There are a limited number of couches though for those that are unable to take the discomfort any longer, but those are placed far from optimal viewing angles of the stage, and part of the experience is always to be able to see the slides and presentations that these companies put together.

Not only that, but there was an even bigger issue that really aggravated me: there was no open wireless Internet connection. There is a wireless connection available, but it was locked down and only staff for the event seemed to be permitted to use it.

This frustrated more than just myself, as a new media event, with speeches on social networking, and monetizing digital media, many people assumed that there would be access for them to use. How could they invite new media specialists, bloggers and more, and not have any open wireless Internet for us to use? Very strange.

Worse still, because of the thick concrete and brick walls, we are unable to connect to Toronto’s city wide wireless network which, while costing money, would have still been an alternative to use.

They did provide two small laptops hooked into wired Internet connections as an Internet station, but placed large signs limiting us to a maximum of fifteen minutes at a time.

One other thing to note is that they didn’t seem to have the same kind of exhibitor booth space that they had last year, and so there most likely won’t be any cool displays of new technology. The two companies that I saw were Casale Media, an advertisement agency, and a local school of arts and design. Both are interesting, though somewhat uninspired choices.

The breakfast provided was nice though, with a wide assortment of drinks, and snacks. I have to commend them on that aspect. Also, all of the staff at the event seems to be well trained, very friendly, and efficient. Which for events as complicated as this one seems to be, is key.

Will nextMEDIA turn out to be an event to remember thanks to some great presentations, or will it end up being a flop worth forgetting? As we wait for the delayed opening speech, I am very concerned.

For more information on the nextMEDIA conference, and every post I am making regarding the event, please check out BrandingDavid.com.

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Here are some details from the Premium Partners launch post:

I currently bill myself out at around $120 per hour, depending on the needs of the client, and so I have priced the members area aggressively at only $10 per month, or $120 per year. Those purchasing a full year in advance will also get an hour of consulting. That means, if you buy a minimum of one hour of consulting time, you also gain entry into the member area.

What do members get that normal readers of this blog do not?

• Premium content similar to other things I’ve written here
• Actionable information that can’t be found elsewhere
• Tips, tricks and advice from me and other members
• Information on tools that I use
• Guides and techniques I won’t post anywhere else
• Members only podcasts, videocasts, live Ustream video sessions and screencasts

It is already doing rather well as new members continue to sign up and get the help they want and need. The best part about getting in early is two fold. First off, you’ll get to help shape the content and get even more personal attention, and secondly, in February 2009, I will be raising the entry rates, and so those that join today will keep their current membership rates.

Come check out the Branding David Premium Partners area and if you don’t enjoy what you get out of it, then you can cancel at any time.

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The winner will get a free custom WordPress theme from the team at Blog Design Studio, and the writing project runs until the end of November, so I suggest you get over there if you want a chance at winning a custom WordPress theme.

What do you need to write about?

Here are some of the examples of topic :

1. How blog design will change your blog’s value?
2. Why a blog design is important for your blog’s authority?
3. 10 tips to keep in mind before you get your blog designed!

For more details check out their post on Blog Design Studio.

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John Sells the Dream

One of the biggest misconceptions still out there regarding blogging is that you can make a bunch of money overnight. John earns $1000 per day from his blog, and he built that little empire in a year, so anyone can do it, right?

Well, not quite. Even if you took all of the same steps towards building and monetizing your site as he did, you would still fall quite short in terms of traffic, fame and revenue. Things have changed online and I highly doubt anyone could copy his steps to get to the same point in the same amount of time.

John, also rarely adds valuable content to his site, with a strong mix of paid reviews, affiliate program posts, and a variety of content on his own life. These posts really only help to earn him more money without providing much content worth remembering and serves to only persuade people further that what he does is easy to replicate.

I hear, “I could blog about food and weird products all day too” and shake my head. If only it was that simple, then everyone would be doing it.

People have long since forgotten that “if it is too good to be true, then it probably is” and this rule holds even more true online than any other medium or communication space before it.

John Chow is a blogger’s worst enemy. He shows the world a slanted picture of what it means to be a blogger, and is probably solely responsible for many horrible blogging trends online.

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The conclusion that we came to is that there are many bloggers out there only in it to make money and pay their bills, and just like every other industry that is both understandable, but in many ways negative and a bit depressing. One of the things that many online publishers thought would remain sacred is the power and semi-prestige of online publishing, and that there are many grey areas between spam blogs and useful online publications.

I had recently had a back and forth with someone else who thought that there were things about how certain bloggers were handling themselves that he didn’t like, and of course with anything like blogging, there will always be disagreements, but it seemed to come back to a lack of understanding with regards to the business of blogging.

Bloggers only get paid money for the work that they do thanks to sales of products, services or whatnot. You are fooling yourself to think that it doesn’t come back to that somewhere. Money is always exchanged for something, no matter on who or what you are writing for if your goal is to make money.

So many people aren’t thinking straight if they think that they can write about what they enjoy and make a living off of it forever without worrying about the business aspect of blogging.

I have written numerous times about things I know little about because it is a good paying job and I enjoy researching and writing. If I could write about science fiction and make more money today than I do writing about other things, I would, but there is a long process that is required to get to that point that I can’t take due to other circumstances, so I focus on filling a need that allows me to live the way that I most enjoy.

That’s the key with regards to blogging for money: fill a need. If you can write for pennies for a year, and the writing you do is just a hobby that you want to eventually turn into a career because you are working full time at something else, then that’s great, but if you want to get full time pay, for full time work today, you’ll end up working for someone else, and following their topics, their rules, and finding your own enjoyment in what you do.

So while many bloggers have gotten a lot further in their careers than I, and might be making more money today, I started day one in being able to make a full time living and supporting myself and my wife. Not a bad deal in my book.

Sorry if this post is all over the place but this is sort of an emotional topic for me

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There are so many things I still want to do in my life, and I feel like I haven’t done as many of them over the last year as I would have liked. It is easier to say this than do it, but we all need to work harder, longer, smarter and faster. I am guilty of being far too lazy in my life, and in doing so, I am doing myself a great disservice, as I am not accomplishing all that I could, and I have a feeling many of you might be realizing the same thing.

If you want to make it “big” in the business of blogging, you need to give 1000% for as long as possible. I am not sure how to make this change in my life, but I am going to try to not wait for some inspiration or magical answer to fall from the sky, and instead, I am going to push harder, build faster, and work smarter.

We all have a finite amount of time in our day, and many of us spend too much of it on the wrong things. The only caveat I will hand out in this though is to make sure you love what you are doing because working at a super human level will drain you to a husk of a person if you don’t love what you are doing.

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How do you enter? Just answer the following question on the Blogging Tips Forum:

What is the one blog that has a balance of great design, strong branding and excellent content in your mind, and please defend your selection?

You only have a few days to enter though before the contest moves onto the next prize, so get on there soon to have a shot at winning the prize.

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The first issue was we lost some comments, then I couldn’t publish posts due to a JavaScript error that would basically make my browser freeze for about two minutes before letting me stop the script, and then I couldn’t manage comments at all.

It reminded me of why I like moving WordPress blogs in a very specific way. Export from within WordPress, break down the export file into import files no larger than about 3-5MB, create a new WordPress blog on the new host, import the content, and move over the wp-content folder that includes images and plugins.

Of course you’ll be missing out on various settings and whatnot, but I have found this to be one of the quickest and cleanest ways to transition a WordPress blog over. It does come with its own set of problems sometimes, but I’ve had very few issues with it.

Anyone else have some WordPress moving tips? Let me know in the comments below.

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Another thing someone pointed out to me is “why pay for your services when I have your blogging efforts as a great resource?”

This question took me back a little as I have given as much of my knowledge as I can over the last year of running this site especially, and if you are willing to dig around there are some amazing insights, at least I think so, but it might not be presented in a way that you can easily apply, and that is where I see myself getting most of my business, from breaking down the concepts that seem so simple to me, but don’t quite make sense in other people’s minds.

As for traffic, the site is only getting around two to five percent of what this blog is getting, and that is mostly due to my lack of promotion. I am not pushing that site as hard as I did this site, and because of that, I am seeing a much slower growth curve, but that doesn’t really concern me at this point.

The content distinction lines between this site and that site are very fine, and in creating it, I realized how much I enjoy talking about what I do as a career, the industry I am in, and the software I enjoy using.

If you haven’t launched a blog lately, give it a try, and see if it stretches you too thin, or if you enjoy writing on it. Passion for one topic can sometimes spill over into another, and BrandingDavid has reminded me how much I enjoy posting here as well.

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WP Review Site is one of those plugins that turns WordPress into something more powerful than it already is. Use WP Review Site to turn WordPress into a powerful review site engine. It allows you to easily create niche review sites about anything and everything you want, be it products, computers, gadgets, music, movies, services, websites, restaurants, hotels, credit cards or even beer.

WP Review Site combines has these features:

Add a star rating system to your comment forms - This enables visitors to your WP blog do more than just leave comments: they can write a review and rate it via mousing over star icons. You define the categories, and your visitors can rate between 1 to 5 stars. And WP Review Site is completely customizable to fit your blog’s design; you can display rankings as you see fit, whether you use tables or CSS.

And WP Review Site lets you sort reviews by weighted average rating: you can set it to display reviews by the highest/lowest-rated, and not in chronological order. You can even choose to not show the rating system in some parts of your site. WP Review Site even has various sidebar widgets for you to add a list of top rated items to your site’s sidebar, or a list of recent reviews with the average rating that user left.

And what makes WP Review Site even better for me is that it already comes with seven themes preconfigured to work with the plugin:

• WP Review Site
• WPRS: Aqua Featured
• WPRS: Award Winning Hosts
• WPRS: Bonus Black
• WPRS: Double Silver
• WPRS: Green Featured
• WPRS: Ocean

And even better, WP Review Site has already got its own affiliate link management system that will let you configure your links easier. Instead of inserting the URL for the same anchor text over and over, you can set your review blog to automatically insert affiliate links.

What I don’t care for, however, is the fact that the customization features of WP Review Site is spread over two options pages. I’d like to have everything in one configuration page.

For $97 dollars, you’d get free upgrades for life along with all the features mentioned above.

Pros:

• WP Review Site does the work of many different plugins to make WordPress work as a powerful affiliate review site.
• It comes with seven preconfigured themes
• Affiliate link management system is powerful

Cons:

• Too many separate options pages
• Switching themes would clear the sidebar of widgets

This review was written upon request by the creators of WP Review Site.

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