OK, so I've already talked your ear off about how fabulous it was to meet my bloggy-blog friends at the BlogHer conference in Chicago last week. However, let us not forget that it was, indeed, a conference, meant to educate Web geeks on various tricks and trends of the blogosphere. And I was ready to be educated. After blogging for almost three and a half years, I've found my niche. I'm done with fiction (except TLF), and I dream about being the Internet's version of Dave Sedaris (except not gay).
Anyway, I had a clear list of objectives regarding what I wanted to gain from the conference sessions:
- Get a better feel for the business ramifications of blogging. While I plan to stay away from ads and other money-making ventures on this here site, my Parents blog does provide me with income, and I'm open to pursuing similar opportunities with other companies. In those instances, I'd like to know how to market my image and handle my taxes.
- Learn how to increase traffic to my blog. Hey, if I didn't want readers poking their noses into my deepest thoughts, I wouldn't have a Web site, right? Plus, I'm not technically savvy at all, so receiving pointers from an expert or two certainly couldn't hurt.
- See the inner workings of the blogosphere. How are communities formed through writing online? How do they change? How do people change once they belong to one? And how long does it take before the participants move on to the next one?
As you can see, I had high hopes for these sessions. But I've always loved attending conferences, and now that I'm no longer in school, I's gotta get my nollige any way I can.
Here we go.
DAY ONE
(Breakout #1) Business of You: Self-Branding and Self-Promotion
The write-up for this one talked about "exploring how to think of yourself in what might be a new way...and how to use both online and offline media to promote your work." Bring it on, I thought. I already knew about branding from working in communications, but I wanted to make sure I was doing everything possible to present a consistent image on my blog.
I'm sorry to say I was deeply disappointed in this session, especially because it was the one I was most excited about. There was simply no structure. I waited for somebody to turn on the projector, for some sort of formal presentation that gave everyone a starting point from which to work with, but no. Nobody ever defined what branding was or why it was important. There were no examples of Web sites or bloggers who were doing this successfully, no handouts to summarize important notes. Basically, the panelists stood up front and took questions from the audience, questions that often had nothing to do with each other and skipped all over the place, making it hard to follow a logical train of thought. I also didn't like how discouraging some of the experts were about dabbling in different topics. Apparently if I want to have a popular blog, I need to pick one topic and stick with it, and judging from my ginormous list of categories, I suppose I've resigned myself to permanent C-list status. But Dooce is the master of miscellaneous, and she's one of the most financially profitable bloggers out there, so obviously that's not a hard and fast rule.
Despite the lack of actual content, I did scribble a few gems onto my notepad, my favorite one being "the importance of being authentically interesting and interested." If you want to get anywhere in blogging, you can't robotically comb through Web sites and leave generic comments like, "Your blog is so funny! Visit me at blahdeblah.com." If you want to talk at people, set your sights on print media. If you want to participate in conversations beyond your demographic and you're genuinely curious about what others have to say, that's when you turn to blogs.
In hindsight, I wish I had attended the Identity session titled "The Life Stages of Online Communities." Anybody go to that?
(Breakout #2) Technical: Find Out Why Bloggers Care About Web Standards
This session promised to provide information on how to make your blog easier to navigate for people with disabilities. Kerflop had mentioned the importance of following web standards on her blog a while back, and the subject's piqued my interest ever since. Also, my company works very closely with a local organization that finds jobs for those who are blind or visually impaired, so I see firsthand the significance of making sure your Web site is accessible to everyone.
Anyway, the speakers definitely made good on their promise. Did you know that thirty-eight percent of people with some sort of disability are online? Afflictions range from visual impairment and colorblindness to not being able to use a mouse. There's no way I can list everything I learned, but here are some of the biggies:
- Don't make a link open in a new window without warning. For those with impairments or disabilities, this makes it difficult for them to get back to their original starting point.
- When composing text for a link, don't be lazy and write "click here." For those who can't (for whatever reason), they have no idea what you're referring to.
- Visual captchas exclude those with poor vision from commenting on your blog. Use a text-based one if you can (I know Movable Type offers this option, but I'm not sure about TypePad).
- When posting images, make sure they're properly labeled. You can do this by clicking on the "Edit HTML" window of your post draft and editing what appears in quotes after the "alt." Make sure the text relates to the picture so those who can't see it can still follow along.
Go to www.webstandards.org and www.allaccessblogging.com for more information.
(Breakout #3) Technical: Technical Tools to Build Traffic
This session is a no-brainer; it divulged precious information about how to bring more traffic to your Web site. I loved it and took tons of notes, too many to share here, but the entire presentation can be found at www.elise.com/blogher, as well as additional resources. This session rocked. I can't wait to set aside enough time to actually put these tips to use.
In case it wasn't obvious, both of the technical sessions I attended more than fulfilled my expectations for objective number two.
(Breakout #4) Identity: The State of the Momosphere
I may not be a mommy blogger, but if the Parents.com gig continues to go well, I very well might be one soon, and I wanted to hear what others have to say about the mom culture online. This was another Q-and-A session, but that made sense, considering the subjectivity of the topic. There were three panelists, one of them the great Cheeky Lotus.
I have to say, the dialogue that took place during this session was really interesting, even if I didn't agree with everyone's opinion. A lot of attention was paid to the monetizing aspect of mommy blogs, whether it be posting ads, freelancing, or reviewing products and services for a fee. Some argued that a woman's time is valuable and deserves to be compensated, while others speculated that the reason many people are uncomfortable with mothers receiving this kind of attention from businesses is due to the fact that, traditionally, "woman's work" has been more sacrificial in nature, and critics just aren't used to viewing moms in a more professional light. Yet another person said blogging about your children is no different from blogging about crafts or food, which I strongly disagree with. Is an apple pie going to grow up in ten years and ask you questions about a story you posted when he was still in diapers? I didn't think so.
That's not to say I think mommy blogs are sell-outs. I don't. But let's not pretend that writing about your kids doesn't have the potential for major consequences down the road. As I get closer to the end of my pregnancy, I constantly worry about how I'll portray my life as a mother online and how much I'll reveal about my baby. It'll be important for me to remember that my words and pictures will be available to millions of strangers around the world, and it's my job to protect her integrity, which is just as if not more important than sharing the joys and pitballs of being a parent in today's world. I love telling my story but would hate exploiting hers. Luckily, I've seen a number of bloggers balance these aspects of their lives beautifully, so I'm hopeful I can do the same.
If you attended any of these sessions, feel free to add to what I've said. Tune in tomorrow for Day Two.
Thanks for the links to the sessions you attended. I can't wait to read up on the ways to build traffic. I'm always looking for more people to bore with my life in the city.
I try to not write all about Babboo on my site. But this reminds me that I need to be careful about what I do write about him. I'd hate for him to grow up and hate me for pictures and stories I posted.
Thanks for this post. I look forward to part II.
Posted by: Isabel | August 01, 2007 at 03:49 PM
You are a great example of someone who was there for the conference and not just the socializing. I hope that the founders of BH manage to stop by and read this post. Very informative.
Posted by: Carrisa | August 01, 2007 at 04:21 PM
Thanks so much for posting this. As someone who couldn't attend, I appreciate hearing about the sessions and not just about who you met and had (virgin - for you!) cocktails with. I get a little annoyed when the other "attendees" only blog about the social aspect. It alienates readers, like me, who didn't attend.
Posted by: Marriage-101 | August 01, 2007 at 05:13 PM
You went to some of the sessions I wish I had gone to. Though I was happy with the ones I did go to, I sort of wish I could have been in more than one place at one time. And I heard about the "pick a topic and stick with it" and I call bullshit too. Plenty of people are successful at "life" blogging.
Yeah, the mommy blogging session was interesting a lot more focused on monetization than I would have expected. I do think that it would be interesting to have a panel in the future on logistics of mommy blogging, which like you've said, include what to do when your "subject" grows up and wants his naked baby pictures taken down.
Posted by: Marilyn | August 01, 2007 at 05:37 PM
Thanks for posting this. When I first thought about how I'd like to go to Blogher, I immediately thought of the social aspects. But then I remembered it was a conference and my first thought was, "What in the world do they talk about?" I had a vague idea, but it's nice to get a more solid understanding (am too lazy to visit the actual blogher website, obviously) of what the actual sessions are like.
Posted by: Audrey | August 01, 2007 at 06:45 PM
I really appreciated this post, especially the part about Mommy-blogging. Since I'm so new at this, I feel like I'm still trying to find my way, and these comments will make me really sit down and think about my approach to things.
Thanks!
Posted by: Michelle | August 02, 2007 at 09:49 AM
Thanks for this. I agree about the alienating those of us who didn't attend aspect of lots of writings about BlogHer. I'm still looking at the building traffic link you posted. I need more hits!
I also think that if I only ever wrote about being a professor, who would read my site? Don't you all want to know when I fall and break myself? Boring!
Posted by: Professor Art Nerd | August 02, 2007 at 11:06 AM
I saw you several times in sessions and kept meaning to pop over and introduce myself, but I kept finding myself waylaid by, say, lemon bars!
I agree that the branding session was kind of a floppy fish of all different topics, but I'd recently read Penelope's book and was excited to hear what she'd have to say. As a newspaper reporter who has thus far taken a rather age-old and prescribed path to all her jobs (door-knocking until my hand bleeds), I am SO not into career books, but hers is totally cool and has some really brilliant tips in it. Her blog, www.blog.penelopetrunk.com, is also chock full o' tips. It so happens that I'm job-searching now in preparation for a move, and I feel like it gave me some nice tricks to bust out in my pursuits.
During the session, I appreciated her honesty in terms of how she thinks that bloggers need to define who they are and what they're about, because finding a niche is so important in all types of media. To that end, the two blogs I discovered during the conference that I thought were the smartest at grabbing an untapped niche were www.askpatty.com (which I've already put to use for my own car questions!) and the blog at www.themodernwomansdivorceguide.com (which I hope to god never to need, but have plenty of friends who could benefit from it).
Anyway, sorry for hijacking your post -- just wanted to add my two cents. Congrats on your adorable growing beeb, too, btw!
Posted by: Holly | August 02, 2007 at 03:06 PM
i have to say that i think i went in to blogging fairly naively. i never considered the weirdos or the future consequences of blogging on my child.
i think about it from time to time --sometimes i try to avoid it altogether. sometimes i'm all gung-ho about "keeping it real!" and other times, i think that the time will come when henry googles himself and says "ma! you wrote about my BUTT?!"
thanks also for the links to the sessions--especially about driving traffic. though molly and i both attended the "yay for small blogs" session, who doesn't want fresh members of the audience?
Posted by: Liz | August 02, 2007 at 05:16 PM
sounds like a lot of good info.. and things to consider;)
glad you ahd a good time and learned something to!!
i liked your pics as well.
Posted by: wolfbaby | August 03, 2007 at 12:57 PM
Thanks for the info. I am considering starting up my blog again. What do you think?
Posted by: Jenny | August 03, 2007 at 09:51 PM
Great summaries here! You're right on the mom blogging stuff in regard to being mindful of what you write. I try to stay pretty well grounded in what I write about my kids, and always know that they will be able to read it in the future. I also think that it's much easier to write about babies, which is why I tend to mention more about Jack than I do KJ. The older the kids get, I feel the need to guard their privacy a bit more. KWIM?
Posted by: Molly | August 06, 2007 at 03:58 PM