Blogging tips from BlogFest

Blogging tips

Blogging tips

Last Saturday I joined with an army of other bloggers and headed to London for BlogFest.  I love blogging get together’s, as blogging can sometimes feel like a solitary pursuit.  So it is great to have an opportunity to see your blogging friends, to learn, swap ideas, have a good gossip with lots of laughs.

I met up with various friends along the way and eventually we found our way to the venue, the fantastic Kings Place, which was a fabulous conference venue.  After drinks and pastries (not for me I must add!), it was onto the welcome by Mumsnet, followed by  a panel discussion highlighting how the internet shapes the way we think.  Onward to the first break out session, which gave us a chance to pick which session suited us best.  I went to the session ‘Making money from your blog’ and these are the main points I gleaned.

Gina Roughan (Zone)

  • Mum audience is hard to reach for brands.  Mums are tuned into bullshit and brands know they need to use Mum bloggers to target mums.
  • Mum bloggers get into the nooks and crannies of the internet that brands can’t.
  • Mum bloggers have credibility and are especially interesting to a brand if they have a particular passion in a niche.
  • Cut through – Mum bloggers know SEO and social media.  They also know who and how to connect.
  • They have trust, their readers trust what they say.
  • They encourage approaches to their agency.
  • If using images for gift guides etc, you can just take them, as you are promoting the product.

Why brands want to work with certain bloggers;

  • Traffic and figures.
  • Quality and regularity of content.
  • Social profile/following.
  • Previous brand work.
  • Reputation/relationship with agency.
  • Level of work involved.
  • Added social media support offered by the blogger.

Tara Cain – Sticky Fingers – 8 ways to work with brands

  • You are a brand – be professional at all times (especially on social media).   Don’t apologise for wanting to make money.  Be respectful when you turn a job down.
  • Make it easy for people to contact you – ensure all your contact details are in a prominent place.  If brands can’t find them quickly, they will move on.
  • Build up traffic and social media.
  • PR Yourself – make sure you have a media pack.
  • Join a blogger network.
  • Get creative – think for the brand.  If you don’t want to do something in the way it is pitched, counter pitch a creative idea.
  • Show off – list all the companies you have worked with.
  • Be in it for the long haul.

Alicia Navarro – CEO of Slimlinks

Skimlinks is an automated Affiliate link network.

  • Simply install one line of Javascript and Skimlinks will start to work.
  • Traditional advertising is peripheral, but affiliate marketing is within the content.
  • They are native adverts (the same format as the content) so they look more natural.
  • Simply input your usual link and Skimlinks will monetize it (if possible).  You are in control of the links.
  • Through the reports you can gain an insight into which pages drive most money.
  • Provide a url shortener which you can use on twitter/ FB etc.
  • Affiliate marketing makes brands notice you.  Then they start to approach you for other opportunities.
  • If you install Skimlinks it will convert historical links too!

Advanced Social Media – Paul Armstrong

  • Use Twitter lists
  • Beatrix – Gives you post ideas, cost approximately $9 per month.
  • Flipboard, great for drawing together content in one place.
  • Rapportive, adds a panel to your emails, which shows you the persons social media channels.
  • Hello Bar – nicely designed bar on your page, which you can edit as you wish.
  • Twitter Cards
  • TSU – pay for your posts.
  • Find out where your traffic comes from and interrogate it, in order to maximise it.
  • If your bounce rate is high – make sure your blog theme is responsive.
  • Increase FB traffic – Commenting, sharing with friends, good use of adverts.
  • Increase Twitter – Photo’s, GIFs and calls to action, asking for RT.
  • Google + is good for international traffic
  • Google hangouts are good for free advice,
  • Instagram – remember to tag, tags drive traffic.
  • Text people your blog post links. On average the response time for texts is 15 seconds!
  • If you are starting a blog, use Squarespace, not WP or Blogger.
instagram

The Science

pinterest

The Facts

Monetize your blog roundtable – Chaired by Alison Perry (Not Another Mummy Blog)

  • Paul from Alfilinet – Brands want bloggers who can communicate their brand values.
  • Disclosure is VERY important.
  • Alison – ‘Your voice/tone is your niche’ 
  • If you are paid to tweet you should incorporate #ad or #sp.
  • Emma Nutrition – makes most money from joint ventures.  Her mailing list is the most important thing to her.  Join with a bloggers or companies and cross promote between each other’s mailing lists.  To grow a mailing list – offer an incentive to sign up.
  • Reviews – must be balanced, and show some negatives in some or you will lose credibility with your audience.

Super Busy Mum

The Mad Mid Week Blog Hop

BlogClub

Blog Club

I love blogging get together's, as blogging can sometimes feel like a solitary pursuit.  So it is great to have an opportunity to see your blogging friends, to learn, swap ideas, have a good gossip with lots of laughs.

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  4. Thank you for sharing such great tips. I found the one about writing balanced reviews really interesting…I’ve recently had a dilemma whether to include a bad review on my blog or not, but it would appear its important to do so to gain credibility! Interesting! .
    x

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      I think you should always contact the company before publishing a bad review, maybe it is something they would like the opportunity to resolve. However, it is good to give the reader all the facts, positive and negative, not every product is perfect x

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  9. I love this!! So nice to be able to get some valuable information from the sessions I didn’t attend. Thank you for sharing these.
    Was lovely meeting you on Saturday. Hope to see you again soon.

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  11. Thanks for sharing. It’s fantastic to be able to get a feel for the content of an event when you couldn’t attend yourself 🙂

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  13. Hey great post. I’m not a mum but a da, but great info I could really use regardless. Much appreciated for us who couldn’t go.

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  19. Thank you for this honey. It is so helpful. You and I went to completely different sessions. So I now feel like I had a spy in these discussions. It is interesting to hear that you can be negative in some reviews. I always wondered about this. Thanks again. Hugs Mrs H xxxx

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      I think as long as it is constructive, so “it took a while to come, but it was because of X Y or Z”. Always give the company a chance to respond to your negativity or resolve an issue. xxx

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