BlogCamp – The Lowdown

With the lovely Taming Twins and Brummy Mummy of 2 (Photo courtesy of Tots100)

Last Saturday many bloggers migrated to Birmingham for BlogCamp, which is organised by Tots100.  It is an amazing opportunity to meet other bloggers, network and learn from the fabulous free sessions; yes people BlogCamp is free!  There was so much information to ingest and so much to learn from the other bloggers too.  I thought the easiest way to disseminate this vast amount of information was just to write a good old list!  (we all know I love a list!).

Working with Brands/Contacting Editors

Kiran Chug (Journalist/Editor/Blogger at Mummy Says

• Be confident.  You are a fresh voice.  You already have an online portfolio, which some professional writers don’t have.
• Be specific.  Target who you pitch to and try to get their name.
• Your pitch should include; what you do, a specific link to a piece of your work, why you wish to write this piece (are you an expert, have experience or have researched the area).
• Tell them you have access to suitable images.
• Demonstrate your social media reach.
• Be concise in your pitch.
• Think about whether you are you willing to work for free?  Decide at the outset.  This can be in the form of reviews or maybe writing for a website you love.  It can help you build your portfolio.
• Be professional and take yourself seriously.
• Don’t let people down.
• Know your worth.  Parenting bloggers are very important.  As a collective we have a huge reach.  Your readers trust you, as you put yourself out there on a daily basis.  They know your family and can identify with you.
• There has been a change in the appreciation of bloggers worth.
• We are offering targeted advertising for products, which is so valuable.
• Use twitter to chat to Editors. Don’t stalk!
• Make sure your Linked In profile is up to date.  Editors will look at it before they hire you.

Lindy DeMelo -Garner (Tots100 + Blogger at Squidgyboo)

• Find out what the brand’s expectations are at the outset.  Do they want video, links, post, social media?
• Ensure you can meet deadlines.
• Do a good job, which will help you get repeat business.
• Take care with your images.  Make sure they are good and there is no rubbish in the background.
• If you want to make money, you have to treat Blogging as if it is a job.
• Be nice and understanding, when dealing with people.
• Be unique and weave a story into posts i.e reviews.
• Don’t burn your bridges.

Professional Blogging

Emma from Emma and three and Vicki from Honest Mum (Both full time professional Bloggers)

• Be honest, if an opportunity is not for you respond and tell them why.
• Negotiate with brands.
• Ask your audience what they like reading best, i.e. via Facebook.
• SEO so important.  Install Yoast to help you.
• Tell a story and engage your readers.
• Ask yourself whether it makes sense to agree to an opportunity.
• Ask to run a competition alongside a review, as it will bring in more traffic than the review alone.
• Spread out reviews on your blog.  Don’t publish one after another.
• If you have any issues, communicate regularly with the brand to keep people informed.
• If you are doing a review you can ask the company for high resolution images.
• Look at blogs outside your niche for inspiration.
• Use the bottom of your post to promote your social media channels.
• Sign up to Pro Blogger.
• Pimp your blog 🙂
• Use the same profile picture across all your channels.
• Make sure you use a picture of your face, especially on Twitter.
• If you promote the same post in different places, use a different photo.
• If you want to work with a brand, comment on a sponsored post, as you know the brand will be reading that post.
• You can find freelance work from Elance and People Per Hour.
• Possible have an annual rate and a permanent rate for posts on your blog.
• Conduct yourself professionally on all your social media, some brand check your networks before they agree to work with you.

Collaboration

Penny ( Wayfair A Residence) and Chris (Thinly Spread)

• Linkies – Great way to collaborate with other bloggers.  Either link to someone else’s or run your own.
• If you run a linky all the people linkers should get a follow link.  You could pin each post to a Pinterest board.
• Videos – You could collaborate on a review vlog to give a different dimension.  Or video each other.
• Guest Post – Gets you in front of a new audience and the back links help blog juice!
• Organise a blog swap with a group of bloggers.
• Google Hang Outs on a topic and subsequent posts.
• Collaborative Pinterest boards.
• Join with other local bloggers, set up a Facebook group.  Discuss goals and how you can help each other.  Be each others mentors.
• Collaborate with Charities.
• Set up a collaborative blog, more niche than your main blog.  Maybe you all offer different things, so it could work well.
• Asking others for help, can build a community.
• Collaborate with other bloggers on a giveaway.  You will be able to secure a bigger prize and all share the Rafflecopter code.

Professional Blogging – Advanced

Panel including Frank PR, Claire (Cheshire Mum) and Vicki (Honest Mum)

• If someone pitches you an idea and you don’t want to do it, you could counter pitch a different idea to them.
• When you contact a PR to pitch a story, make it personal.
• Be original, find a unique idea.
• Have a brilliant ‘About Me’ section, as that is where PRs go.
• Don’t post under #PRRequest, as it flags up to agencies that you are not serious about creating bespoke content, you just want free stuff.
• Write about your passions.
• Be confident and fake it until you feel it.
• Use your side bar to promote your achievements.
• If you don’t want to do a post, refuse but offer to tweet out a link for them.
• Screen grab all the coverage a post has got and send it the agency with the post link.  They will love you for it.
• Recommend other bloggers for opportunities.

This is a selection of the tips and information given out to us, but I hope something will be useful to you.  Thanks to Tots100 and all the speakers who gave their time so generously to the blogging community.

Now onto BlogFest!  Are you joining me?

 

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