Sessions at BlogWorld New York 2012 on Thursday 7th June

Search, social media and content marketing are converging, and consumers are using numerous ways to discover, consume and act on content. In this session, you’ll learn how to use content marketing best practices to design information that inspires audiences to share, buy and recommend your brand.

Key Points
1. Learn the framework for an optimize and socialize approach to content marketing
2. Understand the framework for optimizing across the customer lifecycle
3. Know the difference between KPIs and business outcomes for web and social measurement

There is often a discrepancy of tens – sometimes hundreds – of dollars between what leading brands and bloggers think a post might be worth. And even if a brand doesn’t want to, a blogger must disclose any compensation or in-kind gifting to avoid FTC penalties. Join Ted Murphy for the unveil of the 2012 State of Social Media Sponsorship Study and learn about top trends and gain strategic guidance for maximizing the money made through a blog.

Key Points
1. Learn how to attract the attention of top brands and maximize opportunities to monetize content.
2. Setting the valuation: How much is a blog post really worth?
3. Walk away with important data and trends from leading brands and well-known influencers on social media sponsorship.

Live critiques of blogs.

Key Points
1. how to make your site more engaging
2. how to get more subscribers
3. how to generate more activity

In the early days of New Media, the legendary “fam trip” (free travel to destinations interested in media coverage), was an elusive prize, available only to traditional journalists from huge national media outlets. In the ever changing environment of social media, destinations are now courting bloggers and podcasters, even those outside of the travel field!

Chef Mark Tafoya and Jennifer Iannolo of Culinary Media Network will share with you how they started out taking advantage of these trips for cultural and culinary exploration, and after nearly two dozen fam trips, built a whole new type of business model.

Becky McCray and Sheila Scarborough of Tourism Currents will share from the perspective of destinations courting media attention, and share with you how to make yourself attractive to a destination or business eager to invite you on a trip.

Key Points
1. Learn how you can travel to destinations worldwide for free
2. Learn how to travel smartly & lightly, and still get tons of great content for your blog, podcast, or video series
3. Know how to evaluate yourself the way a destination would evaluate you.

Almost all professional bloggers start their site while working a day job. However, the demands of daily life, especially your primary employment can be overwhelming while you are trying to start your online site. This session will discuss some of the strategies, pitfalls, and tools of running your blog while still working a day job.

Key Points
1. Strategies for Keeping a Balance Between Your Day Job and Your Blog
2. Career Pitfalls to Avoid While Growing Your Blog
3. Workflow and Productivity Techniques
4. Productivity Tools of the Side-Blogger

Your niche hobbies and personal interests offer profitable and fun online business opportunities IF you know how to monetize them. Our panel of entrepreneur success stories shares the innovative strategies they use to make real money from surprising audience niches like remote-controlled airplanes, Disney World, art fairs, and more. Each panelist represents a different niche and shares practical tips they use personally to generate revenue from Internet marketing and monetization tactics including e-commerce, advertising, online communities, YouTube, podcasts, and information products. Join us to hear these niche success stories you missed!

Key Points
1. How to turn niche interests and hobbies into Internet businesses
2. Business strategy lessons for niche entrepreneurs
3. Low cost traffic attraction tactics for new websites
4. Money-making strategies using YouTube and podcasting
5. The best ways to make money from online audiences

Android Phones. iPhones. iPads. Android Tables. Laptops, Ultrabooks, slates, and more – there are tons of devices out there, and tons more on the way. And you’ve only got one website. Chances are, your website will look different on every device. But what if there were precautions you could take to allow every user to see the BEST version for their device (and not just the same experience for everyone). Come find out what responsive design is and how to use it to get the most out of your site.

Key Points
1. What is responsive design, and who can benefit from having a site that is responsive
2. Best practices you can take back to your design department (or designer, or yourself!) to ensure your site looks fantastic for everyone

So you want to start a podcast and don’t know where to start? This session is the perfect place to begin your own podcasting journey.

In this session, we’ll give you detailed overview of how podcasting works, we’ll cover the most important things to think about when it comes to deciding the topic and format of your show, and more.

This session will stop just shy of equipment options, post production, rss and web setup as those items will be covered in the Podcasting 101 part 2 session that will follow directly after this session at 11:30am, in the same room.

Key Points
1. Learn how podcasting works.
2. Learn how to decide what topic to podcast about.
3. Learn how to choose the right format for your show.
4. Get your questions answered in the Q&A portion of the session.

2012 will be the year of smarter social media marketing. The presentation will provide a comprehensive approach to social for individuals and teams. The process framework steps through: 1. Desirable Outcomes: Vision, Goals, Objectives, and Metrics 2. Hyper-segmentation and Micro-audiences: finding the small groups 3. Community finding and creating 4. Influencer outreach 5. Crisis social media 6. Brilliant creative social media projects Finally, the presentation will guide the audience through the creation and maintenance of an action plan for organization social media maintenance. Dealing with gaffes, stumbles, and social media faux pas will be talked about as well.

Key Points
Social media has mostly been done ad hoc – with a basic understanding of the process, marketers will be able to have a framework on which to work. There are several artifacts generated by the process: Desired Outcomes document Brand Voice document Micro-audience segmentation Blog content plan Social media implementation plan Listening plan

Who doesn’t like a good list these days? The truth is, using list posts as a tactic in your blogging style arsenal is one of the most effective ways to rengage your existing readers while attracting attention from new potential subscribers. Creating and publishing lists of resources, tools, people or even other blogs can even help draw inbound links and encourage social bookmarking and sharing. In this session, Nate will walk you through the art and science behind three genres of lists posts. You will learn how to style your list content to get the best response from your audience.

Key Points
1. How to construct and use numbered, bulleted and hybrid lists.
2. How to determine which type of list is appropriate to use depending on writing objective
3. How to open and close your list post to encourage audience interaction in comments, social sharing and feedback

If you’re looking for the same ineffective / unimaginative / played-out tips on using social media more effectively, this session isn’t for you. Learning promotional tactics is not the key to building a bigger audience. Becoming a better Twitter user won’t magically make your business successful. Building a raving audience online all starts with writing epic sh*t. Period. Hands down. End of story. You have to write things that make people think. Inspire people. Change lives. Create value. Blow people away with your usefulness. We’ll explore the art of writing epic sh*t in this exclusive BlogWorld session.

Key Points
1. Why the key to building a thriving audience of dedicated fans isn't about learning the latest promotional tactics or social media fads.
2. 5 examples of incredible success stories that prove writing epic content works for building an audience.
3. 5 proven strategies you can use to create content that blows minds and attracts a crowd.

Although many businesses have finally seen the light when it comes to the power of blogging and content marketing to grow their brand and increase sales, most are still doing it wrong. In this fun and furiously fast-paced session, passionate speaker Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion will discuss the major mistakes he sees businesses making with their content marketing efforts and will further share all the tips, strategies, and unorthodox methods he espouses to help businesses become profitable, powerful, and the voice of their industry.

Key Points
1. Know exactly how to start a successful business blog
2. Know how to write in such a way people and search engines will take notice.
3. Understand the biggest mistakes businesses make when starting a blog and trying to make it successful.

I walked out of my job in early 2009 with a pink slip and a prayer. The following day I started a blog. But time was running out. The time bomb was ticking. I had two children, a rapidly evaporating bank account and a failing blog. Should I study methods for getting more comments? Should I learn SEO and analyze my traffic data? Do I need more retweets? Facebook “Likes?” The answer? Yes and no. This presentation will lay out a road map to generating sales on your blog when time is running out.

Key Points
1. Learn the difference between generating blog sales using "Red Wire" or "Green Wire" tactics.
2. Analyze successful blogs and their use of "Red Wire" and "Green Wire" tactics.
3. Learn to combine the best of the "Red Wire" and "Green Wire" tactics to defuse your own time bomb.

Getting your Facebook fans genuinely invested in the conversation is no easy task. There’s a fine line between wasting time on Facebook and turning your community into a lucrative sales funnel. You do this by investing your time and resources into understanding your Fans’ needs, solving their problems and meeting their needs in your own unique style. The key is knowing how to create focused, compelling conversations and online experiences that move lukewarm prospects into loyal, “gotta have what you’re selling” paying customers. This presentation will explore how to get your fans talking and how to monetize your Facebook efforts.

Key Points
After this workshop you'll be able to take instant action and apply theses strategies to get quick results. Here are some of the things you'll learn:
1. How to find out exactly where your current Facebook traffic is coming from (and how to keep it coming to get more fans!)
2. How to determine the best engagement style for your Page to ensure you're attracting fans who are genuinely interested in what your're selling
3. How to monetize your Facebook efforts so you're not only building relationships but also making money as you grow your fan base

You’ve heard that WordPress is one of the easiest, user-friendly blogging platforms out there. And it can be—if you know what to think about before you start. With thousands of themes, plugins and tutorials on the Web, you risk spending hours and hours and just getting more confused. Bob, who has trained hundreds of people in WordPress over the last three years, will show you some simple steps that will get you moving in the right direction. And he loves questions!

Key Points
1. Learn how to decide whether to go with WordPress.org (self-hosted) or WordPress .com
2. Get quick and easy tips for choosing your WordPress theme and those must-have plugins
3. Make sense of the tools that are hidden in your WordPress dashboard

In this session, join veteran blogger and social media practitioner Christopher S. Penn as he reviews how to develop concrete measurements for social media and blogging ROI using industry-standard tools like Google Analytics. Learn how to find your ROI and then grow it by identifying the weakest spots in your marketing funnel, then applying social media and blogging to strengthen them.

Key Points
1. Find your blogging and social media ROI
2. Diagnose your marketing funnel
3. Improve your social and blogging ROI instantly

You’ve heard the expression “laughter is contagious”, right? Well, that’s not only true in person, but even more so online. There is no other single style of content that gets shared more often or far-reaching than humor. From photos, personal tales, infographics, video sketches, top ten lists and everything else in between, this session will teach you the concepts on how to create laugh-out-loud content to take advantage of the viral loop and expose your blog to new audiences.

Key Points
1. You will learn how to identify potential memes within your niche and exploit trends for constructing relevant humorous content.
2. You will learn several easy-to-use "comedy formulas" that anyone in any niche (no matter how boring you think it is) can master to churn out funny ideas and transform them into finished products.
3. You will learn techniques to seed your content on social networks, increase click-throughs on your posts and compel others to share and spread your humor.

In this podcasting 101 session, we’re going to talk about the different equipment options that are available in helping you to get your podcast started. We’ll also share valuable information that will demystify the setup of your podcast rss feed. We’ll talk about editing/post production, best practices for podcast websites and how which podcast directories to submit your rss feed.

Are you looking for an overview (Big Picture) look at how podcasting works? Do you need help determining what topic to podcast about, what the format of your show should be? Then you want to be sure to sit in on the Podcasting 101 PART 1 session that takes place just before this session at 10:15am, in the same room.

Key Points
1. Learn about the various equipment options that are available to podcasters.
2. Learn about Editing Software options
3. Learn about the importance of the .mp3 format
4. Learn about meta tagging. What it is and why it's important!
5. Learn how to properly set up a podcast RSS feed.
6. So much more!

We are on the cusp of a marketing revolution and it is being led by YOU! The social web has enabled everyone to publish and have a voice. Controversial companies like Klout are dissecting billions of pieces of data to assess who is creating buzz and assigning the world a score. The notion of “celebrity” and “influence” have been turned upside down. What are the implications of these developments for you and your business? How do you stake your claim to social media influence and join the ranks of the powerful new Citizen Influencers?

Key Points
1. The opportunities of Klout and the social scoring trend are important to understand.
2. The ability to rapidly identify and connect with powerful Citizen Influencers is creating an entirely new marketing channel
3. What are the steps I can take to improve my Internet power and influence?

With professional podcasters, ranging from self-employed individuals to experience from the corporate front, audio and video content creators come together to talk about the realistic expectations of turning your podcast into a profit-making machine. This is not so much about the creation of the content itself, but more on marketing the content and proposing strategies in making the content marketable.

Key Points
1. When you start podcasting, don't quit your day job right away.
2. Making money through your podcast versus your podcast as a money-maker
3. Why Podcasting matters in a full marketing strategy

Every blogger wants to make a full time living from their blog. The key is to know what your “paying customers”, aka big brands, are looking for in order to spend money with you. In this session you will learn the 10 best ways other than high traffic to have a blog that large brands rush to work with.

Key Points
1. What brands look for to spend money on a blog
2. How much money large brands spend
3. Examples of blogs large brands spend money with and why

This session will show bloggers how to create outstanding written content, rather than relying on keyword-laden schlock and hoping the Google gods will be appeased. We will learn how professional writing techniques — including copywriting, fiction, journalism, and even poetry — can win readers, get them to share your content, and even write about it on their own blogs. With lessons learned from Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Waits, and even the guy who said to never end a sentence with a preposition (hint: he was wrong), we’ll learn how to create killer content that will bring in readers.

Key Points
1. What journalistic techniques bloggers can use to create short, but effective blog posts.
2. How both political speechwriters and songwriters stir emotions through visual language and how you can too.
3. Some grammar rules you learned in school are not only wrong, they should never have been rules to begin with.

This session will provide practical tips for making progress with your blog / site today. The intersection of the following types of optimization will be reviewed in a cohesive manner helping you to kill multiple birds with one stone, no silver bullets, but actionable insight. Topics include: conversion rate optimization, social media optimization, search engine optimization, web site optimization and usability. This is a key session to check out for those that want to learn about how media companies address challenges at scale.

Key Points
Increase visitor time on site by creating next click opportunities and applying various types of optimization. Drive social engagement by applying key principles of the social web.

While most entrepreneurs and small business owners know they need to use their blog as an online marketing tool, the why and the how of this equation still remains a mystery. In this session, internet entrepreneur LaShanda Henry will help you better understand why blogs are vital marketing tools and how they can help you attract both customers and media attention.

Key Points
1. Why blogs are essential marketing tools
2. How to create a “Good for Your Business” blog
3. How to attract Customers and PR Opportunities

Build credibility and gain traffic by being featured in major media outlets. I’ll illustrate the strategies and techniques I used to land my face on Yahoo’s homepage twice in my very first year of blogging. Plus I’ll teach you how to prepare for press, leverage the press you do get, and what NOT to do!

Key Points
1. How to pitch to journalists through HARO and be findable by other journalists
2. How to prepare your website, SEO, and yourself for the press
3. How to leverage that press to get more press
4. What to expect from press, including traffic numbers from my press, and lessons learned