ProBlogger: Blitz Your Next Blogger’s Conference: The Ultimate Guide to Getting More Bang for Your Buck

Blitz Your Next Blogger’s Conference: The Ultimate Guide to Getting More Bang for Your Buck

Posted: 03 Jan 2013 06:02 AM PST

This guest post is by Ben Liau of Digital Online Strategy.

Blogger conferences are a great way to find out more about how to become a better blogger. You learn from successful bloggers who have already made it big, and who are willing to share their knowledge and success stories of how they reached their goals.

But blogger conference tickets aren't cheap—these events can be quite costly to attend. The ticket price for good blogger conferences start from around $100 and go up to about $300 of more for the larger events.

If you are going to spend that much money to attend a conference, you’d best get your money's worth. I can help with that. In this post, I will go over eight tips that any blogger can follow to make the most out of paying for and attending a blogger conference.

Do your research

When attending a blogger conference, it’s always important to do your homework.

Some blogger conferences have speaker sessions that run concurrently, so it’s important to research and work out which presentations you would most like to attend.

It is also important to research the actual speakers to make sure they are the ones who can answer all the questions you have.

Have a plan

Planning is essential to getting the most out of a blogger conference. You will want to be able to meet the right people and ask the right questions. Here’s how you should plan:

Make a list

There will be many bloggers attending the event, and there will also be many brands and PR agencies looking to build relationships with bloggers. So make a list of the bloggers you would like to meet at the event, and try your best to touch base with them and spark a relationship.

Make a list of which brands you would like to be associated with and approach them during the conference to introduce yourself. Also make sure you have a media kit prepared, just in case they are interested in your rates and charges.

Pre-conference preparation

Before the conference, drop a message to anyone you would like to meet in person. This breaks the ice, and it makes it easier for you to approach them at the event.

If you are travelling interstate or overseas make sure you plan your time correctly, because missing the start of a conference could leave you quite clueless.

Finally, dress to impress. This will boost your confidence when talking to people, and you will also feel very good about yourself.

Take the right tools

Most conferences will provide you with a notepad and pen to take notes, but that's definitely not enough for you to be highly effective.

Make sure you bring along your favorite device for taking notes, whether it be your mini laptop or your iPad. Use what you are most comfortable with. An iPad is great because you can also take a video of the event, or showcase your blog on your iPad to others.

The golden rule to going to conferences is bringing a lot of business cards. The worst position you could be in, is to not have a business card when you’re asked for one.

A business card will show you are professional and organized, and is easy to distribute. You never know who might end up with it—and contact you at the end of the week for sponsorship!

Network like a rock star!

Blogger conferences don't happen every other day, and when they do happen, they cost money.

So make the most of the opportunity by networking and chatting with everyone and anyone you meet. Preparing for the conference by dropping messages to other bloggers beforehand, as I mentioned earlier, will make it easier for you to approach and chat with people—and once you get going it gets much easier.

Always be yourself. Don’t try to be someone you are not. Be humble and ask for advice if you need it, and try to be up-to-date with current news, so there will be plenty to talk about.

Don't just stick with the people you already know, go and meet new people. And never, ever get drunk at a blogger networking event. Most, if not all the bloggers will be blogging about the event, and the last thing you want is to be mentioned in their post about your disorderly behavior.

Get on social media and start buzzin'

Before the conference, make sure you join the conference’s Facebook page and engage in conversations with other bloggers to make initial contacts.

Tell your own followers that you are going to the event—you never know who might be able to help you with introductions!

At the event, hop on Twitter and comment about the conference, using the conference’s hashtag. This works as a great ice breaker for networking with other people who are tweeting.

Be proactive, and ask questions during speaker sessions

This is where a lot of the value of attending a conference lies.

It's important to take notes during the session, but it also very important to write questions to ask the speakers during the Q&A time. If you’re shy, you can always go to the speaker after the session, to privately discuss you questions.

Also, at some blogger conferences, the speakers asks questions after the session and those who answer stand a chance of winning something, so it's always good to be on your toes.

Get as many freebies as you can

Every blog conference will have sponsors that will contribute to a conference goodie bag full of awesome product samples and promotional items. Make sure you get your hands on one of these conferences bags and visit the sponsor booths to see if you can get anything extra.

Also, some booths will also run competitions, so make sure you have your business card handy so you can enter that competition to win the prize.

After the conference

After many conferences there are "after-conference" networking events. Keep your ears open for any of those events, because they’re another great opportunity for networking.

Once the conference is totally wrapped up, it's always good to review your notes and start taking action.

Lastly, take that list of the contacts you have made at the conference, and follow them on social media. This will establish a connection and solidify your relationship.

Tell us your tips, too

These are my tips, from going to numerous blogger conferences, and speaking at a couple of digital marketing conferences.

I hope you can use this guide to get the absolute best value out of your next conference. But if you have any more tips to add—or questions to ask—please feel free to do so in the comments.

Ben Liau is a veteran digital marketing strategist and is a regular speaker at online marketing conferences. He regularly blogs about all digital marketing channels including seo, sem, email, social media marketing, and web analytics at Digital Online Strategy. You can follow him on Twitter @benliau.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Blitz Your Next Blogger’s Conference: The Ultimate Guide to Getting More Bang for Your Buck

The Do’s and Don’ts of Guest Posting for Major Blogs - DailyBlogTips

The Do’s and Don’ts of Guest Posting for Major Blogs

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 11:03 AM PST

What do Mashable.com, BusinessInsider.com and Huffington Post all have in common? For one, each blog captures thousands of unique visitors and tens of thousands of page views in a single day. Second, they all accept contributions from guest authors, creating the potential to drive massive amounts of traffic to your website with just a single guest post.

But there’s got to be a catch. You’ve probably got to be a big name blogger with a huge audience like ProBlogger.com’s Darren Rowse to be eligible for publication on major blogs like that… Right?

No Name? No Audience? No Problem.

Believe it or not, you need neither name nor audience to get published. I used to think you did until I began to look more critically at the bylines of the writers listed on authority websites like BusinessInsider.com, currently listed in the top 500 most popular websites on the internet according to Alexa.

What did I discover upon closer examination? BusinessInsider.com publishes a lot of content from guest authors, most of which is from unkown writers you would not know, don’t have audience or fancy qualifications like an advanced degree from a prestigious school.

Best of all, these websites need a lot of regular outside contributions from guest writers. How much? Enough to dedicate a category
of the website just to content exclusively provided by writers/bloggers referred to as “Contributors”. None of the writer’s listed here are on the BusinessInsider.com payroll.

So if you don’t need a big name or any specific qualifications to contribute to these major blogs, what’s preventing you or me from getting our content published on behemoth blogs like this? That’s the question I posed to three regular contributors of BusinessInsider.com–Frank Gullo of RavenWeb.net, Hillel Fuld of TechnMarketing.com, and Sudy Bharadwaj of JackalopeJobs.com–to get a sense of what the average blogger/marketer should do to be considered for publication on a major blog.

While you’re probably not familiar with the writing or names of the writers I interviewed for this piece, collectively these three have been published on the biggest blogs with names you do know including the Huffington Post, Mashable and Gigom in addition to BusinessInsider.com.

What separates these guys from the rest of us?

I emailed each of these gentlemen to pick their brains and get advice on how they were each able to be featured on these blogs. Fortunately, for me (and you) they were generous with their expertise and provided a simple outline of do’s and don’ts that if followed greatly increases your odds of getting published on these sites.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, each of the blogger’s I interviewed shared creepily similar recommendations for getting content published. There do’s and don’ts have been summarized below and edited slightly for readability purposes:

When submitting guest content to major blogs, do the following:

- Read and Follow Submission Guidelines to the Letter: Big blogs have much stricter requirements for what they can and can’t publish. Make sure the content you submit to these blogs aligns with posts that are regularly published by the blog both in content and style. Many of these blogs provide information about how to submit guest posts or contributions on a contact or contributor page.

In the case of becoming a contributor to BusinessInsider.com, all you need to do is to submit an email (contributor@businessinsider.com)
stating that you’re interested in writing for them.

- Respect the Editor’s Time: When you submit guest posts to major blogs, they’ll need to be reviewed by an editor or writer before they can be published. Again, make sure you have formatted your posts correctly, do not have any spelling errors, and provided a high-quality piece of content that can be published. The more time an editor must spend rewriting your post, the less likely it is to be published.

- Keep Communication Short: This related to the previous point. Don’t write long emails explaining your story ideas to editors or your career highlights. Keep pitches concise and to the point.

- Be Persistent: The folks that work at these blogs are extremely busy and being emailed, Tweeted, and instant messaged by people just like you all day, every day. As a result, it’s typical that at some point your message could be forgotten about or looked over. If an editor doesn’t respond to your request after 5 – 7 days feel free to send them a reminder. If you still don’t get a response, move on and try contacting a different blog or editor.

When submitting content to major blogs, don’t do the following:

- Don’t miss a Deadline: This is a deal breaker for most editors. If you say you’re going to get an article out
to them by January, 17th, stick to it. Miss one deadline and you won’t get a second chance with many editors.

- Don’t complain if you’re article is rejected: Believe it or not, even strong writers have their content rejected from time to time. If you’re article is rejected, simply ask how you can improve it or suggest writing a new article on a different topic. If you believe the rejected article is valuable, you can always submit it somewhere else later.

- Don’t Pester Editors: While you need to be consistent and occasionally send followup emails regarding the status of a post, don’t be a pain. Do not contact editors via social media daily much less hourly. A good rule of thumb is to provide at least 5 – 7 business days of breathing room between messages to an editor.

While you may not need a big name to contribute to today’s most popular websites, you will need to closely follow the editorial guidelines of each particular website and stick to the do’s and don’ts outlined in this article to get published on the biggest blogs.

Brett Lindenberg does a lot of guest writing in his own right. Read more of his stuff at 500aMonth.com and be sure to download his routine for building an email list when you sign up for his email list.

Original Post: The Do’s and Don’ts of Guest Posting for Major Blogs

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