Fly on the Wall at Problogger

Last time I went to a blogging conference was quite a while ago. I called myself fresh meat and felt completely overwhelmed and it killed my blogging passion for about two months. This Problogger Event experience was different. Besides the fact I attended for only one day of the conference and I was working as a volunteer compared to attending a previous blogging conference as a participant, the experience was definitely different.

Admittedly I'm a big people watcher, so it was brilliant to stick to the outer, not feel like I 'should' be networking and have a purpose to keep me busy, that being to help the organisers as much as I could.  A slick team ran a smooth event which catered for all levels of bloggers. Admittedly it catered to bloggers with a mission to such the most out of the their blog both in a monetary sense and in a reach sense, but still who wouldn't like to learn how to tailor, refine and grow their target market better. I guess at the last event I felt a little more like it was an 'in' crowd. This time however I felt there were big dogs, small dogs, spotty dogs, skinny dogs and old dogs. There were all types.

Best thing about the event was spotting famous bloggers I'd seen around the tracks, asking my blogger crush when she'd like her time wrap-up and witnessing how cool Darren was running around, speaking at his own conference and escorting his keynote speakers to their talks. Sure I was on hand the whole day, making sure I had all the AV issues sorted and the microphone options tailored for each speaker and their personal style. I did however enjoy watching from afar bloggers interact and introducing myself to some of my most admired bloggers Grace and Christy who I'm a little in awe of but who I know are just the loveliest people even in the flesh.

In relation to the content I gleaned from my buzzing around the walls, I sucked up few snippets regarding email campaigns, engaging readers and forming a sense of community. At the end of the day though, the gist a successful blog I don't feel is rocket science if you're writing from your heart, are true to the cause, and always engage your audience. I do feel though making your blog infamous and incredibly cashed up is another matter. That is a fine art that takes effort, commitment and a hell of a lot of IT savvy honing. There's lots of people smashing it out there and good on them.

I'm not comparing, I'm just taking bits and bobs and I may try a few items on for size. If they fit awesome then my blog will grow and look a bit shinier, and if they don't then I shall discard and not get too caught up in what success looks like.

Blogging is just another way of voicing your passion, just like singing, painting, texting or phoning. So here's to embracing such an exciting platform to voice your thoughts and here's to me lasting an entire Saturday on about five hours sleep from the night before.

Here's some images of the little monkey in her MC Hammer suit before bed tonight and her matching partner in crime. It was pretty hard, I must admit, to have spent an entire Saturday without her cheeky face nudging my knee every two seconds. By the way, pure fluke the all-in-one fashionable PJ's her great nanna gave her matched her beloved Jellycat. Who'dve thunk!