Introducing: The BlogWorld L.A. 2011 Monetization Track

When you build a loyal audience of prospects and customers, you’ll notice that people line up to buy your products. If you’ve been struggling to build that audience, this session is for you. You’ll learn how you can optimize what you already have to attract more traffic, subscribers and sales. Additionally, you’ll learn the psychology behind why people share content, buy products, and subscribe to lists, and how you can take advantage of it.

This presentation takes people through my own personal journey with blogging (something that is both education and inspirational) – a road map of how I was able to go from being laid off, to having one of the fastest growing and most popular blogs in the very saturated blogging and make money online industry.

I take a unique approach to building a brand that goes beyond the normal talk about SEO, guest posting and basic social media – an approach that is primarily content based with honest, in your face, extremely valuable free content. I have multiple examples of how giving away information for free has always come back many times over in income, subscribers and authority.

I will also present, with data, the importance of brand expansion (hence, Thinking Outside the Blog) – which includes brief utilizations and action taking steps with Facebook (my highest traffic generation site, by far), YouTube, Podcasts, and iPhone applications

I will also show how I make money without actually using any aggressive and traditional marketing tactics (e.g. a launch sequence, promoting via email, blog posts reviews, etc.) – I don’t do any of that stuff, but like I said I’ve been able to generate $20,000 a month just from affiliate sales on the SPI blog alone.

I will also mix in a little bit of lifestyle design, with a unique emphasis on the importance of family and what passive income, from blogging, has done for me and my ability to stay at home with my family – I know a lot of people who can relate better to this, as opposed to one who blogs and travels the world or is striving to be super rich.

Lastly, I will talk about (mixed in with all of the above) the importance of being honest and transparent online. Admitting mistakes and being real go a long way, I’ve learned, and people can connect with a blogger on a more personal level when it’s done.

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Jennifer Wojcik

Infected: Social Sales and the Zombie Apocalypse

Based on the work of Richard Dawkins and expanded by Malcolm Gladwell, I will attempt to show how the concept of “memes” and “mind viruses” is very similar to a pandemic resulting in the zombie apocalypse.

The focus is narrowed to why companies and brands should harness the power of the hive mind in their social presence to encourage a somewhat passive, yet pervasive mental presence in their target audience. Essentially “infecting” them with an idea.

Since the goal of most companies that participate in the social sphere do so with the intent to SELL, I will attempt to show how this method can be more powerful than straight selling or simple engagement.

I will use historical case studies of brands that have achieved this level of infection and show how they reached “zombie apocalypse”.

I will draw parallels between desired end result for companies that participate in the social sphere and the ultimate goal of an infectious zombie agent: Brains.

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Adam Baker

Your Blog is Not Your Business

For 18 months, I *poured* myself into my blog Man Vs. Debt. I had thousands of subscribers, a passionate community, dozens of comments on my posts, and recognition from many other people I looked up to. But I was lacking terribly in one area – the *business* side of things.

Day in and day out I focused on the small details of building up my “blog” (at least a little) – but completely ignored truly growing my “business.” A little over a year ago I finally realized… “Baker, you are running an online business – not just a blog.” And things started to change.

Over the next 30 days, I organized a niche sale with a new partner that brought together 20+ online entrepreneurs and sold their top business products for 90% off for a short time. In just 30 days of planning, we executed a sale that gross $189,000 in revenue and profited over $30,000 for myself.

This all happened because I stepped back and focus on my *real* assets and strengths. My blog was successful, but it wasn’t the core benefit I had to offer the world. Stepping away from my blogging-tunnel-focus has allowed me to build a six-figure online business, while *still* doubling the subscribers to my blog in just a few months.

I’ll show you exactly what led to my change (specific examples from my business and blog) – and the tangible steps you can take to analyze your own “blog” and “business.” Chances are, these aren’t the same thing.

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Denise Wakeman & Rich Brooks

Most of us don’t realize how much expertise we’ve gained over the years, or that other people would be happy to pay to gain some of our insights to help them with their own life. Even if we do realize that, we’re not always sure how to package that experience into a knowledge-based product that we can sell over the Internet. In this session Denise and Rich will walk you through the process of recognizing your expertise, adapting your current content and creating a compelling package for that expertise, using web marketing and social media to reach your audience, and how to ultimately sell your knowledge product.

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Johnny B Truant