BRC2012 Part 1: Making it Personal at Blogalicious

Disclaimer, this post will be all about my experience at the Blogalicious Blog Conference.  It will cover the cool things that I learned and inspiration that I received to help me become a better blogger.  If you do not blog you may not want to read further, BUT I HOPE YOU DO!.  Why?  Because so much of what was covered at the blog conference applies to more than just bloggers.  If you have your own business, want to have your own business, have your own charity, enjoy social media, are active in your sorority or have a hobby that you want to invest more of yourself in than KEEP READING 🙂

So where do I even begin.  I’ll start by saying everyone should go to conferences.  It is so refreshing to be around people who understand and get what you do.  They share your excitement and enthusiasm to learn all their is to know about your interest.  That was my experience at Blogalicious as well as at all of the other blog conferences that I have attended.  So go online and start looking up conferences related to your own interests.  No matter what your in to I am sure there is a conference somewhere bringing people who share your interest together.  For example if you love Bingo you could go to the Bingo World 2013 Conference taking place in Mississippi next spring.

I noticed several themes at Blogalicious this year than kept coming up during the different presentations, panels, and breakout sessions.  They were Make It Personal, Ways to Generate Income (Make Money) and How to Get More Traffic to your site.  

I really want to share everything that I learned so that 1 you can use these tips to help you with your own, blog, business, charity, or hobby and 2 so that you will wish you were there and join me at Blogalicious 2013.  That’s right I’m already planning to go even though I have no clue where it will be held. My vote is for Philly by the way!!!  In an effort to share all but not bore you with a super long post I’ll break up all the info in a series of post. This post is already getting long so I will start us off with what it means to Make it Personal.

Making it personal means to be authentic.  Your blog, business, etc is an extension of you. It is your ideas, goals, and passions.  However as you get more involved it is really easy to get pulled in multiple directions and get distracted by money, opportunities, and other shinny things.  Now there is nothing wrong with money, opportunities, and other shinny things but if you are not careful you could look around one day and find that you are doing nothing like what you ever intended or wanted to do.  You have lost touch with your true vision and passion.  You have gone from being authentic to being whatever you need to be to get the money, opportunities, and shinny things.  But often along the way you have lost your joy and maybe even indirectly steered yourself away from the money, opportunities, and shinny things that you would have attracted naturally by being your authentic self. 

Here are a few things you should be aware of to help you stay authentic and Make it Personal:

• Know your voice
• Who are you?
• Why do you do this?
• What is your goal?
• Know your audience
• What is their demographic (age, gender, location, etc.)
• Know your sponsors (or potential sponsors)
• Who do you work for?
• Who is your community?

My answers to this questions are as follows:

• My Voice
• I am a single woman in her 30s who recognizes that it is really easy for me to get weighted down with the hardships of life and become unhappy if I am not focused on Joy and Happiness.
• I write this blog as a way of reminding myself to stay focused on being happy and to remind others that their personal happiness is important and and should be a top priority.
• My goal is to never get stuck in a prolonged period of unhappiness and to provide a safe place online for people to talk about their own pursuit of Joy.
• My Audience
• My audience is largely made up of women between the ages of 25 and 44.  Many live in the Philadelphia area but a few live as far away as the UK and South Africa.
• My sponsors
• Sponsors can include any brands that promote improving quality of life.  Current sponsors for my upcoming event include self care services such as life coaching, hair care, stylist, and spa services.
• My Boss
• I work for myself first and foremost.  I started this blog to pull myself out of a dark place and I don’t ever want to lose site of that purpose.  I also work for my readers and want to give them an entertaining and relatable experience with each blog post.
• My community
• My community includes people who like to have a positive and optimistic outlook on life and people who are looking for and who want to share inspiration.

Can you answer these questions about your blog, business, hobby and maybe even your current job?  What is your voice, audience, and community?

Stay tuned for the next post in the Blogalicous Recap 2012 series.

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Google+

StumbleUpon

Linkedin

email