The slides we have [are posted](/seminars/archives/slides/). Note that panels usually don’t have slides.

Steve’s demystifying blogging now, there’s a good crowd, and we’re talking about business blogging. A quick survey shows that most are just learning about blogging and not blogging now.

And! Thanks for spending your Saturday with us.

The [Business Blogging 101 Seminar](/seminars/) is on today. We’ll blog live from the event with posts on the sessions, speakers, and hallway discussions.

The first Seminar in our series, Business Blogging 101, is this weekend. We’ve posted [Tips & Reminders](/seminars/archives/tips_reminders/)
to ensure you have a great experience and the [Seminar sub blog](/seminars/) has everything you need, including [what will be covered](/seminars/archives/what_will_be_covered/), the [speakers](/seminars/archives/speakers/), and more.

I’ll speak about blog design and blogging engines with [Molly](http://molly.com). I look forward to meeting you and discussing blogging. [Chris Brownrigg](http://www.brownriggproductions.com/) from Boeing will be there, as well as Ignition Partners, who are about to launch their new blog.

A recent Business Week cover touted that “Blogs Will Change Your Business.” In the accompanying article they wrote: …you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they’re simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about every business — including yours.”

Learn why and how Oct. 29

Confused about what blogs and RSS are all about, and why they’ve become such a big deal for thousands of small businesses as well as big corporations like IBM, Microsoft, and General Motors? Want to know how blogging and syndication can bring you more visibility and customers?

We’ll answer those questions and many more at their full-day Business Blogging 101
Seminar coming to Seattle October 29 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center. The cost is $195.00. Register now with RegOnline.

You’ll walk out of this workshop with all the tools you need to start a successful blogging initiative right away, and to avoid the common pitfalls.

You’ll Learn

• What is a blog. Discover how blogs differ from a regular Web sites, and the key advantages they offer.
• Why blogs are getting so much attention. See why something that started as a system for creating online diaries has evolved into a powerful platform for business.
• How to take advantage of blogs. Get all the “how-to” instruction you need to start blogging now.

Speakers include

• Molly E. Holzschlag. Named “one of the greatest digerati” and one of the most influential women on the Web.
• Robert Scoble. One of the most popular bloggers, Robert works at Microsoft as an evangelist on the Windows team.
• Buzz Bruggeman. A founder and CEO of ActiveWords, Inc. and is responsible for all marketing, evangelizing and business development for the company.
• Steve Broback and DL Byron. Co-founders of the Blog Business Summit conferences, and authors of the upcoming book: Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Business.

More on the Seminars

• Download the Postcard (PDF)
• What will be covered
  
• Details
  
• Speakers
  
• Register

What will be covered

The Blog Advantage: What Blogs are and Why They are Taking Over

9:00am to 10:00am

There’s a reason Business Week magazine said “blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate” and it has nothing to do with personal diaries. In this session we’ll cover the basics of what makes a blog a blog and why blogging platform technologies provide significant advantages to businesses that leverage them.

• How to enhance your search engine presence
• Saving money through inexpensive database-driven Web pages
• Working with multiple site authors
• Driving readership through RSS and syndicated feeds
• Viral marketing benefits from community

RSS and Feeds: Monitoring the Blogosphere and the Buzz

10:15am to 11:15am

What tools and techniques are best for finding out what’s being said about you or your company? This session covers Web hosted services along with desktop applications that automate the gathering and analysis of blog, discussion group, and search engine content. See how to get the latest info without flipping through hundreds of sites or wading through too many feeds.

• The best RSS feedreaders
• Turning google searches into RSS feeds
• Scraping utilities that convert static sites to RSS

Smart Blogging: Essential Blog Design and Critical Features

11:30am to 12:30pm

Good content is a requirement, but there’s a lot more to a good blog than just the posts. There are critical features and technologies you’ll want to investigate. Standard designed templates are fine, but there are a myriad of reasons why you’ll want to customize and enhance with a unique layout. Proper blog design can insure your branding, position, and message are optimally projected. Beautiful, cross-device, navigable, and fast loading sites that search engines love are a must. This session will cover what top bloggers do to get the best of all possible worlds.

Lunch 12:30am to 2:00pm

Getting started: Choosing a Platform

2:00pm to 3:00pm

There’s more to a Blog engine than just price. Once you’ve made your choice, transitioning can be a challenge — so you’ll want to pick the optimal platform. If you have chosen, it’s not too late to move to a more robust environment. This session will cover all the major issues in selecting and migrating to the best system. Molly and Byron will cover:

• Insuring scalability
• Spam prevention
• Workgroup options
• Feature sets
• Pinging, publicity, and broadcast features
• Extendibility, plug-ins and upgrades
• Being “orphaned”, and how to prevent it.

Blog Promotion: Posting isn’t Enough

3:15pm to 4:15pm

You’ve got a fantastic blog. The design is beautiful, the content rich and relevant. But your stats are showing that only three people have visited since last July. What can you do? In this session, you’ll learn some of the best ways to build blog traffic quickly, increase interest in you and your product or service, and improve your bottom-line results.

• The pros and cons of comment systems
• How to use Trackback and Pingback to rapidly extend your blog’s reach
• How content aggregation technologies can quickly get your blog content to a wider audience
• How to improve blog ranking with both standard and blog-specific search engines
• Tips and tricks to keep your visitors coming back for more.

Blog Management: Strategies and Tactics

4:30pm to 5:30pm

Before you flip the switch and encourage employees or partners to blog about the business, it’s critical that you set the stage for responsible and effective posting. In this session, we’ll delve into the realities of workflow, policy, and content generation experiences to help those new to the game learn what works, what doesn’t, and what traps to avoid.

• Screening and editing posts
• Getting the team to contribute
• Choosing topics to write about
• Minimizing internal filters while maximizing “safe” dialog
• Resolving ownership issues
• Integrating blogs and confidentiality agreements
• SEC and “quiet period” restrictions
• Reconciling personal opinions against implied corporate representation
• Competitor linking and dialog — how open do you want to be?

The Blog Advantage: What Blogs are and Why They are Taking Over

9:00am to 10:00am

There’s a reason Business Week magazine said “blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate” and it has nothing to do with personal diaries. In this session we’ll cover the basics of what makes a blog a blog and why blogging platform technologies provide significant advantages to businesses that leverage them.

• How to enhance your search engine presence
• Saving money through inexpensive database-driven Web pages
• Working with multiple site authors
• Driving readership through RSS and syndicated feeds
• Viral marketing benefits from community

RSS and Feeds: Monitoring the Blogosphere and the Buzz

10:15am to 11:15am

What tools and techniques are best for finding out what’s being said about you or your company? This session covers Web hosted services along with desktop applications that automate the gathering and analysis of blog, discussion group, and search engine content. See how to get the latest info without flipping through hundreds of sites or wading through too many feeds.

• The best RSS feedreaders
• Turning google searches into RSS feeds
• Scraping utilities that convert static sites to RSS

Smart Blogging: Essential Blog Design and Critical Features

11:30am to 12:30pm

Good content is a requirement, but there’s a lot more to a good blog than just the posts. There are critical features and technologies you’ll want to investigate. Standard designed templates are fine, but there are a myriad of reasons why you’ll want to customize and enhance with a unique layout. Proper blog design can insure your branding, position, and message are optimally projected. Beautiful, cross-device, navigable, and fast loading sites that search engines love are a must. This session will cover what top bloggers do to get the best of all possible worlds.

Lunch 12:30am to 2:00pm

Getting started: Choosing a Platform

2:00pm to 3:00pm

There’s more to a Blog engine than just price. Once you’ve made your choice, transitioning can be a challenge — so you’ll want to pick the optimal platform. If you have chosen, it’s not too late to move to a more robust environment. This session will cover all the major issues in selecting and migrating to the best system. Molly and Byron will cover:

• Insuring scalability
• Spam prevention
• Workgroup options
• Feature sets
• Pinging, publicity, and broadcast features
• Extendibility, plug-ins and upgrades
• Being “orphaned”, and how to prevent it.

Blog Promotion: Posting isn’t Enough

3:15pm to 4:15pm

You’ve got a fantastic blog. The design is beautiful, the content rich and relevant. But your stats are showing that only three people have visited since last July. What can you do? In this session, you’ll learn some of the best ways to build blog traffic quickly, increase interest in you and your product or service, and improve your bottom-line results.

• The pros and cons of comment systems
• How to use Trackback and Pingback to rapidly extend your blog’s reach
• How content aggregation technologies can quickly get your blog content to a wider audience
• How to improve blog ranking with both standard and blog-specific search engines
• Tips and tricks to keep your visitors coming back for more.

Blog Management: Strategies and Tactics

4:30pm to 5:30pm

Before you flip the switch and encourage employees or partners to blog about the business, it’s critical that you set the stage for responsible and effective posting. In this session, we’ll delve into the realities of workflow, policy, and content generation experiences to help those new to the game learn what works, what doesn’t, and what traps to avoid.

• Screening and editing posts
• Getting the team to contribute
• Choosing topics to write about
• Minimizing internal filters while maximizing “safe” dialog
• Resolving ownership issues
• Integrating blogs and confidentiality agreements
• SEC and “quiet period” restrictions
• Reconciling personal opinions against implied corporate representation
• Competitor linking and dialog — how open do you want to be?