But the conference was amazing and I learnt a lot more than I expected. It also reinforced that a lot of the things I do and have been doing are great and I’m going to keep doing them. And I learnt things that I should be doing to make life easier for myself and my readers. I like that. I’m not good with the tech side of things here at retro mummy so I have a bit of learning to do. And I hope that this condensed version of what I learnt helps my blogger friends out there.
1. I was one of the few who was taking notes with pen and paper. I really need to get myself an ipad.
2. Blogging conferences are so much more fun than securitisation and banking conferences that I used to attend.
3. I was sitting at a table with some very pretty ladies. This is Violet le Beaux. How cute is she? If keira was with me she’d be in awe.
4. I need to get friendly with such things as feedflare, mailchimp, CDN, smush.It, wise stamp, clickbump SEO, AllinOne SEO, lightroom, infographics. I know. Don’t worry. I have no idea what these things are either but once I do know I’ll share.
5. Establish 5 keywords for your blog that best describe your blog and use those words in your title, content and tag words. Don’t spam your keywords
6. Don’t attack others online. Amen.
7. Share your blogposts on twitter, facebook, google +, stumbleupon and so on. Just share.
8. Be considerate to your family and friends when sharing. In other words don’t bombard them.
9. Plan your blog posts (this is something I don’t do but it could be more time efficient for me)
10. Companies still ask agencies ‘what is a blog’
11. you can spot the fashion and beauty bloggers in a crowded room.
12. look into wordpress again so you can host your own blog and not have it removed by blogger. Learn how to use wordpress.
13. I took my knitting but was so busy writing and tweeting I didn’t get to do any at the conference.
14. Kit kat and a diet coke is the perfect afternoon tea.
15. Diet coke and a bag of party mix lollies at 10pm in emergency is no party. It’s not a good dinner either.
16. Think about setting up a newsletter for your readers. Planning with kids likes Mailchimp for hers. It’s a great way to send out your top posts of the week for your readers who might have missed something.
17. ‘totes’ is a gen Y word. I think it means totally. I am gen X. Can you tell?
18. Ask your readers what they’d like to read on your blog (how about baby number 5, lovely readers?)
19. If you want to tweet all day with the free wifi then pack your charger otherwise your phone will die before you land in sydney and retro daddy will drive to the airport without telling you and you’ll be in a taxi home.
20. Problogger is an amazing public speaker and a fountain of knowledge when it comes to blogging.
21. He had my attention when he started his presentation with a photo of his 4 week old baby. And then a photo of his cute boys. Kids. Get me everytime.
22. He said live and breathe your ‘brand’ aka your blog. Do your tweets etc build your ‘brand’? But don’t worry, ‘tweets happen’. That’s funny.
23. Problogger says that a small group of raving fans can be better than a larger following.
24. Don’t focus on the readers you don’t have! Look after the ones you do have (hi ladies!)
25. Think about what you want people to say about your blog when you’re not there
26. Content is key and what people talk about. It should inform, inspire and interact.
27. Childhood 101 said ‘Ask yourself what is keeping your readers up at night?’ (for me it’s a baby, craft and laundry!) I think she meant burning questions that keep your readers up at night.
28. If you want to start working with brands or sponsorship but you don’t think you have the traffic don’t worry. If you have good content then go for it.
29. Believe in yourself and your blog.
30. Unique visitors to your blog is a good basic statistic that you should be taking note of.
31. Problogger says that sneeze pages are pages that draw your readers in and then they got lost in your blog reading and reading older posts!
32. Get off your blog more and use twitter, facebook, flickr and so on.
33. Befriend your competitors and work together not against each other. Love this one!
34. Reward your readers and those that share your blog. Love this one too. Love my readers
35. When speakers like Childhood 101 get teary. I get all choked up.
36. Nicky of Styling You has amazing skin and hair. I need to pay more attention to beauty products she uses.
37. Ask Elodie or the ‘powers that be’ to be sick and end up in hospital on any other day and not the one time you fly to Melbourne for the day.
38. I’m not good at being away from my Elodie for more than an hour or so. I missed her like crazy and can’t stop squeezing and kissing her since I got home. She looks less than impressed but missed me. Honest.
39. Thank you Virgin Australia for putting me on the earliest flight when I told you my baby was in hospital and for seating me at the front of the plane to get off quickly. For no extra cost. Thank you so much.
40. Sorry to the flight attendant on the 6am flight to Melbourne that you had to tell Liss and I to keep our voices down during the safety demonstration. Sorry about that.
41.If your readers think you’ve sold out because you make money on your blog then they are living in 2004 and this in 2011 according to Lady Melbourne. With a family of 6 to raise – I like this lady’s thinking!
42. Take a picture of the gorgeous pumpkin tempura inside out sushi roll you have for lunch at Chocolate Buddha before you stuff it all in your mouth.
43. Don’t stuff a piece of sushi in your mouth and then try to say something in front of such lovely ladies like Melissa Goodsell. You’ll only regret it later. You don’t like people talking with food in their mouth.
44. The best bit about a blogging conference is all the lovely people you get to meet in real life! It was great to meet some for the first time – hello Melissa Goodsell, Tammy, Katrina, F is for Fabric, Tarisota, Craft Revival, Violet le Beaux, Chaigyaru, Kylie, Organised Housewife and more. There were so many people there and it was great to see some familiar faces from the last bloggers conference I went to. There are so many people I didn’t get to meet. Next time.
45. My diana ferrari boots just get comfier and comfier and my wrap dress stayed wrinkle free all day.
46. It was a nice surprise to see my Westfield competition and photo up on the screen.
47. I must check out the blog, Waffleizer, about a guy who experiments by putting everything in his waffle iron.
48. 300 bloggers in a room doing the mexican wave is fun.
49. Ask Glowless to share her media kit. Media kits are important and apparently hers is really good. I don’t have one!
50. Nuffnang did an amazing job organising such a great conference. The speakers were all excellent and what they had to share was very relevant and inspiring. My brain is overflowing at the moment. Thank you Nuffnang for sending me down.
wow this was great – thankyou so much for distilling this for us stay at homers
le xox
ps you are totally up there with the amazing ladies you link to and I hope your wee one is all smiles again today
Wow, such an interesting post! Blogging becomes an art (or industry) not just spending time with online friends!
Bye, Carmen from Italy.
It was such a wonderful and inspiring day wan’t it! But I had no idea you were there – I would have hunted you down to say hi if I’d known!
Will have to wait until next March
xxxCate
Thanks for that post. Very informative and funny! Hope your wee doll is feeling so much better now!
Great inspiration there! Do hope Elodie is OK and that mummy got to rest up a bit today!!!
I knew I wanted to be there!!
Random comments:
~ I am one of your raving fans (if you hadn’t worked it out yet)
~ You got to meet Violet!!!!! I read her too.
~ I would have to seriously consider what to wear.
~ Point 41 is encouraging – I’m not sure sometimes
~ I must write a sneeze page
~ I can send you an email if you’d like to see Wisestamp in action – I have it on my emails
~ I’m so glad I did the WordPress switch
~ I’m off to try to think of my 5 keywords…
Thanks for the great round up!
Oh Corrie it was so lovely to finally meet you IRL and you are so sweet thank you so much again for my pressie
xx
Thank you for sharing, Corrie, sounds like you had a wonderful time! I hope Elodie is much better now!
Sounds like a great day! I really should pay more attention to those Nuffnang events.
Nice list! I didn’t make it there – so thanks for sharing.
Now thats a list!! Sounds like an informative day! Hope Elodie is much better too
Thanks for the post! I would have loved to have gone, so it’s nice to catch up on what it was like.
Tabitha x
http://www.wardrobe-envy.com.au
Wow what a long list of great information. I am glad Elodie is doing much better now that her mum is home. Look forward to seeing what other great information you share with us all.
Oh, Corrie, you generous girl, sharing all that insight with us – thanks! I’ll have to make it to one of these get-togethers some day soon. J x
What a great post. I’ll be referring back to this one over the coming week(s).
And can I just say, off topic. As a newbie to your blog. That is the most exquisite banner. I’m in love with it!
So sorry to hear that Elodie wasn’t well. The look on her face says it all… she might have been faking it to make mum feel bad for heading off for the day – they do that, you know!!
Thank you for sharing your insights, Corrie. Always a pleasure to read your words.
It all seems so… serious! x
Thanks for sharing, and so pleased to hear everyone is home and well.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your rundown Corrie… and now my head is spinning and probably only computing about 5% of the bloggy stuff! ;o)
But you poor thing having Elodie fall ill like that. I can totally imagine how difficult that must have been for you being so far away, I’m sure it was no picnic for Retro Daddy either. She looks SO super cute, even if she doesn’t look too impressed.
You’re an amazing woman cramming all that action into one day Corrie xo
Great post!
Lots of very interesting information.
Keep up the great work you are doing with your blog.
I just read your whole blog, and mostly I just want to say….”Go for number 5!!!” Your kids are adorable and you love them!!
Believe in yourself and your blog. Very good advice when all else fails. I didn’t get bored once in all that 50. Thanks for sharing. Hope the little lady is feeling better. Cherrie
Was lovely to finally meet you too. Fantastic round up of the day Corrie! I’m having withdrawels now – hurry up #nnb2012
Oh gosh you poor thing, that must have been really scary having Elodie sick. This post was very interesting… I don’t blog because I get overwhelmed even thinking about this stuff haha. I love your blog though – you’re doing a great job
Looks like you had a lovely time in Melbourne (apart from the bad news abut Elodie being in hospital – hope she’s all better now).
And I can totally relate to #40 – a friend and I flew to Sydney last year (sans kids) and were growled at for talking too!!
Thanks for all the information, and as for a more indepth post? I think I’d have skimmed over most of it and given up part way through. Your dot points kept me going to the very end.
Really lovely to share a table with you – even though that didn’t give us much chance to chat! Sorry that your little one had to go to hospital (that must have been stressful for you). And re skincare: I use a “cocktail” (workplace hazzard!) but mainly I just make sure I use something – cleanse, tone and moisturise each morning and night and serums have become my best friend (post 40!). I use Jane Iredale mineral makeup to “naturally” cover up anything else. TOTES!
Thanks so much for posting this! And re: point #18, I vote YES to baby number 5!!!! That’s so nice of Virgin to fly you home as quickly as possible. Hope Elodie has made a full recovery xxx
Thank you so much for the round-up. These points are unreal. Or should I say totes awesome
Sounds like you had an amazing time and thanks so much for sharing all that you learned. Hope your little one is feeling better now.x
It was so great to finally put tweets to face! Hehe! And glad that you gorgeous little girl is alright!
CRIKEY….!!!!!…..I am SO UPSET….I’m in Melbourne & would have LOVED to have attended this conference if I’d only been AWARE it was on….Would you be able to let me know how you found out about it ’cause if there’s an email list I need to be on it….!!!!!
I must have been under a rock when the word went out….!
I’m GLAD you enjoyed yourself & hope your wee one is feeling better….!!!!!
Cheers,
Tamarah :o)
It was such a buzz! What a great round up. My regret for Saturday, that once again a bloggers conference has passed and I did not get to chat with you, Corrie!
I LOVE your run down, such a great read! You are so nice to give me my whole own point too, it was really lovely to meet you, next we’ll have to sit closer so we don’t have a table in the way of talking! I hope your little girl is feeling better
Btw #13, I almost took my knitting too but I packed my bag too full of business cards which I never handed out haha!
I have an iPad and I took notes on pen and paper – it made me focus more somehow.
And thank you for the mention, my inbox is overflowing with requests and a few have said that it was from reading this
Brilliant, love all the details & so many new bloggers i’ve never heard of before, yahoo. Love Posie
I am a new follower and read this post I am wondering if you like word press a lot better than blogger? I have been blogging for 6 months now and use blogger. Just curious why word press is better and if it was difficult to change over..
Thanks,
Lori
I just bought a ticket to the 2012 one and when I googled it, stumbled upon this post.
Now I’m very excited and very nervous to be going!
This comment has been removed by the author.