Problogger Event 2015 – Day 2 Wrap Up

October 20, 2015

It’s taken me a while to get around to writing this post and maybe a lot of it will be old news now, but I took lots of notes darn it so Day 2 at my first ever Problogger event must be written up and shared! So here we go!

It’s Day 2 at the Problogger event. My nerves have settled and though I didn’t sleep well [hello fat pillows of my nightmares! I’m a thin pillow neck saving kinda gal!) I am excited for the day ahead.

sunrise

Morning sunrise view out of my hotel room window. Spot the hot air balloon!

I showered, dressed and headed down for breakfast where I ate the most delicious poached eggs, bacon, tomato and mushrooms. Since it was a later start today (9:15am) due to the party last night, I took my leisurely time over breakfast and then returned to my room, reviewed my schedule for the day and then off I went to hear Darren Rowse’s Introduction to kick off Day Two.

Brandon Cowan, Problogger

Brandon Cowan

Following Darren’s Day Two Introduction, we listened to Brandon Cowan who spoke on Creating Business Ideas.   You might remember him from TV because in 2013 he was on ‘Beauty and the Geek’. Brandon is only 21 years of age (younger than my twin sons!) but he sure has packed a lot into those 21 years. He owns one of Australia’s leading app development companies. He is co-founder and Director of Crazy Dog Apps and has been responsible for successfully creating and marketing four top 100 apps on the Australian App Store. He has moved away from app creation now though as he says there is not as much money to be made there anymore as there once was. Brandon is now working at Blacktown Pound and is an advocate for #adoptdontshop .

The key messages in Brandon’s talk was “do what you love, not what others expect you to do” and “persistence is the key to success”!

merrymaker sisters, problogger

Darren and The Merrymaker Sisters

It was a nice surprise when Darren called up The Merrymaker Sisters for a chat. These girls are awesome. Their laugh is infectious! Did you know they have a new cookbook out called Make it Merry that contains over 70 nutritious, quick and easy recipes that will boost your health and happiness?!

little blog big, problogger

Carly (Smaggle) & Christina (Hair Romance) who together make Little Blog Big

Next up I went to the session by Christina Butcher (Hair Romance) and Carly Jacobs (Smaggle) who together are Little Blog Big.  They spoke on “How to Grow Your Blog – Actionable Productivity Tips for Busy Bloggers”.  I found this session to be extremely useful and on point for what I was looking for from this event. Yippee! Here are the main points they spoke on:

  • The 5 focus areas for nailing blog productivity:
    • Prioritising
    • Setting realistic goals
    • Calendars and planning
    • Batching and productivity
    • Scheduling tools and organizational hacks

You can read their presentation HERE.

Favourite Quotes from their presentation:

Success is rarely accidental

Wishes aren’t goals – be specific

The path to success is never straight

A rising tide lifts all boats

pamela wilson, problogger

Pamela Wilson

The next session I went to was Pamela Wilson’s (Big Brand System) – ‘How to Create a Content Event that Builds your Email List”.

There was a lot of valuable information in this session but to be honest, it was pitched way above my little head. It was very much about how to plan content events such as live teleclasses, live webinars or live presentations. These are not things I am considering right now. I misread the title of this presentation thinking that it was about creating blog content that would help build your email list. It was interesting nonetheless.

The best thing I got out of this session that was relevant to me was the fact that Pamela Wilson has created a product called eBook Revolution, an eBook that gives you the tools and step-by-step guidance you need to create an eBook that people will actually want to read. I do want to create an Ebook so this piece of information is gold!

personal blogging, dooce, woogsworld, mrs woog, problogger, blogging

L to R: Heather Armstrong, Lauren Debois, Kayte Murphy

Next was the highly talked about and controversial ‘How to Monetize a Personal Blog’ with Heather Armstrong (Dooce) and Kayte Murphy (WoogsWorld) – moderated by Lauren Debois (The Thud). Let’s just say it wasn’t quite what I was expecting but was certainly entertaining. There is no point in me going over what took place when it has been done by others, so here are just a couple of posts that will fill you in, in case you’re unaware.

Can I just say that I LOVE Kayte (Mrs Woog).  I met her, hugged her like a fan girl, and chatted to her on a couple of occasions and she is exactly as she portrays herself only even nicer.  Love her!

Next session I went to was ‘The 5 Ordinary Habits of Extraordinary Bloggers’ by Ruth Soukup (Living Well Spending Less)

Ruth says that as far as blogging goes, we’re all making it up as we go along. We need to keep plugging away and should know that there is no magical secret to success.

However, there are 5 ordinary habits of extraordinary bloggers and they are:

Habit #1 – Create Amazing Content

  • Content should always be relevant
  • Make content creation top priority
  • Content should help the reader solve a problem and should add value to your reader’s lives
  • Content should make your reader want to keep reading

Habit #2 – Share Consistently

  • Be willing to put yourself out there and be vulnerable every day

Habit #3 – Maximize Every Opportunity

  • Strike while the iron is hot

Habit #4 – Lead, Don’t Follow

  • Don’t fall into the ‘group’ mentality trap
  • Adopt a leaders mentality
  • Always try
  • Find the why behind the what and how

Habit #5 – Pay it Forward

  • Look down for who we can help up rather than looking up for who can help us!
problogger, problogger team

Darren and the Problogger team and #PBevent speakers

The formal part of the #PB event ended on Darren’s closing remarks! All the ProBlogger team came up on to the stage, along with the speakers and boy did they get a roaring cheer and massive applause.  Awesome job done to all the Problogger team!

courage, problogger

I’ll leave you with one of Darren’s parting words of wisdom which was:

Courage is not a feeling you wait for before you take action. Courage is doing it scared.

wine, dinner, problogger

Once the conference was over, I went off for drinkies and lots of chatties with new friends and then went on to dinner at Trattoria Amici where I had delicious food and fantastic conversation with a table full of fabulous women from the event.

After dinner, off I toddled back to my room for a nice cup of tea and then bed … and those damn fat pillows!  Note to self:  next time take your own pillow with you!

By the way, if you haven’t already, you might be interested to read these other posts I’ve written about the August 2015 Problogger Event:

Ciao for now,

Min-Signature

Note:  All photo’s in this post were taken by me on my phone.

Linking up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT

 

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19 Comments

  • Reply Robyna | the Mummy & the Minx October 20, 2015 at 6:09 am

    Thanks so much for the link and the revisit to ProBlogger – you have reminded that I must watch Carly & Christina’s presentation!

    • Reply Min October 20, 2015 at 3:34 pm

      My pleasure Robyna! Your post was so well written. Carly & Christina’s presentation was the session of the event for me! Lots of actionable tips to help with the day to day demands of blogging. 🙂

  • Reply Lydia C. Lee October 20, 2015 at 10:30 am

    It’s kind of good that you waited – I get a little problogger overload and start to skip the posts, so it’s good to revisit it all, because there’s some great tips in there….

    • Reply Min October 20, 2015 at 3:41 pm

      I know what you mean by problogger overload following an event Lydia. So many posts!! Hopefully there are still some little gems in this here post for someone! 🙂

  • Reply PatrickC October 20, 2015 at 11:43 am

    Min, thanks for your summation of the days events.

    I can see how potentially overwhelming the event could be.

    From my perspective I am not ready and not really sure whether I would want to make blogging my profession but its really good to get an understanding of the arena.

    There are however two things that I have really taken to heart from this post.

    The first is the statement, Courage is not a feeling you wait for before you take action. Courage is doing it scared.’ I think that is pertinent to all of us.

    The second thing was your wonderful morning photograph with the hot air balloon. It has a great atmosphere with that slight morning haze. I really like the photo.

    Thanks for sharing with us Min.

    Ciao,

    Patrick

    • Reply Min October 20, 2015 at 3:46 pm

      I’m not sure that I could make blogging my profession either Patrick. There seems to be a formula in order for it to be the case and the formula doesn’t really feel right for me. I do love blogging though and I think it could be a lovely accompaniment to a business venture I may have in the future, so I’ll keep on blogging and hopefully build up a nice community of like-minded people. I too love that quote about courage – it’s true isn’t it – you just have to embrace the fear and do things anyway. I’m glad you liked the early morning photograph. 🙂

  • Reply Mandy October 20, 2015 at 12:42 pm

    I love a good recap post. I’ve only just gotten back into blogging after a couple of years break, love reading what’s going on in the blogosphere. And I bloody hate those pillows too.

    • Reply Min October 20, 2015 at 3:47 pm

      Thanks Mandy and yay to a fellow fat pillow hater! All the very best with your return to blogging. I will pop over and visit you! 🙂

  • Reply Vanessa October 20, 2015 at 1:22 pm

    Omg the pillows caused me havoc too. Even after ordering thinner pillows from reception. I’m going to take my own next time too – no one quite understands flat pillows 🙂

    • Reply Min October 20, 2015 at 3:50 pm

      Fat pillow haters unite! I never thought to order thin pillows from reception, I just accepted my lot. However, I did some experimenting and here’s what I ended up doing. There was a thinner cushion on the little chair in the corner but it had a coarse rough fabric not conducive to sleeping on. So, I took a pillow slip off one of the fat pillows and put it on the coarse rough thinner cushion and voila – a slightly thinner option with a softer fabric cover. Not ideal but a little bit better! A friend has told me that she uses folded towels in this situation. I never thought of that! 🙂

  • Reply HUgzilla October 20, 2015 at 6:16 pm

    Man I am so bummed I missed that entire day because I was stuck in bed with a migraine. All of the sessions I really wanted to see happened on that day too. Thanks for this awesome wrap-up – it helps lessen the pain of missing out somewhat!

    • Reply Min October 21, 2015 at 9:04 pm

      Oh lordy Zilla – really? You poor thing! Migraines are the pits! Well voila – another post to fill you in on Day 2 – my pleasure! 🙂

  • Reply Malinda @mybrownpaperpackages October 20, 2015 at 7:05 pm

    A great and comprehensive run down Min. Did you know you probably could have called house keeping and asked for a better pillow?! 🙂 #TeamIBOT

    • Reply Min October 21, 2015 at 9:06 pm

      Thanks Malinda! Yes I suppose I should have phoned housekeeping but I didn’t think of it. I’m one of those people who don’t like to complain (just do it later in a blog post LOL)!! 🙂

  • Reply Mim October 20, 2015 at 9:51 pm

    Thanks so much for sharing this recap! I’m yet to go to a blogging event but I’d love to next year and Problogger sounds brilliant 🙂 Mim x #IBOT

    • Reply Min October 21, 2015 at 9:06 pm

      My pleasure Mim. I hope you got something from it! 🙂 x

  • Reply Shauna October 23, 2015 at 1:42 pm

    I couldn’t get enough of the Problogger conference wrap-up posts back then and this one is certainly no less relevant to me 2 months on. I’m inspired! Thanks for the great links Min, I’ll be back later tonight for some bedtime reading!

    • Reply Min October 23, 2015 at 2:32 pm

      So glad you found some inspiration from my post Shauna. I like pouring over Problogger wrap-up posts too. There’s always a little gem or two or three to find! 🙂

  • Reply Macy Jones April 20, 2016 at 10:42 pm

    Thanks for sharing this. I will defiantly join your next event

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