How to get started in blogging? Ewan and Cthulhu take a look through the Book of Blogworld, used last year to capture the souls, errr, thoughts of bloggers at the Las Vegas Blog World and New Media Expo conference.
Stay tuned for next week’s installment, and in the meantime visit Ewan at his blog!
Ewan Spence and Cthulhu take a look at the Book of Blogworld, used last year to capture the souls, errr, the thoughts (!) of bloggers at the 2009 Las Vegas BlogWorld and New Media Expo conference.
Stay tuned for next week’s installment, and in the meantime visit Ewan at his blog!
We’re starting a new feature – BlogWorld Flickr Photo of the Week! If you have a photo and story you’d like to share, please email me with a link to the photo and your story. Don’t forget to join our BlogWorld Flickr Group too!
This week’s photo is from Kevin Blalock:
Social media was a little unfamiliar to me and I never really got a good grasp of it until I attended the BlogWorld Expo in 2008 for the first time. I had heard about social media here and there, and had seen the buzz online. I even registered an account on Twitter, yet I still couldn’t figure it out.
This first trip to BlogWorld was a great experience for me as I wandered around the floor. I watched people connecting, learning about each others business, and hearing tips and tricks about social media in general and how it can be used in a positive way.
The key piece of knowledge for me was learning about blogging. Blogging was another buzz term that I figured only artists and poets used to document their daily life or something. To my excitement, asking many silly questions resulted in many very helpful answers from the other attendees and exhibitors. I quickly learned what exactly all this social media and blogging stuff was all about!
The experience this first year made me want to learn more and get involved myself. Now, I will be the first to say I am not the best at keeping my blog up to date on a regular basis, but I am working on it. I have a new project/business that gives me a reason to blog now, other than just the things I have been up to in my personal life.
Because of what I have learned by attending BlogWorld Expo, not only do I know how to leverage the tools of social media such as blogging; I can now share what I have learned and hopefully teach others as the wonderful people of BlogWorld have done for me.
Part of the BlogWorld experience is getting to meet many great people. One such person is the man who took the time to allow me to take a photo of himself and Charnell Lucich, Chris Brogan. Since leaving BlogWorld 2008, I started following him on Twitter and keeping up with his social media presence.
To my delight, Chris was once again at BlogWorld 2009 and was signing his then new book release titled “Trust Agents”. One minute, I was with Charnell Lucich who keeps up with Chris religiously, and is one of his biggest fans. The next minute she was in front of his table talking with him. So, I ran over to say hi as well since it is very rare that you do not see him surrounded by fans!
This brings me to the greatest part about BlogWorld. We all know who Chris Brogan is; and to be honest with you, I was expecting a better than thou attitude. Let me tell you, Chris is one of the most down to earth people I have ever met. He sat there looking us in the eyes talking to us, focused on the conversation and really made me feel that he was truly interested in our conversation.
I am really looking forward to attending BlogWorld 2010 in October. I look forward to seeing the friends I have made over the past two years as well as making new ones. To me, this is what BlogWorld is all about.
Kevin Blalock
Blalock Photography
Email: kevin@blalockphotography.com
Twitter: @kevinblalock
At the 2009 BlogWorld Expo I wasn’t quite sure what to expect interest-wise for the travel track, and was pleasantly surprised to see most of the seats full in the travel sessions. One question that was asked (and echoed by more than one attendee) was how to keep up a travel blog while you’re actually traveling – something that can be tougher than you’d think.
If your blog is mainly about travel, you’d better develop a system for keeping it alive while you’re traveling or you may want to rethink the whole “having a blog” thing. But what if your blog isn’t focused solely on travel, but you happen to like traveling and like the idea of blogging about it while you’re out and about? If you’re not used to blogging while traveling, it can be a difficult adjustment. Here are five tips to help make sure that your blog doesn’t completely stagnate while you’re on the move.
Remember paper? Get reacquainted with it. Even if you’re bringing a netbook or other device for writing blog entries, it won’t always be convenient to (a) have it with you, and (b) get it out to write on. Bring at least a pocket-sized paper notebook and a pen you like (if you hate the way it writes, you won’t use it – and if you aren’t using it, what’s the point?). Personally, I love pretty much everything Moleskine makes, but choose the notebook that works best for you. If you’ll be doing any longer-form writing by hand, bring a bigger notebook as well.
And then – here’s the critical part – use them. Take copious notes. Write down stuff you think you’ll remember (you won’t). Jot down quick messages to trigger your memory later, but elaborate on those quick messages before you get to the point when you can no longer read your own code. With all of these notes, you’ll have ample material for writing actual blog posts whenever you have the time to sit down and write them (most likely, for weeks or months to come).
You’re traveling, so it’s likely you’re already snapping photos here and there, but your camera can also be a note-taking tool. In fact, the best tool a lazy note-taker can carry is a digital camera. A plaque on the wall explaining why that cool building is important? Get a picture of the plaque after you’ve gotten your shot of the building. Planning to write a more travel guide-y piece on your favorite museum? Get a photo of the sign with the museum’s hours and ticket prices before you leave.
At Blogworld 2009, Social Media Marketing was still a concept in development. A few weeks later, Mashable declared that there were 15,740 “Social Media Experts” on Twitter – a number indicating that many people were claiming to be experts, and that few were. At Blogworld 2009 itself – the motto seemed to be “How can I help you?” The motto was touted by all of the big names as a means, I guess, of getting would-be social media enthusiasts into giving mode rather than receiving mode. The problem was – the phrase was too vague. “How can I help you?” became “let me show you how to retweet,” “here’s how you post a message on your friend’s wall,” and “follow me and I’ll follow you.” It’s no exaggeration – after Blogworld 2009, Twitter account’s bios all over the place started reading “how can I help you?” and no real concrete help was being given. So I propose an alternative: “What can I do for you?”
“What can I do for you” commits you to action. The word “do” implies that you’re willing to work with the person – not just tell them that about tools and very general concepts. It implies that you’re willing to sit with the person face-to-face, show them how to set up a Hootsuite account, and then show them what the best possible way to garner a following for their niche industry is. And then – show them how you maintain a schedule for that routine. It implies you’re willing to put some skin in the game.
Here are some things you can do to break the ice for yourself and really truly do something for someone:
Continue Reading
At Blogworld 2009, Social Media Marketing was still a concept in development. A few weeks later, Mashable declared that there were 15,740 “Social Media Experts” on Twitter – a number indicating that many people were claiming to be experts, and that few were. At Blogworld 2009 itself – the motto seemed to be “How can I help you?” The motto was touted by all of the big names as a means, I guess, of getting would-be social media enthusiasts into giving mode rather than receiving mode. The problem was – the phrase was too vague. “How can I help you?” became “let me show you how to retweet,” “here’s how you post a message on your friend’s wall,” and “follow me and I’ll follow you.” It’s no exaggeration – after Blogworld 2009, Twitter account’s bios all over the place started reading “how can I help you?” and no real concrete help was being given. So I propose an alternative: “What can I do for you?”
“What can I do for you” commits you to action. The word “do” implies that you’re willing to work with the person – not just tell them that about tools and very general concepts. It implies that you’re willing to sit with the person face-to-face, show them how to set up a Hootsuite account, and then show them what the best possible way to garner a following for their niche industry is. And then – show them how you maintain a schedule for that routine. It implies you’re willing to put some skin in the game.
Here are some things you can do to break the ice for yourself and really truly do something for someone:
Continue Reading
Your blog isn’t as important as you think.
Justin McHood
I know, I know — there are plenty of people speaking at BlogWorld about how to develop the best blog in the world. You know, one that is engaging, interactive, informative and possibly even (do I dare say it?) profitable.
But unless you are going to have a blog about bacon, starting a blog about something that could potentially lead to profits (either online or offline) just seems like a lot of work to me.
So if you are going to start a blog about mortgages (or anything else), get ready to turn it into a labor of love.
Spend your free time learning CSS, obsessing over what kinds of calls-to-action you could possibly have to get more of your readers to join your subscription list and spend so much time thinking about your blog that you actually run the risk of becoming addicted to improving your blog.
Or…
Take a short cut.
Continue Reading
Your blog isn’t as important as you think.
Justin McHood
I know, I know — there are plenty of people speaking at BlogWorld about how to develop the best blog in the world. You know, one that is engaging, interactive, informative and possibly even (do I dare say it?) profitable.
But unless you are going to have a blog about bacon, starting a blog about something that could potentially lead to profits (either online or offline) just seems like a lot of work to me.
So if you are going to start a blog about mortgages (or anything else), get ready to turn it into a labor of love.
Spend your free time learning CSS, obsessing over what kinds of calls-to-action you could possibly have to get more of your readers to join your subscription list and spend so much time thinking about your blog that you actually run the risk of becoming addicted to improving your blog.
Or…
Take a short cut.
Continue Reading
Hello, my name is Nathan, and I’m a BlogWorld Expo junkie.
I’d like to tell you a story…
A year ago today, I was in Afghanistan, desperately trying to figure this “online thing” out. I’d spent nearly a year blogging, practicing Internet Marketing, and hanging out in blog comment sections, but I just couldn’t figure out how to make it over the hump.
So I started doing what the smart people told me to do, which is to submit guest posts and start networking…and I did.
I submitted guest posts to David Risley, Darren Rowse, and a few others (some of which aren’t blogging anymore) and started to get my feet wet.
Things were starting to pick up…slowly but surely.
Fast forward 6 months, and although I’m finally home and working on a very cool project with my pal, Mike CJ, I’m still not where I want to be.
At the time, I started hearing rumors of this thing they called BlogWorld Expo…which I had never heard of. I looked at the page for months, but couldn’t convince myself to take the leap.
But something about it kept nagging at me, and one night…on a whim, I decided that I’d spend a few hundred dollars that I didn’t have, to register for BlogWorld and reserve my flight to Vegas.
The Best Decision of My Life
We love these montage videos and how people are producing content about the show from 2009. This gives a great look at one Blogger’s stalking of Kevin Pollak at BlogWorld & New Media Expo.
Kevin was on BlogWorld Expo Radio at the show on October 17, 2009. Now I need to find a way to get an interview with the folks over at Blogging Badly. Apparently, they are launching something in 2010 and we will keep our eye out for them. Anyone that talks about Chad Vader’s junk is good with me! Keep up the good work and keep blogging badly.
Recent Comments