There’s been some upsetting news about two blogger friends who are sick and need help with finances. I hope that by posting their information here you’ll take a look and see if you can help in some way. You can pray for them, send good thoughts their way, send them a tweet, message or comment, donate to the funds set up for them or you can spread the word about them too.

Liz Strauss was hospitalized with pneumonia and kidney stones and for some unknown reason (red tape sucks) her hospital bill was denied. Liz is one of the kindest bloggers, speakers and connectors I’ve come to know. I proudly display my SOB award from her because she doesn’t do anything without much thought and consideration behind it. She walks the walk. Please find out how we can help Liz get well.

Anissa Mayhew is bawdy, funny and has dealt with too much stuff already in her life. Having a stroke again was not in the cards for her. She was getting ready to go on a Disney Cruise when she collapsed. She had a massive stroke and then a second one in the hospital. She is a wife and mom of three amazing children. Her daughter Peyton was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago. Please use the twitter hashtag #prayersforanissa. Please visit Hope For Anissa to purchase a restaurant gift card or make a paypal donation. Go get ‘em Anissa.

This is when we can show how we bloggers can stick together and use social media for a meaningful cause and really touch someone’s life.

I’m proud to say that I’m an SOB and that Liz Strauss has bestowed that honor on me.  I’ve even added a bright pink badge to my banner to show off the fact. When I learned that Liz chose me as a Successful and Outstanding Blogger, I sent her a tweet to thank her. Even though she was busy at an event, I believe it was Blog World, she quickly replied in her funny yet sincere way.

After hearing Liz Strauss speak at IzeaFest in Orlando I felt a connection. She has a unique sense of humor that she attributes to her father (me too) and believes that bloggers should help each other out  and connect more often (me too). I normally wouldn’t sing my praises like that, but as Liz said on Twitter, “Own your awesomeness”. I will for today.

I’ll also thank Liz Strauss for going out of her way to to recognize bloggers who do things a bit different, who try to connect with others and make this big interweb a little smaller. She says that there’s no need for me to link back, but I want to share her with you. That’s my good deed for today. Enjoy her wit, her dedication to blogging and her awesomeness.

Want to take your blog to the next level? After reading the post about Blogging Buddies from Murray Newlands I realized that I have a few bloggers that I work together with by sharing posts, commenting back and forth, and sharing new ideas – a blogging alliance.

Unfortunately too many people drop out after saying that they are willing to be involved. It’s a shame when that occurs. I’m not really sure why this happens, but I have a feeling that they’re not willing to work hard at their blogging or they see competition instead of sharing. I could be totally wrong so if you have a reason why, let me know here.

The few loyal buddies that I have are people that I maintain an online relationship with via emails, Skype or Instant Messaging. We try to include some fun time into our blogging alliance. We share laughs, photos of our families, cards via snail mail and even chain emails. Who can resist that?

I’ve been bugging Ted Murphy about when next year’s IzeaFest is going to be. Not even a week later and I want to start planning for 2010. Does this give you an idea of how amazing this event was?

Imagine two full days – about 8 hours each – with information on branding, SEO, Twitter, traffic, blogging, marketing, with sessions by Chris Brogan, Sarah Evans, Liz Strauss and a fantastic keynote by Aaron Brazell. Our host, Bob Kodzis, somehow kept it all together. I have no clue how, but I his humor had a lot to do with it. Then add fun like, a seal, sloth, bald eagle and other animals visiting us for lunch, live tweeting that had me trying not to laugh but instead had me snorting, cake plows, and people (me) being turned into ice cream sundaes. There were parties too, which I missed out on, but they sure looked like tons of fun.

Then there were some things that were beyond description like this:

Next year, I know I’ll be there wherever IzeaFest is held and when ever it is. I plan on taking my own breaks during the day so I can party at night. After all I can see the video later from what I’ve missed.