***Live-blogging at Boundless Line and below***
5:17 a.m. PT: Hi, my name is La Shawn, and I’m a coffeeholic. And I like to get up at 4 a.m.
I’m in Vegas, blogging before dawn. Lots of bloggers to try to meet today. Over the next two days, bloggers from many parts of the blogosphere – including Christian, political, business, tech, culture, sports, military, legal, and the “podosphere” – are here, talking about how to make money from blogs, win friends, and influence people. Bloggers will discuss how to use the new medium for God’s glory and connect the body of Christ in the digital age. Bloggers will show others how to use the “long tail” to their advantage. Business owners will learn how to hire bloggers. And on and on.
I probably won’t have time to meet all the bloggers on my list. Eric Olsen, a guy who created a little site called Blog Critics (and published a concert review I wrote) a few years ago and built it into an influential (press credentials), money-making venture, is near the top. I have a long list of business and tech bloggers I want to meet, many of whom don’t know me, I’m sure. Reading their blogs helped me shape my consulting business, and I continue to learn from them every day.
I’ll be on an NPR show called “The State of Nevada” this morning, along with fellow Godbloggers Joe Carter and Professor John Mark Reynolds, to talk about Blog World Expo (read convention updates here). The segment will air on KNPR between 9-10 a.m. PT.
I might be able to update this post today with photos and what’s happening at the convention. There seems to be an issue with the wireless.
9:37 a.m. PT: There’s something comforting about being around other Christians, even strangers. 
I was impressed that NPR’s producers dug deep into my blog to quote from Margaret Sanger of the Blogosphere:
“Even in cases of rape and incest, I do not believe the unborn baby should be killed. Is that clear enough? I’ll make it clearer. Even if a man rapes his 13-year-old daughter and impregnates her, the baby should live.”
I repeated what I wrote and what I believe. Even so-called pro-life people draw the line at rape and incest. Not me, for the reasons I stated in the post.
Blog World Expo is underway. The convention center is cavernous. Haven’t met the must-meet folks yet, but a blogger (staffer?) from The Huffington Post introduced herself while I was walking around looking lost, having recognized me from the bio page photo (I presume). I had the pleasure of speaking to milblogger Bill Roggio again. We had similar complaints about the nasty political climate. Bill and I blogged together on Easongate.com during the Eason Jordan scandal in 2005.
10:57 a.m. PT: I am scandalously self-focused. Haven’t met Eric Olsen yet, but his wife Dawn recognized me. Other people do double-takes as I walk through the halls. Do they recognize me, or are they surprised to see one of only … like five … “people of color” here?
John Mark Reynolds is giving good blogging advice, tips to help you stay motivated to blog in “Focus and Motivation: Beginning and Maintaining a Meaningful Blog.” He said we should try to focus on external ideas that reflect inner development rather than focusing on self. It’s about a self engaged in something else. Now, there are blogs that focus on the blogger, like personal journals. It all depends on how a person decides to use the blog, which is just another communication tool.
Write for the permanent side of the blogosphere, John Mark says. Search engines like Google will drive “long tail” traffic to your blog. Your traffic stats may drop if you don’t blog every day, but if you blog with a long-term strategy in mind, other sources will drive traffic to your blog. Make sense? It’s all about getting out of the “hell” of blogging.
(Worth reading: Dumbledore is not Gay: Taking Stories More Seriously than the Author)
Goodness, truth, and beauty – three things the Christian blogger should keep in mind when writing a blog post. Also, what you see may not be what God is doing. In other words, ask yourselves how you’ve gotten to where you are. How is God working in your life through your blog?
We need to believe in “noble pagans,” he said. We’re here in Vegas because we believe the other new media folks here have something to say to us. We can learn from our secular peers in the blogosphere.
And finally, live to see the face of God, not to blog or to podcast or anything else.
11:53 a.m.: So cool to be recognized. Here I am in a sea of fantastic business and tech bloggers, and people know me. Wild stuff.
Pastor Mark Roberts’s presentation is on pastor blogging. Be careful, pastor bloggers, of turning your blog into an idol. Blogging can greatly expand the impact of a pastor’s teaching beyond his own congregation. Think Google. Posting a sermon on the blog can impact lots of people. Blogging can allow pastors to address topics that could not be addressed in church. Mark is a big supporter of comment-enabled blogs. Preaching can become more of a conversation and less of a one-way street. Blogging can provide excellent means for pastors to enhance the daily devotional lives of their congregations.
Blogging can help pastors get out of the saltshaker and into the world! Blogging can make a pastor’s congregation nervous, even jealous if they believe it can take him away from them. Pastors should see blog as part of their calling and stewardship of gifts.
No pictures today. Camera batteries are dead, and I left the charger and fresh batteries back in my room. I’m make up for it tomorrow, especially after my presentation. I’ll be free to roam! There are a few exhibit booths I want you to see. And tomorrow night, I plan to walk the Strip with my camera. And I plan to buy one of those “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” shirts, and other cheesy tourist stuff.
