AlwaysOn – Professional Blogger Workshop

Here are my notes from the Professional Blogger session. Includes Peter Rojas from Engadget, Steve Rubel from Micropersuasion, Jeff Jarvis and Elizabeth Spiers.

My thoughts are that overall I didn’t get much out of this session on “how to be a power blogger” — frankly it just felt like an open discussion about blogging but not how to move up in the ranks. Jeff seemed to dominate the conversation during the time (which appeared to end early). Elizabeth didn’t smile once. Check my notes below. I tried to grab what I thought was important. Get the audio file to listen to the full conversation. These 4 bloggers are considered at the top of their game. I would have loved tips on how to become a top blogger as well. Oh well, on to the next session!

Jeff Jarvis says – telling me who to link to is crap. It’s just a bloody conversation. WHerever I see it, I link to it. Bfd.

Steve Rubel – it’s blogosphere high.

Jeff Jarvis – it’s boring to keep going on and on about this sillyness.

Steve Rubel – how many emails do you get a day from PR professionals.

Peter Rojas – several hundred overall. Maybe like 2% are relevant to what we are doing. It is important that the PR person knows about the site. We get many announcements from people who we already posted about. Have an awareness about what we are doing and treat me like a human being. PR people would be better served by treating human vs. sending out mass emails.

Steve Rubel – There are well-known and lesser-known bloggers.

Jarvis – Top 100 is a meaningless list.

Elizabeth Spiers – our ad software is smart to know how to serve ads from our advertisers on topic pages we write about.

Jeff Jarvis – it’s about personal integrity (regarding church vs state on advertising). I try to keep my disclosure page up-to-date. I will trash them if needed.

Steve: Audio/video – a lot of bloggers seem to settle in either audio or video.

Jeff Jarvis – I think TV is being reinvented now. Blogging is an advantage because you can write it up and show the video.

Steve: are we going to see more bloggers on TV?

Peter: people are already – you can get Rocketboom directly on your Tivo.

Peter: we make a promise to our users as to what they will see everyday.

Steve: What is your best tip for building an audience?
Elizabeth – publish constantly. Twelve posts a day – 8-10 minimum.
Jeff – Link out – otherwise you are not part of the conversation. Then people will learn about your site.
Peter – pick a niche or an area the smallest area you can find and try to own it. Become the respected voice for this niche. You will become a respected voice over time.