Only just over a week ago now I was sitting in a hotel on the Gold Coast as a 10%’er of the thorns amongst the roses at the annual Problogger Event run by Darren Rowse and his team looking through the event schedule, palms sweating, anxious and nervous.
The “Thorn amongst the roses” refers to the amount of the male species that were present for the event.
I have only been writing for a few years but at the beginning, through chance, I have been following stalking Darren and a few others in his team online for a while and using the Problogger site for knowledge and cross checks, so the Problogger Event was the next logical step for me, a kind of commitment to the craft you could say.
So I booked, booked the accommodation and packed up the family and headed to the Gold Coast for a weekend of learning and it didn’t disappoint.
The hardest thing about the Problogger Event schedule is deciding what sessions to do and then sticking with your decisions.
I registered on Thursday afternoon, which was a good choice as there weren’t many people there at the time and also met Darren for the first time.
You know that feeling when you meet someone, who is just normal like you in regards to family life etc, but has grown this amazing team and business over the years and you feel that whatever comes out of your mouth at that time will be lame and nonsensical, that’s how I felt and so I didn’t really utter much other than “How are you Darren, I’m Shane” and so it was a kind of a Forrest Gump moment but very cool at the same time.
Friday morning came, I walked into the waiting room at the QT and the excitement and noise was amazing, the doors opened, I sat down and waited for Darren to take the stage.
From the opening moment of the Problogger Event on that Friday until the final keynote on Saturday I have to say I was engrossed and learnt so much about so many subjects.
Here below is the layout for my days, surprisingly for me it was mainly the “Going Pro” sessions that I was interested in and also using my musical background to head into YouTube and my love of graphics to learn more about that area too.
My Day One Problogger Schedule ::
- Introduction to Day One : Darren Rowse
- Converting Casual Readers into a Thriving Community : Pat Flynn
- What you need to know about SEO : Rand Fishkin
- The Visual Blog : Donna Mortiz
- The Web Video Strategy : David Jenyns
- WordPress Professional Site Clinic : Dee Teal
- 5 in 50! : Featuring many Speakers
My Day Two Problogger Schedule ::
- Introduction to Day Two : Darren Rowse
- Email Marketing Essentials : Shayne Tilley
- Email Marketing Innovations : Shayne Tilley
- The Business of Blogging : Suzi Dafnis
- The Business of You : Chris Ducker
- Closing Remarks : Darren Rowse
Also another aspect of the Problogger Event that I took away is that I didn’t realise how much I already knew and the skills I already have that I can use to move forward on my journey of writing and interaction.
This wasn’t just in the writing part, I mean in the back end of things and also the business side of things.
I’m sure a lot of people there too didn’t realise how much knowledge they have already collected over the years.
So after 16 hours of full submergence in blogging and business, 24 double side sheets of written notes and endless amount of great food, coffee and banter I have emerged from the Problogger Event with a template, an agenda, goals and a broader skill base to name a few things and ready to head into my next stage of writing, publishing and also business.
If I could leave with only one thing from the weekend it would be that I am on the right track, business wise and site wise I am building solid foundations and just have to keep on plugging away in between being a husband, father of 3, working full time and writing / managing three sites and social media.
But hey, who needs sleep anyway!
And finally, thanks to Darren and the Problogger Event Team for a great weekend and thanks to the people I ran into who attended as well as we all make up a pretty big part of the success too.
So keep on writing and I’ll catch up with you sooner than later….
