I couldn’t agree more. Such great words spoken at last nights Vancity Business Babes Blogger Party event. The ladies on the panel were all very informative and I found myself nodding my head to so much of what they said. The things I wasn’t nodding to I was going, ohhh that’s a good idea!
Each time I attend a Vancity Business Babes I am always left feeling refreshed and motivated. This event couldn’t have come at a better time. With so much going on with moving and our personal life, I needed this refresh. A reminder that as a blogger we all have struggles, we all get overwhelmed, and we all need personal connection and a good face to face to power through it. I got to meet a handful of new friends last night and chat with old friends I have connected with at previous events.
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Before I get into last nights event, I want to encourage you to check out one of Danielle’s Vancity Business Babes Events. If you haven’t been to one before, I highly recommend it. Not only because Danielle is practically the sweetest human around but also because she gets together some of the most talented and creative people within the Greater Vancouver Area.
Meet Last Nights Speakers:
Vancity Business Babes Blogger Party Tips & Encouragement!
Here is what I took away from last night. I jotted down key points that I thought would be super helpful for someone starting out, encouraging for someone who may be in a rut, and just motivating to everyone else to say, “You go girl, you are on the right track.”
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Here is what I took away from Vancity Business Babes event in no particular order:
General Comments & Encouragment
- Be yourself, be nice to people and don’t let negative comments get to you.
- Anka said, ” Don’t get jealous or compare, just realize that they started somewhere and that you can get there too.”
- Celebrate your victories
- Steph said, “If you are thinking about starting a blog or a business just do it. Just start. Take the next step.”
Connecting With Brands/Bloggers
- Only work with brands that you would actually buy from to stay authentic. Danielle said, “You don’t need to work with everyone but the key people that your brand aligns with.”
- When looking to partner with a brand or a blogger, look for someone else who is also starting out. Reaching out to bigger brands from the get go can be discouraging and not end up being as valuable as working with someone in the same place as you are.
- Compliment the brand/blogger and make your emails personal. Get to know the person you are emailing to be relatable. Always remember to use the person’s first name (not their blog or business name).
- Being personal on your blog can be the most rewarding thing. It allows you to share your story and help you move forward from it.
- Every new business is excited to meet a new influencer because you always offer a whole new audience. If the business you reach out to doesn’t want to work together at the time of reaching out, don’t take it personal. Just know that that partnership wasn’t right for you and continue to kick ass.
- Meet people in person. Meagan said that she once flew out to Toronto to meet up with PR companies and brands. She set up coffee dates to get to know the people behind the emails and said that it has allowed her to have a strong relationship and continued partnerships with these people/companies.
Instagram Theme & Tips for Photos
- Just let it happen, try not to stress about it.
- Change the type of photos that you are posting. Don’t post a bunch of the same photo in a row. Have diversity in depth of field and content photographed.
- Invest in a nice camera or work with a photographer to have consistent appealing images.
- Use natural light for photographing
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Monetizing
- When you are confident with what you offer and know your worth you are at a place to easily start to monetize.
- A common way to calculate your worth is 1 cent for every follow (for Instagram).
- Look at your blog as a business.
Gain Traffic
- Meagan felt strongly about investing in your own advertising as a blogger. Something I personally have never invested in so I asked some questions.
- The amount that you want to spend can very much vary (say for Facebook ads). Meagan recommended that you have a narrow search on Facebook as it can save you money and give you a greater reach overall. Having a broad audience isn’t always the best idea.
- Pinterest is a great tool for increasing blog traffic.
- Use the Yoast plugin
- When you have 10K + followers on Instagram linking your blog posts or liketoknow.it posts within Instagram stories it can help for both traffic and monetizing.
I wrote the words, “Long Tail Keywords”, down as something that I wanted to look more into. This came up when asking about advertising and keywords for gaining traffic. So off to Goggle I go!
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As always I hope that this encourages and motivates you in your own journey. I always find it feels so great to connect with others within the field and be able to bounce ideas off of each other.I would love to hear if you have any general tips, comments or tricks to share. Post them in the comments below.
Great summary Codi Lynn! I was fortunate enough to attend this party too & as a new blogger really appreciated all that this amazing panel of women had to offer! Your summary is fantastic xx
Shannon
http://www.suburbanstylefiles.com
Thanks so much Shannon! They were really great weren’t they.
Thanks for the great post!!
You are so welcome, so glad that you enjoyed giving it a read.