Back from Blog World New York! I survived. I had a great time. I’m not a conference newbie anymore!
The three days of the conference went by fairly quick. The weather cooperated for the most part throughout the week. Just some periods of rain that never lasted too long.
The wi-fi in the conference, however, did not cooperate at times. You’d think wi-fi would be a high priority for a conference of people who spend so much time online.
That still didn’t put a damper on a great event.
I know I didn’t accomplish as much as I would have liked out of it, but it was my first ever conference, so I’m still happy with what I got out of it.
Here is my experience.
The Sessions
When I arrived the very first day, I was holding a schedule of the sessions like a freshman trying to find out which room to go to. I had some major flashbacks. Luckily everything was easy to find.
Every hour there was another great speaker sharing their expertise. At one time there were up to twelve sessions going on, so I had to really choose which ones I wanted to listen to. For the other sessions, an option was to purchase a virtual ticket to listen to any session at a later time.
I read some suggestions to not try and do as many sessions as you can, but every time slot I found a session I really wanted to attend.
Reading the content it is great, but it’s more powerful to listen to them talk about it for an hour. Some session were so good I wished it would have lasted longer.
I’m going to share some knowledge from some of my more favorite sessions (in order of when I attended them).
Pat Flynn – Affiliate marketing the SMART Way: Stop hoping and start earning
- People connect with people. Be personable
- Share you story. Do random acts of kindness
- Great affiliate marketers give a shit
- How will the products you promote help your readers?
- Relationship -> products -> experience -> proof -> the sell
Lewis Howes – How to Build a 7 Figure Online Lifestyle Business (by doing the opposite of what you think)
- Find mentors that inspire you. Model their success.
- Create products. Don’t be perfect.
- Promote others and don’t expect much in return. Promote only those that inspire you and you believe in.
- Be a connector. Bring together other influencers.
- Dream big
Derek Halpern – How to wring results from your blog using Social Triggers
- Design is king, not content. 94% say design equals trust.
- Create a controversy with with your content but don’t take a side. Provide data and research to back it up.
Cliff Ravenscraft and Fr. Roderick Vonhogen – How to build your audience and market your podcast
- Be thankful for the number of listeners you have, even if it’s small.
- There is power when your show has a narrow niche focus.
- 30% is creation. 70% is marketing and relationship building.
- Create high value content that people cannot live without.
- Entertainment goes a long way. Don’t be boring. Be passionate about it.
- If content is king, audio quality is queen.
Corbett Barr – The Art of Writing Epic Sh*t: How to create content that blows minds and attracts a crowd
- The better your content is the easier it is to market it.
- Experiment like crazy with your content. Find what works.
- Do a rant post, be funny, do video or a podcast. Just mix it up.
- Remix popular content. Borrow what works
Jamie Tardy – Building your blogs audience and becoming an expert with major press
- Gaining national media features can gain credibility, builds your audience confidence in you, and builds your confidence.
- Don’t try for national media unless you can convert traffic
- Mistakes to avoid: Get a link to your site, be searchable by your name, don’t let your site crash.
- Use Help a Reporter Out to find journalists looking for stories
Meeting people
One of the reasons I wanted to go to Blog World was to meet some old and new bloggers. I was able to do a little bit of both.
It was awesome to be able to shake Pat Flynn’s hand and talk with him a few times. I didn’t get to talk too long with him because everyone wanted to, but the time I did was really great.
I also got to meet Corbett Barr and Adam Baker, who I have both followed for a long time and look up to when it comes to doing more epic sh*t in my life.
I met Thea who blogs at Write Change Grow. She came all the way from Brisbane to attend Blog World! I met her through this blog awhile back. We had a nice lunch together the first day. I enjoyed hearing how she got an all expense paid trip to Southeast Asia last year and had to blog about it! So cool.
I met a gentleman named Gary who told me is a reader of my blog. He came all the way from Ireland to attend Blog World. Couldn’t have met a nicer guy. I met him on the first day and every time we would run into each other, he always gave a friendly hello. His daughter lives in New York and is looking to start blogging. So I thought it was cool that he and her could share this experience together.
Got to finally meet Srini Rao from the Skool of Life and Blogcast FM. Super cool guy and so busy. I saw him running around all week. He mentioned having me as a guest on an future episode of Blogcast FM so that’ll be really cool since I’m a huge fan.
I also got to meet Dave Ursillo, Eugene Farber, and Monique Johnson during the great party on Wednesday night hosted by Pat Flynn and Derek Halpern. The weather didn’t start off so nice, but once the rain cleared, the cool weather came in and was perfect for the rooftop venue. Pat and Derek did a great job hosting the party!
David from Everlution and Jeff from Commute Reboot were two new people I met during the week. I look forward to seeing what they do with their blogs.
Finally I got to meet my buddy Alex from Milkthepigeon.com for the first time.
He didn’t attend Blog World, but did come into the city for the party on Wednesday night. Alex is a twenty something looking to shake up life. He spent a year living and studying in Beijing and is planning to go back. My wife was really impressed with his Chinese and even went as far to say it’s better than mine! (Yikes). A really great guy and you should definitely get to know him and his blog.
I didn’t meet a ton of people like others may have, but I’m happy with the people I did get to meet.
Update: I totally forgot to mention Craig from Time Management Ninja. I feel bad because he’s one of the ones I really wanted to meet and it was a pleasure to meet him there.
The Worst Kayne West Impression
On the second day, I went to the podcasting panel with Pat Flynn, Adam Baker, Derek Halpern and Katie Davis.
Pat did a great job moderating the panel and so much great information was shared. It was in one of the smaller rooms so there was standing room only in the back. I was standing in the back.
I remember one girl standing in the back with a big camera, a recorder and a mic. Nothing out of the ordinary.
During the middle of the session, she walked up to the mic, which was positioned in the aisle for questions AFTER the session.
I’m guessing Pat thought she had a question that couldn’t wait. Instead, she started talking. Honestly I didn’t pay much attention to her every word. I just remember she was talking about how much traffic her podcast was getting and I heard her mention Oprah (yes she really did) then after that it was just blah blah blah to me because she kept going on!
After what seemed like forever, Pat politely told her “One minute left”, but she kept going on way past that. When she did finish, she left the room.
The point of hijacking the mic? Cheap and classless promotion. I think everyone was thinking “What was that?”
I read on Twitter that she possibly had her pass revoked, which is good. I don’t understand if she claimed to have thousands or millions (I forgot) of listeners, why she had to shamelessly plug her stuff to a small room of less than 100 people.
At least Kayne kept his interruption short and sweet!
That came a day after a woman stood on her chair and went topless during the keynote speech at the end of day one. Not sure why, but clearly she lost her mind, along with her top.
Crazy people do come out to Blog World!
Bonus: Book Expo America
As a Blog World attendee, we had access to Book Expo America which was going on in the same building.
I went over there during one of my lunch breaks. Free access? Why not.
The activity going on was crazy! The size of the exhibit floor made Blog World look like an ant hill.
So many different publishers from around the world had booths. I saw people walking around with bags full of books (I’m guessing free). I saw lines for autograph sessions. There was even a huge area in the back that different lines for different authors!
Ebooks are on the rise, but after seeing how many people were there, it shows that printed books are not going away anytime soon.
It was a nice bonus to be able to go to Book Expo America as a part of Blog World. Kinda got my writing a book juices flowing.
Final thoughts
I left Blog World with lots of great information, met great people, and a gained sense of needing to work harder and smarter. Not only for my blog, but other areas in my life.
Just listening to the sessions and being in New York City made me want to go bigger with my goals.
Done trumps everything is something I heard from multiple speakers. Too often we get focused on making our product perfect. Many said it, so it’s something we should all keep in mind.
Blog World is about learning, but action must be taken for it to be worthwhile.
The organizers did a great job putting together the event (despite the wi-fi issues).
I enjoyed my first Blog World! I’d recommend it to anyone who is serious about blogging.
I definitely see myself attending future ones. The next on is in Las Vegas January 6-8, 2013. Another exciting city for a conference! Maybe more topless women at the conference? It might seem pretty normal for Vegas. 🙂
Anyone thinking about going?
Benny – Glad you had a great time. I just heard that they are changing the name of the show to New Media Show. David Risley talked about the change. I hope to make the show in Las Vegas as they are to try and piggy back on the consumer electric show which wouold be way cool. I also hope that they change the location for New York as the cost is huge even if you can write off the expense. Plus whats not to love about Las Vegas.
I love the chance to see those who we only read about!It must have been great to put a person with the pictures in the post
Yep they made the announcement during the show that they’re changing the name. I do like that the show will piggy back with CES. I’d love to go to that. I looked real quick and think that the general public can’t get in, but if I go to Vegas, I’ll have to look more closely.
New York can be an expensive city, but it does make sense cause it’s easy to get to for many people on the east coast or coming from other place. But Las Vegas is the conference capital of the USA so I know attendees will like that it’s in Vegas.
It was nice to meet in real life. Most of the people I met were what I expected.
Hope you can make it to Vegas!
Sounds like it was really cool – definitely looking forward to (hopefully) going next year! I think you’re right though – it would be extremely hard NOT to want to go to every session. I checked out the schedule online and there looked like a ton of great presentations!
Thomas
Thomas, still bummed I didn’t get a chance to meet you. Oh well next time. Yeah lots of great sessions at every hour. Must be hard to do the scheduling!
Nice recap Benny – felt like I was there!
We’ll have to meet up at the Vegas NMX – I’d expect that you will be speaking at an event then? 🙂
Appreciate that Dan! I’d love to speak at a Blog World. Just have to think of a topic that’ll “wow” the audience. I can imagine you speaking on it at some point. Maybe Las Vegas? 🙂 http://www.blogworld.com/2012/06/12/come-speak-at-nmx-las-vegas/
Oh Man! I hope you’re going to make big ass posts out of each of those sessions!
LOL! Probably not. Blog World will do a post with all the recaps. I’m sure someone will have great notes from the sessions. I’ll send you the link when I see it.
Thanks for the shout out my friend. Looking forward to having you on the show in the near future. I’ll be in touch soon
pretty inspiring and thanks so much for sharing the learning points!!! 🙂
i love the blogosphere for that – everyone just shares, shares, and shares!!!!
glad you had a good trip esp the topless women – will they have topless men in Vegas, if so maybe I’ll consider going… :p
Noch Noch
You have made it quite easy on the eyes to read the main titles of the various sessions. I shall keep in mind when I do up the formatting for my own future blog posts. Cheers!
You’re welcome. Thanks for reading Albert! Format of your posts are so important. It makes it easier for readers to read.
LOL @ the Kanye West interruption – talk about bad publicity (and taste). Would have loved to be there though, seems like a great time, would have loved to be there for Cliff’s session as we’re looking into doing podcasting soon as well.
Great recap, Benny! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed your first blog conference! There’s so many great blog conferences out there if only I had time and money to attend more than one per year. I must admit I’m tempted to attend the next Blog World in Vegas, though I am also considering BlogHer 13 or Evo 13 next year.
Have a grateful day!
Chrysta
I enjoyed meeting people, but I really enjoyed sitting in on the sessions! I definitely am thinking of what conference I can attend next..hahaha. Thanks for your post to help me prepare for it!
Thanks for the recap Benny – I’m going to the event next year – I don’t care where it is – isn’t it going to be in Las Vegas… (I live in San Diego so it would be great if it’s in Southern California again).
Hey Irwin. Thanks for that! It’s going to be in Las Vegas in early January! I haven’t seen tickets on sale yet, but if you’re definitely going get the tickets early cause you can save a couple hundred bucks. Also I heard they have discounted room rates at the Rio for attendees of Blog World. Check their website for updates.
Benny,
It was my first time at BlogWorld too. We are no longer conference newbies! It sounds like we went to a lot of the same sessions. Too bad we didn’t get a chance to meet.
My husband and I were up close to the crazy topless woman. Just another tacky self promotion. Oh well, guess it takes all kinds.
I really like the motivational theme of your blog. Life is short, make the most of it, right?
Hope to catch up with you in Vegas.
Hi Cynthia! Yeah it’s too bad. Would have been nice to connect with other BW newbies. You definitely got your money’s worth from Blog World cause you got to see all the craziness! 🙂
I love the design of your blog. I always go with my first impression and it caught my eye.
Hope to catch up in Vegas as well!
The most brilliantly described all these special things !!! I wish I could be a part of BW. I went through your blog.. I felt bad that I am not following many things… 🙁
I will try my best to raise my blog.. !!!
Oh man, that sounds like it was great. I need to start going to conferences.
Hey Jon! You should. It’s not as scary as I imagined. I know a few web designers who blog as well that went to Blog World. So it’s a place that would be a good fit for you.
It’s hard to get everything out of your first BlogWorld event – I remember missing out on a lot of stuff I wanted to do. It gets easier the more you go! 🙂
Thanks Kristi! I certainly didn’t expect it to turn out perfectly for me since it was my first. But I appreciate you writing posts to help out newbies like me prepare for it!
Hey Benny, it was great to meet you bro! I SOOO wish we coud have hung out more. Next time we definitely have to just get a small group together and go out to dinner or something. I apologize I was being pulled this way and that…
Thanks for the recap, and yeah – Kayne impression, totally. I didn’t even think about that, lol.
Cheers bud, and lets at least talk on Skype between now and next time. Would love to hear what else you have going on and if there’s anything I can do to help. Peace!
Thanks Pat! It was great to meet you! I wish I could have made it on Sunday to meet up, but it didn’t work out for me. Totally understand you being busy. No worries, but did enjoy the time we did get to chat.
We’ll get on Skype for sure! Hope you and your family are having fun in Hawaii! I’m sure you all are. Who doesn’t have fun when vacationing in Hawaii?
Hi Benny
Love this recap, really enjoyed reading through it.
Thanks so much for the mention, appreciate it! I enjoyed our lunch on Tuesday and getting to talk to you. It was great to finally meet you in person. I totally agree that first conference can feel rather intimidating particularly when you first arrive.
I liked your take on the Kayne West impression, that was really weird wasn’t it. Definitely NOT an effective self promotion strategy! The other thing that amazed me was there was the odd person that didn’t want to promote themselves at all. They wanted to stay anonymous. I found that rather unusual considering the venue.
It was so hard trying to pick sessions. I didn’t see all of the ones above, so I’m keen to listen to them on the virtual ticket. I highly recommend you grab one of those for next time. The ones I did get a lot out of though were Pat’s (he’s always amazing and so down to earth) and Jaime’s. I loved the fact that Jaime’s presentation had action steps. As you mentioned, it’s great to go to the conference (and I am so glad I did) but unless you walk out of there and start putting your new knowledge to use, it won’t make much of a difference in the long run.
It’s all about taking action and making the good stuff happen.
Again really enjoyed meeting you and I look forward to talking again soon.
Cheers
Thea
Oh gosh, this sounds like it was THE place to be! I’m sad I had to miss it, since I’m a huge fan of all the speakers you mentioned, plus it would have been nice to meet other bloggers like you. But I definitely plan to go in January. Thanks for doing this recap, it’s still helpful for those of use (like me) that couldn’t make the conference in person.
I think Vegas would be a great place for a conference! You’d enjoy Blogworld. It’s cool to be able to meet others and talk blogging. It’s not like we can talk blogging to friends without them not really understanding what it is we do. I haven’t decided about Vegas yet, but if I go, it’d be awesome to meet you!
Great write up, Benny. Looks like a good productive time was had by all! Sure makes me wish I was there with you all. There is no feeling like being in company of those with a common interest.
-Jean
Thanks Jean! Where do you live? It’s great to surrounded by people who understand what you do and don’t give you funny looks when you say “I blog”.
Nice! I usually make it to SMX, SMX Advanced, or SES, but I’ve never been to Blog World. I’ve heard good things. Thanks so much for the bad ass recap, I’ll definitely consider hitting up the next one. Any idea if they’re coming to the bay area soon?
It was great finally meeting you in person. Glad I made it out to the party.
And this is one hell of a rundown. I love the condensed bullet point version of all the talks. Almost feels like I was there :).
Yeah it was! Sorry it took me a second to recognize you w/o all the bubbles floating around your head.
Benny,
This was one of the best summaries of Blogworld i’ve read. Can’t wait till we meet in person. I know it’s going to be at one of these blogworlds one of these days..
Thanks Annie! Can’t wait either. I know it’ll be lots of fun when we do meet. I can see you speaking at a Blogworld one of these days too!
Great recap and sounds like you had a lot of fun! Now that I think of it, I should have went b/c I have so manyf riends and relatives I haven’t seen in NYC for so long!
Crazy story about the mic hijack!
BTW, how much were blog world tix and what was the total cost including hotel and flights? would be helpful for those of us considering.
Vegas will be great! But so cold in January!
Sam, I think when I bought the BW tickets it was $197. I think now they have a sale going on where it’s $147. It gradually goes up. Basically the earlier you buy it, the cheaper it is. Also flights and hotels will vary depending on where you’re flying from. I believe in Vegas, Blog World has special rates in the Rio. $99 a night I think, which is really cheap considering there will be another major conference around the same time as Blog World.
Weather won’t be too bad in January. The casinos will keep you warm. 🙂
Cool. I think I will definitely make it out to Blogworld in Vegas then. We should meet up and go explore. I love playing texas holdem too!
It’s very close for you! If I go, we’ll meet up for sure. I’ll be at the quarter slots while you’re playing no-limit Texas hold’em!
Sounds like you had a blast! I went to my first one in LA last year. Mind blowing experience. Great recaps too. Are you headed to the next one (NMX) in Vegas?
I’m leaning towards going to Las Vegas, but haven’t booked anything yet. Are you going?
Hi Benny – So sorry I’m late in responding. Thanks so much review. As I’m sure you’re aware, we take feedback seriously because it offers us a chance of improvement. So thanks for caring so much about BlogWorld (now NMX) and taking time to write this post.
I’d like to assure you we took WiFi extremely serious. We hired an Internet consultant and flew him to Javits several times. We paid more to make sure everyone would have a positive experience with the Internet. We did everything we possibly could and in the end, Javits’ provider failed us and there was nothing we could do.
As for the woman with the Kayne West moment, we’ve been trying everything to learn who she is and no one seems to know. I hope if someone finds out they’ll contact me. Pat didn’t deserve that and neither did our attendees.
Thanks for your post. Feel free to reach out with more feedback or questions any time.
Deb Ng
Director of Community
BlogWorld/NMX
No problem Deb. Thanks for replying. I was satisfied with the explanation I heard about the Wifi. Sometimes you try everything you can, but the provider fails you. Seems like that woman is a ghost and no one has any idea who she is. Enjoyed my first Blogworld and look forward to more!