Yesterday on Twitter I tweeted out a question asking anyone who is interested in coming to a full day of blogger training in Melbourne to express interest in coming along. 20 people very quickly indicated their interest.

It looks likely that in the next month this will actually become a reality so I’m now looking to collect the details of anyone who is interested so that when it’s ready to launch I can immediately let you know.

Update: Chris Garrett from the UK (who co-authored ProBlogger the Book) will be co-presenting this event. It’ll be a unique opportunity have both of us in the same place at the same time.

I’m still pulling together details of dates (it will be in the short term though as Chris is flying in in just a few weeks time) what it’ll exactly cover and how much it will cost however I can say that I’m aiming for:

• affordability (I’m aiming for us to cover costs)
• a super useful day for bloggers who already have blogs (ie its not for those wanting to start blogs but those who are already on the way)

There is no obligation to attend if you leave your details below – it’ll just help me work out how many are interested and how to structure things. It’ll also help me to notify people as the timeframe for holding this event will be short and the seats look like being quite limited in the venue and style of event we have in mind (very secretive I know – but it should be a very fun day).

I’ll only use your details to contact you about this event or others that we might run in Melbourne and not for other purposes and your details will not be shared with anyone.

If you’re interested – please add your name and email address below and I’ll be in touch (hopefully in the next week) with an update on details.

Please note – you will receive an email shortly after subscribing which will contain a link you must click on to confirm your subscription. If you don’t get the email – please check your spam filter as they do occasionally end up there!

Update: We’ve had over 70 100 190 210 expressions of interest already from a couple of tweets.

I’m not wanting to build any hype on this but this event is more than likely to sell out as we’re looking at small venues so this could sell out simply from notifying those interested. So – if you’re interested in attending make sure your name is on the list.

Update: a few people have asked if this is limited to Aussie or if we’re open to overseas attendees. If you’re able to get to Melbourne for the date you’re welcome to attend – although we are presuming that this will mainly be an event mainly attended by Aussies. We do have a few people already signaling that they’ll fly in from Asia/Pacific areas and interstate so it certainly doesn’t look like just being a Melbourne based group of bloggers so far.

Looking to Hire a Blogger?

If you’re looking for a blogger to hire – the ProBlogger Job boards remain one of the most effective and affordable places to find the. For just $50 your ad for a blogger will be seen by tens of thousands of bloggers.

• the RSS feeds are subscribed to by over 2000 readers
• each job is sent out to my Twitter followers (close to 100,000 people)
• jobs are posted on the ProBlogger LinkedIn group news section (1900 members)

Current advertisers feed back that the quality and number of applicants is high – as a result we have quite a few regular and repeat advertisers.

If you’re looking to place an ad – here are some tips on how to advertise for a blogger.

Looking for a Blog Job?

If you’re looking for a blogging job there seems to be a lot more people looking to hire at the moment.

In the last 7 days alone we’ve seen 24 new blogging jobs added to the ProBlogger Job Boards (there are only 18 listed now as 6 were quickly filled and removed by advertisers).

To stay up to date with the latest blogging jobs simply follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to the job board RSS feed.

If you’re applying for jobs – here’s some tips for bloggers on how to apply for jobs.

The Problogger Community launched back in September 2009. Since then we’ve seen some amazing discussions and collaboration between forum members as they work together to build successful blogs.

Our members share tips on writing, SEO, monetization, help each other out with technical problems and product strategies, swap guest posts, and even launch new blogs together. Here is what some of the members are saying.

The biggest help for me is knowing that there are people at all skill levels that are still making strides in the online world. The insights into the hurdles and issues that newer bloggers are facing intrigues me and gives me hope for my own future.
- David from LifeSnips

The challenges are helpful, particularly when there is a deadline. It’s easy to keep putting things off so having some accountability helps me get things done.
- Mark from The Business Mindset

I’ve met some great people that are passionate about what they do. The energy is contagious!
- Lakita from Personal Finance Journey

I can say with certainty that the “Let’s Publish Our Ebooks” challenge actually pushed me to finally doing that after a few years of procrastination and other unimaginable excuses!
- Hart from Petlvr

The thoughts and opinions of so many bloggers at different levels is really inspiring.
- Corey from Simple Blog Coach

The community has inspired me to try somethings I wouldn’t have thought of before.
- Cynthia from TV of the Absurd

One of my favorite parts of forums is learning through the answers offered to others.
- Pat from Life out Loud

I’ve managed to connect with a few bloggers, made a few bucks doing odd jobs for bloggers too as well.
- Rhys from The Gospel According to Rhys

I could not imagine not having the forum anymore. For me it is a sort of central place where I can find an answer to all the questions I have. And I love that.
- Annemieke from Mind Structures

I like having the community as a resource. The advice and challenges are priceless.
- Denise from DeniseOberry.com

The ebook challenge was great. It helped inspire me to create and sell my first ebook.
- Jodi from Kaplan Copy

It’s great being a part of the forum community because there are so many different threads on so many different topics.
- Karen from A Meaningful Existence

Every time I have come on here to look for an answer about a specific issue I have found an answer.
- Anne from Home Schooling 911

I’ve picked the brains of some of the smartest people I’ve come across in a long time to help improve the monetization of my sites and blogs. The amount of information that can be found within these walls is priceless.
- Chris from Blippit

I have been given some very helpful advice on adding thumbnails etc when I struggled to work it out myself. It’s revitalised the look of my blog.
- Sarah from Birds on the Blog

ProBlogger.com is a private membership community for bloggers. Members pay just $4.95 per month! Join us today at ProBlogger.com.

It’s been a while since I posted an update on Third Tribe – so today I wanted to do just that.

Since launching Third Tribe a few months back there have been some wonderful things happening in the community. The highlight for me personally has been the forum area and the relationships that have emerged there as well as the ideas that are being shared.

My hope for 3T when it launched was that we’d see thousands of internet entrepreneurs coming together to learn, share and help one another move forward. While we all have our own goals and approaches, my hope was that by coming together we’d see a collective movement forward towards our goals. This is what I’m seeing happening.

The great thing about the forum area is that even as a more experienced internet marketer I’m seeing ideas and discussions there that are inspiring me to try new approaches in my business. I know I’ve made quite a few significant changes in the selling of my own online products as a direct result of what I’m seeing others talk about in the forum.

Hours of Quality Seminars and Q&A

In addition to the forum area we’ve also seen some great seminars (audio and transcripts) added so far. These include:

• Product Launch Strategies: What Always Works and What’s Working in 2010 – Jeff Walker interviewed by Sonia Simone
• Action Email: Copywriting Tips for Insanely Effective Email Marketing – Dave Navaro interviewed by Sonia Simone
• How to Get Your Customers to Do Your Best Marketing for You – John Jantsch interviewed by Chris Brogan
• Email Marketing Strategies that Work – Sonia Simone interviewed by Brian Clark
• Building a Business Around a Blog: Part One – Darren Rowse interviewed by Brian Clark
• Building a Business Around a Blog: Part Two – Chris Brogan interviewed by Sonia Simone
• Building a Business Around a Blog: Part Thrree – Brian Clark interviewed by Sonia Simone
• Building a Business Around a Blog: Part Four – Leo Babauta interviewed by Darren Rowse
• The Quick Start Guide to Making Money Online – Johnny B Truant interviewed by Sonia Simone

While we launched 3T with just one seminar and a forum today you’ve literally got hours of teaching in the archives ready to go. We’ve also done 2 live Q&A calls per month (total of 6) which have been a lot of fun. These included a great ‘getting unstuck’ call with Gary Barnes. All of these sessions are recorded and in the archives too.

In terms of content going forward – there’s a lot to come including these two seminars in May:

• Advanced Affiliate Marketing with Social Media and SEO – featuring Glen Allsopp
• Traffic Jam: Brian Clark and Jon Morrow on Traffic-Building Strategies

The cool thing about Third Tribe is that if you join today you get access to the full archive of seminars and Q&A calls – literally hours and hours of valuable content. Each month there are 4 new recordings added – it’s becoming a great little library of resources for Web Entrepreneurs.

However do keep in mind that as we add content and value it is likely that we’ll also increase the price (as we’ve already done once). Those who sign up earlier lock themselves in at the current rate so the longer you wait to join the higher the price goes.

If you’ve been thinking about giving Third Tribe a go – it’s a great time to join – hope to see you on the inside!

I think most people worked out that my last post (ProBlogger Acquired by Google) was an April Fools Joke – however I wanted to make sure.

It was an April Fools joke!

It’s been two years since my last April Fools Day prank – last time (in 2008) I issued a press release announcing that I was starting a new company – Pay Per Tweet. Of course back then the idea of sponsored Tweets had not happened and it caused some outrage – all I can say is that I hope this year’s prank comes true too! :-)

The idea for this year’s joke started with a dream – a real dream where Google actually did buy ProBlogger for a new blogging platform for professional bloggers. I tweeted the dream and it got such a good reception (including from a few people who work at Google/Blogger) that I filed it away as an idea for April Fools Day.

Yesterday I decided to go for it and wrote the press release announcing the acquisition. I even went so far as to register a domain for my next business venture – FoolsMedia.com and setup a twitter account for it (funnily enough that Twitter account is already getting followers and is featured on at least a couple of Twitter lists).

Of course running an April Fools Day post on your blog has some benefits and risks.

On the negative side – some people fall for it, and fall for it hard. Today I’ve had a lot of emails, DMs, comments and even a few phone calls congratulating me on the ‘acquisition’ (and a few accusing me of selling out). I even took a call from a family member (who was very happy for me) and another from a reporter (who wanted to run a story of me selling my blog). I’ve had to follow up with a few people to make sure that they realized it was a joke – although I have to say most got it.

On the up side – the joke was a lot of fun, caused a nice ‘buzz’, was retweeted a lot (actually I think most people who were fooled were on Twitter where people just saw the headline and started RT’ing like crazy without reading the post) and even got a few incoming links from other sites who pointed it out.

A big thanks to a few people for making this possible. Firstly to Google/Blogger for their inactive part in it (although guys…. if you ever want to buy a blog about blogging…. you know where I am), secondly to Lara who had to moderate the comments when my last post went up… and lastly to everyone who read and responded to the post (whether you were fooled or not) – thanks for playing.

Would you be interested in joining with a group of other bloggers for a month long intensive program of blog improvement? If so – please read on:

ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook has been downloaded many thousands of times since it was launched last year. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive – however the one negative that I’ve heard quite a few times has generally been:

“It’s great…. but I’m only up to day 13….”

[Read more...]

As this post goes live I’ll be in the process of arriving at SXSW Interactive in Austin Texas.

I was fortunate enough to at SXSWi two years back and it was one of the best conference experiences that I’ve had – so I’ve made it a priority this year to return.

My schedule is pretty open. The main thing that I’ll be doing is a book reading this Friday night. I’ll be talking about some of what Chris and I have included in the 2nd edition of the ProBlogger book (due out next month).

The book reading is on at 5pm, Friday 12 March on the Day Stage. I hope you’ll come!

For those of you involved in the Third Tribe there is a drinks/meetup the next evening (on Saturday 13th from about 5.30pm) at a bar called ‘Lovejoys’ at 604 Neches Street (2 blocks north of the convention center).

Note: I originally thought that my reading was on Saturday and we’d do one after the other…. but I messed up the time so the book reading is Friday and the Drinks/Meetup is Saturday. Sorry for the messing around 3rd Tribers.

Other than that I’ve got a pretty open few days and am looking forward to checking out a few panels and keynotes and doing as much networking as possible. If you’re at SXSWi I’d love to meet you – feel free to come up and say hi any time!