Blissdom '11: A Blogger's Experience

This is a guest post by blogger Becky Farrant. IZEA recently sponsored her on a trip to Blissdom ’11. These words are her own.

Blissdom is a yearly blogging conference. This year it took place at the beautiful Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, the last week of January. Imagine 500 brilliant, entrepreneurial women all in one room. The power of our word of mouth could have lit up all of Nashville. We are moms, wives, business women, bakers, crafters, reviewers, socialites, readers, writers, fashionistas, DIYers, and we make up a huge blogging force on the internet today.

The sessions included Pitching to Companies, Monetizing our Blogs, Building Community, Leveraging our Social Media, Establishing our Brand among others. The best part of a conference like that often lies in the conversations outside of the sessions. There is nothing like meeting one of your readers who tell you they love your blog, or talking with other bloggers in your niche about balancing work and family.

The women who attend a conference like this are trying to establish their voice and turn their blogging conversation into a business or simply trying to gain influence in their niche. So naturally, talking about IZEA was simple. Many bloggers don’t know opportunities exist for them to connect with companies or the way to figure out how to make that happen. In my conversations about IZEA, bloggers are dying for a company who will find opportunities for them to give their opinion or pay them for their expertise.

Here is a picture of some of the leading home bloggers showing off their IZEA loot.