Blogging Bootcamp with Penelope Trunk
I’m doing a series of webinars about how to blog.
I will teach you how to set goals for blogging and meet them, continuously. I’ll also show you how to develop an approach to blogging that will get you noticed by people you care about very quickly. The bootcamp takes place November 14-18. You can sign up here.
Here’s more about what we’ll cover:
1. Use blogging to jumpstart your career and your earnings.
Blogging will transform your work life. Here are things you can do with a blog:
- Double your earning potential
- Switch careers with flair
- Win a more flexible work schedule
- Create a reliable revenue stream
- Build a large, useful network very quickly
Blogging is something you should do to meet a specific goal. I’ll show you how you can meet almost any goal with a smart approach to blogging.
2. Advanced methods to gain traction for your blog.
Some of you are already bloggers. For you, this bootcamp is full of methods I’ve learned from years of running tests on my own blog. For example:
- Why I steal headlines from Yahoo
- Why the best guest posts I write are the dumbest topics
- Why the most lucrative blog posts are the ones where there’s no advertising
I’ll also discuss how to insert yourself into the content just enough so that you make it interesting, but not so much that you end up boring people. (You’d be surprised, by the way, how boring it can be for someone tell their deepest secrets on a blog.) (Also, are you wondering about the photo up top? I think it’s a great example of inserting yourself in just the right way. I didn’t take the photo. The Farmer did. I stole it from his blog.) (We will also talk about topics like how to steal stuff from other peoples’ blogs effectively, even if you are not having sex with them. And how to use creative grammar, like obsessive parenthetical statements.)
3. Differentiate yourself as a top corporate blogging expert.
There’s also a huge range of fun jobs that are open to people who understand blogging. After this bootcamp, you will know enough about blogging to get a corporate blogging job. And, it just occurred to me now, we will also cover how to make yourself look like a blogging genius on your resume.
Hey! I’m doing this because I think it will be fun. I hope you guys will sign up. My favorite part about this bootcamp is that it’ll be a conversation. You can ask questions the whole time, and the last day (my favorite day) will be a free for all, where I’ll answer questions about anything. I’m really looking forward to that day — I think your questions will be a lot of fun.
Sign up for Blogging Bootcamp now.
Oooh interesting! Because I take your advice seriously I’m off to do some research to see whether it will be worth the $$. If the answer is yes, I’ll see you there!
Penelope, I suggest you put the price higher up in the copy. I figured it would cost about $200 but as I kept scrolling and found nothing I began to hope it would be free. The $195 was then a disappointment, rather than within my expectations. You gain nothing by hiding the price to ensure I read the whole offer, since no information other than your participation would make me want to sign up.
How long are the daily live broad casts? I’ve committed myself to Nanwrimo and I’m trying to understand the time commitment. Thanks!
The daily live web events are one hour long, but we will also post the video and transcript of each session within 48 hours. Hope to see you in the course! — Ashley
Hi Penelope,
Do you offer scholarships or financial aid? Also is this only corporate-focused? I’m in the arts sector and would very much like to learn how to get my ideas noticed in a way that directly relates back to me. I find blogging can be a danger because of intellectual property theft-those with great ideas who are not adept at being “seen” can be targets for those who have great presentation skills but shitty ideas.
I think offering some sort of financial aid or scholarships would be a great idea, especially since individuals on the spectrum are usually quite smart and can benefit from these ideas. Many end up being can-stockers at the supermarket even though they may be a mathmatical genius-perhaps all they needed was a Penelope Trunk bootcamp :).
Great idea!
Christina
have you heard of khan university? try it. it’s free!
I’m perplexed. I thought you were skeptical to the point of ridicule about those “Blogging is the Ticket to $$ and Success” promises. This feels a little wrong, relative to how I’ve heard your voice on this subject before.
I’ve always thought that the idea of being a professional blogger to support oneself is a stupid idea; very few people can do it successfully. This bootcamp shows you models for blogging that will generate more successful results. Blogging can help you achieve your big-picture goals in life. Those goals should not include being a professional blogger. -Penelope
I think it’s quite funny that you’re jumping on the “how to blog” bandwagon. As I read your “ad”, I was immediately reminded of your blog posts over the past year about personal struggles to continue blogging. I also recall a webinar where you warned people NOT to consider blogging as a full time venture as the money sucked and the hours were relentless.
Your consistancy in your blogging since you left Brazen has been sporatic at best, and I dare say, the reason you have so many readers is because you’re willing to overexpose yourself and your family (although whether the stories are real or not, is in question). Of course we the readers are unable to look away from the oncoming trainwreck, so we continue to read. I’m no expert here, but I’d say this is not a solid business model for any aspiring blogger.
I wouldn’t consider you an “expert” given these reasons, but perhaps some will. I will say that I think you’re an exceptionally good writer with a very strong storytelling ability, but I doubt those talents can be translated into a “how to blog” course for two hundred bucks.
Good luck with this endeavor and if I can leave you with just a little advice… only the pioneer woman can be the pioneer woman.
Best,Caren
This comment by Caren is so incredibly inane that I’m reticent to even reply.
Let me review what Penelope sets forth:
1) Double your earning potential
This does NOT say “earn a living as a blogger” or “get rich quick from blogging.” This is a promise to show you how to use a blog as a tool to increase your ability to make money in whatever you’re doing in your life that ISN’T blogging.
2) Switch careers with flair
Note, AGAIN, she isn’t in any way suggesting that you switch to a career of blogging. She’s suggesting that you use blogging as a way to increase your visibility and desirability as a candidate for a career that isn’t your current career.
3) Win a more flexible working schedule
I’ve gotten hired multiple times based on my online presence. And, in fact, three months after I was hired for one job this way, I won a competition for an article I had written on my blog. The prize was a two week trip to Europe to be a guest journalist. I went to my employer and said, “Hey, remember how you hired me because I’m so awesome? Well, I’m so awesome that I need to take two weeks off to do this. Oh, also, I don’t want to use my vacation time to do it.” Whatdyaknow, they let me take the time off anyway. They didn’t even make me take it unpaid, because the press attention I was slated to get was so good for them, just by being in association to me.
4) Create a reliable revenue stream
While I certainly wasn’t complaining about the all-expenses-paid two week trip to Europe, it was still a prize and not money in my pocket. However, as I continued to write on my blog, other publications began to offer me paid gigs. I had a full-time job (with a high salary, I might add) for something completely unrelated, but I was still consistently able to earn about an additional 50% of my salary from small side projects that came to me as a direct result of my blog.
5) Build a large, useful network very quickly
All of the interesting people I’ve met in recent years have been from my participation through social networking platforms like Twitter or Facebook, industry specific forums and message boards, and, duh, my blog. In fact, both of the jobs I’ve had since winning the two week trip to Europe, can be traced back to a connection that specifically started as initial interaction from my blog.
And you know what? I’m still signing up.
Kaitlynne
It is about frick’n time you did this. I don’t follow you as obsessively as the other folks commenting here but I think this class falls directly in line with your values; it’s like home-schooling for adults. I am totally in. Also, if you give the whining commie artist Christina a scholarship or financial aid please don’t tell me, I will puke.
Home schooling for adults — I love it! Count me in. ;)
sorry, farmer, I do not like the photo. The sun is behind your back, yet the sky in front of you is white. It should have been blue, and I dont see why you needed to photoshop that?
Pen, can I sign up for just the last day so I can ask you anything? How much would that cost?
If you want to use me as an example of what not to do, let me know. :)
I think everyone should try and blog. I have “met” so many interesting people through blogging. And I was never a writer but when I started blogging the words just started falling out. It is an interesting way of life, this blogging.
Would you recommend blogging for lawyers who want to increase client base?
Yes! Blogging is so effective for smaller law firms that there is a whole genre of consultants who specialize in helping law firms rank highest for their local searches. So, for example, you can use a blog to rank first for divorce for people who search from computers in the Atlanta area.
Penelope
nice topics!
what is it in this bootcamp that one can learn , that you haven’t already covered in your blog. As a reader of your blog for 2 yrs now , and having read all, and i mean all your posts, what is the one key thing that I should look forward to?
FYI- reading your blog posts in which continuously harped about brazen careerist, led me to join it and I learned so much from the people there that I actually took the plunge in to full time entrepreneurship. Also the post on finance tips for self-employed , very useful.
The nuts and bolts of blogging are in the bootcamp but not on my blog. And I give a few examples in the post.
In general, I have decided that it’s not appropriate to go into detail on a blog like mine about the nuts and bolts of how to reach blogging goals. There are hundreds of thousands of readers — relatively few of them are blogging.
Penelope
Who has $200 just lying around for this?
Is this only for people who are interested in working in corporations or being entrepreneurs? I’m a writer, and I’m interested in blogging to build a platform and get published.
Every professional writer should have a blog. A blog is a way to show people what you can do when no one is editing you and no one is telling you what to write about. It’s a place where you can shine best.
Also, editors want to know that you are capable to attracting an audience with what you write, as opposed to relying on a publication to provide all the audience to you. If you want to be a writer who is in high demand, you need to be able to show you’re a writer who can generate your own following. That’s what’s truly valuable to a publication.
Finally, the real money for writers right now is online. You should use your blog as a way to show editors of online publications that you’re great at writing in that medium.
Penelope
I’d really love to participate in this webinar, but there’s no way I can make the live sessions. Will there be a way for those of us who can’t be there to submit questions in advance?
Sure. Just send them to me. And tell me they are for the live sessions.
Penelope
Sure. Just send them to me. And tell me they are for the live sessions.
Penelope
Hi! Are you going to offer these classes again for those who can’t fit this into their November schedule? I really want to take it.
Yes, but the price will be higher. Because I’m experimenting with selling stuff on the my blog right now, and the feedback I’ve gotten from just about everyone who knows how to price content like mine is that this price is way too low.
That said, anyone who pays for the course now will have access to the videos from this course later, included in that price.
Penelope
Penelope,
I’m an artist–I mostly make experimental films and write a lot of fiction/short stories, but my blog is very different from those creative outlets and more “mainstream” in a lot of ways–I joke about being a single 30-year old female artist and it becomes very universal. I am totally rambling and not getting anywhere, but do you think this webinar would be helpful for me? I had a blog reviewing films for a year and all it did was get me some press. I would like to actually make a name for myself as a funny writer and not just be blogging for 12 people all of whom I know…
Well, one thing you could do to increase traffic is link comments like these to your blog, which I would definitely have checked out if I’d been able to.
Well, one thing you could do to increase traffic is link comments like these to your blog, which I would definitely have checked out if I’d been able to.
You need to get more clear goals. It’s not worth your time to do all the marketing and promotion that it would take to have a huge blog. But actually, you seem like you just want to be noticed for your humor and recognized for it in some way. So you probably want to use your blog to get paid to write funny copy for people who have money.
This is the type of thinking that works best for blogs — to use a blog to get the kind of life or the kind of work you want rather than using your blog to become a professional blogger.
The bootcamp will show you how to do this.
Penelope
Flipper, (Penelope’s new nickname. Dolphins act worse than dogs when humans come within their vicinity)
I only read 2 blogs and I think I like the other better, though I can’t specifically put my finger on why that is.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/
thnk u, i likes ur post :) http://teens-and-kids.blogspot.com/
Looks like Penelope didn’t make the top 25 most valueable blogs in the US. So much for value of her content! :)
http://247wallst.com/2011/10/31/the-twenty-five-most-valuable-blogs-in-america-2011/
Very sad as I’d love to do this with you but I’m all booked up next month. More advance warning next time please? Maybe you could run on the first week of every month or something?!
Very sad as I’d love to do this with you but I’m all booked up next month. More advance warning next time please? Maybe you could run on the first week of every month or something?!
Penelope…This boot camp sounds great. I’m going to share this with one of my Career Coaching clients who can use just this type of advice. Thanks for sharing your expertise!
Jerome Imhoff
The Resume Shop, “INK”
San Francisco
OK. Convince me. I’m 62 yrs. old. Never taken an online course. I have a blog but too embarrassed to put it out there. I wrote a book on being in your 60’s. It was requested by Workman Pub. in NYC then rejected after months of agony.
I have quit my job in Florida, moved back to Denver, and you’re absolutely right, I do not want a full time job. I’m a spoiled brat because I worked out of my home for years, I know what you’re talking about, but at this age, I am scared and certainly have no self confidence. I’d like to use my book – Headed to Blonde (why all women by 50+ become blondes), to build a blog. My blog is on Tumblr (3 years) but about 3 people have seen it.
Tell me a little more about what to expect, how long each day, assignments, etc.
I have been reading your blog for months now. You are crazy but I understand your craziness.
Please correspond to build my confidence to do your bootcamp.
Jan M
artrevue@aol.com
Will the video and transcripts be available to bootcamp subscribers for a length of time after the camp is over?
Oh DAMN, I missed this bootcamp. I really wanted to take it. I do hope you offer it again, or the videos/transcripts for sale, something.
I used to have a blog that eventually attracted close to 200 subscribers, which to me was exciting, although that’s nothing in the blogosphere. A writer/editor out there read one of the posts and asked me to write a first-person chapter in her book, which basically was a compilation of day diaries of women across the country. (One of the Go Fug Yourself bloggers was in it too. I felt a little “I’m not worthy.”) So once in a while, that fairy tale of a blog catching an editor/publisher’s eye can happen.
Um, after that my HR department promptly asked me to shut the blog down. There was nothing inappropriate in it, but I was a PR director for a prominent company and they didn’t want my horrible dating stories or any of my opinions in general out there. Oops. I learned a hard lesson.
I’ve always loved your blog because it reminds me of what I wanted my own to be.
This bootcamp sounded like a good jumping-off point for me to try it again, but in a manner that won’t freak out HR departments. (Especially since I just got laid off. :)