EVENT PHOTOS: FT. LAUDERDALE BLOGGERS JULY 2016 MEETUP AT DUFFYS

The Ft. Lauderdale bloggers held their latest meetup at Duffy’s Sport’s Bar and Grill.

It was a great turnout with our speaker, Jay Berkowitz.

July Recap: Building Your Personal Digital Superpower with Jay Berkowitz

“What are you passionate about?” asked Jay Berkowitz, author and speaker. This was his first question to Ft. Lauderdale bloggers during our meetup on “Building Your Personal Digital Superpower.”

Jay is a marketer who has promoted Fortune-500 brands such as Coca-Cola, Sprint and McDonald’s and is the author of The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing . He was there that day to give us insights into how we, as bloggers, could build our personal brands online.

Here’s a recap of Jay’s advice…

What is your passion?

You may have been asked this before, but it’s an important start. Use this to figure out the focus of your blog and stick to a topic that will keep your interest over the long term.

Choose your blogging platform

Once you’ve figured out what you’ll write about, decide where. Will you use Blogger? WordPress? About 40% of all websites are on WordPress, because it’s easy to use and flexible, but choose the best option for you.

Think about Google and use questions

Google has gotten very good at reading and deciphering language and will reward you for good-quality content. It’s also a good idea to use questions in your headlines. It’s a great way to answer questions asked by your audience and to also match questions that are now being asked on Siri and Google Now. As for word length, Jay recommends posts of 250 to 1,000 words, since Google only reads up to 1,000 words per page.

What questions do you get asked most often?

Track the 10 or 20 questions you get asked most frequently and answer them in blog posts. Think about it, your audience is asking them for a reason. By answering, you’re helping them solve a problem. If you plan these posts and schedule them, then after 10 or 12 weeks you may have enough content for an e-book.

Become known on one social media network 

With so many social networks available, it’s easy to spread yourself too thin. Pick one instead and use it regularly until you master it. You should even aim to be well known or the go-to person on that network. Jay gave great examples, including DJ Khaled, who has been rising to greater fame on Snapchat and Dr. Miami, a plastic surgeon who records his surgeries on Snapchat.

Broaden your reach with cascading content

Take your blog posts further by creating other content such as email newsletters, social posts and, eventually, an e-book. For example, if you blog once a week, send some of that content by email once a month, while also offering it on social media and other platforms.

Monetize your expertise

Jay suggested many options for monetizing your content. You can start with one of the methods he used, writing an e-book. This can help promote your expertise and lead to other opportunities as well. Other options include podcasting or audio downloads, offering an online course, coaching, creating a membership community and organizing live events.

Jay’s advice, gleaned from his 25+ years in digital marketing, came with a healthy dose of motivation for our bloggers. We were lucky to have him speak at our event and encourage you to visit his digital marketing firm online for more information.

We want to thank our speaker, Jay Berkowitz for being our guest and sharing their valuable knowledge with us and Duffy’s for letting us use their fantastic facilities. We hope to see you at our next meetup in August!

Thank you to our sponsors.