The first annual Financial Blogger Conference was held in Chicago last weekend. It was an overwhelming success. Conference organizer, Phil Taylor of PT Money, cultivated a supportive, learning environment with a definite emphasis on community, networking, and fun.
Keynote speaker, Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich warmed up the audience with this fun piece.
Here are my ten takeaways from the conference:
10. Email is Powerful
With the popular rush to newer social media marketing tools, Daily Worth demonstrated that email is a strong revenue generator. If you just clicked that link you will see their landing page is also the email subscriber form. This strategy has given them 150,000 subscribers, and growing rapidly.
9. Think Beyond The Blog
Blogs are important, but they can leverage and complement other activities. Consider the blog as a launching pad for books, media activities, speaking tours, podcasting, developing training programs, or just positioning yourself as an accessible expert.
8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is Strategic
The highly successful Wise Bread team shared many insights into how they attract 1 million visitors per month. They systematically sift data to identify search trends. These forecasts are used to generate targeted articles that will rank well among reader searches for information. They make it look so easy!
7. No Media Kit, No Publicity
Kelly Whalen of The Centsible Life highlighted the critical importance of a media kit. Make it easy for journalists, they are busy people. Share your brand, your story, and always be ready with your elevator pitch. Develop media relationships respectfully and the publicity could be priceless.
6. Write Like A Pro
Donna Freedman of Surviving and Thriving declared war on tautology, wordiness, dated material, buried points, needlessly long posts with little context, all hurled at readers with no thought to ask what they think. Please, read it out loud before you publish, and edit ruthlessly.
5. Tell Truthful Stories, lower-case t optional
Make sure personal finance is personal. Bring it alive with real stories in the context of life that we can all relate to. Protect the innocent by utilizing the lower-case t when being truthful. This has the added benefit of taking the awkwardness out of thanksgiving. Thanks J.D. Roth!
4. Keep Your Goals Alive
Alive, as opposed to fixed and rigid. Chase epic and bold dreams, but understand that everything else is changing. The world is dynamic, as are our interests. It’s important to change focus and keep chasing exciting and relevant goals. Thanks Kelly Whalen and Pat Flynn.
3. Meeting Bloggers Face To Face Is Priceless
Collaboration is so much easier online when you have a personal connection. Gathering for just 1% of the year, as we did in Chicago, then partnering online for the remaining 99% is super-efficient. This community is a model for the future of business.
2. Ask Readers What They Want, and Listen
Survey relentlessly, read user comments, analyze qualitative and quantitative responses, and understand your audience.
1. Focus On The Readers
Give readers what they want, in your style.
Being there was a privilege for me, and I want to thank Savings.com again for the ticket and friendly hospitality. Blogging can be an independent platform, but it can be part of a much bigger future for you, and there are limitless ways to make this a reality. Blog On!
Love the Top 10 list Hunter! Ashame I couldn’t make it due to prior promises. Sounds like a lot of fun, and hopefully it’s closer West next year!
The pro bloggers out there really are pros!
Sam
It was a really good experience. A West Coast conference would be awesome! Until then, if you are ever close to Virginia Beach it would be great to meet-up.
Feels like its ab great miss for me. Glad you networked very ell there.
Hey SB, sorry you missed out on the Plutus Award. Being nominated as a finalist is impressive.
Great Takeways! I think I’ll reference your article in mine!
Cool! Just saw the pingback.
[...] Hunter from Financially Consumed did such a great job, I thought I’d just reference his site: Ten Takeaways – Financial Blogger Conference. Check out his article, it’s spot on as to what the primary takeaways were (check out the [...]
Wonderful takeaways! Couldn’t make it this year, but have high hopes for next year. I appreciate you sharing what you learned!
Thanks Maggie! I think everyone in attendance had a positive experience.
Hey Hunter, good takeaways! I don’t think we met officially but I believe I shared the Facebook table with you at lunch on Saturday. I’ll keep my eye on your FB page and see if you use Pat’s tips
Hey Ben, yeah we didn’t get a chance to meet, but I remember you from the Facebook group. A Facebook overhaul is on my action list!
Awesome tips! Thanks for sharing. From what I’ve been hearing, FINCON11 was priceless. Maybe next year!
Hey Buck, yes it was a great experience. If you can be there next year I think it would be a positive move.
Great rundown of what you learned at FINCON! I think I’ll be referring to your list to remember all of the great points from the weekend.
Nice to finally meet you Glen. I’m glad I took tons of notes, it was an avalanche of great information.
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Wow! It looks like you got a lot out of that conference. I’m definitely making a point to attend next year. (I’ll also be finished with school which makes that a doable goal!)
It was overwhelmingly beneficial. I’m sure you’ll get great ideas from attending.
Hunter, great summation. A lot of the same points that resonated with you also resonated with me, so I appreciate you putting them here. I’m going to print them out.
I especially like #3.It was so nice to meet you.
And how much fun was that video?
It was great meeting you too Julie. It really puts your blog in a new perspective for me. Wouldn’t it be great to let all our readers meet us some way. It could only help to build connections. I have so many ideas buzzing through my head!
This is great information and incredibly helpful. I will book mark this and re-read it regularly.
Hey CFM, plan on attending the next conference. Awesome experience all-round.
[...] Ten Takeaways by Financially Consumed [...]
Unbelievable recap, Hunter! I think you captured every point perfectly. Loved Ramit’s video, too, and I’m so happy you posted it!
It was so great to get to meet you and so many others.
Thanks Jana! Great meeting you too. This time next year it will be so cool to look back and see what we have all done with our blogs. It’s going to be a big year!
[...] Love Drop event with Phil’s Friends sponsored by Adaptu. I sat and chatted on the bus with Financially Consumed, hung out with Kris from Everyday Tips and Thoughts and Suba while we labelled greeting cards for [...]
Wow, absolutely incredible summary. Thanks. It is nice to get some of the highlights from many bloggers since I wasn’t able to attend. I am trying to take away some things from the takeaways.
Thanks! There’s a lot of material from the conference online. try wisebread.com/fincon11
Great list! I am already excited to go to the conference next year!
See you next year LaTisha!
Nice summary Hunter! Glad you had fun!
Thanks MC, great fun.
I love your summary! My 2012 goal will be to go to the conference.
Looking forward to meeting you KC.
Thanks for the summary. I am still upset that I missed it on account of illness. I was so close to it! I am still sick too.
Sorry to hear that SF, speedy recovery. Conference resources are available on their site, I believe.
Nice list! You summed the event up very nicely, and captured just about all of the best parts. It was great to meet everyone in person, and I’m looking forward to doing it again next year!
Yes, it was a quality weekend.
Thank you for the mention! Hope that my “war” wasn’t too harsh. I tried to be encouraging even as I was accusing people of being comma-splicers.
No, not too harsh at all. My name is Hunter, and I’m a comma-splicer.
Comma splicer! Splicer of commas! Go and sin no more!
Haha, thanks Donna. Maybe I should try harder to emulate Hemingway? Short punchy sentences could be the solution to my comma splicing?
I’ve never understood why people like Hemingway so much. His work doesn’t do a thing for me.
Myself, I’m for a mix of short-and-punchy and long-and-thoughtful. It makes for more interesting reads.
Love the recap! That summarized some of the highlights of the weekend well. I feel like its so much easier to connect and collaborate with other bloggers now that I’ve met them face-to-face.
Thanks Paula, and you are absolutely correct. There were several more highlights. I got so much out of Baker’s presentation and love his passion for helping others. Julia BargainBabe showed me even more ways to be successful, and Ryan Guina’s insights will no doubt save my blog one day! I thought Kylie’s advice was outstanding and the roundtable on Facebook with Pat is going to transform my landing page. I just had to limit this post to ten things….impossible. Congrats again on the Plutus Award for Best NEW PF Blog!
This is a really great roundup! You got all the great takeaways right here. Heck I’m not even going to write a post now.
Well done!
Thanks Jessica! I noticed that there’s lots of fincon highlight posts circulating. It’s not easy thinking of other topics when you have been immersed in it all weekend.
You almost made me feel like I was there. Thanks for sharing!
Cool. Plan to be there next year, guaranteed to inspire.
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Great lessons learned, Hunter. Maybe next year, when prior plans don’t intrude.
It would be great to meet you! You do have a busy travel schedule.
Great list Hunter, and great to meet you, if only briefly. I’m so excited about everything I learned and looking forward to giving my readers all they can handle.
Great meeting you too Briana. I full of ideas too, and now planning how to introduce some changes. I did kind of burn out a bit this week. Excited about blogging, but couldn’t settle on anything to blog about.
This is a great recap, and spot on. It was truly hard to process everything that was taken in.
Still tired…
Yeah, I’ve been struggling this week too. Thanks Kris.
[...] Ten Takeaways – Financial Blogger Conference | Financially Consumed [...]
Great list Hunter! So nice to meet you.
Thanks Amanda, great meeting you too.
By far my favorite recap yet!! LOVE THIS!!! (and also – pleasure meeting you in real life
Even if we didn’t get to chat much. Really appreciated you participating in our Love Drop event! That means the world.)
Great meeting you too J$. I can’t say this enough: the Love Drop was the perfect kick-starter to the conference. It broke the ice and got rid of the nerves. We helped! The really special part was that Phil was SO appreciative, that’s what made it.
Great recap, Hunter, and it was a pleasure to meet you in person! I look forward to next year!
Pleasure meeting you too Ryan. If I attend next year I’ll be travelling from Japan…we’ll see. Thanks for the back-up & recover presentation. I still haven’t figured how to do that, but it’s on my action list.
Wish I could’ve made FINCON. These are some great takeaways.
Plan on being there next year, good times & great information.
Wow! Could you HAVE any more comments? I think it’s great that the community continues even after the event (as evidenced by all your comment love here on this post.) Nice summary, as usual!
Hi Linsey, thanks for stopping by. This comment thread is by far the longest for me. I’m feeling the warmth from this comunity. Thank you.
I really need to figure out the media kit thing…blarg. Such a pleasure meeting you in person though!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Shannyn, great meeting you too. Can’t wait to see how much we all grow over the next 12 months.
[...] 10 Takeaways from the Financial Blogger Conference @ Financially Consumed [...]
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Hunter, this is an excellent article! It was great getting a chance to meet you and hang out with you in the “Yakezie room”!
The Yakezie room was good fun. Great to chat with you too. It’s going to be a big year!
[...] [...]
[...] Hunter @ Financially Consumed – “Ten Takeaways – Financial Blogger Conference” [...]
Great list Hunter! I’m curious about one thing regarding email lists/newsletters. Did any of the speakers address whether or not it is good to almost “plaster” the sign up form in the face of a reader in the form of a pop up when the visit a site? Have people found that to be effective?
Hey Jacob. Good question. I didn’t hear that point discussed at the conference. You might want to visit some of the most successful blogs and see how they handle that?
[...] Ten Takeaways – Financial Blogger Conference (Financially Consumed) [...]
Nice post! How did you hear about the conference? I am new to the financial blogging community but I am unsure how to get information like this…any advice would be helpful!
Hey Cole, Connect with Phil @ PT Money and you should be one of the first to know about the next conference. Welcome to the community.
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