10 Things I Learned at Bloggy Boot Camp Philly
Yesterday, I had the amazing opportunity to attend Bloggy Boot Camp Philly 2012. My mind was blown. Literally. I left the Radisson Warwick Hotel with so much information, I didn’t even know where to begin. It was, after all, my first official blog conference. {I know right}. I couldn’t have picked a better blog conference for my first one. It was small and I had a chance to meet new bloggers and remember why I loved “old” ones.
To help myself digest all of the valuable information, I sat down last night and wrote a top ten list old school style. In my notebook. Handwritten.
10 Things I Learned at #BBCPhilly
1. Pick a good roommate. Or you might wake up to find they tweeted a picture of you sleeping. {True story}
Yes, folks, my dear friend Kelly of The Turnip Farmer did in fact take a picture of me sleeping and then tweeted it out to the interwebs. She was just jealous that I was sleeping and she was going out for a run!
In all seriousness, pick a good roommate! They could make or break your blog conference experience.
2. You’re only as good as the company you keep {via Laurie of Tip Junkie}. I was so fortunate to be surrounded by my fellow Philly Social Media Moms at Bloggy Boot Camp. It was apparent that we have each other’s backs. I have never been part of a group that has been so supportive of everyone’s goals and dreams, no matter what they are.
3. Work with Intention. I felt like Laurie was speaking directly to me. Working with intention is all about organization. From working on the most important task first, to setting up office hours {I really need to do this}, to only reading email twice a day {gasp!}, they are all things I really need to implement. This week, I am going to try one of these. Setting up office hours. And then next week, only check my emails twice. Baby steps, people!
4. Create a six word story. Cecily of Uppercase Woman shared Ernest Hemingway’s Six Word Story. “For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never Worn.” Basically, pitch yourself in 6 words because after those six words, people aren’t listening anymore. It was hard for me to come up with my own. But roomie of the Year, Kelly, was there to help me out. Give me coffee or I’ll snap. As we were riding around today enjoying a family day out, I finally came up with my own. Capturing the extra shots of life.
5. Have a Thick Skin. Colleen of Classy Mommy shared her vlogging tips. I am still hesitant to vlog {I hate my voice} but Colleen pointed out that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously. I think if I can throw that thick skin on and just have fun with it, I might actually enjoy vlogging. You’ve been warned!
6. Start small. Sharon of Mom of 6 shared her amazing story about how she took her blog from a small blog to a large blog in about 5 months. I told you it was amazing. To do this, she set small goals and chipped away at them. One step at a time. This was a great ending session because by that point, I was so overwhelmed with all of the information I had heard. After hearing Sharon’s approach, it made all of those bullet points I highlighted in my notebook seem doable, if I just start small and go one step at a time.
7. Find Your Voice. All day, we kept hearing “Know yourself”, “Find your voice”, “Know your why”. It was almost repetitious but when you think about it, finding your voice and knowing who you are is the heart of your blog. If you don’t know who you are, how will your readers know who you are?
8. Sometimes you have to pick up the phone. Did you just shudder at the thought of that? Me too. However, a phone call can a lot further than an email. This is going to be a hard one for me but something I need to learn how to do again.
9. Content is Queen. If you want to stand out, you need to write content that stands out. Pretty self-explanatory, right? Fran of SITSGirls, Jill of Scary Mommy, and Cecily of Uppercase Woman shared some tips on writing killer content.
- Take your time.
- Create value.
- Think about your reader’s experience.
- Offer variety.
- Readability.
10. Have wine. The true sign of a killer conference? Having it sponsored by a wine company! Thank you Mirassou!
Not only did Bloggy Boot Camp Philly, get me charged up to take my blog to the next level, but I can not wait for BlogHer ’12 New York City!
Love this! Sorry we didn’t get to hang out at #BBCPhilly!
It was so hard to see everyone! I feel like I missed so many people.
I went to the business track so thanks for sharing the tip about have a 6 word story. So tough!! Love yours! 🙂 It was so great to meet you!
I would love you forever if you wrote a recap of the business track! I heard it was so good. And it was so nice to finely meet you too!
you know i complete you.
As much as it pains to me admit this, yes, yes you do.
Thank you for posting your takeaways! Hugely generous and valuable to bloggers like me, who cold not be there. Next year for sure!
Definitely a good conference to attend! I plan on going again next year as well.
NIce! What I took away? I hate the word niche as it causes me great anxiety. Thinking about heading up for BlogHer, hubby wants me getting out more. I wonder if he hit his head when I was at Bloggy Bootcamp?!?
You better buy your ticket now before he changes his mind!
I second your post! What a wonderful conference with real takeaways. Was so glad to share it with, my PSMM peeps, and a whole bunch of new friends.
Such a great conference! And so glad I got to see your smiling face!
Thanks so much Stephanie for including me in your roundup! And you totally get it- set one goal at a time- and work towards it focusing internally on your blog and then externally on getting eyeballs to visit…. until you reach that goal. Then set the next one!
You can do this!
Thank you for the sweet comment Sharon! Your session really helped me sort out the data I heard all day.
Great summation! Setting small step goals and finding your voice were definitely the themes of the day.
I think if we try to do it all at once, it would never get done! By setting small steps, I know I can do it!
Sigh, I wish Kelly would snap a pic of ME first thing in the morning and tweet it! Haha, love your list. And envy your sleeping in. 😉
I know! Aren’t you jealous about having my picture taken while sleeping?! And don’t envy the sleeping in. That picture was taken at like 6 am. So no sleeping in for me!
I think it is hilarious that you got a pic snapped of you since you are the picture guru! Dying over here! I KNEW I should have attended. Great list!
You should have! Such a great conference. Put it on your list for next year.
This is a fabulous list! Just pinned it to our PSMM group.
Thanks for the pin Jo-Lynne!
The wine is so important! 🙂
Sounds like you learned a lot!
And I don’t even drink wine!
Fabulous recap! So sad I missed it but there is always next year, right?
Yes you are coming next year. I will make sure of that!
LOVE your list! The niche thing scares me too, because I feel I have no niche…but you know what I realized that’s ok. 🙂
Oh but you do! Us boy moms have to stick together!
The phone call thing freaks me out too! I’m a writer, not a speaker! lol
I am SO glad I got to finally meet you this weekend! 🙂 And I need to get my butt in gear and get involved in PSMM 🙂
OMG I hate the phone with a passion!
I am so glad I finally got to me you too!
thanks for sharing the BBC info. I really hope to get there next year.
good things to think about and focus on. I get so distracted as soon as I start catching up on things!
Great post and love the early morning picture…so funny!!
Thanks for sharing this! I’m so sad I missed this conference, especially since it seems that everyone took away so much from it. I’m still contemplating BlogHer though. I like the idea of working on one thing at a time. I need to do this myself, too.
Also? I wish I introduced myself to you at the GLOparty!
Come to BlogHer!!! And why didn’t you introduce yourself?!
Yes, taking things one step at a time is huge! We are human and there are only so many hours in the day.
So wish I could have gone! I need something to set me in the right direction right now. Thanks for sharing!
It really has helped me make a path for my blog and where I want to take things!
It was a great conference wasn’t it! I was at the writing workshop too and loved listening to Scary Mommy through writing conventions out the window!
Great writeup!
Thanks for posting such great tips. I wasn’t able to attend so I’m really enjoying being able to take things away from everyones experience.
Aha!!! Finally, I found some advice that I missed from the writing break-out session. Thanks so much for the inclusion of number 4.
I can’t wait to go to the one in Dallas. Thanks so much for this post. I want to know what to expect. I know somethings I should work on before I get there!
This makes me SO excited for our BBC here in Vegas in October! Thanks for the great tips!
This was so helpful!! I’m going to BBC in Vegas and I can’t wait! Thanks for all these great tips! 🙂