FemCon13 Recap

Ok, better late than never, right?

I'm only 2 and a half weeks late on this!

#femcon13

So for those of you who don't know, I went to my very first blogger conference on October 26, 2013! I was nervous, excited, and really wasn't sure what to expect! It was the very first annual Femworking Small Business and Blogger Conference in Arlington, Virginia. I had a few hour hike North but not bad. Not like Haven Conference where I'd have to fly to Atlanta, Georgia, SNAP! where I'd have to fly to Salt Lake City, Utah or BlogHer all the way in San Jose, California!

The conference was kicked off by the keynote speaker, Jill Smokler of Scary Mommy. She is hilarious and down to earth. I hadn't actually heard of her blog (no babies = not big into mommy blogs) but I'll definitely recommend it to my friends with young children and babies. She brings a sense of reality and humor to being a parent. We even got a signed copy of her latest book, Motherhood Comes Naturally (And Other Vicious Lies)! 

We had a full day of speakers and discussions lined up. Everyone was bound to learn at least ONE thing per session. I say at least one thing but if anyone was like me, they learned a ton during each session! Pictured here is the Social Media Panel. Left to right it is Christen Green of Social Shop Media, Laura Harders from Beltway Bargain Mom, and Dawn McCaslin of The Crispy Sage. They gave us all sorts of great info! A few of my favorite points I wrote down were:

• Reciprocity - If you help out someone else, they'll help you out! The more I find AMAZING bloggers to network with, the more I realize how true this is! My advice, seek out and find small groups of like-bloggers that are in it to support each other. Start with specific networks/groups like DIY, real food, home improvement, etc. and also look for networks within your home state! If you can't find a good fit for you...start your own support group! 
• Write out goals for each social media platform (Number of followers, amount of scheduled posts, repins/retweets/shares, etc)
• The first 3 or 4 words of a post MUST catch your reader's attention. 
• Focus on one or two social media outlets and be great at them. 
• Have a presence in all social media forms.
• Get used to hashtags...they're here to stay and will help people find you. 

I'll be honest, I don't like that last one! I hate hashtags. Strongly dislike if you prefer. BUT, the panel stressed that in ever social media outlet, hashtags will help people find my blog. If I write a vegan cookie recipe and use #vegancookie on Pinterest, people searching for vegan cookies will find my pin! Guess I have to work on that! In the meantime I'll keep laughing at hashtags because it makes me think of this! 

We also had a business panel, marketing, monetizing/optimizing your blog, and a legal panel. Pictured her is 3 of the 4 (well, you can actually see Nicole Dash of Tiny Steps Mommy (one of the two lovely ladies who put on this conference) in the mirror on the left. Then from left to right it's Taya Dunn-Johnson of Just Another Day with MrsTDJ, Monica Sakala of Wired Momma and Maria Jose Ovalle of Very Busy Mama'. All these ladies were wonderful and relatable. No one sugar coats things around here! Some of my favorite points from this panel were:

• Listen to your voice.
• Trust your instincts.
• Get out of your box.
• No business is going to come to you and offer you money. You need to request it.
• Create a media kit.
• No one can tell your story but you. 

I couldn't find a good picture of all the speakers of the monetizing your blog session but here's some of what I took away from it:

• Have a good bio, photo and contact (e-mail address!) info easy to find and available. 
• Don't use a contact form.
• Create a media kit. Use it as your "brag' page (guess I need to get on this one...seems to be a big point!) 
• Have a self hosted blog (It's on my to-do list I promise!)
• Work with brands that work with you and your blog
• Treat your blog like a business. Because it is one!

Kelly Sanabria and Nicole Dash, the two lovely ladies who put on this amazing conference in only 3 months! We need some virtual applause, snaps and kudos to these ladies! 

After the conference I hooked up with these beautiful gals and we got dinner before coming back for the cocktail hour in the rooftop lounge of the hotel for a bit. From left to right it's Heidi from Life In Pink, Jess of Being Mrs. Beer, Britni of Play. Party. Pin., Megan of Picture This Photo Solutions, LLC. and me! 

Overall it was a great conference and a great experience!

Have you ever been to a conference? Who wants to pay my way to one of those other huge (and expensive) conferences in 2014? Anyone??

Till next time,
Catherine

Disclaimer: All photos (except the last four) were are from here and were used with permission. 

Wedding Blog Posts-Yay or Nay?

When I went through the amazing journey of being engaged and planning a wedding, there were so many times where I would think, "Man, I should write this down!" I used a lot of great books and resources for planning our dream wedding but there were plenty of instances where I just wanted real advice that made sense. Now that I'm into blogging and loving it, I wish more and more that I had started this blog ages ago when the real wedding planning began! Not to sound cocky, but I feel like I had/have so much advice to pass on to future brides! And especially for brides in the Richmond/Hanover area of Virginia.

I absolutely LOVED planning our wedding. Yes, at times it was a little stressful (fortunately I don't stress out that bad) but the majority of it was so fun! I had a blast DIYing some things and hunting for the best value and the best vendors I could. Oh and the bridal shows were tons of fun! Even now I get super excited when friends ask me any sort of wedding planning advice. I'm more than happy to help them out as much as I can! And now that I've dove into the ocean that is Pinterest, my wedding ideas are endless! Yeah...I didn't have the luxury of planning a Pinterest wedding! I didn't know anything about it until maybe a month before I got married!

Now I wonder, should I go back through my wedding planning binder and try to recreate it all? What do you think? Would you read wedding planning advice or send it on to friends who are getting married? Let me know, please!

Till next time,
Catherine

1000 Page Views!

Wow...I have had this blog for a little over 2 months now and I have just reached 1000 page views!!! I can hardly believe it!

Thank you SO much to everyone who has been reading my blog! I really had no idea how much I would enjoy this and how much of a response I would get. I know 1000 views may not seem like that  many to most bloggers but I feel like it's such a big deal! How cool would it be to have 1000 page views be an average day? Hey, a girl can dream, right?

I promise to continue to work hard on bringing you great blog posts that are fun and informative. I don't plan on giving this up anytime soon!

What kind of things do you like to read about? Personal posts, recipes, crafts, Pinterest failures? Please comment and let me know what you'd like to see more of and what you'd like to see less of! Also, would you rather watch a tutorial video of a recipe/DIY project or scroll through pictures/text?

Till next time,
Catherine