Thousands of people flock to conferences yearly to “live” blog their experiences. For many, it may be their first time doing this, sometimes their last. It is quite an experience to blog live from a location, whether you actually travel outside of your home or do real-time video broadcasting.

Definition: Thoughts and ideas that are spread through a live, up-to-the-minute broadcast or stream to your readers. It can be in the form of live Internet cameras, through another service or chat client (Twitter would work), or directly through your blog - combining all three.

The Purpose of Live Blogging

Despite the fact hat not everyone has effectively streamed events live from a location, each of us has done it in one way or another, even if you are a new blogger or have never written a blog post yet. Think about when you carry out a phone call with someone from a separate location. You are effectively telling he or she on the other end what you are doing and the status of your life/surroundings. 

Simplified, you are communicating more quickly when your a “live” blogging than when you are writing a traditional post, which might be posted daily. If you are at an event or expo, you are likely writing multiple times per hour, or as announcements and events are taking place. It may appear boring at this time, when you aren’t actually participating in it, but it can be quite exhilarating, especially if you have a large following online.

Frequently added comments don’t have quite the same results as using chat or other methods.

Key Ideas:

1. You are sharing events live with an audience or a group of people who would normally be visiting your blog.
2. You generally have to have some type of advertising set up, or it won’t really be worth it to use this format of blog. In most cases, you’d just end up writing about the experience and people you’ve met a few days after traveling to the location.
3. There is incentive behind streaming the event live - such as an increased readership, traffic, etc. that day, or even compensation for being at the event and spreading word about it (as your blog grows this may come into play).
4. Finally, live blogging can help you grow as a blogger. Not only will you be interacting with your readers to some degree, you will also be meeting people at the event who share your similar interests. People may even share word about your mini event and you’ll get additional traffic through those sources.

Tools of the Trade

Essentially, there are only a few tools that you’ll need to communicate with the world from an event (or through a live broadcast in your home, sans the people and wide array of additional preparation that must be done in order to begin broadcasting.

If you go to a live event or prepare to do it on a regular basis, you’ll need the following:

1. A video camera - it’ll add another dimension to an otherwise “boring” event - readers will be able to see who you are, although not up-close, it’s pretty close to it.
2. A good digital camera - you’ll want to post Flickr photos every few minutes, especially when you don’t have time to write quick updates.
3. A computer, preferably a laptop that will allow you to connect through the services and use the webcam/video camera to cut back on time having to use someone else’s computer or use an alternative method.
4. A roadmap plan. Before you even enter the center where the event is to be held, think about your goals. Do you want to post a replica of what is said there or add twists and focus more on your experience, rather than the main concentration, which may already be known? Readers typically only want to hear what is really important, not the minute details that would be expected to occur.
5. The services. Don’t leave without having accounts to popular services, including quick access links to your blog bookmarked, as well as Twitter and other services, which allow you to update your ’status’ with readers.
6. The extras. Don’t leave without the extra accessories, including extra batteries and other quintessential tools that make the whole event possible. You don’t want to have to stop short just because you run out of “juice.”

Points to Consider:

• What percentage of the event do I want to cover? Will I have enough time to see everything or connect with the people/vendors at the event?
• Will I be able to post content during breaks and are there any periods in which I won’t have access to the computer/Internet/wireless?
• Should I personally meet/interview people there to gain extra publicity for my blog?
• How can I use the event to market my blog? 
• Did I get/print out a schedule of events so I can plan my time wisely, not missing the important speakers and/or demonstrations?

Services

Cover It Live

An upcoming tool for live bloggers and anyone broadcasting from a conference is CoveritLive. The tool is a lifesaver if you want the most seamless, live user feedback while you are at an event.

When you use CoveritLive’s software your commentary is streaming live onto your web pages or blog, so your readers hear from you immediately after that election result comes in, or that terrible play gets called or the next time an actor gets bleeped at the Oscars. Because they can instantly get their questions to you as well as participate in polling questions you create, there is a reason for them to stay online for a long time…not just check back in once in a while. Once you add in some pictures and videos all in real time, you’ve created an event worth watching.

Main Features:

– Your live blog is displayed in a Viewer Window on your site or blog. Readers can (but don’t have to) set up user names and passwords to watch it and send in comments/contribute to poll questions.

– Easy to use and implement. All you have to do is place an HTML code into your website in the post in which you want to have the chat window displayed in. Everything will be displayed in this area, including video, polls, and images.

– One of the problems with traditional “live” events is that there is little interaction with your readers due to delay.

– No more time lost trying to configure the client or getting everything to work properly.

– Generate a revenue from the event with the ability to place video, images, audio, and advertisements (nearly all forms of content) using the easy-to-use Media Library feature before you even begin - you are given full control of the event.

– Automated features to bring the experience as close to blogging as possible, not an open thread or reader forum.

– Instant replay feature, which allows readers to read the live blog even if they missed the live session. They can be accessed or deleted at any time afterwards,

Price: Free, with additional pay-per-use features coming in the future, as well as more advanced options - for enterprise and corporate users.

ScribbleLive

A service  that connects you with the people that want to watch your live broadcast, typically from another location (no home broadcasts).

ScribbleLive is the next-gen of live blogging and it’s happening right now. Broadcasters, publishers, educators, corporations, social groups, writers, students, bloggers and individuals are becoming instant publishers in three simple steps.

Main Features: 

– Site Integration - Post to your blog or website simultaneously, using iFrames. All content found within the “widget” can be indexed by search engines - you don’t have to do any work to optimize their tools.

– Login - No registration required as the service uses OpenID and can tie in with several other accounts, including FaceBook, Windows Live, MSN, Hotmail, and Twitter.

– Twitter Integration - You are able to instantly monitor and post Tweets to your live event. It ensures that everything is being updated at once.

 – Pagination and Translation are also key features of the service, keeping the messages all in the same language and divided within different pages.

Other Live Streaming Services

Now, despite the fact that this post is geared towards people who want to blog live from somewhere, the following services can also be used, possibly embedded on your blog to add even more value to the event. Plus, most are free and easy to use. 

Note: These links will potentially open up live broadcasts if clicked on, if you do not want to play random sound.

• Seesmic - Considered the “Twitter of video,” the web application makes video uploading easy for those using webcams. More than 70,000 users per month.
• Ustream.tv - Site contains a wide variety of channels, with over 320,000 registered users generating 350,000+ hours of live streamed content per month.
• 12seconds - Ideal for people who want to post short, to-the-point updates to their blog or website. The limit is ideal if you don’t want to have to deal with a completely live camera.
• Qik - Live streaming from mobile phone cameras, ideal for shorter video that doesn’t have to be high quality.
• Mogulus - With more than 120,000 channels, this site is quickly growing with one of the most advanced platforms to date.
• Stickam - Yet another service designed to help you stream content. This site was one of the first to offer this type of service and consists of several high profile bloggers daily.  

Conclusion

If you’ve never considered live blogging before, now is the time to do it. Mass media is quickly catching onto the idea, displaying live streaming video right from peoples’ homes. It doesn’t take too much work to get it right - most of it is preparation and doing it the way that you want to.

Although live blogging didn’t turn out the way most people thought it would (much of it is still personal), there are still enormous advantages of liveblogging versus “static” blogging, especially if your readers aren’t really aware of your presence online. 

If you have ever participated in a live blogging event, don’t hesitate to share additional details or information for other readers.