Top Ten Things To Take Away From The Fitbloggin Conference: Part Two

Posted: May 23, 2011 at 6:16 pm

Check out part one of my Fitbloggin conference insights and the blog tips I picked up!

Number Six: Free samples rock! And we should utilize those relationships. We received so much swag this weekend. I’m still impressed with myself that I managed to fit it all into my two carry on bags to bring it all home. As excited as getting a bunch of free stuff makes me, the thought that companies out there exist that support bloggers excites me even more. So many brands worked to help support this conference. That just shows me that they are open to making connections with bloggers. Knowing that, I fully intend to keep building relationships with these brands in the future and value their products even more than I did before.

iBeaniAttune FoodsChoose Cherries WPRawl

ZUMBA Fitness New Balanceegglands best

larabar Dr. Praeger's

The Laughing Cow Jump Sport
all images from the Fitbloggin Sponsors page

Number Seven: Know your goals. During the session on making your blog more professional, which I captured as a live blog, Ryan kept bringing up the importance of knowing the goals you have for your blog. It can be anything. It can range from wanting to inspire as little as one person to a platform for selling other resources you share to gaining more subscribers and page views. Once you know your goals, make sure you express it in what you present in your blog. Make the actions you hope those who come across your site take a predominant focus. For example, if you hope to gain subscribers, you should have subscription and follow options easily accessible on your site.

Number Eight: Have a passion so you can be willing to invest in your blog. Whether you view your blog as solely a hobby or as a potential source of income/opportunity, you invest in your blog.  It takes time and energy to share your thoughts with others. You need to find a niche you feel strongly about so you don’t experience burn out. Once again, the message of staying true to yourself prevails. Also, if you hope to move past simply blogging for yourself and ever strive to reach more readers, a monetary investment will likely come up – in the form of hosting, design, web tools, learning experiences, materials used (cameras or food for example) and more.

blogging requires passion and authority source

Number Nine: “Fit” doesn’t mean “no fun”. I certainly noticed that many of us in attendance really do try to live a life of balance. Everyone seemed to want to have an enjoyable time and not stress over things like food. Sure, we had numerous workouts we could choose to join on Friday. Sure, healthy and balanced meals appeared for our breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. Yet the focus still seemed to be on living life and soaking up all the time we had with each other. I hope to express on my blog that healthy living is fun and I sure appreciated feeling that same mindset surround me this weekend.

image
image from my roomie Katie (with Heather and Alicia)

Number Ten: Your readers are the MOST important. I wanted to save the best for last. I cannot cannot cannot even begin to express my gratitude for the relationships I have developed with everyone who reads my little musings on FFF. I would not have a reason to give so much of myself to this blog without you. I truly believe a blog is only as good as its readers. I don’t mean that in the sense of the number of readers, page views, or comments at ALL. I mean that in the sense of the quality of relationships and community built from you visiting this site. FFF would be nothing without you! Any blog would be nothing without support from others. Never lose sight of yourself in blogging, but also never forget the people who help make it happen – readers!

What ways do you invest in your blog? Does passion reflect in a person’s blog?

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36 Comments to “Top Ten Things To Take Away From The Fitbloggin Conference: Part Two”
  1. I have a huge passion for my site. I have many goals for it, but first and foremost it’s me. Some of my work filters in to it, but that’s all part of sharing me. I’m glad you had a great time Tina.

  2. Sounds like such a great conference! And your personality really shines through in your site, which is why it’s so fun to read your blog! 🙂 My blog is still a baby, so it’s not sure what it’s going to do when it grows up, but I’m sure it’ll find out as it grows up. 🙂 I’m having a lot of fun and learning so much from fellow bloggers, so it’s just been a fabulous experience so far!

    • Tina says:

      I still view my blog as a baby blog too. I have so many directions that I could take and I really just try to go with the flow. I keep it fun and allow things to progress naturally. I think its great to be open to learning but have fun along the way. Best approach so great job taking it that way! 🙂

  3. Shayla says:

    Thank you for giving a shout out to us readers!! I haven’t started a blog (yet!), but I truly do enjoy your blog Tina. You’re such an inspiration and reading your blog leaves me inspired and at the end I always end up putting things that are bothering me in perspective and I’m always a happier person after reading your blog 🙂

    • Tina says:

      Thank you so much! I really cannot say enough on how much you all mean to me. Truly. Thank you for reading and supporting FFF! <3 to you!

  4. tina, you are awesome 🙂 i really hope to get to meet you in person — hls perhaps!?

  5. I invest in my blog by putting a lot of time, love, and energy into it. Passion is evident in many blogs I read. It’s hard to stay interested in a blog if I don’t feel the author’s passion about their subject. Passion is important!

  6. I love the way you put this together- I bookmarked it, because you really did such a great job of just simplifying the main lessons of the conference. I definitely left with a renewed sense of what I want to accomplish and the message I want to convey!

  7. Ela says:

    Thanks so much for sharing all these great tips and points to ponder.

    It seems to keep coming back to goal-setting and clarity being so important. I feel like I’m not totally clear on all of my blog’s goals, but it was definitely helpful to read this and to think about what I might be able to do to accomplish _some_ of my goals better.
    love
    Ela

    • Tina says:

      Yea. I feel like I have a variety of ways I could take my blog too. I think its good to just have fun with it but still stay focused on it having a purpose. That’s what I try to do. Less pressure but still caring for something we put so much energy into, you know?

  8. It sounds like you had an amazing weekend & learned a lot of great tips as well. I definitely think a person’s passion comes through in their blog. For me, those are the blogs I follow everyday; their passion and zest comes through in all their posts which for me anyways makes it seem like they have a personal connection with each of their followers.

  9. Allie says:

    I LOVE when I see passion in a blog! That makes me want to read it and I totally enjoy it 🙂

    Glad you were able to take so much away and have a great time!

  10. Lauren says:

    Thank you for sharing these tips Tina. It’s honestly so evident that your passion and love for your readers is your number one priority. I think that is why so many people go to you for Faith, Fitness and Fun! 🙂

  11. Anna says:

    I definitely think that a person’s passion is evident in their blog writing. The blogs that I enjoy reading the most are ones where the person is clear in what they believe and what they support. I have really enjoyed getting to know the blogging community since I was introduced to it a year ago.

  12. Thanks for posting this! I especially love your last point about how important your readers are. I don’t write a post without thinking who will be reading and how they will react to what I write. I used to write just for myself (as I had NO readers), but as my little blog is slowly slowly growing, I always have my readers on my mind!

    I love your blog – definitely one of my favorites – and you have no idea how happy it makes me that you read (and comment) on my little blog!

  13. Amy Lauren says:

    Your blog is definitely inspiring, thanks for saving the best for last :). I’ve read a lot of healthier blogs but definitely glad I stumbled across yours because it’s so positive. Not that the others aren’t positive, but I love how your posts just seem to really lift me and probably the other readers up in spirit. It really reflects the name of your blog :).

    I read the other posts too but I’m just going to comment here… it sounds like you had a great time at the conference, and all the pics are great. Plus all the free samples you got and the chance to try new things like the trampoline class and meet all the bloggers, gotta be an experience you’ll never forget!

    A.L.

    • Tina says:

      It was without a doubt something I will never forget! And I really appreciate all you said in that first paragraph. I try really hard to bring a positive energy to the blog world and hope my care for others shows too. Thanks!

  14. jobo says:

    these are my favorite tips! I also believe passion and caring about your readers is very important and just naturally makes your blog grow and you seem much more real to your readers. Great post (and suppper jealous of the swag!!)

  15. I invest so much time and energy into my blog and the relationships I build with my readers. It would be NOTHING without the readers!!

  16. I saw others said this too, but my blog is still just a baby and it has changed (to me at least) so much in the past few months that I have a hard time deciding what I want it to be and how I can make it so.

  17. Parita says:

    I think time is the biggest investment. And something I else you invest is yourself. I think a lot of non-bloggers forget that the blogging community puts itself out there on a daily basis in order to share information, inspire others, be inspired, and really to be a source of support for other like minded people. In no way is it easy to write about yourself and your life, but it’s an investment worth making (if it wasn’t we wouldn’t be doing it, right?!). And I definitely think a blogger’s passion shows up in their blog – and maybe more so than passion, personality. 🙂 Have a great night!

    • Tina says:

      Love this response!!! I couldn’t agree more. We certainly do invest in ourselves by exposing ourselves so we can learn and grow more and more. I know I am a better person for the blog and the relationships that have come from it. Great point!

  18. What a great post for those of us that couldn’t be there! I especially love your last one…readers are SO important to a blog and I consider myself to be very lucky to have formed relationships with others through my blog! I am right with you when you say that they are what keep you going! 🙂

  19. lindsay says:

    i love how you are recapping this! i wish i could have been there, but I will take this in its place for sure. thanks tina!

  20. Thank you so much for all of these amazing tips! I’m new to blogging, so all of this is so helpful 🙂

  21. Great post, Tina. I love how you broke it down into the 10 most useful take-home points. It’s super useful for someone like me whose blog is still in its infancy stage.

    I hope to make it to one of these conferences sometime in the future. This one sounds like it was so much fun.

    • Tina says:

      Thanks! I hoped to share so that way even if people couldn’t attend they can still get some of the insights from it. 🙂

  22. The last point? SO true!
    Thank you for sharing so much about FitBloggin!

  23. I love and 100% agree with the last one…it’s all about the readers! Without them blogs don’t mean a thing!

  24. I was veyr impressed (and jealous) at all the swag that Fitbloggin’ attendees came home with. New Balance in particular seemed VERY generous – free shoes and capris? Yes please! It’s brilliant advertising and publicity for them, and they’re still supporting blogs (the big ones and the little ones).

    I’m relatively new to blogging. So far I’ve mainly just invested my time and energy as I haven’t bought anything special for the blog (e.g. a camera). Passion definitely shows through a blogger’s writing. The best blogs I read are the ones with the passionate voices.

  25. All weekend I’ve been reading FitBloggin’ and BlogHer Food recaps and boy, do that make me want to attend a blogging conference! I’m actually thinking of hitting up the Healthy Living Summit in August in PA. Do you think you’ll be going to that?
    Have a great day!

    • Tina says:

      I will go to that if I end up speaking or get a sponsorship. Otherwise not sure I will be able to make it! 🙁

  26. Lee says:

    I think you can definitely tell who’s passionate about his or her blog and who isn’t. It’s reflected in the writing.

  27. […] #4: Top Ten Things To Take Away From The Fitbloggin Conference: Part Two from Faith Fitness Fun: Tina didn’t know she was becoming an honorary member of Team Cleveland […]

  28. Those are some pretty amazing sponsors! The blog world has come so far since I started 5 years ago and it can only get better 🙂

  29. I starred this post to read for later and am just now getting to it. I love all the points you found important for this conference. I know that I personally have a lot of goals for my blog, but currently just am not sure I want to invest the time to switching over to a self hosted. But at the same time blogger frustrates me so it would probably make me a happier blogger to switch sooner than later. I agree that this community (readers and writers) are so amazing and supportive of each other. It’s so cool to see how we create these communities, often without ever meeting each other.

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