TypeAMom Wrapup

Three weeks ago I wasn’t sure I was going to Asheville. I had my registration squared away, but travel and hotel seemed an insurmountable obstacle. Enter my good friend, Janine. Janine reached out to me and asked me to travel down with her and Linda and stay with them at the hotel. This was just the incentive I needed to start making the TypeAMom Conference a reality. In other words, I “brought it to” the conference instead of hemming and hawing at home.

All I can say is I am so glad that I made the long journey to Asheville with Janine and Holly (Linda was unable to go). It was 3 days of hanging with people who get it. I never once had to explain what a blog was and say “not a blob, a BLOG!” I met women who write successful blogs and women who are writing just for themselves. I spoke to vendors/PR people from companies I had never heard of pre-conference about working on projects post conference. Win!

I met women who run mom networks. I’ll admit to being a little starry eyed in the prescence of these women, but they were gracious to me and were genuinely interested in what I had to say. I approached Maria Bailey to tell her about a positive experience I had had with a MomSelect blog tour. She interviewed me for MomTV. I chatted with MomCentral’s Stacey DeBroff at length about product reviews I had done for MomCentral.

The conference was more than meeting new people. As a new blogger I was looking forward to the sessions. I was not disappointed in any of the sessions.

Janice Croze from www.5MinutesforMom.com spoke at the Earning Money via Blogging session (with Cecily Kellogg)

Lindsay Maines and Angela LoSasso -- High ROI Social Networking Session

I chose these sessions to attend: Building a Blog from Start to Finish (featuring Victoria Haller moderating, Leslie Flinger and Dawn Schnee of Room 704); and Business Blogging(featuring Alyssa Gregory and David Binkowski).

Joanne Bamberger and Angela England -- The Blogging Payoff: Understanding the Longview

Astacia Carter and Kelby Carr at the final reception

It was hard to leave early Sunday morning due to the crack o’dawn-ness, but also because I was leaving behind a group of people who accept me for who I am. I left determined to start charging for my writing. I’m a writer, dammit, and I need to get paid for it!

After 4 days away from home, I needed to get back to my husband, my kid, my preteen, my teen, and the mountains of laundry. Seeing a stack of dishes in the sink can certainly pull you back in to the reality of everyday home life.

A final thanks goes out to my sponsors — I would not have been able to attend without their assistance and encouragement:

Blinds.com (For $10 of your first order use code: JILLBERRY)

and

Yoursphere (A free annual membership to Yoursphere is available for TypeAMom attendees, vendors, PR professionals, and those who participated at home [$39.95 value per membership] is available for each child(ren). Mom who are interested can blog about their child’s experience with Yoursphere and what they think about the site. Don’t forget to link to Yoursphere in the blog post.)

In 2010, I am so Bringin’ It to the TypeAMom Conference!