Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Elle Woods Goes to Blissdom




Taken with my IPhone :)


I sent a tweet out on Friday that I felt like Elle Woods with my pink paper notebook in a room full of laptops! Giggles. I am certain I was the only one who attended a blogging conference without a laptop. But I am a pen and paper kind of girl!  Mr. P and G offered his laptop but it is a beast to operate and I wasn't about to carry that thing around from session to session,  manage to pass out business cards like after dinner mints and still take pictures of all the famous people.  I'm not that coordinated.


 I took tons and tons of pictures throughout the weekend only to get home and realize that something happened to my camera and I haven't been able to get a single picture uploaded. Deep breaths. I know we will get it worked out.  But my apologies for the delay with all the cute photos. I'm hoping to have the photos up by the end of the week! In the meantime here are a few pearls of wisdom that I found to be helpful. More posts with pictures soon!




1. Get Thee On Twitter. Amen


I did not realize until this weekend what an amazing tool Twitter is. It is also loads of fun once you figure it out and start twittering about. Unlike Facebook, you do not have to send a request or wait for a friend request to be answered. You can just start following and jump in on the conversations and connect with lots and lots of people from all over. News spreads like wildfire and basically anything and everything that had any weight to it was tweeted during Blissdom.  It is a WONDERFUL way to connect throughout the blog world!


2. Why Do You Blog?


What is the reason for your blog? What is the purpose? We need to have a purpose for what we do. If we do not know the answers to those questions we made need to pause a minute and figure those things out first and then begin to write with a purpose in mind.


3. Find Your Voice. - Emily with Chatting At The Sky


"Good writing is an authentic voice." Be true. Be authentic. Be yourself. "But before you post ask yourself, does this add value to my reader?" "Say the most with the least amount of words."   


4. Content Is Queen


Edit. Edit. Edit and Edit.


There was also a bit of talk this weekend about keeping posts short- no one has time to read a long post. Others felt that a long post was okay- as long as the content is good. My personal thought is this..........
I have on more than one occasion,  pulled my car over to the side of the road in order to read a beautiful, moving and breathtaking post.  Some bloggers have that gift. Some bloggers give you an experience. If that is your gift, write long posts.


5. Give Your Readers A Reason To Come Back


Feature a "Friday Follow"- where you feature your favorite bloggers or five favorite posts or five or ten of your favorite new bloggers every Friday. Use Mr. McLinky and have your readers link up on your blog for a specific theme, idea, etc.  Host a Giveaway. Have a contest. Interact with your readers.




6. Becoming A Successful Blogger-  Laurie at Tip Junkie


Comment when you visit. Introduce yourself. Respond to comments and questions as much as possible. Link to others. Highlight other bloggers. Collaborate. Don't compete. Comment on five new blogs a day. Feature your top ten referrals. Post regularly. Be consistent. Do the most good for the most people. Be authentic. Be yourself. 




Part Two coming soon.....












24 comments:

The Nester said...

Loved your title!

And girl, you are also as cute as Elle Woods!

paige said...

oh i am certain you are as cute
i take that back
cuter
than elle!!
pass out dinner mints, how adorable are you?
ok...i'm going to try to figure out twitter & if i do, you'll be the first to know!
it blessed my day to talk to you this afternoon
you are loved
xo

GrannySmithGreen said...

Wonderful tips! Thank you P& G for the great ideas--and the super fabulous friendship! I SO hope that all of your pictures are ok.

bevy said...

Phew! I am following all the rules you've given. Yea me!

Need to look into the Follow Me Friday thing...

3 Peanuts said...

I am glad you had fun and I look so forward to your photos. Thank you for sharing your tips.

I have not ventured onto Twitter yet. I am afraid I'll be addicted.

I am terribly guilty of long posts...maybe I should work on that. That is my authentic voice though...I am terrible at small talk.

Hugs,
Kim

Nancy said...

I'm so happy you enjoyed your weekend. I'm know thinking about my blog and all of the ways I can improve it. Thanks for the tips!

Unknown said...

Great advice!! Sounds like a great weekend! What a blessing you were able to attend :) xoxoxo

Karin Katherine said...

I have to say that title was PERFECT! So glad to have met you! Loved our talk. PLEASE email me any time to talk about homeschooling. You can do it, if it is your desire!

Rachel said...

LOVED your title!

HAve often felt Elle'ish'

You are darling and you gleaned fabulousness from Blissdom.

I would be a pink notebook kind of girl, if my arthritis didn't prevent ACTUAL hand writing ;-)

Ellen Seidman said...

Good tidbits! And, you are prettier than Elle Woods! Hope the homecoming was good.

PS~Erin said...

Thanks for sharing these tips!

Teresa said...

Thank you so much for posting this! I love your advice and hope to adhere to all of the rules...soon!

lizziefitz said...

great advice, can't wait for pics.

Cynthia said...

I really liked what Tip Junkie had to say. I was in that session as well. What a great weekend it was:)

Broccoli Cupcake said...

Great reminders. I'm still working on applying all of these tips. Can't wait to see your pics. Hope we can get together soon!

Kim said...

I recently stopped following everyone on twitter and don't post much....it was really fun at first, but then it turned into one more time sucking electronic thing. And so many people duplicate post to blogs, facebook and twitter that I decided to give twitter the boot. Thanks for sharing all the tips!

Lora Lynn @ Vitafamiliae said...

It was so nice to have lunch with you on Saturday. You have done a great job of summarizing the major points of the conference for us writer types. Nicely done! Please email me or call if you need to talk through some of the stuff we discussed. Seriously. :-)

Stephanie said...

Fantastic tips - they all are kind of "duh!" tips to me that I should have thought of on my own, but didn't!

Though I just can't get on board with the twittering - maybe one day ;)

patty said...

popped over from lifeingrace, and love your synopsis from BLissdom. {loved your post title, too!} :)

hope you had a fabulous time! :)

www.blessedmoon.squarespace.com

Michelle said...

I bet that was a wonderful an inspiring weekend! Maybe one day I will manage to attend something like that. Thanks for sharing your insights.

Mary @ Giving Up On Perfect said...

I loved meeting you at Blissdom! I wish we'd had time to really visit, but it seems like I spent the entire weekend completely overwhelmed and exhausted - and incapable of having a real conversation with anyone! Next time... :) Until then, I'm looking forward to getting to know you here!

(And by the way, I brought my laptop but it never left my room. It's a huge dinosaur and too much to manhandle in a conference!)

Grace@ MammaInTheScene said...

So, until recently I knew nothing of blissdom.--I'm a previously livejournal kinda girl, that didn't venture out much--I'm really thankful for this post! Makes me wish I had been there! Such helpful tips!

Emily T. Thomas said...

I didn't have a laptop with me either! Was so good to meet you...amen to that twitter thing!

Petit Elefant said...

You are completely lovely, lovelier even than the adorable Elle. And that's hilarious, by the way.

Also? I left my laptop in the room and took copious handwritten notes, I prefer it that way.

I cannot wait until we get to giggle over lunch again, you are an absolute delight and I'm so happy to have met you!

xo