Blog Well Summit Review (TYT #33)

As I mentioned yesterday, I attended (virtually) the Blog Well Summit this weekend.  I actually missed all of the Saturday sessions because I was out and about, but I managed to listen in to quite a few on Friday and Sunday.  I wanted to share some of the highlights with you guys.  I can't share everything, but if you are interested in owning all of the sessions...the cost is $145 and you can purchase it from the Blog Well Summit website. 

I consider the knowledge that I gained FOR FREE a huge treat, so I am linking up with Becky for Treat Yourself Tuesday. 

 

Friday:

Interview with Carla Birnberg-The interview with Carla was really awesome because she is a really cool and down to earth person who is "unapologetically [her]self".  She started out as MizFit and decided to do a rebrand.  Her interview was all about that process.  The main thing that stuck out to me was this quote: "People come for your voice, people come for your message."  This takes the fear out of changing your blog name, re-branding, or even just changing your tagline.  If you are confident and consistent in your message, then your readers/brand partners/etc will trust you.

Education Session-Planning Your Design-This was a great education session.  It was about defining your brand.  It even included a workbook to help.  The main thing that I took away from this session is that you have to have clarity on who you are, who your audience is, and how you can connect with them.  

Blog Review-The summit also took real blogs and did a review of ways to improve.  Rita Berry from BlogGenie (a great blogger resource...you should definitely check it out!!) went through a blog and made some helpful suggestions that really are true for all blogs.  One of the many tips that she offered was this: Go all in on one or two social networks.  Whether it is Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or whatever-really devote time to reaching out to readers on those and putting up quality images/posts/videos.

Sunday:

Design DIY Panel-This panel featured Roni, Jill, and Emily.  They offered tips and tricks for blog design DIY.  I found this to be one of the most helpful sessions because I am a newer blogger-so everything is DIY.  I'm not to the point where I would hire out just yet.  A lot centered around pictures for your blog.  Photoshop is pretty much a requirement and at only $10/month it is totally doable.  Another tip-use a tripod when photographing still things.  This will improve your picture quality on any device (even your phone) and is a really inexpensive option to buying a big DSLR.  They also suggested some apps to download to help with pictures on your smart phone- PicLab, Snap Seed, and Whiteagram were just a few.

There were classes around HTML 101 and CSS 101-you can check out w3schools.com for tutorials and basic info on HTML, Java, and CSS.

Last, but not least-Rita Berry did an info session on Numbers that Matter.  She suggested looking at Pageviews and Comments to determine how your blog is really doing.  Don't get to fixated on day to day-look more at month to month or year to year.  How is my blog doing this February compared to last February. 

I feel like I am still processing all of the knowledge from the Blog Well Summit.  A virtual conference was awesome and something that I hope they continue to do each year.  

What are you biggest blogging tips and tricks?

Have you ever attended a virtual conference?  This was my first and I really enjoyed it!