Day 2, Friday, of SNAP was a full, jam-packed day.
Here we go…
–Keynote – Lisa Leonard
There were 3 keynote speakers during SNAP – Lisa Leonard was by far my favorite – she did an amazing job. She just gave off such great vibes and has an amazing overall power for life. Thoughts that stood out to me:
-Keys to Success are: being willing to change, work with bloggers, and be unique.
-We can’t do it all – we’re imperfect. Prioritize your core and have structure built into your day. Structure ideas: breakfast, school drop-off, chunks of your day, feed the soul – lunch with a friend, evening downtime.
-Blogging is strategic and structured and can also be personal.
-If you don’t feel good about a project, don’t introduce it.
-Managing work/life balance – very challenging. Be a good parent – to do that, you need to have enough energy for their lives!
-We’re imperfect – own it. Imperfection helps us connect with others – include the conflict components in your storytelling because people connect with the hard stuff.
**JOY is there to be found** – create joy for others, in our families, and in our own lives.
Joy shares the difficulties as much as sharing the creative moments.
-If someone else can do it, delegate. Also, go 80%, then stop. The last 20% isn’t worth it.
-Fill yourself up: disconnect, turn off your phone. Spend time with friends. Spend time alone.
**It’s a risk to move forward, but it’s a bigger risk to stay still**
–Advanced Monetization – Beckie Farrant (Infarrantly Creative)
This class lived up to my high expectations – Beckie is amazing and confident in her knowledge of blog monetization (that’s making money with your blog). She gave a super strong presentation and it was one of the best at the conference – she’s a rockstar.
I had already hired Beckie as a consultant to set up my DFP (it’s a way to stack ads to maximize them – and I’d highly recommend Beckie to set it up for you) so most the info wasn’t new to me, but I want to pass along some tips for you. Obviously there was tons more to learn in her presentation.
-Put together a money marketing strategy for you – write it down!
-Sidebars are premium space – use them to either make you money or keep people on your site – take down anything that’s not doing either of those things.
-Header – put great categories at the top and integrate your logo.
-If you ever want to make money with your blog, then put ads on NOW – that way they’ve always been there and readers aren’t thrown off.
-Blogging will probably cost money the first 2 years, but after that it will turn into an income.
-Set up DFP when you’ve hit 50,000 page views a month.
-Recommended: 6 ads (top, bottom, 2 rectangle, 2 skyscrapper)
-Control your backfill!
-Increase your revenue with Ad Networks: backfill, set a floor CPM, Daisy Chain or DFP, work with numerous ad networks, negotiate.
-Be sure you don’t have Google Analytics installed twice.
–Brown Bag lunch with Minwax
I didn’t take any notes, but this was a great presentation and the thing that I learned is that you’re supposed to condition your wood before staining it – it’s kind of like a primer. They stained a piece of wood that had the primer on half of it and that half looked much better – who knew!
–Collaborating With Brands
This class was just okay for me. It was more of a general overview instead of specific details, but I’m sure specifics are hard to give since every situation is different when working with brands.
A few tips that stood out to me:
-you want brands that are a good fit for you – – if not, you’re giving the message that you’re for sale
– find contacts via social media, ex: twitter
– know your worth
-respond promptly and professionally
**if you took the sponsor out of the sponsored post, does it still have value?**
-bring your best work, allow plenty of time, keep communications open, follow all contract terms and social media requirements.
-start with a story, weave the product in
–Branding for Bloggers
I almost didn’t go to this class because I didn’t think I needed to learn about branding – but it was really great and full of info and energy. It makes me want to tweak my logo.
**Branding is the world’s perception of Who You Are**
-you need great pictures – they represent you
-be consistent in color and photo styling – makes you easy to recognize
-don’t be afraid to re-brand, but carryover some elements
-be relateable – YOU are part of your brand – build a relationship with your audience
-connect emotionally and you will attract people like you
-forget the trends – design for your base
-use 2 fonts (if the font is in Word, don’t use it)
-a logo and a blog header are not the same thing
–Queen Bee Market
That evening was the Queen Bee Market – – fun to shop! And one my roomies won the Instagram challenge that night, so double bonus!
I bought a summer cardigan, a mint wrap thing, and some wooden pennant that I have a project in mind for – – it was so fun to check out all the great things! I even got to design some chapstick labels, so that was pretty cool.
For more about my experience at the SNAP Creative Bloggers Conference, see this post.
