7 Things to Know Before Your First Blog Conference

Hey sistas,

This is the story about our first blog conference, and this is also the story of how we lost a car and gained a car within three days! Before we get into our story, we want to give you a quick piece of advice if you are planning to start your own blog. Something that is extremely important if you plan on monetizing your blog is that you need to be self-hosted! We use Bluehost as our host and love them! We have actually written a “How to Start a Blog in 5 Steps” post which covers everything you need to know! If you want more information on how to make money blogging, read out “5 Ways to Make Money Blogging” post.

Ok…let’s begin! Earlier this year, Shari, Patti, and I attended our first blog conference and we loved it! We purchased our tickets about 8 months in advance. When the time came, we left the husbands, kids, and dog at home and packed up my Nissan and headed North to Salt Lake City. However, our trip started off really ‘rocky’!

Three hours into the road trip, we unfortunately ran into really windy weather. Before we knew it, a big boulder blew off the side of the mountain and rolled right in front of our car on the highway. We swerved, but our right side hit the gigantic rock! Thank goodness no one got hurt.

As soon as we pulled over on the side of the freeway, it starting snowing…hard! A nice police officer pulled over to help us. He drove us to the location where our tow truck was meeting us. We grabbed our luggage and then the little Nissan was driven to the body shop. Luckily, Shari’s brother-in-law was able to give us a ride to our rental car pickup location because he lived close by.

It was such a mess, but a couple hours later, everything was under control and we drove the rest of the way in our rental car. We thought – This conference better be worth it! lol

We woke up really early the next day, and dressed super cute and spent extra time on our makeup and hair. We drove in our rental car to the conference. The conference held to this schedule: Breakfast, keynote, classes, lunch, classes, socializing. The classes and socializing were our favorite parts!

At the end of the conference, there was a fun party with all of the bloggers. During the party they did a bunch of giveaways, but none of us were winning anything. Then, it came time to announce the grand prize winner of a one year lease of a brand new car……..And they called Shari’s name! We were so excited.

So, that is the story of how we lost a car and gained a car in three days time lol (I eventually got my car fixed about 10 days later). After our crazy and fun adventure of our first blog conference, we wanted to share our advice with you. We highly recommend attending a blog conference! It was so helpful for us.

Here are 7 things that you need to know before you attend your first blog conference!

1.Network

From the first second you go to check in, put your ‘social’ hat on. You should talk to as many people as possible and ask for their contact info. Keep notes about them if you think they would be someone you wanted to reach out to in the future. Networking is super important for bloggers, especially with people that are in your niche!

2.Create your elevator pitch

The number one question you will hear is “what is your blog about?” Make sure that you come up with a few sentences that explain your site, your brand, and why you are attending the conference.

3.Attend the right conference

You have a few options and since these can be costly, make sure you choose the right one. Do your research before you buy your ticket. You can look at our list of conferences below for a few ideas.

4.Create business cards

This is a must! The cuter the card, the better. We even had people hand us a goodie bag along with their card, so that they stood out from the crowd. (genius)

5.Take notes

Write down everything you can. You will be drinking out of a ‘fire hydrant’ during the conference. Take a lot of notes and make sure that your notes are clear and concise. You want to make sure that you understand and remember the advice when you get home. If you are there with a friend, split up and go to different classes and share your notes with each other.

6.Take action

After the conference, there will be 1,000 things on your to-do list. Write down all of the ways you need to take action, then prioritize them. Implement them one by one. It can seem very overwhelming with all of the things you need to change, implement, do better, etc. Take it slow and be patient with yourself.

7.Make sure your platforms look good

Before you attend the conference, make sure your website and social platforms are looking fabulous. Everyone will want to check you out, so show them something that you are proud of.

For our first conference, we went to ‘Build Your Blog’ Conference (BYBC) in Salt Lake City, UT. We were lucky, because there are three of us, and we got to divide and conquer 3x’s the amount of classes. We enjoyed this conference because there were many successful bloggers who gave really good advice during their classes.

Email us at Contact@SincerelyJean.com if you have any questions. Best of luck to all of the new bloggers out there!

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