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NMX Vegas 2013

Building Your Business with Twitter: Dino Dogan Interviews UFC’s Dana White

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At NMX 2013, Dino Dogan from Triberr sat down to talk with UFC President Dana White about Twitter, the possibility of the UFC going public, and more. Dino is a true fight fan with a passion for new media, so he was the perfect person to interview Dana! Check out the video here:

Thanks, Dino, for a great interview with Dana! Dana also sat down with NMX’s Rick Calvert and Dave Cynkin to talk more about how the UFC is using social media, so if you missed that interview, you can see it now here.

Dino was one of our NMX 2013 speakers, and his session was packed. You know things are good when it’s still standing room only at the end of the presentation! For this week only, Dino’s session is 100% free on NMX University, the home of our 2013 virtual ticket. Don’t miss out; check out Dino speak about Insane Loyalty today!

Building Your Business with Twitter Transcript

Dino Dogan (0:08):  Hello everybody, my name is Dino, founder of Triberr, and I’m sitting here with Dana White.  We’re broadcasting this from Vegas for BlogRoll.com.  And, it’s an absolute pleasure for me to sit here with the president and the face of the UFC.  And the way UFC has been using social media is absolutely bleeding edge and very fascinating.  And we’re going to talk to Dana to get some insights into how he uses social media.

(0:41)So, Dana, thank you for being here.  Excellent keynote earlier.  I want you to make a business case for Twitter.  How do you use Twitter to actually lead your business?

Dana White (0:55):  The way that I personally use Twitter is I speak directly to the fans.  I talk to the fans one on one.  You know, I’m not speaking for the company, as the company, it’s me.  You’re talking to me personally.  And that’s the way that I like to do it, but what Twitter does for me, as far as the night of a fight, right, which is different from anything we’ve ever done in the history of the company is, you always have problems.  Things are always going to go wrong.  You know, I’ve had situations where people’s seats were blocked by a camera or pay-per-view goes down in Indiana, a laundry list of things that I wouldn’t have known until Monday.  But because of Twitter, I can handle it that night, get everything taken care of, make sure that everybody has a good experience.  That’s my job that night, is to make sure that everybody that bought a ticket or stayed home to buy the pay-per-view or watch it on free TV is having the best experience they can possibly have.  So, I love that.  That’s one of the million aspects I love about Twitter and social media.

Dino (1:58):  Yeah.  And you can respond to situations, to the crisis in real time.

Dana (2:01):   Yep.

Dino (2:02): Yeah, that’s amazing.  You’re out there.  You’re doing it yourself.  You almost take pride in saying that you’re bypassing the PR department; the filter that’s created between you the person and the audience.  And there’s certain inherent danger in that.  And, clearly, you embrace the danger.  And the benefit of it outweighs the danger.  But, you’re out there, you have 400 fighters doing what you do, representing the brand.  And just tell us a little bit about the crises that you’ve encountered.  How many of them have you encountered?  How exaggerated is the danger of getting out there?

Dana (2:46):  Yeah, it’s very exaggerated.  I mean, yes, we’ve had a couple…I have 400 plus guys tweeting every day.  I tweet every day.  You know, you’re going to have some problems here and there.  The biggest problem that we’ve ever had is guys trying to be funny.  Telling jokes and, basically, I tell these guys, use common sense when tweeting.  You’re not a comedian.  Leave the jokes to your friends, in your inner circle.  Don’t tweet jokes.  But, really, we’ve really had no problems.  There’s going to be some stupid stuff here and there but, at the end of the day, people need to relax.

Dino (3:22): Right.  It’s a tweet.

Dana (3:23): It’s a tweet.  It’s a tweet, relax.

Dino (3:27): Get over it.  That’s terrific.  A lot of people want to know.  UFC is a giant franchise.  You guys are just going gangbusters.  You’re on this incredible upslide.  Are you going to go IPO?

 

Dana (3:43): I never say “never”, but I’d have to say never.  I don’t think we…I don’t think so.  I don’t think we’d do it.  I haven’t seen too many great experiences with going public.  And I just don’t think this is one of those businesses that we could really run the way that we wanted to if we’re not…The thing that I’ve always said since day one, too, about going public is, nobody believed in this thing.  When we first bought it, started to build it, nobody believed in it.

Dino (4:13):  I just want to say that I did.

Dana (4:14):  Well, I’m talking about the business world, right?  Now, all of a sudden, I’m going to take advice from these guys, you know, on Wall Street who never believed in it in the first place?

Dino (4:23):  Right

Dana (4:24): I don’t see it.  Not while I’m here, anyway.

Dino (4:25):  Gotcha. Terrific.  Anderson Silva/Georges St. Pierre fight.  I know you’re working on it.  This year?  Could it happen this year?

Dana (4:34):  Yeah, it could.  You know, obviously, everybody knows that GSP wants to fight Diaz right now.  That fight’s going to happen.  And after that fight, should Georges St. Pierre beat Diaz…yeah.  I want to make the fight.  I mean, everybody thought it was going to happen after Georges’ fight with Condit.  The kid had, you know, almost two years off with a knee injury, rehabilitating.  And he wants another fight first, so, we’ll see what happens.

Dino (4:58): Fair enough.  You have your employees actively engaged in social media.  And, I know this is not a fair stereotype, but if a general population was to imagine the worst type of person to represent your brand, that would be a fighter.  Because they’re perceived as brutes, which they’re not.

Dana (5:23):  Right.

Dino (5:23):  I know this.  But, there’s…you have a lot of your employees actively engaged, getting out there, representing your brand and there’s a certain amount of training that they have to go through in order to…just to know what tools to use, how to use them and how to represent themselves.  Like you said, don’t try to be funny, you’re not a comedian, right.  So, tell us a little bit about the training that these guys go through for social media.

Dana (5:50):  Yeah.  It’s not as hard as you would think.  Not only do I have, you know, 400 plus fighters.  But when you say my employees, my actual employees inside the company are all on Twitter too.  And, you know, obviously you’ve got to educate them on how to use Twitter, how to do this, how to do that as far as using social media goes.  And then is all about using common sense.  And I’m very lucky in that I’m not dealing with stupid people here.  Yes, we have 400 plus fighters.  Most of these guys are college educated.  You know, very smart guys.  Guys who, not only are the representing the UFC and the sport, but they represent themselves and their own brands and their own business.  For instance, like Anderson Silva.  Anderson Silva has 3 million followers on Twitter.    When he’s done fighting and he moves on to the next chapter of his life, those 3 million fans are going to go with him into the next chapter.  So, he’s not just representing us and the sport, he’s representing himself, you know, and his family and whatever he decides to do when fighting is over.

Dino (6:51): Right, yeah.  I have a theory about Anderson Silva.  Is he really a robot?

Dana (6:56):  I think he might be.  I’ve wondered that myself too.  He’s an amazing, incredible athlete.

Dino (7:03):  Mind blowing.

Dana (7:04):  Yeah, he really is.  Doesn’t get the credit he deserves, in my opinion.

Dino (7:07):  Yeah, he is just incredible.  Dana, this was a dream come true.  Thank you so much for sharing your insights.

Dana (7:15):  My pleasure.

Dino (7:16):  And it’s great to see you here in Vegas at BlogWorld.

Dana (7:18):  Thanks, brother.

Dino (7:19):  NMX!  Thank you, guys.

The #1 Best Way to Understand Your Audience—And Why This Matters for Your Content

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“The best way to understand the mind, the hopes, the fear, the dreams, the desires—everything that’s inside your clients, you’re customer’s brain—the best way to understand it is to actually be it.” – Dino Dogan

We often talk about creating a profile, an avatar of sorts, for your audience members so you understand who you’re creating content for. This is important whether you’re a blogger, podcaster, web series creator, or even business owner. If you don’t know who your audience is, it’s extremely hard to create content for them.

Click to tweet this quote!

At NMX 2013, Dino Dogan spoke on turning your audience into extremely loyal fans, and this is one of the topics he covered during his session. But he took a step farther. Don’t just think about who your customer is. Be your customer.

The NMX Story

If you’ve ever seen our NMX co-founder Rick Calvert speak before a keynote or if you’ve ever had a personal conversation with him, you might have heard him talk about why he decided to start NMX (previously BlogWorld). Rick was a blogger himself in the early 2000s and being someone who has always worked in the trade show and conference industry, he decided to attend whatever trade show or conference was out there for bloggers.

Except there wasn’t one.

Rick was astounded to find that there was no event out there to provide more education for bloggers and others in the new media industry. So, he decided to create one. This was the birth of BlogWorld, which has now evolved into NMX. Rick is his own customer, and this is one of the things that lends to the success of this conference.

Why Being Your Customer Matters

I use the term customer as Dino has in his presentation, but very loosely, to also not just mean people who are buying from you, but to also mean people who are doing anything you want them to do (read a blog post, listen to your podcast, etc.). You have to be this person to truly understand this person.

Creating an avatar is great, but it’s impossible to truly understand another person through research. You don’t understand what it’s like to be a mother until you’re a mother (or so I’ve been told…I am not a mother). You don’t understand how it feels to lose a loved one until you’ve experienced that loss yourself. You don’t understand the frustration of not finding clothes that fit if you’re someone who always walks into a store and finds several options.

And if you don’t understand what your customers are going through, what they truly feel, you can’t do the best possible job creating content or products for them.

Over the past two(ish) years, I’ve watching the freelance writing industry change drastically from what it was like back in 2005-2006, when I first started writing online. At that time, it was very easy to find content writing jobs. To make ends meet as a recent college grad, I wrote about everything from lawn care to oil rig jobs. Today, those jobs are nearly non-existent. Why? Because people realized that someone who doesn’t own a home with a yard can never truly write a great article about lawn care, no matter how much research she does. At least not compared to someone who is passionate about that topic.

Become your customer if you aren’t already. You’ll be amazed at what you learn and how that affects your decisions.

More from Dino

Being your own customer was just a small piece of Dino’s 2013 NMX presentation on insane loyalty. But the good news is that you can still attend the session virtually, even if you missed attending live in Las Vegas! Become an NMX University Premium Member and you’ll get access to our complete 2013 Virtual Ticket, which includes a recording of Dino’s session, along with sessions from hundreds of other speakers!

Make an NMX Infographic

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At NMX this month, many conference go-ers filled out fun infographics about their NMX experience. The fine folks at Lemon.ly created these for attendees to color in at its booth and at our infographics session led by John Meyer. We loved this idea and thought we’d share photos of some of the finished products.

Want to create your own NMX infographic as you reflect on your conference experience? Just download the updated infographic below, fill it in, and send it to our Community Manager Deb Ng at deb@nmxevents.com. She’ll share them on our Facebook page!

Are Your Employees on LinkedIn? Three Profile Creation Tips from Stephanie Sammons

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We often think of LinkedIn as a professional social network for individuals, but did you know LinkedIn could also help build your business? At BusinessNext 2013 (presented by NMX), speaker Stephanie Sammons, CEO of Wired Advisor, presented “7 Powerful LinkedIn Marketing Strategies for Building Your Business” – and today, I wanted to talk about one of the most important aspects she covered: profile creation for your employees.

“Everyone in the company needs to understand how to set up a good profile.”

The more your employees are visible on LinkedIn, the more your business will be visible on LinkedIn. Visibility leads to brand recognition, talent acquisition, and more, so it’s definitely good for every company to have a presence on LinkedIn. Consider spending a day training your employees on this platform, or at least covering the basics of creating a good profile. According to Stephanie, here’s what your employees need to keep in mind when creating a profile.

  • Professional and Accurate Information

One of the biggest mistakes people make with LinkedIn is not keeping the information up-to-date. An employee who is now a manager or even higher in your company might still have their previous job listed. Worse, employees might choose to have unprofessional information listed on their LinkedIn profile, which could reflect poorly on your company as a whole. Go over what is appropriate with your employees and encourage them to update often.

  • Frequent and Consistent Status Updates

Most people who use LinkedIn do not use the status update capability or they have it linked to Twitter, where updates are commonly pretty casual.  Instead, encourage your employees to update LinkedIn during the day, posting professional (and non-confidential) information about the daily happenings at the office.

  • Network Growth

Make sure your employees are linked with one another and encourage them to allow connections with other people they know. More 1st level connections lead to more 2nd level connections, which lead to more 3rd level connections…and these are all people who are, in some way, connected to your company. If your employees grow their connections, your visibility on this platform grows as well.

This just scratches the surface of Stephanie’s BusinessNext session at NMX 2013. Want the whole thing? Check out our 2013 Virtual Ticket, available exclusively at NMX University for access to her session as well as hundreds of other session recordings from our event.

Guy Kawasaki Talks About “Artisanal” Publishing

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We always feel lucky when Guy Kawasaki is able to speak at one of our events. This year, Guy sat down with Mark Fidelman at NMX 2013 in Las Vegas to discuss in a keynote entitled “Going Bananas with Guy Kawasaki,” which covered a wide variety of new media topics, including a discussion on publishing in the new media world. Here are some of the highlights from his talk:

“Let the people decide.”

The session began by discussing self publishing, or artisanal publishing as Guy refers to it. After publishing What the Plus himself, he decided to write his newest book, Ape, to discuss the process. Guy used social media for feedback and reviews by sending out the outline, and later his full manuscript draft, for his book to “4 million of my closest friends,” as he referred to his followers. He would never have been able to do so with traditional publishing.

“Traditional publishers would have an aneurism!”

Self-publishing allows you freedom to do things like sending your content to followers before it is published. With self publishing, the writer has complete control over the book from beginning to end, but that also comes with all the responsibility and risk. Remember, Guy has a huge audience, so he’s able to self-publish and try new things while still knowing that he will sell a healthy number of books. If you don’t have this massive following yet, self-publishing might not be as successful for you. However, don’t overlook this as an option, especially due to the freedoms self-publishing affords you.

“Guy’s provided me with such great content all year, the least I can do is buy his $10 book.”

What’s Guy’s personal social media strategy? He compared it to NPR. According to him, they provide “great content 365 days a year,” and once in a while slam you with a phone-a-thon. In Guy’s eyes, they’ve earned the privilege to promote once in a while because of their commitment to quality content throughout the entire year. He applies the same principle to his social media accounts. He provides his followers with quality content so consistently that when he does stop to promote his newest project every now and again, he hopes his followers think, “Guy’s provided me with such great content all year, the least I can do is buy his $10 book.”

Of course, during his keynote, Guy also spoke about a number of other topics as well. Did you know that all of our keynotes have been live-streamed and archived? Head over to NMX University to see our keynotes and additional bonus content live from the show.

About Guy: Guy Kawasaki is the author of APE, What the Plus!, Enchantment, and nine other books. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

25 Brilliant Bloggers and Podcasters Talk about #NMX 2013!

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Brilliant Bloggers is a regular series here at the NMX/BlogWorld blog, but this week’s edition is a little special. Instead of talking about a specific skill, I’ve compiled links to some of those who blogged about NMX 2013 in Las Vegas. There are even some podcasters on this list, and as always, if I missed your link, please feel free to post in the comments!

Without further adieu, here are the brilliant bloggers and podcasters talking about NMX 2013:

  1. 6 Marketing Lessons Learned at the 2013 New Media Expo by Dan Gorgone (@dangorgone)
  2. 10 Social Media Lessons Learned from Ford – Scott Monty New Media Expo Keynote #nmx by Tom Treanor (@rtmixmktg)
  3. 38 Game-Changing Experiences for Business and Beyond (New Media Expo 2013) by Joel Zaslofsky(@joelzaslofsky)
  4. Can You Prove That New Media Are Effective? A Report from NMX 2013 by Tin Dizdarevic (@tdizdarevic)
  5. Day One of New Media Expo #NMX 2013 by Eleanor Prior (@theeleanorprior)
  6. Five Things I’m Doing Differently This Week Because of NMX by Erika Kerekes (@erikakerekes)
  7. Live from #NMX: 6 Ways to Make 2013 When Your Social Media Presence Hits the Big Time by Jesse Stanchak (@jstanchak)
  8. Meeting a Fellow Renegade at New Media Expo by Lisa Shaughnessy (@agilitysoccues)
  9. New Media Expo 2013 Review and My Biggest Takeaway’s from the Event by Chris Ducker (@chriscducker)
  10. New Media Expo: A Recap by Mitch Canter (@studionashvegas)
  11. New Media Expo Las Vegas 2013 Recap by Jason Parks (@TheMediaCaptain)
  12. NMX Blogworld 2013-Las Vegas by Lynn Dye (@lynntotherescue)
  13. NMX Takeaways: It’s All About the Community by Andrea Parker (@bigideasblog)
  14. NMX was Buzzing this Week – Here’s our Recap by Elizabeth Michaud (@uberVU)
  15. Post New Attendee Show Homework Tips by Elizabeth Traub (@elizonthego)
  16. Review of New Media Expo 2013 and Turning a Page on My Past Failure [Video] by John Corcoran (@johncorcoran)
  17. The #NMX Experience 2013 by Denise Garratt (@SimplyD)
  18. The Real Story at New Media Expo Wasn’t About New Media by Barry Feldman (@feldmancreative)
  19. What I Learned from Attending New Media Expo 2013 in Las Vegas! by Bernad Geropp (@MoreLeadership)
  20. Why Can’t Bloggers and Journos Get Along? #NMX recap by Peter C. Beller (@ebyline)
  21. You Should Have Been at NMX 2013 by Peter Pollock (@peterpollock)

Podcasts and Videos:

Don’t be shy! If I missed your recap of #NMX, add your link with a comment below!

How to Get Massive Traffic with Link Parties

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At NMX 2013, the ladies from Six Sisters Stuff presented a session on a little-known tactics for building your blog community and driving traffic: link parties.

A link party is essentially a list of linked images generated by a blog’s community. Usually there is a theme and the link party’s call for links is posted at the same time every week. For example, The Pinspiration Party is a weekly link party where you can link up posts that talk about recipes, craft projects, etc. inspired by something you saw on Pinterest.

Many bloggers in niches like tech, social media, and business have never heard of link parties, while bloggers in niches like food and DIY are getting hundreds or even thousands of new readers per month using link parties. On the food blog I run with my mother and sister, we’ve built our traffic substantially using link parties (including the one hosted by Six Sisters Stuff), so I was excited to hear that this session would be part of NMX.

My sister, Jessica, was able to attend this session live to take some notes about just how you can reap the biggest benefits from link parties. Here’s what she found out about getting results:

  • “The bigger the blog, the more the traffic…bigger blogs are more competitive.”

Popular bloggers who run link parties will have hundreds of bloggers link up every week. You can get traffic from these link parties, especially if you catch the linky (the tool used to allow readers to submit links) when it goes live, but don’t overlook the little guys. Brand new link parties can help you build relationships with other bloggers and stand out from the crowd.

  • “You’re going to see 10 times more [traffic] if you’re featured.”

Most link parties feature bloggers from the previous week every time the new linky goes live. Obviously, you want one of these featured slots, as it puts your link front and center. In order to get featured, the Six Sisters bloggers have two main pieces of advice. First, use a great image. If your picture stinks, it is very unlikely that you’ll be featured. Second, put a unique twist on your post. A recipe for mashed potatoes is probably not going to get lots of attention. A copycat mashed potato recipe from a popular recipe that includes a secret ingredient has a much better chance.

  • “The thumbnail is crucial…A picture really is worth a thousand words – or 100 pageviews.”

A good image isn’t just your key to getting featured. It also will encourage others to read your post. This is especially true with popular link parties, where you’re competing with hundreds of other thumbnails. What makes yours stand out? How can you entice readers to click? Think about it when creating your images and make sure your use a good thumbnail.

Want even more link party tips, including directions for hosting your own? Check out the full presentation, which is part of the NMX 2013 Virtual Ticket, available to all NMX University premium members. Don’t miss this great session and the hundreds of presentation recordings from our conference. Get your ticket today!

Quick and Dirty Video Production

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From writing a script to lighting and sound, recording with the built-in webcam on your laptop, editing, production and post-production with Apple’s iMovie, award-winning speaker Dave Taylor demonstrated every step needed to create your first YouTube-ready video during his session at NMX 2013. We had the pleasure of seeing Dave’s workshop yesterday at NMX. Here are some of the highlights from his talk:

  • “You don’t need to invest yet to get started.”

iMovie comes preloaded for free on Mac computers and Dave fully explained how to use this free software for all it’s worth. From tips about shooting footage to best import options and title and transition tips, Dave explained all the options and best practices for creating a quality video. He then went on to put together a video in front on the attendees, demonstrating exactly how to implement the topics he covered.

  • “There is nothing that you can come up with that can’t become interesting.”

Anything, even the most mundane topics can become an interesting video. The key is presenting it in a fun, engaging way. Make a story out of a seemingly uninteresting topic to capture viewers’ attention.

Dave also shared many easy tips about recording and editing throughout the entire session, including:

  • “Really focus on looking at the camera, not the screen.”
  • “Shorter is better than longer.”
  • “Do something engaging.”

Did you know we have tons of bonus content from the show being uploaded everyday? Head over to NMX University to see videos, livestreamed keynotes and more.

About Dave:

Dave’s been online for over thirty years, during which time he’s founded four startups, published twenty books, and earned both an MS Education and MBA. He currently writes for a wide variety of online publications and produces how-to and marketing videos for a variety of clients, including Intel, Kingston and TrackVia. Find him online at DaveTaylorOnline.com

Leo Laporte Talks at #NMX about Building a Podcast Community

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We’re always excited when Leo Laporte is able to speak at one of our events, and this time around was no different. Leo gave our Day Two keynote, talking about how podcasting is changing the world of media. Check out his keynote, recorded live at NMX 2013 (made possible by our livestreaming partners Ustream and TechZulu):

Video streaming by Ustream

If you don’t have time to watch the entire keynote, here are some of the best moments from his talk:

“Podcast your passion but don’t do it for money.”

We all want to make money, but that’s not what it has to be about. You should be podcasting because you love what you’re doing and you love the topic you’re podcasting about, not because you want to make money. Passion is where it’s at. If you’re not passionate, your listeners will know.

“We’re not making little shows to download. I think what we’re doing is changing the world.”

Leo often talks about his disdain for the word podcasting since it doesn’t cover the entire industry and doesn’t sound as important as it is. As Leo stated, podcasters are changing the entire world, especially in the media industry. Mass media is actually a very young industry, and it’s still changing rapidly. Podcasters are shaping the future.

“Our opportunity is not to create audience but create community…Our type of advertising works because we have an engaged audience.”

We often talk about finding new listeners and building our audiences, but podcaster’s listeners are more than that. They’re our friends, our peers, and our community. And that’s what podcasters need to focus on – making their show a good experience so people want to be part of what you’re doing.

When we talk to our advertisers we tell them this is going to be a different relationship for you. And some of them don’t like it.”

Consumers are smart, so you can’t trick them anymore. Instead, you have to present ads in a way that makes sense for your listeners – your community, if you will. For example, on Leo’s show, they do ad slots, but it’s more of a conversation about the features of a product instead of a commercial. Ad recall for him is extremely high, which is great news for his advertisers, but some aren’t interested because there’s no smoke and mirrors. You have to have a good product with good features instead of tricking the consumer.

“We need to really think differently. We can’t just say “What we really want to do is be like the media on the internet.”

Digital broadcasting isn’t like big media as we know it today, and in Leo’s opinion, we should stop trying to be like television, radio, etc. We’re going to succeed because we’re different, and today’s mass media should be scared of that. Podcasters (any kind of digital broadcasters really) need to embrace their different-ness, because that’s how we’ll really change the world.

Want to see even more content from the show? Check out NMX University, our educational membership community where you’ll find virtual sessions, keynote recordings, bonus videos, and more!

NMX-ers Invited to Write for The Huffington Post

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If you’re a blogger who wants to find a new audience, why not consider writing for The Huffington Post? Easier said than done, right? Not if you’re part of the NMX community!

The Huffington Post, with its 50 million unique visitors per month (Comscore, November 2012), is a powerful platform. We’re excited to offer content creators the chance to submit their posts directly to Ariana Huffington. We’re talking direct access here, so don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity.

Submission Details

  • You can choose any topic you like
  • Posts must be 500-1,000 words
  • A brief bio should accompany your submission
  • Include a headshot
This is a unique opportunity for our NMX community, so don’t miss out. Email your submission for consideration and you just might make it onto one of the most popular blogs out there. Good luck!

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