a weekend at the blogcademy
What a weekend! So besides the wonderful "being on TV" bit, I was also paid to photograph Sheryl Crow for the Star Tribune and to shoot Dessa for vita.mn. Yeah, that job I left 10 days ago? They're hiring me for freelance work already! Which is fantastic and makes me super happy, as now I am doing more of the work I love (photographing concerts! yay!) and less of the work I don't love so much (working on a PC on a shit system that crashes all week! Boooo).So that sounds like a pretty full weekend, right? But wait, there's more! I also spent the weekend attending The Blogcademy workshop. It's a seminar aimed at bloggers and small-business owners that helps us to focus on things like branding, blogging, money, etc etc etc. It's led by three really great ladies, Shauna, Gala and Kat (as seen above, in order), who really have their game on when it comes to this business. Some of the weekend was just a good refresher course, but man did I learn a lot today about monetizing your blog. It was FASCINATING. I have always been a touch naive about these things, and I really found it interesting (It's not just ads! There's so much more!).The two biggest things I took away this weekend (besides all that money stuff) were 1) (AGAIN) The importance of networking. I met some fabulous women at this workshop, some of whom I would love to collaborate with in the future. It's so easy to get wrapped up in our own social circles, and to meet so many new people with the same interests was wonderful. Also? Dear God, always, ALWAYS have your business cards on hand. Even on the weekends.And 2) Oh holy god do I need to make this blog more interesting. And wow, today is probably not doing the trick (sorry!!). They really focused on making your blog more useful to your readers, and it made me realize that while you guys get a voyeuristic view into my life, I'm not really giving you anything in return (besides a pretty picture to look at). I kept this in mind a lot last night when I decided to post my "How to take better concert Instagrams" segment, and I'm hoping I can keep up that kind of work in the future.So here's where I'd like to get you involved. If you guys have any questions you'd like answered (like, um, perhaps my recipe for the best scrambled eggs in the world? Or how to choose the best font? Or what's a good starter camera?) please, please, please shoot me an email (leslie [at] shuttersmack.com). I'm not going to be giving out advice and tips all the time, but it's something that I would like to have more of, and if you send me a good topic, it's likely that I can do a full post to share with everyone. Sound good?