September 19th, 2008
by
Brett Bumeter
Good evening, or I should say good morning. Its about 2:30 am on the east coast and in about 5 hours, I will be catching a plane to Las Vegas for BlogWorld. I’m looking forward to the trip, but while I’m at the conference I can’t always promote my site online as much.
I will do a great deal of in person promotion, but my sites might feel a little neglect.
One thing you can do to give your site(s) a boost while away is to push them harder through the primary blog surfing exchanges, Blogexplosion, Blogmat and Blogsoldiers.
Rated #1
Rated #2 for Quality
Rated #3
When you are traveling, you might be able to get some mobile posts in and even the articles you publish from your computer on the go, may not get the attention they normally do. So make sure they get some buzz and attention on the surf exchange through your friends and readers there. Bank a few credits before you travel, and then turn them loose just before you hit the tarmac. 
It may seem about as mundane as backing up tape drives for a living, but the boost can help keep you ‘present’ even when you are not!
September 18th, 2008
by
Brett Bumeter
I’m going to Blogworld 08, but consider myself a ‘problogger’ mostly because I earn a living from blogging. That said, anyone can earn a living as a blogger with some effort and time up front to get things rolling. Once you are rolling the trip is a write off, if you set up a business for your publishing and advertising activities (very easy thing to do).
That said the trip is expensive, and for people going the first time or on a budget, its not easy.
1. Stay at cheap hotels and find someone you know to share a room if possible. I’m staying with @bensparks who won a free room. That said there are hotels in Vegas (not terrible places ) that cost less than $50 a night. For the New Media Expo, I stayed in a remodeled Riviera for $40 a night and was right across the street from the conference center and the Hilton where rooms were $120 a night.
2. Work hard for a cheap flight rate. (Despite seeing airline rates of $700 - $999, I got lucky and picked up a ticket for $270, 3 days ago)
3. If you can’t pay for the conferences, just go to the floor for $75 - $100. Everything covered in the conferences can be learned on the internet, so unless you are trying to network with the speaker, or people in the conferences or you just learn somethings better in person, consider saving the money and learning it digitally, after all that’s what these people are going to teach you anyway! ;0
4. Food and Drink. Ok, this is one area where Vegas can get expensive quickly, but there are cheap places to get food and drink. If you want to save some money, avoid casino restaurants and cafes unless you have a great buffet deal (I don’t recommend buffets if the line is long, don’t waste time in a line anywhere, you should be learning or networking during these trips skip the food, it will help you save money on diet pills.).
5. Vegas is partly walkable. Cabs are expensive as hell, but for a little money you can take the tram or even a bus, or you can walk. That can save you a lot of money each day you are there.
6. If you go to these things a lot, or travel a lot, consider getting an air card. If you are a blogger, you make money when you are connected, so set yourself up to stay connected (enter air card) and don’t pay for wifi at a hotel if you can avoid it. Air cards can keep you connected in a hotel without having to pay $10 a day. You just have to make sure you get enough use out of the aircard elsewhere (at conference, in airport, or where ever when ever)
Hope this all helps, I’m working to build this and much more into a free syllabus and training plan on my own site at softduit.com. There are many more resources though.
Mobile post sent by brettbum using Utterli. 
Replies.
November 13th, 2007
by
Brett Bumeter
That was the question that I was asked as I happened up to the booth at Blogworld in Las Vegas last week. It was a great question and I knew right away what my answer was. In fact, I had just signed off of Windows Live Writer a few minutes earlier as I blogged an article about the keynote address.
I am a Windows Live Writer devotee, but that does not mean that it could not improve or get better. I knew this and so did the Windows Live Writer team. When you are good and when you are smart, you can have the confidence to ask tough questions like that from your customers.
My response to the question included the following points:
- When I publish, it takes a minute or two for the article to actually publish onto my blog. WLW goes to a white screen and I have to wait.
- When auto-save, saves a copy of my draft article (I’m set at 10 minutes) The program locks and the screen again goes white, while it saves the copy. I in essence get cut off in my writing while it auto saves.
- After I have successfully published an article to my blog, I seem to no longer have a copy left on my computer for things like (ahem ah a Google Desktop search~ slightly embarassing moment there, but that’s what i use)
Their Quick Suggestions
Now they took my hatred seriously. ;) They also suggested that I download the latest version of WLW, which apparently came out a couple days before the show, while I was packing for Vegas. They also reminded me that if I turn off the checkbox that opens the published article in a new browser window, it might speed things up. (You see I use Firefox for my browser and WLW calling Firefox may be a little slow). Also, the blank out might come from the part of the program that saves a local copy.
Why I love Windows Live Writer
Now I use this software program everyday, almost all day long. I am a Social Media Expert and a Problogger and this software rocks. The only tool out there that even comes close is Scribefire and Scribefire just doesn’t quite work for me (Firefox plugin as opposed to stand alone).
There are dozens of reasons why I love Windows Live Writer, but identifying the things that I passionately hate (so that they can be improved) was a very brave question. I hope they asked everyone the same question.
Separately, we also talked about one of my other favorite software programs, MindManager from Mindjet. I promised to connect the Windows Live Writer team to the Mindjet team so that they might finish up the API’s necessary to enable a MindManager export to Windows Live Writer.(Already sent the emails out, and working that as I type this.) Holy Cow (there was one of those at the show too) that would be a product that would definitely change my life!
Then I could sit down and kick off a brain storm session with a client, such as Delta faucets, come up with a strategy, kick off some ideas for articles, and export those articles with rough notes and links straight over to WLW, where I could polish them off with a good write up and pictures for export.
see for more Writer Zone: Writer will be at BlogWorld Expo
