It’s only been nine days since I went to Bloggy Boot Camp in Philadelphia (#bbcphilly) – but somehow in blogger world, that seems to be an eternity – so much has happened since then! I finally found time on my train home from New York on Friday to look at all of my notes and think about what I learned and what actions I wanted to implement. Now, lucky for you – I have it all written down in outline form. Aren’t you excited?
what I wore.
this is clearly important.
6 word identity recap.
You may have seen my post entitled “My Blog and I are having an Identity Crisis” recently. It was pretty true. I came back from that conference and had NO idea what the purpose of my blog was. I’ve narrowed it down to two options for my six word identity right now:
engineer by day, hostess by night, &
hostess in training: finding her style
Now, two people had recommendations on option #1. A friend from college said, “what about engineer by trade, hostess by vision” and Virginia from Yes, Virginia… said to add the tagline “and everything in between”. We’ll see what I decide on, I feel better having a direction. Also, I find it funny that people kept commenting that “hot mess” didn’t really seem to describe by blog – there are some days when my head is all over the place, everything seems to go wrong, and I’m even more clumsy than usual – but I guess everybody has those days and I guess we’ll call them the exceptions to the rule.
2 favorite quotes from the event.
“never second guess a fun idea” -used in a session called Top 10 Blogging Success Tips, by Laurie at Tip Junkie
“if you’re going to put yourself out there, don’t do it in a small way” -used in a session called Proven Methods to Grow Your Site and Increase Your Influence by Sharon at Mom of 6
9 traffic increasing ideas for when I (you) need a little inspiration.
1. do a top 10 posts
2. do a q&a session with your readers
3. make printables to give to your readers
4. do/accept guest posts
5. interview others
6. vlogging – video blogging
7. add some of your best quotes & photos to pinterest
8. look at your favorite brand’s blogs
9. participate in link ups
7 things on my to do list because of this conference.
1. create a 12-month calendar for my blog: this will help prepare me for upcoming holidays and major events so that I don’t end up missing something or let something sneak up on me.
2. swap blog buttons with other blogs (that are around my approximate size): months ago, let me know if you’re interested :)
3. follow only the people on twitter & instagram that I want to follow – this involved some “unfollowing” (aka stop randomly clicking on people to follow in airports because I’m bored)
4. label all of my blog pictures with real titles so that they can be easily searched on search engines
5. learn more about google analytics: google seems to be the way to get things done in search engine optimization (anyone surprised?)
6. update the titles of my posts to make them more descriptive of what’s inside
7. write a great bio about myself: to update my about page & in case anybody ever needs it for anything :)
10 new blogs I got a chance to enjoy because of this conference.
- According to Denise:
- Chasing Joy: promoting positivity, gratitude and all things joyful
- Clever Compass: one life, many directions
- Leslie Reese: celebrating the little things in life
- Mom of 6: tips for moms on organizing your home, your schedule, your household routine, and your busy life
- Mommy du Jour: bilingual mom blog – raising culturally competent kids
- Musings of a Housewife
- Secrets of a Momaholic: happy kids one day at a time
- Scary Mommy: making motherhood less scary, one mom at a time
- The Lovely Mundane
Let me tell you, while compiling that list I just learned why the six word identity is important.
Any questions, comments or thoughts, let me know. Right now, it looks like I have some work to do.
