Breathing Space: A Bloggers Conference

The sisters' and I have some close friends who are hosting their second bloggers conference called Breathing Space this fall and we're so excited for them!   If you haven't been to a conference before, this would be a great one to go to.  The mind set behind Breathing Space is to do just that, take a breather from the stresses of blogging and take some space for yourself.  Breathing Space is also known for doing a fabulous job of mixing pleasure with business, having some awesome parties, and having a lot of fun.  Sounds like a great time, right?    

Breathing Space will take place September 26-18, 2013 at the beautiful Solitude Ski Resort in Solitude, Utah.  Fall will be the perfect time to be up at Solitude with all of the leaves changing colors!  Tickets are now available!  To register, go to this link!  Here is some more information about the conference:

• Full three-day blogger conference 
• Classes will be offered more than once so you don't have to miss out on the class you really wanted or have to pick between two great classes. 
• All classes will be in walking distance of the hotels.
• This year we will mix business with pleasure... fun classes like hair and makeup tips as well as business classes, like social media, copyright law, accounting, etc.
• Hands on classes and workshops
• Amazing teachers and speakers
• Accommodations/Venue
• Solitude Mountain Resort
• Beautiful time of year
• Great deal on lodging, $100 per room per night + sharing with 3 friends = only $25 per night
• Great rooms and meeting spaces
• Parties!
• Breathing Space is famous for it's fabulous parties and this year will be no different!  Be prepared for fun themed parties and yummy food.
• Registration starts June 1, 2013
• Early registration before July 1st is $199
• Cost after July 1st is $249

       

If you're debating about going, come!  Conferences are priceless!  You meet a ton of great people, get to network with other bloggers, sponsors, and businesses looking to work with  bloggers!  You develop close friendships, you have a great time and let your hair down a bit, and learn!  Breathing Space has some great sponsors this year, Ikea is going to there!  YA!  You won't to miss out on the fun, register here!    

To stay connected with Breathing Space, make sure you follow them on Facebook, Google +, and watch this awesome video about this years exciting conference!   

One more thing!  Breathing Space is currently taking applications for speakers and sponsors, if interested go here!  Hope to see you this year at Solitude!

What to Expect the First Year of Blogging

These two lovely ladies/sisters from My Sisters' Suitcase did a great job on "What to Expect the First Year of Blogging."  They talked about when they first started their blog they were so thrilled whenever they got a new Facebook fan or a new comment and how tongue tied they would get when they would meet one of their blog heroes.  They're so down to earth, that's why we love these two sisters so much!  There blog was small and humble at first, but working smart, having passion, and creative ideas they've been able to grow and become well known in the blog world.  

In this class they gave some tips and advice on things they learned their first year of blogging.  The first thing they talked about was "getting noticed."  Natalie talked about Link Parties and how these are a great way to get your projects some extra love and to get extra traffic to your site.  She suggested some fabulous link parties, such as: Six Sisters' Stuff, Tatertots & Jello, Home Stories A to Z, and Lil' Luna.  Natalie recommended to be strategic about link parties because there's so many out there and they can take up a lot of time.

Holly talked about the newer version of link parties and how they're called featured sites.  Featured sites are websites or blogs that accept projects and ideas and feature them on their site.  To name a few: UCreate, Craft Gawker, Food Gawker, Dwell Gawker, One Pretty Thing, Roadkill Rescue, Tip Junkie, and Dollar Store Crafts.  

A great idea Natalie and Holly had was to use social media to connect with businesses.  Sounds easy right?  Well it is.  Natalie talked about how she used some scrapbooking paper she purchased from Joann Fabrics and Crafts for a project.  She was so proud of her project she decided to post a picture of her project on  Joann's facebook page.  They contacted her that day and was so impressed by her craft project they sent her free product and asked to work with her!    

Holly said the following quote, "You're never to small to have a great idea."  Sometimes when you're a small and humble blog you can feel really intimidated and overwhelmed can take place.  Holly and Natalie advised the class to not compare yourself to others, find what works for you, work against the "norm", and set up your own rules.  This is what is so great about blogging, you get to create it yourself!  "Don't go with the stereotypes, everyone of us is unique, let that shine through your blog."  One thing you can do today is to celebrate the milestones.  Celebrate when you get that 100 Facebook friend, or when you reach 500 page views a day.  Remember to enjoy the journey.   

To listen to the rest of Natalie and Holly's class about what to expect the first year of blogging, you can purchase the ENTIRE conference for $29!  Go here to purchase.  

Earn more money from your ads: The "Waterfall" Effect

Want to make more money with the ads you have on your site?  I do, I do!  The gals from Six Sisters' Stuff  employs their Dad, Larry full time for their blog.  Isn't that crazy!  He has a lot of responsibilities, but one is their advertising.  If you're a one man or woman show, which a lot of us are.   Managing advertising and ads can take up a lot of time and can be really confusing.  The sisters felt this way too.  So in the beginning stages of their blog, they asked their Dad for help.  After months and months of reading, researching, and a lot of phone calls to different companies, Larry found out there was a way where you can stack your ads so it creates a "waterfall" effect.  This effect makes it so you get more bang for your ads and therefore make more money!  Larry is teaching classes in person and online classes on how to stack your ads by using Google's Double Click for Publishers (DFP).

I went to Larry's class this week and it completely blew my mind!  AHHH!  It took me a while to completely understand because I'm a newbie blogger, but he broke it down in a way where I could understand.  The best thing of all, he walked you through the process of how to set up your ads on your blog and how to create this "waterfall" effect.  Here is a snippet to the class and what you'll learn when you sign up. Larry will also be teaching a class on how to do this at Build Your Blog Conference 2014!  If you want to make money with your blog, this class is A MUST!  There's power in knowledge and there's a lot of money to be made through good strategy when it comes to your ads. 

FYI, to start the class you need to have a Google Adsense and Paypal account.   

Let me explain the "waterfall" effect.  Let's pretend you have four ads on your site and you get 1,000 views per day.  So you get 4,000 ad views a day.  Nordstrom, the famous retailer has approached you and wants to buy 2,000 direct ads from you.  Direct ads is the first level of the waterfall.  This is where you set your CPM (cost per 1,000 ad views).  Let's say I set my CPM at $2.00.  Your goal is to get as many direct ads as possible because you make the most money from these.  Well, that's in a perfect world.  So what happens to the the other 2,000 ads that are leftover?  This is where the waterfall effect comes in.  Did you know you can still make money from your leftover ads?  Cray cray, but true!

 The second level of the waterfall is real time bidding or RTB.  To get RTB you need to have a media company willing to take your leftover ads put them in a real time bidding format.  RTB happens when direct advertisers like Disney, Lowes, and Allstate bid on your ad space in real time.  By doing this you don't make as much money as direct ads, but it does make you money!  RTB can get you around .80-$1.50 CPM (this is an example).  So let's pretend Disney bought 1,500 ads sold by RTB.  Good job!

The third and final level of the waterfall is the remnants.  So now we have 500 ads leftover.  Remnants get the lowest CPM rate.  You're probably thinking, who would want to buy my remnants?  Believe me companies have money to spend and spending anywhere form $.15 to $.80 CPM is a great bargain to them.

This sounds all great and dandy, so how do I do this?  I suggest you sign up for one of Larry's online or in person classes. To view the class schedule go to this link.  The class is hands on and is priced at $99.  Pretty much the best $99 spent.  

If you have any questions please contact us at buildyourblogconference@gmail.com.  FYI, Larry will be going over this at the Build Your Blog Conference 2014!  It's going to be a well attended class.

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