I spent last Saturday at the Blogopolis conference, an oestrogen rich room of bloggers feasting on high tea and information overload. Non-bloggers amongst you, apologies I’ll see you tomorrow! Bloggers here’s my attempt to capture some of the knowledge transmitted on the day, in some cases just rough notes, others I have expanded upon. Pack a cut lunch and settle down to undertake a link-rich frenzy of  info on how to make this blasted blogging gig work!

First up the really important lessons:

NEVER let people introduce themselves to you with their names, always find out their blog names. I’m lousy at personal names at the best of times but in blogging world I’m waaaaay more familiar with blog titles than I am with the names of the people behind them – it could be an ageing brain but just work with me people.

Bloggers who have avatars with no resemblance to their appearance are deliberately screwing with my head.

Presenters who attempt to engage, entertain and inform audiences while competing with a live twitter stream deserve triple the money! (And if they are not paid they should be). Seriously difficult task.

The really big one though is that you must unleash your inner stalker and become adept at hovering around people until you attract their attention (or they call security), there were a few people who I wanted to say hello to but every time I spied them they were deep in conversation with someone and unfortunately good manners prevented me interrupting, which meant I didn’t get to tell – Caz Makepeace her homework and money posts were particularly meaningful for me,  Karen Andrews how much I enjoy her restrained, literary style and I didn’t get to thank Melissa from Suger Coat It for her recent comment on moving my blog – it has sustained me no end the past couple of weeks to read someone else had struggled to continue blogging while dealing with the technical aspects of changing over.

Now here’s the a key point I took away from each session I attended (and links to more detailed write-ups).

Idea Sourcing & Content Creation – by Imogen Lamport at Inside Out Style Blog

Ideas are everywhere – in the comments and questions people ask you, the keywords used to arrive at your site, other media, the calendar, on social media and through guests posts from others who align with your blog. Tina Gray has written a great post on this session at Tina Gray (dot) Me.

Blog Design 101 (Katrina Chambers)

The room was then divided in two and, like a parent having to choose their favourite child, we had to pick a session. Either Blog Design 101 or SEO & Analytics. I will be eternally gratefully to Katrina from the Block who has generously blogged her notes from the design session while I attended the SEO & Analytics talk.

SEO Analytics (Jeff Tan)

As I feared I knew nothing, Jeff provided clear and simple explanations for the whole topic and again Tina Gray has captured the session really well on her blog.

Although, I was left wondering how relevant it is to personal blogs? Given that I have no answers for people, no solutions to their problems and seriously little information what would they use to search for in my blog? A look at my top search terms – Shambolic Living (so people have to be WANTING to find me),  Naked 50 year old women also makes appearance because I wrote an opinion piece on the Deborah Hutton Women’s Weekly cover – searchers may be a little disappointed with that result. Nobody is searching for “taking your husband shopping for Blogopolis clothes” or “demented whingeing of disorganised woman” – what’s more important with a personal blog – SEO or marketing yourself?

Creating a Brand For Your Blog (Nicole Avery)

A highly organised woman who has created a distinct brand for her blog (I had to hide my home-made business cards at this point). Nicole explained you had to protect your brand in all aspects, consider carefully the events you attend – even if you don’t blog about the event/company behind it others may take your photo and tweet/instagram/blog it – implying your tacit approval and support of the company. Nicole has posted the slides from her presentation.

Opportunities Through Blogging (Styling You, Childhood 101, Fashion Hayley and AU Review)

Create great content, build and sustain relationships with traditional media, brands and everyone who crosses your path because you never know when an opportunity will present itself. Know your value and worth and avoid working for free. Styling You wrote more about opportunities through blogging on her blog.

Finding Your Voice and Staying Relevant (Edenland, Lady Melbourne, Good Googs, Jeroxie )

I loved that this panel presented contrasting opinions which made for much thinking afterwards. Be true to yourself. Writing is like a muscle, the more you do it the more it develops.  If you hesitate to publish – do it anyway/don’t do it. You can find a niche or an area in which you are expert/you don’t need to be an expert in anything just write. If you are confident in your beliefs you can handle controversy. You can read more about the topic at both Edenland and Good Googs blogs. My only disappointment with this panel was that we didn’t get to hear the entire rendition of Islands in the Stream from moderator, All Consuming.

Utilising Different Platforms to Optimise Your Blog & Traffic (Hair Romance, Y-travel, Chaigyaru)

Pinterest – use high quality images, install a “pin it” button on your blog, use hashtags, you can pin videos, create a visual archive of your blog, collaborate, allow others to pin your boards, run a competition eg pin it to win it.

Podcasting – audio content/online radio show, people subscribe via RSS or iTunes, 20 – 30 minutes, interviews with special guests, sharing advice/tips, equipment – microphone (Logitech), recording & editing software (Audacity), Skype, Blubrry – a “powerpress” wordpress plugin and hosting, submits to iTunes, Callburner is used for recording Skype calls.

YouTube – digital camera, I-movie or Microsoft Moviemaker, create a personality, include links to similar posts, respond to comments, write snappy titles, be active, Photoshop your thumbnails.

The Australian Blogosphere Panel (Mrs Woog, A Beach Cottage, PR Warrior, Nuffnang)

It’s an interesting time in the Australian Blogosphere at the moment – recently traditional newspapers have announced job cuts and downsizing of printing plants to focus more on digital media – my first thought was “oh crap blogging just got a lot more competitive”, there’s some tension between the old guard and the blogging world, but perhaps it will see developments that will be beneficial to blogging, new formats, a greater variety of styles, more respect from brands for the medium?

The panel called for the blogging community to be supportive of each other, work together, celebrate each other’s successes. Blogging is becoming an industry.

The panel spoke of the importance of reach and engagement and the use of testimonials, emails, social media stats to show the influence a blog may have even if numbers are small. Although it was clear advertisers look at numbers and it’s important to build a strong readership.

Finally, I wasn’t at the sessions on The Ins & Outs of a Media Kit (Lady Melbourne) or Blog Photography 101 (Rachel Devine Photography) – if you have written about those session please feel free to add a link in the comments. (Don’t panic if you comment doesn’t appear if you have a link it may go to spam which I will be checking).

Thank you Nuffnang and all the speakers who gave so generously of their time. Thank you also to my blogging buddy on the day, Rachel Hynes from The Kids Are All Right (a great blog/website/forum for parents of teenagers) it was a lot of fun!

PS Have no time to check the million links in this post, if you click on any and they don’t work let me know.

Edit: Nuffnang has a list of all the blog posts written on Blogopolis and Melissa from Suger Coat It has written her take of the Media Kit presentation by Lady Melbourne.