David Siteman Garland, creator of Rise To The Top, will speak at #FinCon13.

Over 70!

We’re still making selections, but with the May 31st early discount ticket deadline coming up, we’ve decided to announce a few more speakers who will be taking the stage (breakouts and panels) at #FinCon13.

These speakers will join previously announced keynote speakers, Jean Chatzky, Pat Flynn, and Derek Halpern.

#FinCon13 Sessions and Speakers

How to Create an Awesome Online Course to Monetize Your Blog
by David Siteman Garland, Rise To The Top

Everything Your Readers Need to Know About Credit [Expert Panel]
John Ulzheimer, SmartCredit.com
Gerri Detweiler, Credit.com
Maxine Sweet, Experian
with moderator Liz Weston, AskLizWeston.com

How to Use WordPress Like a Ninja To Grow Your Business
by Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

Screw Google Panda: How to Get Tons of Traffic and Strategically Build Your Brand
by Jeff Rose, Good Financial Cents

Become Buddies With Your Blogging Idols
by Agatha Kulesza, Hey Agatha

Content vs Writing: What’s the Difference? Why Should I Care?
by Donna Freedman, MSN Money

How I Took My Blog From $3,600 to $700,000 Annual Revenue in 3 Years
by Stacy Johnson, Money Talks News

How To Have More Clients Than You Can Handle
by Todd Tresidder, Financial Mentor

Making Your Transition to Full-Time Online
by Caleb Wojcik, Pocket Changed

J.D. Roth, from Get Rich Slowly and More Than Money will also be speaking.

Join me in welcoming these excellent speakers to the FinCon stage. Make sure you get your #FinCon13 ticket before ticket prices go up after May 31st.

Interested in speaking at #FinCon13? There’s still time to submit your proposal. Submit by May 31st.

At FinCon12, these three social media and blogging experts shared their insights on how editorial calendars, blogging analysis tools, and social media trends can help you to plan, create, and even re-purpose fabulous content in ways that will increase your readership. It takes organization and preparation to use these tools to your blog’s best advantage, but as Kelly, Melanie, and Kelly can attest, the benefits are enormous. Watch these three bloggers explain how to use the tools at your disposal to predict trends and improve your blog, and follow along with their slides below:

How did you get your two blogs started? Why two?

I separated from the US Air Force in 2006 and got married later that year. As a newlywed, I needed to learn more about topics such as job hunting, insurance, mortgages, saving, investing, and other personal finance topics. I started reading everything I could get my hands on and stumbled across some personal finance blogs that were run by “regular folks” (sites such as Bargaineering, My Money Blog, Consumerism Commentary, Mighty Bargain Hunter, Free Money Finance, etc.). I was amazed that other people were as into personal finance as I was, and even more amazed that they were running their own websites.

In early 2007 I took the leap and started my own site. Cash Money Life was born, and I wanted to accomplish three things: share everything I was learning about personal finance topics, create a reference resource for myself, and give back to the military community. There are a variety of military benefits programs that aren’t well-advertised to military members, and my goal was to create a resource that was easier to use than many sites run by the government.

Eventually, I learned that the military topics on Cash Money Life didn’t get as much traction from my primary audience, so I broke those articles off to a different site. Cash Money Life was dedicated to personal finance and career topics, and The Military Wallet on personal finance and benefits topics for military members, veterans, and their family members.

I would love to tell you that my goal from the beginning was to create two sites, but that’s not the case!

What specific difficulties do you encounter maintaining two blogs and how do handle them?

Running one blog, and doing it well, can be a challenge. It doesn’t seem like it would be, but running two blogs is more than twice as difficult as running one site. I would love to tell you that there are economies of scale that you find with other businesses, but it doesn’t always work that way with websites. You can create templates and resources to streamline processes, but you still need to create twice as much content, do twice as much research, do twice the social media, etc.

The biggest issue is that operating more than one site splits your focus and energy, making it more difficult to stay on top of everything. It’s inevitable that the quality or quantity of the work will suffer somewhere. I try to keep the quality high, so I don’t publish as frequently as many other sites. We average around 20-25 articles a month on Cash Money Life, and 5-10 on The Military Wallet. I have found that I need to outsource much of the content in order to keep the quality of the writing high. So I work with several wonderful freelance writers who help with content creation and other tasks.

Splitting my focus also prevents me from working on some larger projects that I would love to tackle, such as ebooks, tools, and resources. Finding more ways to streamline my operations is high on my to-do list so I can tackle some of these larger projects and provide more value to my readers.

What do you do to promote and cross-promote your blogs?

The topics of my sites aren’t identical, but they are often complimentary. This gives me the opportunity to cross-promote more frequently than someone who runs two sites that aren’t related in any way. That said, I try to limit the cross-promotion between the two sites to the times when I think it will have the most immediate impact. There are a couple reasons for this: Google can be hard on sites that interlink too frequently, and I don’t want to make regular readers blind to my other sites. So I don’t link between the sites in every article, and don’t even share each article on the respective social media sites. I reserve those for occasions when I think the audience will find value in the content.

What do you wish you’d known when you started blogging?

That’s a great question. I wish I had a crystal ball back then so I could have prepared for the ways the Internet has changed in the last six years! Since those don’t exist, I wish I would have treated my blogs more like a business from day one. Not to “make as much money as possible” but in the sense that I should have taken a more measured and methodical approach with creating resources that will stand the test of time. I also wish I would have put more money back into my business from day one and focused on creating excellent content and growing my reader base. I have done well with these aspects, but not as well as I could have done with a more methodical approach.

What advice would you give to a novice blogger based on your experiences with your two blogs?

Start with one site, and stick with one site! I realize this is a case of “do what I say, not what I do,” but I stand by my recommendation. I know dozens of bloggers, and every blogger I know has more than one site, and often more than one site in the same niche. But almost every single person has had more success with one site, and much less success with their secondary site(s). As I mentioned above, your focus and energy can’t be spread equally over more than one site without something suffering. You will see much better results, and faster, if you focus on one site. If you decide to branch out to another site (most people do; it’s addicting!), then focus on building your processes first. Once you have things running smoothly, then branch out to another site.

My final recommendation is not to be afraid to ask, or pay, for help. I resisted this as long as I could, and it was the wrong thing to do. I have made so many friends by asking and answering questions, helping others, and participating in the community. And I have saved myself countless hours of frustration by hiring experts in things that I don’t have experience or skills in, such as design, code, and other technical aspects of running a website.

All you need to do is head over to this post and “Like” Jempstep on Facebook using their Rafflecopter widget. That’s it. The deadline to enter is May 24, 2013 at 11:59 pm Eastern.

You MUST be an independent personal finance blogger who is 18 or older in order to enter. Corporate bloggers may not enter. (PF bloggers who freelance for corporate sites are eligible, as long as your personal blog is your primary claim-to-fame.)

About Jemstep

Jemstep.com is an online investment advisor that is changing the way people plan and invest for retirement with an easy-to-use online service that helps them lock in more money for retirement. Using patented technology and proven portfolio management methodologies, Jemstep shows people exactly what to buy and sell in order to maintain the optimal portfolio for their retirement goals and financial situation. Providing the high-caliber, individualized advice that has traditionally been available only to wealthy investors, Jemstep empowers all investors to take charge of their retirement planning and invest with confidence.

At FinCon12, Ben gave some excellent advice for bloggers who are hoping to turn their blogs into paid content sites. Follow along with his slides below:

Financial Blogger Conference Facebook Page

All conference attendees receive an invitation to this page from our host Phil Taylor. This is a great space to share ideas, ask for advice, post special projects, and share news. Even if you are not attending this year, you can like the page and still be kept in the loop on what’s happening with #FinCon13.

Twitter

Join the conversation! In both 2011 and 2012, FinCon tweeters were able to make #FinCon11/12 one of the top trending topics on Twitter for the entire weekend. Even before we reach #FinCon13, you can use that hashtag to reach out to fellow FinCon bloggers and have conversations about everything from the annual pull-up contest to how to improve your blog.

Forums

Both Wise Bread and Yakezie provide excellent forums for bloggers to chat about blogging topics. Bloggers also love Mr. Money Mustache’s forum.

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Finally, it’s important to remember that financial bloggers are among the most welcoming and friendly people you’ll ever have the privilege to meet. Email, call, skype, or tweet directly to anyone you’d be interested in talking to. We all love to help out our fellow bloggers.

How do you connect with fellow FinCon bloggers during the off-season?

There are several great low-cost options available for FinCon travelers all over the country. Here are some tips and tricks for making it to St. Louis for less:

A far cry from Greyhound…

Consider Taking the Bus

The Megabus, that is. This company offers great deals on direct rides between major cities. With fares as low as $1 one way (really!), free WiFi on every bus, power outlets at every seat, clean on-board restrooms, and the ability to check one piece of luggage at no cost, this is not your father’s bus trip.

While very few are able to get the $1 tickets–prices start there and rise as the travel date gets closer and more people make reservations–the average one-way ticket price is around $30, which is still an incredible deal. Also, because you must have a reservation ahead of time, the majority of the travelers will be commuters much like you.

Megabus serves Saint Louis from the following cities:

• Chicago, IL
• Columbia, MO
• Kansas City, MO
• Memphis, TN

Reservations are currently only open through September 3, but keep tabs on the Megabus website for October availabilities. You may be able to snag one of the $1 fares, and brag to everyone at FinCon about your cheap travel deal.

Flights to St. Louis

With six months to go until FinCon, now is a good time to start pricing flights on various airlines. Thankfully, mid-October is not a prime travel time, so you should be able to find some good deals. Here are a couple of ways to make sure you don’t pay any more than you have to when you fly to St. Louis:

1. Set up a price alert through Kayak.

Kayak allows you to create a price alert and customize the search by exact dates or lowest price. You can receive your alerts daily or weekly, and it will let you know just where prices are compared to where they have been recently. If you start weekly price alerts now, you should be able to see prices get to the sweet spot you’ll often find about 6-8 weeks prior to a flight. For more information on how to set a price alert, this is an excellent review and explanation of the service.

In addition, Kayak also offers a great fare comparison service known as fare charts on their site. When you do a search for your airfare, the results page will have “fare charts” as a clickable option in the upper left hand corner. The chart offers you both the average and best prices for your particular dates and location. While we’re still a little too far out to get a good baseline for FinCon, this feature on Kayak will give you a good idea of what a good price would be, so you’ll know to jump on it when the price alert falls below the average.

2. Book directly through the airline if possible.

Direct booking can often save you big money. It’s also important to remember that some low-cost airlines, such as Southwest, do not work with aggregate sites like Kayak.

3. Know your incidental costs ahead of time.

Plan ahead for airport parking or transportation, and find out your airlines checked baggage rules and fees ahead of time. You might find that the $50 you saved in flying Cheap-O Air is wasted again when paying to check your luggage.

How do you plan to get to St. Louis for FinCon13?

Now’s your chance to speak at FinCon!

That means that any attendee can submit a proposal to speak at the conference. If you have got skills to share, don’t keep them to yourself! Put together a session for FinCon13 so you can increase your exposure and help your fellow bloggers at the same time.

To apply, click here to review and agree to the speaker agreement, and then navigate to the next page to create your submission explaining your proposed session, your expertise in the area, and the title and intended takeaways for the session.

The submission process will end on May 31, 2013, and all applicants will be notified, regardless of acceptance or denial, by June 30, 2013. If you have not received a response by this time please contact admin@financialbloggerconference.com for a status check.

Even if you’ve never spoken at this or any other conference before, remember that speaking at FinCon is “an awesome experience,” according to Crystal Stemberger, a first-time speaker at FinCon12.

Also, if you’re interested in speaking but aren’t sure of a topic, the submission page offers plenty of topic ideas. Check it out!

We’ll see you at the podium in Saint Louis in October.

Who knew that grocery stores offered such great conference rooms?

This is a guest post from Peter Anderson, the coordinator for the Minnesota FinCon local group.

The Minnesota FinCon local group got together recently at a local grocery store that has a free meeting room that can be used by local groups. Free is good, and the meeting room was quiet and perfect for fostering discussions about our favorite topic, blogging!

I brought in some lunch from the grocery and some coffee from the Caribou Coffee downstairs.

In attendance at our meetup:

• Lori from Retire and Renew
• Travis from Enemy of Debt, among other sites
• Mike – a new blogger from the just launched Financially Relevant
• Elizabeth from Women’s Money Week
• David from Young Adult Money
• Kraig from Young Cheap Living
• Peter Anderson from Bible Money Matters (that’s me!)

Our Minnesota group of bloggers is a pretty diverse group. We’ve got bloggers like Elizabeth who have been blogging for years, both in the personal finance niche and others. We’ve got brand new bloggers like Mike who just started his site about a month before our meetup. Then we’ve got a larger group of other bloggers who have been blogging or freelance writing in the personal finance niche for quite a while.

We got together at the meeting room at 12:30pm, and since we did have several new people that weren’t at our last meetup, we began by discussing who we were, what sites we run, and how we got started in blogging. From there the discussion branched out into the topics of monetization, SEO and social media. We also did brief site reviews for several people to give constructive feedback on things they were doing well with their sites, and talking about things we thought could be improved. Before we knew it it was almost 3:30 and we’d been talking for almost 3 hours. Several of us never got to have their sites reviewed, so we may have to pick up on that next time.

It was announced a couple of weeks ago that FINCON13 will be held this year in St. Louis. Several of us in the Minnesota group have already purchased our tickets and plan on attending. There was even some talk of getting a party bus and road tripping it down to the conference. I’m not confident that plan will pan out, but either way we should have a pretty decent group attending.

All in all it was a great get together and I look forward to our next one! We’re hoping to meet up again in late April or early May. For up to date details on our meetups, and to let us know if you’re coming – check out our FINCON MN page on Facebook.

You’ll get to see all five of these smiling faces at FinCon13!

This is a guest post from Jason Steele, the coordinator for Denver’s FinCon local group.

The Denver FinCon local group got together recently. In attendance was:

Eric from Narrow Bridge Finance

Andrew from Money Crashers

Peter from Lend Academy

Michelle from the Shop My Closet Project

and myself Jason Steele, freelancer for PT Money and various other sites.

One of the things that makes our Denver group great is that we are typically split about evenly between full time bloggers and those who are doing this on the side. One of our topics of conversation last week was the challenges of going from part time to full time. For some blogging is a fun hobby and going full time is only a dream at this point. Others in our group have been doing this full time for years and face issues as challenging as seeing their income threatened by changing SEO and as mundane as finding a quiet place to write.

This was our first meet up since the announcement of FinCon13 in St. Louis Everyone is really excited to attend, and all five of us have decided to go. Of course, St. Louis can’t possibly be as awesome as Denver, but we are sure that FinCon13 will be the best one yet.