Haven Low Down: Day 1 (+ 11 blog tips)

It’s been a crazy whirl wind around here. Andy and I are in NYC for the summer (for his job), I started a new job on Monday (social media strategist!), and I just got home from the Haven blog conference! Haven rocked. (and made me super sleepy!) I met lots of fun peeps and learned all things blog! I’m going to share some knowledge nuggets throughout this post. You also must know that instagram is my new obsession. (I’m thecraftblog in case your curious!) All the pictures I took at Haven were on my iPhone and made pretty with instagram.  First up, the inaugural ticket to Atlanta pic (with my super dirty orange carry on suitcase in the background)…

In the airport on my way to Haven, I attempted a 10 things about me list. I saw a fellow instagramer do one, and had plenty of time waiting in the airport. Kind of fun, right? Anyone else with me on the fried okra thing? (I used to tell my grandma fried okra cured my headaches!)

Haven kicked off with a welcome note and cocktail party…

At the cocktail party I stalked met John, Sherry, and Clara (from YHL)! They are a super cute little family. Clara did a party trick for me and told me she was from America, when Sherry asked, “Where do you live?” John even brought Burger back in on a leash after Clara and Sherry went to bed.

Traci it the cutie in the middle of my 2 awesome roomies, the blondes, Allison and Beth.

That night we attempted to meet a bunch of bloggers at an Atlanta burger bar, Flip. I accidentally directed us to the wrong one. Directions have never been my thing, oopsie! Side note: Have you seen the crazy number of burger bars popping up all over (Hopdoddy in Austin, Burger Fi in Fort Lauderdale, even College Station, TX has Grub)! The burger bar is new cupcake shop.

The next morning, was the big keynote speech by YHL. They talked about their “11 biggest decisions or somewhat sub conscious choices that have steered the course of our blog”. They discussed making peace with the non lovers, saying no to a tv show about sexy DIY, and why they turned down a free roof. They rocked the keynote.

I attended 6 classes over the 2 days… The first was called I like big blogs. I’ve always been the nerdy note taker type and used the ol’ iPad to keep up with all of my new knowledge. Here are some blog tips I learned:

• Find out what your google page rank is… this can go in you media kit (You can use this link)
• Make a media kit, ha! (Tip Junkie has a great one pager to use a reference)
• Use the google Adwords keyword tool to help you name your posts.

We lunched with Beckie, who’s going to be on Craft Wars (woot! woot!), Ashley, Whitney, and my awesome roomies.

There was built in time to chat with sponsors and check out new products. Beth and I loved the photo booth at Homes.com!

The last 2 sessions of the day were how to work with brands and advertising 101. I thought this was interesting… when asked, “what can a blogger do to be proactive to find brands?” She explained…

• Put together a dream list of brands you feel fit your blog
• Prioritize the list. Which brands really represent your blog content and style?
• Scour for contacts of those brands. Use twitter, linked in, google) This is the hardest part.
• Sell your self in a short, simple, specific email.
• Once you work with a brand, keep the relationship up.

A few other things I learned:

• Free product= compensation. You have to claim it on your taxes!
• Have you heard of rafflecopter for giveaways?
• Think about doing a pros and cons list for review posts!

Amy Fuller was one of the panelist in the PR class, and she wrote Recipe for Press . It’s basically a step by step to DIY your own blog press! It’s going on the Christmas list. (FYI: That’s an Amazon affiliate link.)

My brain was on a blog high, and we were starving, The roomies and I ended the day with some spicy tuna rolls, edamame, and some good quality girl time!

Do you love fried okra? Are you obsessed with instagram? Have you ever been to a blog conference? What do you think about working with brands? Have you ever thought about writing an ebook? Just thinking out loud over here…

Psst… here is the Haven part 2 post complete with photography tips!