Inspired by Robert Scoble I took a deeper look at the share function of Google Reader and decided to start my link blog. Now I can highlight interesting articles I read on a daily basis without having to write a whole post about them. How do they say here in California?... Sweet dude!!! Hope to see more people sharing interesting feeds this way - hey you can even subscribe to these link blogs created by google reader - what a wonderful reader world we have - sweet ;)
May 21, 2007
May 17, 2007
April 22, 2007
Romanian blogger expelled from school!
Damn! I´m not supposed to blog anymore today. We have a big meeting here at Supercool Headquarters ( my small room) and working all day long on fixing some bugs for Supercool School´s website.
But then, for whom do we build this special kind of school? For kids like Ariel.
"Ariel Constantinof. He is 16 and he is a blogger. He lives in Romania and learns at the Lauder Reut Educational Complex. It would be more appropriate to say: he used to learn at this school (high school), before being expelled for… blogging!" Read the whole story here.
Please support Ariel. I think this is ridiculous - what kind of nonsense lesson do they try to teach him in his school? How to obey? It makes me so angry!
But we can help - support him by digging Ariel's story , posting a comment on his blog and spreading the word.
Writing a small post entry is the least I can do. I hope it helps - Ariel, I wishya much power! You´ll do fine son - the right people are on your side :)
Mihaela made me aware of Ariel ( I told ya she´s supercool) AND awarded me the thinking blogger award. Thankx! I’m honored and proud. Now, I have to give them to 5 bloggers who make me think so here you go...
- Steve for blogging about changing our thoughts
- Andy for helping me rethink blogging
- Lorelle for being Lorelle
- hj for being an advocate of free and open knowledge
- Ugotrade for writing such beautiful stories about technology in new environments
- Charan "CA" Atreya for making me think about "thinking"
- Florence Meichel for fighting for a better future in education
Well, I am not sure if I´m cheating but what can I say - I am not good at math ;) So now you guyz have to think about blogs who make you think and award them with the thinking blogger award.
Much power to you!
------------------------------------------------------------
On April 30th 2007, the Blogosphere will hold a One-Day Blog Silence in honor towards the victims of Virginia. 33 died at the US college massacre.
We did our best. Now we need your help - Find out what to do.
April 09, 2007
Be Original
Mohit Singhania from Best-Blog-Basket tagged me to write about my ways to create original content for my blog.
Well, here you go: 7 original ways to create original content for your blog:
- Listen to original music and get inspired ( I love Jimi Hendrix, Eminem, Green Day, Mozart ...)
- Read alot and read different stuff ( mind the mind-incest-process)
- Be bold ( say what you wanna say the way you want to say it - it´s your blog)
- Write about things you love and care ( if you don´t care about what you write - why should I?)
- Start and join conversations ( don´t stay upon the roundtable to blog)
- Listen to your inner voice ( my inner voice tends to whisper when it comes to original ideas)
- Make a virtual blog event
I want to tag some original folks for this meme: Andy Beard , blogpaul , Mike Sansone , Mihaela Lica , Maximillian Kaizen & Tisha
How to Run a Virtual Blogging Event Like a Famous Blogger
Note: Liz Strauss was so generous to edit & comment this post so that you can benefit from her wisdom ( she was my inspiration for the EduBlogger Event07 and the blog-mentor of the event). You have to check out SOBCon07! Liz comments are written in purple :)
The most effective way to use a blog is by hosting a virtual blogging event. A virtual event is more then a method to boost your traffic - it´s a fun, exciting & inspiring way to build long lasting relationships and to give something back to the community.
And the EduBlogger Event07 has shown us that you don´t have to be a famous blogger to make it happen.
I thought I would share my experience and the lessons I´ve learned from my blogger event so that other new and aspiring bloggers will follow and host some amazing events on their blogs too. So let´s start...
What is a virtual blogging event? Ok - got it.. but why should I want to host a virtual blogging event?
Very
easy...just a crowd interested in a specific topic that comes together
to listen to expert speakers, discuss and network with other
like-minded people. And what makes this "virtual"? Your blog!
The difference lies in the environment: the speakers don´t speak -
they post on your blog. The discussions and Q&A sessions are held
in the comment box under the specific posts. That´s a very powerful way
to use a blog.
Wow...there are soooo many reasons. Here are just a few of them:
Wait a minute, Steli . . . You you you. it's not all about the
blogger putttin it on, Is it? That's not at all why I put on my virtual
conference. I hope that no one thinks that's why I did.
I did it because
My readers got information from great sources.
My readers got to meet each other and talk about things they are interested in.
My readers got to get lots of information in a short time.
My readers got introduced to some of the best bloggers that I know.
Virtual Blogging Event Blue Print:
Speakers:
Repeat the process for the second post, third post...etc. It´s hard to keep on top of the discussions if you have several of them going on at the same time. I suggest you use tabs to open a window for every session and trust the speaker to handle the situations.
Here is the original message I send to hj barraza , Jon Bennett , Florence Meichel , Peter Haslam , Liz Strauss , Joshua Hwang , TONNET , Pat Aroune, TONNET Pat Aroune Steve Dembo and Tiara Shafiq after the EduBlogger Event07:
"thankx to all of you guyz´n´girlz for making this day so special!
You Rock!!! This is a remakable day for me - I will always remember what you
did for me & for this event...
Much love & respect!
Steli Efti "
That´s it. It´s easier than it looks - you can do it too! Start planning your event today :)
Here are my results from the EduBlogger Event07:
Virtual Blogging Event Blue Print:
Planning:
Get clear about the purpose. What do you want to achieve with it? What are your goals? Who is your audience and what do they want?- Think about the theme. What could be a cool theme for your event? Something that your audience and the potential speakers would enjoy being part of?
- Find a mentor. This way you can stand upon the shoulders of a giant and learn from someone who already did what you want to do. Liz helped me - so I am willing to help you if you need me :)
- Give yourself three times as much time as you think you need
Speakers:
- Friends come first. Contact your existing blogger friends first and ask them to attend at the event. The response rate will likely be much higher with people in your network than with total strangers. After the first people agreed to participate you can the leverage the results to persuade other bloggers to commit to your event as virtual speakers.
- Make new friends. I suggest that you have a look at the blogs you read but do not have a connection to the author yet. What could be a better way to make new friends? Ask them if they would like to write a post for your event and become virtual speakers.
- Get clear before you contact anyone on what you want them to do. Write down the who, what, when, where, why, and how. Have a sample to send them so that they know what they are making a commitment to do.
Organization:
- Date/Time of event:
- Time Zone:
- Break:
- Setup a session time for every speaker:
- Setup the session intervals:
- Deadline for the speakers to send you their posts:
- Promotion tools (graphs etc.):
- Marketing on your blog:
- Marketing on the speakers blogs:
Running the event:
- Publish the first post
- Send a message to the speaker to tell her the post is live
- Write the first question to the post so that things get started
- Go into the comment box and refresh frequently to participate in the discussion
- Deactivate the capcha function of your blog (if you have any) to make it easier for people to comment
Repeat the process for the second post, third post...etc. It´s hard to keep on top of the discussions if you have several of them going on at the same time. I suggest you use tabs to open a window for every session and trust the speaker to handle the situations.
Aftermath:
- Relax and have a look at the results
- Send a message to your speakers and give them feedback
- Write a post about the event and what you´ve learned
Here is the original message I send to hj barraza , Jon Bennett , Florence Meichel , Peter Haslam , Liz Strauss , Joshua Hwang , TONNET , Pat Aroune, TONNET Pat Aroune Steve Dembo and Tiara Shafiq after the EduBlogger Event07:
"thankx to all of you guyz´n´girlz for making this day so special!
You Rock!!! This is a remakable day for me - I will always remember what you
did for me & for this event...
Much love & respect!
Steli Efti "
That´s it. It´s easier than it looks - you can do it too! Start planning your event today :)
Here are my results from the EduBlogger Event07:
- 11 insanely great posts from supercool bloggers
- 1,100 unique visitors ( usually I have about 100-150 unique visitors on my blog)
- 160 comments
- 15 diggs
- 30 links
- 42 emails
- lots & lots of power & love :)
Mistakes I learned the hard way:
- I committed to late to a time& date. Many speakers had to cancel their participation after receiving the time & date from me. Don´t ask people to speak at your event without telling them when it will be.
- I could have tried harder to please my speakers. Some speakers wanted another time for their session and I could have asked more speakers to switch time with them.
- The session intervals where too fast. At the EduBlogger Event07 we started every half hour a new session. I suggest an hour because the conversation needs usually a little time to start and half an hour is simply to fast.
Virtual Blogging Event Challenge:
I would like to challenge some great bloggers to make an event on their blogs: YoungGoGetter, Ilker, Ugonet and Sam.
March 26, 2007
Online Distraction Diet - 6 Ways To Instantly Boost Your Online Productivity!
"I can´t get no...na na na... sa-t-i-s-f-a-t-i-on!" While the stones are rockin´it out of my macbook pro speakers I am thinking about my online productivity and I have to tell ya - it sucks!
I have to go on DISTRACTION DIET asap!!!
Ok...here is what I will do the next 7 days for a starter to loose some "unproductive online weight"
- Stop checking my emails all the time. Two times a day should be enough
- Same with statistics. It doesn´t help to check analytics several times a day. Once is enough
- Too many tabs. When I´m on a task - I will close all the other tabs in my browser. They just make me loose focus and give me a welcome avocation when I need it
- Links are devils work - at least when I try to read something important. Now I won´t click on them anymore while reading an important text
- Music. I really love music but I´m getting emotional with certain songs and this can cause a change of state. This can be good - but it don´t have to. So no music at work for me
- Since everything is "just" one click away online I believe a "do-it-now-or-never attitude" will help me to get things done or freakin forget them
I admit - it´s not the first time I do a distraction diet to boost my productivity. But it´s the first time I do it online. Let´s see how hard this will be - you can join me on this experiment to boost your online productivity too.
What are your biggest "online fet makers"?
March 15, 2007
5 Reasons Why I Blog - No.100
So THIS is my 100th post. And I think it´s time for a game. I just read Andy Wibbels Blog and he is playing the “5 Reasons Why You Blog” tag game started by Yvonne of Lipsticking so I though I´d jump in and have some fun. So here are the 5 reasons why I blog...
- I want to GET it more then to UNDERSTAND it ( whatever IT is ).
- I love the opportunity to connect with other bloggers and start conversations with cool folks.
- I would never write anything for myself
- It´s a great way to make mistakes and learn fast
- I can chronicle the different stages of the Supercool School project ( that´s soo cool)
You can read Andy´s list here. Oh...and have a look at Yvonne´s 5 reasons too!
Ok...Who’s next? Send me a trackback folks!
March 12, 2007
Thank you Lizz for calling me SOB!
You might have noticed the new SOB badge on this blog. It is the first time I have been honored for my work as a blogger and I want to thank Liz Strauss ( her maiden name is Monterastelli ; ) from Successful-Blog.com for making me a part of this special community! I will wear the badge with pride :)
And for what do you get a SOB?
"Every week I make...the list of Successful and Outstanding bloggers who understand that the strength of the blogosphere comes from relationships, interconnectedness, and community. Not all of these folks have all of the links you might expect, but they will, because they show the key traits of a successful blogger." Lizz
Since you´re never alone in a good community I wasn´t the only one who was given the honor to. You can read some pretty cool posts from my new fellow SOBsters here:
SOB: Blogging for Business
Post: Don´t "Bury The Lead"
SOB: The Daily Tee
Post: Cool T-shirt Company Alert!
SOB: Funny Emails
Post: Graffiti
SOB: Innovations Bliss
Post: Inter-planetary Internet (IPN)
SOB: Management Craft
Post: The Cost of Communication is Too High MOST of the Time
SOB: Marketing Hipster
Post: The Customer Experience
I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did!
P.S. SOBCon07 event: a few folks are gathering on Monday to host a Virtual Pre-Conference. Thirteen one-hour sessions on improving our blogging practice.
Hosted by some brilliant bloggers, on Monday, visit Successful Blog and jump in on any of the sessions with your best post on that subject, letting the 'wisdom of we' benefit everyone (all times CDT):
8:00 AM - Robyn McMaster on Laughter and Mistakes
9:00 AM - Sandra Renshaw on Graphics
10:00 AM - Mark McGuinness on Creativity
11:00 AM - Joe Hauckes on Navigation
12:00 PM- Rodney Rumford on Videoblogging
1:00 PM - Chris Garrett on Blogger Blunders
2:00 PM - Ellen Weber on Sleep and Music
3:00 PM - Wendy Piersall on Blogging Beyond the Blogosphere,
4:00 PM - Mike Wagner on Branding
5:00 PM - Terry Starbucker on What to Look for
6:00 PM - Chris Cree on Business Blogging
7:00 PM - Phil Gerbyshak on Being a Relationship Geek
8:00 PM - David Armano on the 4 Cs of Blogging
I hope to see you there :)
March 08, 2007
I used to stand upon the round table to blog. Boy that was stupid!
In the beginning...blogging seemed to be something like this to me:
You arrive at a football stadium with a gigantic round table on the field. As a blogger you are an active part of the conversation going on at the round table so you have to move your ass from the audience to the table, jump upon it and talk!
Alot of noise on the field so you better have to say something of value. After you said what you wanted to share - people can respond and tell you their thoughts about it.
Wrong. That´s not a conversation!
Now here´s how I see blogging today:
Nobody stand UPON the round table! Everyone is sitting AT the round table talking to the people next to her. Sometimes you stand up to move a little bit and take another seat to talk to new people. And if any of these micro-conversations has the potential - it spreads all around the round table!
There is a huge difference between understanding this intellectually and really getting it! I got it very recently and it made a huge difference.
Thank god most bloggers understand this better then I had! But for the others...here are some of the things I changed for a change:
- Join Blogging Networks ( have a look at 9Rules.com or MyBlogLog )
- Read alot of blogs and comment immediately if you have to say something ( here is a great post about strategic commenting from Amy Gahran )
- Weave links to others into your content and join in discussions that way ( actually that was a comment from Andy Beard that I received at the right time - thankx Andy)
Maybe there is a blogger who blogged TO the audience instead WITH´em that I helped a little bit with this post. I know I needed some help to GET IT!
UPDATE: Kudos to Liz for introducing me to the term "One-Nite-Link" Stands and for the lessons I´ve learned today while observating her as a master of conversational blogging!
And Kudos to Andy for making me aware of Mike Sansone´s Converstations Blog. Just to make the analogy perfect you have to read Mike´s post Which Arm Are You Blogging With?
Rock on! It´s time for a new learning lifestyle...
Steli Efti
P.S. If you visit a blog the next 3 days that makes you feel like someone´s standing upon the table - feel free to send him a note about this post ;-) maybe we can help him take a seat!
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