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.....