I am back from the West Coast and BlogOn. People have been asking if it was worth the trip. At this point, I could go either way. The conference really was about tools and people who invest in companies who make tools. I had heard most of the stories that the panels told. I felt it was a vendor conference more than a user conference.
On the other side, I met great people. I know that it the reason people go to conferences. It is for the conversations over lunch and in the hallways. It was great to finally meet Robert, Heath, and Steve in person. I also met Hylton.
The conference got me thinking about blogging from a user/reader perspective. Seth hits on one of the first thing I thought of – Are blogs backwards? His new project ChangeThis has a blog called Read and Pass . It confused me at first because it didn’t match the view in my reader. Then I realized it was in chronological order. As Seth says, it is a much better way to tell a story.
I have been thinking about other questions too. What words are the best words to link to in an entry? How often do you really need to write and has RSS changed that? What sorts of entries generate the most comments and conversation? How can bloggers better welcome readers?
I would love to get together with people who are interested and talk this kind of stuff. There should be a conference for passionate bloggers. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening. I think money and money would make it hard to get all the people in one place. So, we’ll try another experiment here at A Penny For…
During the week of August 9th, I am post a series of questions and invite everyone to chime in. My goal would be to generate a first pass on a Writer’s Guide to Blogging. There has been a lot of great stuff written on how to create a successful blog. I guess I want to go one level down and get into some of the mechanics and nuances.
If you have similar questions, pass them on. If you think this has all been done before, point me there. Otherwise, I hope you’ll join the conversation in two weeks.