I'm so bummed that I didn't get a good photo of Carley Roney Cofounder and Editor In Chief, The Knot Inc. (http://www.theknotinc.com).  The sheath dress that she was wearing was gorgeous.  Oh, well...  Below are the notes from her talk during the FairyTale Weddings & Honeymoons Platinum Soiree.

1. Your audience is absolutely everything to you.  Engage with them. Ignite their passion.  Turn your casual observation of what they are doing to your absolute obsession.  What do they want?  What inspires them?  Make it their brand.  Make it their experience.

2. Listen and follow your audience.  The Knot (wedding themed) led to The Nest (home buying, recipes, etc.) and to The Bump (pregnancy and parenting) as their audience went through various life stages.  Listening was "crowdsourcing at its best".

3. Research to make your product even better.

5. Make sure at the end that you are being outrageous. Be funny. Be different.  Keep the conversation alive.

(You can read the rest of my Disney Social Media Moms Celebration posts over at www.mominthecity.com - my posterous account was down during the conference!)

Speakers: Kelby Carr, David Griner and Deb Ng

Moderator: Heather Solos

Professionalism

Kelby: confusing; varying degree based on backgrounds; finding balance can be challenging

David:not about tone on blog; it's about what it is like to work with each other; mutual respect; process of what it was like working with this person; responsive? timely? knowing how to invoice; etc.

Deb: it's how you conduct yourself; are you a mature, responsible person? do you respond, meet deadlines? do you charge for services - professionals do

Affect on Interaction with brands

Deb: Donlt look to only interact with brands; can't pay mortgage with that; charge for services not products/conference sponsorships

David: Remember that people often work with multiple clients; get to know them; marketers talk amongst themselves, so do marketers and brands; take the long view

Kelby: Don't limit self to just one thing; ebooks, consulting, local social media consulting; reviews and giveaways are dead - stop them; find small stable of bloggers and pay them. Bloggers need to be smarter in what they accept.  Don't work for free or for product. Being paid for reviews - you need to have a pro and con.

Heather: There are other bloggers who will undercut by doing things for free.  (Not just a blogging thing.)

Kelby: Get the idea out, but it's up to the bloggers and companies to change.

Deb: "I'm just starting out" is not a good reason to not charge. Exposure-something you get when kids come home with the flu.  Even entry level workers get paid!

David: It is hard for all writers.  Some companies are scared of bloggers.  Consider getting through as freelance writers for better paying gigs.

Input

Deb: Don't be afraid to set price.  Determine self worth.  Figure in taxes.  Start with number in mind.  You are what you price yourself at.

David: Create case studies with marketers that you have done and show results. "I coordinated this party and it had these results." Know your specialty.Page views and uniques are not everything.

Kelby: Think of what your role is in our community.  We get judged when one blogger attacks another; Keep the mob mentality out. Ignore negative actions and speech.

Blog Conference Speaker Impact

Kelby: Conference organizers are a small community; don't behave like a diva; get over yourself; celebrities - no; don't behave like spoiled brats

Deb: Impacts whether or not you want to work with them again

Questions

Kelby?; Reviews and advertisements are two separate things.

David: Use outreach as an opportunity to create more awareness.  Share where you're at and what you want.

Deb: Do a post warning others.

David: Do what makes you happy on your site.  You can have rules and break them. Respect yourself.

Amy (Resourceful Mommy): Charge what people are willing to pay.

Deb: Will write for self for free. Wrting on someone else's blog is paid. Guest posting is free.

Heather:If blog is a hobby, it's a hobby.

(Audience member) It's okay to say no. It's okay to change rules

Fine line between guidelines and discussions.  It's your business and you determine what you ask for/make exceptions for.

Kelby: Nothing is black and white. Blogger trips - fine, but not if free consulting. Consider other expenses - childcare, travel, etc. Be aware.

(Audience member) Angela England: My prices reflect the level of my training.

Deb: You attract people who want freebies if that's what you're offering.

Kelby: Don't alienate different ypes of bloggers. Shakes itself out.

Question re. going from hobby to career blogging - Deb: advertsing; look at it as a business and take it from there; David - what is my goal here? What do I want to make - how do I want to make it? (For him, no. I would rather get paid for writing.) Build strategy around it.  Don't spread yourself too thin. Deb - think about your area of expertise - so many levels of expertise.; Kelby: experiment and see what works for you

Moderator: Carol Cain

Carol: NY City Mama; be humble; work hard; be professional in order for the practicals to work

Kim Moldofsky: Hormone Colored Days, Mom Impact; started 5 years ago

Jessica Rosenberg: It's My Life; @kikarose; social media for Tiny Prints

Progression

Kim: first client - seo/mom blogging campaign; kept blog going; wanted a pro blogging gig; wrote for babycenter's momformation; led to speaking gig; led to 2 year client; natural flow; *network, network, network; gave tips to Suburu - led to small venture with Suburu; let your blog be you  - intersection of hard work and luck; think what is marketable about you

Jessica: discovered knitting blogs while husband was in law school; became pregnant -found group of pregnancy bloggers; started blogging herself; decided to make blogging a freelance career - make a series of blog clips; wrote for Type-A mom; pitched to local parenting newspaper; offered managing editor job at the newspaper- blog was her resume; blog was "voice"; did reviews on review blogs; tinyprints - gratitude blogger; wrote wanting to work for Tiny Prints on last blog post; Tiny Prints asked ideal job - they made it work; been with them for 11 months; *decide what you want your blog to be - source of revenue or platform of revenue for future sources of revenue; use pitches as opening to conversations; put contact information on blog; let people know what you're interested in and capable of! Don't underestimate yourself.  Don't be afraid to reach out to the companies that you're interested in.

Carol: blog is portfolio/resume; paid work comes from off her blog; seize opportunities (initiate conversations; have own idea of what you want); pitch self for unique business experiences; approach it as a freelancer; she has a media kit

Jessica: Has online resume sharing what she wants/is available to do.

Personality

Kim: Connector; if shy, try something new outside of blogging (i.e. taking bold risks); saying and seeing "no" are not the worst things; don't understimate the importance of the fiscal year (not necessarily as flexible at certain times of the year)

Jessica: Shy, but pretended that she wasn't until became more comfortable; don't stop being yourself though; be true to yourself; if opportunity is not a good fit, recommend someone else; don't take rejection personally - you can ask why

Mistakes

Carol: What is your blog about - be focused about your pitch

Jessica: not as focused "elevator pitch" (depends on the blog); not learning to ask what the expectations were (i.e. if you have separate review blog); don't assume

Kim: kind of a blog prostitute - took most products/trips/etc. offered; more selective now; figure out what you want - don't have to take everything offered

Questions/Comments

-Brand conversations - what should you do if your hear nothing back? You can follow up (email/phone)/reach out again; polite persistence pays. 

*Comment: be honest with PR/page views/etc.

*Comments: Jennifer James and Esther Crawford put out a free e-book that is excellent (http://www.fromblogtobusiness.com/).

*Comments: send companies case studies to show relevance

-Be clear on where you're pitching (twitter/facebook/blog/etc.)

-Pricing: Kim - Start no lower than $65 - $300/hour (consulting); $50-$75/hour for writing; remember that 1/3 goes to the government;  Jessica - double the rate that you want to work for per hour (because they are not paying any benefits)

$550/bi-weekly for leaderboard ad- Carol charges for her site with average of 7000 unique visits/months. It seems high if you are thinking CPM, but she is a travel blogger - her content is expensive (babysitters/hours/etc.). 

Moderator: Danielle Smith

Photography

Casey: use to enhance posts; add pictures to review; can charge more when pictures are used; use photos as inspiration

To get better: look at photos that make you feel; take pictures of everyday moments

Chris: Start posts with pictures; at the end of each post, use flickr gallery - so can see all; She sets a thumbnail photo for each post; google "free clip art"; flickr also has great photos that you can use with attribution; don't use photos that don't have "share this"; tag photos in flickr (people can find it when they search by term/you want people to be able to find them); clker.com has free clip art

Video

Why?

Maria: can watch/listen while doing something else; put face in front of camera to gain exposure; where the next horizon is going; age of self broadcasters

Use HD webcam; 3 minutes is perfect

Chris: webcam; video functions on camera; (imove on Mac; moviemaker on Windows); please put steps in text/outline what cover in video

Maria: need to differentiate self; video does that; you are a solution to corporate production problem.

Chris: twins used in actual commercial - taking forever; doing video yourself is faster

Audio/Podcasting

Maria: great way to talk to moms - they can take it anywhere; great way to extend brand; lexycasts - next big thing (twitter on audio); less than 2 minutes - soundbites of thoughts.  Distribution is king.  Think about how to expand your brand. Blogtalkradio - expanded reach when she got past her doubts.

Q&A

How to set picture use settings: Casey: All rights reserved - for hanging quality photos; Open - conferences/want to share broadly; there are various settings (i.e. friends and family)

How to do live webcasting - Maria uses Logitech camera for MomTV (ustream, stickam); Chris: you can even do from phone!

Editing software suggestions: Chris: Pinnacle software; Danielle (imovie/finalcut express)

Photo comments: Wordpress plugin: Photodropper plugin - inserts correct attribution; Casey: 72dpi - good size of photos; Chris: mihov image sizer - shrink bulk photos; Watermark photos - Chris: lightroom has a feature; so does picnik.com and picasa.com; Casey doesn't watermark them;

Video comments: AVI is standard format if you are uploading directly to your site; Danielle: tubemogul.com syndicates; youtube, vimeo, blip ,etc. are other ways to post video; Casey: keeps video for self not just for readers - remember who you and your kids are.

Livestreaming: Maria: moms thrive on connection; video opens a door to another aspect of connection/diminishing isolation; focus on connection

How to make coherent/incorporate all of it? Maria: checklist; there's a Wordpress plugin - post here on each post; Chris: keep everything in one place and link from one place; keep username, watermark, etc. the same

Speakers: Debbie Bookstaber and Angela England

Moderator: Kim Moldofsky

Goal: Help to use blogs for freelance writing assignments; ebooks; and increase affiliate sales

Angela - Untrained Houswives; mom of four; editor-in-chief at Blissfully Domestic; Type-A Mom editior

Angela: "Yes, it's possible to do something for money on the Internet without taking your clothes off".

Debbie: Mamanista, Bloganthropy

Advice for freelance writing assignments:

-Angela Englund: 5 years of experience; started out online.

When contributing to other sites: find out rights; make sure that you are well compensated if giving away all rights; web/print rights differ; sometimes you can pitch to other outlets; they can see body of work and quality of work (i.e. she sent out 6 queries; sold 4 articles and received 1 additional offer)

-Debbie: online marketer before blogger; freelance writer/search engine copywriter - content syndicated out

Guest posts usually code word for free!

Search engine copywriting - paid; come in with clips; use blogging skills; 10 - 50/word for online writing; $50 = $150 per online article; don't start with mom blogs; problogger.com; copyblogger.com; idealaunch.com; lifetips.com; and local seo companies are great assignment resources; reach out to them; consider that in addition to parent-oriented writing

For parenting writing - get in touch with people in charge of hiring; LinkedIn - list freelance writer in your profile; use networks/agencies/firms/etc.  Let people know rate - be clear (share range); if you make "free" an option, they will take it! perhaps one free post.

-Angie: byline and link back to site; bases her range on needed amount of research/charges less if she gets a byline; more if ghostwritten; minimum - $50/post

It is easier to break into niche or trade market magazines; use popular posts; share ways that you can enhance; note that parenting segment is over-saturated

Debbie: You can increase rate if including photos with posts; different companies have different budgets; $250/piece; additional $50 - $100 for photos

 for major companies; seed.com is a good starting point - pay $50/post

Angie: Use prior mom life experience as area of expertise; life experience; career; etc. - use for angles

Affiliate Marketing

Debbie: CPM (cost per thousand) type of advertising; CPC (cost per click); CPA (cost per acquisition)  is affiliate marketing- great way to break into advertising work for company; You can use banners but text links within posts are actually best performers.  When a purchase is made, you get a percentage of the sale. Genuinely mention products.  It leads to evergreen content - constantly paid whenever its' used.

Keep in mind re. FTC: Not giving consideration in advance, so don't need to identify as affiliate links.  (I.e. retail me not/shop at home; Shefinds; etc. use them)

Amazon Associates - Colorado residents can't join; AA also pays a lot less than other programs

When considering affiliate companies to partner with think: strength of brand; is it something that you want anyway? cj.com, linkshare.com, shareasale.com; and google has an affiliate network)

Conversion rate - number of sales divided by number of clicks. 100 hits/2 sales = 2% conversion sale

oldnavy and gap work well for mamanista; dvds and books/things that people actually buy on the web are good sellers (i.e. itune mixes-links)

Angie: doing readers a service if you link to something that gives readers a service; reader service; natural

Men are doing it without feeling badly; one guy made half a million sellion the instyler last year (?!)

Ebooks

Angie: Way to repurpose content - Compile into e-books; First - compilation of posts; Already writing content; why not write it for sale? Some will buy to save time and energy.  Doing service for those who are willing to spend money to save time.

She uses Open Office - format everything as Word document; print to file; save as pdf; save links intact (affiliate programs; etc.); Goal ebook library for moms - 2011

Etc:

- Good Housekeeping - column where republish blog posts (pays $500); Email at egolden@hearst.com

-Selling text links - google doesn't want sites to do so; but there are still firms that do it; if you are going to sell them, get 100% of the value

-Angie - uses Ejunkie and affiliates for her main ebook at $25; Others, she sells on her site - she bundles a discount for her consulting services with the ebook sales.

We learned some of Yahoo's global editorial standards from the authors of the Yahoo! Style Guide.  (All attendees also received this book that recently went on sale.)

Headlines
-It is the reader's first encounter.  It provides the first (and sometimes only) impression with your readers

-Should align with your voice/audience

-A good test for headlines is whether or not you can summarize what your story is about in five to six words.  If so, then it is probably focused.  If not, it probably lacks focus.

-Is it clear what your story is about based on the headline?  Someone should be able to read your headline and subheading and understand what the story will be about.

-You can do a preliminary search to test.

-Does it show what readers should be searching for?

-Make sure that important words are at the front of your headline. (Include what people would be searching for.)

-Headlines help filter stories to reach what the readers want

-It appears in many places: title of story; page title tag; heading in browser tabs; text in bookmarks; header in search results; text in news feed or mobile browser

Four Functions of a Headline:

1. Summary: Accurate, complete, concise information about your story

2. Selection: Helps reader filter

3. Promotion: Motivates potential readers to click

4. Reputation: Reflects your voice and standards

SEO Selection

-Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of strategies for making your page easier to find.

-Search engines basically play matchmaker (they match the words in your page with words people are searching for).

-If you seed your page with the exact words people are searching for, then you are more likely to make a connection.

-Search engines crawl your whole page but give particular attention to the following: title; headline; other bolded headings/subheadings; links (don't just put "click here" - it's a wasted opportunity); bulleted and numbered lists.  Introductions and conclusions are also given extra notice so if you seed keywords in these spots, search engines will like your page more.

How to select keywords

-Make a list of possible search terms. (If a reader was looking for a story on your blog's topic, which words would they try?)

-Test a few of your words on search-volume research tools.  They will give you a list of terms/related terms from most to least used.  You can find such sources at http://styleguide.yahoo.com/resources/research-tools/keyword-research-tools.

-An interesting test keyword example was used.  It was last year's swine flu.  It turned out that more people were searching for "H1N1" than swine flu...by far.

-Another notable tip: people tend to spell out proper names and full words when searching (i.e. Internet Explorer 8 was searched ten times more than "IE8").

An important note was made: SEO is competitive.  Even if these suggested changes don't improve your search rankings, they will still help the readers that you do have.  The bottom line though is that good content is the best "strategy".

-It was noted that it is also important to focus on readability.  People tend to focus on what is at the top left of the page.  Then their eyes dart down to headings and subheadings.  As such, focus on the top of your page.  Also, research recommends no more than 300 words on a page.  That is the most that the average reader will "see".

More Headline "Dos"

-Place most relevant words first

-Try to use the subject-verb-object structure

-Use concrete keywords (i.e. proper nouns)

-Type your draft headline in a search engine to see what comes up. (Use quotes around your phrase to get an exact search.)

-Make it strong and interesting

-Call out what is important

-Make sure that your headline can stand alone

-Stay under 65 characters

-Make sure that the voice is appropriate for the story and your site

You can learn more at styleguide.yahoo.com

Cody Simms, Senior Director of Yahoo! Social Platforms and Anne Toth, Vice President and Head of Privacy led this session.

Historically, there have been several Internet phases:

-Editorial: Editors would curate available information and place them in "buckets"/categories in order to make it easier for the everyday user to find.

-Communications: Email became popular.

-Search: Google and others helped Internet users find what they were looking for by typing in keywords.

In each of the above phases, Yahoo! has been a leader/in the top three providers.

The newest phase is social sharing where users share the things that they find and discover with multiple people simultaneously (i.e. Facebook and Twitter). Shopping is another phase that is currently big in Taiwan and Vietnam at the moment. Although Americans do shop online, it is still not one of the biggest uses of the Internet for American consumers. (Interesting...)

In any event, Yahoo! does not want to become a social network. Rather, they want to make it a part of the Yahoo! experience. That is why we learned how Yahoo! is integrating new functions across their various line of products. Users can now share their comments, ratings, polls, buzz and such both across the Yahoo! brands as well as on Facebook and (soon) Twitter. Also, Yahoo! updates (mail, messenger, home page, profiles, etc.) will also connect to the two. Lastly, users can also see their Facebook (and soon) Twitter streams on Yahoo! properties (Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Pulse, Yahoo!'s homepage, etc.)

These changes lead to new social opportunities for Yahoo!

The plan is to increase reach with social distribution. An example that was provided was how Yahoo! recently acquired Citizen Sports, a property that publishes solely on Facebook.Yahoo! has 80+ products that they can socialize. They are working on some plans to create social participation by users sharing across platforms (but I won't "spill the beans").

2. Drive engagement on Yahoo! (especially since the users are already there).

They will drive engagement by aggregating social media across Yahoo! (For example, Yahoo! users can update their Facebook status from their Yahoo! Mail account already.) They provide a unique combination of social media and content and have some (private) plans regarding pulling in related content across social and content platforms. *Note to bloggers: Your MyBlogLog updates are already showing up in the feeds of your Yahoo! friends.

3. Monetize

By using all of the various pieces, Yahoo! will be able to amplify social messages for advertisers in new ways. (More private concepts were shared.)

Then, Cody spoke about "The Social Flywheel". Basically the four areas are production, distribution, consumption and conversion.

-Production

This is where you give the reader an opportunity to do something. Sample improvements in Yahoo!'s new updates include: rating television shows, reviewing television shows; readers being able to give thumbs up/down, etc..

-Distribution

This is about who sees it. With new changes, there will be more social activity (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

-Consumption

What can "seers" do with it? They will be able to comment/like updates across channels.

-Conversion

What happens as a result of the reader's consumption? A reader can comment on an update which can lead them to a related article that tells them what their Yahoo! friends are saying and gives them a chance to respond back.

At the end, we saw some practical demos of a few Yahoo! properties that utilize social media products: pulse.yahoo.com, mail.yahoo.com and Yahoo!'s home page.

Meg Garlinghouse, the Senior Director of Yahoo! for Good; Erin Carlson, Director of Yahoo! for Good, Yahoo! Green and Connie Chan, Manager of Yahoo! for Good all spoke on this panel.

Yahoo! makes a difference.  Yahoo! for Good was created to empower people to make a difference.  

Lessons:

-Charitable efforts should align with your business

-Focus if you can

-Leverage what you do best

-Be authentic and transparent

-Be relevant to your audience (timely and personally)

-Give them a way to get engaged (take action or share!)

Social Media can be used for social good. They shared an example from their company (Random Acts of Kindess: "You In?") and a couple other social media bests: Facebook Causes' Birthday Wish and Nelson Mandela's Birthday Card on ONE.  (Bloganthropy was also cited by one of the bloggers in the audience as a great example of using social media for social good.)

(download)

Click here to download:

yahoo-for-good-yahoo-green-gaGeDnwcdJyqlBHFHGop.zip (6.4 MB)

-Solely "green" messaging doesn't usually work (very few people care that much)

 -Rather, present green topics as practical, timely information (i.e. cities with best and worst tap water ; use can opener to open hard plastic packaging)

When writing about green topics...

-Serve the dessert first (make it a great article that catches the readers' attention)

-Certain topics are tricky to write about like saving money - readers want easy, immediate, deliverable (exact numbers/percentages) tips. Health can also be a tricky topic because people have become desensitized to warnings that practically everything is going to hurt them.

Social media lessons from Yahoo! Green:

-Facebook: 70% women; conversational; ask questions; most active fans don't overlap with twitter

-Twitter: more deeply green; focused on sharing information; is less about asking questions.

Lastly, one of the speakers asked the question: "What annoyed you last week?"  (I think the point was that if you can address those things, then it makes for a good post.  I'm not sure though, because this was the point when I locked myself out of my computer/needed to resort to good old-fashioned pen and paper for a while...)

Yahoo's Catherine Teitelbaum, Policy Director, Child Safety & Product Policy and Anne Toth, Vice President and Head of Privacy led this session.  They were joined by Holly Lawrence, a police officer with the Sunnyvale Police Department and Jeanne Moeschler (with Yahoo!'s social marketing team) moderated.

This section started off on a somber note.  They showed a video that was created at Yahoo by the request of a family who had experienced a tragedy. Yahoo! is working together with the police to create a prevention program. (For their privacy's sake, I won't be using the girl or her family's names.)  Basically, the video was about a local California family's tragedy when their daughter got involved in sexting.  "J" was a popular high school cheerleader who ended up hanging herself.  After her death, her parents learned that their family's nightmare was due (in part) to sexting.  "J" had sent a provocative picture of herself to a boy that was a friend. The picture got passed around from boy to boy and it eventually ended up on the Internet. Days before her death, "J" was texting her friends that she wanted to commit suicide. Unfortunately, her parents did not learn about any of this until she actually did so.

Overall, the point of the session was to reinforce that keeping kids safe online is an ongoing conversation that involves different things along the way.

The Three "C"s:

1. Stay current on what your kids are interested in/current trends/etc.

2. Keep the lines of communication open with your child.

3. Keep checking up on what they are doing online and with their phones.

It's hard for kids to grasp the concept that what you put online lasts forever.

Practicals: Keep checking what your kids are doing. Share real life examples of negative online behavior that they can relate to/empathize with. Teach kids to take responsibility for their actions. (Personally, that was the saddest thing about the video.  After everything, none of the boys - who were involved in passing around the photo - took any personal responsibility for the part that their actions played in "J"'s death.)

Lastly, it is important to note that there are differences in motivations behind the negative things that girls do online versus what the boys do.

An Internet safety coalition website that comes highly recommended is ikeepsafe.org .  There is also a lot of great information at Yahoo! Safely (http://safely.yahoo.com/index). In addition, parents can print out a Common Sense family media agreement for parents and teens in high school.