I recently held a blog workshop for the Central California Writers Club, South Bay Branch.

The title of the workshop was Blogging for Publishing and Promoting Your Writing .

The basic idea was for me to teach the group how to bring traffic to their blogs (if they had one) so that their blog could serve as a platform to market their books (again, if they have one). Or if they are writing a book, how they might create and maintain a blog alongside so that when the book was complete they would have regular readers who might be interested in the tome. I think I did the job.

The usual crowd for a CWC South Bay workshop was 20-30 folk. We had 55 register and 13 more sign in at the door.  The attendance was more than double the usual workshop crowd. Not only do I know something, but it seems I know something folk really want to know as well.

There were a few no-shows and all in all, 62 people attended. We had to scramble for extra tables and chairs.

Of those who attended 48 folk filled out the feedback form.

Of the 48:

- 30 opted to receive updates to this blog each time I publish something.

- 37 asked me to create a blog network of everyone there who had a blog so that they could interlink with one another and give a bit of a kick start to their blogs. The network creation is underway and so far after less than a week these are the blogs in that network.

• PanAsianBiz
• FilmyFair
• Medievalminds
• Frances Kakugawa
• Katie Bonn
• Paintdrop
• Earnitbook
• UX of Social Media
• Bill Belew

Watch…this list will grow. And you will wonder why you aren’t included or how you can get in on it. Contact me in the comments and ask is the answer.

- 17 would be bloggers asked me to give them private blog business consulting.

- 28 folk asked for a follow up workshop to go more in depth. (Yes! There will be a follow up workshop. Stay tuned.)

- 6 people created a critique group.

- another half dozen have asked me to lunch to pick my brain while I pick at my food. (Can’t eat and talk at the same time, right?)

Here are some of the comments:

“Excellent presentation: Presenter’s style + generous information are appreciated. Great coverage w/ direct answers, humor & stories. The actual demo during Q&A was most helpful. Thank you.” FK

“Thank you for the very useful handouts. Great! Great information. Thank you.” VJ

“You have a great sense of humor and an easy public speaking technique! – I stayed awake for the entire class! – I especially like your handouts. – At first I thought it was silly that you had a fill in the blank format but that is what kept me engaged for the whole class – Nice Job!” NP

“Overall, very informative + entertaining presentation. Thank you!” AR

“I can’t think of anything else – my mind is overwhelmed at the moment. I ‘m glad I got up early to be here.” CB

“All the content was great! Very well organized and helpful. Really got my creative juices flowing.” JK

“All was helpful! I was so tired this morning that I almost didn’t attend – I’m sooo glad I did.” CS

Perhaps I could do a blog workshop for you all. If so, here is the Contact Info.

edited – 1/29/10

written by wcbelew     Blog