I attended my first MN Blogger Conference in 2011, and was inspired by all of the amazing people in attendance. I met the following bloggers last year and wanted to share their stories with you. Enjoy this question and answer with three great bloggers, and be sure to add their blogs to your blog reader.
AMANDA INGLE – MS. GIGGLES
Tell me about your blog – when did it start, what is the intention/purpose, etc?
I started my blog last year after the Minnesota Blogger Conference. When I started I was full of motivation and excitement from all the wonderful bloggers I had met, plus I had prior blogging experience being the blog manager for Anytime Health (a health and wellness blog).
I knew I wanted to start my own blog because I have so much to say. Plus, this
blog would be mine. Ms. Giggles is all about inspiration and education with a little
random mixed in. I talk about life, design, travel, fashion, and more. It’s a true
lifestyle blog covering anything that inspires me.
I love being able to share my experiences with my readers, especially my Grandma
who is an email subscriber. She loves reading them and I know that I will continue
writing, if just for her!
Where do you see your blog in five years?
I see it growing with the next generation of the web. In regards to blogs, we don’t
know exactly where content will lie in 2016. It might still be with blogs, or it might
be something really cool that we don’t know about yet. All I know is that I intend on
making my content stand out on whatever platform it is best suited for.
Why did you decide to attend the MN Blogger Conference? Had your blog
really started then, or did you find inspiration to really get it going?
I attended the bloggers conference to grow the multi-blogger platform I manage,
Anytime Health. I always am looking to further my education and knowledge
especially when it’s something I deal with every day! I love all of my bloggers
on Anytime Health because they inspire people to change their lives…which is
hard enough! The MN Blogger Conference really opened my eyes to creating a sense of community with the readers on AH!
What inspires you in relation to your blog?
The better question is probably what doesn’t inspire me…I love so many different
things and that makes it easier to write. Whatever you’re passionate about is what
you should be writing…it makes it ten times easier. I get inspired by other bloggers.
I love to see what they are doing in their lives and that inspires me!
Did you catch any inspiration at last year’s event?
I will bet that I was the MOST inspired person there! What an amazing group of
bloggers we have in this state. Everyone is always willing to help out with advice,
guest blogging, and more! I love that the “Minnesota Nice” translates to bloggers.
Are you hoping to attend this year? Anything in particular you’re looking
forward to/would like to learn about?
I will be attending this year, if I can get a ticket. I am always looking for how people
cultivate their communities and how they keep them in their circle.
JOSH BRAATEN – BIG PICTURE WEB
Tell me about your blog – when did it start, what is the intention/purpose, etc?
My blog is BigPictureWeb.com. It started about three years ago with a pretty loose
goal of learning and talking about online marketing, but I’ve narrowed the scope
considerably since and now provide tips for folks using the Squarespace content
management system. I’ve also recently started ContentScientists.com to blog about
inbound marketing.
Where do you see your blog in five years?
It would be nice to expand into tips in the design and development arenas, as I’m
primarily a marketer. I see growing Big Picture Web into a blog with multiple
authors, who would each bring their unique community and style.
Why did you decide to attend the MN Blogger Conference? Had your blog really started then, or did you find inspiration to really get it going?
I think it was a mix of both. The first MN Blogger Conference occurred right about
the time I was starting to get the hang of things, and it was energizing to meet so
many like-minded people. The conference really helped validate certain things that
were working with my own blog, and alert me to a few things I was doing wrong
that prevented my blog from growing.
What inspires you in relation to your blog?
I can try anything I want on my blog and I learn a ton in the process. We have
constraints in so many areas of our lives. My blog has been my chance to learn so
many amazing things by trying them out and seeing what happens. I believe this
type of kinetic learning is a valuable skill in this era where the future seems closer
every day.
Did you catch any inspiration at last year’s event?
Always. I got to know a little bit about each blogger and why they were successful.
I’m inspired that what makes each blog worth reading varies greatly. Some blogs are
amazing because they’re visual. Some because they’re articulate and verbose. Yet
some still are all of those things. Every blog is unique, so it’s inspiring to think about
what one might create.
Are you hoping to attend this year? Anything in particular you’re looking forward to/would like to learn about?
Absolutely! I’m most looking forward to connecting with the Minnesota blogging
community throughout the day. I’ve developed friendships with a lot of the
attendees over the last two years, and it will be lively and fun to connect with
everyone through the stellar presentations at the MN Blogger Conference.
JAMIE AND LINDSI – TOYS IN THE DRYER
Tell me about your blog – when did it start, what is the intention/purpose, etc?
ToysInTheDryer.com went live on September 5, 2011. We had both been blogging on other blogs that took up a lot of our time with little reward. We were talking one day about ideas to help us spend more quality time with our children. We decided to start a blog together to help us do just that. (We know, it’s technically counter-productive, however, it really hasn’t been for us!) Toys In The Dryer was started with purpose of being a “business” blog while helping us spend more time with our children. We are rewarded not only with money, products, and opportunities, we are also rewarded with memories of time spent with our children!
Where do you see your blog in five years?
We would love to be big enough to have more people writing for us. We would like to be making a minimum of $500 dollars a month. We hope to have a large community of interactive readers.
Why did you decide to attend the MN Blogger Conference? Had your blog really started then, or did you find inspiration to really get it going?
We wanted to network with other MN bloggers. Toys In The Dryer had been live for five days when last year’s conference took place however, people knew our name because we had marketed ourselves and interacted with our future readers for several weeks via Facebook, Twitter, and our other blogs prior to going live. I’m not sure if we found inspiration, per se, at the conference however we did educate ourselves and found great enthusiasm through networking.
What inspires you in relation to your blog?
Our children. Toys In The Dryer is about spending quality time with your children and making memories. Our children’s interests inspire us to become creative with ideas for them. Our blog helps us build our relationships with them as well.
Did you catch any inspiration at last year’s event?
Meeting bigger bloggers at the conference help us see our goals for our blog and what we want to become in the future.
Are you hoping to attend this year? Anything in particular you’re looking forward to/would like to learn about?
Yes, we are planning on attending this year’s conference. We would love to see a session on the legalities of Pinterest. Last year’s session on Facebook and other social networking sites was eye opening, however Pinterest was not as popular back then. It has since become a huge part of gaining traffic to people’s blogs (including our own).