BLOGGER, Thank You For Listening!

Friday March 16, 2012

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Over the past couple of years I have written about such things as designing for the guest experience and not being shy about offering a suggestion to a business, no matter how big or small the business entity. I have also talked about the importance of saying “Thank You!”

Today I want to share a story of how I made a suggestion to Google’s BLOGGER design team and at the same time say “BLOGGER, Thank you for listening!”

First a little background. It would be helpful if you Google this phrase: external links should open new window. You are going to see a lot of search engine result pages (SERP). Millions! The bottom line is this, good design promotes good user experience and if your web page or blog post includes links to other pages, then when the user clicks on the link a new browser page should open. After all, you want your reader/client/customer to be able to find their way back to your site and the cleanest way to do that is to open a new window.

If you understand HTML coding, then you know having a link open in a new window is a simple piece of code: target=”_blank”. But you need to know where to place the code and therein lies the problem with guiding and teaching clients on how to use a blogging platform and how to insure their external links will open in a new window.

Over the past few years I made the acquaintance of some of the BLOGGER team while attending Blog World Expo. And they always encourage you to send them suggestions. In January 2011, I sent an email to Brett Wiltshire which included the following suggestion:

“When inserting a link in the blog text it would be wonderful if the user could easily check a box in the EDIT LINK BOX that says “open in a new browser” . Some users know how to insert the html code < target=”_blank”>, but this can be very hard to teach to clients.”

About six weeks ago, I was working on a client’s blog and realized the BLOGGER team acted on my suggestion. Or I choose to think they liked my suggestion! See the screen shot below:

See the little check box “Open this link in a new window”? This little enhancement is such a time saver for the writer and the reader.

Thank you, BLOGGER, for listening.

Reading Time: 15 minutes

“Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like to get away?
Sometimes you wanna go..
Where everybody knows your name
and they’re always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
the troubles are all the same.
you wanna be where everybody knows your name…”

Somewhere around 1982, Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo wrote these lyrics for the new sitcom “Cheers!” And for some strange reason when I think of Blog World Expo Los Angeles 2011(#BWELA) these lyrics just seem to fit. And yes I do know that many #BWELA attendees had not been born in 1982…but I am pretty sure they all know the lyrics and have felt the sentiment. Heck, I have even been to Boston’s Bull & Finch Pub which served as the exterior for “Cheers!” To me the lyrics fit because while many people in the on-line world may know your name…there is a pretty good chance they can’t pick you out in a crowd of 4000+, but it is a lot of fun trying and they really are glad you came.

This was my third time attending Blog World Expo having participated in BWE09 and BWE10. Many bloggers have already posted their reviews and I am going to link to a number of those below, but I just wanted to take a few minutes to give you my overview.

Blog World Team


Judy with Rick Calvert- #BWELA

I must start by talking about the Blog World Team. If you have ever planned an event – tea party, wedding, golf tournament, business meeting, Thanksgiving dinner…then you know just a tiny bit of what goes into pulling off an event of this magnitude. I am pretty sure by next week Deb, Lara, Allison, Julie, Nikki, Dave and Rick will be laying the foundation for Blog World 2012. Really? I am sure the infrastructure is already in the works for 2012. So to the Blog World Team I say thank you for a job well done, seamlessly presented and for making all of us feel welcome.

Exhibitors

We all like to go to conference exhibit halls. It really doesn’t matter the nature of the conference, the exhibit hall is like trick or treating…you walk around meeting new people, getting a few gifts and if you are lucky you can learn about new software or hardware and take home something tangible to share with your co-workers or clients. This year I met up again with Brett Wiltshire of BLOGGER. It was fun to reconnect with Brett and learn more about BLOGGER. I also stopped and talked to Tin Dizdarevic of ZEMANTA. I love Zemanta and have used it here on our blog and deployed it on client blogs for the last couple of years. It is just a great tool. My new find this year is POND5. It will be my mission to share information about POND5 with my teammates and clients. I don’t know about you, but finding just the right photo/video/illustration for a website can be exhausting and I intend to really check out POND5.

Keynotes

I attended four Keynotes this year.

Jim Farley

Shani Higgins presenting Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere was enlightening. Nice to know that 61% of bloggers are hobbyists! While Shani gave us a lot of statistics to chew on, it was Mikal Belicove of Entrepreneur Magazine that did as Jason Falls suggested in his session “asked better questions” of Shani. It was the exchange between Mikal and Shani that made the keynote powerful.
Brian Solis made us all feel welcome by offering us a free copy of his latest book “The End of Business as Usual” and Brian certainly did a great job of interviewing Jim Farley – Group Vice President, Global Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford Motor Company. Jim has a great story including the fact that his grandfather was the 389th employee hired by Ford Motor Company. Jim’s message: “Let people speak…listen…speak like them!” Enough said. I will make it a point to visit Ford Social and I will read Brian’s book.
Mitch Joel handily moderated the keynote session Building a New Media Empire with Lisa Stone, Deanna Brown and Michael Stelzner. A couple of great quotes from this session: “If you see a hole – you can build a business”, “the most successful people write about what they love”, and “provide service and band together!”
Jordan Cooper is funny and I am glad I got to enjoy his comedy as he introduced the closing keynote.

Sessions

When you purchase a two-day ticket, as opposed to the full conference – you risk missing meaningful and powerful sessions. Next year I will not make this mistake. That is not to say that I did not enjoy the sessions I attended, but a number of people that I wanted to hear and meet spoke on Thursday and I arrived Friday morning. In all I attended five sessions (there were hundreds!). Hmmm…

Jason Falls talking about B.S.

“The Use of Digital Application and Tools to Change Behaviors to Improve Health” was interesting, but probably would have been more so if I were in the medical field. But still good to know that the health field is trying to make the most of social media.
Jonathan Fields interviewed Chris Brogan and Leah Segedie in a “Lifestyle Makeover Roundtable”. This was a very intimate (small group of people) and personal discussion about going through a lifestyle makeover. There was great audience participation.
Jason Falls’ session “This Is All Such B.S.: How to tell and what to do when you’re being had in blogging, social media and beyond…” The title is enough to make you want to hear what Jason has to say. Jason had a lot to say but the big take-away was: “Ask better questions and do your own work!”
I happened upon “How Dad Blogging Can Bust the Fatherhood Stereotypes” featuring Bruce Sallan, Jim Lin, Ron Mattocks and Kevin Metzger. And yes, I know, I am not a father…but I had a great father and I wanted to listen to what these Dad bloggers had to say. Sadly this session did not have a lot of participants. It would have been better in a smaller room, but the content was over the top powerful. Each gentleman offered such wonderful insights and they were well prepared…I became so involved with listening that I forgot to take copious notes. But at the end Ron Mattocks gave me a gift of his book Sugar Milk and he signed my copy. I have started reading it…when a book can make you laugh out loud, then you know it is going to be great.

Live #blogchat

Mack Collier leading #blogchat at #BWELA

Live #blogchat was my fifth session. I have been participating in the on-line Twitter #blogchat for over a year. Every Sunday at 8:00PM Central time people get together on Twitter to chat about blogging. So to be part of Blog World’s live #blogchat with Mack Collier was much anticipated and Mack did not disappoint his live audience. The topper was Mack’s invitation for all of the live audience members to introduce themselves with their Twitter profile names. So much fun to meet @Sherree_W, @wordsdonewrite, @BruceSallan, and @kikolani and to sit next to @allison_boyer in this live #blogchat. Great event!

Meeting People

My favorite part of Blog World Expo is meeting people who I have come to know through their blogs/websites or twitter. For example, I have written about 501 Mission Place and finally I was able to meet Rob Hatch who is on the 501 Mission Place team. Also I was able to meet Chris Brogan, Jacqueline Carly, Mack Collier, Julien Smith, Justin Levy and get re-acquainted with Darren Rowse.

So here’s to Blog World Expo and stopping by the Sheraton Hotel’s bar where many knew my name, but few knew my face!

Allison Boyer, Judy Helfand and Julie Bonner

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I don’t know how many times I have posted about Twitter on this blog. You can search our twitter label and read all of those posts and it will let you see the evolution of this social media tool and our/my approach to it. It is kind of interesting, but today I want to talk about how Twitter is my virtual birdfeeder.

This morning I read a very simple Tweet from @lizstrauss How to change your Facebook Page’s Category. See it explained here.

This caught my interest and I quickly clicked on the link and realized that by “category” this news was about business Facebook pages. And that meant that I needed to really dig into this news. I tweeted back to Liz:

“thank you. I luv twitter 4 items like this. I’m like a dove sitting below a birdfeeder waitin 4 seed droppings.”

From Liz’s Tweet I went over to my personal Facebook page and saw an item from BlogWorld “Facebook Pages Get a Facelift.” If you have a business Facebook page I hope you will take the time to read this post, Nikki Katz did a great job of summarizing this Facebook news.

In closing I would like to share a photo that I took today (from inside my house looking through a window). You can see our new bird feeder hanging from one of our Palo Verde trees. If you look closely you will see the small colorful wild birds taking seeds from the feeder, but just below you will see the doves and a squirrel enjoying the extra seeds that have fallen to the ground. It is a wonderful symbiotic relationship, not unlike what I enjoy with my Twitter friends.

Bird feeder- click on the photo to enlarge

I’d love to hear what you think about feeding the birds. How often do you learn helpful hints from simple little tweets?

Facebook Pages Get a Facelift (blogworld.com)

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Did the title of this post, “THE Can Be a Powerful Word”, get your attention? Think about it for a minute. Now if I say: “It’s THE Real Thing” or “When you care enough to send THE very best”, I’ll bet you can name what brand each statement refers to without blinking an eye. Am I right?

Branding is something every business needs to do. Establishing a brand can be taxing. You create a name, you create a product, maybe you get a patent, maybe you apply for a trademark, maybe you copyright your material, and maybe you are the product! And after all is said and done “the customer owns the brand” as Jeff Hayzlett informed us at Blog World Expo 2010.

I am not sure, but I suspect that the Mandalay Bay Resort management was thinking about their customers when (according to Wikipedia) “In 2006, the lettering at the top of the tower changed to ‘THEhotel’ to distinguish the property. Formerly, the lettering was identical to the ‘Mandalay Bay’ letters at the top of the original tower.” You see the Mandalay Bay Resort opened in 1999; however, what is now referred to as THEhotel at Mandalay Bay opened in 2003.

Prior to the name change imagine the confusion a hotel guest faced: What do you tell the taxi driver, upon arrival you might not be sure which hotel tower to check-in at…or you may wander around in the casino and then make your way back to the wrong hotel tower. (Think Co-Op City in THE Bronx!)

As you know Blog World Expo 2010 was held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Convention Center. Happily I was a guest at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. I can truly say THEhotel is a well designed beautiful hotel. Every room is a suite, no smaller than 725 square feet. And THE is the only word you need to know when you are trying to find your way around THEhotel. They don’t have fancy or clever names for their on-site amenities or venues: THEpad, THEtp, baTHE (toiletries), THElounge, THEcafe, THEstore, THEcoffeebar. (click on the photo on the left) You see what I mean? Simple and understated. This customer owns the brand!

In closing, I would like to share something I rediscovered today about the word THE. Did you know: “that the pronunciation of the definite article ‘the’ changes, primarily depending on whether the following sound is a consonant or a vowel?” Before a consonant sound the pronunciation is thuh, before a vowel sound it is usually thee.

By the way, if you think I am off base when I say THE can be a powerful word, maybe I can interest you in a UBS commercial effort.

On the other hand, THE Google never did sound right and we are told in “The Social Network” movie that it was Sean Parker who advised Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin to drop THE from The FACEBOOK.

Your thoughts?

Barnett, Carolla, Jillette, Hayzlett and Lewis on New Media & Success: #BWE10 (downtheavenue.com)

Reading Time: 11 minutes

This past weekend, October 14-16, I learned a little of how to be Webconsuls’ Chief Listening Officer (CLO). Yes, the C-Suite at many companies does now include a CLO and happily I attended Blog World Expo 2010 to learn how to listen, engage, and as @lizstrauss says “manage the present and create the future.” This is my second year participating in Blog World and I will tell you it was an entirely different experience in many ways. Here are my “outtakes” from this year’s conference:

FOUNDATION
Familiarity can make conference attendance a little easier. The on-line registration process was simple. Blog World’s Blog allows potential attendees to get to know more about Blog World and the key players at Blog World. In addition to their blog, you can also stay current and engaged by “liking” them on Facebook and following them on Twitter @blogworld.

I flew Southwest Airlines again this year direct non-stop from Tucson to Las Vegas. Last year I was a bit overwhelmed by their boarding process, but what a difference a year makes. I like Southwest!

This year the conference venue was the Mandalay Bay Resort and Conference Center. I cannot say enough good about Mandalay Bay. I hope to do another post just about this experience. It was great to be able to enjoy the conference and know your suite was just upstairs, a short walk and elevator ride away.

During the past several months I “met” Deb Ng, Blog World’s Conference Manager, Allison Boyer, a Blog World Blogger, and Rick Calvert, Blog World’s Founder via Twitter, Facebook and blogging. I set a goal to meet them in person.

Over the past year I have also met some very interesting people, like John McLachlan, so engaging them at Blog World was a major goal for me.

KEYNOTES and SESSIONS

Deb Ng did a fantastic job of putting together a diverse conference schedule. I hope this link stays live for a while so you can peruse what life is all about at Blog World. (Disclaimer: I took advantage of the Weekend Pass, so I was not in town for the October 14 events.)

Blog World sessions are designed by tracks. For example, if you are a TRAVEL blogger you can opt to attend only sessions that deal with the travel industry or if you are non-profit you attend sessions and learn from the social media experts on how to tweak your social media campaigns. But…you can mix and match.

I attended three of the Keynote addresses, but the most provocative was Friday morning’s State of Digital Communications in Politics with Mark Penn, Karen Hughes, Hugh Hewitt, and Reid Wilson. This keynote was moderated by Blog World’s founder, Rick Calvert. (I learned for the first time that Rick is a self-described “political junkie.”) For a few minutes Rick had to do some masterful moderating!

I chose sessions that had to do with SEO and monetization. The Social Media and Corporate America was very informative. Where else can you listen to expert strategists like Jeffrey Hayzlett (think KODAK), Frank Eliason (formerly of COMCAST, presently SVP of Social for Citi), Bonin Bough (PEPSICO) and Scott Monty (FORD Motor Company)? I think it was Mr. Hayzlett who cautioned us to remember “the customer owns the brand” and you better have a “Chief Listening Officer” in your C-Suite (no matter the size of your company).

I enjoyed meeting C.C. Chapman (I have been reading his blog for about six months) and learning from him on the panel “How to Hire a Social Media Agency.”

Liz Strauss, Carol Roth and Terry St. Marie (@starbucker) are very personable and they offered valuable strategies for building your on-line business, such as “Think BIG and value your time!”

Friday afternoon I attended the Monetization Super Panel (two hour session). Learning from successful bloggers like: Anita Campbell, Darren Rowse, John Chow and Jeremy Schoemaker was exciting. They talked about affiliate marketing, Commission Junction, and provided a road map of how one can monetize their blog. The next morning I ran into Darren Rowse walking through the lobby of Thehotel at Mandalay Bay. We had a nice conversation.

Socialization, Exhibitors and More

I did meet Deb Ng and Allison Boyer. This took a little time as there were over 4000 people attending the conference. You would be surprised how hard it can be to spot someone with PINK hair…hello Allison! I saw Rick Calvert a lot, but he was BUSY. I did not meet him personally, maybe next year.

I was able to meet and spend some good time with John McLachlan. You can see our photo here. We were able to attend some sessions together and had a nice dinner.

For the first time GOOGLE was an exhibitor, specifically BLOGGER. This was wonderful as Webconsuls is a BLOGGER house, that is we use and recommend the BLOGGER platform. Imagine my surprise to meet Brett Wiltshire manning the BLOGGER/GOOGLE booth. Brett has been working on a question we posed about BLOGGER, so it was great to meet Brett in person. Also, I answered a BLOGGER survey and received a BLOGGER T-shirt.

I have a friend MaryAnn Martinez; she is a news reporter for Fox5News in Las Vegas. MaryAnn called me Saturday afternoon to tell me she had passes to see Shakira. Shakira’s concert was Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Event Center(see photo below). Can you beat that? What a night!

Finally, while leaving Las Vegas, I had $7 in quarters that Dennis has given me prior to leaving Tucson. I played a slot machine at the Las Vegas airport and won $120. I put it in my pocket and waited for my flight home.

Ok, that is about it. I need to get back to work. If you were at BWE10, let me hear from you.

Hope to see you at Blog World Expo 2011.

Credit Where it’s Due: Thank You BlogWorld Track Leaders (blogworld.com)
5 Things Learned While Working at BlogWorld ’10 (blogworld.com)

Reading Time: 3 minutes

People often ask me why I use Twitter. I don’t always have a perfect answer, but this morning when I started scrolling through my Twitter feed I came across a tweet from Rick Klau. Here is what he said:

“Hey @blogger users – check out the new @zemanta gadget, now integrated into Blogger! http://bit.ly/bGPnby”

Now I know that many of our readers/clients might say: “So?” But I want to remind you that last October when I reviewed Blog World Expo BWE09 I said this:

“The exhibitors were varied and engaging. I enjoyed talking to people from all over the world, like the Zemanta team from Slovania (and, yes, I intend to learn more about their product).”

Today I want to give you some pointers on how to get started with this new Zemanta Assistant. Here are the basic steps:

Go to Get Related Content for Your Blog with the Zemanta Gadget
Click on the link that says: Add Zemanta Gadget.
If you are not signed into your Google Account you will be taken to a page where you can sign-in.
If you are already signed in to your Google Account you will be taken to page where you can select your BLOG from a drop-down box and then click on the big orange arrow that says: ADD ZEMANTA
And that is all there is to it, you can start using ZEMANTA. Here is a movie to view which will make it even easier. LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! I WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS.

Related articles by Zemanta

Get Related Content for Your Blog with the Zemanta Gadget (buzz.blogger.com)

Reading Time: 5 minutes

I remember being bored. I think you know what I mean. It was usually a state of mind that a young adolescent or teenager experienced and felt the need to call out to the nearest parent something like this, “Mom, I’m bored. There is nothing to do.” I don’t know about your mother, but mine would usually come back with: “If you’re bored then go outside, read a book, or I will find something for you to do!” Thinking back on this, I think my mother was tired. But those were the days that we learned to explore the canyons around our neighborhood (before they turned it into a golf course), we found trap-door spiders and brought them home in jars, we went to the library and checked out books to read, we started following certain Soap Operas, we walked to the public pool to swim with our friends, we played street games (kick the can) until well past 10:00PM and one summer I was even invited to be the piano player in a combo band! (Summer 1963,The Finnegan Combo took 1st Prize at the July 4th Fair Talent Show)

You are probably wondering why I am even discussing this topic today. Yesterday I happened to see an interview with James Bennet, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, where he discussed the 3rd annual “Ideas” issue. You will see from the video interview and this essay from Walter Kirn, the 3rd biggest idea of this year is BOREDOM IS EXTINCT.

As Mr. Kirn says: “Thanks to Twitter, iPads, BlackBerrys, voice-activated in-dash navigation systems, and a hundred other technologies that offer distraction anywhere, anytime, boredom has loosened its grip on us at last—that once-crushing “weight” has become, for the most part, a memory.”

Just recently Blog World New Media Expo posted a blog Poll: Should There Be “Gadget Free” Sessions at BlogWorld? You might find it interesting, it doesn’t deal directly with boredom, as such, but with the grip that technology has on all of us, so we can’t seem to sit in a conference session and just listen and learn. This post opens with: “After a member of the BlogWorld Facebook page posted a seemingly innocent comment about having a session at BlogWorld discussing multi-tasking during a gadget free session, the little hamster in my head began spinning her wheel.” (DISCLAIMER: I am the member being referred to in this opening sentence.) I don’t know what will become of this idea, but I will keep you posted.

I need to get back to work, but wouldn’t it be a nice day for a daydream? Your thoughts…

P.S. I just went to check Twitter and it is over capacity. That is your ticket to daydream.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

News Flash: I follow Chris Brogan on Twitter. A few months ago I attended Blog World Expo in Las Vegas. I wrote about it. I promised that I would try to apply what I learned. One of the first things I did was to begin following Chris Brogan. Don’t get excited. I am one of 124,385 followers. (To put this in perspective I have 41 followers.) You are probably shaking your head and asking “is Judy nuts?” But to that, I say: “Does me being one of 3,400,000 TIME Magazine weekly subscribers or one of 6,685,684 National Geographic monthly subscribers shock you or make you question why I would even think of “following” these honored publications?” I hope not. I subscribe to these publications, local newspapers, SEO/SMO on-line newsletters for the same reason that I follow Chris Brogan – each opens avenues to useful and timely information that can impact my business, Webconsuls’ clients, and my personal life.

This past week Chris mentored: Don’t Forget the Little Side Streets. Exploring side streets with Chris Brogan is quite a ride. I hope you will take the time to read his post, he offers really good insights and, unlike a few, Chris is optimistic and looks for ways to extend the expiration date for some of these “streets”. For example, when was the last time you:

examined your “YELP” reviews
verified your Google Local Business Center Map
updated your Bing Local Listing Center
checked out Yahoo Answers
refreshed your Facebook Fan page
responded to a Trip Advisor review (negatively or positively)
tweeted something of positive value, as opposed to a rant

Navigating and maintaining these “streets” takes time. But the beauty of the Internet in general and social media in particular is the fluidity and vitality that you can manage to. Every time you think you don’t have time I want you to find a business person who can recall the angst of designing and ordering a brochure. Trust me. Before the ink was dry the area code had been split in two, your AAA rating had changed for the better or the beautiful maple tree that graced your front lawn had fallen. Yes, maintaining your “streets” and exploring side streets takes time, but you can do it on your time and make your journey as interesting as you want. There really is nothing like a road trip.

Here is my favorite photo of a real “side” street.

No Name Street 2000

This post is dedicated to Chris Brogan, thanking him for inspiration.

Reading Time: 9 minutes

This year I had the opportunity to attend BWE09, better known as Blog World and New Media Expo 2009. This event took place from October 15-17 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike many of the 2500 attendees this was my first year participating. And unlike many attendees I did not spend my days there blogging, tweeting, or otherwise updating my friends and followers. I just tried to take in the process, that is I tried to listen and learn. And hopefully, I will be able to care for and serve some, if not all, of Webconsuls’ clients. I actually thought about writing this post as soon as I returned home or even while I waited in the Las Vegas Airport, but then it occurred to me that it would be better to really write about BWE09 looking in the rear view mirror. So here are some of my “bytes” on BWE09.

While I have been participating in blogging for about two years and I am on Facebook and have a Twitter account, I would not rate myself as someone that knows everyone in the blogging and new media world; therefore, attending this event was not about hooking up with old friends, but meeting new people and learning from the “experts.”
The exhibitors were varied and engaging. I enjoyed talking to people from all over the world, like the Zemanta team from Slovania (and, yes, I intend to learn more about their product). The ArmyStrongStories.com team was engaging and they had a great display. And then of course, I enjoyed speaking to Robby Berthyme who was representing wheretogetengaged.com
Brian Solis moderated a good keynote discussion about the “New Celebrity” with Anthony Edwards, Jermaine Dupri and Robin Antin. All of these participants made it very clear that if you are using Twitter, Facebook, etc…you need to be yourself, engage with people, and manage your own accounts (don’t hire a staff to do this). Write about yourself or your cause, don’t just keep re-tweeting!
One “outtake” from this keynote discussion is that I found it incredible how rude 70% of the audience appeared to be behaving. This was an hour long presentation and it was beyond me why people could not just sit and “listen”, as opposed to working on their laptops, running their fingers over their iPhones or thumbing it on their Blackberry. This behavior was annoying and to top it off, even though they were really not paying attention, they would join in the intermittent applause like robots or dummies.
Dave Peck of LSF Interactive was interesting and provocative in his conference “How to Socialize Your Content”. I just discovered that he posted many of his “rules” here for the small business owner. His advice I intend to try to incorporate into Webconsuls and to share with our clients.
I really enjoyed the conference “How Twits Lay Golden Eggs – The Art of Social Engagement for Business”…Chris Brogan and Laura Fitten had a lot to offer and they did not make the audience feel inept, but offered real guidance.
Dan attended this conference for Webconsuls also. It was interesting to watch Dan, who had not been to Las Vegas since he was 13! It was great to attend the conferences and then share what we had learned.
Las Vegas is an aging city and I don’t think it is aging gracefully. As we rode the marvelous monorail I noticed that many of the buildings look dated and dirty on the outside, almost as if the original architectural plan did not allow for majestic aging. Many strange and vacant lots can be seen as you ride “behind” the strip.
I don’t think I am the only BWE09 participant that questioned the parties that BWE09 sponsored. As one person said on Twitter: “bwe09 parties are a lot like Twitter – noisy, loud, dark, and ineffective at organizing communication”. I couldn’t agree more! Imagine being at the Mirages’ Jet Night Club with many of the same people who could not put down their laptops and iPhones during the keynotes, only it was too dark to read their nametags and the music was too loud for introductions. Another person echoed these sentiments: “The parties at #bwe09 remind me of college. How old are we? Where are the real parties?”
Flying Southwest Airlines will be a subject for another post.
Finally, I would like to thank the three ladies that shared a Hilton Limo with Dan and me. We were attempting to get a taxi to go to the airport and we found ourselves sharing a limo with Kim Rowley and Joanne Dinslage of Key Internet Marketing and Maarika Neudorf of Enterprise Estonia. We had a fun ride and got to meet three more BWE09 attendees.Ok, that is it for today. I am going to get busy learning how to apply all that I learned – stay tuned.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

On our recent excursion to Las Vegas for Blog World Expo I sat in on an interesting panel discussion on “Mommy Bloggers”. There are blogs of all persuasions but the mommy blogger niche is really a category unto itself. The “Mommy Blogger” phenomenon has been grabbing the attention of marketers for quite some time as Moms are generally the holders of the purse strings in most households.

Listening to the discussion and reflecting on my blog reading habits I started to think about what I like to find in blogs, what keeps me coming back and what we can aspire to as we try to develop our blogs.

Here is one of my favorite “Mommy Bloggers” and why her blog(s) keep me coming back for more.

Lela Davidson

I originally was introduced to Lela’s writing on Hub Pages. Her hubs, individually written articles, ranged from household hints, parenting tips, vacation spots for families, holiday celebrations and harder issues such as drug abuse and creationism in public school cirriculum.

Lela’s profile is engaging and natural. When I read “about Lela” I can imagine her in her world. This is how Lela introduces herself to her readers:

I am a Mother. I cook, clean, wipe noses, push Benadryl, check for nits, help with homework, and iron tiny polo shirts. I used to have a real job with a degree framed on my office wall, but I gave it up for this glamour. I also write, hang out with my husband, and drink wine with my friends on the driveway. I believe parenting is the hardest job in the world as well as the most natural thing we do. I screw up. Daily. And I banish guilt relentlessly. I believe it’s your moral responsibility to find the thing that makes you lose track of time, the thing that empties all the racing thoughts from your head and leaves you deaf to the oven timer so you forget about the cookies until the smoke finds you. Writing is my thing. Here’s to hoping you find yours and go do it.

Many of her posts are simple “how to’s and lists.”

How to Know if Your Kids Are Huffing
Top Five Midwest Family Vacation Destinations

She is always very timely. She has already begun posts in preparation for Halloween.

Lela keeps you involved in the process. Recently Lela has been working on a novel. She keeps her readers abreast of her progress and her plan. Novel in Six Months Plan

Lela writes regularly.

All these elements keep me coming back, but of course I subscribe to Lela’s RSS Feed so I don’t miss a post.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Home from BlogWorld08 in Las Vegas!!

We had and excellent time meeting up with old and new friends.

Blogworld07 vs BlogWorld08? Last year CNN was there to watch everyone arrive, this year no TV coverage from what I could tell. Last year a great pajama party with an open bar, roast beast, and a chocolate fountain, this year was a scene from Napoleon Dynamite with bad red wine and a quesadilla bar. Last year, the buzz was about Stumble, This year Twitter? We were wondering what the next big thing was going to be but this year seemed to be about rehashing old memes. I was very happy to be able to stoke out my photographer friends with a link to Photosynth.net they missed those blog posts I guess.

Webconsuls.com always on the lookout for that next big thing.

Got the next big thing? We want to know about it!

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Just got home from Blog World Expo in Las Vegas and I want to tell you EVERYONE there was on Twitter. http://twitter.com/darinrmcclure Do You Follow Me?

Lisa and I sat in on the following list of Classes,

Corporate & CEO Blogging
Picking a Blogging Platform and How to Leverage Blogs, Podcasts, Video, Social Media and Other Channels for Traffic Conversions and Profits
Blogging to Affect Non-Partisan Grass Roots Change
Maximizing the Benefits of Small Business Blogs
The Cult of Blogging
Leveraging Social Media for Your Company
What Web 10.0 Might Look Like: The Far Future
Smart Ways to Monetize Your Blog
Secrets of Great Video Production and Vlogging
How Online Conversations Change Markets
Managing Information Flow with an RSS Reader
Just the Numbers: Understanding Analytics
Creating a Coherent Social Media Strategy
The Lazy Guide to Producing Great Podcasts

and the one thing that we both noted thru-out was the number of people in those classes with twitter open.

>>>>> TWITTER WAS EVERYWHERE <<<<<< If you don’t GET Twitter yet, don’t worry, just start to use it. Our full review will be posted on the Webconsuls Training Blog for our clients. email your gmail address to darin@webconsuls.com if you would like access.

OUR BLOG

Category: Blog-World-Expo

BLOGGER, Thank You For Listening!

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Home from BlogWorld08 in Las Vegas!!