Bloggers Face-Off: Liz Strauss vs. Mike Sansone

This week the Bloggers Face-Off will feature two conversation bloggers. What is a conversation blogger? Someone that connects other bloggers, establishes relationships and creates conversations.

Probably you already know Liz Strauss from the Successful-Blog. She managed to create a vibrant community on her blog, and she is also the mind behind the SOB (Successful and Outstanding Bloggers) program. Mike Sansone is the author of Converstations, a blog that is focused on helping bloggers and business entities to create conversation platforms.

I have been following those two bloggers for quite some time, and one thing that I learned with them is that you need to focus on the others if you want to succeed. It is about participating on the community rather than insulating yourself. Anyway I think you will learn a lot more with their answers, enjoy!

	Liz Strauss	Mike Sansone
1. How long have you been blogging?	Almost 2 years	About 18 months
2. How many hours do you dedicate to your blog daily?	Too funny (I spend all my time blogging)	1-3 (this includes comments and feed reading)
3. Do you make money with your blog?	Yes	The blog drives my business, but I don’t have ads on the site
4. What is more important, community or traffic?	Community	The conversation is more important than the rankings
5. How many RSS subscribers do you have?	Around 1500	Approx 2000
6. What is the best way to boost the RSS subscriber base?	Write quality, passionate content they want to read	Provide multiple ways to subscribe to the feed (email, buttons, links)
7. Do you think AdSense units make a blog look unprofessional?	Depends on the blog, how it is formatted	Depends on the placement of the ad. If it’s at the top and presents a hurdle to the content - yes
8. If you could give one advice for a novice blogger, what would this be?	Love and serve your readers, write your passions, know the Internet has no eraser	Don’t write to attract an audience. Write as you’re already having the conversation with them
9. How many RSS feeds do you read daily?	I bounce over about 50; read about 10 - which ones change daily	I subscribe to 320+ feeds and search strings. There are about 150 I “scan” daily
10. Do you answer to all the comments on your blog?	Yes	Yes
11. If you could read only one blog, which one would you pick?	Right now, it would be How to Save the World by Dave Pollard	Logic+Emotion
12. What is the secret of your success, expressed in one word?	Love	Others

Here is a list of the previous Face-Offs:

Daniel Scocco on April 3, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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27 Responses to “Bloggers Face-Off: Liz Strauss vs. Mike Sansone”

Liz Strauss on April 3rd, 2007 6:00 am

Thank you, Daniel.
It’s always great to be invited to be a part of your blog. I enjoyed the chance to be here with my friend, Mike and to learn more about him and myself as well.

This is a wonderful series. Congratulations on it!
Daniel on April 3rd, 2007 6:21 am

Liz, it was my pleasure.

I am glad you liked the Face-off series, also if you pass this round we might match you against other famous bloggers, I think you could take someone on the league of Shoemoney :)! But Mike should be a tough match, he has quite a loyal fan base.
Tony D. Clark on April 3rd, 2007 7:56 am

I’ve loved this series Daniel - but having to choose between two great friends is too hard.

I think I’ll just sit back and watch this one
John Wesley on April 3rd, 2007 8:58 am

I love the series. It’s probably my favorite on going theme. I always appreciate the insights from successful bloggers.
Hans on April 3rd, 2007 11:52 am

Go! Go! Liz… I’m sure you’re gonna win…you really provide great stuffs out there… thanks for all your time(yeah that’s today that I know HOW much time you really give to blogging!)

perhaps it’s time to buy you a mobile through which you can keep in direct touch with your blog lol…do you still remember me question?
Dave Olson on April 3rd, 2007 12:07 pm

Daniel,

Thanks for the great series of face-off. Now I know why Liz responds to comments at all hours of the day and night. Does she ever sleep?

Once again thanks for the great site and community building projects.
Mike Sansone on April 3rd, 2007 1:23 pm

A great series indeed - and how about the similar answers and the combined mantra at the foundation of these dance: “Love Others” - that’s perfect!

Thanks for a great series and a wonderful post.
Daniel on April 3rd, 2007 2:20 pm

Dave and Mike, thanks for the nice words.

I am glad most people like it, because I also have a lot of fun collecting the answer for the face-offs, its a win-win situation!
Mark on April 4th, 2007 5:46 am

One of the best articles/interviews i have stumbled upon on blogging yet

keep up the good work
George on April 4th, 2007 5:55 am

Great face off again. I love this series. I really liked Liz’s answer to question numbner 2, LOL.
Char on April 4th, 2007 8:15 am

This series is a great way to get a quick behind the scenes look at our favorite bloggers. However, in this case I can’t pick a winner - I like them both way too much!
Daniel on April 4th, 2007 8:33 am

Mark and George, thanks!

Char, a lot of people said that hehe, I guess its because both bloggers have great communities behind their back.
Sandy Renshaw on April 4th, 2007 12:51 pm

Hey Daniel,

Terrific post and wonderful idea for a series.

Like Tony and Char, I can’t vote. I’ve learned so much from each of them and they both are masters at what they do - in their respective ways. It’s so neat how their answers flowed and the end is perfect… love others.

Keep up the great work.

Sandy
Roberto Alamos on April 8th, 2007 4:25 pm

Amazing, both of them have 57 votes
Daniel on April 9th, 2007 4:09 am

Yeah, I decided to close the poll on a tie, they were very close since the beginning so I figured why not!
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