As mentioned previously, I was fortunate enough to moderate a panel with the following folks:

• Ginny Skalski – @ginnyskal
• Damond Nollan – @damondnollan
• Dan London – @danlondon
• Patrick O’Keefe – @ifroggy

As always, I learned a ton. First off, thanks to everyone who was there… especially the panelists and Claudia Kimbrough. It was an awesome topic and a fun and informative night.

Tell stories.

Anyone can repost a popular article and add a bit of commentary… and this isn’t a bad thing. However, to take your blog and readership to the next level, you need to tell stories. Stories help us relate to others and are a better means of communication than regurgitating content.

Be yourself and be consistent.

I have several soapbox posts about being passionate about what you write, but too often we find ourselves straying from who we really are. Don’t do that. If you want a smarter person telling you that, read what Amber Naslund wrote about it and how her presentations were impacted. Consistency is also extremely important, both in your delivery and in your process.

More is better, but less is too.

This seems counter-intuitive, but stay with me. More posts will yield more traffic, so keep grinding and get content out there. However, niche is better. If you’re passionate about something specific… be the expert at that. A good example is my main man Greg Ng. Freezerburns.com is the leading frozen food review site, but if Greg had chosen to do food reviews… it might be a different story and would definitely take more time to become the leading expert in a more generic and competitive space. This is similar to SEO and long-tail keywords.

Brain crack kills.

If you’ve worked with me, you’ve heard me say “analysis by paralysis” and I probably advocated to go ahead and get something out there. Patrick led me to a wonderful video by Ze Frank about how sometimes it is best to put ideas into play rather than trying to make them absolutely perfect.

Check out the slides I put together to guide our discussion below.