OK, I have said (more than once) that it is very important for your conference or event to have a blog… no, really, it needs one. Go here to see my post “Your Conference or Event Should Have a Blog“.
Now that we have established this as a fact, there are some things that you can do to make that blog more effective and build on what I have mentioned in my previous post (you gotta read it first).
To be more effective, the best thing you can do is learn from real bloggers, the folks who blog for a living. Real bloggers actually make ching from their readers and site visitors, which means that they have a vested interest in gaining more readers and keeping them on their sites for longer periods. They know how to do this and are very good at it… you can learn much from how they operate and by listening to the lessons they are willing to teach.
They can teach you effective ways to get attendees, potential attendees, and other folks in your space to visit, bookmark, and hang out around your conference or event blog.
Although your blog is not meant to earn your conference or event money in a literal sense, it can drive more attendance and more sponsorship, which leads to more revenue, so believe it or not, your blog operates in much the same way as professional bloggers.
I have put together a list of a few sites that you should visit to learn the tricks of the “blogging” trade from the masters, the guys that make more than a little money writing for a living. The tidbits that they share can help your blog grow beyond something that you “have to do” and make the experience more enjoyable for not only you but for your site visitors and attendees as well, which will ultimately put more butts in the seats or in the aisles of your next conference or event.
We are talking about better marketing, better writing, how to use social media for your blog, increasing readership, what platform to use (and what not to use), cool plugins, and more.
Remember, anyone can plan an event; it takes a professional to create an experience that lives beyond a few days in October.
Anyway, go read and create a better event experience.
