My day at Blog Summit ~Bristol March 2013

Friday March 8th I attended the Blog Summit that was held in Bristol with a fellow Blogger Jag from Jagruti's cooking Odyssey. This is my second visit to such an event the first was in London in September 2012. There were some 70 bloggers all full of energy and armed with pens, pads and cameras to the ready. It was a little daunting to start off with as everyone seemed to know every one else but me but once the ice was broken it was great to meet the faces behind the blogs.After the mingle session over with Actimel yoghurts, coffee and tea, we took our places in the room for a brief welcome introduction by Sally Whittle  the founder of Tots 100. (Sorry no click of Sally to share here, she refused to have her photo taken!! maybe she was joking but fear of being chucked out of the summit like a naughty child I obeyed.)

Actimel were the sponsors of Blog summit Bristol, they came with  fridge load of Actimel in all the flavours under the sun and we were encouraged to drink as much of it as we wanted, always a good start to any event. They explained how bloggers can get involved in 2013 campaigns and how it works.
Next we were introduced to Christine Mosler and Annie Spratt both ladies had some interesting information and tips to share about working with charities.( Annie even suggested cycling naked to raise funds a little extreme but I guess it grabbed attention!)There were some good tips on how to approach charities and how to get involved in campaigns to help  raise money for charity.
A brief talk by Jason from tots 100 ads followed, it was interesting to know that you can sign up your blog to show these ads on your blog and make money from it.
After all this information over load it was time to refresh with some more coffee, tea, cakes and Actimel of course!! It was time to mingle and play with the camera and props that were laid out for us to take wacky photos. I don't know what happened to mine and Jags click  I need to see how it came out.

Break over and it was back to the session on SEO, this was presented by Tom from Fresh Egg. The talk was very informative  and covered topics such as key words, page ranks, follow / no follow links and much more.It was a very informative session and I certainly came home buzzing with lots of information  that will help me improve my blog.

Lunch break and there was more mingling over sandwiches fruit, tea and coffee and more Actimel!! Yes you are right I was on my 5th bottle of it by lunch time, I guess my gut was lined with super good bacteria at this stage!!! Luckily it has no after effects from over consumption and I forgot to say the coconut flavour is by far the best , try it if you dare!!!

The afternoon session was kicked off with a fantastic talk by Cathy James of Nurture Store, she gave a very visual presentation and talk about how to increase traffic using Facebook page and pinterest. She shared some fantastic tips and tricks to maximise traffic and to use Facebook and pinterest more effectively.

Last but not the least we were introduced to Tom and Becky of Arblog, both of them gave a demo and visual presentation on photography, angles to use to shoot photos and brilliant tips on lighting. Who would have known that  a simple hand held halogen lamp is all you need to provide perfect lighting for your photos.I am sure this tip will definitely increase sales in halogen lamps as 70 mad bloggers fight their way to an electrical store to lay their hands on one!

Finally our day at blog camp ended, loaded with yes you guessed right more Actimel!! The lovely people at Danone even gave us some to take home!!!With  our head buzzing with so many ideas, tips and tricks  Jag and I made our way back to London. Bristol is a beautiful city the 3 hour journey each way to Bristol and back was definitely worth it and I look forward to attending the next camp.