I want to pass along some of what I learned from Phoenix WordCamp on Friday November 13, 2009.

Over all Phoenix WordCamp was a GREAT event and I learned a great deal about blogging in general and WordPress specifically. Visit the main WordCamp website to find details for your area.

As far as blogging is concern (on any platform) the overall theme expressed by Lorelle VanFossen and Merlin Mann was to find your voice on the Internet. I probably can’t explain this as eloquently as they did, but the bottom line is be yourself! The best way to find an audience on the Internet once you enter the Blogging and Social Media world is to figure out who you are and what you want to be online. Then use this Voice you have developed and do not apologize for it.

Voice is a concept that is hard to explain but in my mind it means being “you” and saying what you want to say without trepidation. Your Voice should be passionate!

No matter who you become online or how you present yourself be true to yourself. Whether it is the real you or an alter persona stick with that Voice and be consistent with it.

WordCamp Phoenix Note Summary

Listed below are some notes I jotted down. I have listed them according to speaker.

Matt Mullenweg – The founder of WordPress!
In my opinion Matt’s biggest point was that WordPress is a open source project with community development it is this eco-system which keeps it alive and moving forward. As the world’s largest blogging platform and content management system it is crucial all WordPress bloggers and developers respect the GPL license and don’t give your money to people that refuse to follow the GPL.

Lorelle VanFossen – One of the most prolific and read bloggers on the Internet producing in excess of 3500 articles a year.

General Thoughts:

• Rules – there are no rules about what to blog about
• Short Paragraphs – each paragraph should be 1 point
• Headings – full thought and use the heading tags, h1, h2 etc
• Lists – use them makes for easing reading
• Bold – don’t abuse it
• Emoticons – don’t use them
• Copying Others – Don’t copy other’s posts
• WordPress – always type as one word with capital W and P
• Content – be interesting. Show your readers something they have not seen before or show them something in a different way.
• Timeless content – posting timeless content is good when possible. Article series are good.
• Publishing – Do on a consistent basis it keeps people coming back.
• For Yourself – blog for yourself and the like minded. Don’t worry about the creeps and mean spirited people, they are every where on line and not matter what you post they will find you.
• Nouns/Pronouns – Use the full noun whenever possible. Nouns are index by the search engine crawlers. i.e. “I love blogging using WordPress.“ instead of ”I love blogging using it.“

Tools:

• Firefox
• Notepad Pro
• CoLT
• Greasemonkey Firefox Plugin

Jim Christian – Go Daddy Top Search Engine Optimization Expert (Note you can use the Go Daddy code ”GDPHXWC“ for 10% off on buying domains.

General:

• Most important thing I learned ”Optimize Your Content“ for the keywords you want used on specific page or post.
• SEO should come naturally through your writing and content.
• Be a ”White Hat“ SEO person. i.e. don’t try to cheat and scam the system. You’ll end up getting buried by Google.
• Inbound links to your site are crucial for relevance.
• Anchor text is crucial. Anchor text is the text used in describing your link. The part you click on.
• Page Title Tags – The title tag on your page is very important. Keep it less than 65 characters and make sure you most important keyword is first. i.e. if your selling hats; ”Hats all colors of the rainbow“ is better that ”Get your hats in every color of the rainbow“.
• Page Description Meta Tag: 24 words or less and include keywords.
• Keywords Meta Tag: Largely ignored by all search engines. But still use them to keep yourself organized.
• Make sure the content on your page uses the keywords you want to optimize for the page.

Tools:

• Google Trends
• Touch Graph
• Back Analyzer
• Advance Web Ranking

Dave Moyer - founder of Bit Wire Media and one of the personalities on the WordCast Podcast.

• Dave’s presentation stressed how blogging/website content can go much beyond words.
• Most of his presentation revolved tools for incorporating media into your blog or website
• For blogging keep things short. Short videos will be watched in the blog format. If you blog long videos most will bail out prior to completion.
• Learn to use the RSS tools of your blog it’s crucial for syndication.

Tools:

• WP Audio Player
• XSPF Flash Player
• PowerPlayer for WordPress podcasting
• Feedburner for putting your podcasts into iTunes
• Press75.com – great site for WordPress Media templates.

Jason Cote – founder of WPCOOP.ORG for professionals providing WordPress knowledge and development. Lead creative visionary of Ground Up Media

Jason’s main point on business in the 21st century is branding is no longer your ”logo“ but rather your ”personality“. Whether you are company or individual you have to manage your online personality to succeed.

Merlin Mann – What can I say about this guy? He is an online rock star! He covered so much in his portion that it ran 45 minutes long and nobody wanted him to read the stage. But I would say is main point was all about finding your Voice as I covered at the top of this article.

Speakers John Hawkins, Brent Spore and Clintus all talked about more specific technical topics which cannot be covered here. But visit their sites for more information.