Two weekends ago, I had the good fortune to be an exhibitor at the Franchise and Business Opportunities Show put on at the Sacramento Convention Center. The show consisted of a few dozen business opportunities, a franchise consultant, a dozen or so network marketing and MLM companies, a handful of franchises and me: the blogger. It was the first trade show I’ve attended as a blogger, and was a interesting experience.
I’ve received numerous questions about the experience, and over the next few days will be posting mini essays in response. The first will be about our booth. Look for it next.
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email them or post them in the comments.
Terry on March 21st, 2005 at 3:50 pm
Dane,
First off, I enjoy your blog. That said, I want to offer you some advice. When you get comments or questions about a post, you should make it a priority to respond to those questions or comments. The example I’m referring to is your participation in the Trade Show. You had several readers, myself included, ask you about your decision to participate in that show. You can bet that for every question somebody actually takes the time to post, there are ten others with the same question who don’t bother.
Since feedback, even on the busiest of sites, is the lifeblood of any blog, you should do your part to encourage and respond to any and all. Feedback is precious. Give your readers that respect. If readers don’t see you responding, they’ll think you don’t care and won’t bother to post further.
You don’t have to know everything you’re going to say and the post doesn’t have to be a definitive essay. Any kind of response, other than “I’ll tell you later” is acceptable.
I continue to read your posts, but I’m still waiting for a brief answer about what your expectations were for going to the show and how the reality matched those expectations.
Or maybe you just needed to get out of the office for a few days?
Dane Carlson on March 22nd, 2005 at 8:07 pm
Terry,
Thanks for the lecture — I definitely deserved that.
Truth is, almost immediately after the trade show, we found out that my wife is pregnant. Unfortunately, I’ve been neglecting the site since then, but am slowly getting back into the habit.
Primarily, I went to the trade show because the company running the show offered me a free booth in exchange for their advertising on my website. My main goal for the show was only to find new readers, but it turned out that I was definitely overwhelmed by many different business offers from other exhibitors and random people at the show.
So far I haven’t agreed to anything, because I’m really hesitant to change the nature of the weblog. If I do end up doing something, I want it to compliment rather than revolutionize everything we’ve done up to this point.
Again, I’m sorry it’s taken so long for this to get out, and thank you again for calling me out on it. I really appreciate it.
Terry on March 23rd, 2005 at 8:24 am
Dane,
Thanks for the candid response. Of course, knowing your situation, I now feel like a heel for lecturing you. Congratulations to you and your wife.
I can understand now why you would want to exhibit. Bartering for space is a good trade. You had nothing to lose but your time and it sounds like you made the most of that.
Now back to the advice :-) I’m one of the many ex-technology workers looking for a “second act”. I read your blog looking for good ideas and small biz opportunities. I think there’s a real need to highlight legitimate, positive, purposeful business opportunities. There are many of us looking for what to do next. Since you’re called “Business Opportunities Weblog” I’d like to see your coverage of various business opportunities - critical reviews/analysis of what’s out there. Also interviews with people who’ve done it. This would be helpful to me and I’m sure many others.
In the sort of coverage you’ve chosen I’m sure there’s always the temptation to cave into the Entrepreneur Mag trap, where you become basically an uncritical mouthpiece for franchises and business opportunities. I hope you can find a way to maintain your impartiality and still turn a profit.