OpenJason

Chat with the One and Only, Blogworld

I’m sure you’ve heard of Blogworld. What blogger hasn’t, right?  They’ve tapped into the blogging community, big time. Bloggers from all walks of life and all over the world come to Vegas each year to attend this first-of-its-kind conference to learn  “what’s what, the who’s who, and the how to’s” of the blogging world.” With big name bloggers, like ShoeMoney, on their side, Blogworld has created a valuable resource for all of us.

 I took some time to chat with the founder, Rick, to get the story of last year’s conference and the plans for the upcoming conference.

Q: 1. What made you decide to start Blogworld?

Well it is a long story but here is the very short version. I had a political blog that I wrote “therealuglyamerican.com”. I didn’t have any sort of media background or political background. I just enjoy debating politics with folks so I started the blog. I built an audience pretty quickly posting original content and interviewing main stream political pundits that I conducted. I was reviewing book that I had read. I noticed other bloggers were selling books via Amazon.com on their blogs so I thought I would try that. I was kind of surprised when I got my first statement from them and saw I was actually selling books on my blog. Then I got invited to the blogads network, that’s when it really struck me that I might get this hobby of mine to pay for itself.

I run tradeshows for a living so I thought “I need to go to the blogging tradeshow” to try and figure out how to really build my blog and make some money. I didn’t even know what the term “monetization” meant as far as it applied to blogging. So I went searching for the blogging tradeshow. It didn’t exist. I thought hey I run tradeshows I can do this blogging tradeshow. I told some tradeshow friends and some blogging friends about the idea and they all loved it. The rest is history 8).

Q: 2. For those who don’t know, what’s Blogworld all about?

Wow it’s about a lot of things. I warned you these answers could be long but I will try to be as succinct as possible here. It is about helping bloggers, podcasters, internet radio and TV broadcasters or any other type of new media content creator succeed with their content. A big part of that is the conference. We had some really smart people speaking at last years conference and covering tons of different topics. From helping them get their creative juices flowing, to the process of building an audience, to how to monetize your content, tips on understanding the technical aspects of it and how to use the technology and tons of other topics.

Then we had sessions for business owners and corporate executives to help them understand how to interact with us (bloggers). Those sessions covered things like how and why to by social media advertising, how to approach a blogger if you are trying to get them to talk about your business, to how to monitor what people are saying about you in the blogosphere.

The tradeshow is a whole other aspect where bloggers can talk to the companies whose product and services they use directly. Huge companies like Yahoo, Microsoft to start ups and small companies like Unique Blog Designs and OnebyOne Media.

And finally the networking and social aspect. There are just tons of opportunities to meet with your peers, mentors and bloggers you look up to and respect that you just are not going to find anywhere else. Everyone attending this show loves blogging as much as you do and they can talk about it for hours hehe.

Q:3. On a scale of 1-10, how successful was last year’s Expo? And what made it so successful?

I would say it was an 8. What made us successful was first of all pulling it off and by that I mean bringing together for the first time a truly industry wide group of people to same place at the same time. Mommy bloggers, Godbloggers, Milbloggers, Political Bloggers, Sports Bloggers, Real Estate Bloggers all together with the usual suspects of tech, business and marketing bloggers. That has never been done before and I am really proud of that. Many of these communities never knew the other existed and raising that awareness is a major accomplishment for me.

This year we plan to be even more diverse and get even more communities to participate.

Q: 4. What went well, and what went not-so-well?
 
We were very fortunate to get support from a lot of different people in the blogosphere. We got very positive feedback from the sessions. People felt like they got their moneys worth.

As far as not so well, we would like to have some bigger breaks between the sessions and give people more time to spend on the exhibit floor.

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Q: 5. What and Who can we expect to see at this year’s expo?

Without getting into any specifics this early I would say get ready to see a show that’s twice as big as it was last year, some of the most influential bloggers and business leaders in the world speaking, and the most exciting new media technologies you can imagine. Last year a mobile blogging phone service Utterz was launched at our show and Microsoft gave our attendees a sneak peak at the new Zune a week before it was released to the public. You will see new stuff debut at BlogWorld this year

6. Do you have some quick blogging tips for the readers?

Remember I started this show so I could learn from the smart guys so you can definitely get better advice than from me. What I will say if you are blogging write about something you are passionate about and that you sincerely care about. If you fake it people can see right through it.

The other is keep posting. One of the things I love about blogging is its kind of like practicing on a musical instrument or really any skill. The more you practice the better you get. People understand that your blog is always a work in progress. The good ones are at least and your writing, opinions and point of view is always evolving and growing. Your blog should reflect that.

THANKS RICK,  GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Book your reservations now… It’s in Vegas, so definitely BOOK NOW WHILE IT’S STILL EARLY!

Blogworld site: http://www.blogworldexpo.com
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BlogWorldBlog

While you’re at it, slap this on your blog or site to show support:

<a href="http://www.blogworldexpo.com/" title="Join Me at Blog World" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.blogworldexpo.com/2008/bw-bugs/BlogWorldJoinME08_160pix.gif" alt="Join Me at Blog World Expo" border="0" /></a>

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Tags: blogworld, blog conference, new media expo, blogworldexpo

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