Powerhouse Brands Online

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A long time ago, I used to work for some blog networks, and in doing so, I realized the power of bringing many content producers under a single brand. Over the last year, I’ve been hearing how the blog network is dead, or how blog networks never worked and I feel compelled to comment on that, as I believe they are wrong.

First off, blog networks did work well, and have always worked well. The issue was that advertising revenue wasn’t scaling as quickly as costs, and so the downturn in the US economy made big networks with lots of writers focused on different topics inefficient and costly. Some networks adapted, others found investors or financing, and still others faded away. This doesn’t mean that blog networks are a failed business model.

With the economy slowly coming back, I see a huge potential for resurgence, especially now that big brands see the value in online content.

Watching video networks like Revision3 succeed and prosper and the announcement of the Geek & Sundry network are both signs of how things are turning around.

Also, one of the biggest reinforcements of my networks reign supreme is the insane rise of The Verge, a technology blog that has made a name for itself in less than a year, something most people would have said to be impossible.

Selecting a stable of writers, especially ones with strong personality, a good social background, and fans can make the difference between breaking into a niche and making a name for your site, and fizzling out.

I really believe that the blog network is going to come back in a big way. I for one would love to read a blog that was the combined effort of many of the top WordPress community members or a blog written by all of the top Social Media personalities.

Give me a single blog written by Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett, Chris Brogan, Deb Ng, and a few others, and I’ll subscribe to it for life.

I think there is still lots of room, in every niche, to make waves, and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next year. I would like to think that I’m the first to proclaim 2012 the “rise of the blog networks” year.

So Close to Purchasing a Tablet

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ipad 3 news So Close to Purchasing a Tablet

With the release of the new iPad, I find myself constantly considering buying a tablet. My Samsung Galaxy S smartphone does a pretty good job at keeping me connected to the Internet and allowing me to consume content. My laptop stays at the office most days as I can easily work from home on my powerful desktop. So when I’m out and about, it would be nice to have a larger screened device that I can use, or what would essentially be a personal laptop that I can load with games, movies, and music for travelling or when in bed.

I had a bad experience with a Macbook Pro a few years back and it totally threw a wrench into both the quality and customer service expectations that I had when it came to paying extra for Apple products. Basically, my laptop had everything go wrong with it, and I replaced nearly every component of it over the course of three years with a few snide remarks from an Apple store employee and a lack of help through their online support.

After long discussions with a friend of mine, and his endless success with Apple products, I’m almost considering giving them another shot. Now that we are getting past the first two generations of their tablet product, I think it is a pretty safe buy.

Now you might think that because I have an Android phone that I would instantly go for an Android powered tablet. I’ve considered this, but the market is filled with tablets, and it can be hard to determine the right fit for me. I’ve been very interested in Lenovo’s tablet products, as well as Motorola’s and Samsung’s. RIM’s Playbook continues to be a very inexpensive option, and while it has huge limitations and issues of its own, being half the price of the other options is definitely a strong draw for me.

At the end of the day, I don’t expect a tablet computer to be a huge content generation machine like my laptop or desktop. I expect it to basically be of similar use to my smartphone, providing me a larger screen to watch videos on wherever I am, in a light, easy to manage form factor.

If only I could live with each of them for a period of time before deciding.

So, what about the rest of you? Have you purchased a tablet computer? Are you planning on buying one this year? Which one really captures your imagination?

Marketing Events, Conferences, and More

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Recently, a co-worker came to me and said, “Are you going to attend this?” She had found an event nearby that I hadn’t heard about that was closely aligned with my interests and career goals. Despite consuming an immense amount of information online, I hadn’t been to any websites that promoted the event, and they hadn’t advertised on any sites that I frequent. I almost missed a cool opportunity to network with like-minded people because of two things: lack of advertising and an assumption of knowledge.

My co-worker wasn’t going to tell me about the event. She assumed I had already known all about it and was trying to figure out if she should attend. If she hadn’t asked me, I never would have heard about the event. So my first tip to those out there attending or marketing an event, always assume no one else has any knowledge of it. Just because you see advertising for it everywhere, you can’t assume that your colleagues, friends or family are all seeing the same things both online and offline.

Secondly, if you are running an event, placing advertising regarding a digitally focused event in a local newspaper or just on your own website are not enough to get it in front of industry experts, potential sponsors, and attendees. You might like to think we all frequent your sites, but that isn’t the case, so please take the time to push out some more widespread publicity.

People always joke about the Internet being a series of tubes, but our usage of the Internet can be just as isolated and walled as a tube, with only one direction and no deviating path. I’m lucky to have heard about a few events and conferences in my area thanks to friends and some well placed advertising.

There are far too many marketing, blogging, and technology events in the area I live, but I miss out on most of them because I only hear about them after the event has happened. Unless you are selling out, please double check that you’ve done all you can to promote your event online.

Gravity Forms: WordPress Plugin Worth Buying

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A couple of years ago, I was at WordCamp Chicago, and I was asked to come look at a new WordPress plugin that was close to being released. The plugin was called Gravity Forms, and it was amazing.

gravityformschicago Gravity Forms: WordPress Plugin Worth BuyingPhoto by Lisa Sabin-Wilson

This was around the time that the WordPress community was going through a bit of a shift as commercialization was entering the scene. Building a business around WordPress wasn’t entirely new, but there were a lot of people that had chosen to ignore those that attempted to do so. By the time I had seen Gravity Forms, people were starting to warm up to the idea of paying for a theme or plugin, especially if it did something cool, and Gravity Forms met that criteria. Continue reading →

My Community Clout

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So I had a stunning realization today: I lack online clout.

Back when I was a full time blogger, part of my job, other than writing, was to network and interact with other people online. I built some amazing friendships, but since then, I haven’t put the effort into them that they deserve. When I moved on from blogging, I didn’t really stay in touch with people, an issue I’ve always had, being a military brat. The silly thing was that I always assumed I could come back, like riding a bike, or walking back into a room filled with friends.

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BackupPress Review

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23preslogo BackupPress ReviewI have been following 23Press since before its inception. Despite not keeping in touch with Terry Smith or the other principals in the company, I’ve been watching and waiting to see what products they release into the WordPress marketplace. There are only two companies I have this fanaticism for, Rocket Genius and 23Press.

Recently, Jeremy Wright contacted me about a new product that 23Press is releasing on Monday called BackupPress. For a while now there have been companies trying to help people secure their blogs through data backups. WordPress blogs are constantly suffering through security issues as well as user issues. As the barrier to entry is lowered, and the complexity of the code base increases, the overall understanding of the software is diminished. BackupPress is like TimeMachine, for WordPress. If you make a mistake with your blog, such as deleting a comment, breaking your theme, then you can easily roll your changes back. It backs up posts, pages, uploads, theme files, settings and more.

backuppresslogo BackupPress ReviewAnd unlike many of the other WordPress backup plugins I’ve used, this one makes things very easy, and that has been my experience in using both of the 23Press products now.

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Tips for Attending Conferences

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Attending conferences might be an equal balance of fun and work, but here are a few things to remember if you want to make the most out of any event.

I have forgotten one or more of these at nearly every conference I have attended, and it always leads to a missed opportunity, so creating a checklist of these points is always a good idea before packing up and heading out.

Business Cards

Even if you only be promoting yourself and not the company you work for, having business cards with some key details can mean the difference between being contacted, and being forgotten about. You can pick them up relatively cheaply from a variety of online and offline businesses, and so there is almost no excuse to be without them.

In that same vein, make sure you have enough business cards for the event you are attending. The most I have ever given out is twenty-five per day at a three day event. Had I not brought over one hundred cards with me, I might have had to hoard my business cards, and be selective to whom I gave them out to.

This happened to me at Blog World Expo, where I thought I had packed many cards, but ended up with only twelve once I arrived in Las Vegas. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Get to Know the Key Players

Look at the speakers and attendees list, and decide who you would love to meet. Make a list, and do some basic research on them. Who are they? What do they look like, and what do you have in common with them?

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