I want to start off with the day 9/18, my birthday and leading to attending my first blogging conference.
9/18
On my birthday, I was bummed I had to work so it felt like just another boring day at the office until 5:30 hit and I picked up my girls from childcare and headed to the Mall of Georgia for my girls to attend their kids club birthday party. Their kids club was celebrating kids that were celebrating birthdays in September, October, and November. Lauren will be celebrating a birthday in October and she insisted on making sure she didn't miss this party since we did last year because it fallen on the day of my birthday then too.
The girls got to play bingo, ride the mall carousel, and eat birthday cake that was provided by Costco.
After the party came to an end, I made my rounds to a couple of stores to pick up my birthday freebies from Sephora and Ulta.
I gave Mr. M a call to meet the girls and I back at home so we could ride together to Benihana, a restaurant I have my birthday dinner each year.
I had a wonderful time celebrating the evening with my family at Benihana. We were one of the last people in the restaurant so it was nice having the place to ourselves.
9/19
It's Friday and I had to be back at work. Type-A conference had started but I was unable to take off of work because my job took me out to celebrate my birthday at Bahama Breeze.
Once I got off of work, I picked up my girls from childcare, went home and packed their clothes to spend the weekend with their grandmother. I drove over an hour south from where I live to the girl's grandmother's house. My girl's grandmother just came back into town from visiting her mother in California to watch my girls so I could attend the blogging conference- very sweet of her to do.
I had small talk with her before heading back on the road home to get ready for a couple of days of learning and networking at the blog conference.
Driving back home was a nightmare! The freeway was like a parking lot due to a couple of accidents and road closures, it took me over 2 hours to get home! Once I did arrive home, I quickly hopped in the bed and went to sleep.
9/20
The big day is here, my first blog conference, although it had already started the day before. I had a meeting with a brand first thing that morning but I was too tired to get out of bed. I didn't have their number to call them so I left them an email I was going to be late and hit the snooze button to go back to sleep.
I finally got my eyelids to stay open and I got ready to make the 30 min drive to the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Buckhead where the Type-A conference was held.
Once I arrived, I went to get my name badge and swag bag. I went into a huge ballroom where speakers were getting ready to start their segment, "Setting & Negotiating Your Rates". Pretty much the topic was knowing your value and stop doing stuff for free for brands. It's ok to do things for free at the beginning to build your portfolio but if you continue to keep doing it you will not go far with your blog so be picky with who to work with. I have started to be picky with the brands I work with because I like to work with brands that fits my lifestyle. Now, when it comes to charging, I've been guilty of doing some things for free since I make all my money through affiliate marketing and I need to put my foot down and request payments. I know I'm a huge value and I'm no beginner blogger, my blog has now become my business and I need to treat my blog as a business with everything I do.
While at the conference, I got to meet up with my local blogger buddies I already have met before, got to meet bloggers I've known online for awhile, and meet new ones. It was great networking with all of them!
I stopped into a couple of breakout sessions, met with the company I was suppose to have a meeting with that morning, but I pretty much just hung out and mingled with my blogging buddies.
In the evening once the party was soon to start, I left and went home. Mr. M wanted to take this time to spend alone time with me since our girls was at his mom's house. We both decided on getting some drinks and talk about our day. Him and I don't spend a lot of alone time together because our schedules conflicts with each other so it was nice to spend time without having the girls tagging along.
9/21
Once again, I had a late start attending the conference. I was tired from being out the night before with Mr. M and I wanted to sleep in. I got to the conference before lunch time and sat down at the end of a segment called "Professionalism and Ethics in New Media".
Sunday seem to be not much going on, learning wise, there was a Town Hall Meeting, We Still Blog Awards, Keynote Panel: Legends of Blogging, and yet again a party.
Here are my thoughts about this conference....to me, I didn't really learn anything. This type of conference seems to be more suited for beginner bloggers. The speakers seemed to just ramble instead of getting to the point of what their topic was about. I was highly disappointed because I had my children's grandmother fly back home just to watch my girls so I could attend this conference and I had to cancel on my parents coming to see me from Memphis for my birthday weekend. I believe that blogging is such a saturated topic that it is hard to come up with new ideas to talk about each year. There is really no secret to success when it comes to blogging, you just got to love what you blog about, be consistent, be knowledgeable in your niche, etc.
But I will say, I had a great time networking with other bloggers, they made my first blogging experience very enjoyable.
Now, will I go to another blogging conference? Maybe. But I'm already attending a couple of more this year that I have already signed up for so we'll see if I'll have a better experience. Also, since I am technically a affiliate marketer, affiliate marketing conferences and business conferences may be better suited for me.
Do you think going to blog conferences will help you become a successful blogger or do you think they're becoming a waste of time?
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