Last month I treated myself to 24 hours away from my family to attend the annual Blogtacular conference in London. I can’t really explain why I booked a ticket for this year. Looking back at the previous year, I enjoyed myself, took some notes, but nothing really changed for me. I had some ideas on how I wanted to improve my blog and my Etsy shop, but they either weren’t exciting enough to make me do them, or didn’t seem that important. Roll on 12 months and I found myself sitting in a room surrounded by creative types again.
I was excited to hear Lisa Congdon speak but hadn’t heard of the other speakers. I went to the talks, asked some questions at the Creative Genius Bar, met up with blog friends and made a bracelet during one of the tea breaks. I had a great time, but would anything change?
Five weeks on and I’m pleased that I’ve made some positive changes. A few things have stuck in my mind since Blogtacular. The most important for me was something Lisa Congdon said. She was so eloquent about her journey as an artist. At one point she said “If the answer isn’t “HELL YES,” I say no”. This resonated with me on so many levels. For a while I’ve felt that my blog isn’t really mine. I feel I have to accept a lot of the PR approaches I receive, even if I don’t feel they really fit. My blog has been taking a ridiculous amount of my precious time, and for what?
Let’s say that I’m being more picky about the opportunities which land in my inbox since that moment.
With the extra time I’ve had I’ve been playing around with my blog. I bought a new theme months ago but it wasn’t working for me. I felt people landed on my site but didn’t instantly understand me or my blog.I’ve spent a good few hours working on the navigation bar, categorising my posts so all those fun crafts we produce can now be found easily. I’ve linked all my Brand Ambassador posts together so you can see who I’ve worked with. I’m also sticking to my three themes of Crafts, Parenting and Homestyle – again adding these to my navigation bar and adding some drop down menus so you can see the things I enjoy and write about.
I’ve booked in a blog re-design for later this year. I love my current design but it’s 2 years old and in need of a little update. I’ve also decided to wind down my other blog –treading on lego. I started it as a way to document my children when my son was born in 2010. It was only meant to be a photo a day but again, I felt I had to post reviews and sponsored posts and over the last 12 months I’ve realised I can’t write and promote 2 blogs and be happy with them. So I’m going to keep the gingerbread house which is turning 11 soon and I love, and just update treading on lego with the odd important event or Lego purchase.
Looking back at Blogtacular it has spurred me on to make some changes, but probably not the way I thought. But that’s not always a bad thing.
I think people benefit from this kind of event in lots of different ways – sounds like it was inspiring for you!