I am attending BBS for the next couple of days. Here are my thoughts on the morning.
Robert Scoble gave the keynote. Here are two important points.
First, he makes the point that stories are bubbling up from the blogsphere and into the mainstream press. He mentioned that many SEA tsunami stories made that move in a day or two. I loved this quote – “If a product sucks, people will know in 24 hours”. This has huge implication for companies.
Second, he talked about pitching to A-list bloggers. He says there is no problem pitching the big guys. Consider pitching the people he reads. He says when he seeing five bloggers talk about something he knows something is up.
I have no idea what Marc Canter and Chris Pirillo were doing on stage. They were filling in for someone who couldn’t make it, but I have no idea what they were saying that was of much use to the audience.
Molly Holzschlag gave a building traffic pitch that covered alot of basics. She liked that she talked about options for things like comments and trackbacks. What I missed where some convictions about what business should do.
I had a great lunch with Erik Hansen. I met him at the Re-Imagine Summit and it was great to talk more.
Steve Broback and Glenn Feishman gave a interesting talk on monetizing your blog. Their answer is ads, whether it be Google or direct sponsorships. They were really talking about entrepreneurs writing about what they are passionate about and using AdSense to get paid for it. I think they missed the option that bloggers can be hired by companies to write about their passions. That is another way to get paid for what you love. I have some experience there.
I couldn’t sit through “Picking a Platform: Blogging Engines Compared”. I chatted with Evelyn and Scoble instead.
Halley and Stowe ended the day with “True Voice: The Art and Science of Blog Writing”. My thought here is that more people are writing more than they ever have in public. People need to get thicker skins and stronger convictions. I totally agree with their idea – “If you write more, you will become a better writer.”
More tomorrow.