Adam Schultz has been to the Webmaster World conference, getting some blogging Advice From Jeremy Zawodny, Matt Cutts and Robert Scoble. Adam also brings us a few points on search engine optimization for blogs.

The Super Bloggers of Search

The April 18 - 20 Webmaster World conference at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston had a Q and A session with “The Super Bloggers of Search”. Namely, Matt Cutts, Jeremy Zawodny, and Robert Scoble. Quite the panel.

It was interesting to hear about the hurdles they all faced in blazing the way for corporate acceptance of blogging. Initially, they all seemed to run into the same problems with PR and Marketing departments not knowing how to handle this new venue and constantly freaking out.

For a while there they all seemed to live in fear of the “talking to” which Jeremy had admitted having happen to him a couple of times. A little later on they went into discussion about pushing the limits with your blog and the importance of knowing where the line as drawn.

You really need to understand the risks you are taking and make sure that if you do push the limits its for a good reason and not just to push as there have been cases of people just pushing to push and getting fired for it.

Debunking myths

One part of the experience that they didn’t count on initially at how quickly they can debunk myths and get quality feedback from users through their blogs.

They all agreed and Matt illustrated this point how when the list of the “25 reasons I hate Google” was blogged, he was able to take it to the project managers in the company and they were able to immediately take that feedback and begin to wok on some of the problems.

On the other side of that coin, Jeremy discussed his now famous Google Finance post and how it got him an audience with the new product manager of Yahoo Finance to hear what their plans are and that he is right on track with their thinking.

They all had different reasons for it but apparently none of then used their own company’s blog software. I found that funny but it did show how different people have different needs and that you need to find the right solution for yourself.

Managing blogs

In answering questions about managing the blog, work and home life: Jeremy mentioned that being single without kids makes it easier but managing email and the blog can still be tough.

Scoble chimed that his wife lets him know when he’s slacking around the house because of work or the blog by flaming him on her own blog. Matt agreed that it is hard and that he solicits the assistance of others where he can to keep up but that knowing he is helping people keeps him doing it.

They all got started in blogging to participate in the conversations people were having online.

Jeremy enjoys reading blogs and comments of passionate people no mater what the subject matter. Matt saw it as an opportunity to help people not waste time on bad SEO and keep the record straight on where the line is drawn. Scoble was just amazed at where his blog has taken him in the world and the people he has been able to meet.

Another point that Jeremy made and they all seemed to agree on is how strange it is to meet people who read your blog and realizing that they already kind of know you and then meeting someone who you read who reads you and what that interaction is like.

Tips on getting started

In closing they shared some tips on getting started.

Matt said to start with a blog service but that eventually you will probably want your own domain.

Scoble urges you to read “like 50 blogs for a couple of weeks” before you even start posting so you can get to know the space, it will also give you some ammo when you start blogging your self.

Start small and see if you can keep it up. Jeremy closed by talking about understanding what your limits are with your company and your self and be interested in what you write about because your readers know the difference.

[Pandia has a list of high quality search engine blogs at our Search Engine Detective page. The Editor]

Search engine optimization for blogs

The “Blogging, Podcasting and RSS feeds” session will be of interest to search engine and blog oriented readers.

On the panel was Amanda Watlington (searchingforprofit.com), Daron Babin (Webmaster Radio) and Greg Hartnet (botw.org)

Blog feeding

Amanda was first, she started off with a brief synopsis about recognizing that not all content is suitable for feeding and that you need to insure that by creating a feed of some of your content, you are adding value rather than just serving up empty carbs.

She then went into a lot of detail on intricate details of blog optimization. Honestly some of it was lost on me as there was a lot she was covering in a short amount of time.

The focus was on the basics like the tools to use, plug-ins available, basic SEO optimization, the importance of great content and how to syndicate and socialize your blog. All and all, from someone with a lot to learn about the subject, it was quite informative.

Podcasting

Daron was next. He was here to discuss (of course) podcasting.

As someone who knows less about podcasting than I do about blog technology I found this presentation very useful. Here are some of the key points.

Get a real deck sooner than later if your going to be serious about your podcasting instead of a starter kit.

Keep bandwidth in mind as the first time you have a successful episode, you’re likely to get a call from your web host about the sudden increase in demand.

There are many sites available for you distribute your content that are more able to handle the load.

As with all online content, organize it well and use compelling titles. There are lots of ways to tag and optimize your podcast including the use of id3 tags.

Resources for socialization

Then Greg Hartnet spoke. Greg did a great job of breaking down the overall strategy of a successful blog including a separate hand out of some of the resources available for socialization so he wouldn’t get mired in these details during the presentation.

I’m sure if you visit botw.org and shoot him an email he will send you the soft copy of the resource list. Let him know that Adam Schultz sent you and you might be able to get him to send you a cool best of the web t-shirt too.

Here are the primary points of a successful blog strategy:

• The more you put in, the more you will get out.
• Freshen up your writing skills to insure credibility.
• Optimize urls, use blog categorization and properly set up your pings to insure auto updating.
• Submit your blog to blog search sources.
• Get social through news sites like digg, blog commenting, forum participation and building your blogroll.
• He also discussed the use of photo and video sharing sites to take the conversation beyond your blog into new forums like flickr groups.

Zawodny and Cutts

A nice surprise in the QA portion came when Jeremy Zawodny and Matt Cutts joined the panel to talk about how the engines treat blogs.

No real new info here, just that blogs are indexable content to the engines and are treated accordingly.

If the blog is news-related then that is where you will see the results, otherwise, blogs will show up where the pages are relevant to a search. They also admitted that indexing video and audio files is still a challenge and has a long way to go.

I guess some people still need to hear it from these guys to believe it.

About the author

Adam Schultz is MarketSmart Interactive’s Manager of Product Development, and is a regular contributor to the search industry blog Search Engine Lowdown.