2012 Blog World New York Recap
Back from Blog World New York! I survived. I had a great time. I’m not a conference newbie anymore!
The three days of the conference went by fairly quick. The weather cooperated for the most part throughout the week. Just some periods of rain that never lasted too long.
The wi-fi in the conference, however, did not cooperate at times. You’d think wi-fi would be a high priority for a conference of people who spend so much time online.
That still didn’t put a damper on a great event.
I know I didn’t accomplish as much as I would have liked out of it, but it was my first ever conference, so I’m still happy with what I got out of it.
Here is my experience.
The Sessions
Pat Flynn talks affiliate marketing the SMART way
When I arrived the very first day, I was holding a schedule of the sessions like a freshman trying to find out which room to go to. I had some major flashbacks. Luckily everything was easy to find.
Every hour there was another great speaker sharing their expertise. At one time there were up to twelve sessions going on, so I had to really choose which ones I wanted to listen to. For the other sessions, an option was to purchase a virtual ticket to listen to any session at a later time.
I read some suggestions to not try and do as many sessions as you can, but every time slot I found a session I really wanted to attend.
Reading the content it is great, but it’s more powerful to listen to them talk about it for an hour. Some session were so good I wished it would have lasted longer.
I’m going to share some knowledge from some of my more favorite sessions (in order of when I attended them).
Pat Flynn – Affiliate marketing the SMART Way: Stop hoping and start earning
- People connect with people. Be personable
- Share you story. Do random acts of kindness
- Great affiliate marketers give a shit
- How will the products you promote help your readers?
- Relationship -> products -> experience -> proof -> the sell
Lewis Howes – How to Build a 7 Figure Online Lifestyle Business (by doing the opposite of what you think)
- Find mentors that inspire you. Model their success.
- Create products. Don’t be perfect.
- Promote others and don’t expect much in return. Promote only those that inspire you and you believe in.
- Be a connector. Bring together other influencers.
- Dream big
Derek Halpern – How to wring results from your blog using Social Triggers
- Design is king, not content. 94% say design equals trust.
- Create a controversy with with your content but don’t take a side. Provide data and research to back it up.
Cliff Ravenscraft and Fr. Roderick Vonhogen – How to build your audience and market your podcast
- Be thankful for the number of listeners you have, even if it’s small.
- There is power when your show has a narrow niche focus.
- 30% is creation. 70% is marketing and relationship building.
- Create high value content that people cannot live without.
- Entertainment goes a long way. Don’t be boring. Be passionate about it.
- If content is king, audio quality is queen.
Corbett Barr – The Art of Writing Epic Sh*t: How to create content that blows minds and attracts a crowd
- The better your content is the easier it is to market it.
- Experiment like crazy with your content. Find what works.
- Do a rant post, be funny, do video or a podcast. Just mix it up.
- Remix popular content. Borrow what works
Jamie Tardy – Building your blogs audience and becoming an expert with major press
- Gaining national media features can gain credibility, builds your audience confidence in you, and builds your confidence.
- Don’t try for national media unless you can convert traffic
- Mistakes to avoid: Get a link to your site, be searchable by your name, don’t let your site crash.
- Use Help a Reporter Out to find journalists looking for stories
Meeting people
One of the reasons I wanted to go to Blog World was to meet some old and new bloggers. I was able to do a little bit of both.
It was awesome to be able to shake Pat Flynn’s hand and talk with him a few times. I didn’t get to talk too long with him because everyone wanted to, but the time I did was really great.
I also got to meet Corbett Barr and Adam Baker, who I have both followed for a long time and look up to when it comes to doing more epic sh*t in my life.
I met Thea who blogs at Write Change Grow. She came all the way from Brisbane to attend Blog World! I met her through this blog awhile back. We had a nice lunch together the first day. I enjoyed hearing how she got an all expense paid trip to Southeast Asia last year and had to blog about it! So cool.
I met a gentleman named Gary who told me is a reader of my blog. He came all the way from Ireland to attend Blog World. Couldn’t have met a nicer guy. I met him on the first day and every time we would run into each other, he always gave a friendly hello. His daughter lives in New York and is looking to start blogging. So I thought it was cool that he and her could share this experience together.
Got to finally meet Srini Rao from the Skool of Life and Blogcast FM. Super cool guy and so busy. I saw him running around all week. He mentioned having me as a guest on an future episode of Blogcast FM so that’ll be really cool since I’m a huge fan.
I also got to meet Dave Ursillo, Eugene Farber, and Monique Johnson during the great party on Wednesday night hosted by Pat Flynn and Derek Halpern. The weather didn’t start off so nice, but once the rain cleared, the cool weather came in and was perfect for the rooftop venue. Pat and Derek did a great job hosting the party!
David from Everlution and Jeff from Commute Reboot were two new people I met during the week. I look forward to seeing what they do with their blogs.
Finally I got to meet my buddy Alex from Milkthepigeon.com for the first time.
He didn’t attend Blog World, but did come into the city for the party on Wednesday night. Alex is a twenty something looking to shake up life. He spent a year living and studying in Beijing and is planning to go back. My wife was really impressed with his Chinese and even went as far to say it’s better than mine! (Yikes). A really great guy and you should definitely get to know him and his blog.
I didn’t meet a ton of people like others may have, but I’m happy with the people I did get to meet.
The Worst Kayne West Impression
Great session with an unwanted surprise…
On the second day, I went to the podcasting panel with Pat Flynn, Adam Baker, Derek Halpern and Katie Davis.
Pat did a great job moderating the panel and so much great information was shared. It was in one of the smaller rooms so there was standing room only in the back. I was standing in the back.
I remember one girl standing in the back with a big camera, a recorder and a mic. Nothing out of the ordinary.
During the middle of the session, she walked up to the mic, which was positioned in the aisle for questions AFTER the session.
I’m guessing Pat thought she had a question that couldn’t wait. Instead, she started talking. Honestly I didn’t pay much attention to her every word. I just remember she was talking about how much traffic her podcast was getting and I heard her mention Oprah (yes she really did) then after that it was just blah blah blah to me because she kept going on!
After what seemed like forever, Pat politely told her “One minute left”, but she kept going on way past that. When she did finish, she left the room.
The point of hijacking the mic? Cheap and classless promotion. I think everyone was thinking “What was that?”
I read on Twitter that she possibly had her pass revoked, which is good. I don’t understand if she claimed to have thousands or millions (I forgot) of listeners, why she had to shamelessly plug her stuff to a small room of less than 100 people.
At least Kayne kept his interruption short and sweet!
That came a day after a woman stood on her chair and went topless during the keynote speech at the end of day one. Not sure why, but clearly she lost her mind, along with her top.
Crazy people do come out to Blog World!
Bonus: Book Expo America
As a Blog World attendee, we had access to Book Expo America which was going on in the same building.
I went over there during one of my lunch breaks. Free access? Why not.
The activity going on was crazy! The size of the exhibit floor made Blog World look like an ant hill.
So many different publishers from around the world had booths. I saw people walking around with bags full of books (I’m guessing free). I saw lines for autograph sessions. There was even a huge area in the back that different lines for different authors!
Ebooks are on the rise, but after seeing how many people were there, it shows that printed books are not going away anytime soon.
It was a nice bonus to be able to go to Book Expo America as a part of Blog World. Kinda got my writing a book juices flowing.
Final thoughts
I left Blog World with lots of great information, met great people, and a gained sense of needing to work harder and smarter. Not only for my blog, but other areas in my life.
Just listening to the sessions and being in New York City made me want to go bigger with my goals.
Done trumps everything is something I heard from multiple speakers. Too often we get focused on making our product perfect. Many said it, so it’s something we should all keep in mind.
Blog World is about learning, but action must be taken for it to be worthwhile.
The organizers did a great job putting together the event (despite the wi-fi issues).
I enjoyed my first Blog World! I’d recommend it to anyone who is serious about blogging.
I definitely see myself attending future ones. The next on is in Las Vegas January 6-8, 2013. Another exciting city for a conference! Maybe more topless women at the conference? It might seem pretty normal for Vegas.
Anyone thinking about going?
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