Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Project Update: Conferences & The Blogger Bubble

March 8, 2010 | Personal

This is my weekly project update, where I tell you what I’ve been up to this week in my business and share what’s on my mind.

I’m fresh back from Continuity Summit, an event hosted by Ryan Lee up in Stamford, CT.

Picture 1All in all, great event. Ryan did a great job in delivering a lot of content. In many conferences, I’ll be in and out of the room. A lot of networking happens out in the hallways, after all. However, I attended almost every speaker this time because they were all good. I have a lot of notes sitting in Evernote to go over and process.

Continuity Summit is an internet marketing event. I’ve been to several of them and they are always different than a blogging event. The crowds are very different. The people in attendance are generally running internet businesses – real businesses like the kind I talk about on this blog. They weren’t so much interested in blogging. They weren’t that active on Twitter. They were just making money.

At blogging events, the level of Twitter activity is usually quite high. Everybody is blogging (obviously). But, most of them are trying to figure out even the most basic business strategies, and often don’t think much beyond banner ads.

It is interesting being in the middle, with one foot in each world. The power really is in the middle ground. In fact, this is pretty much the very definition of the Third Tribe, as those guys have defined it.

The power of this business lies in creating a relationship with your crowd and providing tons of value – and charging money for some of it. But, the relationship is key. Proof of that is the fact that Ryan Lee himself filled this event with over 1,000 attendees and did it using only his own blog and his email list. No JVs. He got 1,000 people to hop on planes and fly to Stamford. That’s the power of a relationship. It’ll KILL PPC advertising anytime, as far as I’m concerned.

I would love to see more bloggers showing up at events like this. I met a few. In fact, I met up with several readers of this blog there in Stamford (nice meeting you guys!). But, bloggers who are interested in monetizing need to get out of the blogger bubble.

What do I mean by the blogger bubble?

The word “blogger” usually denotes a person who writes a lot, shares their thoughts. When it comes to making money, most bloggers never leave the paradigm of “writing a lot”. They look for indirect ways of making money from their work – banner ads. It leads to this self-contained little bubble of limited thinking. Because they think their product is blog posts.

This bubble even extends outward. In this crowd of internet marketers, when I told them what I did, many of them asked me how I make money and automatically assumed I did it by way of banner advertising. So, even THESE guys think banner ads are the only way to go.

What a bubble!

We have to burst that bubble, guys. Blogging is just a medium. It isn’t a business.

When it comes to monetizing a blog, blogging is not a unique business model. Instead, it is just another promotional medium where all the same stuff internet marketers talk about apply. In other words, there shouldn’t be two different camps here. There’s only one, really.

I’ll be flying to Washington DC on Thursday to attend Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar. This is another internet marketing event. As usual, I expect I’ll find very few bloggers there. But, you know what? I probably will find several marketers with blogs – they just don’t define themselves by the medium.

And they’re banking.

Think about it.

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  • I tend to agree. I've always considered blogging to be one form of writing and not something in and of itself.
  • I am not sure where I read this quote in the last days (maybe here), but it fits perfectly. "Blogs don't make money, businesses do!" - Bringing people into the door with your writing is one thing, monetizing your traffic is another part of the game.

    That is true for the majority of blogs. However, in the last weeks and month I became aware of another sort of blogs, where blogging is actually the business model.

    Like it is with an illusive obvious, I am finding more and more of them. I am talking about site like uncrate.com or fighterxfashion.com or premiumwp.com !

    Product Blogging - Utilizing blogs to cover the latest product releases of an industry seems like a profitable business model (I am paying commissions to one of the sites mentioned above).

    Probably worth checking out!
  • Great idea about the blogger bubble. I also think that in addition to a promotional medium, blogs are one of the best ways to add a personal touch to your online business.
  • Thanks for sharing this David.

    This was also an eye opener for me. I also tended to focus on mostly Social Media event. And that's what I set myself up for mostly this year also. Seems like I still have a lot to learn.

    Though I would probably be more in and out a event like that to get the opportunity to network with IM peeps.

    Cheers.. Are
  • Where can I find out about all of the different blogging / internet marketing events?

    I have been blogging full time for about a year now and what I am finding is the income earned is really a result of building trust & credibility for myself "my brand equity".

    I started out with the affiliate route and then banner ad ... but those strategies were more headaches than profit
  • I'm with ya man. I'm looking for a comprehensive list of rockin conferences to attend. Someone totally needs to put one together. Conferences are a huge opportunity for anyone serious about taking things to the next level. Risley has talked about Blog World Expo...my goal is to make every effort to attend that this year.
  • If I find such a list I will be sure to pass it along. Maybe David has one he can share :)
  • Right on man. Yeah, there is definitely demand for such a list ;) I'm not qualified to write one...that's for sure. BWE will be my first blogging conference.
  • Ut ake care
    I was waiting to see your take on the event David. I could not agree more with your points. You need to be a marketer in this new economy. It does not matter if you are a blogger or an internet marketer as long as you are giving something of value. You need to get people to know, like and trust you and develop those relationships. Looking forward to your post about Yanik's event. I wish I was going to be there.
  • Hi David,

    Extremely good post. The Internet Marketers certainly don't tweet much indeed. I finally met David at the event having missed him at BlogWorld last year; he's a great guy. It is weird, but good to meet the people you follow on twitter. This was my second such event and it was great. I spent Sat./Sun. pouring over my notes. I got real ideas and met real people which is the key. I've even implemented one feedback already and working on others. Got possible JVs for the future as well.

    Looking forward to much of the same and more this weekend as well at the Underground Seminar; can't wait. See you there David.

    You are right David, the blog is only the medium; as bloggers, we hve to get out more :-).
  • LifeBlazing
    David, I'm new to your blog, but will be at UG6 and hope to meet you!
  • Cool. Be sure to stop me and say hi. :-)
  • LifeBlazing
    Thanks for the invitation to do so! I definitely will :-)
  • Very goo, David. My first web site was an online catalog replicating my bulk print catalog -- in 1994. Of course, blogging didn't exist then, but I've always seen things as you do.
  • Great update, always like the reminder that the blog is the medium not the product.

    Which conferences do you find offer more value to you? The conferences for blogging/social media specifically or more internet business oriented?

    Have a great one, David!

    Marie P.
    www.affinityclick.com
  • remarkablogger
    It's a tough struggle from either end. Business people have trouble figuring out how to make blog marketing work and bloggers struggle to build a real business. Plenty of work for people like you and me, though. :-)
  • This is pretty much what I wanted to say, but couldn't find the words.

    My hunch (ok, I'm betting the farm on it), is that the blogging/writing end can turn into a productive business... but only when the content is stellar. Galactical even. Or whatever, has to be as good as the best. We'll see.
  • remarkablogger
    Dave, there has to be an equally good offer and business on the other side
    of that content. That's exactly what blogging-oriented people tend to
    overlook. :-)
  • True dat. ;-)
  • cashdoodle
    I'm definitely with David and Marko on this. My blog was inspired by my redundancy and was meant to be a record of my exploration of how to make passive income from art and design, but although in it's infancy I've already started to think beyond merely throwing up banner ads.

    I kind of see blog posts as equivalent to how MP3's now work for the music market: a freely shareable, quality product that makes you want more and eventually delivers value in terms of paid for experience (live gigs) and products (e.g merchandise) further down the line.
  • Don't know why I didn't hear of this before...might check it out next year. I like the IM stuff because it's easy to apply to blogging. The blogging stuff isn't as easy to apply to the marketing.
  • Yeah, because IM is about marketing. You can sell anything with it. Blogging is just a medium.
  • True. But it is hard for people to get it about ads not being the best way to monetize your blog. Everyone is stuck with the Adsense or the affiliate banners mindset, and the best monetization they can think of is getting paid to have the ad in the sidebar.

    Slowly but surely more and more are creating real businesses selling real products and services,and that is definitely the way to go.
  • The more I read online about monetizing a blog your point here seems to rise to the surface. You can say content is king all day if your only goal is to drive traffic to your blog. People don't want to read generic crap...they want quality, unique, fresh content. But if your aspirations are to make money, great content is a means to an end. You bring in the traffic, you convert the traffic, and you sustain the converted traffic. Great thoughts!
  • That sounds like a great event, David.

    Sounds like I need to start making some bank so I can go to all these cool things. ;)
  • Look at it as an investment, kind of like you did with BMC. The idea is to go to these events and MAKE money with them. In my experience, I've found that the networking in-person with folks has made a HUGE difference.
  • Abolsutely right David. It is an investment and it will pay off well in the end.
  • My sentiments exactly;)
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