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Blogging for FITC

// April 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // blogging, events

The 2009 FITC conference is here! Formerly known as Flash in the Can, the conference has evolved from a simple Flash conference only in Canada to a technology conference held in three countries over two continents. Over 1000 people are attending this year’s event in Toronto.

I’ve been asked to blog key points from the sessions I attend on the official FITC site. Here are my posts from day one at the event (Sunday April 26th):

If you’re interested in what’s happening at FITC, check back daily for links to my new posts. If you want to see what people on Twitter are saying about the sessions they’re attending, search for the #FITC hashtag on Twemes.

Monday April 27th
Here are my posts from day two of the FITC event:

Tuesday April 28th
Posts from the final day of the FITC 2009 conference:

Thanks to FITC for asking me to blog for them and I hope you all enjoy the posts!

Third Tuesday April 21st

// April 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // blogging, events

Third Tuesday I attended tonight’s Third Tuesday event in Toronto this evening. This month’s presentation was titled Jeremy Wright: The future of blog networks and online advertising. Jeremy Wright is one of the five co-founders of the blog network b5media which is here in Toronto. The session was wonderfully moderated by Michael O’Connor Clarke.

b5media is a company I follow closely. I’ve met Jeremy at conferences before and know one of the investors, but I consider b5media one of the unsung Canadian new media startup success stories with hundreds of blogs and over a dozen full time bloggers supporting themselves through the network.

Tonight, Jeremy talked about tough times that have hit nearly every industry during this recession and how b5media is coping. The discussion touched upon Jeremy’s decision to take a 60% pay cut to earn just above minimum wage to both help his company prosper as well as send a message to staff and investors, but mainly the questions and answers centered around branding, the business of blogging and what makes a great blogger. Jeremy suggested that you can tell a blogger is great after about 100 posts when the motivation has run out and you have to dig deep for inspiration to continue.

It was clear from answers that he felt that there was no magic bullet to make a living at blogging. He himself had tried and failed several times before he succeeded and felt all his failures were valuable stepping stones to success. However, it sounded as though b5media has what makes a great blog down to a science with frequency of posts and quality of writing all sorted out when a blogger starts a contract with them.

Although he didn’t share the formula with us, comScore shows b5media blogs enjoying steady growth and no doubt that with the wealth of data at b5’s finger tips, their science is sound.

As with most Third Tuesdays (I really should attend more) it was well worth the time. If you’re in the Toronto area, you can sign up for the Third Tuesday meet-up group here. Third Tuesdays are also held in other cities.

Are Blogs Dying?

// April 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // blogging

I’m not the only one who has been light on the blogging lately. I’ve noticed that my many RSS subscriptions are unusually lacking in updates. What’s happening? Are blogs dying? Well, no, but people are certainly spreading around content publication depending on its context.

Many personal blogs seem to have been replaced by Facebook where posts are brief, consisting of one thought/photo/event and tagging your friends for instant feedback is simplistic. Industry bloggers are increasing activity in Twitter where it’s easy to take five seconds out of your day to add a thought in 140 characters.

After you’ve shared your weekend trip photos on Facebook and posted a quick thought on Twitter, what’s left to blog? Well, plenty, but blogging seems to be taking a different road, where writing is more long form. And of course, long form writing takes more time and as a result is done less often than a quick Twitter post or Facebook comment.

I’ve noticed that I’m using each of these tools differently myself. During the past few months, I’ve had an insanely busy schedule. Blogging took too much of what little spare time I had, but I kept up posting to my Twitter account. I also posted photos, RSVPd to events and posted comments regularly on Facebook, but my personal blog and this blog were left neglected.

Users are discovering what the right fit for blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other tools are for them and blogs seem to be taking a bit of a hit. Nevertheless, blogs serve a valuable purpose I plan to keep blogging, especially now that I have a bit more time in my schedule. Just in the first quarter of this year, I studied for and took the GMAT, was accepted into the MBA program at Ryerson University, flew up north to visit my family, moved to a new apartment with my husband and of course worked a full time job which includes blogging almost daily. I can enjoy a little more spare time between now and fall when my studying starts (which will be part time as I continue to work full time).

So, the hiatus is done. I never stopped blogging, but I didn’t do much here this year. But now I’m back. I have a few announcements to make, but I’ll write new posts for them over the next few days.

I want to leave you with one valuable link — eduFire. eduFire is a great new media resource for learning virtually any topic via streaming video. I took part in several GMAT prep classes on eduFire before writing my test, free of charge (although some classes do have fees).

Until next post, keep on blogging!

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