My Newbie Approach to ProBlogger

“Are you excited?” my husband asked me this morning about this year’s ProBlogger Event on the Gold Coast – only 2 sleeps away. The fact that my excitement is on par with that surrounding our wedding day is probably a good analogy. The nerves, the logistics of getting there, the sleepless nights dreaming that I’ve booked something on the wrong date, the consideration of what to wear (oh who am I kidding, jeans, flats and layers it will be for me this week. Comfort is in.) But yes the butterflies in the belly are somewhat similar, knowing that after this event a new chapter in my life journey will be unfolding.

I’m somewhat a newbie to this whole blogosphere, and decided this year to pull my socks up and really do what I enjoy. Earlier this year, I was trawling through Facebook feeds when I noticed a couple of friends of mine were to be attending an event called ProBlogger in August. Having no idea what it was all about I read further and noticed that I’d stumbled across this intriguing event a day into their ticket sales. And tickets were flying out the door.

“You’re going to what?” Mum had said. “Well, there are these people who write online about the best fashions or what food to cook for their baby or about their latest trip to some mysterious island. It’s a networking event on the Gold Coast for aspiring bloggers.”. She just looked at me blankly. I didn’t go into the nautical themed networking night and my outfit!

I have to admit, I’d never heard of any of the people running the event and had only heard of a couple of the speakers, but that good old fear of missing out kicked in and before I knew it I’d bought a ticket, was booking flights and reading up about all the great speakers who will be there. I also joined the ProBlogger community who have been so lovely and polite despite my uneducated queries. Darren Rowse is the mastermind behind ProBlogger and has created something awesome!

I started responding to messages on the ProBlogger Event Facebook page and suddenly one day during my 45min drive home from work, my phone buzzed at least 8 times to say people were following me on Twitter! What the? Who are these people and how do they know me? Needless to say, I then checked out everyone’s blogs. Excitement and panic set in as I starting comparing posts, blog formats, photographs. etc.

Enter my whirlwind week of updating my blog. In this past week I’ve learnt about:

• blog templates (I went with the a premium theme – Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework from Studiopress. Not free but I looked at it as an investment)
• html coding – I now kind of understand what all those squiggles mean
• tricks on how to resize photos and edit them really quickly (although I did spend a fair bit of time fiddling and pulling hair out, before I found this trick – thank you www.picmonkey.com I am eternally grateful you exist!)
• where to find free or cheap professional photos – I’ve used some from www.dollarphotoclub.com and www.dreamstime.com 
• that I really can make my own photos look pretty cool and use them as part of my artwork. I was looking for a background image, found an old wooden fence near my home and had a field day with my camera set on Macro.

Eventually, I figured I’d better not get too carried away before I go and learn about it all from those who actually already know what they’re doing – did I say only 2 sleeps away.

So here is my re-vamped website still somewhat a work in progress, but something I’m really proud of. @ProBlogger / #ProBloggerEvent here I come!

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