To round out my crazy traveling schedule this year, I recently got home from the 3rd annual Financial Blogger Conference that was held in St. Louis, MO.
No matter what conferences are on my schedule to go to, FinCon is an absolute must! I think Pat Flynn says it best:
FinCon is like a family reunion — one you actually want to go to. @PatFlynn
It might be hard to imagine that a conference (especially a financial one) can change the lives of so many people. But I know without a doubt it has changed mine.
In fact, because of PT Money and attending FinCon in 2011, my business is thriving today after two full years of blogging online.
Stand in Your Awesomeness
I was thrilled when I found out Derek Halpern would be attending FinCon to give the closing keynote. He’s one of my favorite blogging idols — not just because he has a crazy entertaining personality, but because his stuff works!
About a year ago, I was getting around 5,000 unique visitors to my site each month. But thanks to Derek’s 80/20 promotion versus content strategy (TAPP as he calls it), I’ve tripled my traffic!
Want to know the real reason this strategy works? I’m not trying to build a lifestyle that pumps out useless content full of boring ideas.
When I have something important to share — like a tool that saves me 4 hours a week, or how to land long-term clients — that’s when I write a post. Otherwise, I’m just creating noise, which is what everyone else on the internet is already doing.
Stand in your awesomeness and don’t betray your soul or your personality to do what everyone else is doing. You also can’t be afraid to take action!
The new strategy for blog success: Create, promote, promote, promote, promote, celebrate. @derekhalpern
Real Results Means Recognition
As I’m sure you guessed, I’m a Social Triggers fan girl (who isn’t?). But I don’t idolize people because they are celebrities or big-time bloggers.
They’re still human beings just like I am, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have good ideas to share, or more experience than me. So I’m always open to learning more!
After approaching Derek Halpern to thank him for sharing his 80/20 rule and how it helped triple my traffic, he was intrigued and wanted to learn more. He asked me to sit down and chat, while I answered some questions about my site. Then he asked if he could feature me in his keynote presentation at FinCon!
I about fell out of my chair (but I kept my cool). Of course I said YES and was elated to find my story mentioned in his slides multiple times.
Featured in Derek’s keynote from FinCon13!
The recognition I received from his mention was overwhelming, and I’m so thankful I had the guts to walk up to him and chat.
Among all the awesomeness, my thanks was genuine and I was confident in myself and my business — enough to go up to a big-time blogger like Derek and introduce myself.
Don’t be afraid to reach out and grab opportunities before they pass you by, and sometimes taking the initiative to be proactive will majorly pay off.
“When a door opens, be brave enough to walk through it.” @JeanChatzky
My Favorite Lessons from FinCon13
- The blogosphere is not about competition, it’s about collaboration, says Amanda Abella.
- Jeff Rose, told us to focus on building good content, on big sites, and you’ll overcome the “Google game”.
- Mike Delgado, explains that if you spend one hour on Twitter every week, make sure it’s during a Tweetchat.
- Embrace the gap between your current job income, and the revenue from your own business, says Caleb Wojcik.
Make Your Own Splash
One final thing that really hit me during this conference, was to make your own splash. It’s easy to be the ripples to someone else’s splash, but you make much more of an effect by making your own waves.
If you want to make your business more effective, give people advice they can actually apply to their business, that gives massive results.