BiggerPockets

Just what I need while I'm up there, Aaron . . . pressure from the peanut gallery!

As Aaron said, I'll be part of a panel at Blogworld in LA next week. It is a great group of people led by a guy named Dave Taylor who is one of the brighter people you'll ever meet and listen to. The group is definitely complete with savvy folks, and of course, I hope you'll all stop by and support us.

Here's the link to the panel:
Promoting Your Blog in the Age of Social Media
3:45 PM to 4:45 PM - Thu. Nov. 3rd Room 409 A

If you're attending the event, please do get in touch (let us know here) and we'll do what we can to connect.

I wanted to report back about my experience at this conference.

1 - My session went very well. Our panel included some really great people and the reaction to it was quite good. We covered strategies for using social media to build your business blog, and I emphasized the need to use targeted channels like BiggerPockets (for REI people) to grow your name and brand.
2 - I met almost all of the bloggers that I've looked up to for years now. The networking was pretty incredible, and we got to share strategies and methodologies for building your blog, social media presence, and business.
3 - I had fun. It was great getting to play around with my peers in cyberspace.
4 - I went to some really good sessions and have many ideas for furthering the BiggerPockets message. I just need to draw up my strategy and execute . . .
5 - I got some needed technical help, which resulted in a speedier BiggerPockets Blog. We managed to cut over 2 seconds off of the load time of every page on the blog -- a very significant improvement. Hopefully the speedier load times give you reason to do a little more exploring on that part of the site.

Overall, I had a great time, met loads of good people, and was inspired to make some changes to that site that I think you will all really appreciate.

@Aaron - I hope you'll share your experiences as well.

It was great seeing you there and congrats. It's nice to see our industry represented and you're very deservant of some love. Go BP!

It's funny you bring this up because I just took a break from my plan development paper. I got so many great ideas from the sessions and I've very excited about having access to the sessions I missed.

Few things I learned:

1. Facebook is for friends and family and google+ is for passionate business. I was super surprised to hear the amount of people dogging on Twitter and very excited about the outlook for Google+. Linkedin didn't get much play in any of the conversation.

2. Lots of tips on SEO. I pride myself in knowing a little about a lot and I must admit SEO is one of those things that always changes and I get tired of trying to keep up. I got some real stats and some real great ideas on how to improve posts without going to black hat techniques.

3. I actually learned quite a bit about new vendors and technolgoes available at the expo. From ebook publishing services to knew word press plugins that do some incredible things, it was nice to see where we're headed

4. Mobile websites vs apps. This was a huge takeaway for me. I spoke with Sean O'Toole of ForeclosureRadar about this issue and he warned me if we started developing apps to be prepared to have someone full time on staff. His input and the conference has resulted in me deciding I will focus energy on making our website mobile friendly. It makes more sense for our company. Holy cow 50% of all phones are now smart phones! You can't ignore where we're headed.

This is something I'll definitely start attending every year. It makes me focus on things I rarely get undivided time to do. I also got to book my first room through airbnb.com which is just awesome.

Great week and very cool to network with old and new friends.