Contributing Writer: Virginia Davidson
Hmmm…. Where in the world do I begin? Blissdom is an annual bloggers conference in Nashville, TN (home of my alma-mater, Belmont University and friends). A desire to connect with bloggers led me down I-65 toward Music City this month. My kids strapped in the seats and cracker crumbs strewn about the car we made it in record time. Well worth the trip. Here are a few things I took away from Blissdom this year:
I am a writer.
This is a tough sentence for me to write. I didn’t know it was affecting me so much. I felt like I was hiding a dirty little secret and was waiting for someone to say, “Hey, you don’t have a degree in English or anything to do with writing. What are you doing posing as one?” Well, I’m not posing. If I write, I am a writer.
Will my kids remember me loving on them or with a computer in my lap?
Jon Acuff spoke on boundaries with blogging and family. His keynote speech made the room squirm in their seats. It reminded me of a past post, Keeping Eternity In Mind. I wish I could do better with keeping eternity in mind.
Slow down on the punctuation and avoid the smiley faces in my posts.
I’m a face-talker and hand-talker in person. When I write I can tend to add !! when my eye brows go up or my hands flail. I don’t need to add those when I write my articles. If my emotions aren’t coming through in my words I need to edit. Don’t add a million punctuation marks in the place of writing clearly.
Edit, Edit, Edit.
Don’t send your 2nd draft out into the world for everyone to read. Take the time to edit it again and again. You won’t regret the time you took refine your words.
When adding a link on Facebook, do so with a photo.
Instead of adding a link on your Facebook page with a tiny photo the computer generates, add the best photo from your article and put the link to your article in the description. By doing this people will be less likely to skim over it and miss your amazing post.
I am grateful for the opportunity to leave the kids at my friend’s home and get away for a few days. I met some amazing people who share some of the same desires and passions as I do. As next year approaches you may ask if I’m up for another blogging conference road trip. Yes, I am. Crumbs and all. Although next time I may ask my husband to come down with the kiddos and we can stay in a hotel a few extra days.
What is 1 thing you have learned this week that you hope to implement in your life or blog?
Glad you enjoyed your conference.
Love the tip on posting the photo to FB, especially with the new timeline, it draws more attention to the post! (oops, was that an emotional punctuation mark?) Oh well, baby steps.
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Isn’t that great! (I say that there are no rules for comments with !! and faces
You are a writer!
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Thanks Alia, you are too sweet =) (I still do faces in comments!)
I make
and !!!! in the comments too. Sometimes, you just have to. 
To not let little things others do or say to rob my joy!
I read a bumper sticker once that said “don’t judge where I am at, you have no idea the sacrifices I have made to get here”
Wonderful points! Need to work on all of them!
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I’m still working on the phone/email distraction during the day :s thanks for your sweet comment!
Sent from my iPhone
These are great takeaways! It sounds like you had a wonderful time and learned a lot about you! Thanks for sharing!
Good tips! I could definitely use the facebook photo one.
Melissa
Great tips! I’m definitely going to have to work on my smiley face usage.
What a great post. I really learned a lot. Thanks for sharing @CountryMommaCooks linky party. Smiley face goes here.