It’s only a month until the Blog Indiana Conference, a blogging and social media conference. This conference is being held here in Indianapolis on August 16th and 17th. With a two day event covering three tracks, I think it will be a great conference at a low price ($49). I have heard some of the local blogger speak previously, and their sessions should be great.
I guess I should start blogging again ;-)
The BlogIN at IUPUI was a great Open Space event. Thanks to Smaller Indiana and Compendium Blogware for sponsoring the event. The conference was, obviously, about blogging, but the main focus was not on a set agenda, but an attendee selected list of topics. If you’re not familiar with the Open Space format, it goes like this:
- Whoever comes are the right people
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
- Whenever it starts is the right time
- When it’s over, it’s over
This means the participants of the conference run the show. It’s very Agile and open-ended. If you don’t like a session you’re in, you vote with your feet: go find another session to attend. After keynotes by Chris Baggott (CEO of Compendium Blogware), Kevin Makice and Doug Karr, suggestions were made for breakout sessions. Topics included:
- Blogging 101
- Blogging on Smaller Indiana
- Political action blogging
- SEO and RSS
- Monetizing your blog
- WordPress tips and tricks
- Writing effectively
- Business blogging
- Video blogging
- Identifying local bloggers
I bought a new Flip Video camera and caught some video:
What I learned
One of the main points of attending a conference is learning. A few take-aways for me:
- Video blogging is easier than it looks.
- Both in video blogging and blogging in general, perfect is the enemy of good. Just get it out there.
- Blogging is about spheres of influence. We have different areas where we have conversations and things ripple out from there. Each person should feel comfortable sharing what they know in their sphere. It may be duplicate within one sphere but completely new in another.
- In order to build up the Indiana blogging community, we need to blog about Indiana.
- Finding other local bloggers is challenging.
- I suck as a live-blogger. I’m too interested in the topic to take notes I’m willing to post immediately.
BlogIN isn’t the only event happening in Indiana on the topic of blogging. In August there is a 2-day blogging event called Blog Indiana happening on August 16-17. I think many bloggers from BlogIN are excited to have another opportunity to talk shop here in Indianapolis.
Zack Legend is a prominent video blogger here in Indianapolis. Zack found that he wasn’t a good writer, but that video was really his niche. Currently, his biggest claim to fame is the video blogger for the Indianapolis Colts. His biggest secret? He shoots video with his point-and-shoot Canon camera.
In his session (which I understand ran straight through the second breakout), he showed us how he goes through the process of editing video.
Highlights:
- 2-3 minutes is the right length. How short can you make a video?
- Point and shoot cameras are less intimidating than a video camera.
- Microsoft Movie Maker is the easiest way to do this in the Windows world.
My biggest takeaway from this session is that video blogging in the "YouTube generation" doesn’t need to be a highly produced affair. It’s not the Super Bowl. Let’s just get the video out there. Don’t worry about how professional it is.
Keynotes
I’m here at the Smaller Indiana blogging unconference, BlogIN. We’ve been through the keynotes, two break-out sessions, and are now in the third. I’m a horrible live blogger, apparently. Granted, I hosted a "Blogging 101" session, so I didn’t take many notes in that one. For the keynotes, Chris Baggot, Kevin Makice, and Douglas Karr talked about their blogging experiences. Here’s the few chicken-scratch notes I took in the keynotes.
Chris Baggott
Chris has been blogging since late 2000. His main motivations were, honestly, selfish: He felt he had ideas worth hearing.
Had some goals … you should have goals too.
Employees are 5 times more credible as bloggers than the CEO.
How do you measure conversion in corporate blogging. That’s the important thing.
Kevin Makice
(blogshmog.net)
Kevin has been writing a personal blog since 1999. Started doing this as a way to introduce the world to his son (or was it vise versa?).
He uses his blog to build connections with other people.
What’s great about blogging is that it connects lots of different people providing lots of different perspective. No one has the right answer and that makes it powerful.
Blogging is about transparency.
Need to understand that blogging is something that is a new medium. You should not be afraid to make mistakes and learn from the best.
Douglas Karr
Google is essentially the web.
Blogging is about spheres of influence We have different areas where we have conversations and things ripple out from there.
Analogy of Burj Dubai building – blogs are built on a wide base.
Some advantages of blogging:
- Transparency
- Consistency
- Passion
- Participate
- Momentum – steady consistent effort.
- Committee
- Coordination
- Measurement
Disadvantages to blogging:
- Transparency
- Time
- Hypocrisy
- Anonymity
- Conflict
- Measures
Why does he blog? For fulfillment and answering questions for other people. "Great podium to communicate with people I’m already connected to."
I’m not sure how the BlogIN event is going to go this Saturday (2008 April 26) since it’s being run in a BarCamp fashion. There is no agenda, it will be set by the attendees at the time. For eight years I’ve been a blogger (more or less), but I’ve never had success in my consistency or the number of readers on my site. Maybe I’m just not that good of a self-promoter, or perhaps my blogging schedule doesn’t keep people "tuned in". Whatever the reason, I see myself attending the BlogIN with more questions than answers. I thought I’d post my thoughts on what I’m hoping to get out of the conference.
What I hope to get out of BlogIN
- Specific Blog or Frequent Blog
I’m curious about the philosophy others have on topical blogs. I can think of about 10 topics I’d like to write about. These are very diverse in nature, so it would seem to make sense to create a separate blog. With limited time to blog, each blog would, I guess, get updated infrequently – perhaps once or twice in a two week period. On the other hand, a single site would get updated more frequently, but lacks a specific audience. I’d like to know the thoughts of the pros on which direction is better to take.
- Blogger Workflow
My blog workflow, recently throw together, is pretty simple. I write topics in a Moleskine Cahier Notebook. I write the post then cross them out in the journal. I have more ideas than time to write, therefore there are a lot of useless post ideas there. My blogging time is usually in the afternoon, in the 40 minutes I have between picking up the kids. I might blog in the evening or on weekends if I’m particularly energized (and can find a little time). I’d like to know how other bloggers set up their schedule, how they make time to blog and how they track their ideas.
- Blogging Commitment
Somewhat related to the previous point, I’d like to know how much time my fellow bloggers spend researching, writing and maintaining their blogs. The magic number in my head is about 3 hours per week, but I’m curious about other bloggers’ commitments. I’m curious about the number of posts per week as well. Do bloggers write many short posts, or less-frequent but longer articles?
- Blogging Locally
My current blogs reach two main audiences: First, friends and family; second, potential customers of my consulting business. Occasionally (like this post), I find myself covering local events in the Indianapolis area. Are local events common to personal and business blogs, or do most bloggers ignore the local unless considerably pertinent to their niche?
- Blog++
I’m curious how many bloggers do more than just blog. How many do podcast, screencasts, and video blogging? Do they have photoblogs, and how much do they use Twitter? Is a written-word blog only part of a well-rounded blogger’s repertoire?
- One for the money, two for the show
It’s clear to me that good blogs are written by people with a passion. It’s difficult to be a mercenary blogger. I’m curious, though, about how many bloggers find themselves blogging about a passion with the intent of making money.
Those were just a few thoughts I figured I get out there. I hope I can offer some of the advice I do have about blogging as well, but I have to wait for the other attendees to ask the questions first. See you there!
Since the BlogIN publicity stunt, or BlogMOB, as we referred to it, I’ve been thinking a lot about my blogging. I’ve had a personal website since 1994, when I posted a few pages online on a server at UW-LaCrosse. After college, I kept a personal site but never really built anything resembling a blog until 2000. I wrote my first "blog" post about Lousy Drivers in September 2000. To get things running, I built my own blog engine (if you could call it that) that allowed me to post articles through a web front end. After a while my web front end fell apart. I did my posting after that via a direct call to a stored procedure through Query Analyzer. Truly a hardcore nerd way to post.
I took most of 2005 off from blogging, perhaps I wasn’t that hardcore. The hiatus was good, but eventually I got the bug to write again. I decided to move to true blog software and installed WordPress. My hopes for longer, more meaningful posts didn’t quite work out the way I had hoped. Recently, my blog has basically turned into a backup of my Twitter account.
What makes an expert?
At the BlogMOB, I had a chance to talk to several other bloggers and would-be bloggers. I was sitting next to Erin Monahan. She is a Smaller Indiana member who is a budding blogger (recently upgraded from wannabe) who stepped out of her comfort zone and onto the steps of Monument Circle where she got a chance to get the opinions of fellow bloggers:
[W]hat better place to gain insight and inspiration than surrounded by a bunch of pros? Lucky for me, Erik Deckers, John Uhri and Joe Dager graciously shared their wisdom and helped me understand how blogging can be a viable form of business (and personal) communication."
I’m flattered she considered me a "pro", although I think I may be out of league in comparison to Erik and Joe. I’ve blogged a long time, but never in quantity. That leaves the question in my mind of whether or not I can be labeled an expert. I can say with some confidence that I understand what it takes to be a blogger. Perhaps those who can’t do, teach?
Time is on my side… or not
Clearly the biggest obstacle to any blogger’s success is putting in the time. Pro-bloggers like Darrin Rowse have made a full time gig out of blogging, but the professionals are a minority. Most don’t have the income streams to spend their entire day blogging. Still, even part time bloggers spend quite a bit of time working on their blogs.
Steve Pavlina is a blogger and personal productivity maven has said he spends about 10 hours on a long post (sorry, no reference on that one), but has also said he spends 3-4 hours a day working on his blog that results in 2-4 posts (which works out to be about right). Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror has mentioned spending about 3 hours a day writing. I got a chance to talk to Erik Deckers at the blogMob, and he invests about 3-4 hours writing his weekly humor column. I hope to query some other bloggers about their time commitments at the actual blogIN event, but it seems that 3 is truly a magic number for bloggers.
I am a blogger, here me roar
I’m going to get back into it. I want to be a blogger, and I’m going to put in the time to get it done. I’m excited to have connected with a group of people who are passionate about blogging, no matter the topic. It has renewed my inspiration and gotten me excited about the possibilities. I’m converting some of my "down time" moments to focus on blogging and have some ideas of what I want to write about. More to follow.
BlogIN – An Indiana Blogger’s Conference
Remember, if you live in Indiana and want to learn more about blogging, the BlogIN unconference is coming up on April 26th from 1-5pm. The best and brightest Indiana bloggers will be there to share their knowledge. I’m excited about the free-form agenda where attendees determine the topics to be discussed. For $20, the price can’t be beat. Register today!
One website I read on a regular basis is the Shane and Peter blog. These gentlemen are entrepreneurs and when preparing a series of questions to interview other entrepreneurs, they asked their readers to comment on their own blogs as well. This was a post I started some time ago but busy-ness got the better of me. Here are the questions they asked and my answers.
I added a new plugin to the old blog here… it pulls my Twitter feed and creates a daily post of the short, 140-character thoughts I have on and off during the day. Nothing big, just didn’t want to freak out the 12 RSS readers I have when they start seeing regular posts coming through.
One more thought… I had switched to Jaiku for a bit, but it seems that service never really caught on. Most of the people I was following never made the transition, and Jaiku hadn’t gotten a short code for posting via SMS. Twitter seems to have resolved a number of their scaling issues (haven’t seen the cats in a while), so I’ve been pretty satisfied with them lately.
I’m not sure why I was excited to find out that Appleton has its own craigslist page at http://appleton.craigslist.org/. It’s not like I’m a huge craigslist fan, but I do like the local classifieds that the site provides. Now I just need to clean out the basement and get some stuff posted out there.
37 Signals, the Web 2.0 darlings, published an eBook (in PDF format) last year called Getting Real. At the time, I had just bought their other book, Defensive Design for the Web
At the time, I passed on purchasing Getting Real. Recently, Fried and the gang have offered an html version of their book for free on their website. Sales must have tapered off or something. I read through it over the last few nights, and my review is as follows:
I paid nothing for it, and got what I paid for.
The book is simply a bunch of essays stitched together by the thread of marketing their products to their readers. Nothing in the book is new or particularly revolutionary. Some things are even scary… like working without any sort of a spec. As they admit, web apps aren’t the same as designing software for NASA, but there’s still a use for some documentation – like thinking through problems before you start solving them. Communicating with your customers and building some buzz ahead of launch make sense. That’s pretty much the playbook for the rest of the Web 2.0 followers.
Over all, it was worth reading, but had I plunked down $19 for the PDF, I would have been highly disappointed.