How Biz School for Bloggers Was Born
You might wonder why there was no call for speakers at SOBCon08. It was because we wanted to present some highly structured valuable content.
So many bloggers are looking to build a blog that attracts a solid community of readers, we wanted to make sure that they got the models and the interactive time to see how to apply those models to their own situations.
So SOBCon08 was built in an unusual fashion. We structured the content to meet 10 key points of a Successful Blog Action Plan. Then we invited hand-picked experts — experienced pros who could provide tested models in short targeted sessions. Their fluency and ability to offer clear models brought focus and freed up time. That time allows participants to apply each model to their own situation while the experts are still in the room.
The experts became speaker/presenters and the participants became six-person mastermind teams. Biz School for Bloggers was born.
10-Point Action Plan Checklist for a Successful and Outstanding Blog
Whether it’s is a hobby or it’s a place to make money, every blog is a business of sorts. The content is a product. The writing is a service that we perform. Our readers are the customers. Successful bloggers market and promote our blogs in the same ways that any business markets online.
Yet, we often don’t think much about the goals of our blogs in a structured fashion. It’s easy for hidden assumptions to creep in. Sometimes we forget to ask whether what we’re doing is the right thing to get us where we want to go.
Biz School for Blogging is built around a 10-Point Action Plan Checklist for a successful blog — 10 Structural Assumptions that every blogger should consider and question about his or her blog.
- Know the purpose. Is the blog a hobby or business OR is it meant to extend the hobby or business for an audience?
- Match the structure to the purpose. Does the structure of our online model supports the purpose we’ve defined?
- Determine the content boundaries. Have we decided what sort of content belongs on our blogs? Is that answer immediately clear to first-time visitors?
- Describe the ideal reader/customer. Have we figured out what sort of readers will love what we do? Do our blogs reflect our promise to them in every way?
- Manage our time investment. Do we spend our editorial time efficiently OR do we spend time working on things that our readers don’t care about?
- Choose social network sites with goals in mind. Have we chosen to use the right social networking sites to match our goals?
- Determine which new media options fit our goals. Do we know which new media options are appropriate for what we’re trying to accomplish?
- Know how to use the stats that match our purpose. Can we talk with authority about whether visitors are converting into reader/customers?
- Make everything “sticky.” Do we know how to make an irresistible environment that offers something that readers can’t help telling their friends about?
- Have an exit plan. Have we given a thought to what we will do with our blogs when we find we no longer want to keep blogging?
At SOBCon08, we’re going to go through that Action Plan Checklist one by one. Eight expert speaker/presenters will provide eight models or model choices. Participants in six-person “mastermind” teams will use the models to discuss and define that key point in terms of their own goals. By the end of the day, each participant will have an actionable plan for a more efficient, more reader-focused blog.
But don’t miss the more subtle “take away” that will also occur.
By the end of the day, every participant will have five new working relationships. For each person on their mastermind team, participants will be beyond the “Oh yeah I met that person at SOBCon,” and instead be able to say “We worked together in 2008.”
It’s very cool.
Isn’t it time that you register now?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! SOBCon is a business strategy workshop held every year in Chicago the first weekend in May. Register now!