“I Blog to Differ” – Blogging for Beginners

Blogs are everywhere – and it seems that everyone but you has one! In
this session for beginners and blog-curious, we’ll discuss basic
concepts and best practices for getting started, including:

* What is a blog and how can it help my agency?
* When and how to integrate a blog into a website
* Whether to host my own or use a hosted solution
* Deciding on a design
* Deciding how often and what to post
* Finding content when you just can’t think of something witty or
important to say
* Staying motivated and not letting your blog languish
* Submitting to search engines
* Setting Goals and gaging success

We’ll look at several successful blogs of travel agencies and industry
suppliers, as well as some not-so-successful ones, too. Coming away
from this session participants will be able to understand most
technical terms associated with blogs, identify the differences
between pages and posts, understand where they can obtain a free blog,
hosted blog or blog software; find free templates for blogs; know
where to go for content and how to submit a blog to major search
engines. Participants will also receive a handout with all cited
resources in the session and access to download the presentation.
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“Blogging for Dollars” – Advanced Tips and Tricks for Sales and Traffic

Calling all Bloggers! If you’ve already realized that blogging is the
new wave of the web, then this session will teach you how to surf the
wave all the way to shore. You’ll learn to tweak what you’re already
doing to insure every possible advantage. This session utilizes
WordPress as the primary software, which is open-source and free to
use. If you use another software program you will still benefit from
the concepts presented.

* LinkBait and Title Considerations
* Top 20 Wordpress Plugins for your blog
* SEO for blogs
* Opening up the Conversation with Comments and Pingbacks
* RSS Feeds and Subscriptions
* Getting Your Blog on Google’s Home Page
* Blogging by E-mail
* Mobile Blogging
* Guest bloggers and paid content

Coming away from this session, participants will be able to define
linkbait and it’s usefulness in writing a title, know the resources
for downloading open source blogging software and plugins, identify
the Search Engine Optimization capabilities for blogs, describe the
usefulness of comments, pingbacks, RSS feeds, subscriptions, know the
options for mobile blogging and blogging by e-mail, and how to feature
blog posts on Google’s home page and how to find content.