I have several goals with this site and have yet to come up with a quippy by-line that I feel comfortable settling on for more than a week, so I’m going to hold off for now. Right now, my goals are simple:

1. I want to express myself without regard of keeping everyone happy. I always feel boxed in at Gitr’s because I need to appeal to everyone who plays the game to keep them coming back for the game content, not what I think about things.
2. I want to be able to discuss topics that gamers don’t give a rip about when they stumble upon my site from a search engine or who have subscribed and don’t see content that drew them there in the first place.
3. I want to help people become the best writers, editors, spouses, employees, and bosses possible. I have a lot to say, but I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. I’m going to keep it broad for now, but it’s all me, and it’s all cool.

I’m having some problems with being able to submit comments this morning from home with either Firefox or IE with this theme, so I’m baffled at how Liz left a comment. I’m going to work on that today, but if it doesn’t work, I’m going to have to abandon this theme. /sad  Nothing a little coding from other themes won’t fix.

Well, this turned out to be a lot shorter than I thought it would be…he’s the MC. /grin

Time for the conference to begin!

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End of conference session, brought to you by Starbucker!

Yes, he actually did sing for us. Poor Elton John! Actually, it wasn’t bad, but it sure was funny.

Today’s topic is critiquing one of our blogs. They chose Dawud Miracle’s site, HealthyWebDesign. David Armano and Liz Strauss stepped up to help it out.

Dawud said he is trying to transition away from being stuck in the design of being a web designer because he does so much more now. He is going to change his branding. His goal moving forward is to utilize conversation with this clients to help everyone out.

David says he can see the web designer in Dawud coming out in this design and can be taken to the next level by aligning with his personal brand…make it warmer and more personable. (good advice for my blog, too)

Liz noted that there are no visuals above the fold and that his business statement takes up so much real estate that it pushes his content out of the picture. It feels like content that doesn’t change. It seems like part blog, part website.

David says he needs to transition to blog-likeconventions, such as the most recent post coming up to the top. People are getting used to seeing blogrolls and categories and usuallt assume that the first field they see is the search field.

Liz says that Seth Godin always asks where the monkey is supposed to go? If your blog sends people away from your site, then you need to rethink your design. David retorted that with the repeat visitor in mind. You need to meet the needs of both. Keep branding and the RSS feed above the fold. Read the book, “Don’t Make Me Think.”

Oh, crap, time to catch my plane.

While only touting 16 links, she made a post about being an unsuspecting success in blogging. She was too chicken to post it, but Darren Rowse told her to submit it in the Group Writing Project that he does. The next day, her post wasn’t on the site and she submitted it again, thinking it was lost. It wasn’t there again…it’s a sign!! Oh noes!! After a couple more days, she decided that she had nothing to lose by submitting it again. In the end, Darren posted it alone, outside of the others. That post put her on the map as a blogger.

We broke up into pairs with someone we haven’t been introduced to yet. I paired up with David Armano and we shared our most embarassing moment with each other. The reason is to get used to getting outside of your comfort zone.

Everyone here got to the conference as a result of a link, e-mail, or phone call from someone in the room, and that is an amazing reality to get your mind around.

Muhammed Saleem spoke briefly about his blogging experience since September of 2006. Brian from Copyblogger left him a comment back then and they traded contact information and was just offered a position at the new and improved Copyblogger. This is how he keeps creating opportunities from having a presence on others’ blogs and making an impact in the networking way of working.

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07[/tags]

Diego Orjuela with Evoca has a vision to help bloggers and users post their voice on the Internet. There is a lot of text, but there is something about the human voice that text can’t convey.

You can make your first recording with your microphone or with a telephone right away.

Vernon Lun with TheGoodBlogs adds dynamic content to your sidebar. The widget treats you as a free advertiser in the same way as a link ad, but you are also cross-linked on everyone else’s blogs.

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07[/tags]

A blog is a free sample of your brand. People have 2 different brands: default and intentional. To build an intentional brand only requires 2 skills:

1. Be remarkable, unique, creative. You have to believe that you are creative if you don’t feel like you are. If you were ever a child, you can be creative.
2. Care. People are attracted to people that care about them or what that person cares about.

The topic outline:

Journal/Lifestyle Blogging – I missed this part.

Business That Has a Blog -

Don’t make your blog look all blinking and buzzing. Keep it looking like a business. Reach out to traditional media with your stories.

Blogging as a Business -

What is working now:

Affiliates, videos, TLA, merchandise, sponsored posts, referrals, donations.

What did you bang your head on?

Adsense, specific product affiliates, undiscovered affiliate programs.

What is next?

Using ads tastefully, comments via e-mail, improve personality on the blog, picking ads needs to be easier, staying on top of your successes improve user tracking.I attended Sansone’s workshop on making money off my blog.

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07[/tags]

There are 80-100k new videos uploaded every day. They can’t all be bad, though most of them are. Streamers had greater Internet usage than non-streamers by 67%. YouTube has allowed people to realize that they can deliver content with a new media.

Video engages users and creates longer site visits. If you offer video, you offer extended branding and as a valued resource.

Bloggers have the opportunity to differentiate and lead because people consume content in different ways. Some prefer text only, text and audio, text and video, etc. Why force your personal views upon them…”My web My way.”

Provide context for video content (Yay, I did that last week with my quest video post) and promote deeper people connections. Share a channel of relevant video content with your blog readers. You don’t need to create video to liven up your blog.

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07[/tags]

Podcasting is easy, but it takes more time than blogging and the comfort level isn’t always there. Start simple with inexpensive equipment and Skype for interviews.

Use Audacity/GarageBand 3 for editing and podsafe for free music. Host yourself or use a hosting service to record, publish, and host your podcast.

Things to keep in mind:

• length doesn’t matter
• quality needs to be high
• use music
• write a script, but keep it an outline
• keep it in a conversational tone
• link to others; best blogging practices
• draw in your audience

What is the future of podcasting? We are all media channels and we have strength in numbers. Niches will rule (Yes!!! I might do something right! Now for the podcast…) Audio books will take root and become or take over the ebook.

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07[/tags]

How do you define success? A great blog experience combines excellent content with conversation + stimulation. In the end, you connect with your communities. That is one of the best metrics of success.

Blogs as brands. Think of 3 brands. What kind of brand do you want to be like? The unique ones, probably. You’d want to be BMW or Apple rather than Kodak or K-mart.

Do you have a blog brand? Are you representing your personal brand? Your blog should be an extension of your personal brand. A brand is your gut feeling about a product or a service. It is creativity, insights, and ideas combined with logic and emotion.

Design a better blog experience. The 4 Cs of blogging:

1. Community
2. Consistency
3. Clarity
4. Content

Community – invest in your readers by listening and getting involved. Cultivate your community by asking them about their opinions and don’t provide all of the answers, let them fill in the blanks.

Consistency – find your voice, which requires you to speak up. Write about things your care about and be true to yourself. Experimentation leads to great things, but do it consistently. Don’t just do it once.

Clarity – see where you want to go even if you don’t know how to get there. Vision is everything. Conversations need to be clear and concise. Don’t ramble. Clarity combines vision and agility.

Content – frame your content, don’t just report things (like I’m doing now). Seek others’ opinions. Share your know-how and serve your readers. If your content has no value, neither does your blogging effort.

Stop calling yourself a blogger. Seriously. As a brand, bloggers have a lot of baggage. You have gone all the way through life before now as this or that, not a blogger. You have a blogger, you are not a blogger. Bloggers are on-dimensional. People are not.

Find your passion and use that to let your blog flow. Let it shape your blog. For example, David’s passion is design. It creates a unique experience and isn’t just about making something pretty. Design is problem-solving. Everything is designed, everything needs good design.

You->Passion->Conversation->Relationships->Affinity. Think of yourself as conversation architects. Dialogue fuels the “conversation economy.” Have any of you talked to a 7-year-old after they go on an exciting vacation? They can tell you exactly what they want by what they tell you about what was fun. Readers visit, engage, and come back for more.

As a side note, this was the most amazing and effective PowerPoint presentation/pitch I have EVER seen!!

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07[/tags]

This is how her conversations with one of her good friends usually start. It’s “pick me up” session to build the other one up. Blogging is not about me, me, me, though. A common misconception of blogging is that they are selfish diaries about your cat and what your cat ate for lunch. No one is going to accuse Successful Blog of being selfish, that is one thing for sure.

You need to think of blogging as a business. Businesses come and go, but the people and your relationships with those people remain no matter where they go.

Don’t stand a the podium and talk down to the readers. Engage them and get conversational with them. You can get people to read things that they don’t have an interest in by making your discussion conversational. Conversational writing is not about writing how you speak, but how you think. Use contractions, leave out your “ums.”

I’m sorry I don’t have more of her talk, but I was running her slideshow.

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07, Liz Strauss[/tags]

What is a geek? Smart, conversation, funny, expert, passionate. If you are those things, you are a geek. How can you take your blog to the next level and be a bigger SOB? Not to our families, but to the blogosphere.

Phil started with a Blogger blog and wrote quotes and junk that wasn’t himself. Someone called him out on his blog and told him it sucked…it wasn’t him! No one was reading, commenting, or anything that blogging gives you back in return.

Blogging is not meant to be done alone. We need to have a relationship to have fun. There are 75 million blogs, and 110 people here. We can build relationships and a community here to take our blogs higher.

Core competancy: know yourself first. What is your message? Even if others don’t agree with it, your goal should be to get comments and to get conversation going. Links are nice, but not the goal. Troy Worman has 1,200 links on his blogrolls. He doesn’t have relationships with every link he puts out, but he knows his strengths in connecting the unconnected. He considers himself an “unblogger.”

Where are your strengths? Share that. Don’t share other people’s stuff. If you pass on other’s stuff, add your thoughts and expand on that. Engage people. When something pops in your head, write it down and share it, because you’re not going to remember it.

Visit other blogs. Comment. Expand your knowledge. Look a little deeper. With RSS feeds, people don’t have to go to your blog to get content, but make them want to go there anyway.

If you don’t have a picture of yourself on your blog, you should consider doing so. How can you have a relationship and take it to the next level not knowing who you are talking to?

Think of taking your business to the next level, and your readers are your customers. Grow your network and look at your stats. It’s not about how many numbers you have, it’s about meeting new people.

Q&A

Q: How much has your blog impacted your day job in regards to networking?

A: 18 months ago, his manager went from thinking it was weird to being interested in how he is really writing articles.

Q: It is not what you do..but “what are your thinking?”

A: It’s what is most important to me…to help people. I think of my blog as an advice column for me. My focus is on the person, not on the mechanism or the technology.

Q: What do you do when people in your life don’t like your blogging?

A: My wife has met some of the people I “meet.” It’s not a chat room. You can send letters, cards, or money. You need to put a face on the person online and make it real.

Q: My comments and community are taking off now. How do you track the relationships when that happens?

A: Keep the 80/20 rule in mind. 20% of those people will take 80% of your time. Take car of who you can. Ask them what they expect out of you, if you feel like you need to.

[tags]SOBCon07, SOBCon[/tags]