Four weeks after that I’ll be headed to Ohio for the much smaller, but far more intimate Small Business Marketing Unleashed. Here I will be speaking in two sessions, the first on website architecture and the second will be an SEO workshop.

With that in mind, I wanted to pose a few questions: What value do you get out of going to these big conferences? Are they any better or worse than smaller, more intimate conferences? Which do you prefer, and what do you come home with of value (other than quality schwag)?

Please opine.

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Om Malik gets a pass – the poor fellow apparently threw his back out – but Michael Arrington simply forgot to come, leaving us with Leo Laporte and surprise guest Justine Ezarik.

WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event.

Laporte and Ezarik deserve credit for sticking around – improvising in front of that many people couldn’t have been fun.  They also deserve credit for giving out some informative tips on blogging.

Laporte and Ezarik both seemed to start out by focusing on their passions – in Ezarik’s case, that involved photography. 

Her fan base grew into existence long before she worried about monetization, and this sequence of events probably occurred for a reason.  “The key in this new media is to be as genuine as you can,” stated Laporte.

He later continued, “If you just write a blog, you’re putting yourself out there,” and Ezarik agreed.  Both of them have encountered critical people, but they try not to censor comments; this effectively ends at least a small part of the blogging relationship.  Instead, killing critics with kindness is a preferred way of dealing with them.

“All this media is about engaging your audience,” Laporte and Ezarik stressed.  Or not abandoning them – once again, the pair deserve a pat on the back for speaking at BlogWorld.

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.

BlogWorld: Future Of New Media Includes Audio

WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event.

Laporte dabbles in many mediums, yet primarily uses audio.  “Any idiot can get a blog,” he pointed out in a keynote presentation about “The Future of New Media Publishing Tools.”  It’s stuff like audio that will set you apart, and Laporte later continued, “There’s value to all media and mixing them is valuable.”

Whatever you do, though, Laporte recommends putting a certain amount of passion into it.  “It’s about interacting and having a conversation with the audience,” he said.  “Most stimulating TV is about emotion,” and as such, sitting behind a desk and pointing at maps isn’t necessarily the most engaging approach.

On a related note: sticking all your audio content on iTunes isn’t necessarily the most accessible approach.  “I really want this to grow,” Laporte told listeners.  “Become a part of the community.”

There’s value in doing this, because, as Laporte continued, he said, “I think the future is bright.”

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.

That’s the premise behind CLIQ, a new blog merchandising platform officially launching today at BlogWorld & New Media Expo. CLIQ is developed by StepChange, a technology consulting services firm, and Offermatica, a targeted content delivery platform.

Members of CLIQ promote each other’s blogs through the CLIQ blog widget, which recommends other popular and related posts from around their CLIQ. Members can control which posts are featured, see reports on how traffic is moving around the CLIQ, and measure which posts are performing the best.

Here’s Amy’s description of the panel and panelists.

My thoughts and notes …

Honesty and transparency – is it ever okay to mislead or deceive my omission? Compensation and influence – how does that affect what you say or don’t say….

Do people change the way they review, to continue to have access to junkets such as TV previews or book reviews ….

Bloggers do not necessarily get the respect that journalists get, but does this taint / color how they write to get that legitimacy? Small town newspapers, smaller media publications, also have the same problem, though. It’s a question of credibility – my credibility.

Astroturfing – it does happen on blogs and social media, but what can be done, and how do you expose it. Should it be exposed, and what is the responsibility of the blogger being spun or the corporation doing astroturf.

To acknowledge an error on the post is to be ethical. To just change the issue, you’re lacking transparency and not being smart about it.

::I called out the bullshit that there needs to be an organization, but that blogging wants to be both professional and still amateur – it wants its cake and to eat it too. There is Media Bloggers Association that is trying to get an insurance policy together, to protect bloggers::

Don’t be lazy – it’s a good aspect of ethics for life, no matter what you are doing.

Is anyone who they really say there are online, though. There are times that people have pseudonyms, but is that unethical? There’s a line that you have to protect yourself (career, etc) – but what is that line. Do you hide behind a pseudonym to be a prick and attack – then it’s not ethical. To protect and save yourself (job), then it appears fine.

Does character blogging fall into unethical? If it’s disclosed, does it violate the sense of ethics in blogging?

But, what is transparency and does there need to be a blogging code of ethics, a la Tim O’Reilly. Can you really set a standard and code for a bunch of divergent people, especially when the majority of bloggers are likely small bloggers and not into the whole scheme of things like a lot of the more seasoned or professional bloggers.

::For PR, this is an important issue – PR seems like it could and would violate the basic rules of ethics to get what is needed to be done for the clients (this is the PR people that are not involved in social media, nor understand it). It seems like the astroturf / fake blog would be the first thought in the brainstorm::

Payperpost (and in some ways, Federated Media) come up in a way that marketers are paying bloggers for chats and posts. If it’s not disclosed, is it unethical. There are all kinds of compensations that are meaningful, such as gifts, junkets. Is it relationship building, though? There are hospitality suites … and that’s part of it. Even link exchange, in a way, can be considered a way of bribery. Heck, we even got a wine offer for friendship from Christopher Calicott as an example of how it is just about relationships, but it can be misconstrued.

::Ethics is a tricky issue. At the U, it was always fun in the ethics classes because there really is no right answer. If you are a utilitarian, you do organ harvest from your own kid for the greatest good (if you’re saving the great minds of the world). But, that seems unethical. There are all these stories and issues::

Tris Hussey also wrote up the panel here. And, Amy Sample Ward is going to post also.

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WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event.

In a session called “Syndicating Your Blog For Profit,” Larry Schwartz shared some pointers on the matter.  Schwartz is the president of Newstex, and Newstex defines itself as “content on demand,” so he’s in a good position to know about syndication.

His first point, then, is that frequency matters.  Don’t plan to ignore your blog for weeks at a time and still keep people interested.  Also, you may not be able to hold their attention with short bursts – Schwartz said that longer posts are better, and cited 600-700 words as a good target range.

At the same time, you can’t ramble your way to an appropriate length – staying on topic is key.  You’ll want to stay non-exclusive, as well, and create some sort of summary RSS feed.  Schwartz recommended thinking about video as yet another option.

Granted, all of this may sound like a bit of work.  But as Schwartz said, “Big companies need blogs.”

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.

WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event.

Much of Trout’s advice relates to thinking things through – he suggested that listeners weigh out all the angles before taking any action.  It’s “really hard to win a defamation case,” Trout explained.

Yet on that specific topic, the attorney noted that there is a difference between defamatory and negative opinions.  If, for example, some chairs are poorly made, saying that they suck isn’t defamatory against whatever workers made them.

Another interesting statement from Trout was the suggestion that “plagiarism is okay online.”  Again, there are qualifications – he suggested being careful when dealing with issues of education and law – but the attorney said that taking someone else’s ideas and making a derivative work is all right.  More specifically, parody, critical commentary, and news coverage are just fine.

On the whole, though, everything comes back to being thoughtful.  If you start to hear lawsuit-related rumblings, Trout advises you to “find out who you’re messing with and act accordingly.”

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.

WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event today.

Keeping a blog-focused company moving forward will be an ongoing challenge, according to the panelists chatting at the evening keynote. At Pajamas Media, Roger Simon said work will continue on building their advertising network. The unique audience they have could really boost the CPM rates they can ask of advertisers.

Jeremy Wright of b5media said they have to grow based on what the audience wants. Not the so-called A-list of bloggers, but a more modest group of people who are more of a real world audience.

At Technorati, blogs aren’t the only content they have to track. New CEO Richard Jalichandra said it’s not so much about search anymore, but discovery. Why? They are tracking some 300 million "social media objects" now.

One theme recurred throughout the broader discussion, that of the depth and breadth of quality content appearing in blogs. Roger credited the passion of bloggers with making it work, while Richard noted his first week on the job found him delving into lots of content that he wants Technorati to discover better.

BlogWorld: All About Your Credibility

WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event today.

Steven Van Yoder, author of the book, Get Slightly Famous, told his BlogWorld audience not to forget about the traditional media when seeking fame. " It’s not dead and never will be dead," he said, even as traditional media makes more use of blogging itself.

"Position yourself as a thought leader," he recommended. That means learning one’s niche well, and being able to blog effectively on topics related to the niche.

Being able to do this puts a person in position to start self-promoting. Yoder suggested a traditional public relations plan will help: identify target media; build a media list; study publications; and pitch editors.

Publications at the top should receive priority. "Magazines are hungry for content. It especially helps when you’re an expert offering free content in return for credibility," said Yoder.

"It ca’t be guaranteed that you will get in the NYTimes, but it is absolutely possible."

Yoder also noted bloggers should be ready to syndicate their work in many ways. Podcasts, speeches, or even as part of a book, blog posts have many possible destinations beyond their original appearances online.

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.

WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event.

Mullenweg wasn’t self-centered, though; instead, he gave advice that could benefit everyone.  “There’s a million different ways to approach your blog, but you have to find what you love,” Mullenweg advised listeners.  “There’s other people out there like you, and they will find you and love your blog.”

More concrete suggestions included a tip to use Google’s and Technorati’s tools – they may help you get noticed.

Still, not everything’s foolproof.  On the subject of Automattic, Mullenweg was humble enough to state, “Hopefully we will stay alive.”  And assuming survival occurs, he plans to keep the company “as small as possible.”

As for that well-known blogging software, Mullenweg readily admitted that there are “parts of WordPress that suck” (such as its spellchecker).  But in looking to the future, he believes that writing itself is “the soul of WordPress,” and merely wants to see the software used in different ways and on different platforms.

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.