Webvisions this July

I've been meaning to write about this for weeks now, but this July I'll be speaking at the Webvisions conference in Portland on how to make a living blogging.

I haven't talked about it very much here, but ever since I started dabbling in making a little revenue from my blogs, things have went well and revenue grew to the point that last fall I got to quit my job to tend to my web things full time. It's been both stressful to make the leap and tremendously rewarding.

I wrote about my first experiences with Adsense almost three years ago here and I don't think it's boastful to say that it sparked a revolution in blogging. Since then I've tried quite a number of other things out that are worth talking about and have gotten tons of experience worth sharing. In the past few years I've noticed a dozen or so "blog networks" pop up and a similar number of people that have sites dedicated to "pro blogging" but my personal beef with most advice you find online is that it often centers on search engine and adsense gaming. I think that's the wrong approach and want to present a more sensible one.

When Nick Finck asked me if I wanted to speak at Webvisions this year, my first thought was yeah I'd love to do an hour on how to build a business online without resorting to cheap tricks. It's been a long, hard road for the past 7 years doing this but it's really turned into something great for me. I feel like there is a wealth of information that isn't getting out there that could really help folks live their dreams and make a living from fooling around online. It is my first solo talk at a conference so that will be a new adventure, but it's good to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while and I've already spent a month researching my talk and am planning the next month honing it into something concise and useful.

So if you're in the Pacific Northwest this summer and you love posting to your blog more than the drudgery of your day job, take a few days off and come see me talk about how I do it. I'm also talking about solo web development vs. open source and business blogging  that same day so it should be a fun (and busy) couple days for me.