I’ve told you about my initial impressions of BlogPaws, and about some of the tough guys I encountered along the way. I wasn’t quite sure what to tackle next. When all else fails, I tend to default to chronological order. So, for argument’s sake, let’s just say that all else failed…
After listening to the Rescue Ink guys, it was time to attend my first actual session. You know, where I’d go to learn stuff. I had a hard time deciding what to attend – I ended up choosing one called “Demystifying Search Engine Optimization.” I didn’t have the foggiest idea what that was, so I figured I could use the demystification.
I’m not going to lie… at the time, I thought I had a basic grasp of SEO. Looking back at my notes a week later, I’m not so sure. I scribbled something about keywords, improving my search engine ranking – and a bunch of technical things that I need to revisit in more detail. I’m not really qualified to advise any of you on this one! Luckily, the folks over at BlogPaws recently had a great post about SEO for paw bloggers, so I’ll let them do the heavy lifting.
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| Paris & John from DogTipper.com |
During the break between sessions, I met a few more fun bloggers, including Carrie from All Things Dog Blog; Paris & John from DogTipper.com; and Missy from Dogs for the Paws.
Missy wins the prize for best business card – a slap bracelet! That thing was awesome – I wore it for the rest of the day, and it’s currently still decorating my camera bag.
Up next, I headed to a session called “Reach. Relevance. Design. Presentation.” I was excited to hear the presenter, Dino Dogan (the creator of Triberr). This one was more up my alley (and it was also the session where Tango decided his nose was cold). I really enjoyed this session. Some of the choice quotes/concepts I jotted down:
- On reach: “Attention is the commodity and we only have so much of it.” Dino described reach as “fishing with dynamite.”
- On relevance: “There’s no motion without emotion.” Relevance is like shooting with a laser. Seventy-five percent of writing time should be spent on the headline. In general, short is better than long, and emotional is better than non-emotional. Think about the person you’re trying to attract and their state of mind. One method is to create a customer avatar – an image of your ideal customer.
- On design: The consensus here seems to be that Blogger kind of sucks. (If I took one lesson away from the weekend – this was it. It came up in several sessions.) Many seem to prefer having a self-hosted WordPress site. Dino also talked about logo design and colors. Have you ever noticed that many of the major sites – like Facebook and Twitter – use blue? I’ve definitely been paying more attention to the colors used on various blogs since this session and thinking about what kind of mood they evoke.
- On presentation: You should aim to become a content presenter instead of focusing on being a content creator. (Cesar Milan is – unfortunately – a good example here. I think his methods suck, but I can’t argue that he’s managed to draw people in with his presentation.) Be a better writer than the next guy – make your reader feel that if he doesn’t click on your headline, he’s going to miss something. My favorite quote: to improve your writing, “read like a madman, write like a mental institution escapee.” Think about visitors who will view your site on their smartphones – do you have mobile browsing enabled?
- Finally, model yourself on Dynasty… create some cliffhangers!
I could write a lot more about this session – I think it was the kick I needed to start thinking about my own blog in a more analytical way. I’ll be doing some self-evaluation in the coming months and you may see some changes as a result. However, first I need to find the time for all of that virtual navel gazing…
Anyway, after that session, it was time for lunch. I was in for a pleasant surprise – the speakers during lunch were from the rescue group where I adopted Bella! The group is called Homeless Animals Rescue Team (aka HART), and they operate in the Northern Virginia area.
Also a pleasant surprise? Cheesecake. I love cheesecake.
Anyway, after I inhaled that cheesecake, it was time for my next session. I chose it based on its delightfully punny name. I’ll tell you all about it my next installment…
(I told you that recapping BlogPaws would take me a while. I wasn’t kidding. When you’re as wordy as I am, these things take time. Hang in there.)
Thanks for sharing your notes from Dino Dogan's session. I've got a pretty good handle on Triberr and reach in general, but I would love to have met him and heard his pearls of witticisms. Not only is he incredibly smart, he's entertaining too.
This kind of info makes me not so sorry I wasn't at BlogPaws. I really thought it was more about networking, meeting other bloggers, etc. This isn't my business, it's a hobby, and I can't put this much energy into something that doesn't put money in the bank.
At this point, I've given up making my blog "successful." I seriously don't have time or patience. Last winter I was full of intentions to spruce up my site, read more blogs, etc.
Well, I can barely keep up with the blogs I do read, and am literally afraid to add more. My husband is a computer consultant, I know what SEO is all about (which is NOT to say I know how to do it), and PROPER SEO on, say, a business site that sells widgets can cost THOUSANDS. I think if I tried to write blog entries by focusing on key words and repetition (which is what SEO is all about), my writing would seriously suffer.
As for Blogger… I move The Dog Park from Blogger to WordPress (not self-hosted though) months ago. At first I was maintaining it at both places, but I got so few hits on Blogger, I just gave up. All my subscribers are on WordPress now. It wasn't a hard migration, there was stuff I had to re-format and whatnot, but overall, I'm happier there.
I too found all the knocks on Blogger interesting. I think it's such a popular platform because it's easy to set up and users are allowed to make money from advertising and affiliate marketing using it.
WordPress does not allow any profit making ventures on their hosted blogs which is why everyone serious about blogging eventually self-hosts.
But WordPress is a very robust platform. And because it's open source, it is much more open to the world than the Google-owned Blogger.
I have to admit Blogger makes me a little crazy. It's hard to leave comments and the captchas are crazy making (most of us in WP have a spam filter and don't need the captchas).
It sounds like a great presentation for next year's BlogPaws could be migrating from Blogger to WordPress. Or setting up a self-hosted WP blog. Both seem to be hot topics.
Great post, and boy lots to learn! Thanks for the links, I will be checking them out 🙂
Kim – Definitely. It was a very entertaining session!
Life Student – I think it was a good mix. Honestly, the best part of it all for me was networking and meeting other bloggers. The info was just a bonus, and I found some sessions more helpful than others. (As you can probably tell from my SEO recap, I'm not sure I took much from that one that I will be incorporating here. At the moment, mine is just a hobby too, so I understand your concerns about time – and it took me well over a year before I felt like anyone was actually reading it regularly, but this blog has become a great creative outlet for me.)
Honestly, I picked up a few tips along the way, but I think the real reason I'm happy I went is for all of the personal connections. It was really inspiring and fun to be with a group of people who share my interests, you know?
Pamela – I agree. I joined Blogger just because it seemed more user friendly and less intimidating than WordPress for some reason. I've had a few problems with Blogger in the past – like hitting a wrong button and somehow losing an entire post – that have made me a little nutty. I'm definitely considering checking out my options now, but the idea of moving does scare me a little. (I bet you're right – sessions on these topics would probably be very useful!)
Luna – Thanks! I hope that you find something useful in there. 🙂
Great recap! I have to admit that I have been thinking for some time now moving over to WordPress and actually already have a site set up there, but the move makes me sooo nervous I just can't seem to do it….yet!
I liked the Relevance and Presentation part of this, I have horrible titles, they are the hardest thing for me to come up with sometimes.
Sometimes I write a whole post and still don't have a title, and am left sitting there staring at it and sometimes it never even gets posted!!
Looking forward to more recaps!
It's interesting that I was sitting at lunch with a group of ladies who had just come out of the "Reach" session. Frankly, the Blogger vs. WordPress topic seemed to be a source of contention for some (representing a local rescue organization, and in no hurry to change platforms based solely on Mr. Dogan's advice).
Not having attended the session myself, I certainly got the impression that it was received with mixed emotion. Ironically, I think Mr. Dogan might not have been completely "in tune" with his audience.
Personally, I'm fine with Blogger (except for the crappy comment format). I do need to update my template and design, but with some guidance, I think it can all be accomplished in Blogger. We'll see.
Looking very much forward to your future installments! 🙂
Another BlogPaws that I missed, and this time… there was cheesecake! Thanks for summing it up for us!
jen – I am with you there. I am toying with the idea of a move but it seems a bit intimidating. And as for titles – I tend to think mine are a bit too out there to really bring people in. But at the same time, I don't necessarily want to do a literal title that doesn't have any wit or character… it's tough to walk that line, I think.
Elizabeth – That's really interesting. I enjoyed his talk, but I could see how there might be a divide there. As for the Blogger/WP topic, he wasn't the only presenter to hit on this. You may be right though – I think I could learn more about Blogger and probably improive my site. However, when it eats my post mid-edit and auto-saves the blank version before I can fix it, I do seriously consider jumping ship…
Pibble – You can't go wrong with cheesecake, right? 🙂
Since I didn't get to go to Blog Paws, I just love reading your recaps. Thank you for sharing! I'm also interested in learning more about SEO, I have ALOT to learn, so I appreciate the link to the Blog Paws post on this. Thanks so much!
Julie – I'm so glad you're enjoying them! I wasn't sure if all these posts were overkill, but it was such an interesting experience I wanted to share all of the details. 🙂