What I learned at Brit Mums Live...
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| Thursday night having bought Bare Minerals makeup after they made me over (in Boots) *smug* |
... From the sessions / workshops:
One
As above, I learned how to do a collage and watermark it (via Blog Stomp) from the "Advanced Blogging: Photography" session with Julia Boggio on Saturday morning. She is famous for this YOU TUBE video which resulted in her being on Oprah and getting to dance with Patrick Swayze - wouldn't we all just LOVE to do that. I have wanted to be able to watermark my photos for a very long time and just did not know how - I get a lot of hits due to images so it is particularly important to me. Top top from me: name your images accurately if you want Google to pick them up.
Her session was the slickest of them all to be fair and we learned a lot about how lighting is the secret of a great photo even if it is taken with a phone - here is my recent living proof of that!
Two
I learned a lot about You Tube from Christine Beardsell at "Advanced Blogging: Video Blogging". I have already added a few videos to my New Mum Online channel, as I was so inspired. I thought a couple of them, like Bhangra Baby may take off, but sadly no... She told us that video results appear in about 70% of the top 100 listings. Video increases the likelihood of a front page Google search result by 96%. PLUS videos can add 2 minutes to the length of time that someone stays on your blog :-)
She also said that a BIG THING in the States is to become the host of content, but it hasn't really taken off here. So instead of being a Travel blogger you could be a blog that points at all the good content so that people know where to look.
She doesn't normally recommend that brands go viral as it is hard to do on purpose, but as we all have kids, she said "kids go viral" so put the camera on them!
A hilarious video blogger in the States is "Cool Mom".
She said we need to "test and learn" as it is often the case that people upload 10 videos before they find the one that takes off.
Three
Discussion Den: Sod the Stats - Blogging for Happiness
In this session the audience spoke a lot and I really got to hear what makes people happy and how their blog makes a difference - it was humbling actually.
In this session Mammasaurus said it is quite often the posts that you write quickly with "what's going on in your mind" that do really well, with lots of hits and comments. The ones you over-think and invest a lot of time in don't give you the return. I, Liska, think, from a purist point of view, it is because the very essence of blogging is writing what is going on in our minds, but as we all read each others blogs we tend to write with the reader in mind which kind of self-censors us. If I read back to the posts I wrote before I discovered the community, I can really see the real me, as I was just me, poured out in words. I would really love to come full circle back to that, perhaps to the writing style I had in my original blog, when I was blogging in obscurity. To be fair I did not take many notes in this session as it lived up to its name and it really was a discussion den open to the floor.
Four
I wrote about this session here: Bloggers' Studio - Crossing The Chasm.
Five
With regards to the Pinterest session I did not learn a thing, which is a shame, as if you go to my Pinterest account I only have one pin as I really don't know what I am doing and this session did not change that fact.
Six
The Discussion Den: Secrets & Lies - Bad Behaviour Online, really lived up to my expectations. It was a pleasure to see A Modern Military Mother on stage, as I had met and talked to her in All Bar One the night before. Having had a very bad online experience in February it was really appreciated that I got to have a one to one with Lisa, AKA The Mummy Whisperer afterwards - she basically gave me free therapy - beautiful!
The slide in this picture says it all really, along with the fact that Lisa has her hand up as if to say "talk to the hand" but a great quote from the session was:
"When a light shines the shadows appear darker, so shine brighter!"
... From the conference:
From now on I will get back to where I was when I started blogging.
... About myself:
That I love my blogging friends:
- Jenny - my buddy for most of the conference.
- Lisa - my counsellor and Life Coach at the end of the Discussion Den workshop when I completely broke down. She has given me some required reading which I must catch up at some point - I'd rather be cool with my kindle than a Bully with a BlackBerry :-)
- Mich - is an all round good egg. Top blogger with a top attitude!
- Kate - had a lovely heart to heart at All Bar One which I really appreciated.
- Kerry - as above had a lovely heart to heart at All Bar One which I really appreciated.
- Laura - my drinking after dark buddy below - during the day she was the biatch of Butlins :-)
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| Tired Mummy of Two and Me! |
I learned that despite spending all that money...
... I should never ever have worn something (on the second day) that didn't fit me properly, and with heels that didn't really suit the outfit (Crocs saved my blister) and that would have gone better with boots anyhow, like it did on Sunday when I tried again:
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| Top tip - be comfortable! If you are not used to heels, this isn't the time to suddenly wear them for a whole day! |
I learned that I like men who look like this:
(despite a lot of bloggers taking the moral highground on this)
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| My union jack legs - dressed for £9.50 from your very own Marks & Sparks! |
I learned that despite never wearing heels or dresses, I can dare to get my legs out, even making a statement with union jack tights - yes THAT was me!
I was over the moon to catch up with:
Mummy's Little Monkey - thanks for the down to earth chat - was lovely talking to someone so like-minded.
I made some new friends:
I learned alot about the brands but I think I will save that for another post (I'm tired).
I learned that ... the mummy blogging community rocks!
I learned that I missed Brit Mums, so despite so publicly leaving I have become an active member again and I am happy about it.
Bye for now, Liska x
You really sound as if you have got your blogging energy back. Perfect.
ReplyDeleteAnd I like being a good egg! lol
Mich x
You went to a lot of sessions I missed. Good to hear about them.
ReplyDelete