises to add up to one exciting event! Do yourself a favor and drop by the site and sign up. Hey, if you do decide to come, then by all means, drop me a note and let me know. And be sure and tap me on the shoulder (just look for the hat); I’d be downright honored to meet you. I’ll be staying at the Hotel 71 around the corner, so I’ll be close by.

In the meantime, to you folks in Chicago… like I said, you’d better hide the silverware!

See ya!

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Instead of a regular post, today I’d like to take a moment and acknowledge those of you kind enough to respond to my question from last Monday (Busy, Busy, Busy…). In case you missed, forgot, or otherwise ignored it, I asked the question:

What do you do when you haven’t read your RSS feed for a week, and there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of entries? Do you…

• Mark them all ‘read’ and start fresh
• Painstakingly read, or at least glance, at every one
• Only read your favorites and dump the rest
• ______________ (fill in the blank)

Now ordinarily, I prefer to give every comment its own individual reply; it makes the conversation far more personal, don’t you think? Besides, you guys are worth the extra effort! Er, unless I’m swamped, in which case I usually aggregate my responses into a single comment or two.

Alas and darn; last week, as I mentioned Friday, I was suffering from a combination of factors, a sortof “perfect storm” of things that just pulled me completely under for awhile. It’s a poor excuse for not responding, I know, but there it is.

But I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you - I wasn’t! But as your responses began to accumulate, I decided to acknowledge your contributions in a formal post instead of just the comment box. Hence this post.

I suppose one of those little poll thingies would have provided a more formal survey, but I freely admit it just seemed like waaaaaay too much work at the time… Anyhoo; I truly appreciate your contributions, and many thanks to those of you who took the time to comment!

Here are your comments (and in an experiment with color, here are my responses):

Brad Shorr - Painstakingly read, etc. Not a pleasant task, but I just can’t bring my self to ignore anything.

I must admit to being a bit, well, anal about this, too - at least, normally. But I’m simply not able to keep it up when there are this many posts to keep up with *sigh*.

Hey, Brad, do you live in my computer like Liz does? The ink on my post was barely dry when your comment showed up! Sheesh!

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Chip Camden - Skim your favorites and mark the rest “read”. Give yourself a break.

Gee, Chip, that sounds nice - ‘give myself a break’. Actually, that’s more-or-less what I ended up doing. But I can’t help feeling a bit guilty. Sad, I know.

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Mike DeWitt - I’m with Chip. Triage, baby! Life only lasts so long…

Well, that’s two for triage. Good way to think of it, too - thanks, Mike!

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Ellen Weber - Bob, you just named a problem that the busy folks out here all share! That’s why - the onus is on you to get it right. Why so?

If you sit and read a week’s worth of feeds - the rest of us will feel the guilt when we too travel with work.

If you race through the feed to get through endless posts your brain will fill with cortisol and you be cranky with family and friends you really care about!

If you be good to you - and move past the long list (skimming briefly for vital messages) … you’ll continue to be the leader you are … to laugh at the little things … and to inspire the rest of us to do the same.

Everybody’s approach will be different - but I suspect you’ll know the best one for you! Your friends are the same ones around on the other side of such dilemmas:-)

My 2-bits - but others may have better ideas:-) Stay well, friend:-)

Ellen, I can always count on you to see through the falderah and focus like a laser on the nub of the gist! Thanks for the sound advice. As you can no doubt tell, you’ve lots of company! Thank goodness friends remain friends, no matter what, though!

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Joanna Young - I have a top 10 list of blogs (which MZM is on of course) that I visit as well as read. So if I’ve got behind I’d still try and pop in and visit them but mark everything else as read. Even then if you’re pushed, mark it all as read. If there was something you were ‘meant’ to read or know you’ll find it in another way.

Of course this doesn’t apply to my blog! If you’re short of time here’s one piece to read, and if you do have a spare 5 minutes, share your 4 x 4 sources of writing inspiration (by midnight Friday). I’m sure it would make a good read

Group Writing Project: 4 x 4 sources of writing inspiration

End of shameless plug!

Methinks I see a trend developing here.

Don’t worry, Joanna; Confident Writing is at the top of my “must-read” list! And I can take a hint (not to mention a club on the back of the head!) I’m sure by now you’ve seen my 4 x 4 contribution(s) - one serious, and one just for fun.

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William Tully - I’m with Joanna - have your top 10 list that are worth reading at all times, regardless of just how far behind you are. Then pick the few that you want to read out of the rest (likely the few who are #11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 on the top 10 list). The rest? Scroll baby, scroll! I just trust the brain to know when it sees something worth investigating - most goes by in a blurr, but every now and then the brain says “STOP!” simply because it noticed something good. Trust the brain… Trust the brain!!!

I hear ya, Tully - spoken like a true ‘internet twin’! Alas, that “trust the brain” thing will only work if the brain is trustworthy, and last week mine was fried! But like I said, I hear ya!

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Scott - Just the faves man, just the faves.

Hey, thanks for stopping by and joining the fray, Scott. Looks like you’re in a very firm majority here!

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Mother Earth - I am a just the faves kindof person and I also trust the skimming process - universe calls to attention what I need to know.

PS - I really wish I didn’t garage sale all my son’s dinosaurs…

Howdy, Karen! Gee, I can’t believe it took this long for someone to comment on that photo of me an’ the boys up there!

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Ria Kennedy - I look at the titles. If something pops out, I skim the first paragraph. If it seems good, I put it aside to read later. I go through everything and just keep what I’m interested in. LATER, I put time aside to read, either a little every day or a lot at once just a few times until done.

I don’t feel guilty if I don’t read, I feel I might miss something valuable. So whatever you think might be valuable is what I would look for if I were you.

Thanks for the advice, Ria; sortof the “glance at every one” school of thought. I’ll do it if I have time, but otherwise, it’s just the “mark all as read” routine, I’m afraid. But inside, I’m sad.

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Well, there you have it, folks! A great conversation, if’n I do say so myself (and you know; I think I just did!)

By the way, if you’d still like to weigh in with an opinion - be my guest! Might be enlightening to see just how many of us do the same things…

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Just a quick sidestep here…

Brad Shorr is hosting a contest for a brand spankin’ new iPod Nano (or is that a ‘nono’, Brad? Bwa-ha-ha-ha!), and if you’d like to enter, well Bubba, you’d better hurry! Just drop by this post for instructions, then write your own post inspired by the cartoon. (Brad has extended the deadline to March 13th at 5 pm CST so there’s still plenty of time!)

Hey, waitaminit - I just realized that if too many of you enter then it actually reduces my chances of winning! So, here’s what we’re goin’ to do. Please; only one, or at most, two of you enter. No! NO WAIT! NOT EVERONE! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! (Sound of heartfelt sobbing…)

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you this news flash…

Last year Drew McClellan and Gavin Heaton made publishing history, producing the first-ever e-book of its kind, The Age of Conversation. Having been accidentally mistaken for a marketer, I was privileged to be one of 103 authors who contributed a chapter. (Limited to 400 words! Can you imagine me limiting myself to 400 words on anything?)

Now a hard copy of AoC sits proudly on my bookshelf, gathering admiring glances from the Beautiful, the Powerful, and the Glitterati who come to visit.

I’m tellin’ ya, it required an incredible amount of behind-the-scenes work, herding over 100 writers into line (sorta like herding cats, no doubt), cutting, pasting, editing, pulling hair, sobbing uncontrollably at the drop of a hat… But I think all would agree Drew and Gavin did a great job (even though SOMEbody changed my chapter title! *sob*).

The end result was spectacular. Not only has the book gained international attention, sales of the book at lulu.com (and hopefully, soon to be available at Amazon.com) have to date earned over $10,000 for Variety, a children’s charity. Now there’s something to be proud of!

Well, the news just broke this week, and unbelievably, these two crazy people nut jobs fine upstanding fellows want to do it again! (Sound of crowd going wild with excitement!)

And YOU are invited to help. How, you ask? Simple!

Go to this website and read all about it. And in the spirit of an election year, you even get to vote!

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Kudos to my buddy and multiple WILF participant GL Hoffman over at What Would Dad Say with what may be THE definitive Entrepreneur’s list of all time (well, at least up until now, GL): A Complete List of 100 Attributes of People Who Start Companies: How You Can Be One of America’s Entrepreneurs.

[UPDATE: Thanks to a timely comment from my friend Karin, I should mention that I MEANT to say it was the “definitive list of Entrepreneurial Attributes of all time”. - Thanks for keeping me on my toes, my friend!]

Although he admits up front it’s probably not necessarily, as advertised, “complete” – still, ya gotta admire this thing as a true labor of love.

And now, just for the fun of it, he’s tacked on a challenge to anyone and everyone: The Entrepreneur’s Meme!

Here are the details, straight from the post:

The Entrepreneur Meme: Deadline, Friday, December 28, 2007.

Step 1. Write a post “Another characteristic or attribute of an entrepreneur…” You can make it a short burst or comment on one of my characteristics (there are 100 of them, you must agree on at least one!!), write one yourself that I missed (lots of them) or relate a personal story that illustrates how an entrepreneur did something great. For example, when you read through my list did you think about to a specific similar thing that happened to you. Tell us about it.

Step 2. Tell your visitors what you are doing. Please put a link back to this post so they can see what you are doing. Or email me at gl@jobdig.com to let me know you have participated.

Step 3. For every link I get back, I will donate $1 to charity, up to $500. If there are not 500 links, I will round up to the nearest 100 and donate that amount.

Step 4. Tell all your friends too. Put links to them at the bottom of your posting, maybe they will join in this cause to help entrepreneurs and a charity too. Email them this posting and your own so they know what we are doing and that it is for two good causes.

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To make it easier to peruse the list, I copied the entire thing to a Word file. I’m warnin’ ya now, it’s a bit long (16 pages!) so be prepared to spend some time reading through it. But believe me, it’s worth it! Even if you’re not interested in entrepreneurship, these are great skills to have or develop.

I’ve already narrowed my choices down to about three or four, and will choose one and write a *cough*cough* witty and brilliant illustration “real soon now”. But in the meantime, I invite you to join the party – and don’t forget to tell your friends, too!

Pssst; by the way, GL; it sure sounds like the makings of a really terrific e-book (hint, hint).

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

A while back I wrote a Public-Service article called Fellowship of the Carpool, and Other Small Groups with a few thoughts towards forming your own FotC (pronounced “fot-see”). Here’s a brief excerpt apropos of, well, nothing really:

Have you ever been in a carpool? I’m in one with three others (names have been changed to protect the guilty innocent: there’s Joe, Fred, Sherry, and what the heck, since everyone else gets a new name – call me Steve).

Well, the other day in our FotC we started an interesting discussion about technology, and I have to say, it was a particularly zany conversation. Sherry wasn’t riding with us that day so it was just the three of us: Joe, Fred, and me (Steve).

Fred instigated the whole thing as we went through one of the EZ Tag lanes at a toll gate, wondering out loud if there were any way to circumvent the EZ Tag system.

I suppose the testosterone level must have been rather high that particular day, kicking off a wild and whacky discussion about various ways we could think of to fox the sensors. (Brings to mind a list I saw once entitled “Why it’s good to be a guy”. #1 on the list: “We know stuff about tanks.” ‘Course, the words, “– or we’ll make something up” remain, er, unspoken.)

Two of the most interesting ideas included:

• Make a fake EZ Tag (the part of the system – the tag itself – that rides in your car with you). However, since this was rather too blatantly illegal, we quickly discarded it.
• Build a “null” tag that causes the sensors to not “see” your car passing through the tollgate. (Not that this would be any less illegal – just more, um, devious.) After all, the best solution would be for there to be no record of your passing. Sortof like Tiny Tim tip-toeing through the tulips.

Someone (actually, it may have been me) noted there are also cameras pointed at each lane, so even if the sensor wasn’t triggered, your license plate would still be recorded (no doubt resulting in one of those thoughtful greeting cards from our fine Men or Women in Uniform with a request for a donation).

This naturally steered the conversation toward ways to thwart the cameras. Ideas abounded. (Is that what happens when ideas bounce more than once?)

Let’s see… there’s always the ever-popular “cloak of invisibility” (who says J.K. Rowling hasn’t made her mark on the world?). The fun part about this one is that it would trigger the sensor that a car was there, but none would be visible.

Much hilarity ensued at the thought of the imagined confusion of the operators (hey, give us a break; it’s a long drive). That idea led to others, like a holographic projector that can overlay the camera’s lens with the image of an empty lane as your car passes through.

Alas and fooey, the technical challenges seemed at least temporarily too formidable to solve, so we had to think a different direction. (Well, for now, anyway. But hey, we’re optimistic about the future, so you never know…)

So we came up with a few ideas that were decidedly much more low-tech, and actually (theoretically, at least) possible. Thus were born the following (patent-pending) ideas:

• Train 10,000 chameleons to sit on the top half of your car and mimic the color of the pavement. (Hey, I did say theoretically possible.) Don’t forget to take the time of day into account so they can adjust for shadows. (See – we think of everything!) You may also need a lot of, uh, glue to keep the frisky little critters in their places. Oh, and flies – you’ll need lots of flies.
• In order to avoid talk (what would the neighbors say?) and a visit from PETA, paint the top half of your car to look like pavement. Again, don’t forget to take the time of day into account so you can adjust the paint job for shadows.
• If you really don’t like the idea of driving the world’s only Lizardmobile, or of having a truly unique paint job, how about this one? Buy, beg, borrow or steal a piece of sheet metal a bit larger than your car. Then, paint THAT to mimic the concrete. Mount it on top of your car with removable clips, and Voila! (which is French for Hey, lookit that whack job idiot silly goof!) you’ve got yourself a plan!

Just as we got to our dropoff point, Joe (our driver for the day) just shook his head sadly, saying, “Keep thinkin’ y’all…”

OK, before you go running to the authorities to alert them to a series of potential misdemeanors, allow me to point out that no actual laws were broken during the writing of this post (other than the laws of sensibility, propriety and common sense – but what the hey). However, this does serve to illustrate an important principle we can all use every now and then.

When you find yourself in need a new idea and you’re, well, stuck – hey, get help! And I don’t mean a psychiatrist, silly (at least not for, uh, this) – no, I mean get a few more brains working on it with you. The fact is, there’s nothing more powerful to give creativity a kick in the backside!

It serves two purposes.

First, they can help “prime the pump” so to speak. Ever seen or heard of “story starters”? Writers use them to help get past the dreaded blankpageitis disease. These usually consist of anything from a few word to few sentences, on virtually any subject. The trick is, once they see something – literally anything – on the page, it becomes easier to pick up and go forward.

Another great benefit: they can provide a springboard for even more ideas. For instance, you can sortof follow the progression of our thoughts in the story above. I mean c’mon – there’s no way I would could have made up half the stuff we talked about – it was too far outside my own experience (not to mention level of insanity sanity). But by playing ideas off each other, we were able to come up with far more than what we could have on our own. Works nicely that way, don’t you think?

Besides, it can be ‘way more fun that trying to figure it out for yourself. I’m tellin’ ya, the three of us made one heckuva brain that day!

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Just thought you’d like to see what $10,000 looked like.

Hey, you remember the Age of Conversation Book, right? There’s the button over there on the right. Well, back when the project was first conceived, one of the goals was to use the book to raise $10,000 for charity.

Well, Drew McLellan announced that as of yesterday, we have raised (sound of drum roll) $9,997.60!

Yep, you read it right - we only have $2.40 left to reach the goal!!! Now ain’t that just the cat’s meow, folks! (Sound of cat’s meow.)

So, in order to sortof shoot beyond the goal, Drew is sponsoring a little contest over at Drew’s Marketing Minute. Y’all go on over and check it out - now’s your chance to be rich and famous for just the cost of a book!

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!