My First Blogger Conference Experience as a Rookie Blogger

Look for inspiration everywhere and be curious…

Last Wednesday, I had the privilege of attending my first blog conference called “Breaking into Blogging and Influencing” by The Ambition Plan. The Ambition Plan is the UK’s first career change platform who helps women who have a big potential but not sure about what they want in life, hold on, that’s me! They provide 1:1 coaching, masterclasses and events like this blog conference. The event was held at Huckletree West, in White City, London. I saw the advert posted on Instagram, I got interested, I signed up and I showed up at the conference. I just want to share my first blog conference experience.

THE AGENDA: The evening started by welcoming the attendees with a glass of prosecco. Then taking our seat for a no-holds-barred panel discussion with the panel speakers. Most of them are bloggers and social media influencers. The session started with some advice and tips on what you really need to do to stand out in this industry, create your own brand and learn how to grow a following. After the panel session, we stayed for a bit and networked with like-minded attendees. We also had the chance to meet and greet the panel speakers, which I failed to do because I got very shy.

WHAT DID I LEARN?

HOW DID THEY START? Most of the speakers from the conference already had the skills in writing blogs and creating contents from their previous job or took a University Degree. One of them just accidentally done a blog out of curiosity. And one of them took it very seriously by getting a qualification to be able to educate and help her followers. That made me think about why I want to pursue this blogging career. I started it because I am taking a Business Communication Course and I want to improve my English skills. Through writing blog posts, I can practice all of the stuff that I have learned from my course, It is also useful in my day job.

LET’S TALK ABOUT NICHES: Your content should be unique, your own representation and create something you like. One of the speakers said “you are your own niche”. I think it’s so important to be true to yourself and write about what you really love. Up until now, I still don’t know which niche I would like to focus on. I just write whatever comes up in my mind and what I love. For now, I will stick to her advice, I will be my own niche.

HOW BLOGGERS WORK: “No one is lucky in anything, but you work hard to get something”. I get them when they say they all work so hard and they do everything all by themselves. From doing their admin, planning everything, taking their own photos, writing/creating content etc. etc. You have to run a good time management to be able to do all of this on your own. I have a full-time job and I do my blogging on my rest days. That is my choice. I am very organise with my schedules and following my calendar strictly. But sometimes I get overwhelmed and just procrastinate. What do I do when I get overwhelmed? I look for inspiration in anything or anyone and my brain starts to calm down then get creative again. I try not to be hard on myself because I tend to work so hard and forget about my own well-being.

WORKING SMART: TIPS AND TRICKS

1. Look for which content is working for you and for your blog. You can check your statistics and stick to the topics or contents that are doing well.
2. Scheduling your tasks and creating a calendar block system works for me. Writing a list and focusing on one task at a time is the smartest way to be productive. Put away all the destructions. Switch off your mobile phone and use a timer (I got this cute cube timer from amazon). Set it on one hour and work on your tasks, then take a break to avoid being overwhelmed.
3. Set a routine, if you work as a full-time blogger, set a 9-5 working hour rule. If you follow a working routine you will get used to it naturally and you will be more productive.
4. For the health perspective: 1. Prioritise your sleep– Get a good solid 8 hours sleep and you will be infinitely productive the next day, 2. Prioritise taking breaks to make yourself some food- Do not eat on your working desk, go to the kitchen, make yourself some food, eat your food without any technologies with you just enjoy your meal then go back to work. 3.Take time to do things that you actually enjoy doing- for example, I like to do yoga or meditation, before I start writing a blog post or if I just want to take a break and do something els. I take some time doing either of them, then when I start working I will be able to do the things that I need to do. Remember if you can’t focus, just take a break and do something that you like or something else and come back to work. You don’t need to work constanly, you need to prioritise your health, when your health is in a better place you can focus more on the things you need to do.

The conference was only two hours which I find very short, but I have learned a lot from the speakers and the other attendees. I would like to attend more blog conference like this and be more educated about blogging. I am still new in this industry and learning. But I would like to be good at this and make this as my job someday. So that was my first experience in attending a blog conference. I really had an amazing time, I got so inspired and made me want to work harder to be successful in this industry.

Thank you guys for taking the time to read my blog. Until next time.

Lots of love,

Rainne xxx