So, I am sure by now everyone has heard of Brian Clark’s new program, Teaching Sells. It is a course that will help people learn to create successful multimedia membership sites. I have a feeling that the majority of those that sign up will not create anything as successful as this training course, but I trust Brian, and wanted to learn more about what all this was about.

After reading the free PDF report he released, I still was concerned that as a professional blogger for the last two years, I wouldn’t be able to learn anything new from Teaching Sells, and even more worrying that I wouldn’t get my $97 worth. Then I read about how the price was going to go up at midnight tonight, and I wanted to be part of it for at least the first three months.

There are already over 500 members active within the service, and if nothing else, I am sure I can learn something from one of the active members, and that alone says something about these private forums. If people are willing to invest nearly $100 into themselves and their businesses online, then they understand the value of information.

If you want to get in before the price increase, that time is now, as there is less than six hours before Brian and team change it from the low price of $97 for three months, to whatever amount they choose.

I will continue to talk about what results Teaching Sells has produced for me, and I look forward with networking with all those that have also joined this training service from Copyblogger.

Originally posted on October 31, 2007 @ 6:54 pm

In a few days the Blog World Expo conference will begin, and in my industry, it is the conference to attend. With names like Matt Mullenweg, Jeremy Wright, Leo Laporte, Brian Clark and many others attending, it would be silly for a full time blogger not to attend right? Well, despite the fact that I totally agree with my previous statement, I won’t be able to attend. Not because I have previous arrangements, but instead because of the recent transition from Bloggy Network to Splashpress Media.

See, I didn’t expect to change companies this year. Early in 2007, I assumed everything was looking good, but like everything in the world, things change, and so do priorities. I had assumed that the Blog World Expo would be the last conference I attended this year. I was really looking forward to going to Las Vegas for the first time since I was a child, but with the change in focus, it just didn’t work out that way. Bloggy Network sold some of its powerful blogs to Splashpress Media, and unfortunately, it is just too late to arrange everything now, even if Splashpress could dump money into me going down south for the event.

I am hoping that the event will go well, that everything will be recorded, pictures taken, articles written, and I can live vicariously through the experiences of others. Even more important to me is that it is so successful that they do it again next year, when I will hopefully attend. If you are going to Blog World Expo and plan on recording the event in one way or another, please let me know so I can follow what you write, photograph, or otherwise record.

Maybe next year they will ask me to come down and speak on a panel? *Hint hint, nudge nudge*

Originally posted on November 5, 2007 @ 8:53 pm

So, I was just getting caught up with 9rules, what originally was a network of blogs, but has since become a community of bloggers from all niches when I noticed there were some interesting things happening, besides launching a new design, it seems there are a large number of members leaving the community.

A friend of mine who is a 9rules member is shocked at the mass exodus that occurred over the change in rules at 9rules.

See, they instituted a change a few months ago, asking members to either participate or leave. They didn’t ask them to participate every day, or even every month. They just asked for some participation.

At first, this idea made me angry. How could 9rules ask their members to participate in their public community site? Why should these bloggers add content to a site that doesn’t give much back to the 9rules members anymore? With 9rules selling advertising on their site, I could see why some bloggers might be against this, until I learned that they didn’t have to contribute to the public community site. They could contribute to the private forum and still be a valid member.

After finding this out, I found it very hard to defend those that decided to ditch the 9rules logo, the leaf, and go their own separate way.

There is no quota associated with contributing to remain a member, and there is a private forum which is most likely not monetized, and certain bloggers thought they were too good to stop by the site, post their opinions on a few things to be part of what is still considered a rather elitist community?

While I am sure they all had their reasons, I doubt too many of them have reasons that are really good enough to warrant what is being called an exodus of members. 9rules isn’t what it used to be, no matter what the owners say.

Originally posted on October 9, 2007 @ 9:14 pm

Loren Feldman has said a few times that he hates Facebook (warning: profanity) and all that it represents (warning: more profanity), and now, not only does he have a profile on the popular social networking service, but he has even made a group with his company name: 1938 Media.

Of course you have to be invited to the group to become a member, but Loren is a good guy, and so as long as you don’t cause any issues, he might let you in.

This is a closed group. Members must be invited or approved by an admin.

He has started posting pictures, little videos, and chatting with the folks in his group. He calls the people in the 1938 Media group Anti-Socialites, which I think suits a fair bit of them, and I don’t find it offensive either. I really enjoy his videos, and I hope Facebook will just make it that much easier for him to post snippets of content to his group members.

Good for him for eating his words and joining the Facebook world.

Originally posted on October 2, 2007 @ 9:21 pm

One of the bloggers I hold in high esteem, Liz Strauss of Successful Blog, has a weekly badge handout for those bloggers she thinks are worthy of being considered Successful and Outstanding Bloggers or SOB’s. I recently asked her to look at my project here and was pleased to see my name on this last week’s list.

I am officially a SOB as part of her week 97 badge handout.

Some other blogs listed in Week 97 include:
Emerging Customer
North x East
Small Business Trends

Check out the full list over at Successful Blog.

Originally posted on September 2, 2007 @ 5:26 pm