Monday, September 24, 2012

Bloggy Boot Camp: What I learned, Part 2

 

I’m back with the rest of what I learned from Bloggy Boot Camp Dallas! You can read Part 1 here. I’ll say it again, if you get a chance to go to a BBC event, I highly recommend it! I’m not going to giveaway all the details… that’s why you pay to go! LOL But I will share some of the highlights of what impacted me the most :)

blogging and social media conferences for women dallas tx

I covered the morning sessions in my first post and after lunch, you had a choice, The Business of Blogging session or the Writers Workshop. Kelley and I had already agreed to split up, she went to the Business of blogging and I went to the Writers Workshop. And golly! am I glad that I did!

The Writer’s Workshop featured the fabulous Francesca (from the SITS Girls) and Kathy (from Mama Kats Losin It)

phone dump 6 068

Sorry for the icky iphone picture! I really should have taken my Nikon!

  • There is a difference between blogging and writing (its in the content!).
  • There is an art to writing but success come from including the fundamentals.
  • EVERYTHING is searchable and your first 100 words contribute the most to SEO
  • Writers block? – walk away – check out inspiration links ( Just write: extrordinary-ordinary.net / Pouryourheartout.com / Five Minute Friday: lisajobaker.com) – distract yourself with something “fun” but have paper and pen near by to jot down new ideas.
  • The six word memoir exercise (http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/) Would this work as your tag line?

The six word memoir was one of the hardest things for me to come up with (and mine ended up being 7 words) but it has inspired me so much! There are big changes coming to this little blog of mine and I can’t wait to share in a week or two!

 

Holly Homer (sheisdallas.com & businesstoblogger.com) was up next! And boy, oh boy, did she have some incredible ideas to share about Local Content and some smart tips for SEO!

  • Change the URL of your “About Me” Page – include an SEO searchable phrase and then use those exact words in EVERY guest post/giveaway opportunity and link it back to your “About Me” page! {Can we say brilliant!}
  • Set up a blog category under the name of your town for your local content/around town type posts.
  • Obscure posts will get more hits.
  • Make yourself available to the local press! You might be surprised to find that they will use you!
  • Attend local events whenever possible.
  • You ARE already a local blogger, but may not realize it! Identify your local sphere of influence! – check out your analytics, search for geo-centered boards on pinterest, Twitaholic .

 

Growing Your Traffic with Tiffany Romero and Francesca Banducci of the SITS Girls (Two flipping-fantastic women if you ask me!) was intense! They blasted us with a TON of info in a short amount of time ( we were running a little behind schedule lol), but it was a fab session and added about 38,748 more things to my To Do list!

  • As soon as a new social media is introduced, register your name! Even if you don’t use it right away! Otherwise it may be gone!
  • Editorial Calendar! Plan out the next 12 months! It doesn’t have to be for all 365 days or uber specific, but get the gist of it on paper.
  • Twitter – sign up both your personal name and your blog/business name –FILL IN THE BIO!
  • Keep a healthy Tweet ratio – 8 convo tweets vs. two promotional tweets.
  • Facebook – Get visual! Create your own images and use them! – Add a freebie to your FB page.

 

Have you heard of Flourish in Progress? Elizabeth was one of the funniest speakers of the day! And a total Gem! I got to talk to her a bit at the Mirassou Wine Tasting After Party and she is so genuine!  She spoke at BBC about Authenticity.

  • What is your Story? Its YOURS! No one can tell you how to use your voice!
  • If you’re honest and don’t try to hide details, you will be surprise by the number of people who “get it”!
  • When you get discouraged (about a lack of comments/interaction) remember that people have lives!
  • Not everyone will like what you do, and not everything is about you!
  • If you put out honest content and work it, you can make a space for yourself in the blogosphere!

 

Honestly, at 5 pm I was sad! I was sad because the day was over and the learning was done :( I could have listened to these remarkable women talk for another week! Of course heading upstairs to the Mirassou Wine Tasting party helped a little bit ;)

phone dump 6 070phone dump 6 071

I was so glad to meet up with some of “My Texas Girls” from the FB group I started in the spring! (Photo Creds to Cynthia from Oh So Pinteresting)

Overall it was an absolutely INCREDIBLE experience and I can’t wait to go to another BBC (hopefully) next year! And maybe even a weekend conference? We’ll have to see :)

4 comments:

  1. This was such a fantastic weekend. I learned SO much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. More great info! Thanks for sharing again!

    Silly question ... what is SEO ("include an SEO searchable phrase")?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great recap!!! PS...have you figured out how to change your About Me page url on blogger?? I know you probably can over on wordpress but I haven't figured out how to change it on blogspot.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for sharing what you have learned.Attending events like this soothes the mind and refreshes our knowledge. Setting workable goals motivates us to do our best and strive hard in whatever we do.

    ReplyDelete

I love reading your comments! Seriously! They make my day :)