“5 Fantastic Reasons You Should Attend a Blogging Conference” plus 1 more

5 Fantastic Reasons You Should Attend a Blogging Conference

Posted: 28 May 2012 07:00 PM PDT

This guest post is by Ceri Usmar of Enduracom.

I know what you’re thinking… Who has time for a conference? You do!

You can and should carve out the time for some professional development, and conferences are a great opportunity to combine work and play.

I headed off to the SheCon Expo new media conference in Disneyworld, Orlando, with my business partner, Susan, this past Memorial Day weekend. We went fully prepared to combine business and a break, and from our mindsets to our wardrobes, we were ready for anything!

In its second year, SheCon is still a relatively small conference (compared with, say, the fall BlogHer conference in New York), but regardless of the size of a conference, the reasons for going don’t change.

Here are my five favorite reasons you should put a conference on your blogging calendar.

1. Fun

I start with fun because my credo is, “If it’s not fun I’m not doing it.” Susan is the embodiment of fun. She had some cute, cool, crazy ideas for SheCon that really upped the ante for an enjoyable time.

We matched our nail color to the corporate blue of our “transparent” business cards, which added panache to passing them out (even guys noticed) and worked as a conversation catalyst. We had shirts made that got people talking to us about who-we-are-what-we-do, and we made movies of literally everything. It’s always fun meeting people and even funner making movies with them, and posting them to boost their brands (and ours!)

Aside from our own endeavors, conference sponsors and attendees almost always build fun events into their schedules. We made the most of sponsored events like the party meet up thrown by Wine Sisterhood (who wouldn’t go to something sponsored by a wine company?) and gifting suites with massages and makeovers (what's not to love about that?).

Exhibitors at conferences also show up with gadgets and gimmicks to go viral: they film you, photograph you, and record you interacting with their brand, and you can post all that online. They create buzz around their booths, and run contests and sweepstakes with cool prizes in exchange for your tweets and blogs—flat-out fun in my book!

2. Free stuff

I have to put in a disclaimer here: not all conferences give great freebies, and not all conferences give any at all. Blogging conferences tend to because brands want to tap into your influence—but it should go without saying that you are not obligated to blog about everything you get (and neither should you.)

Select the items that fit your audience and brand, and keep the rest as gifts or treats. At SheCon, mom bloggers were enamored of the kid stuff: Elmo toys, Cuddleuppets (my daughter's fave), Justin Bieber Guitar Hero. Swag bags with tech toys and toiletries caught my fancy.

Expo exhibitors threw in their promos too: “green” shopping bags, high end hair care products, food and beverages—yummo! The cool thing about free stuff is that if it's a fit for your blog or following, it's also fuel for fresh and effortless content.

3. Finding friends and followers

If you’re looking for a targeted affiliate, a consultant, a strategic partner, or a few like-minded bloggers, you can find them at a conference. Introverted? You might have to dig deep or even fake it till you get comfortable networking (or you could always go to the wine-sponsored event, and courteously taste their wares until you’re loosened up enough to get it done!).

Aside from connecting at the water cooler or conversing over lunch, Twitter parties and other virtual meet-ups are all the rage at conferences now, and you can fortify your following right on the spot.

4. Footsteps to follow

There's nowhere better than a conference to learn live from the pros. Any session—even those that don't look useful to you—has merit, so don't judge a session by its title: nine times out of ten I can take away a tidbit that tweaks what I'm doing for the better even from an apparently dud session.

Following in the footsteps of the experts in your field gives you a leg-up so you can stand on the shoulders of the giants, short-circuit your learning curve, and streamline your path to (greater) success.

5. Financial gain

Let's be honest, attending a blogging conference is ultimately about making money, and I have never attended a one that does not have at least one session devoted to monetizing your blog.

Be sure to make up your mind beforehand to focus on free stuff, fun, and friends that will bolster your bottom line: keeping this in mind will keep the quality and balance in your conference activities and ensure that you can build your business through the contacts you make and the information you take from the event.

Of course, there are more than five reasons to carve out a few days for a conference. I double-dare you to go on and Google blogging conferences that might be up your alley. And then go to one.

If you’ve been to a conference, share what you got out of it in the comments.

Ceri Usmar is from Enduracom and Maximizeyourvisability.com. Enduracom maximizes your visibility by maintaining, updating, and optimizing your online presence. Our social media and writing pros generate content, articles, and blogs to take your social engagement to the next level.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

5 Fantastic Reasons You Should Attend a Blogging Conference

The Naked Marketing Guide to Getting Dramatically More Traffic and Subscribers

Posted: 28 May 2012 07:07 AM PDT

This guest post is by Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing.

Let's be real for a second.

There's a lot of information out there about traffic. Tons of it. Entire blogs. Some good, some bad, and some just in between. And tons of posts about it, too—including right here on this blog.

So with all this information out there, let me ask you something:

Do you have all the traffic you want?

Hmmm, I thought not.

Okay, then just what the heck is going on? Why isn't any of this working?!

Maybe your traffic problem … isn't a traffic problem!

Considering all of the great information that's out there about getting traffic, if you haven't been able to use any of it to actually get some then odds are that your problem isn't a traffic problem at all.

It's not about how you're using Facebook or YouTube, or your Twitter strategy, or even your SEO activities. None of it.

What you probably have is a marketing problem.

You see, all of the traffic generating tools and tips generally work if they're used correctly within a larger marketing framework. Without having that kind of framework, there's no way to even know if you're using Facebook, Twitter, or anything else in the right way.

It's really, really tempting to look at your problem as a tactic gone wrong. It would be so much easier to fix, wouldn't it?

If you found out your Twitter headlines weren't captivating enough, then you could fix them and the problem would disappear. Of course, that's usually not the issue, and you're much more likely to spend weeks, months, or longer tweaking and testing things that won't make a bit of difference.

Take it from me—save yourself the frustration and look at the bigger picture!

The naked marketing guide to traffic that converts

One of the biggest problems with marketing is that anyone who reads a book or a blog post thinks they've got it. They're suddenly an expert.

You've probably heard the phrase "everyone's a writer?", generally said with a wince and an eye role. Well it's the same with marketing. Feel free to wince and roll your eyes.

The truth is that most people aren't expert marketers. They might know some terms and basic concepts, like maybe the Four Ps of Marketing—but very few actually know what those concepts really mean, or how to use them in their business.

That's where naked marketing comes into the picture—it will make you a dramatically better marketer by helping you understand why you're going to be doing certain things, and how they all fit into the larger plan for your business.

Without, I might add, any of the jargon, cheap theory, or techno-babble that usually passes for marketing instruction.

We don't have time to waste, so let's get started. The first thing you need to do to start using naked marketing is to figure out who turns you on. Yep. This is going to be fun!

So, who's your type, really?

Don't worry—we're not actually talking about fishing for singles! That would be another post entirely.

But in all honesty, the very first step in getting more, better traffic—traffic that converts—is to figure out the one person you should be writing for. I’m talking about that holy grail of readers: the single individual who was made for you, your business and, of course, your blog.

Spend some significant time creating a customer profile that includes everything from their age, gender, location, and income, all the way to their hopes and dreams, favorite books, and frequency of eating tofu for dinner.

If you put in the time doing this, it's a short leap to imagine where they hang out—both online and offline.

Are they likely a Twitter user? Maybe they spend more time on Facebook? Maybe they use LinkedIn, or even MySpace. Wherever they spend their time online is going to be the best source of traffic for you.

It's not rocket science—get to know them so you can figure out where they'll be. And then? Be there!

How to be sexy to them

Okay, all that work you just did, finding out who your one best person is and where they're going to be? It doesn't matter unless you're giving them the right message.

Getting naked is always a two-way street, and you can't just show up at the party, strip down and demand the same. (Not at most parties, anyway.)

It's time to bring out your A game. You know what your best traffic source is likely to be, so you've got to pull out all the stops and create content and messaging that will be downright irresistible to your one person. So irresistible that they stop and look.

The good news is that this isn't even all that hard, really.

Think back to the last headline you read that got your attention. How did it do that? What grabbed your interest? I'm willing to bet that it offered you something you wanted in a place that you happened to be. So do the same, and you'll have your audience's attention.

But of course, attention isn't enough. Attention has to turn into desire before their attention is grabbed by something or someone else!

How to evoke desire that prompts action

Getting attention isn't enough, of course. You want your new reader and potential customer to do something—to engage with you a little. You want them to be interested enough to take action.

Messages (a tweet, a forum post, a status update—whatever) are sexy enough to prompt action when they speak to a problem that your ideal customer has, and promise a solution. Or when they tickle their funny bones and promise more laughs. Or offer a taste of information that they want more of.

Get the idea?

You know who you're talking to, and you know what turns them on, too—now give them what they want!

This is very powerful, because you'll be starting a cycle in which you promise something good in exchange for a little effort on their part. At first, it's going to be a deliciously scintillating headline that promises a fantastic bit of information if they click on it. Once that happens, the ball is back in your court, and you make another offer in exchange for another action.

You never ask for something that is unreasonable given the strength of the current relationship, and with each step in the process you reward them past their expectations, and their commitment to you deepens further and further.

In plain English, that means that they'll start by reading your headline, then make it back to your website, then subscribe, and then buy everything that you're selling.

Do you look great naked?

So, are you doing this already? Are you irresistible to your target market, and are they happily consuming the content that you give them? Are you getting the traffic you want from the sources you're using?

If you are, then congratulations!

But if you're not, then it might be time to give your marketing a thorough review—strip it bare, see what's working, and toss out what isn't. You won't believe the difference a little "nudity" will make in your marketing!

Danny Iny (@DannyIny) is the co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the "Freddy Krueger of Blogging", and the co-author (with Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark, and many others) of Engagement from Scratch! (available on Amazon, or as a free download). The latest and greatest thing you can get from him (for free, of course) is his Naked Marketing Manifesto, about marketing that really works!

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

The Naked Marketing Guide to Getting Dramatically More Traffic and Subscribers