Blogfest 2016
On a cold and wet morning I headed into central London (well actually Kings Cross) to attend the much anticipated Blogfest 2016 organised by Mumsnet. This is my second blogging conference this year, and my second since setting up my blog. This time round I felt unprepared, had no elevator pitch, my blog felt unprepared but I had my business cards packed. However for me the day is not about that. It’s about catching up with other bloggers and learning a thing or two. That’s not to say I didn’t feel excited, nervous and a little apprehensive about the day ahead. Meeting up with Sarah from Mumzilla and a huge coffee from Starbucks at Kings Cross calmed me down a little on our walk to the venue.
There will be so many blog posts about Blogfest 2016 being written this week. I’m sure a lot of them will be about how feminist it was, and how uncomfortable it must have been for all the male bloggers in the room. This post is not going to be about that, it’s going to be about what I learnt and gained from attending this year’s Blogfest 2016
Talks
I won’t go into too much detail on this, as I could write about these forever.
- The first talk (well panel) was Women Online – Where to from here. I found this quite eye-opening and empowering. I need to go and check out the blog written by Victoria Smith @glosswitch who’s turned her blog into her career by chance. I also found Jess Philips (MP in Westminster) really inspiring, you go girl.
- The next talk I went to was all about You Tube, and how best to vlog. I’ve never done a vlog before. I’m too scared, and hate the sound of my own voice. It was really interesting to hear how the Saccone-Joly’s, Mother Pukka and Vegan Family TV do it. I also attended this session as I really like Mother Pukka. I’m very inspired by her, and think that she’s doing a great thing with her flexible working campaign. During this session I also set myself a little challenge by asking Rebecca from AAUBlog to nominate me for the 73 Voque questions vlog. This task has happened and I now need to vlog. Argh!
- The Think Bombs were great. These are 5 minute short snippets of a topic that the speaker really believes in. Ed Balls was meant to be here today, but he had more important priorities to train for Strictly. Lucy Porter did a great Think Bomb on how we shouldn’t judge anyone at the school gates.
- The Know Your Voice talk was led by some powerful women. The theme here was getting your voice heard over the noise. This was another panel style talk including Sara Pascoe, Cash Carraway and Miranda Sawyer, who have all been journeys to get to where they are today.
In the afternoon I attended two talks that were much more blogging related. The first talk was Building a Brand from your Blog lead by Steph Douglas from Don’t Buy Her Flowers, who used her blog as a stepping stone to set up her own (very successful) business. My key take outs from this were your blog needs to remain true to you and your values. Be clear on your brand pillars, this will help you decide whether an opportunity is right for your blog or not. And lastly take a different stance when writing review posts, this should be about how your post is “useful” for the audience. How can it help them.
The next session was Digital Strategy for Bloggers which was lead by Digital Mums and Alison Perry from Not Another Mummy Blog. What I learnt from this session is content is king. Your blog posts should be what people want to read, and should be something that people are searching for in Google. I have a couple of evergreen posts that I could probably boost with a few keyword and title changes. I also learnt that long-tail keywords will rank much more highly in Google compared to short-tail keywords, and I’ve made a mental note to use these far more going forward.
The Best Bits
Now onto the best bits of the day:
- I got to meet up with then lovely Tribal Chat ladies who are Sarah at Mumzilla, Fran at Whinge Whine Wine, Emma at Island Living, Kelly at Bringing up Georgia, Sam at Mouse Moo Me Too, Laura at Unsung Mum, Suzanne at Another 10 Things and Beth at Beta Mummy. One of the main reasons for coming to Blogfest today was to catch up with these ladies.
- I finally spoke to Tim from Thatcham Dad, and was a little gutted he wasn’t singing a parody this time. I still have Pretty in Pink in my head from BML16.
- I mentioned it above, but I have set myself a challenge to have my first vlog published in the next 6 months, no later than the 12th June 2017 (also Kelly from Bringing up Georgia 30th birthday). So watch this space if I’m brave enough to make the move….
- Meeting up with the #KCACOLS crowd and having our picture taken together. This picture was courtesy of Sunita from Lucky Things Blog. Meeting Sunita was also one of the highlights of my day as we’ve been chatting for a while, and personally I find her inspirational setting up the Lucky Things meet-ups, and trying to fill us with confidence. I’ll be at the next Lucky Things meet up for sure.
- Seeing the Scummy Mummies was one of my favourite parts of the day. I had seen them earlier this year at a baby friendly comedy at The Ivy House donned in gold lycra. This year they were dressed in blue lycra up on stage, taking the p**s out of motherhood.
- Hearing that people really love my logo, I had this comment quite a lot. This made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. My logo was designed earlier this year by Katie who’s one of my NCT friends, in exchange for a bottle of Gin. I love my logo, and have kept that core identity as people are beginning to recognise that.
- Meeting up with the lovely Kimberley from Media Mummy and James from A Life Just Ordinary, and sharing some blogging tips on self-hosting, WordPress and DA.
- Seeing Fran at Whinge, Whinge, Wine winning Best Comic. Well done Fran. We even got a mention from Davina that she liked our whoop in the audience when Fran won.
- The Prosecco and Cocktails at the end of the day in the bar overlooking the canal. It was good to have a chat and laugh with my fellow bloggers, including having a chat with Franca about linky’s and bumping into Narky Mum who is a friend’s husband’s sister (it’s a small world when it comes to blogging).
Next time
There were a few things I didn’t do that I’ve learnt for next time:
- I didn’t speak to many brands this time, I was too busy chatting to bloggers. If I do come to Blogfest again I’ll try to get a little more involved, and give out some business cards.
- I am also so gutted that I didn’t meet up with Emily from My Petit Canard, next time…
- Lastly I will take a secret stash of food with me. I only had half a burrito and who wants fish balls? Consequently by 4pm I was starving, and then alcohol got involved at 5pm so the few glasses of Prosecco and Mojito went straight to my head.
Did you go to Blogfest 2016? I would love to read about your experience.
Claire x
49 Comments
The Unsung Mum
It was amazing to meet you! I had a fab time too and learnt loads but wish we had a session on pitching, even if it was to each other for practice. Hope we get to meet up real soon!!
Kimberly
Yay! High five to you too. Fab to chat techie and fun stuff. Must write up my thoughts too, enjoyed reading this. You have a crazy good memory!
Kimberly x
#MarvMondays
Sunita
So cool seeing you Claire. We had a fab time didn’t we? The day goes so quickly. Tim (Thatcham Dad) made a good point that a few of the talks kept referring to mums instead of parents. The intro talk was a good way of waking us all up with a bit of inspiration. Loved the vlogging talk too. Good luck for your first vlogging mission. You’ll be fab. Thanks for the lovely shout out. Catch up soon anyway. X
Wendy
Sounds like you had a really fab day and learnt lots. Good luck with your first ever vlog..whenever you decide to film it 🙂 xx #marvmondays
Emma
Was lovely to chat. Fab round-up and I look forward to your first vlog!
Mouse, Moo and Me Too
Really lovely meeting you finally! Oh I wish I went to the YouTube session too – not really my bag as a blogger but I love Mother Pukka and i bet the tips were brilliant. You’d best be on it before that deadline! X
Jo from Organised Jo
Sounds like yiu had a lovely day. I haven’t made it to any blogging conferences yet but I am to out that right next year. I had never heard about long-tail and short-tail keywords, what are these? #MarvMondays
Lianne harris
I’ve read some remarks about a lack of acknowledgement of dads which I suppose can put a dampener on their experience but it sounded like I missed out on a great day, even slightly gutted I couldn’t join in the #KCAKOLS snapshot!
Good luck with the venture into vlogging, I’ve been considering whether I’d do it but I’m definitely not going to yet! I sound like a child still!
#marvmondays
James Hopes
Lovely seeing you there and it is an awesome logo!! See you again soonish hopefully!
Jane Taylor Maflingo
Ah! It was so lovely to see you and I need to talk to you about long and short tails!!! I have no idea what they are but I do know I need to steer clear of the PTA 😉 #MARVMONDAYS
Jane recently posted…Give more for less at Christmas: Top 10 places to buy second-hand gifts
The Pramshed
Thanks for the comment Jane, so lovely to see you too. A long tail key word is something that is really specific, and used less by others so if searched in Google it will rank higher. For example Shoes is a short tail keyword, and if you add that as a keyword and someone searching Shoes in Google then Nike or Adidas will be the top rank. If you have a keyword such as Best Shoes for Walking with Baby as your keyword and someone searches that keyword in Google you have a better chance of your page ranking high in Google. Does that make sense? I’ve got loads of posts I want I want to change now. Yes steer clear if the PTA ha ha x x
Jane Taylor
Thanks Claire!
Jane Taylor
And I was back #fortheloveofblog
Kat
Ah it was a great day and so lovely to see so many amazing bloggers! I can’t believe we didn’t actually say hello despite being in the #KCACOLS photo! The scummy mummies were fab, I’ll be listening to their pod casts on the school run now haha! #MarvMondays
Notmyyearoff
It sounds like a really interesting day. I’ve done Britmums a few times and Blog On a lot too but never Blogfest and I keep telling myself I’ll go one day!
Louise Pink Pear Bear
That sounds like a great day! It’s nice to hear some positives from the day as I have heard an awful lot of negatives recently. What a lot of fun you had! Thanks for partying! #bigpinklink
The Pramshed
So many negatives, I do agree with some of them, but wanted to keep this post positive. Thanks for hosting, I’ll get commenting later x
The Mum Reviews
Thanks for sharing some of the bits of advice you learned from sessions I didn’t attend, like the thing about long tail keywords. I wish you luck with the blogging goal too! Despite the serious lack of food and daytime booze, and some unfortunate man-bashing, there were still a lot of interesting and inspiring bits. The best thing was meeting other bloggers though. So enjoyed meeting you!
Jo (Mother of Teenagers)
It’s so nice to read a lovely positive review of your day as there has been so much negative comment. Also great to hear the best bits of advice you pulled out from the day which is always great if you haven’t been able to make it. Thanks. #bigpinklink
Tooting Mama
Ooh thanks for the write up, I would have love to attend and see all these amazing mummy bloggers in real life, and the fantastic roll call of speakers, what a super treat! Thank you so much! #MarvMondays
My Petit Canard
Im so gutted we didnt get to meet either! Definitely next time 😉 It looks and sounds like you had a great experience. I love the angle that you’ve captured your post in – things that you took away from it which made me think about what I’d taken away from it. Meeting other bloggers was definitely the highlight! Great recap post, thanks for sharing it on #MarvMondays. Emily
Lydia C. Lee
It’s almost all women these days. Isn’t it funny, when it started, it was almost all men…#Fortheloveofblog
Themotherhub.ie
I’ve read lots of posts about blogfest this week – it’s got mixed reviews , but you can’t please all the people all the time. I think it sounded great ! #fortheloveofblog
the frenchie mummy
I love the positivity in your post. It looks like you had such a great time! I didn’t bring business cards but I don’t think it was the point here. I am not too disappointed about networking with brands. #fortheloveofBLOG
Fran Back With A Bump
I’ve read mixed things about Blogfest and feel like I didn’t miss out too much. Shame you didn’t get to meet Emily either! #fortheloveofblog
Let your light shine Mummy
I’ve read another blog, which was about the more feminist aspect, so it’s great to get another side, though it does seem that the food is a running theme. It’s so helpful to read this and get some understanding of Blogfest. I haven’t been to any conferences yet. I will eventually. #fortheloveofBLOG
Ali Duke
It sounds like you had a wonderful time and learned some great stuff. I have never been to a blogging event, partly due to cost and partly as I am a bit scared lol. I will get to an event at some point as it would be lovely to meet all og you beautiful blogging ladies.
#fortheloveofBLOG
Lucy grace
It sounds like you had a great time! I’m aware that there was some unrest about the degree of feminism that made dad bloggers uncomfortable and sympathise with them but I would still love to come to the conference myself in future. It sounds like a great way to meet fellow bloggers and learn some interesting things… I’ve learnt so much from this post alone so thank you!xx #fortheloveofBLOG
The Mum Project
I wish I could have gone, I was on a media business course for work, really different worlds! Would have rather been at Blogfest : ). The Think Bombs sound really interesting and the Scummy Mummies look hilarious, hopefully I’ll get to meet up with you guys next time! : ) #fortheloveofblog
Morgan Prince
I’m so happy to read the positives from someone else. I’m glad you had a good time, I have to agree about the food and I’ll be sure to take a packed lunch with me next time!
#fortheloveofBLOG
Sam
Sounds like you had a fantastic day. I would love to attend one of these events in the future, they sound very inspiring.
#fortheloveofBLOG
Mummy Times Two
Thanks so much for posting this. I’m really keen to go next year so it was great to read your overview.
kris
It’s on my list to try and get sponsorship for this for next year!!! Looks fab. #fortheloveofblog
Lucy's Locket
I love your logo too, it looks so professional but also fun Thanks for sharing links to some of these people, I’ll go check them out #fortheloveofblog
Josefine
Sounds like a great day of learning! Good luck with your vlog adventure and I agree with the others, your logo is perfect!
daydreamer mum
I have developed quite the addiction to reading blogfest reviews! !! I must be brave and go to an event next year!! #fortheloveofBLOG
Kirsty - Winnettes
This looks like lots of fun, I wish I had been able to make it. I will look out for your first vlog, I also find Mother Pukka really inspirational. I don’t think I could vlog either, I’m not sure I would have the confidence… who knows!
#fortheloveofBLOG
Twin Pickle
Looks like fun! I have no idea is they have something like this over here in the US but I’d definitely be interested! #fortheloveofBLOG
Claire
Having only started my blog in August I haven’t been to any conferences or anything yet, but i’m hoping to step it up a bit next year, alongside a new theme and hopefully, a recognisable logo of my own! It sounds like such an interesting day! x #fortheloveofblog
Louise -Mummy Miller
I really wish I had gone to Blogfest now, it looks great! I love Mother Pukka, I love she just says it how it is and doesn’t hold back. Good luck with the vlogging, I would love to vlog but I think I would find it awkward chatting to the camera, but I suppose with time you get used to it! #fortheloveofBLOG
melissa
We really want to get ourselves to blogfest next year, everyone has had such different experiences it sounds brilliant!
Interesting you mentioned about it mostly being woman in attendance. #fortheloveofblog
Michelle
It sounds like it was a jammed packed day and very exciting. #fortheloveofblog
Sara
Ah, very insightful, thank you! I can’t wait to go to my first one, hopefully next year! Good luck with your vlog challenge – I don’t know if I’ll ever get there! #fortheloveofBLOG
Cherry at The Newby Tribe
It sounds like a really fab day – I am hoping that next year I feel brave enough to attend – I’d love to meet so many people who are inspiring me on my blogging journey! #fortheloveofblog
Jo (Mother of Teenagers)
Hi Claire popping back again from fortheloveofBLOG – have taken a couple of your top tips from the day on board. Hope vlogging goes well. #fortheloveofBLOG
Helena
I’m pleased it wasn’t a negative experience for you. I’ve heard people saying that it wasn’t entirely inclusive. #fortheloveofBLOG
shaney (imummyblog)
I’ve never been to blog fest but it sounds really useful and like you had a good time! You’re logo is fab by the way. #fortheloveofblog
Geraldine
Sounds like you really enjoyed it. One of the best things about these events is meeting up with bloggers you’ve chatted to online for so long. #fortheloveofblog
Becci - The UnNatural Mother
What a fab day you looked like you had a ball and great photo #fortheloveofblog