Vancouver Meet-up with Yaro Starak and John Chow

My Blog started as the book I never published. I liked the features of WordPress for a CMS (content management system) and how it handles multiple categories and tags. If you like to write and want a way to brain dump your thoughts into linkable chapters, then WordPress is the only way to go.

Then, after browsing a couple of web sites and downloading a few free ebooks, I decided to monetize it as a means for fundraising for my Track Team, especially with the upcoming Olympics. Instead of charging for a membership service, I decided to give away all the content for free and make money on ads.

This doesn’t mean I won’t write my book, or offer a paid on-line coaching service in the future, but for now my focus is helping our local athletes in the Olympic year.

The Blog officially went “live” to the public on May 21, 2007 and I was lucky to get hundreds of hits right away when I posted videos of the International Harry Jerome Track Meet in Vancouver.

Needless to say, I learned a lot about Blogging in the past year. I get several request every week about how to start a blog or how to make money from a blog.

My only advice, other than using a self hosted WordPress, to learn about running an Internet Business, Make Money On-line, Blogging in general, or Internet Marketing is to read these 4 sites:

I highly recommend bookmarking these sites, subscribe to the RSS feed, or subscribe by email to the daily RSS feed. At first, some of the material will go over your head, as it did for me, but you’ll quickly learn the jargon required to be a successful blogger. How you define success is up to you. For me, success is an athlete setting a personal best. In my case, it’s setting a personal best in my age group!

So when I heard Yaro Starak was coming to Vancouver and organized a Meet-up, it was very convenient for me as they held it at the Red Robin Restaurant, my usual Friday Lunch Time venue. Actually, Red Robin is our second choice for my Technology Group when we can’t get into the Cactus Club.

In a digital world, we often get lost to the person behind the words and the Blog. That’s why it was great to meet these accomplished Bloggers in person, face to face. Blogging and business and coaching isn’t about fame or making money: it’s all about relationships with people.

Sure, fame and maybe fortune comes with the territory. Just ask our athlete Steve Larsen who went to the Torino 2006 Olympics in the Bobsled event. Sometimes he gets recognized on the street and people stop and say hello.

Speaking of “fame”, even John Chow showed up for the event. So when 2 of your 4 favorite bloggers are under the same roof, you can imagine the level of conversations.

During the meet-up, we talked about everything under the sun from the Flip camera, how you met your spouse, upcoming Blogging conferences, and how to lose weight with V-8 juice. Someone even suggested how protein supplements were useless, but I decided to shut-up as I could argue for hours on that subject!

I highly recommend getting together with your fellow bloggers in the future!