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Kick your blog up a notch, Come to Blog World.

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If you believe that blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn is the future of media, the way we shall communicate and share information with one another from now onwards, you may want to check out BlogWorld, the largest social media conference in the world.

With over 3,000 attendees, 140 educational sessions, not to mention all the gurus of social media, accessible to talk to, so they say, this may be a perfect way to kick your blog up a notch.

You might be thinking, “I’m not interested in selling anything, or branding myself,” however, every blogger is a writer, who shares content for others to read and as such, learning to improve your content, is not such a bad thing. More and more journalists and businesses are turning towards new media.

Presenters such as Mark Burnett, (Producer of the show Survivor) talk about the importance of story-telling. I sent in a video to the Survivor Show in 2001, to become a contestant. (In the video, I bench-pressed my seven-year-old son and pretended to eat a bowl of worms, consisting of Japanese noodles in teriyaki sauce to make them look real in color.) I was so hopeful to be one of the contestants in the Marquesas islands but was not selected. Just had to tell you my story.

Darren Rowse (one of the approachable gurus of blogging) says that attending BlogWorld, helps you shift your mindset so you start taking social media seriously. There are so many bloggers who fly from all over the world to attend this conference, including Annabel Candy from Australia. I told her I’d like to meet her in L.A. in November, as she plans on attending.

Here are some statistics on the BlogWorld website I found very interesting. Especially the third one, over 57 million Americans read blogs, and spend on average 23 hours a week reading them. For all writers, almost 90% of companies say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.

* Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
* More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
* Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
* 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
* 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
* 9% of internet users say they have created blogs.
* 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
* Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs.
* Over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
* There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
* 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
* 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006.
* 51% of blog readers shop online.
* Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

So do you think you’d consider attending a BlogWorld conference? Why or why not?
(I know it’s expensive.)

Is your blog different from other blogs?

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If you want your blog to be successful and draw visitors, you might want to sit down, analyze your blog and dissect it to death. Remember those biology classes you took in school? The ones where you cut open an earthworm and labeled it? Well, that’s what I’m talking about, and before all you SEO experts and gurus laugh at me and say, “What about you Gutsy Writer?” let me tell you, I’m in the process of doing this and realize the changes I need to focus on. Give me a break, it’s a learning process. So what about you? Have you thought about your message, what you want others to get from your blog? Darren Rowse from ProBlogger is running 31 Days to build a better blog, the 31D BBB challenge, and the first day is all about your pitch.

Not easy, and believe me, I can relate. If we take our blogs seriously, we go through stages questioning whether or not we’re on the right track. Here are six questions to help you focus on your goals.

  • What is my message?
  • Who is my audience?
  • Do I stick to a theme or am I all over the place?
  • Should I hire an expert?
  • Can I do it myself and save money?
  • Why can’t I just have fun? (If you’re like me, overcoming challenges can be fun. Did I really say that?)

I read many marketing blogs and books and they always talk about the importance of your pitch, message, or tag line. This applies to blogs, manuscripts, screen plays, whatever you’re creating and wish to share with the world.

So today, I’d like to ask you to reflect on your blog. How is it different from all the others out there? In order to help you take the first steps, how would you classify your blog? (Pick the three most relevant to you.)

Educational
Entertaining
Informative
Motivational
Inspirational
Empowering
Spiritual
Uplifting
Journalistic
Artsy
Financial
Humorous
Promotional
Selling
Other (Please describe in your comment below.)

Useful Marketing Tip: If your goal is to get more followers, then just like getting media attention, your blog needs to focus on being:

  1. Entertaining
  2. Informative
  3. Motivational

Here are three very helpful books I’ve used:

So what is the message you want to share with your readers?
Are there any changes you wish to make with your blog?

Successful bloggers tell stories like Darren Rowse

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A few weeks ago, I discovered something about Darren Rowse, the Australian guy (guru) behind ProBlogger I didn’t know. Apart from his expert advice on blogging, he wanted to share another facet of himself by conducting a bold experiment called: the Tanzania Blog Project. He decided to take us into the lives of ordinary Tanzanians, especially women and children with medical issues, and share the wonderful work conducted by CBM: an Australian non-profit..

Darren wanted us to see and feel like we’re with him, without leaving our comfortable armchair. Through his daily interviews on video, we’re able to follow the lives of Tanzanian kids like Athman, the ten-year-old boy who is constantly picked on because of his disability. Darren’s video shows us what CBM in conjunction with CCBRT (a Tanzanian non-governmental organization) are doing to help at their disability hospital in Dar es Salaam. Darren states that Athman’s biggest problem isn’t his physical disability, but his “social isolation.” He managed to capture Athman getting mobile on this video.

We get to hear about another common problem in Tanzania, women with fistulas. This is a problem that can be treated, but many women live in “shame” and are also “socially isolated” or badly treated by others. Darren interviews two women, Hadija, who is older, and who has suffered 30 years with her fistula problem. She did not realize it could be treated until a younger woman, Niguala (who’s had a fistula for two months) heard about the hospital from a neighbor.

Some of the harsh realities of Tanzanian life are:

  • 35 women die a day from maternal health issues.
  • 120 babies die within 24 hours of being born every day.
  • Fistulas are a common problem in women in Tanzania, many caused by child birth.

Darren says in his final video, “Instead of thinking about the depressing aspects, we need to focus on the fact that there are people out there helping.” Disability is more about not being able to participate, because kids and adults are secluded by others. “It’s our attitudes that stop disabled people from reaching their potential.”

I agree with Darren that getting involved with project like the Tanzania Project, reminds us of some of the things happening in other parts of the world. I think it’s uplifting to see volunteers helping. I know I benefited tremendously from my ten days of volunteering with a group of U.S. nurses in a Mayan school in Belize.

It’s difficult for many to travel to far away places like Tanzania, however, I appreciate the way Darren captured the “stories” of many women and children, and opened our eyes to what’s being done, and how we can help.

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