Last Friday, 300 or so bloggers and myself, descended on the city of Melbourne to attend a Bloggers Training Day organised by blogging guru Darren Rowse of Problogger fame.
Now I realise many of my readers are not into ‘blogging’ as such and thus aren’t going to be interested in all the details of my day. Many couldn’t care two hoots for SEO’s, plugins, branding, blog design, audience reach and the like and thus I will leave all those fabulous, although almost unreadable scribblings for myself to decipher at a later date. Yes, unlike the many other cool people in the room tapping away on their ipads and new Mac books, I scribbled away with pen and a very professional looking “Smiggles” notebook I grabbed from he kids room on the way out the door. And for those of you that are into all that stuff, then you were probably either already there, followed it on Twitter or are eagerly waiting to download the audio version of the day.
But I did take with me so much from the day and some of the important things I learnt, I realised could be carried over to our everyday lives and pursuits and thus certainly something I could share with you my reader.
So here are four headings I have managed to decipher from my no longer practised enough handwriting.
1. Do What Works For You– In blogging terms this referred to how many posts a week you put out, how many tweets you tweet and the like. But doing what works for you should always be a priority in life. As parents it is easy to compare ourselves to others, to look at the activities other mums do with their kids, the biscuits they bake and the parties they put on, but we forget that we will never all parent the same and should instead be happy to do what works for us and our families. So whilst some can churn out 3 blog posts a day and other mums thrive in the ramblings of kindergarten and fundraising committees, I will continue to focus on doing what I need to do, to achieve the things that are important to me.
2. Cultivate relationships that count:In the words of the fabulous Sonia Simone, if people don’t “know you, like you, trust you…. then it doesn’t matter what you have to say.” People will never be sold on an idea if they don’t feel that connection with you. I hope that’s what I am achieving with my blog, but I also think that in everyday life our relationships are everything. When it comes to parenting, the relationships we have with our children must always be nurtured in a way that will ensure they continue to know us, like us and trust us and always respect our opinions, whether they agree with them or not.
3. Declutter:Get rid of the rubbish that holds you back. We all know how good it feels when we have a cleanout, pay a visit to the tip or finally drop off the many bags of clothes you always thought you’d wear again to the op shop. So if you need to get rid of stuff, people or anything that makes it hard to see through the scrambled mess…..then tidy up!
4. Try, Test and Tweak – these words displayed on the big screen can be adapted to all areas of our lives. We should always be looking at new ways of doing things, we should try different strategies and ideas and we should be open to thinking outside the square. Once we implement these new ideas, we can evaluate, assess and continue to tweak until we get the desired outcome.
So there you have a snapshot of some of the many great things that I took away from my Problogger Training Day. Oh and I chose to list these under numbered headings as I also had it confirmed that we all love lists. We love the way a numbered list keeps everything ordered and easy to read, allowing us to skim through easily labelled headings!
This Post Has 22 Comments
Love this perspective and wrap up. these are all lessons I appreciate in my non-blogging life and love how you/they have applied them to blog work. I think #1 is especially important as when you are starting out there are so many posts out there telling you what you should be doing (but just as many say the opposite). As with everything it comes down to what works for you and then just be consistent.
Thanks Deb, I think it is so important too. I remember reading early on that you had to post at least 2 to 3 times a week to be successful so it was great to here that Tim Ferris only posts a couple of times a month! And you need to be confident in making those decisions that they are best for you and your family.
I think it’s so important that we do what’s best for us and our families. Comparison (in life & in blogging) is just not fun – nobody wins. I struggled early on with blogging and trying to do things the ‘right’ way – but have since found my own ground. This is a great post and affirms the importance of those points in ‘real’ life.
Thanks Debbie, certainly comparisons can be scary and we definately need to be wary of doing it in all aspects of our lives. Glad you have found something you are comfortable with. 🙂
Great post. Something for everyone to take away.
“Decluttering” can be as easy as organizing into logical groups, but it does involve purging things that are no longer needed. I recently started doing that with my Google Reader. I had everything cluttered in one area, but I’ve been using the last few days to organize them into different groups. Definitely will make things easier when I go to do commenting next week!
Thanks for sharing!
Yes something I am looking forward to doing when we move into our newly renovated house! Am hoping I use the time to get rid of lots of excess “stuff”
It was such a great day wasn’t it. So many great tips… i was old school too with a note pad and pen 🙂 ipad for me next birthday I think x
Looks like i wasnt the only one all ‘old school’. Actually took an ipad to Blogopolis but I was too slow at typing on it! Also great for you to have your blog critiqued by Chris Garrett!
Great wrap up Martine. I totally gave up on technology on Friday and just took notes in my 99c exercise book like a mad woman possessed! It makes total sense that the best advice for blogging touches on the same things we can use in our everyday lives to succeed. After all, we are all just people connecting with other people. The blog is just the medium.
Absolutely..like that thought that the blog is the medium connecting people 🙂
Hello Martine,
I loved meeting up with you on Friday. Your notes are a great benefit to me too. Thanks.
I made notes via iPhone :-). I missed a number of the breakout sessions so reading your post has been a great help there.
I would love you to pop over & see why I’m up to on my website one day.
Best wishes
Denyse
Pingback: Melbourne ProBlogger Event Recap, LinkUp and Looking Forward (#PBevent)
Pingback: » Melbourne ProBlogger Event Recap, LinkUp and Looking Forward (#PBevent) (door Problogger) AdPartners
Pingback: Melbourne ProBlogger Event Recap, LinkUp and Looking Forward (#PBevent) | kraus sinks
Pingback: Melbourne ProBlogger Event Recap, LinkUp and Looking Forward (#PBevent) | test blog
I so wish I could have gone. Actually I’m semi serious considering moving to Melbourne so I can attend more blogging events. Nothing like this happens up here in Brissy and it’s too expensive to fly down, for me anyway.
Off to search for the audio version.
This is a great recapping. Nice and brief but with very relevant information. Thanks!
Pingback: Melbourne ProBlogger Event Recap, LinkUp and Looking Forward (#PBevent) : Webmaster Tutorials
Pingback: Melbourne ProBlogger Event Recap, LinkUp and Looking Forward (#PBevent) | High Paying Keywords Adsense
Pingback: Now I Can Sleep » Melbourne ProBlogger Event Recap, LinkUp and Looking Forward (#PBevent)
What a great way to look at it, Martine. I always wonder what your average non-bloggy reader thinks when we post all our blog-related posts. This is such a great way to meld the two. 🙂
Comments are closed.