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Field Notes: BlogHer PRO 2014
We sponsored BlogHer PRO ’14, a conference focused on the business of blogging. We connected with WordPress users and promoted Automattic’s various products, from Jetpack and VaultPress to Akismet and Polldaddy.
Automatticians, the people who build WordPress.com, participate in events and projects around the world every day. Periodically, they report back on the exciting things they do when not in front of a computer — from talking about making great products to using design to tackle social challenges.
Recently, Story Wrangler Cheri Lucas Rowlands and Happiness Engineers Carolyn Sonnek, Deborah Beckett, and Jen Hooks attended the third annual BlogHer PRO ’14 conference, an event for professionally minded bloggers looking to take their blogs, brands, and businesses to the next level.
A conference is a great way to dive deeper into your passion of blogging. You invest in specific skills you want to hone and get inspired by big ideas, and also take a break from that glowing screen. It’s fun to immerse yourself in an inspiring setting where avatars become faces and Twitter handles become real people.
Image by Jen Hooks
BlogHer PRO ’14 was a relatively intimate conference — about 200 attendees met in Redwood Shores, California, just south of San Francisco, to talk about how to grow their platforms and products into successful brands, identify their strengths and effectively tell their unique stories, and reach their audience and potential partners. Over two days, bloggers attended info-packed talks and presentations — from a chat with entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki and Simply Recipes blogger Elise Bauer to a keynote conversation between BlogHer’s Elisa Camahort Page and Findery CEO Caterina Fake.
Bloggers engaged in sessions on monetization and video trends, high-impact advertising and alternate revenue streams, mobile site optimization, and putting together a comprehensive marketing plan. Hands-on workshops on building media kits and tackling book proposals, among other topics, helped attendees get up and running.
As a sponsor of the event, we met many people at our WordPress.com booth, and were happy to see that a majority of attendees were self-hosted WordPress users. On day two, Happiness Engineers Carolyn and Deborah took the main stage to talk about the benefits of Automattic’s products and services for self-hosted WordPress users, including super plugin Jetpack, security and backup service VaultPress, anti-spam service Akismet, and poll and survey tool Polldaddy. These products provide self-hosted WordPress users the power, security, and functionalities available to our WordPress.com bloggers.
We were on hand to answer technical questions, offer tailored advice to attendees (from tips to improve site performance to choosing the right themes), and connect with existing and potential users.
If you’re serious about the business and marketing side of blogging and are interested in learning more about BlogHer, visit the BlogHer network. There, you’ll also find wrapup posts about this conference, as well as information on BlogHer’s other conferences. (Our very own Michelle Weber recapped this year’s BlogHer ’14 as well — check it out!)
For more updates from the WordPress.com and Automattic team, follow us on Twitter (@WordPressdotcom and @Automattic) and Facebook (WordPress.com and Automattic). We’ve got many events and conferences lined up in 2015 — stay tuned.
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Thanks for sharing. This post gave me some ideas about possibly hosting a blogger conference here in Springdale, Utah, just outside Zion NP
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Great information thanks for keeping us in the loop. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Portal of Delusion and commented:
Great post on Blogher!
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Are those WordPress t-shirts?
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Yes, they are 🙂
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And how do we mere bloggers lay our mitts on one, Cheri? Please?
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You’ll find some stuff on the WordPress swag store: http://hellomerch.com/collections/wordpress
I think they change/rotate the products there, so it’s worth revisiting later to see what else is available. If you attend a WordCamp (in many locations around the world), you’ll find fun stuff at these events as well: http://central.wordcamp.org/
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Thanks, Cheri – I’ve ordered two.
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Reblogged this on My Three Birds and commented:
I went to BlogHer PRO 2014, and it was super neat. My colleague Cheri wrote about it. Read more here!
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Are there any webinars held on such topics? It’ll be a great platform for all bloggers to attend online seminars and stay up to date on blogging trends and insights!
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I’m sure there are tons of webinars on various blogging topics — you might want to do a search online to see what comes up.
We don’t run business/marketing/branding webinars ourselves, though we do have various Blogging U. courses on The Daily Post: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/blogging-university/ These may/may not be fitting for you.
If you’d like, you can follow The Daily Post to be notified of new courses: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/
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Thanks! Yes, I’m sure there are webinars available too. I follow the Daily Post so I get updates on new courses. Thanks!
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How do you join these events?
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As mentioned in the post, you’ll find more information on the BlogHer site: http://www.blogher.com/conferences
You can read more about conferences here: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/2013/09/19/blogging-conferences/
If you’re interested in WordPress events, you can browse here: http://central.wordcamp.org/
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Automatticians thank you for providing a platform for us and Happy Holidays!
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