Last Friday, Australian Businesswomen’s Network members and bloggers Yvette Vignando, Vivienne Kane, Alycia Edgar and Johanna Baker-Dowdell and I (along with over 300 others) attend the ProBlogger Training Day in Melbourne. The one-day event was been created for bloggers of all levels to come together to learn and network – with the goal of building better blogs. We decided to put together our top take-aways from the day – ideas that resonated with us and that we think you will find valuable.
“Create a profile of who your ideal readers would be.”
Attending blogging conferences is always enriching for me especially because of the variety of people I meet there with interesting niches and fascinating blogs. But the ProBlogger conference had an extra edge for me because some of the speakers were also at the top of their game when it comes to blogging and monetisation of a blog. Reflecting on the messages and information that would be especially relevant to the general blogging community, these are the ones that stood out for me:
- Be careful to value your blog and its niche when dealing with requests for PR. Phoebe Montague (aka Lady Melbourne) stressed that it is not usually a good idea to use your blog to work for free or very little. So for example, instead of reviewing a product worth $50 in return for keeping the product, consider charging a fee (perhaps double that) for the review – the income pays you for your work.
- It’s not always possible to write with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in mind, but make sure you write on your main topics regularly to keep your Blog optimised. (And by the way, although we don’t use WordPress for the happychild.com.au blog, we were told that there is an Editorial Calendar plugin for WordPress that could be useful.
- Create a profile of who your ideal readers would be and then use it to create posts that are relevant to them.
- “Branding is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” Try to understand what your blog’s brand is and make sure that this clarity is reflected in what you write.
— Yvette Vignando, happychild.com.au
“Motivate your readers to come back.”
The most important points for me from the morning sessions were:
- Don’t assume your reader is you – it’s probably a much broader audience than that.
- When you write, write as though you are speaking to one person – make it personal.
- Your “voice” and content should differentiate you – be authentic.
- Motivate your readers to come back – ask questions and be a problem solver.
— Vivienne Kane, Minuteman Press Prahran
“Nothing is more important then being yourself”
When trying to attract readers, nothing is more important then being yourself, including sharing personal insights, anecdotes and your own photos. Productivity can be an issue if you’re blogging as well as working, so write posts in batches and use comments and questions to help source new topics. When putting together a strategy for blog content, brainstorm ideas and then ask readers which topics appeal to them. — Johanna Baker-Dowdell, Strawberry Communications
“There is a fine line between giving away too much and devaluing your paid products and services.”
A comment by special guest Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week: “a lot of teaching fails from too much information, not too little,” rounded up my learnings at the ProBlogger event. Sonia Simone of Copyblogger, in an earlier session, had spoken extensively about tribes and the know, like and trust factor with some great information, but the message I truly received from this uber-intelligent person was this:
If you start to develop a tribe, people will pay to be a member, for access (without trolls). People will also pay for exclusive access to you, advanced training and Q&A sessions are like gold.
In other words, while freemium is a great model from a marketing perspective, there is a fine line between giving away too much and devaluing your paid products and services. Sonia summed it up beautifully (IMHO) — “How can you become their latte so they can’t live without it?” Put the really juicy stuff behind the paid wall, value those that are paying money for access, but still provide great free content as a marketing tool. — Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
And me…
“Always make it clear what you want people to do.”
- Put more YOU on your blog and in your posts.
- To create trust – show up, pay attention, don’t lie.
- Don’t dilute the sales funnel with distractions. Focus the message.
- Sometimes selling does not involve money – often you’re selling a concept.
- Your readers cannot find your old content – so repackage content to make it more readily available.
- Always make it clear what you want people to do.
— Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network
I really enjoyed the day.
The speakers were first class (I’d recommend you put the next one in your schedule if you want to be a better blogger or just create better content for your social media and your website). You can read more about the Problogger Training Day here. And I also recommend you subscribe to Darren Rowse’s Problogger blog here
