Type-A Mom Conference Wrap Up - Better Late than Never!

Type-A Mom Conference Wrap Up – Better Late than Never!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 19:41

I’ve only been home for three days, but somehow I still feel like it’s taken me absolutely FOREVER to write this post!

I left for Type-A Mom Conference in Asheville last week feeling more than a little apprehensive about the whole thing. It was my first ever blogger conference, and on top of going, I was also speaking not once, but twice! I wasn’t as worried about the talking as I was about trying to come out of my shell and fit in though.

The first day of the conference, I sat in on a session and a lunch which discussed working with brands and PR companies as a blogger. The major takeaway points from those sessions were the fact that PR companies welcome our pitches, but they should be personal and detailed, including what we’d like to do, and our stats. Overall, the consensus was that we should be getting paid when we work with a company to write posts or run contests, unless we are doing reviews, and that disclosure is key. Additionally, although it sparked a little debate on Twitter, it looks like we should be going directly to the PR company representing the brands we like, because our pitches will ultimately end up with them anyway!

I kicked off my Friday afternoon speaking with Renee Ross about turning your pre-kid career into a blogging niche. We had a great round table discussion about the ways we have used our work and life experience to build our blogs. Next, I moved on to discuss search engine optimization with Jen Miner, where we talked a lot about key words, and basic SEO techniques.

Saturday was packed full of more great sessions, but the highlight was probably the blogger town hall, where we discussed more about advertising, disclosure and fair compensation for bloggers. The conference was wrapped up with an awesome keynote panel which discussed some major issues in mommy blogging politics, including what makes a mommy blogger, where mommy blogging is going, and what we should be doing as a community to get there.

I met a ton of awesome women, and made great connections with other bloggers as well as conference sponsors. I can’t thank Kelby enough for including me! I have so many ideas about how to improve this site for all of you, and to make myself feel a little more sane. Of course, a little “issue” that developed this afternoon may put a kink in a few of my plans, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear more about that . . .

Until then, check out the fantastic slide show that Type-A Mom sponsor Creative Memories put together with some really great conference photos.