The first ever Blog Elevated conference was held Thursday September 19 – Saturday the 21.
Thursday (about noon), my carpool buddies and I met up and drove to Houston. We spent the drive talking and telling stories so it didn’t feel like we were in the van for three hours. We arrived, checked in to our rooms and met at The Yard House for an early dinner. At 7pm, we headed over to a reception sponsored by Kroger. There was plenty of cheese, chocolate and wine!
For most of the conference, the San Antonio bloggers stayed pretty close to one another. But there were twelve awesome breakout sessions so we divided and conquered. I attended what you need to know about accounting & taxes, the income report: how to grow your platform and monetize, making pinterest work for you, bloggers and the law: what you need to know before you publish. There were also five fantastic general sessions – opening keynote with John Saddington, brands & bloggers PR panel, SEO with Rae Hoffman, how to rock a brand ambassadorship with Katie Laird and closing keynote with Karen Walrond.
I learned so much that my brain felt like it was going to explode! Even a week after the conference, I wasn’t quite ready to delve into my notes.
Now that I’ve started implementing the things I learned, I thought I’d share my top 5 10 takeaways from the general sessions.
I think not selling out is a given, but I think it’s also a really important reminder. Over the last week, I’ve used six of the ten takeaways – including saying no to a PR rep! When I told her no and then why that was my answer, she responded with a ‘thanks for letting me know’ which made me feel like she respected me a little more!
I left Blog Elevated with MANY more than 10 takeaways, but you would have been here for hours if I had kept going! If you get a chance to attend next year, DO IT! I don’t think you’ll regret a single second!
Do you use any (or all) of these tips? Which one is your favorite?
OH! And join Colleen, Stacy, Lisa P., Lisa B., Amanda and I for a Google Hangout where we’ll share our tips from Blog Elevated this Tuesday, October 1, at 9:30 a.m. CDT.
I can’t pick just one favorite. Thank you so much for sharing this. I miss going to conferences so I live vicariously through other bloggers (like you!) Pinning it!
Great tips, so glad you all got to go experience this. It sounds like it was a blast.
I’m sorry you weren’t there, but you should definitely plan on going next year!
Those are great takeaways!
I think #2 is my favorite but it’s one I love to hate – I often get offered partnerships that don’t quite align with my views but it is tempting to find ways around it because they are usually fairly generous. But so far I’ve managed to stand firm!
It is hard! I recently turned down an opp because it wasn’t a fit for ME … but then my husband said “WAIT! What about ME!?” so I emailed back to accept and HE will be writing that post!
Seems like you had fun and learned quite a lot! I’m hoping to attend my very first conference in 2014! I’m excited! 🙂
Awesome! Which one are you looking at!?
The Mom2.0Summit in Atlanta. http://www.mom2summit.com/
I’ve heard that’s a good one!
This conference sounds like it was so much fun. What a wonderful group of ladies to travel and learn with!
Thank you for sharing! I would have loved to be in the law one. It’s something that I’ve been researching lately.
I really thought that one would be more over my head than the CPA one, but it was quite the opposite!
As a fairly new blogger – who, if I’m being honest, is still ‘flying by the seat of her pants’ – I find these tips immensely helpful.
I haven’t had the luxury of turning down any PR reps yet, but I have chosen not to apply for some opportunities sent to me. Not because they were bad… but because I really didn’t feel a connection to the campaign, so I didn’t feel that I could do it justice.
I think that’s very much the same thing, though! (And, shh, I still sometimes fly by the seat of my pants!)
Wow. I LOVE the way you so wonderfully distilled that amazing conference down to ten thoughtful tips. I’m going to bookmark your page and remind myself of these ten things that will make my blog better every day.
I really enjoyed our road trip to Houston and hanging out at the conference. We had so much fun! And I’m sorry I had to cancel the Google+ Hangout (I think my voice will finally be back to normal in another day or too!).
Those top 10 are just from the general sessions! I could do 20 more (at least!) on the breakouts!
I had a great time, too!
Hopefully your voice is back to normal soon so that we can arrange that Google+ hangout!