yikes.
this post is so stinkin' overdue.
back in august, blake and i drove down to chicago for the 20sb blogging conference.
i won a ticket from donis blog ; and got to hear her speak.
its an 8 hour drive from minneapolis to chicago ; and we camped outside the city.
the conference was two days long ; but due to the train schedule and sleeping on the ground, i only went on saturday.
the first breakout session was called 'the glamour, the glory, the grind ; lessons learned from 5 years of problogging' by gala darling.
do you know her blog?! i had never heard of her, but now her blog is one of my daily reads.
the session was mostly about her journey, and how some days its hard. and how sometimes things you would never imagine to happen. [she was invited to fashion week with betsy johnson!]
i also heard doni and tim jahn speak on 'stop, collaborate and grow / advancing your blog through collaboration'.
there was a lot of discussion in this session, and its always so interesting to hear what people have to say. some people said they never read blogs when someone else is guest posting. and others said that they will take guest bloggers but will refuse to edit content, even if the blog is poorly written.
*sometimes sessions like this are tricky for me because i think things are so subjective. different bloggers do things different. and i think learning and growing are so important, but if you take others successes, theres a chance it wont work*
* you have to do what works best for you. and your blog. your vision. and your great readers*
the third session was 'a brand new world / making your blog work for you' ; it was a panel lead by amy creyer, carolyn kmet, matthew jonas and megan berry.
amy runs this fashion blog. carolyn works for groupon and megan works for klout.
*i will be writing in depth about klout ; what it is, how to boost it and fun perks in a few days!*
and, while i was in chicago, i had the chance to meet vanessa. pretty sure we will be friends for a really long time. shes so rad [check out her blog and get ready for a guest post soon ;)]
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last month, blake and i got the chance to attend the minneapolis bloggers conference, right here at home.
it was a day long, free event, just a few miles from home. we hopped on the trail and rode down.
the first session i attended was from mandy dwyer. it was a photography workshop and she did such a great job. a few of my favorite tips :
*when taking photos, look around. are you inside? are their dirty dishes, underpants, laundry around?
outside? garbage cans, light poles?
*when blogging with photos, work photos in with text. i am still learning this, and i really do think blogs look cleaner and are more interesting when there are pretty things to look at throughout ;)
*when you are editing photos, save them with keywords so your post gets better seo [search engine optimization] results.
the other session i really enjoyed was 'advertisements, endorsements and the casual ‘like’ – what you
need to know (if you’re a celebrity blogger or not)' led by hayden o. creque esq. his session was really great. we talked a bunch about the new facebook contest rules and disclosure statements [when and when not to use them]. a lot of people had tons of questions, and there was a great discussion going.
these conferences were great ; i felt like i learned a lot and its always great to connect with other people that are making this planet better.
thanks for reading ; and i really do encourage you to check out all of the folks that i have listed!
