It's the day after the BlogWorld LA 2011 conference finished and I'm sitting in my hotel room at the Sheraton in Downtown Los Angeles.
The three-day event was a big one, attracting thousands of bloggers from around the globe and featuring over 300 speakers, many of whom are the biggest names in the world of social media and blogging.
I'm going to let a lot of the information and ideas I took in at BlogWorld to percolate over the next few days, but my biggest and most profound take-out after listening to numerous presentations and panel sessions, from chatting with other attendees and checking out the expo section of the conference, is this:
The days when bloggers are confined to their small-time blog and wafer-thin audience are over.
Of course you will always have bloggers who for one reason or another want to keep things small and casual. Some of these may grow in influence over time but by and large they will remain sideline 'passion' projects only.
New Media Mini-Empires
However, for the ambitious entrepreneurial blogger, the content creation tools and social networks are well and truly in place to help them form and grow 'new media' mini-empires.
A growing number of individuals are already proving it can be done, and they in turn are inspiring thousands of others to follow in their footsteps.
Talented writers, performers, broadcasters, experts and commentators are no longer waiting for traditional media to pick them up. They are literally going out and doing it themselves, and audiences are catching on quickly and jumping on-board.
In short, this spells a new era for 'pro-am' content creators, and it's set to explode.
Watch this space!
