Having just spent two days at BlogWorld Expo, here’s some the bigger takeaways.

1. Las Vegas is truly bigger than life. Everything is big: the hotels, the drinks, the food served at restaurants and the convention centres. The weird part is the scale of the place throws you. What looks like a short distance between two hotels is actually a long, long walk.

2. I’m not a professional blogger, although I do blog a lot and do make some money from blogging. Compared with the “pros”, I’m more of an enthusiast, who really likes to write. (Note: Here’s a good blog post about how you need to publish three to 10 blog posts a day to compete with the top blogs.

3. Even “professional” bloggers, the money really isn’t in selling ads on their blogs (unless you’re a TechCrunch, GigaOm or ReadWriteWeb). Blogs are really effective billboards for bloggers to attract other business such as consulting assignments, speaking gigs, book deals, etc.

4. The most enthusiastic bloggers are obsessed with Twitter. They use it a lot, including the promotion of themselves and their blog posts.

5. Bloggers have a use for Facebook but they it is uncertain if they are enthusiastic about it. That said, Facebook evangelist Mari Smith (@marismith) could probably get any blogger to pay more attention to Facebook

6. While WordPress is worshiped among bloggers, Google’s Blogger.com is as strong if not stronger, although few hard-core bloggers would admit using it.

7. The world beyond technology blogging is enormous. There’s even an active military blogging ecosystem, although you’d think the military would need to be careful about what it blogs about.

8. Blogging is still very much alive and well. While Twitter and Facebook are getting the lion’s share of the attention, the number of blogs continues go grow, as well as blog readership.

9. The real value of conferences is not the content, although great speakers and panelists count a lot. The action at conferences happens in the hallways and at the parties where you get to meet new people and catch up with people you already know.

10. BlogWorld Expo is a big event but it’s only one part of the blogging conference circuit. The “pro” bloggers seem to travel on a regular basis from event to event.

11. Las Vegas is exhausting.