Brit Mums Live – it came and it went. All in the blink of an eye and yet by Saturday evening I felt like I’d known Aby from You Baby Me Mummy for years, not hours!
Aby and me – proving why 2 wine brands shouldn’t have sponsored Britmums Live! – well I had to try them all, didn’t I?!
This is definitely a bloggy post, so apologies to my regular readers if this isn’t quite up your street…you never know though, it might inspire you to go on and read this…how to start a blog.
Britmums Live – the round up
It turns out going to a blogging conference was way more intimidating and nerve-wracking than I thought it would be (and I thought it would be!). People with blogs who I admire and comment on became super-star celebs. I totally bottled saying hello to one of my favourite bloggers, Actually Mummy, mainly on the grounds that she was a lot taller than I had imagined, and there was no way she would know who I was. But I did suck it on a couple of occasions, resulting in this…
Yep. A proud moment. Actually it was because I had a lovely chat with Mummy Barrow (one of the fabulous, award winning, Team Honk trio) and she gave me some great advice about giving, er, advice (because recently more and more people are contacting me with their personal issues and asking for advice – I’m more than happy to talk through people’s problems with them but I do worry that I’m not a professional, so perhaps I should be careful dishing out my thoughts!).
I could happily go on about all the lovely people I met (you know who you are) but that would only make my lovely blogger friends who couldn’t come jealous! So, instead I want to focus now on what I learnt and elements of my to-do list…I won’t list everything because it’s mammoth and won’t all be relevant to you.
Britmums Live Lessons
Define success for you – for me this is blogging about what I’m interested in, working with inspiring women and men, and earning some dollar! The only bit I’m not achieving is that last bit. I have great traffic, I have a wonderful Facebook community, all of which are the result of a lot of hard work so I would love some more money from it. Whether this is through well-placed, relevant adverts or through sponsored posts, I don’t really mind. My only stipulation is that is needs to be with a brand that I would buy from anyway. I hope I have proven from 2 and half years of blogging and 400+ posts that I would, and do, do it for free. But some money, so I can keep doing what I’m doing, would be lovely. That’s a lot of ‘dos’.
Create a brand wish list – these are the brands that you really want to work with and, like Fashion Foie Gras, be persistent in getting in touch and blogging about them! But don’t be afraid to be honest if you didn’t like something when you’re reviewing their products. Remember you need to be honest and authentic for your readers and brands will respect you for it.
Media Pack – a media pack is your blog’s CV. I don’t want to use it as a tool for procrastinating but I am pimping it up (i.e. completing what I did do but never finished) so I can start sharing it with my favourite brands and PR companies. You also need a strong About Me and Hire Me page.
Collaboration is Key – whether it’s with other bloggers or with brands, working together has been proved to dramatically increase your traffic. What form the collaboration takes is more of a mystery but the message was just to get on with it. OK, I suggest starting with a local, regular coffee meet up – who’s in?
Pull your finger out – if you want to work with other people, want help, want money – ask! This is something I don’t do, I focus on creating content and building a community. My aim was always to make this my career but as of yet I’ve not been proactive enough. I believe this new challenge will help me move my blog to the next level and as a result I’ll have better content and a more engaging community!
Hashtags in Pinterest don’t work – Shock horror!! I did an e-course a while back which said put loads of hashtags into your pins and more people will see them. It’s all lies. What you want to do is apply for Rich Pins (through the business centre) as they have a higher click-through and make your captions colourful and really descriptive. Nevermind 140 characters, the more words you can use, the more chance someone will find your pins! Oh and make sure your site is optimised for mobile because nearly everyone using pinterest is on their phone.
Try free writing – I went to a really interesting session about having some me time to unleash your creativity. From a 5 minute writing session I was able to come up a number of interesting ideas (in amongst the gumph) to explore. All (OK not all but it’s a start) you have to do is focus on your breathing for a few minutes, the in breath and the out breath, relax your mouth, then your shoulders, your legs, your feet. Then just write. What ever is in your head, even if it’s about what you’re going to have for tea or I wonder how many people are currently on the toilet, just write and see what comes out!
Only use one light source – when you’re taking photos of food or otherwise, only use one light source and a reflector. I.e. don’t use the light from the window and then put a lamp on it, it makes for weird colours. I don’t take a lot of photos but when I’m doing recipes I take a shedload so I’m thinking of investing in one of these bad boys: Portable Disc Light Reflector.
Don’t be a chicken – you know that cliche, you only regret the things you don’t do? Well, it’s true and I wish I hadn’t chickened out of a few things!
I hope that was useful! And if you want to know what Britmums Live was actually like, go to Aby’s fab round up and for amazing photos go to Em’s photo round up.
Gwenn is chatting away to herself next door so I know I don’t have time to read this properly now, but I have just sent it to my chocka Reading List! Seems like there are lots of tips I could steal 😉
x
Hashtags don’t work in Pinterest?!?!?!?!? No!!!!! 🙁 Oh well, you have taught me something new! I found your blog from Em’s (Snowing Indoors) post and am now following – Hopefully I’ll meet you next year! x
I would have had the exact same reaction as you when confronted with super mega bloggers….and I think you are cute for it!!
Thank you so much for sharing what you learned at the Britmums for those of us that weren’t there. I also didn’t realize you had been blogging for 2 and a half years! You put so much dedication into your blog that I am sure as soon as you seek out paid opportunities brands will come flooding to you and I hope you succeed in making a bit off of this blog.
visiting from the #AllAboutYou linkup
Angie from reasons to dress, fashion, real mom street style & life as a North American mom in Italy.
Fab round up! I’m gutted I couldn’t go as it sounds like you could learn a lot from being there! Plus it sounds fun 🙂 I’m a bit like you in that I don’t like asking for things, and just hope that the good content speaks for itself, but I’m kinda learning you have to be more proactive than that! Ooh interesting tip about the photos, I met Lucy from Capture by Lucy a while back and she gave the top tip of covering some cardboard in tin foil, and using that as a light reflector! May be worth a try? Great post 🙂 xx #allaboutyou
This is great Hannah. I wish I could collaborate with you but after reading your ‘about’ page I see that you are a long way away! I live in a Southern town with a bad reputation if that’s any consolation 🙂 Great tips made me think. I know I’m not ready for pushing my blog into new territory at this point with two preschoolers and a part time job – I’ve only been at it for a year and I didn’t start it with any idea other than just the desire to write and create as interesting an online scrapbook of sorts as I could but I’ve come to realise that there is so much more to blogging! X
It was brilliant to get to meet you lovely, and this is a great roundup filled with your honesty and some practical tips too. May not be able to do a regular coffee meet up, but let’s arrange a Google+ hangout or skype and talk ideas – numbers have power! Thanks for linking to #AllAboutYou (overwhelmed at how swiftly everyone has written up their BritMums roundup posts, I’m still processing and dealing with demanding family to make up for my time off!)
Loved your post Hannah, such a great summary of what you learnt, and I’m so glad to hear that free writing worked for you! I love it whenever I’m stuck for ideas, have something worrying at me that I want to get out, or just as a way to connect with my thoughts without judgement. See you next year!
Just found this post on another blog and I thought Oooh that’s Hannah!! I really want to go next year it sounds amazing!! I’m loving your blog xx