Be Healthy, Well, & Inspired

This past week was a busy week for me. I attended two blogging events, went to a Nursing Open House and interview, and attended a teleclass.  This post will focus on the two blogging events and share some gems learned.

{image:  found via Blog Out Loud}

I started out the week by attending a Blog Out Loud 6 (BOL) event.  This was the first time BOL, founded by Megan and Rebecca, was held in New York City and my first blogging event so I did not know what to expect.  I did know there will be a panel of bloggers speak about their experience in blogging.   Needless to say, the event exceeded my expectations! The BOL event was free (hey, you can’t beat that) and everyone received goodies (double greatness)! I love goodies especially if they involve journals.  Most importantly, there were sweet treats to eat by Fanny and Jane and boy, were they delicious.  I only took one of each and I can tell you I could have taken more!

The main highlight of the evening was the panel of speakers. The speakers included:

Michelle of When I Grow Up Coach

Alison of Etsy

Erin of Design for Mankind

Amy of ABCD Designs

Meredith of ebay’s The Inside Source

{from left to right:  Meredith, Amy, Michelle, Rebecca, Megan, Alison, and Erin}

{image:  found via Blog Out Loud}

Some Twitter pearls:

1.)  I don’t need to read every tweet.

2.)  Follow people who interest me.

3.)  Hootsuite is an all in one social media application:  Twitter, Facebook, Linked In

4.)  Make list of people in Hootsuite who I want to follow their tweets.

5.)  Save time. Hootsuite has a scheduling function to schedule when you want your blog posts to post on Twitter.

Some Blogging pearls:

1.)  Monetize your blog advice from Erin:  1 penny per 1 reader per month

2.)  Have an RSS feed

3.)  Sidebar ads versus context:  Have ads in your context because people may not click on sidebar ads

4.)  Contact another blogger to write on your blog while you are on vacation

5.)  Track your readers

6.)  Find your own voice and writing authentically

7.)  Don’t  be afraid to be “YOU” when you blog.  It’s okay if people don’t like your writing style.  You will find the ones that resonate with you.

These were the pearls of wisdom learned last Monday.  If you would like more tips from Rebecca, click here.

BOL 6 was on Monday.

On Tuesday, I attended a WordPress NYC Meetup:  “How to Drive Traffic to your Website” at Outside.In

{image:  Esther from Outside.In via Steve from WordPress meetup site}

Four companies presented:

Outside.In

Tynt

nrelate

SailThru

Esther from Outside.In:

I learned some best practices for bloggers from Esther in Outside.In:

1.)  Geoseo your blog

2.)  Publish your RSS

3.  Geoseo your writing

Jim from Tynt:

1.)  70% of information is shared on email; 50 times more are shared on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg

2.)  Easy Tynt plugin in WordPress

3.)  When readers copies a paragraph from one of your blog postings,  a link back is added from Tynt in the clipboard.  This link is included where the user pastes the content copied (Facebook, Twitter, email).  These links will drive new people to your site.  These links will also boost SEO when pasted and search engines will be able to find them.

Oliver from nrelate:

1.)  nrelate is similar to LinkWithin, a related post plugin

2.) nrelate has the option to choose how long ago the related articles will be displayed

3.)  Readers are encouraged to read other articles in your blog and increase your page views

Neil from SailThru:

1.)  Increase newsletter click-throughs

2.)  Sailthru is an email provider for marketers, publishers, online shop owners, and advertisers.

3.)  Uses a blend of perception and content selection, allows personalization of one to many targeted emails.

Whew! I hope you found these blogging pearls as useful as I did.  Did I mention the four services above are free? And some you can even make some money.

Tags: Blogging, Blogging tips