Category Archives: Blogging

What I Learned at WordCamp

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Yesterday I attended Wordcamp Miami 2010 – one of the best conference-type experiences I’ve had in a while. In summary: very well organized, motivating speakers, friendly people, comfortable venue, and a nice lunch.  There were three program tracks: 1) developer, 2) social media, and 3) beginner.  I moved around a bit across the tracks and found all of the speakers and presentations to be helpful and encouraging. Other participants were also willing to share their insights.

I’ll be working on ideas I got at this event for some time, but here are a couple of items to share right now:

  • Jess Jurick’s Findng Your Blogging Voice was well attended and well received. Jess was also one of the organizers. Check out her presentation slides and her blog. Her presentation includes some other blog examples worth exploring.
  • WordPress SEO with John Carcutt helped even a non-programmer type like myself understand the importance of search engine optimization and how I can get started. He also previewed some changes on the way from Google.
  • Jim Turner’s From Daddy Blogger to Business Blogger explored the entrepreneurial side of blogging. Just Google ‘Genuine’ or ‘Hire a Blogger’ to find out more.
  • Tammy Hart is a self-taught developer. Her presentation, WordPress & Working with Clients, was full of tips and lessons learned. She introduced a number of resources, such as page.ly, and had down-to-earth suggestions for getting the work done.

There were many other speakers and more about each of them can be found on the WordCamp Miami website speakers page. By the way, there are WordCamps across the U.S. and the globe. Check out this calendar to find one near you. I think you’ll find a lot to learn and be motivated by, even if you don’t blog with WordPress.

Thanks to all organizers, speakers and participants for a great event. See you in 2011, WordCamp Miami!

image credit: WordCamp Miami

Year 2 – Blogging in 2010

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This blog is one year old as of this month! I’ve enjoyed the process of writing it (including figuring out what to write about) and learning more about blogging in general along the way.  Personally, this endeavor has become a sort of creative outlet and a source of self-directed professional development. Now that my ‘voice’ is starting to take shape I feel the need to set a few basic goals to grow and improve the project from this point forward.

In 2010 I’ll strive to:

  • Post once per week – I know that the pros advise more, but this is a little more realistic given all else I need and want to do in a week.
  • Comment on three blogs per week – There are so many out there that I read occasionally, but want to read more frequently. I have been negligent in commenting on others’ posts when I look for comments on my own.
  • Learn more about SEO and WordPress – It would be a nice bonus to build some kind of readership and keep my site looking and sounding as professional as possible.

So here we go…more to follow from me. Please share your writing/blogging tips and suggestions. Here are a few of my favorite posts on other blogs. I revisit these occasionally and they motivate me to keep writing:

Problogger

Chris Brogan

Web Distortion

ShermanLive

photo credit: John Althouse Cohen, Flickr

Update (1/17)! I just registered for WordCamp Miami in February. I have completely lucked out on the location and timing of this event. Looking forward to attending and letting you know what I find out.