Can’t Stay Put™ x Blogging While Brown Conference x New York City
I spent last weekend in New York, specifically Harlem, participating in the Blogging While Black Conference. Before I go into all of the wonderful highlights and things I learned, I must share what it took to get to NYC.
I am definitely the type of person to wait until the vey last minute to get my plane ticket, simply because I experience deeper discounts if I bid on priceline closer to my departure date. But this particular time I wasn’t having much luck. I got to Thursday morning (the day I was suppose to leave) without a plane ticket. The ticket prices were still beyond what I was willing to pay. I sat there thinking, “I know I’m not going to have to drop $400 for a ONE-WAY ticket to NYC from LA, that’s just not happening.” (To my credit they had been averaging between $350-400 the past week or so) I then remembered I had a homegirl who was a flight attendant. Buddy Pass! I was hoping and praying she could do something. How inconsiderate of me to hit her up the day of trying to get a buddy pass? smh. Anwyho, she came through and I was headed to the airport within the hour. For people who have used buddy passes before know that getting the actual pass is only a quarter of the battle. That standby life isn’t a joke, especially if you have a pass from someone who hasn’t been working for the airline for 30+ years. So (get ready for this), I flew from LAX to Phoenix with the hopes of flying to NYC from there. Nope not at all. The only way I was getting out of Phoenix and getting closer to NYC was to fly to Houston that night. I got to Houston at 4:30am Friday morning and thankfully got on the first flight out to Philadelphia. I get to Philadelphia and the standby list for flights to NYC was longer than girls weaves in Atlanta. I didn’t get on the first flight, so I decided to just hop on the local train and get to NYC that way. I was too close to NYC to get stuck in Philly trying to fly out. I finally got to NYC and was told my luggage would be at JFK. I trek to JFK from Penn Station. I talked to the clerk and he has no recollection as to where my bag is, even-though the computer said it was on the premises. He instructed for me to wait to see if my bag made the next flight scheduled to arrive from Phoenix, which was 2 hrs later. At this point I am 24hrs in. Something told me to start snooping around the baggage claim area just to be sure. What do you know, my bag was locked up in some cage that the clerk conveniently forgot about. Recap- I flew from LA to Phoenix to Houston to Philly and then rode the train to NYC. Was it worth it? Because I’m young and nimble, YES! Even-though, I was tired as all get out, my bank account was happy:)
Ok, so now that that is out of the way, we can get to the good stuff. I was super geeked to learn more about blogging and to rub shoulders with others on the same grind. The Blogging While Brown conference took place at the Schomburg Center for Research, in Harlem June 27-28, 2014. The conference is now 7 years old. The level of participation you select determines when your sessions begin. I started Saturday morning, because like you read above, my Friday was out of control.
My favorite session by far was “Six Ways to Make Six Figures From Blogging Without Ad Revenue,” put on by Lamar & Ronnie Tyler of Black and Married with Kids. They have the largest independent African-American marriage and parenting site on the web aimed at empowering married couples and combatting the negative images in the media about black families. In 6 years, they’ve grown their personal blog into an international brand, now with over 30 employees. They shared their history and how with persistence and hard work they were able to quit their jobs in corporate america. They also dropped A LOT of tips.
Majority of the people I talk to about the CSP™ site assume that the only way to make money is through ads. I think most people in general believe that. To be honest, generating an income from ads was never my intent or my main focus. I use and intend to use my site as a platform for everything I do and plan to do with Can’t Stay Put™. My strategy to generate income is a bit different. Now if it gets to the point where my traffic is ridiculous, I will surely accept some ad money. lol. Any who, a few ways to generate revenue could be through selling digital products like ebooks, audio books, podcast, instructional videos or physical products or membership programs. These are just a few to show that if you are indeed creative you can come up with ways to get yourself paid. The most important thing is to continue to build your brand and online presence so that you can eventually transform readers into customers. You have to be patient and consistent. Being patient is the hardest thing, especially when you are living in a day in time where technology has ramped up everything. We are use to having things NOW!
I also really enjoyed the “Yeezy Taught Us” , “Media Relations and Pitching,” and “Blogging 101” sessions. I’m still downloading everything I learned. I’ve definitely scheduled a time to revisit my goals and objectives for the next 9 months now that I have a new wealth of information.
I could go on and on about what I learned, but we would be here all day. I think the key take-aways for me are the following:
1. Remain passionate and focused on your mission
2. Don’t be afraid to collaborate with people that are within your niche and industry
3. Never stop learning
4. Don’t be discouraged. Many people may not understand the things that you are doing or why you are doing them. Just simply say, “I’m building my brand.” (They’ll understand later)
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the conference. I connected with some good people with the hopes of dope collaborations in the future. I’m super excited. Stay tuned:)
(It also didn’t hurt that the conference was in NYC, the best city in the world during the summer)
