Conferences and brunches was something I used to enjoy in my previous life; the high-flying marketing corporate life. The one I gave away when I became a mum. To be frank, I know I have something important to say everyday to my kids, but that kind of buzz you get from adult people who think you have something relevant to say, well, I have missed that.

On the weekend I attended the inaugural Nuffnang Australia Blogopolis Conference in Melbourne. Nuffnang Australia are a leading blog advertising company.

So naturally the purpose of the conference was how to improve your blog, build traffic and monetise your blog.

300 bloggers, from a wide range of expertise, descended onto Federation Square that cold July morning to meet, learn and, fingers crossed, improve their blogs to generate income beyond all everyone’s wildest dreams.

Who doesn’t want that? For the purposes of this post, I’m going to concentrate on the ‘mummy blogger’….since I am one.

The rise of the mummy blogger has been extraordinary in the last couple of years.  I started blogging in 2006 here and took a break in 2009 to have a baby and when I got back into blogging I felt like a newbie all over again. So many more bloggers; so many more well designed blogs; so many more opportunities to monetise blogs. Back in the day, the best I could hope for was Google Adsense.

“We’re coming out…guns blazing!” John Milton, The Devil’s Advocate

So what’s happened?  Well with my limited empirical evidence I’m going to take a stab in the dark.

Most mums would like to eventually return to work. It’s in our everyday language and most will tell you it’s a necessary evil to remain financially solvent.

However, going back to work after having children isn’t always ideal or even possible. Childcare places; negotiating family friendly hours; expanding your brood; all these things come into consideration.

So we need to think outside the box. Many mums turn to blogging to expunge the thoughts from their head (well I do) and some do it to fill the void of adult conversation and connect with others in the blogosphere. Some decide that this is they way to earn an income on, predominantly, their own terms.

While most of society still views being a stay-at-home-parent as a bit of a cop out, advertisers, PR companies, marketing companies have seen that this is a new frontier to reach their target audience.

Mummy bloggers are very influential because they write free from an agenda setting boss, and their words are received as being often more heartfelt.

And this is where Nuffnang steps in and organises relevant advertising for blogs; even sponsored posts.

Bloggers are more accessible than journalists and publishers of traditional media so the reader tends to feel more connected. And brands can see this. Brands recognise that they can work with the blogger to help get that message across.

PR departments can cultivate relationships with journalists but ultimately the journalist’s allegiance lies with the publisher. In the blogging world, the blogger is the publisher so if advertisers, marketing departments, PR companies and brands can court the blogger they feel they can get their message across more effectively.

So while bloggers wittingly impart their pearls of wisdom to you, you might find advertising on the sidebar of the blog to help generate income for said blogger. Or you might find the odd sponsored post or giveaway. Who doesn’t love a giveaway? All these things are designed to generate traffic to a blog, thus increasing advertising revenue and the mummy blogger can fulfil her need and want to work without the stress of leaving the house.

“If you build it, they will come” Field of Dreams

I posted earlier this week about a Blogger’s Brunch that I attended where there were 50 mummy bloggers in attendance and all of them tweeting about their experience at the same time. 50 bloggers x their followers and retweets makes for a very fast travelling grapevine.

“It’s a beautiful thing.” Lefty, Donnie Brasco

And the blog isn’t just for the writers. Nooo. It can help market your own business; which is what a lot of the attendees at Blogopolis were hoping to achieve. It was reported in smh.com.au that more women than men are starting up their own business. And out of those women, most of them are new mums. See how this is going?

Furthermore, websites such as Alli Price’s Motivating Mum and Connect2Mums are there to help the entrepreneurial mum.

It’s a brave new blogging world folks.

But what does that all mean for me. Well I don’t know. I write my blog because I want to write. I write my blog to raise my profile. I write my blog to have examples of my work to show potential editors when I pitch for freelance writing gigs.

And even though I come from a marketing/PR background and completely understand everything that is unfolding, for now I just want to write.

So maybe I’ll be the poor struggling artist or maybe someday a sponsor will come along who will fit in with my blog so well it will be just like kismet. I don’t know.

But the one thing that I am forever grateful for is the opportunity to meet other bloggers because while the conference was an information packed event, it’s the conversations I had with other bloggers that really gave me food for thought.

I present you with
Twitchy Corner
So Now What?
Precocious Lotus
My Idea Life
Maid in Australia
Seven Cherubs
Edenland
Frills in the Hills
Good Goog
Kylie Oifu
Easy Peasy Kids
Tina Gray {dot} Me

That’s just for starters. If you click on Nuffnang Blogpolis you will see the list of speakers and attendees. To quote Molly Meldrum, “do yourself a favour” and have a look see.

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