My spin on BlogWorld Expo 2007

I'm glad to hear that BlogWorld Expo will be in September next year, because this year's conference almost collided with two major personal events - my birthday (that's my Ratatouille ice cream birthday cake on the right), and Thanksgiving (click here to see what I made).

Well those two events and a "Blogging at Breakfast" talk for the Northern Colorado Writer's Association that I had to prepare as soon as I got home for Veagas. (I'm not even going to think about the two week's worth of laundry my family made in the four days I was gone.)

Thus this wrap up post two weeks after I return from the Expo. Probably a good thing because I needed the time to think about everything I saw and did. (Next time I'll try to practice the 7 Ways to Keep the Post-Conference Buzz though I did start a good To Do list of things to accomplish when I got home.)

Some terrific round ups

• BlogWorld Expo Wrap Up podcast - by Tris Hussey and Jim Turner of the Social Mediasphere (BlogTalk Radio) Tris took a terrific picture of me that I'll have to make prints for the family.
• BlogWorld or Bust! - by StartUp Princess (I got to meet her at the session she blogged about. She gave me a wand that I gave to my own little princess - a great marketing idea and ice breaker!)
• All the interviews with the vendors and speakers that Jim Turner did at BlogWorld Expo Radio (BlogTalk Radio)
• Just Google "BlogWorld Expo" and do a search on it at Technorati - you'll find oodles

The lack of community

Trying to walk around Vegas and the Convention Center with a knee injury sucked. I was exhausted by the end of the day. I was even too tired to party much and had to leave the evening event at the Hard Rock Cafe early. This was a shame because I missed all the fun. Seems that Vibrator.com's owner, Keith Levenson, got kicked out of the party for handing out stickers. (You can read his side of the story at the Vibrator.com blog.)

Keith was very nice and I enjoyed talking with him and a couple of the sex bloggers, my friend the Queen of Spain who just started the Queen's Bedroom, and Graydancer who I met through Amy Gahran of Contentious.com. (I met Amy at the Blogher conference two years ago and see her at various writer's and blogger's meetings here in Colorado. She moderated the Blogging Ethics session at BlogWorld Expo.)

Keith's stickers were no different than the business cards that many people were passing out that night. But people are uptight about sex, especially at a conference that features conservative political and god bloggers. It just showed that BlogWorld Expo was more about business than community. As Graydancer wrote on his blog about people's reaction that he blogs and podcasts about sexual matters:

They’re very polite. They’re very nice. But it was literally concern over the reaction of the conservative bloggers that kept one potential model for last night’s party from being tied - and that was the only reason, because she had been looking forward to it. But she’s part of a startup, and as their CEO said “We’re young. We don’t need those kinds of problems."

I hope that Graydancer comes to Blogher this summer to hang out with other sex and relationship bloggers. (Yes he's a guy. They do have men at Blogher, you know.) Frankly, after attending the excellent monetization sessions at BlogWorld Expo, I think I have enough info - and items on my To Do List - to go to Blogher just for the community-based sessions. It's not all about the money, you know.

Who I met and what I learned

I got to listen to, meet and/or talk to many vendors whose services I use, needed help with, or websites and services I may be interested in partnering with:

Windows Live Writer	BlogCritics Magazine
CrispAds	Blogsvertise
FreelanceNation	Kontera
Newstex	phototrade
Divine Caroline	BloggerReps
Blogads	blurb

Also, I finally got to meet Denise Wakeman from The BlogSquad who interviewed me at Build a Better Blog using her Flip Video camcorder. The Flip was the HOT item of the conference. I was so excited by a video camera that is as small as a digital camera that I asked Santa (via Amazon.com) to bring me a Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, 60-Minutes (Black) for Christmas. Now I just need to figure out how to use it on my blogs - cooking demos, interviews, dumb kid tricks?

Monetizing video is the wave of the future according to Jim Kukral, who I saw talk at both BlogWorld Expo and PostieCon.

Side note: PostiCon was a free conference put on after BlogWorld by Izea for those interested in PayPerPost or already working with them as a "Postie." PostieCon had a wonderful feeling of community. Not only was the schwag better - they had prizes too - but the Posties are a fun bunch. Check out the Cake Plow at The BenSpark. The speakers were excellent, too.

Not only did Jim share his views on video, but he also told the audience:

To make money off of blogging, you must solve your readers' problems and/or entertain them.

(He goes into more detail at his post There Absolutely Is A Secret Formula To Making Money Online.)

This was the most important thing I learned at the conference and worth the price of admission. It's all about the content, kids. Now I wish they'd give us some sessions on how to be a good writer and how to come up with captivating content. (Well they did, but Brian Clark of Copyblogger had to cancel due to illness, darn it.)

See you in Las Vegas next year!