So it’s been nearly a month since I went up to London for Blogtacular 2015 and I’ve finally got around to writing up the post about it, now I just need to remember the day đ
If you haven’t heard of Blogtacular then it’s a blog conference aimed at creatives, as soon as I saw the first one advertised last year (read about it here: Blogtacular 2014) I knew I wanted to go and I loved it so much that I planned to return this year. A lot of the other conferences I go to are either aimed specifically at parent bloggers but Blogtacular doesn’t have that feel about it which I like. It’s nice to go somewhere for the day and be treated as a person rather than a ‘mum’. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a mum but there is also more to me that that.
The first highlight of the day for me was listening to Monica from The Travel Hack share some tips on travel blogging. I don’t ever usually write down notes in sessions but I wrote down pretty much everything she said! It really felt like she was sharing everything and not just keeping her secrets to herself. She went through things to include in the perfect pitch and to include testimonials from companies you have worked with. This is a really great idea and one I hadn’t even thought of. I realised how much planning and organisation she puts into all her trips and blog posts, she will schedule tweets for the days in which she knows she will be at certain places so if she doesn’t have wi-fi then it doesn’t matter.
She also researches everything before she goes down to where she will be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. When a trip is short then it’s important to make the most of your time there. We had a little chat with her afterwards too and she was so lovely, she’s recently had a baby too so it will be interesting to read her posts about family travel.
After lunch (still no crisps!! Although there was a bowl of green beans?!) I went to the Grow Your Audience panel which brought up some good points about working out who your audience is. They also spoke about ways to help make your life easier when it comes to social media, Latergram allows you to schedule Instagram photos, Tailwind allows you to schedule for Pinterest and If This Then That allows you to use ‘recipes’ that cross post across your various social media platforms, for instance I use one that posts a photo of my Instagram on Twitter instead of a link.
Another useful point was about Bloglovin using the first image from your post so to make sure it’s a good one.
Following this session was the Instagram panel which I really enjoyed. I loved listening to Allison Sadler (@allison_sadler) speak last year and it was really nice to hear her again, she is so inspiring and such a genuinely lovely lady who loves helping people. I also loved being introduced to Benjamin Hole (@benjaminhole) who has such a tight niche when it comes to what photos he shares, they are all about his life as a farmer and he has a serious amount of followers who love what he does.
It did get me thinking about my Instagram. I had a separate account for my craft blog when I started but found it too hard to run two accounts so now combine them but my craft photos never do as well as the others and it does kind of annoy me having a mixture of photos as I scroll though, although not enough to change things right now. Here are some things not to do…
Grace also shared this (excuse terrible quality, I had to zoom in), it’s her social media sharing schedule and is something I aspire to be able to create! I’m so unorganised but I am starting to make progress, I’ve made an excel spreadsheet so I can keep track of where I’ve shared my pins on Pinterest. I would love to one day be working with something like this instead of just doing it as and when.
Then Anthony Peters brought the day to a close, it’s always a hard job to keep everyone’s attention so late in the day but he definitely succeeded, as did Natalie last year. There is something so inspiring about being in a room full of creative people. He told us about a film he had made called Made You Look, it’s all about creativity in the modern age. The film is going to be released later in the year but you can see the trailer here. He is also a very talented designer.
It was really interesting to hear him talk about how he got to where he is, it took a lot of hard work and after spending so long filming his documentary it almost didn’t make it but they kept on going and risking everything and eventually it paid off. I think the thing I find the most inspiring and I touched on it in my post the other day is that with the power of the internet these days everyone has the chance to have a successful career doing what they love. Clearly we all strongly disagreed with Nicky Morgan’s statement below!
The session ended with this quote and one I absolutely live my life by. Life is too short to do something you hate, of course it’s not possible for everyone to just quite their jobs but there are small steps you can take towards a new career. Do a part-time course, start selling the things you make on Etsy, make videos, sell your artwork, start a food blog / cake company etc.
Find a way to do what you love!
And I had to share a glimpse inside the goody bags as they are always so good…
If you want to know more about the conference then you visit their website here.
And lastly I want to say a big thank you to my sponsor Docrafts. They don’t only sell craft products but have a website full of things you can do with them as well as forums full of crafty chat. If you love crafting then it’s definitely worth taking a look đ
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