Kildare | Spiderworking.com's Social Networking blog

November 10, 2010

Blooming blogs – KLCK back in Kildare

It’s hard to believe that KLCK is four months old now, back in Kildare for the first time since our initial gathering it was great to see how this ‘thing’ that we created had grown. Lots of new faces this month with some great blogs and info to share.

The first section of the meeting was presented by John O’Connor from Red Oak Tax Refunds who talked about how to measure the success of a blog, not just how much traffic you are getting but, for those of us in Business, are these site visitors translating to sales or hard leads? One of the strongest messages to come out of John’s presentation was to set objectives for your blog and measure their success. Initially this could be traffic or bounce rate but as your blog progresses you may want to see blog readers using your contact form, subscribing to your newsletter or Liking your Facebook page. We discussed the use of forms on blogs or websites. Two of our members have experience of long forms not getting the expected results. John had one amazing stat; since changing his standard contact form to an ‘apply now’ form and has found it 80% more effective.

We then opened the floor up for a round table discussion. The amount of knowledge in the room was phenomenal, some brave volunteers showed us their blogs and asked for and gained some great feedback. We talked about finding inspiration for blogging and discussed some useful tools to help with the process.

There was no live feed this month due to technical issues but I did try and keep up with it all via Twitter. You can click here to view the archive.

A big thank you to Johnstown Business Centre for hosting the meeting and filling us up with coffee, tea, biscuits and mini muffins

The next meeting will be in Carlow on the 8th of December, we will post details on our Facebook page and Linkedin group when we have them. You can also join the KLCK mailing list and we will send you out details of all further meetings.

We also have a discussion group on Facebook if you want to get involved between meetups.

Tags: Blogging,Events — Tags: blog, Blogging, Kildare, KLCK, KLCK bloggers network, measurment, tools —

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October 13, 2010

Drive traffic to your blog and supe it up – KLCK in Kilkenny

I believe that blogging should be the hub of your social media campaign. I’ve seen the results that blogs can bring both for driving traffic to your website and as establishing you as an expert in your field. But it can be hard to get started and even the most proficient bloggers are always learning and growing. It was for all of these reasons that earlier this year with the help of Lorna Sixsmith of Garendenny Lane Interiors I set up the KLCK (Kildare Laois Carlow Kilkenny) Bloggers network , with the aim of sharing knowledge and become better bloggers together.

Monday night was our first meeting in Kilkenny and we had two excellent speakers. Marie Ennis O’Connor whose blog ‘Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer‘ attracts massive amounts of traffic talked about how to get more people to read our blogs. There was something for everyone to learn from her presentation including me! You can view here slides by clicking here.

Ken McGuire followed on the theme from last month covering some of his favorite WordPress Plugins, a great selection that would enhance any blog, most of which I will be adding to this blog soon. You can view his presentation by clicking here.

If you would like to know more about the KLCK Bloggers Network ‘Like’ our Facebook page. You can view the blogroll of attendees here.

The meeting this month was hosted by The Pembroke Hotel in Kilkenny and we were blown away by the facilities a big thank you to everyone there for their hospitality.

The next meeting will be on the 8th of November somewhere in Kildare, speakers and venue TBC.

Tags: Blogging — Tags: bloggers, Blogging, Blogs, Carlow, Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer, Kildare, Kilkenny, KLCK, KLCK bloggers network, Laois, Pembroke Hotel, Social Meida —

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July 14, 2010

The Inaugural Meeting – KLCK Bloggers Network

Monday saw the Inaugural meeting of the KLCK Bloggers Network, a group of like minded people living in the Kildare, Laois, Carlow, Kilkenny area who share an enthusiasm for Blogging and Internet marketing.

Amongst those who attended were those who write professionally, those with popular blogs, those who were just taking the first step in blogging and those who were on the cusp of getting started.

The aim of the group is to share knowledge, put our heads together and see what we can achieve both individually and as a group.

Meetings will continue every second Monday of the month and all are welcome to attend whether you are living in the four counties or not and whether you are already a blogger or not.

Our next meet up will be on August 9th at the Talbot Hotel Carlow. Paula Sheridan from Candle Designs will be talking about using Flickr for business and we will have a second presentation on the basics of setting up a WordPress blog and useful plugins (speaker tbc). If you’d like to come along or if you have expertise to share with the group you can RSVP on Facebook or on Linkedin or by leaving a comment on this blog post.