Atlanta Bloggers Meetup and the Future of Blogging

What: The Atlanta Bloggers Meetup
Website Blurb: Meet other bloggers to talk about blogging, internet marketing, social media, tips and techniques, practices, SEO, writing and general support. All blog topics are welcome.
My Insight: This was my first event although the group has had more than 15 monthly meet ups. The event organizer told me the group usually gets a large number of new people every month who have a wide range of social media expertise. Although I met a few people who are new to blogging, the clear majority of the contacts I met all had an intermediate to advanced blogging skill level. With 75+ posts on this blog, that’s about right for my level as well.
Interesting Facts: 1. Through my previous career in Sales, I have been fortunate to attend hundreds of networking events. I am a big fan of the table host format, which this group uses to facilitate networking and discussion. 2. I was very impressed not only with the collective body of knowledge the group possessed, but how freely everyone shared tips, advice, knowledge, and insider secrets.
Would I attend again: Definitely!

Top 5 things I learned from the Atlanta Bloggers Meetup

2010 and Beyond: The group foresees two elements in the future of blogging – blogger collaboration and video. Video is not just a “wow” thing anymore, it’s considered the norm. (check out my 2-minute video book reviews here). http://www.tubemogul.com/was cited as being a very helpful resource for video blogging. Augmented reality was also discussed a few times.
Income and ROI: These are ongoing topics of conversation. Everyone wants to know how he or she can produce income through blogging. Also, as service providers, we have to continually talk beyond strategy to how we can deliver ROI and sales for our clients.
Income producing CONTENT on blogs is big. Content and copy are not the same thing.
SEO and linking. There are some very clever, sneaky little secrets for getting backlinks, blog promotions, and SEO rankings. Internet marketers all use strategies and are very “in the know” about this. One person writes “Tiger Woods” repeatedly in black font to blend in with the black backdrop of the website, so users can’t see it but it helps with his rankings. Another guy creates free sites on WordPress solely to provide backlinks to his main page.
Plugins: the importance of these can’t be underestimated. One plugin that was mentioned as being crucial will make websites more viewable and compatible with mobile web pages.

Lastly, two great blogging/social media events are coming up this month: WordCamp this weekend, and SOCON10 at the end of the month. I look forward to seeing all my new friends and sharing all the great information I learn. Did I miss anything that’s crucial regarding the future of blogging? Just drop me a line or add in a comment.