Blog Elevated Conference. Day 1.

A few weeks ago I signed up to go to the Blog Elevated conference.  I mean it’s down the street from me and supposed to give me tips to take my blog to the next level.  Whatever I choose for that to be.  Instead of bombard you with all the technical details of what I learned, let’s do a summary yes?

Ok.

What I Learned

John Saddington talked about entrepreneurship.  How to capitalize on your idea that makes you YOU.  Basically you need to make a way to make money off stuff you already do for fun.  Who wants to pay me for talking about sorta nerdy things and having a kid? Who?! There are people for this.  I will find them.

There was a session with Marketing & PR people.  They discussed stuff like how many followers you need to have to really get money from companies to promote their products.  How to approach PR folks and all that and what not.  What they look for when they want to you to write a post.  It was good but I don’t know how close I am to being there.  The most important thing learned was from Kami Huyse – (@kamichat) “don’t sell out”. Even though she’s in PR and who you would be selling out too.  Being true to your blog audience is more important than making a few bucks from a brand.  Like if I started posting about gardening stuff y’all would be like “ummm who took over your blog Bre” and be uninterested.  You see?

After lunch we had breakout sessions.  Basically smaller sessions where you can get in on a topic that really appeals to you.  For me, this session was about getting stuff published.  Remember that dusty “writing” category up top!  Anyway the session was given by Angela England (@angengland) who actually wrote the book on making money online.  She’s also written published a few books; eBook and paperback.  So yeah, she’s the type of person to listen to.

So I need to listen:

• WRITE WRITE WRITE
• CLOSE ALL THE TABS
• GIVE UP SOMETHING
• HAVE A DEADLINE

I mean just actual basic stuff.  Sooooooo we agreed maybe I need to give up my Mad Men watching and start writing.  Cue cold sweat in 5…4…3…

And the final session of the day was from the kick ass Rae Hoffman (@sugarrae) who kicks ass at SEO.  This is web talk for how people find you on the internet and how you can get money from that.

What This Means

Mostly I might find a nicer, professionallier blog layout.  And maybe revamp my About page and add something about ‘yes I will promote your product if I think it’s something that the people who read my blog would like.’  The rest would be more behind the scenes stuff like SEO jibba and SEO jabba.

I might try to go to more local events and say to people “why yes I am a blogger and here is my business card” swack! and make it appear from nowhere into their hands.  I did find out that there’s a Houston Social Media Breakfast so that’s interesting.

And I will probably be very existential the next couple weeks like “who am I”,  “what do I want to be”, and “how can I stop watching Mad Men when I am about to finish Season 2 and Netflix has so many more seasons available on Instant Watch.”

Oh, and I need to Write Write Write.

And that was just Day 1.