BlogCatalog

(posted by Jason Teitelman, Written by Deb Schroeder)

Have No Fear and Let Your Passion Lead You to the Next Level
The Opening Keynote at Blog World with Laura Fitton was very inspirational and a great way to begin the conference. Laura Fitton is referred to by many as the Queen of Twitter, wrote Twitter for Dummies, and founded Oneforty.com. Oneforty.com has reviews and information of all of the best twitter apps.

Laura recommends that you should just be who you are when twittering and don’t just post links, but ask questions and make connections.  She believes that in order for you to be “Awesome on Twitter,” you need to listen, learn, care, and serve.

Laura Fitton emphasized that you should not have fear or hesitance with blogging, twittering, and the use of social media.  We should always try new things since we all have something to offer.

If we hold ourselves back and don’t try, then we will be cheating everyone else out of something that only you can offer.  Discover your passion and let it lead you.

Internet Marketing for Smart People

The panel for Internet Marketing for Smart People consisted of Darren Rowse, Sonia Simone, Brian Clark, and Chris Brogan.   The hour long session had too many great points to jot down, so you can watch the entire session at JohnChow.com.  Below are some quick notes from the session.

• Posting: Keep a post rhythm with your blog so that your readers know what to expect.  If you post once or 5 times a week, be consistent with that rhythm.
• Content: Deliver valuable content to your readers.  Ask yourself “Is my content itself a reward for reading it?”  Does the content add value to your readers?
• Email Newsletter Marketing: Email marketing is still very important and email newsletters are the way to go.  RSS isn’t turning out the way they once thought it was.  More traffic is through email readers than RSS.  Some found that ads clicked doubled with email as opposed to RSS.  One way to get readers to subscribe by email would be a free e-book incentive.
• Community: Create a community among your readers so that they feel like it is “our community” not “your community.”
• What do you have to sell? Find something worth selling to your readers that provides value to them.  Build the audience first and create trust before trying to sell to your audience.  Get to know your readers and pay attention to them so that you know what they need and what is important to them.

Sponsored Conversations and the new FTC Regulations

Panelists were Ted Murphy, Jeremiah Owyang and Wendy Piersall

One of the common discussions at the 2009 Blog World Expo was the new Federal Trade Commission’s regulations for online advertising and sponsored conversations.  The new FTC regulations go into effect on December 1, 2009 and there was much debate about the topic.

What can be considered sponsored conversations?  Tweets, posts, and comments can all be considered sponsored conversations if the blogger receives payment, gifts or any other item for certain content.  It doesn’t matter if the blogger would have included the content with or without receiving payment.  Bottom line-- if the blogger receives a gift or payment, then it must be disclosed.

It is important to create transparency within your blog and having a disclosure policy encourages trust among your readers.  The disclosure policy should be up at the top of your site and clear to your readers.  The new regulations lack clarity, but from the discussions at Blog World, it seems that individual posts that can be considered “sponsored” would need a disclosure statement as well.

An online site created and funded by IZEA allows you to create a Free Disclosure Policy from DisclosurePolicy.org in which you answer a series of questions.  After answering questions pertaining to your blog, a disclosure policy is created for you to copy and paste into your site.

Blogging Super Panel Gave Live Feedback on Site Reviews

The Super Panel with live feedback on site reviews consisted of top money making bloggers Zac Johnson, John Chow, and Darren Rowse.  Below are some tips offered to the various sites reviewed that can be applied to most blogs:

• If you have a new blog, focus on content and getting readers rather than trying to focus on monetization.  Most bloggers shouldn’t expect to be making large amounts of money until they have been blogging consistently and gaining readership for about 2 years.
• Your signup box for email and RSS updates should be large and easy to find.  Many put the signup box in the top right corner.  It is good to end posts with an offer to signup to subscribe in addition to having the signup box.
• Newsletter updates are important and you should attract more readers with this. Offer incentives for them to signup, such as a free e-book or newsletters with free samples, discounts, or some educational material in your niche. You can use your newsletter to help monetize your blog by offering valuable products for purchase, ads, etc.
• Do not ask for the first and last names of your readers when asking them to signup for updates or to subscribe to the blog.  Make the process easy and seamless for them.
• A general estimation given was that if your site is getting about 1 million page views a month, then you should be earning about $10,000 a month if monetized correctly.
• As you grow, you can consider offering membership sites, educational material or e-books as a way to monetize your blog.
• View your site in multiple browsers to correct errors that others may be seeing.
• Don’t have a super-large header and make sure that your header design lets the reader know what your blog is about.

Drive Traffic and Build Readership Using Niche Communities

Kevin Palmer discussed the many ways to use niche communities to drive traffic and build readership.  Kevin runs his own consulting company, Social Media Answers, LLCwhich has an abundant of free resources for those interested in growing with social media.

1. Evaluate Your Audience: Who are they?  What describes them?  How are they using the internet?  What content would they be interested in?
2. Examine Other Bloggers: Look at other bloggers in your niche and find out what social media sites they are using to connect with readers.  Look at their sidebars and examine the social media buttons they display.  Do a search with their twitter name to see what they are doing and how they are using twitter.  You can useCompete.com to analyze the traffic that other sites in your niche are getting.
3. Join Niche Social Networking Sites:  You can find over 400 Niche Social Networking Sites with reviews at Kevin Palmer’s website. Use social networking sites to gain potential readers.  Social networking sites are smaller Ease your way into the community, engage within the rules and listen to the readers. Don’t just join and broadcast your message, but become an active participant to create trust.  Look at the message boards and join in the active discussion.  Completely fill out your profile and include a profile picture.