Fifteen “Good Word” Bites from SOBcon07

1. “My focus is on the person, not the technology. And I don’t watch any TV.”
—Phil Gerbyshak

2. “The most important thing is consistency between what you say and who you are. A great blog is just an extension of the person behind it.”
—Steve Farber

3. “A blog is a free sample of your brand.”
—Mike Wagner

4. “When I tell people I have published 160 articles about leadership on the web, they say, ‘Ooooh!’ When I tell them I’m a blogger, they say I’m weird.”
—Kent Blumberg

5. “Do what you love in service to the people who love what you do.”
—Liz Strauss

6. “Having a great experience is not buzz marketing. It’s not citizen word of mouth marketing. It’s not marketing. It’s life. It’s people sharing what they love with other people.”
—David Armano

7. “People talk about what they love. Teenagers in love talk about it. But a jilted teenager will turn on you. Jilted lovers produce ten times the negativity. Never burn relationships.”
—Andy Sernovitz

8. “Are we in competition with each other? It’s not about the links (but we like links). Write it, and share it. Share. There’s nothing new under the sun. Blogging is nothing new at its roots. It’s about relationships.”
—Phil Gerbyshak

9. “You don’t have to answer every comment. Back off. Let people talk to each other.”
—Liz Strauss

10. “Being vulnerable on my site is what makes community.”
—Wendy Piersall

11. “What make makes a good comment? Challenge the thinking and leave the door open for the next comment.”
—Lorelle VanFossen

12. “Stop calling yourself a blogger because that brand has baggage. Blogging is a commodity. Anyone can do it, but not every blogger is successful. If you have a successful blog, then you aren’t just a blogger. You are a successful epublisher. You have a webpage. That’s it.”
—David Armano

13. “To build a brand, do a good job consistently for a long time. That’s it.”
—Andy Sernovitz

14. “It usually takes 18 months to get a blog up and thriving. Don’t be discouraged by two new visitors a day. Two new clicks per day is 700 people per year. You could be developing relationships with each of them, and that’s a helluva a lot of potential.”
—Vernon Lun

15. “It’s easy to know how many seeds are in an apple, but you can never know how many apples are in a seed.”
—Wendy Piersall

Bonus Bites (some of these are paraphrases):
“Love and money don’t mix.”
—Andy Sernovitz
“Everything lives forever in google cache.”
—Andy Sernovitz
“Deliver your passion in lethal doses.”
—David Armano
“People believe what they tell themselves.”
—David Armano
“The secret to a soft sell is simple. Eat your own dog food.”
—Ben Yoskovitz
“How do you build a community? You don’t. You make room for one.”
—Liz Strauss
“There may be 75 million blogs, but only 15 million bloggers write a post every three months.”
—Phil Gerbyshak
“Time-boxing is important. Plan to blog from this time to that time. Then stop.”
—Phil Gerbyshak

A Note to My Readers:

I’m curious what you think of these sound bites. Do they inspire you? Do they help? As a fellow blogger, what do you think of the overall picture these quotes paint? 

A Note to SOBcon07 Attendees: 

It was good to meet you! I had great conversations with Lisa, Lorelle, Phil, Tony, Kent, Dawud, Peter, Sean, Liz, Terry, Director Tom, Vernon, Chris, and Ben.

A special thanks to Liz, Chris, Terry, and Mike. As an editor, I’m trained to be critical, and you all definitely exceeded my expectations. Awesome conference.

Here’s the entire list of attendees, courtesy of Hannah Steen:

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 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 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 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