The Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference – Will You Be There?

The SOBCon07, the Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference, will be May 11-12, 2007, in Chicago. If you want a closer relationship with your readers, and the increased traffic and benefits thereof, make a point of attending.

SOBCon07 Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference 2007 Theme: Developing Your Blog Relationships May 11-12, 2007 Chicago O’Hare Sofitel Hotel Registration before April 1 – USD $350. After, $450. Register Now You know you will be in good company at the SOBCon07 with these outstanding sponsors: Blog Herald, Blog Talk Radio, Evoca, Podblaze, MyBlogLog, TheGoodBlogs, Haneberg Management, among others.

There are a lot of relationships created by the act of blogging:

• The relationship between you and your blog.
• The relationship between you and your blog’s content.
• The relationship between you and your blog’s looks and design.
• The relationship between you and your blog’s statistics.
• The relationship between you and other bloggers.
• The relationship between you and your blogging goals.
• The relationship between you and your blog brand.
• The relationship between you and your readers.
• The relationship between you and your potential readers.

When we start blogging, it is a bit about what we want to say. Within a very short time, we become obsessed with all the fun things we can put on our blogs, including toys and ads. We go looking for other bloggers to “see how they do it”. And on occasion, we leave a comment or twenty-four to let them know we are reading, and that we want them to come read us.

The obsession then changes to web traffic and stats. We want those numbers to go UP, UP, UP! Up and down isn’t good enough. They must climb, climb, climb. We start changing our writing to attract more and more traffic our way. Then we get dugg by Digg and our life is complete. Ah, but no, but it goes away so quickly. So it’s off to the races again. We must GET MORE.

Pounding away at your keyboard, you start to slow down and raise your eyes up a little. Oh, look. Someone’s looking. Oh, wow. Someone’s reading. You almost faint. A comment! Two comments. And it happens to be from the same someone.

You now have a relationship with a reader.

Things change. You start to write for them, not at them. You start to think about the things your reader, soon readers, might want to know. Slowly, you ask them what they want to know, and now they are part of the conversation. Within time, and with the tools of blog community building under your belt, you learn how to let them guide your blog through their interaction and comments.

They start telling others that you are listening and responding, and word spreads. Not the Digg kind of “one-shot-and-gone” traffic, but an audience. A fan club. You start needing them, and they start needing you. Together, your blog becomes a family. In time, it builds into a community of loyal fans and supporters.

Blog Community Building is a skill. It is a learned skill. And you can learn the tools of how to create a strong blogging community around your blog at the May 11-12 Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference (SOBCon07).

The Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference

Chicago will rock with the spirit of community and blog building May 11-12 in the Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference (SOBCon07). The line-up of speakers and expert bloggers is very exciting:

David Armano: Armano’s blog, Logic + Emotion, covers the marketing, design, and advertising communities, and has been recognized and covered by Forrester, The Boston Globe and landed in BusinessWeek’s “Best of 2006”. Armano’s program will be “Designing Conversations”, a study on the “Conversation Architecture” to help you strengthen your blogging community, find your blogging voice, developing your blog’s brand, creating confident and attention-getting content, and improving the bond between you and your readers.

Liz Strauss: Popular blog relationship diva and developer of the SOB program which celebrates “Successful and Outstanding Bloggers”, will be speaking on Blog Community Building, including how to develop a “high-trust environment” on your blog, moving from “teacher” to fellow student and guide, creating a support network for readers, turning comments into conversation, and letting your readers steer the blog without an accident.

Phil Gerbyshak: Called the “Relationship Geek”, Phil Gerbyshak of Make It Great! will present his expert relationship program for bloggers, focusing on blog branding and recognition, and understanding more about yourself and your blog so you can do more of the right thing with your blog and less of the things that don’t work for you. He will also cover managing your time, increasing with your blogging passion, developing your blogging community, building your blog, and how to grow with your blog and readers over time.

Mike Sansone: The Conversation’s Mike Sansone calls himself a “Blog Coach”, well known in the blogosphere for starting conversations. He consults and coaches business leaders to develop their business blogging sites, focusing on establishing a relationship between the business, blogger, and community. His popular ConverStations Workshop Podcast, also known as “Blog Talk Radio”, features the top notch bloggers and podcasters from around the world. His program, which includes some of his partners, includes spreading the enthusiasm contagion on your blog, creating a fun, childlike atmosphere of discovering and sharing on your blog, and building a blog community through joyous interaction and conversations.

Other great educational and blog building programs include:

• Rodney Rumford of PodBlaze and Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog on Video Blogging and Podcasting
• Chris Cree of Success CREEations, Scott Rafer of MyBlogLog, and Diego Orjuela of Evoca in a Panel on Blog Conversation Tools
• Wendy Piersall of eMoms at Home on Blog Coaching
• Terry Starbucker of Ramblings from a Glass Half Full and Liz Strauss of Successful and Outstanding Blogs on Blog Critiques: What’s a Successful Blog?

The program price includes opening ceremony festivities, including Christine Kane, songwriter, performer, and blogger, and an Open Mic Cocktail Party, and catered lunch and refreshments during the day long event.

Tip: Want to attend but intimidated by the price? If you can persuade Liz Strauss that you are deserving, there are a few more slots open at the $250 rate.

To learn more about the conference, see:

• SOBCon07 Schedule of Events and Programs
• About SOBCon07
• SOBCon07 – Building Blog Relationships Conference
• Register Now for the Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference
• Why YOU Should Attend SOBCon 07 In Chicago May 11-12
• Chris Cree Shares Why SOBCon ‘07 Will Be a Different Conference Experience
• Bloggers Choose Quality Over Quantity Every Time
• Taking Your Blogging to the Next Level
• A Ready Made Proposal To Convince Your Boss To Send You To SOBCon07
• At SOBCon 07: The Next Level Quest

I’d love to be there. Will you be there?

---

Site Search Tags: sobcon07, successful and outstanding blogger conference, conference, blogging event, event, blog event, improve your blogging, blogging tips, blog conference, blogging conference, blogging skills, blog community building, blogging tools, blog fan club, blog readers, building a blog audience, blog development
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network Subscribe