Apologies in advance to my readers who are not bloggers, and have no interest in, or idea of what blogging even is (although if you read my blog, you must have some idea!)
Some people in the audience nearly fainted when they realised Tim Ferriss was in the room! {img http://gtvone.com/pbevent/content/IMG_7710_large.html}
On Friday I attended the Pro Blogger conference in Melbourne. Saying it was a whirlwind of a day, overwhelming yet inspiring, is understating things somewhat. The sheer amount of information imparted on us all was HUGE so for my own benefit (and maybe for yours if you are a blogger), here are some summary notes from me:
- Why are you blogging?
- About your blog design
- How to find readers for your blog
- How to make money from blogging
And here are some random thoughts from the day!
- If you are a massive introvert when it comes to meeting new people, but you are attending a conference where there are people you ‘know’ from the online world and are keen to meet them in person … have something to actually SAY to them when you do meet them. Else you look like a socially awkward dick (like I did).
- I thought Darren Rowse was the nicest guy in the online world but gee, Chris Garrett must go pretty close.
- Tim Ferriss has an amazing energy about him. That may explain why fan-boys and -girls were near on passing out when they heard he was in the room. PS Tim Ferriss is human – I had to help him out with his bag drop at Qantas check in on Saturday morning
- When you admire someone greatly, and they don’t live in the same country as you, and opportunities to hear them speak in real life will be passingly rare, don’t take said opportunity for granted. I am a huge Copyblogger fan and Sonia Simone flew all the way to Australia to give three keynote speeches on the day. I missed them all in favour of other sessions because my head was saying to me “You’ve heard Sonia speak on that topic before”. The thing is, I have heard her speak on those topics via podcast before – not in real life. I was reading the tweets from Sonia’s final session on the day thinking “Kelly, you’re an idiot, you should be in there”.
- I have my first ever blog crush and it is Lady Melbourne. I love people who are confident, don’t sugar coat and are firm (but not patronising) in their opinions. She was all of that. I think someone described her on twitter as a ‘hard-arse” … but I am fairly certain it was in a complimentary way!
- If possible, Mrs Woog is funnier in real life than she is in print.
- The world is a tiny, tiny place. On the plane home to Perth, I was chatting to the guy next to me and told him I had just been to Melbourne for a conference. He asked what it was about and I hesitantly told him it was a blogging conference then waited for either the standard blank face or derision. It turns out that not only did he know what blogging was, he was also a friend of Darren Rowse! Small world indeed!
- Finally – I feel like I have to thank the sponsors and the organisers of this event. What we got for a measly $130 was absolutely crazy: Quality speakers, impeccable organisation, morning tea, buffet lunch, afternoon tea, post conference drinks and ice cream … good lordy it was awesome!
The sponsors were: Go to Webinar, Yellow Pages, Cold Flow, Nuffnang and Zen Desk.
*Sigh* I followed the tweet stream from Sydney …. every post I read like this makes me sadder that I wasn’t there myself
It was SUCH a great day! I think there are a lot of people in the same boat as you Jacki!
So interesting and a brilliant round up. Thanks Kelly!
This is a fantastic summary – thank you so much for taking the time to write it. I have to admit that the “business” of blogging makes me feel really nervous. But I realise that I am still very “young” in terms of blogging age and I can’t expect to have done everything right from the beginning.
So I am slowly learning – if I learn something new every day, I am happy. Today I started researching HTML code so I could pretty up my sidebar, as well as learning how to resize images so that everything looks neat. Such small and simple things, but I am getting there.
Next is RSS feed – I have NO idea on this one, so thank you for reminding me that this is my next self-tutorial that I should complete.
I am also scared of being overwhelmed by the technicalities of the back-end of blogging that I lose the simple joy of writing – that really scares me.
P.S. When I finally meet you next year, I am going to give you a big squishy hug, so you won’t need to say ANYTHING!
I have to confess that I have not got my head around RSS yet! I know what it is … but haven’t managed to set up an RSS reader for myself!
But it’s all small steps Nat … and you’re already doing an AMAZING job with your blog
I followed the feed all day from home in Brisbane. I have learned so much just from what others have shared. I will be at the next conference no matter what (I hope there’s another one!). Thanks for sharing all your learnings.
No worries at all Claire – I am glad you enjoyed them! Look forward to seeing you at the next one (hopefully it is in Bali!!)
I enjoyed reading the twitter stream of the day and i am reading through wrap up posts now. Your account of the day is great (can’t think of another word).
I would have gone , had I not been in Perth on holidays. I wish I had attended.
Thanks so much Trish – and I hope you continue to enjoy your travels around my home state!!
At least you approach people – half the time I stand there looking at people wishing they would speak to me instead
I am coming to realise that all of us online people are closet wallflowers Chris!!
Hi Kelly,
I truly enjoyed reading your post – will link to it in mine too.
1. Need to make more effort going up to people and say hi to them. Must remind myself of this for next time.
2. I agree, both Darren and Chris are amazing. I actually follow their philosophy when it comes to blogging. They are the reason I went to the event.
3. Tim Ferriss was sitting next to ME and I didn’t recognize him …Waaaahhh
4. Totally hear you. I attended webinar session ONLY to hear Chris Garrett speak live. heheh
5. Mrs Woog was too funny.
Marya
Haha Marya I saw your post last night where you said Tim Ferriss was sitting next to you! Hilarious!
And I wish I could have the day all over again so I could try to turn down the shy and meet more people!
You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear how much value you got out of the day. I’m only sorry I didn’t get time to see any sessions or talk to many of the lovely people like yourself on the day. Thanks so much for this post.
Jasmin you guys did a wonderful job – I have never been to such a beautifully run conference!
I know a lot has been said about the egos running loose on the day but:
1. None of those egos belonged to the organizers!
2. I think the general frantic pace on the day lead to a lot of misunderstandings which is unfortunate
I’ve been searching for all the posts on Problogger and doing it the hard way!! So I’m super happy I’ve found your linky. Off to have a read!