About the day:
The ProBlogger Training Day was put together on the spur-of-the-moment by Darren because Chris, who resides in the UK, is going to be in town for the week that the seminar will be held. Seizing the opportunity to impart their collective knowledge and seeking to try out a new teaching format, Darren teamed up with some folks from SitePoint and set about confirming interest (which flew in by the hundreds), venue, cost and various other factors to ensure that this day would be nothing short of awesome.
With guests like Collis Ta’eed, CEO of Envato and Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes shop / blog, and several of the SitePoint crew to share their experience and wisdom, the day is geared to offer a LOT of value to those seeking to take their blog to the next level.
Now, let’s discuss this “next level” for a moment.
When Darren initially sent feelers out into his Twitter network to gauge interest in the project, the response was immediate. I was one of the first twenty people to instantly reply with, “Holy crap, definitely!” (or something to that effect) and it has snowballed since to over 240+ people registering their interest in such an event. Many more have expressed their interest in getting Darren to take this show on the road, however he is unsure at this point whether that will happen because his co-anchor in all of this (Chris) is only in Australia a week and is the other half of this day – depending upon the success of this day, I believe Darren may consider taking it onwards around the country regardless of whether he can get Chris out to help. More on this later.
The next level factor came into it when I was discussing the day with Darren when he revealed that it would be a relatively small affair for folks who are already blogging and want to take it to the “next level” by increasing readership, monetising, etc. Now, as you my dear reader would know, I’m still fairly green when it comes to the blogging scene. That said, however, I’ve had a number of compliments from various folk about my personal writing style and encouragement from others to keep going. This is why I’ve decided to join the event; to get the right ideas and tactics from the start, put them in play and take the ‘next step’ with the right foot forward.
Anyway, enough about all that, let’s get down to numbers and details:
(Further information can be found at the Eventbrite website hosting the event details: http://probloggermelbourne.eventbrite.com/)
Schedule
This event will begin at 9am on Tuesday 3rd August and end at 5pm that day.
The schedule is still being formed up but based upon survey results of those interested in attending the day will cover 4 main topics:
1. Finding Readers (by far the most requested topic)
2. Monetization Strategies
3. Creating Content (including generating ideas as well as writing content)
4. Building Community and Reader Engagement
There will also be a session where you can ask any question you like of a panel – so we’ll touch on other things too.
Note: this event is not designed for people who don’t yet have blogs – it is for those who already have a blog up and running (ie: we will not be going over how to set up a blog, choices of blog platforms etc).
Format
This event will be a relaxed and hopefully fun day with space for networking over morning and afternoon tea and lunch (all included in the price).
Different Learning Styles will be incorporated into the day including:
1. solid teaching – one person sharing actionable teaching on topics being addressed
2. case studies – I’ve approached a couple of successful local bloggers to come share their stories. One person that has already agreed to come and share is Collis Taeed from envato.com – an amazing company that has built many successful blogs, communities, marketplaces and educational sites. Update: we’ve also just confirmed Pip Lincolne from MeetMeAtMikes.com will be joining us to share a case study on her fantasic blog.
3. Q&A; – throughout the day there will be opportunity for this plus there will be a panel.
4. workshopping attendees blogs – this will be a bit of a challenge and with 100 in attendance we’re unable to do everyones but we’ll attempt to workshop a number of participants blogs as a group.
Registration:
As at the time of publishing there are only four spaces left!
Registration has closed – The event booked out by the close of business today, Melbourne time.
[EDIT] - As at 2:30pm 1:15pm Melbourne time today (22nd 23rd July) there are another 23 16 Tickets remaining.
(Darren opened up another 35 seats around midday on 23rd July – these are selling FAST!)
[FURTHER EDIT] - There is now only 5 seats left, at 6:30pm AEST, 28th July!
Go here to book: http://probloggermelbourne.eventbrite.com/
Find out more about Darren and Chris:
To find out more about Darren Rowse and how he became ProBlogger, visit his About page on ProBlogger.net.
To find out more about Chris Garrett and his work, visit his About page on ChrisG.com.
Updates:
I will update this post if relevant information comes about before the event – otherwise, I will write a bit of a review after the event. Thanks for reading!
