One week ago today in Melbourne the first ever ProBlogger training day took place. What started as a spur of the moment idea less than 4 weeks before ballooned into a very worthwhile experience.
Originally I had thought it would just be a day for 10-15 bloggers gathering around a board room table talking about blogging – but it quickly turned into a sold out training day with 150 bloggers from around Australia (and one from New Zealand) packed into a hotel’s conference room to spend a full day learning about four aspects of blogging.
Speaking on the day were Chris Garrett, Yaro Starak, Collis Ta’eed, Pip Lincolne, Shayne Tilley from SitePoint and myself.
We covered four main ‘pillars’ of blogger:
- Creating Killer Content
- Finding Readers
- Building Community and Reader Engagement
- Monetization
Here’s Yaro, Chris and myself – and no we didn’t coordinate our clothing for the day but we’re wondering if perhaps jeans and grey shirts are the new blogger uniform. Image by TheCreativePen.
There was also a couple of panels and two case studies as well as a work-shopping session.
I wasn’t quite sure how we’d pull it all together in such a short time but considering there was only a few weeks lead time the event went swimmingly with loads of requests to do it again both in Melbourne and around the country (and overseas). I’m not quite sure when or how we’ll put on another one – but I do hope we can do something similar again.
A number of people kept great notes on the day so I’ve compiled the ones I’ve found below for those of you not able to be there. Some of them are blow by blow accounts so you’ll be able to pick up a lot of the tips touched on during the day. Also below is a video shot on the day by Lara from Social Rabbit asking attendees for tips on what they learned.
Summaries/Notes from the Day
- The Value-Add – Notes from ProBlogger Event Round Up (detailed notes – 6 parts with more pics)
- The Blog Stylist – 15 Useful Blogging Resources and Tools Discussed as a result of the ProBlogger Event
- Brendans Blog – ProBlogger Training Day Wrap-up and Part 2.
- Connecting Librarian – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
- NuffnangBetter Blogging Tips from ProBlogger Training Day
- Would You Travel 1846 miles for this man?
PS: we did record the day and are trying to work out what to do with the 7 or so hours of content recorded. One option is to bundle it into a DVD – if you’re interested in buying a copy please let me know in comments below to give us an indication as to whether it’s feasible to do so.