We live a lonely life out here on the internet.

Sure, we’ve got email and blogs and social media and Skype and the occasional contact via an actual phone, but in real-life terms we’re pretty isolated.

We usually live far away from our “work friends.” We swap ideas in small, discreet blocks — a half-hour IM chat with someone here, an email or two with someone else there.

Sometimes, it’s hard for internet work to feel like anything other than a hobby … and why should it, if you never commit to immersion in it?

Why should all this feel like a serious endeavor if you never make it your sustained, total focus?

Why should it grow and expand and become more profitable if you never get together with successful like-minded people and spend some serious time studying your craft?

I’ll tell you why …

Three times a year, I hop on a plane and fly out to blogging conferences — BlogWorld in May and November, and South by Southwest in March.

Traveling is a pain, and the trips are expensive, but I go because being in those environments is totally worth the inconvenience.

It’s necessary to make my business grow.

Attending conferences is nothing short of awesome, and you should do it if you’re able. These are the times to soak up new information, when the innovations and inspiration of others can’t help but rub off on you.

Every time you go to a conference, you return home with new tools that can make your business more profitable.

But what if you can’t quite manage to get to live events? Luckily, there’s a solution.

How to attend a conference you can’t attend

Travel sucks, especially since the airlines began their sadistic sociological experiment to determine how much travelers will put up with before cracking.

You have to pay for your bags. You have to put your deodorant into exactly the right kind of clear baggie or they’ll throw it away. The crappy snack on the flight costs six dollars. On one flight, the man to my left was spilling into my seat and the man to my right was throwing up the entire time.

Transportation is expensive. Hotels are expensive. You’ve got to put the kids in the kennel and send the dogs to grandma’s. (Right?) You’ve got to find a way to put your business on hold … if it can survive being put on hold.

Often, you’ll look at that conference coming up and say, “It’d be so great to attend, but there’s just no way I can make it happen.”

But what if you could attend the conference without the travel and the inconvenience, and for a small fraction of the cost?

What if you could immerse yourself in the best and latest information while still watching the kids and the dogs, while still doing what needs to be done with your business and home, and possibly (probably) while wearing comfortable pajamas and not being barfed on?

What if you didn’t have to spend a few thousand dollars on travel, a hotel, and a full-access conference pass?

This is the part where I tell you about my new gig — working with BlogWorld New Media Expo to turn BlogWorld’s Virtual Ticket into the best you-can’t-be-there-live-but-you-can-attend-anyway virtual event around.

This is not your father’s virtual conference

If you think the idea of “attending” a conference via your computer sounds like a lame substitute for the real thing, I don’t blame you.

Most virtual events focus exclusively on giving you content, but what really makes an in-person conference sing is the experience of being there.

In the redesigned Virtual Ticket, we’re giving you both.

Providing the conference content was straightforward. The Virtual Ticket contains audio/video recordings of all 100+ hours of conference sessions.

Want learning? Want information? Fuhgeddaboudit … we’ve got an avalanche of hot, fresh instruction. (It’s actually more content than you would get in person, because when you’re there live, you have to pick and choose between sessions — something you won’t have to do virtually.)

But providing the conference experience — to bridge that internet isolation we all feel from time to time — was harder.

Try as we might, we couldn’t replace handshakes, hugs, and noogies, but we tried to re-create “being there” as much as possible:

• We set up live recordings during the conference and at the extracurricular events. You can’t be there in person to shanghai presenters into a conversation, but we can and will, and you’ll be watching.
• We’ve lined up exclusive interviews and backstage access that even live attendees won’t have access to.
• We hired a charming MC named Johnny B. Truant to be your virtual host. In addition to giving the Virtual Ticket a cohesive “almost like you’re there” guided BlogWorld experience, I can get you in to see anyone because I’m charming and have credentials — not because I have blackmail fodder, no matter what Sonia says.
• We’ve provided Q&A with the bigwigs. If you’re at home, you can’t stop presenters to ask them questions (“What’s your best social media tip?” “How did you get started?” “What’s this thing on my shoe?”), but we’ll ask them your questions through the beauty of social media.
• Plus, we’ve got other stuff.There’s more social media magic in the works that my project manager hasn’t explained to me yet and that I therefore need to be vague about for now. (Hey, I’m an idea guy. People still have to remind me to tie my shoes.)

Will it be as good as being there in person? Of course not.

Is it the next best thing? Definitely.

See you in (virtual) Los Angeles?

It costs around 1/10th as much, too: Full price for the Virtual Ticket is only $347.

But through this Saturday, October 15th, it’s only $247.

You’ll get access to all of it (pretty much everything about BlogWorld other than the nametags) for way, way, way less than you’d spend to fly out to Los Angeles.

Sign up for the BlogWorld West 2011 Virtual Ticket here.

Copyblogger is a proud marketing partner of BlogWorld New Media Expo, and all of the links in this post are affiliate links.

We only promote things that we believe in, and this year’s Virtual Ticket is something quite extraordinary. All virtual events deliver content (some better than others), but almost none deliver the experience of being at the live event.

This delivers both.

And of course, if you attend the Virtual Ticket, Copyblogger will “see you at BlogWorld” next month. We’ll be there, and you’ll be at home or at work … and that may well mean you’ll be drinking better coffee.

Save us some, okay?

Sign up for the Virtual Ticket here while the price is still $100 off (through Saturday).

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant is the host and MC of the BlogWorld Virtual Ticket.

Because I run a freelance-driven agency, I interviewed 93 freelancers in 2010. The most important questions I ask them tend to focus on where they are trying to go.

What are your dreams for your business?

What are your dreams for your life?

The most common aspiration I hear is:

“I want to work on bigger projects, team up with these other freelancers. You know — turn it into a real company, like you guys … or something … maybe.”

Which is awesome! Taking freelancing to the next step of building a bigger business is a great goal, and a way cool business model, if you are the right person.

By the time we finish discussing what the end result looks like, you’ll either get more excited (like I did) or you might consider other paths to follow and grow your existing freelance business.

I am going to compare six full years as a freelancer with the following five years as the co-owner of an agency. I’ll try my best to account for the fact that during these time periods my life changed.

I got a dog, who is the spawn of Tigger and Richard Simmons, and despite his growing age has yet to chill out. I have a 2-year-old toddler named Serenity, who has drastically changed my working patterns. I built a real estate business on the side, become politically active, started a conference series, got married, then focused on my marriage (cause I wanted to stay married). I also now speak at conferences, and a lot more.

So while it may not be a perfect apples to apples, this should give you a glimpse into the differences that I experienced between being a freelancer and the owner of a larger business.

What’s life like as a solo freelancer vs. the owner of a larger business?

Life as a freelancer

• I spend great gobs of time buried in deep (& fascinating) technical or visual (or both) challenges.
• I pay some attention to finances and sales. They take about 25% of my workday.
• I usually work alone, but sometimes collaborate with others.
• I have a few tools and very low overhead.
• I have 100% control of quality.
• I work on some pretty cool personal projects & most my clients are small to mid-sized.
• I have relatively few meetings.
• I work when I have the most energy.

Life as an agency owner

• I talk to people all day long and rarely get very technical.
• I pay a lot of attention to finances, project management, and sales. They take about 75% of my workday.
• I am part of a core team that I love to work with.
• I need a pile of tools to track and coordinate all my work.
• I spend a fair bit of my time making sure other people don’t botch it.
• I get to work on epic big-name, big-impact projects.
• I spend more time looking for both cool projects and cool contractors (or employees)
• I have a lot of meetings.
• I work when my team & clients need me.

Rewards and freedom

The good and the bad of freelancing

• Decisions are my own.
• I play a lot when everyone else is working.
• I surf pretty much every day (cause I can work at night if I have to).
• I make decent money (although I plateaued at 5 years).
• My income is 100% tied to my time.
• I take a break and my income vanishes.
• I work whenever I want to, time really has minimal impact.

The good and the bad of owning something larger

• I work more.
• I make lots more money and my income is still growing.
• I surf some days (but not all).
• I am building assets in the business that have value without my direct influence.
• I can take a month off and my income keeps going (every year for 5 years now).
• I influence more people’s lives.

So which path is for you?

Should you stick with freelancing, or branch off and create a larger organization like an agency? And how do you go about deciding?

Start by making a list of the top 100 things you would like to have, do, and become in your life. (Don’t skip this step, it’s important.)

Then take that list, and go find someone who seems to be living the life you want. If it is legal, moral and ethical, grab their coattails and copy them.

A business is simply a vehicle to get you to the life you imagine. If your dream is to get to Hawaii, it doesn’t really matter how nice a car you pick. Even the world’s fastest Ferrari will only get you a couple hundred feet offshore before sinking you to the bottom of the ocean.

You need to pick the right vehicle for your ideal life. 

I started taking bigger and bigger projects because I loved the challenge, the influence, and the budgets. I loved working with people as much as I liked working with code and with content. I found myself with more energy at the end of the day then back when I was programing.

My dreams were shifting. When I was 25, I wanted the time to play. When I turned 30, I found myself interested in trying to make a difference in more people’s lives, becoming aware of the cost of kids and retirement, and wanting my nights and weekends back to spend with my family. With a shift in goals, an agency became the right vehicle for my life.

The Cliff’s Notes version:

Freelancer = fewer meetings & less structure = flexibility to schedule around your energy levels and lifestyle.

Agency = more meetings = rigid schedules + attention to business management = more wealth and reach.

Don’t know anyone running an agency and want to talk it out a bit? If you are coming to South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, ping me on twitter at @justlikeair, grab me after one of my talks, and I’ll be glad to hang out and chat.

(By the way, if you’re interested in the question of whether to work for an agency or go freelance, here’s an an awesome article laying out those pros and cons.)

About the Author: Shane Pearlman tweets about his misadventures running a 100% freelance-driven agency at @justlikeair.

P.S.

By the way, we have a great talk on the topic of using freelancers in your business. You can check out the slides, and if you are at SXSW, join Peter & I at our session on Monday March 14th at 5pm: “Freelancers are Slutty, but So Are You”. We’ve convinced Seagate to give out some free hard drives, so come and give them a high-five.

I am also moderating a panel with Copyblogger’s very own amazing Sonia Simone on Making Money with WordPress on Sunday March 13th at 9:30am. We will be giving away all kinds of serious (and expensive) WP goodies for free, so it will be worth dragging your hung-over corpse out of bed after the Copyblogger party. Plus Sonia and I both really want to meet you. Come by if you’re there, ok?

Search marketing is a huge topic — and includes dozens of ways you can grow your business and get more (and better) traffic to your site.

And Search Marketing Expo is a conference that offers more than 60 cutting-edge sessions (as well as invaluable networking opportunities) to help you do exactly that.

At SMX, you’ll learn how to:

• Optimize your site content for better organic search results,
• Get the best ROI from pay-per-click search advertising,
• Expand your skills as a local and mobile advertiser,
• Master social media marketing on Twitter, Facebook, and other networks, and/or
• Boost your conversion and increase your sales

As a bonus for Copyblogger readers, use the code smx100copy (case sensitive) and save $100 off your registration.

To learn more about the Expo, visit http://smxwest.com. We’re impressed by the depth of knowledge and expertise represented at SMX, which is why we’re happy to be a media partner for the conference.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Share your content and copywriting insights with her on twitter.

But instead, you’re off in the corner talking business. Not just any business either. You’re talking about the business of blogging.

I know . . . pretty lame right?

But hold that thought, because although on the surface it seems like you’re missing the point of the “nightclub experience,” the truth is that you are working feverishly to solve a problem that plagues the blogging world.

It might not be life or death, but the fact that most bloggers don’t see it is cause for great concern. So what’s the problem?

Bloggers make terrible businesspeople

I was at the Bank in the Bellagio hotel earlier this month, talking with my pal Rich Lazzara, and we started talking about something we noticed during the first two days of the Blogworld Expo.

Rich mentioned to me that bloggers were crappy business people (that’s putting it nicely) and proposed that if people like you and I started treating our blog as a business, we’d actually start seeing better results. At first I was a bit surprised by the assumption, but after digesting it this weekend I realized that he was absolutely right.

Over the course of our conversation, we discussed a variety of examples, but I want to share the three “blog killers” that really stood out to me.

1. Business Bloggers Making Hobby Money: These guys (and gals) work like Gary Vaynerchuk, but they aren’t making anything more than hobby money. They want to say that they are probloggers, but they allow the comfort of their job to lull them into a sense of security.

Rather than live up to their inner desire to become a blogging powerhouse, they use “hobby blogging” as an excuse to stay exactly where they are.

2. The Dreamers: These bloggers dream all day about blogging success, but they never get around to actually doing the work required to make it happen. They simply won’t take things seriously. To them, spending four hours on Twitter is just as productive as writing a blog post.

3. The Selfish: These bloggers just don’t see the point in networking or in spreading goodwill. They certainly don’t take the time to foster relationships that can help them reach the next level, including creating a solid relationship with their audience.

For selfish bloggers, everything is about them . . . what they can do, how good their products are, and how much you should want to be like them. They step on everyone else in order to get onto the shoulders of giants.

It’s time to get serious

In my opinion, each of these three maladies hinge on what Chris Brogan said during his Blogworld keynote on Thursday, which is that as bloggers we all need to elevate our game.

If you are serious about blogging, you need to treat your blog like a business. You are the CEO of You Inc., and you’ve got to weigh every single decision as if there were millions of dollars on the line. Yeah, it would be great to blog in your underwear and sleep in every morning, but the reality is that most of us can’t afford to do that.

Measure the day’s work in results, not in hours spent typing on Facebook or Twitter. Absolutely, fostering relationships is important, but every action needs to be treated as an investment of your time.

This is especially important if you are a solo blogger, as there is only so much work that you can get done in a day. You’ve got to be efficient with your time. This means measured action and measured results — not just going with the flow.

Be honest with yourself

If you really don’t care whether or not you make any money as a blogger, then that’s fine. But don’t lie to yourself just so you can feel better about being broke.

Bust your tail

Copyblogger took about four years to get where it is today. Gary V busted his ass for two years before he got the book deal. And Chris Brogan spent 11 years on his “overnight success.”

You’ve got to work hard to become successful. End of story.

Be strategic

Develop a short-, mid-, and long-term plan for your business and follow it to the best of your ability. You can adapt it as you gain knowledge and expertise, but if you go without a plan you’re toast.

Learn how to network

As someone who spends time in sales and marketing, I’m used to shaking hands and saying hello.

It’s important to get out there and meet people, but please don’t be “that guy.” Treat relationships as an investment in your business.

Provide value

Quit worrying about what your customer can do for you and instead worry about what you can do for your customer.

Don’t think about how you can shove a new product down a customer’s throat. Instead, spend your time worrying about whether you can solve a problem or improve their experience. If providing value to your audience isn’t a priority, you’re in for trouble.

There’s no secret to becoming a full-time blogger aside from hard work and adopting the right mentality. Sure, there are nuances that you’ll need to master, but the plan is already laid out there for you. Find your passion, develop a plan, and work your tail off by creating awesome content.

But heck, isn’t that what they’ve been saying here all along?

About the Author: Nathan Hangen writes about web entrepreneurship at NathanHangen.com, and about how to use social media to fuel your brand at Making It Social. Follow him on Twitter @nhangen.

Brian and I are heading out to the BlogWorld and New Media Expo this week, where we hope to meet plenty of Copyblogger readers.

As you might know, one of the smartest things you can do at a conference is to see if there’s someone you can learn from at the bar after the day’s main events. Buy them a drink and you just might get a little bit of free and frank advice about your project.

But since we know that trekking out to Las Vegas isn’t on everyone’s schedule, we thought we’d let you know about a way to “buy us a drink” and get some nitty-gritty advice about your own business, web site, or blog.

One of our up-and-coming guest writers (Dave Navarro) is putting on an online teleseminar this week featuring 12 online entrepreneurs who have built their own thriving businesses from the ground up.

Brian and I are two of the speakers. Others you may recognize as Copyblogger guest writers, and some may be fresh new faces for you to meet. Each one has valuable experience to share with you about how to get more customers.

Each call is set up like a consulting session. Dave asks the questions you would ask if you were paying each of these twelve experts for an hour of their time, one-on-one.

(Or if you were buying them a beer at a conference. I happen to be partial to Sam Adams. Just for the record.)

The calls are already recorded, so you won’t have to juggle your schedule to hear them, and Dave will be providing workbooks based on each session so you can get the most out of the calls.

The inside scoop: what you’ll hear on the calls

While the teleseminar is geared toward teaching you how to get more buyers into your business, you’ll also get a few choice personal insights about psychology, mindset, time management, and the other factors that go into keeping a business growing strong.

For example:

• What Pam Slim tapes to the wall above her bathtub to keep her business on track
• What Sonia Simone really thinks of Dan Kennedy (and what it means for your tribe)
• What Naomi Dunford does when she’s feeling scared
• Why Laura Roeder doesn’t care who unfollows her on Twitter
• What Brian Clark was thinking when he released Teaching Sells for the first time
• How Charlie Gilkey keeps himself from drowning in online distractions
• Chris Garretts’ take on being intimidated (straight from an English pub)
• How Christine O’Kelly handled homelessness and turned it all around
• Chris Guillebeau’s strategy for creating a hard-working army of fans
• How Mark Silver’s “woo-woo” approach works for non “woo-woo” selling
• Why Clay Collins gets worried when there aren’t any competitors circling
• What Michael Martine focuses on to keep his blog on page one of Google

How to listen in with Brian, Sonia and 10 others who’ve “been there”

The good news is that this teleseminar is a great package at a price that’s within virtually everyone’s reach.

The get-yourself-moving news is that at the end of the week (Friday, in fact) the price is going to double . . . then go up again a month later, to triple today’s price.

So if the roster of speakers above looks interesting to you, you should definitely give it a look sooner rather than later.

Click this link to check it out.

(As you’d probably imagine, that’s our affiliate link. In other words, Copyblogger makes a bit of cash if you buy after you click on it. So see? You really are buying us a beer.)

Whether or not you want to pick up the teleseminar, you should take a look at the sales page from a copywriting standpoint — Dave told me that it’s been converting for his personal list at 27%. So the tips he’s been picking up as a longtime Copyblogger reader look like they’re paying off.

Check out the full lineup here.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication. She writes Copyblogger’s brand-new internet marketing newsletter, a free resource giving you the smartest tips, tricks and strategies for promoting a business online.

It’s almost time for the 2008 BlogWorld & New Media Expo.

And yes, I will actually make it this year. Really.

BlogWorld is happening September 20-21 (Executive and Entrepreneur option on the 19th) in wholesome Las Vegas, Nevada. You can check out the entire conference schedule here.

I’ll be participating on two panels:

Making Money Online with a Blog (9/21)

I’ll be speaking alongside these fine gentlemen:

• Darren Rowse
• John Chow
• Zac Johnson
• Jim Kukral

Search Engine Optimization, SEM & New Media (9/22)

I’ll be trying to hold my own with:

• Michael Gray
• Lee Odden
• Stephan Spencer

The Super Secret Discount Code:

Discount pricing is good through August 22, 2008 (this Friday), but Copyblogger readers can save an additional 20% off those discounted admission prices (but only through 8/22/08… so you’ve got to get moving).

Just enter this code when you register:

CBVIP

Hurry!

Register for BlogWorld here.

I’m off to San Francisco to present at Elite Retreat… so it may be tougher than usual to get me by email this week. But we’ve got great content already lined up, so never fear.

Wait, you didn’t think I was leaving for good, did you? I promise if that ever happens, I’ll give you more than a Queen video as explanation. Don’t you just love the beginning of April?

Also, because people keep asking and I’m way behind on email (as usual), Product Launch Formula is opening back up today at noon Eastern for one day only. Because of the server crash on launch day and the ensuing customer service backlog, lots of people who wanted in didn’t make it.

In any event, my bonus offer still stands. Check it out if you’re interested–we’ve got a nice mastermind group of motivated Copyblogger readers in the works.

See you next week, and if James Chartrand attempts another takeover of Copyblogger while I’m gone, please rise up and stomp him for me.

About the Author: Brian Clark is the founding editor of Copyblogger, and co-founder of Teaching Sells.

I’m heading to San Francisco next week to speak at the sold-out Elite Retreat, but I’ll be speaking at least one more time this year… at SOBCon 2008 in Chicago, May 2-4. I met SOBCon founder Liz Strauss at SXSW, and I’m really excited about how this event is shaping up.

I’ll be speaking about online business models that work at SOBCon, which is billed as “business school for bloggers.” This is part of what I’m also revealing at the $5,000-a-head Elite Retreat, so I’m hoping to deliver some solid value at a much lower price point.

And look who else is presenting:

• Anita Bruzzese on online reputation management
• Lorelle VanFossen on focusing your business to get noticed
• Chris Garrett on managing the editorial
• Muhammad Saleem on social networking portfolios
• Chris Brogan on social media choices that produce
• Dave Bullock on sales models that convert
• Liz Strauss on how to build an irresistible offer
• Wendy Piersall on success management

I wasn’t at SOBcon 2007, but here’s what my Teaching Sells partner Tony Clark had to say about it:

It’s fitting that a great blogging conference mimics a great blog…

• Stays on topic, but remains flexible
• Is informative, but friendly and welcoming
• Is a conversation, rather than a lecture
• Makes is hard to leave, but easy to want to come back

Sign up before April 1 and get an even better deal. Hope to see you there.

P.S. Check out Chris Brogan’s article from today entitled Social Media Starter Moves for Freelancers. It’s a good indication of the sort of useful advice we’ll be sharing at SOBCon 2008.

So, the word is out. I’ll be one of five hosts at this year’s Elite Retreat in San Francisco on April 3rd and 4th. Here’s who else will be providing unfiltered advice to a small group of entrepreneurs looking to take their businesses to the next level:

• Jeremy Schoemaker – Shoemoney
• Aaron Wall – SEO Book
• Neil Patel – Pronet Advertising
• Andy Lui – Buddy TV

Plus… a keynote from Guy Kawasaki. Sounds pretty cool, huh?

Since Neil Patel will be taking the lead on content strategies for social media marketing, I’ll be freed up to focus on the selling and conversion side of things. I’ll also be available to give advice about developing information products and membership sites.

Just don’t expect me to talk about AdSense.

Again, sounds pretty cool, right? Well, here’s the deal about Elite Retreat if you’re not familiar with it from last year.

It’s limited to only 35 attendees, and it’s not cheap.

The idea is to have people who are ready to take their online businesses to the next level, and for the hosts to be able to interact directly with our guests to make sure that happens.

What that means is answering any question, throwing out any idea, and giving the absolute best advice we can possibly give. Again, that’s why it’s not cheap, and why space is limited.

It’s also not a matter of just showing up with your credit card. There’s an application process that ensures that every attendee is a good fit and will get multiple times their money’s worth by attending.

I know, that all sounds rather limiting, but if the testimonials from past participants are any indication, it works. And you’ll know if this is right for you, right?

Hey, there’s even a money-back guarantee.

So, check out the details, and see if Elite Retreat is a good fit. I’m hoping to see a few of you in San Francisco come April.