OK…ladies this was huge for me! This past weekend I was able to attend my first ever blogging conference! Eek! I was excited & so nervous all at the same time!
I’m almost chickened out at the last minute. ha! Buuut I didn’t, & I’m so glad I went!
In just a minute I’m going to share my top ten favorite things I learned this past weekend.
Buuuut first up…a HUGE shout to my handsome hubby! He arranged for his parents
to come to town & watch our kiddos…so this was the first time in about 4 years {Yikes!}
that we had the whole entire weekend to ourselves {well…other than the fact that I was at Bloggy Boot Camp all day Saturday. ha!} It was amazing, & we had so much fun.
We were able to go to the LDS Dallas Temple. {BTW that’s where we were married!}
We also had some yummy food & did some shopping. Yehaw!
Hey…you can’t go to Dallas without a visit to IKEA {or saying yehaw!}
OK…now down to {bloggy} business…
the top ten things I learned at Bloggy Boot Camp are:
1.
Make what you do count.
Laurie from Tip Junkie said this! So true!
Don’t spend time, money or effort on things
that don’t give you a return
{higher traffic, recognition, money, experience}.
Don’t be afraid to say NO!
2.
You don’t have to be successful on 4 hours of sleep!
Ummm…yah I needed this one!
Identify the few critical task that need to be done,
set short & clear deadlines & don’t worry about the rest.
You can NOT do everything. Decide what YOU want to do.
3.
When one blogger succeeds we all succeed.
Cheer on each other’s successes! When one blogger
has an amazing opportunity it raises the bar for all us.
Be happy for each other! Don’t let jealousy creep in!
4.
Take a “no technology day” {or two} every week!
Love this! Our family tries to do this every Sunday.
It’s soooo nice to unplug & not be distracted by
computers, kindles, TV & electronic games.
5.
Form a blog “tribe” {AKA blog alliance}!
This is a must! I LOVE “my tribe”!
You girls know who you are! Love ya!
Oh my goodness…I can’t even tell you what a HUGE blessing this is.
For those of you {like my hubby… ha!}
who have never heard of a blog tribe…
it is just a group of bloggers
that form a group to support one another.
Most blog tribes have a private facebook group.
This allows you to give each other feedback,
advice, opportunities to collaborate,
& offer different ways to promote each other.
Usually a tribe consist of bloggers that are in the
same place as you & started at the same time as you.
You don’t want more than 10 or so in your tribe.
If it gets too big the sense of trust won’t be there.
So keep it small. It should be a safe place,
where you can have real conversations.
You are only as good as
the person standing next to you!
6.
Your footer is almost as important as your header.
Please don’t scroll down to my footer. ha!
{BTW the footer is the very bottom of your blog.}
When readers make it to the end of your blog,
you need to give them somewhere else to go.
Some things to put in your footer:
popular post, blog roll, rss feed sign up,
featured post widget, repeat the navigation bar
{I’ll be working on this in the next week or two!}
7.
If you look good, you’ll do better!
When you have blog design that is all nice
& pretty AND professional looking you’ll do better.
Six months into my blog I had
Kim from 733 Custom Blog Design
help me out with my blog design. She’s awesome!
It’s worth it to spend a little money
to help your blog look & feel professional.
8.
Decide what you want to do.
Where do you want to be in 5 years?
This one I’m working on! You need to have goals for your blog.
They encouraged us to have a 12 month editorial calendar.
Have a plan for your blog. Don’t just wing it!
Have a blog schedule.
Have office hours when you work on your blog.
9.
Where you put your attention is where you get results.
Have a clear focus when you sit down to blog.
Do the most important things first.
Have set times to check your emails.
10.
SEO is huge!
I’m really want to figure out the whole SEO thing!
Well, try anyways! Laurie from Tip Junkie recommended:
Mom Blog SEO by Kelby Carr
In the e-book it takes you through 30 days
of quick & easy tasks to jump start your blog.
You can find it on Amazon.com for your kindle,
or if your are like me & want it on paper
you can buy the pdf version {HERE}.
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Oh and did I tell you I forgot my camera!!
Yep! I’m an awesome blogger! ha!
Thanks to my awesome hubby I did get a few pictures with his phone!
Here’s a picture of our swag bag! Thought they were cute!
Thanks to Kroger, King’s Hawaiian, Petit Jean Meats,
Happy Family Organic Superfoods & Ubokia for sponsoring #BBCDal.
TIp: If you ever go to a blogging conference business cards are a must!
I was going to bring some business cards that I made but I knew I was going to
run out of time, so I ended up ordering some from moo.com.
I added a strip of washi tape. It was the perfect touch!
Made them look a little bit crafty anyways!
So was it worth it? YES!
Thank so much to The SITS Girls for hosting!
You can check out my other blogging post here:
how to grow your blog
how to get featured & how to feature others on your blog
some thoughts on blogging
Thank you so much stopping by my blog!
If this is your first time visiting I’d love to keep in touch. 
