5 things I learned at Blogalicious

There was a LOT of information at Blogalicious! A LOT! I’ve finally been through my notes and re read and thought about a lot of it.  I decided that rather than talking about EVERY SINGLE THING I did, saw and learned, I would condense my post about Blogalicious into the 5 most important things I learned this year at Blogalicious

1.)  Pinterest is the Future.     Everyone knows that Pinterest is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your blog.  But the questions for me was, HOW?  Susan Wenner Johnson @susanwjackson provided 10 steps that I found useful.  My favorites included:

• Get verified.
• Post 12-25 pins per day( SAY WHAT??).
• Promote your own content and others( it takes a village).
• Set up at least 10 boards and make sure they are full.
• Participate in group boards.  I was already doing 3 out of the five. I got verified( shout out to my blog designer Sarah Vincent for helping with that) and now I’m working on posting 12-25 pins a day of my own content and others.  The trick she said, is to find what works and repeat that.

2.)  Best Money Making Advice was from the session Generating Revenue: Thinking Outside of the Ad.  This session was led by Andrea Amir from Smart Money Chicks and Brandi Jeter-Riley from Mama Knows it All.

First they shared this wonderful Mind map about making money blogging from Problogger’s website.  But there were other things that I had thought about but hadn’t thought to put them into action.  Things like:

• Freelance Writing: Write about things that you want to get paid to write about. Then pitch blogs and brands using your website as your portfolio.
• Create a product: Write an e-book.  The simplest way to do this is to compile a group of posts together that all have a central theme.  We’ve all got a few posts that we think are good enough to publish don’t we?
• Affiliate links need to be in every post.  EVERY post.  Now I have an affiliate link with Amazon, and I’m working on a few more.  But really, EVERY post? Something to think about….

3.) The Best quotes of the conference I think, came from Keynote Speaker Amy D Barnett, Editor in Chief of Ebony magazine:

“No one can crawl inside of your skin and live your life for you.”

And from Pic Monkey’s Karen Cooper…

“Your Brand is your Super Power”

“Be a purple cow: Create something remarkable that you don’t see everyday. “

*drops mike*

4.) The next session was INVALUABLE.

I so needed to hear everything Ronnie Tyler( co-founder of Black and Married with Kids) and Alisha Walker from The Marriage Coaches spoke on.  Their session was How to “Lean In” to your Business Without Sacrificing Your Relationships or Family.  Because folks, that is problemo numero uno over here.  Here are a few key nuggets I got from this session:

• Define what success looks like for your family.
• Discuss expectations with your family/spouse/loved one: what do you need, what can they do, how can you all work together?
• Communicate those expectations and think: are they realistic? What if they say no?
• Set Boundaries: ensure no one feels neglected. Take care of yourself, and be intentional and present.
• Set your goals and have a plan to achieve them!
• Share them with your spouse AND your kids.
• Check out this post from The Skool Of Life about setting quarterly goals.
• Create a support network that holds you accountable.

I loved this session. And I got the most practical advice out of this session.  Advice that I needed and am putting into action. As.you.read.

LOL

5.)  The last session that I want to talk about was not really a session. It was a lunchtime roundtable  conversation held by my girl Trina from Baby Shopaholic.

Now, I’m going to be honest, I went to support her. Because that’s what bloggy friends do right?

But ya’ll….this roundtable was ON POINT.  Mainly because everyone got involved and there was advice flying around that table so fast my head was spinning. What started out small, kept growing as people kept stopping by to hear the knowledge being dropped by not only Trina( who did a fabulous job leading this conversation) but Erin from Bag Ladies Radio, Danielle from The style and beauty doctor and Marie Denee from  the curvy fashionista:

• Be the expert in your niche.
• Know who your readers are, and remember that they are your customer.
• Be the best, be the expert, be relateable.
• Build a community.
• Be you and share you.
• All of your efforts need to align to promote your blog/niche.

I LOVED THIS CONFERENCE!  It’s got me so fired up, so ready to just DO something, ANYTHING to get where I want to be. I’m defining my goals, getting ready to write them down and share them with someone to make me accountable.  In fact, I was thinking, one of the things I learned about at the conference was making private Facebook groups that hold people who are all of the same page, trying to do the same things.  People who understand where you want to go and are willing to support you, encourage you and hold you accountable.  Anyone want to join me?

Blogalicious will have a lasting effect on me for the rest of my fiscal year.  I’m plotting out my quarterly goals and I plan to achieve them ALL.  Who is fired up with me??