Blogger Aditya Mahesh has managed to corral some of the biggest names in blogging to contribute to the BlogOnExpo, an event Mahesh describes as an online conference aimed at helping bloggers improve their blogs.
Starting yesterday and running through the 18th of January, the BlogOnExpo includes interviews and short tutorials from names many readers here will recognize.
Ryan Block talks about the hard work behind Engadget, John Chow recorded a video titled What to Do When You Lose Your Biggest Source of Traffic and Pete Cashmore discusses looking for literacy in prospective Mashable contributors. There’s a long list of big names (plus yours truly, fwiw) who have already contributed content. Sessions will continue for the next two days.
Context
The idea of offering a “conference” on blogging for free, online, with such high profile contributors is a good one. Most real-life conferences strive to have big names but end up with mediocre content and the best value comes from conversations in the halls with other attendees. In this case, the content in the BlogOnExpo is pretty darned good. I was skeptical about how many of the listed participants would actually participate but a few days into the event – I am impressed!
If I had any criticisms they would be that the interview transcripts are a little awkward and the participants are limited primarily to tech bloggers. There are a lot of bloggers online who are wildly successful who don’t write about blogging or tech at all. My favorite examples are the blogs Simply Recipes and Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. It would be nice to hear from some more top bloggers outside of technology about what’s worked well for them.
That said, Aditya Mahesh has done a remarkable job in this first iteration and I look forward to seeing what he does next.
