About a year ago I realised three things:
- I may be a fairly decent thinker, researcher and writer but I have much to learn about blogging;
- In blogging, I’ve gone as far as one can go on her own; and
- The fastest way to learn and become part of ‘the family’ is to go to an event.
This is how I found myself on a flight to St. Louis last Tuesday to attend FinCon13 – an annual conference for personal finance bloggers and other wonderful geeks.
Thursday lunch time, I went for a run to the park around the arch – jetlag or not I do need my hour a day. On the run I met a lady who looked like she was a born long distance runner – lean, light and petite. We shyly smiled at each other as is the habit of runners and I continued on my way around. Then through the voice of the narrator of the book I was listening to, I heard:
‘Maria!’
Now this was something unexpected! Running on another continent, in a city where you don’t know anyone the best you could hope for is a shy smile and a hesitant wave.
It was Joe from Stacking Benjamins; a blogging friend and virtual running partner of mine.
We had a sweaty runner’s hug and couple of minutes later we were running with the ‘born long distance runner’ – she turned out to be Jean Chatszky. Okay, okay; I did manage to run with them for all of three minutes – I do a different kind of running, you see – but this is beyond the point.
What happened on my run around the Arch encapsulates the spirit of FinCon13: awesome, friendly, exciting, informative and buzzing with energy, and enthusiasm.
The Plutus Awards
The Money Principle was finalist for the Plutus Award in two categories: Best International Blog and Best Kept Secret Blog.
We didn’t win.
I am not going to bullshit you and say it doesn’t matter; it does! Just not in the way you think. Had I won I would have taken away the Plutus statuette and not much more.
Not winning reminded that if I am not enough without the award, I won’t be enough with it. Translated in the words of a friend:
‘You know your sh*t is good without the Plutus, don’t you?’
Now I do!
My take on Fincon13
I measure the quality of academic conferences by how quickly after the conference I start revising the paper.
The measure of the quality of Fincon is how many ideas I am taking away and how these relate to where The Money Principle will be going.
So here it is:
Pat Flynn
The first keynote was delivered by Pat Flynn: a blogging legend he has never shied away from sharing his insights.
The main message I am taking away are:
- People decide whether to stay on or leave your site in the blink of an eye; and no it is not 7 seconds. This means that the only way to keep them on, and reading, is visual.
- Design matters and it enable people to explore what is on your site. (Thanks for this one, Pat. Action: change the navigation on TMP so it is easy to find the content that really matters.)
- Your blog is not for you, it is for your readers. Get feedback and create a Mastermind group. (Action: Looking for members.)
- We live in a time of ‘person-to-person’ business. Put a picture of yourself on your site (Thank you Jay Money for convincing me to do this; but is the picture saying what I want it to say?)
- You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Jean Chatszky
Jean’s presentation was less technical but no less valuable. By weaving stories about her career and the development of the personal finance industry in the keynote she managed to drive home the following messages:
- Follow your destiny and don’t let people who ‘know’ take you off course;
- Life is full of opportunities; have the wisdom to see them and the courage to take them up;
- Play on your strengths not on your weaknesses.
- Identify what you are good at and do it; do it very well.
But do you know what I liked most? Towards the end of her keynote, Jean said:
‘Many women, even women who are wealthy, feel very insecure about their future. I don’t! I don’t feel insecure not because I am convinced my wealth would last but because I can make a really good waitress.’
Very well said, Jean!
Stacy Johnson
Stacy Johnson is the CEO and founder of Money Talks News, a consumer website and television news series. This session was…well, it was something else.
Key messages I am taking away:
- Traffic is not the main thing, traffic is THE THING.
- I want to be a destination.
- Get on the front page of something big.
- It doesn’t matter how well you write; if you haven’t got a publicist you won’t sell.
- If you can’t do something, don’t give up; find someone who can and partner with her.
Stacy had some advice how to grow your site:
- Start small;
- Figure out what do they need;
- Alcohol beats e-mail;
- Be a squeaky wheel.
I am wondering whether I could take some of this beyond theory.
Derek Halpern
Now we are moving to the grand finale: Derek Halpern is the creator of Social Triggers. This keynote was wonderful in the simplicity and sense of its message:
Most of us spend 80% of our time writing and 20% promoting our posts – this is a strategy that doesn’t grow your site much and gets you burned out.
This is a wasteful way to do things and a lot of the value is lost in a mountain of posts (remember Pat’s point about people being able to find things?).
A much more parsimonious and effective way to do things is to reverse the ratio and create 20% of the time and promote 80%. The equation is straight forward:
Less content + More promoting = Loads of traffic
It is important though to realise the importance of promoting to different people. Put simply, personal finance blogs shouldn’t promote to other PF bloggers; there are many people out there who can benefit from the knowledge and experience of PF bloggers and they have little to do with blogging and all to do with money troubles.
Derek went on to discuss the TAPP technique (Target, Appeal, Produce and Promote); and I suppose this will take some effort to master but I am determined to try.
You know, Derek, I am not one of those who think that they can write. I am a writer and I can write in certain styles but there is always place for learning.
I went to other sessions as well but these are the main message I am taking away.
And I have already been looking at The Money Principle thinking about the changes I’d have to make.
Very pleased to have attended FinCon13 and already looking forward to next year.
Thanks for your take on FinCon. It’s great to see someone else’s takeaways from the same sessions I sat in on, and get insights about the sessions I missed! I loved Jean Chatsky’s talk too. The “waitress” comment resonated with me, because I just got laid off and I don’t think it’s the end of the world because I can hustle to bring home some bacon, and even learn something new if necessary.
@Rebecca: Sorry to hear that you got laid off and good luck with hustling and work.
So glad you had a great time at FinCon. It is my fav conference and I was so bummed I couldn’t go this year.
I keep meaning to put a pic of me back up on my homepage. I struggle because I don’t like pictures of myself! But it makes a huge difference.
Thanks for your take on things.
@Kylie: It would have been great to meet you Kylie; and congratulations on the Plutus :). As to putting a picture on the site: just forget about ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ and get up one that gives the messages you want to convey. Eventually you stop seeing it :).
So great to meet you there! I really liked that last think Jean said too, because I think it’s true that if you really want to, you will do whatever it takes to make a dime. I really hand’t thought of that from that perspective. Take care!
@Budget and the Beach: It was great to meet you as well; and yes, we humans are adaptive and worrying too much about what will happen can be very counterproductive.
Love your recap. FinCon definitely made me think about a lot of things. It was so nice meeting you!
@Michelle: It was great meeting you as well albeit briefly. I am still buzzing with ideas and am not sure how to implement all those: TMP is in for a treat :).
Hey, what a way to start the conference! I’m running with Maria and Jean…talk about surreal moments….
I had a meeting with my coach today and shared my “shortened” FinCon notes. 11 pages….mostly of “to do’s.” I learned an enormous amount and now have the Herculean task of implementing my learning.
@Joe: You’ve seen Notting Hill, haven’t you? The moment Hugh Grant Kissed Julia Robertshn’s rite moment btw)? He said ‘surreal, but nice’. This is how I feel about this run of ours :).As to the actions following Fincon, I suppose the one I’ll find hardest is to learn to reverse the Pareto ratio.
Great summary of the keynote speakers and I am glad that you had an awesome time at Fincon – it seems that you certainly were not the only one!!
@moneystapler: FinCon is certainly worht going to! And I am saying that even though I am suffering with jetlag at the moment.
I love your take on being enough with or without the award win: I’m currently on the train down to London for a work awards do, so it seems particularly pertinent!
@MissThrifty: Lovely to spend time with you and talk. How did the award go?
Thanks for the summary! I hope to go when I retire in 3-4 years.
@Krant: Looking forward to you coming there; I would have waited long enough to meet you. And…I thought I’d be on the lder side but blogging is so democratic :).
I wish that I could have made it to FinCon13 this year because I would have loved to hear Pat & Derek. They always get my mind thinking about new marketing strategies.
@Donny: Derek was certainly worth hearing. Pat as well but with him it was more like ‘yeah, I’ve been doing this one, no, need to see that’. Derek made my world tilt and I started questionning basic assumptions.
Good review. All these positive glowing reviews of Fincon makes me want to head to the 2014 Fincon! It sounds like even the best blogger on earth can still learn a ton from the event.
@Justin: He, he! I don’t know about the ‘best blogger’- no experience with this one. On a more serious note, FinCon is a platform for sharing so everyone comes away with something they didn’t know or haven’t thought about. And it is great fun!
I really enjoyed meeting you and am so glad that we had the chance to talk. I also enjoyed Jean Chatsky’s comment about waitressing. You could tell that she was serious. Can’t wait until FinCon2014
@Michelle: I really liked our chat. And my offer still stands :).
Maria!
Great write up of fincon and im glad that you enjoyed it – it was so nice to speak with you at ignite! Hope to see you next year.
@Jeff: Very nice speaking to you as well, Jeff. Till next year.
Thank you for the recap Maria, it looks like it was a fabulous weekend. I wish I had join you and Joe for a run but I am sure I would have finished long behind anyway :). Maybe next year
@Pauline: Ha, ha! I think you would have been ahead of me but this doesn’t matter. Would love to see you at the next FinCon; there is much fun to he had and so much ideas to be shared.
Awesome recap! What a chance meeting at your morning run. Love the energy and positivity that comes from conferences, but haven’t made it to a FinCon yet. Is this your first one? Going next year? About putting up a picture, I should really get mine up, too. But doesn’t J Money not have a picture up? I’m confused. Loved the waitress line, guess I could be a good waiter, haha. Derek’s 80/20 formula makes sense. I was burning out doing 80% content. Need to flip the switch. Thanks for sharing!