Last weekend my sister and I attended our first blogging conference, Bloggy Conference {2013}. The experience was wonderful, and I left with new knowledge and fresh inspiration. Of course, the problem with new knowledge and fresh inspiration is you have to find the time to do something with them. And so, naturally, I came home and became overwhelmed by regular life, and am writing my weekly Top Ten Tuesday post at 12:45am on Wednesday. But hey! That whole “better late than never” cliche was invented for situations like this.

1. Learning SEO from Dan Morris – Not only is he funny, but he knows his stuff backward and forward and is good at teaching it.
2. Getting encouragement to hire a virtual assistant – Because I probably need one for a few things, and the aforementioned Mr. Morris makes a great case for having a VA do the backend work so the writer can concentrate on the writing.
3. Spending time with other bloggers – Just knowing I was surrounded by other bloggers was exhilarating.
4. Learning about strategic email marketing from FeedBlitz founder Phil Hollows – There’s really no need to expound on that, is there?
5. Inspiration for how I want to focus the blog – My interests tend to be so varied it is difficult for me to narrow my focus to ensure I’m as helpful and interesting as I can be to you lovely readers. The entire weekend was an inspiration in that way.
6. Connecting with local bloggers – Most of the attendees were from the tri-state area, and I met one lovely lady who lives very nearby. There are already talks of having a statewide meetup.
7. Being challenged to set achievable short-term goals that carry me toward the ultimate destination – that’s great advice regardless of the endeavor, and far too easy to lose track of.
8. Hangout time with my sister, and quiet bonding time with Noah – Jo and I don’t get to spend as much time together as we used to, so it was nice to have an entire weekend together. It was also nice to spend 48 hours with only Noah, because I haven’t had any bonding time with him sans toddler.
9. Feeling totally comfortable with an infant in a professional environment – It was lovely to take Noah everywhere with me and have no one think or intimate there was anything strange or inappropriate about it. On the contrary, everyone loved having babies in the mix. (For the record, Noah and Aria have each gone to staff meetings with me and everyone is thrilled to see them.)
10. Cedar Point – The conference was at Cedar Point, and just about everything about the experience was impressive. The customer service is fantastic, and the atmosphere is pure fun. I hope the conference stays there, because it would be great to take the kids as they get older.

I’m looking forward to BloggyCon14!