And the winner of a FREE night @ The Ritz is ....

Jael Custom Designs a.k.a. Jen says:
June 19, 2010 at 7:33 pm

My #1 reason is so I know I will go no matter what if my registration is complete and I’m also saving. It’s a win win situation! Can’t wait for Carnival either, I’ll be reppin’ Jamaica hard!

Twitter Link!
http://twitter.com/JaelDesignsInc/statuses/16577703161

Jen, please contact us with your information. Congratulations!!!!!

Early bird has been extended!!!

When things heat up, they can sometimes quickly cool down. We've had some technical difficulties recently with our site and we haven't been able to upload the speaker and session information that you've asked for. Therefore, our technical difficulties is your Blogalicious gain!

We're extending our early bird until July 7, 2010. Hopefully we'll get it all together and we'll have the site up and running with all the information you need to register for the best blogging conference of the 2010!

Blogalicious 2010 Sessions!!

I hope that you all enjoyed our little teaser from Friday. Here's another teaser-- our Blogalicious Sessions!! Each week we will be highlighting a few speakers and some of our sessions. We will also post our full agenda soon.

Here are the sessions we have lined up so far. Remember, early bird registration ends this week, on July 1st. Don't delay!!

LIFESTYLE TRACK
1. Chronicles of Fit Divas
2. Social Media Moms
3. Best Business Practices for the Lifestyle Blogger
4. Building Your Social Media Tribe
5. Style File: Trends in Fashion & Beauty Blogging
6. Love That! Design Blogging
7. Foodies

TECHNICAL TRACK & WORKSHOPS
1. New Bloggers Guide: Blogging 101 & 201
2. Building Your Media Toolkit: Kits, Training and More
3. The Smart Girl's Guide to Smartphones & Apps
4. Twitter 201 - Creating True Engagement with 140 Characters
5. Strike a Pose: Taking Better Photos for Your Blog
6. How Important Are Your Stats?
7. CSS, HTML & Blog Design
8. Blogger's Toolbox: Platforms & Plugins
9. Vlogging 101
10. Good Blog Writing: A Workshop


ENTREPRENEURIAL TRACK
1. Marketing to Latinas
2. Making Your Blog Your Business
3. Bloggers as Brand Ambassadors
4. The Book Deal: A Guide for Bloggers
5. Self-Promotion: Be Your Own CEO

We also have a great and easy contest going on where you can win one free night at the Ritz Carlton, South Beach, our conference hotel! Check out the contest and rules here. Hurry, the contest ends July 1st!

Speakers and Sessions!

We’ve been busy for Months! Weeks! Days! finalizing our speakers and sessions to ensure that we have a great agenda for you all. Although there are still a few more days to submit your speaker proposals, we would like to share a few of the fabulous sessions and speakers on our line-up. (As a reminder, you can submit your speaker proposals until June 30, 2010.)

Before I go into the details of some of our speakers, let’s do a little preview of what we have lined up for the weekend.

• We have will have three breakout tracks – entrepreneurial, technical, and lifestyle.
• Conference begins Friday, October 8, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. and ends Sunday at 3pm. This means more time to learn, mingle, and celebrate our diversity!
• We will provide daycare for those attendees wanting to travel with their children/families.
• Another great line-up of fabulous women and men!
• Early bird registration ends July 1, 2010- don’t delay in registering early!

So let’s get right into it and start highlighting just some of the speakers and sessions we have planned for Blogalicious Weekend 2010!

The Session: Building Your Social Media Tribe. Learn how to promote, gather, and engage your community by women that have built and gathered their own communities. The speakers will share their social media tools, how-tos, and best practices for all those attendees that want to gather their own communities, regardless of its niche!

The Track: Lifestyle

Speaker Highlight: Ana Flores; Spanglishbaby.com

If you haven’t met Ana Flores of Spanglishbaby yet, let me introduce you to one of our favorite bloggers. Ana Flores is truly a child of two worlds. Born in Houston to parents from El Salvador, Ana grew up in El Salvador until she headed back to the U.S. to attend the University of Florida and receive a Bachelor in Telecommunications-Production. Since then she has worked as television and entertainment producer, with a specialty in the U.S. Hispanic industry, both in the U.S. and in México.

Ana and her husband moved to Los Angeles five years ago when the TV industry came calling back. They thought they had escaped it all when they moved to Playa del Carmen in México to act as irresponsible beach bums, but the offer was too tempting to pass up. Three years ago, they joyously welcomed their daughter into their bilingual and bicultural family. These days, Ana Lilian is splitting her time as a brand consultant building bridges with Latina bloggers, a freelance writer and TV producer, and dedicating precious time to her labor-of-love blog for parents raising bilingual and bicultural children: SpanglishBaby .

The Session: Bloggers as Brand Ambassadors. This session will be a hands-on workshop to train bloggers in handling the ups, downs, and unexpected of being a brand ambassador. The speakers will share three different case studies that can arise when bloggers work as brand ambassadors and will lead a conversation on possible approaches and devise the best possible solutions and outcomes. Participants will come away with tangible, useful, and lasting problem solving skills, not to mention a better understanding of the large companies and brands that retain bloggers for their marketing campaigns. Awesome!

The Track: Entrepreneurial

The Speakers: Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann are the founders and principals of The Motherhood Creative.

Cooper spent two decades working in top tier public relations agencies in New York and Washington DC before co-founding TheMotherhood.com and TheMotherhood Creative. In addition, Cooper has written for numerous media outlets including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the HuffingtonPost, MomsRising and BlogHer.com and has been featured in several books about mothers online. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband and their four children where they are active in their community and spend far too much time carpooling to and from sporting events.

Emily ran corporate public relations firms in New York and Dallas for clients CBS, Scholastic, Frito-Lay, Morgan Stanley and others, and was Director of International Business and Acting Commissioner to the United Nations and Consular Corps for New York City. She co-authored the book Living with the End in Mind, published by Crown Books and featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show numerous times. She has written for BlogHer and MomsRising and several books and anthologies. Emily lives in Larchmont, NY, with her husband, two girls and their hyper-active dog.

The Session: Self-Promotion: Be your own C.E.O. Bloggers will learn how to start, manage, and build their own company.

The Track: Entrepreneurial

The Speaker: Lucinda Cross; CorporateMomDropouts.com

Lucinda Cross is a speaker and author and founder of Corporate Mom Dropouts, blog, radio show and book. For several years, she has made it her life’s mission to uplift, inspire and change people’s lives. She likes to call herself a catalyst for motivation, passion and high energy and has worked with small business owners supporting them to work on their business and not in their business, and women who were interested in learning how to work from home and take charge and create the life they love.

Lucinda has created a highly successful marketing implementation company for small business owners. She is also the creator of several successful programs such as Marketing Made Easy for Corporate Mom Dropouts, I Want More: 6-Figure Mom Marketing Implementation Kit.

Her life has been filled with wonderful experiences – from being a single mother, to a Mompreneur, sharing her gifts as a marketing strategist, mentor and writer she uses that wisdom and insight to motivate moms to create a better life, a better community and a better business. She has been featured in New York Enterprise, Black Star News, Harlem News, 1600am, LA Business Week, Essence Magazine, several Internet Radio shows.

June's sizzling with events

June 13, 2010

We are thrilled that the awesomely fabulous ladies of The CleverGirls Collective will be hosting The Bay Area Blogalicious Mixer...

What is the Blogalicious Mixer, you ask? It's a good time. It's a bloggy get-together. It's social media soiree. It's an opportunity to meet with fellow female friends (of the online variety) to enjoy delicious treats, cocktails, and each other's sparkling company. Plus some good, old fashioned swag.
The Blogalicious Mixer is an intimate afternoon of wine, women, and blogs, celebrating the diversity of women of all ethnicities in social media.
Above all, the Blogalicious Mixer is a party! You'll enjoy:

* An afternoon in one of San Francisco's most celebrated event locales
* Delicious snacks of the healthy and chocolate varieties
* A hosted wine bar
* Gift bags
* Celebrity guest, Kim Coles


This event is free to attend but space is extremely limited, so please register here as soon as possible!



June 13, 2010

Blogalicious will be heating up Chicago in June. Join us for an afternoon of relaxation and fun. Come to connect with old bloggy friends; come to make new ones; come for an afternoon away from the kids; come for an outing with the kids. It doesn't matter what the reason; just come and enjoy! Light refreshments will be provided, and kids are welcome. The event is free, but space is limited so please RSVP today.

Heating up Chicago is sponsored by:












June 19th, 2010

Blogalicious and The Red Pump Project are teaming up for what promises to be a fun-filled night. We invite you to Say RED: Cocktails and Conversations in celebration of the Blogging While Brown conference, Juneteenth and raising awareness about HIV/AIDS - the perfect combination! There's one requirement though - you MUST wear red pumps. It's not that difficult and it's super fab. If you don't have red pumps, we're giving you 2 weeks to get a pair (and if you can't swing pumps after a day of conferencing, we totally understand, so we'll take red shoes:).

We are still finalizing the location, but make sure to RSVP because space will be limited.

Win a Free Night at the Ritz- It's Easy!

There are so many reasons why South Beach is a great place to hold the second annual Blogalicious Weekend Conference that we decided to try and list them all, right here! Let's face it, between the possible celebrity sightings, to the fabulous restaurants, and beautiful beaches, South Beach is hot and sexy. Let's not forget the surrounding Miami neighborhoods that offer an eclectic mix of urban lifestyle living and traditional Latin flavors. I mean really, is there a better place to hold a conference? Not just any conference, but a Blogalicious conference.

We don't think so! And based on the standing ovation you guys gave us last year when we announced Miami as our next location, we think you all agree - Miami is it!

But aside from all the great things about Miami, how about all the great reasons why registering for Blogalicious before our early bird prices end on July 1st is a great idea?

When you combine the great things about Miami and the reasons why you have to register early, we've got our very own Top Ten list!

Here are the Top Ten Reasons to Register Early for Blogalicious 2010

1. When you watch the next episode of Basketball Wives, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you too, will have a chance to visit the same restaurants, boutiques, and hotel as Evelyn, Jennifer, Suzie, and the rest of the gals. You might even spot one of the gals since the second season was just picked up by VH1.

2. You'll save $65.00 on registration which equals two mango mojitos, a nice Cuban dinner, and Cuban dessert at a great South Beach restaurant.

3. You won't end up on the waiting list because Blogalicious 2010 WILL.sell.out. We've doubled attendance this year but passes are going fast.

4. You already booked your room at the Ritz, so go ahead and register!

5. The "I'm Going to Blogalicious" badge is not only a cute accessory to your blog, but another way to let everyone know you are going to hottest conference this year. Woot!

6. The early flamingo catches the Blogalicious worm. You'll start to get exclusive, attendee insider tips, news, and benefits so don't miss out!

7. Registering is already on your to-do list so register today and scratch that sucker off- done!

8. You don't want to spend your Blogalicious money on your summer vacation with the family, boyfriend, girlfriend, your dog, or whomever.

9. Will Smith said it best in 1998, "Bienviendo a Miami... [it's] the city that keeps the roof blazing!"

10. When will you ever have another chance to stay at a luxury South Beach hotel like the Ritz Carlton for only $199 a night?!

So here is what we are doing. We are holding a contest where you can enter for a chance to win one free night at the Ritz Carlton, South Beach. That's a prize value of $199, plus taxes.

Here's all you have to do to enter to win one free night:

1) Tweet your reason why registering for Blogalicious before the early bird is a fabulous idea. We've listed our reasons above as an example. Be sure to use the hashtag #blogalicious10 in your Tweets.

2) Leave us a comment with your reason(s) in this post and provide a link to your tweet so that we know you did it. One entry for every unique tweet and comment!

3) Get two entries for every unique post on your blog. Like Rule #2 above, leave us a comment here so we know you did it.

Additional rules: You don't have to be registered for the conference to enter this contest, but you must be registered by 11:59 pm July 1, 2010 to win. If you are not registered by July 1, 2010 you can't claim your prize and we'll give your night to the next winner! You must also claim your prize by 5:00 PM EST on July 12, 2010.

One winner will be selected at random and announced on Friday, July 2, 2010.

So what's your reason!?

Recap of Blogalicious DC Meetup: Creating Your Digital Footprint

The second Blogalicious DC Meetup was another great event. Our speakers, Terri Holley, Scrappin’ Michele,ProMomBlogger and moderator Ananda Leeke shared advice, tips and priceless information on Creating Your Digital Footprint with our enthusiastic audience. Everyone in attendance also received an impromptu tutorial on Foursquare 101! The discussion was so lively and informative that we quickly ran out of time. These ladies were so energized to continue the conversation that they took to the sidewalk to chat…Next time we’ll have to plan for an afterparty!

Thanks to the Washington, DC Economic Partnership for lending us their swank space for our event, as well as to Niambi Jarvis and the DC Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives, and Food Arts DC for the delectable refreshments.

If you missed the event, don’t worry – you can check out photos here.

Stay tuned for a meetup in your neck of the woods soon!

Blogalicious DC: Sex and the City II Movie Night {UPDATED}

Wow! The 7pm movie on 5/27 is SOLD OUT! If you weren't able to get your ticket, no worries. Come on out and meet us at Zengo for happy hour at 5pm! We'll be networking, chatting and mingling in our Blogalicious fabulousness.

Carrie and her girls are back!

Join the Blogalicious DC community on Thursday, May 27, 2010 for a night out to celebrate spring, girl power, and each other. We'll be meeting at the bar at Zengo at 5pm for Happy Hour and then heading over to watch the 7pm show at Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14.

You MUST PRE-ORDER your tickets to guarantee admission to the movie. Click here to purchase your movie tickets from Fandango. Make sure to purchase a ticket for the 7PM SHOW ON MAY 27th.

Gather your best girlfriends and get Blogalicious!

Blogalicious 2010 Sponsored Blogger Policy

It’s very important to us that the Blogalicious Weekend conferences remain as accessible as possible to the bloggers that want to attend. For this reason, we make it a priority to keep the registration costs as low as possible, the hotel room rates as reasonable as possible, and to offer important extras – like sharing a Family-Friendly Area Guide with conference attendees beforehand, assisting attendees with finding a roommate, and providing free childcare to those parents are attending Blogalicious with their little ones in tow.

Still, we recognize that some bloggers may want or need to have their Blogalicious Weekend registration and trip expenses sponsored by a company that they have a working relationship with. That’s a-ok with us and we are more than happy to know that brands are recognizing our importance as ambassadors for their products and services. That said, we have to make sure that the Official Blogalicious Weekend Sponsors are not overshadowed by the companies sponsoring individual bloggers (“unofficial sponsors”). To make sure that everyone is happy and that our Official Sponsors get their due, we have put together these guidelines for bloggers seeking individual sponsorship to Blogalicious Weekend 2010:

Ø You may not represent yourself as an official representative of Blogalicious in order to secure individual sponsorship to the conference.

Ø No swag, gifts or materials from unofficial sponsors may be distributed or posted within the conference space, directly or indirectly.

Ø You may not use the Blogalicious Weekend 2010 room block to secure a room to host a private event for your sponsor.

Ø Any private events hosted by/for your sponsor must not conflict with the Official Conference Agenda.

Ø If you are working with a company that is interested in becoming an Official Blogalicious Weekend Sponsor, please have them contact us at: sponsors@blogaliciousweekend.com We’d love to have them!

Questions? Email us at: info@blogaliciousweekend.com

Paying It Forward

Image Credit: The Research Goddess

Jonesie, Ny and I are firm believers in putting out into the universe what we hope to receive. And, we like to conduct business that way. This includes “paying it forward” by lifting up others in recognition of those who lifted us up. Do I sound sappy enough yet? I say all of this, because it’s the truth!

We were contacted awhile back by the wonderful Research Goddess, Amybeth Hale, who was writing a story about “media professionals to watch,” and we were honored and humbled to learn that Elisa Camhort-Page of BlogHer had given our names as women to be featured in the story. {I especially love how she came up with the idea in the first place.}

You can link to the original story on Mashable here and the expanded story on the Research Goddess’ site here, but that’s not the point of me posting. What I really wanted to do is acknowledge the importance of paying it forward to those around you. In this day and age, when so much of social media is clouded with negative publicity and pitting various groups against each other, it is so heartwarming to know that, at the core of the medium, community and relationships remain the driving force. So thanks (again) to Elisa and Amybeth!

Who would you lift up to pay it forward?

Blogalicious @ BlogHer - I'm in a Bloggy State of Mind

The excitement about Blogalicious has been building ever since last October when Blogalicious Weekend 2009 was over. Folks have been buying tickets, exchanging numbers, booking hotel rooms, finding roommates and just looking forward to seeing each other again. We're all pretty psyched about Miami and all the fabulousness that South Beach will add to the conference.

But, if you can't wait until Miami to re-connect with all your friends IRL, then you MUST join us at BlogHer in New York City this summer. Blogalicious, in conjunction with BlogHer, is hosting one of BlogHer's official community parties during the conference and it's going.to.be.pretty.awesome!

When you think about a song that epitomizes New York City, don't you just think of "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel and Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' rendition of "Empire State of Mind"? Big lights, city streets, cocktails and we can now add....Blogalicious ladies.

We invite you to join us for a night of dancing, cocktails and just plain ole fun as we revel in a "Bloggy State of Mind."

If you're already registered for BlogHer (either a Full Conference pass, Saturday-only pass or a Party pass) please RSVP to reserve your spot on the guest list for this party. The list is open to any registered BlogHer attendee and we can't wait to hang out with you. Please RSVP here.

We hope to see you in August and can't wait for the BlogHer party of the year. If you'd like to sport some blog bling, here are your badges.

90 Days!

Early Bird Registration for Blogalicious 2010 closes in less than 90 days! Don't wait until the last minute to register; the conference will sell out and you definitely want to be there.

Register Today!

Questions? Email: info@blogaliciousweekend.com or check our out FAQs on the conference website.

Quick Announcements re Blogalicious 2010

Seven months to go! We've already been getting lots of questions from those of you getting a leg up on planning your trip to Blogalicious 2010. We love the enthusiasm! Here are a couple things to assist you in your planning:

1 - Is it true that this year's conference is 3 FULL days?

Why YES it is! We heard your feedback loud and clear that you wanted more time for sessions, networking and hands-on seminars. In order to maximize your experience, we decided to begin this year's conference on Friday morning and go through until Sunday evening. Hopefully this allows you to dig your heels in and get everything you want out of the weekend without affecting your travel plans. Bonus - for many of us, Monday, October 11 is a holiday!

2 - When (and how) can I reserve my hotel room for Blogalicious 2010?

The Blogalicious hotel room block at the chic Ritz Carlton-South Beach is now open. We are excited to offer you a competitive rate of $199/nt starting the Thursday night prior to the conference through the following Monday. Feel free to request a room with 2 double beds to share the cost with bloggy friends. You can connect with potential roommates on our Big Tent forum. Or pamper yourself with a room all to yourself.

To reserve by telephone, call 305.671.2609 or 1.800.241.3333 and reference group name (MamaLaw/ Blogalicious), and event dates.

To reserve online, go to:
http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/SouthBeach/Rooms/Default.htm. To apply the discount select “Optional information”, and in the field entitled “Group code” enter MMLMMLA

You will not be charged to reserve your room.

Any questions? Send us an email to: info(at)blogaliciousweekend(dot)com or leave us a comment.

Reminder: Early Bird Registration is open!

Connect, Chat, Share, Learn: Join Our Forum!

It's been awhile since we've mentioned our online forum for the Blogalicious community, and thought now was a great time to remind everyone about it!

Our BigTent group is a place for you to connect with one another, bounce ideas off of each other and engage in all kinds of useful discussions with your fellow bloggers. The forum is also a great way to stay up to date on Blogalicious news and announcements. You'll be the first to know about opportunities, events and have the chance to shape our conference programming and other activities. You can also find roommates for Blogalicious 2010; figure out carpools; find out what to pack and other useful tidbits. We also post event photos and files for you to view and download - like our conference speaker and webinar instructor presentations. It's free and takes only seconds to sign up.

So c'mon and join us!

Download BlogaBytes # 4 - Tax Tips for Your Blog

Thanks once again to Shannon Nash for conducting last night's webinar "Tax Tips for Your Blog". It was chock-full of information that was extremely useful for anyone that blogs as a business.

If you would like to download the presentation for review, please click here.

Please make sure to contact Shannon with any questions that you may have. Visit her site at shannonnash.com or on Twitter @shannonnash

Ask us anything!

Ask us anything!

Recap from BlogaBytes Webinar #3 - How to be #1 on Google

Thank you for attending our webinar last Thursdaay with awesome instructor Adria Richards on “How to be #1 on Google without Paying a Small Fortune.”

Please take a moment to complete a short survey (here) and let us know what you thought.

Links for Attendees of this session
Google Analytics Signup - http://google.com/analytics
Wordpress.org is the self-hosted version of Wordpress requiring a domain name and hosting - http://wordpress.org
Copyblogger, resource for writing great content for the web - http://copyblogger.com
What is SEO? Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
What is Google Page Rank? Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_page_rank

Links to Adria's content
Adria's training website for blogging and SEO - http://freshworkshops.com
Original show on this topic at AskAdria, How To Be #1 On The Google Without Spending A Small Fortune - http://bit.ly/Y5liP
Adria's tech blog - http://butyoureagirl.com
Adria weekly technology show - http://askadria.com

Contact Info for Attendees
You can contact Adria via her website at http://freshworkshops.com/contact
Via Email adria.richards@freshworkshops.com
Via Twitter http://twitter.com/adriarichards
By Phone 612-246-4568

Blogalicious Bytes Webinar # 4 - Tax Tips for Your blog

April 15th is fast approaching and we all have to get it together (really, scramble) to do our taxes in time. If you make any money from your blog, then you will most definitely want to attend our Blogalicious Bytes FREE webinar "Tax Tips for Your Blog" with Tax Attorney, CPA Shannon Nash. Shannon will walk you through what you will have to do to be IRS-compliant.

We've squeezed in a webinar on March 10th @ 9:00 pm so you can be equipped with the necessary information to get it right! Please register HERE and we look forward to joining you next Wednesday night.

A little more about Shannon

Shannon King Nash is a CPA, Attorney, Author and Entrepreneur. She is the President of the Nash Management Group, an entertainment and business management firm based in Los Angeles and Atlanta that represents entertainers, producers, foundations, high net-worth individuals and companies. She is also a partner with Atlanta based, Register Lett LLP, a boutique law firm specializing in entertainment, media and intellectual property law.

Shannon was Senior Counsel for Amgen Inc., where she worked at both its US headquarters in California and its European headquarters in Switzerland. She was responsible for contracting/procurement, compliance, international tax, and federal and state income tax audits and appeals. Shannon was also counsel to the Amgen Foundation.

Prior to Amgen, Shannon was a Tax and Corporate Associate with Cooley Godward Kronish LLP (formerly Cooley Godward LLP) and K&L Gates LLP (formerly Kirkpatrick and Lockhart LLP), where she concentrated on corporate and partnership taxation, venture capital fund formation and operations, mergers and acquisitions, trusts and estates, and nonprofit organizations.

Shannon is the author of the award winning book, "For the Love of Money: The 411 to Taking Control of Your Taxes and Building Your Net Worth.” This practical financial empowerment book uses popular songs (from Marvin Gaye to Snoop Dog) to teach valuable finance and tax lessons. She also wrote the "Vault Guide to Tax Law Careers," and "Helping the Nonprofit Client."

Shannon received her BS in Accounting from the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce and her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. Her website is www.nashgroup-usa.com and you can find her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/shannonnash.

Social media star Priscilla Renea

For those of you who attended Blogalicious 2009, you had the distinct pleasure of hearing Priscilla Renea before her album was released. I heard her again today at an event I attended in DC. I didn't realize that she started off on YouTube (just like Justin Bieber), so here's an artist that is from social media and is using social media to share her talent. Please support her by following her on Twitter @priscillarenea and getting her cd. Here's a clip from YouTube and check out her website.

Trends in Social Media

We're in the thick of crafting our conference program for Blogalicious Weekend 2010 and we're curious to hear what you think are the hot trends right now in social media. Is it personal branding? Is it mobile? Is it {still} Twitter? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

Blogalicious DC Event Recap

Our first Blogalicious Meetup was a success! Last Wednesday, about 100 women bloggers attended our first local event at the National Council of La Raza. The camaraderie was fantastic, the speakers were enlightening, and the evening left us full of promise for what is now a bonafide Blogalicious DC network. Thanks again to Xina Eiland for pulling together a wonderful evening.

A special shout out goes to Sandra Hicks and Chante Smith who drove alllll the way from Atlanta to attend. Now that's what we call Blogalicious!


Video Recap {Thanks to Tyler New Media for this video!}

BlogaliciousDC Meetup Recap from Tyler New Media on Vimeo.

BET Study: "African Americans Revealed"

MediaPost recently reported that BET published the results of a study finding that African Americans posses major influence in tech, media and buying power.

The "African Americans Revealed" study of more than 80,000 African-American consumers on multi-media engagement and digital applications, shows African Americans are very tech savvy, with roughly 31% of African American discretionary spending dollars, or $39 billion, going toward the purchase of computers, cell phones and electronics - a proportionally higher percentage when compared to non-African Americans.

Some additional findings...

African Americans:

- Spend more weekly time online (18 hours) than watching television (15 hours)
- 93% go online traditionally via their PCs, while 76% access the web via their cell phones
- 60% have downloaded music, a TV show, movie or ringtone in the previous month
- 50% regularly update and access a social networking account

What I found most interesting about that study was the seven groups that African Americans were broken down into:

◦ The Strivers are mostly in their late 20's to early 40's and are adventurous, fashionable, social mavens and opinion leaders who have their eyes on climbing the executive ladder

◦ Conscious Sisters are selfless women that are spiritually connected and highly conscious of their culture

◦ Tech-Fluentials are digitally savvy and travel in globally conscious circles

◦ Bright Horizons are young adults in high school and college that are aware of all available technology and electronic gadgets

◦ Inner Circle Elites are working women rich in their cultural, ancestral and spiritual roots

◦ Urban Dreamers are young, urban adults who are social magnets and trend setters intent on and focused on living life to the fullest

◦ Survivors are a group of risk-taking teen and young adult males who are hustling to keep their existence in check

According to the article, Matthew Barnhill, Senior VP of Corporate Research at BET Networks, says "African Americans Revealed shows us that the black community should never be referred to as one homogeneous population... We hope this report will help organizations better connect with an audience and intimately recognize all of its complexities.

We couldn't agree more!

Blogalicious Bytes #2: How to be #1 on Google without Paying a Small Fortune

Our next webinar is scheduled for March 4th at 9pm EST and we have been lucky enough to get Adria Richards to host another session on "How to be Number One on Google without spending a Small Fortune." Click HERE to reserve your spot for this informative session.

If you're a new blogger or an experienced one, a blogger trying to build a business, blogging for fun or blogging for work, you'll find this webinar crucial to understanding what you need to do to become #1 on Google.

If you're curious about which blogging platform is better for SEO, whether SEO rules still apply when using Wordpress for a blog and CMS, whether page rank is lessened by uploading too much content within a short time, what exactly page rank is and how to get it (these were a few questions asked at the previous webinar) -- then this webinar is for you.

Don't be afraid that this will be too technical for you because Adria will break it down in simple terms for us all to understand.

Please submit your questions beforehand so Adria can expand on the content of the presentation.

Hope you'll join us!

More about Adria

Adria Richards is an organic technology consultant, trainer and speaker. She is dedicated to empowering people through technology. Adria started her career at Geek Squad in 1999 and has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. She launched her own consulting company in 2006. She blogs at ButYoureAGirl, offers online training at Freshworkshops, does a weekly tech show at AskAdria and strives to raise awareness for open source, cloud/SASS applications and equality in technology.

Adria will be speaking at this year’s SXSW and BlogHer. She enjoyed last year's inaugural Blogalicious conference, was able to reconnect with many other women she had met at other events and had time at this event to have deeper discussions with many new people! She plans to return to the Blogalicious 2010 conference in Miami this October.

New Twitter Handle: @beblogalicious

Just a quick announcement to let you know that the Twitter handle for the Blogalicious conferences and other related events is now @beblogalicious. No need to re-follow us if you're already following our updates; this is just an FYI.

Please tweet and re-tweet if you're so inclined!

DC Meet-up scheduled for this Wednesday

Our very first Blogalicious IRL meet-up is scheduled in DC for this coming week and we are so excited. For most of us, it'll be our first time to connect with many of the fabulous ladies that we met at Blogalicious 2009, as well as meet many, many more fabulous people. We've been blessed to have the support of a few amazing ladies here in the DC area to help us get this together - thank you Xina, Tonya and Ananda. Without your unwavering support we don't know how we would have been able to plan this event.

So, look out for pictures and tweets (and maybe even live streaming - we'll keep up updated about the live streaming on Twitter). See you on Wednesday!

Calling All Editorialistas!

Blogalicious is currently looking for blog editors to write for it's soon-to-be-launched lifestyle destination site:My Blogalicious. The My Blogalicious opinion, entertainment and news site will feature columns on a variety of topics including: Politics, Relationships, Food, Style, Parenting, Home, Entertainment and Travel (just to name a few!) We ask for a minimum of 2 posts a week on your topic of expertise.

Applicants should have a minimum of 90 days consecutive blogging experience either on the topic or somehow related to the topic.

We are looking for bloggers who are passionate about their topic, who love to blog, and who will commit the time necessary to establish My Blogalicious as a "go-to" site for what's interesting to women of color on the web.

At this time this opportunity is unpaid, but you will continue to gain experience and gain critical exposure as an expert in your field.

If this sounds like you, then send us a completed application to info@blogaliciousweekend.com.

Recap from BlogaBytes Webinar # 2

Thank you for attending our webinar today with awesome instructor Adria Richards on “How to be #1 on Google without Paying a Small Fortune.”

Please take a moment to complete a short survey (here) and let us know what you thought.

If you missed it, Adria has graciously agreed to host this webinar again on March 4th, and you can register here.

How To Be Number One On Google Blogalicious


Here are a few links from today’s session for your reference:

Google Analytics Signup - http://google.com/analytics

Wordpress.org is the self-hosted version of Wordpress requiring a domain name and hosting – http://wordpress.org/

Great examples of Wordpress websites for Inspiration – http://welovewp.com/

Copyblogger, resource for writing great content for the web - http://copyblogger.com/

What is SEO? Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

What is Google Page Rank? Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_page_rank


Links to Adria’s content

Adria’s training website for blogging and SEO – http://freshworkshops.com/

Original show on this topic at AskAdria, How To Be #1 On The Google Without Spending A Small Fortune - http://bit.ly/Y5liP

Adria’s tech blog – http://butyoureagirl.com/

Adria weekly technology show – http://askadria.com/

More about tomorrow's FREE webinar

Our Blogalicious Bytes: Lessons in Social Media series continues with Session # 2 tomorrow, February 11th at 2 p.m. Please join instructor Adria Richards of butyoureagirl.com and freshworkshops.com as she presents on the topic How to be Number One On Google without paying a Small Fortune.

If you own a business and you’re on the internet, you have probably heard about your “Google rank”. Maybe someone has called or emailed you promising if you pay them a monthly fee, they can get you to the very top of Google.

A study by JupiterResearch and iProspect revealed that 68% of search engine users click a search result on the first page and a full 92% select one of the first three results!

Adria will show you how you can:
- Increase your search engine traffic
- Improve the quality of the traffic so that you have visitors interested in your product, services, conversation
- Use tools from Google to understand what people are searching for
- Install Google Analytics on your blog to measure your traffic
- Evaluate your visitor traffic to make sound decisions on your blogging strategy
- Steer clear of fake offers to artificially boost your ranking

Adria will also discuss what SEO is and what it isn’t using an example of good SEO content development.

Please RSVP today and tell your friends.

Social Media Advice for Brands

Yesterday the State of the Net conference took place in Washington, DC. The focus of the event is on technology policy in the U.S. and covers an array of topics related to the Internet. One of the sessions this year was entitled “Social Media in Tech Policy” (hooray to government for even recognizing the issue!) and the panel addressed their concerns with government agencies and companies diving into the social media waters headfirst, without the deep-sea gear.

On the one hand, it’s great that big agencies and brands are recognizing the potential to connect with the people that they serve, and their consumer base, by taking to the social media streets; on the other hand these entities need to make sure that they know what they’re getting into. The panel expressed that effective social media interaction requires a sustained effort on their part. It’s one thing to have access to the media, but it’s another thing entirely to actually be social. Companies take heed: you must engage your audience. It’s not enough to just have a Twitter account or a Facebook fanpage. You need to actively use it; listen to the conversations and add value to them. That’s the way to effect change, gain consumer feedback and develop goodwill.

The best advice? Hire someone that understands the space. You’ll be glad that you did. Another great place to start is to attend a workshop on the subject. When used properly, the fruits of social media engagement can be plentiful.

Blissful Bubbles + Bites @ Blissdom

I know that we do not have to tell you about the awesomeness that is the Clever Girls Collective. These gals have become fast favorites of the Blogalicious team. Besides being sweet as all get out, Sheila, Stefania and Cat are smart, sharp and know how to throw a party! Remember the Blogalicious 09 Sweet Suite? ‘Nuff said.

Which brings me to an exciting announcement…

The Clever Girls will be hosting a party at Blissdom 2010! You can RSVP here for Blissful Bubbles + Bites. Irresistable party elements include: chocolate fondue, boas, sparkly lip gloss, bubbly and a rack of raffle prizes from Clever List sponsors. Did I mention that Blogalicious 2010 is a sponsor of Blissful Bubble + Bites? That’s right. If you attend, you can enter to win a Blogalicious Beach Tote with everything you need for a fun day at the beach, including a Full Conference registration to Blogalicious 2010 – $265 value! You can read up on all the details here.

And leave us a comment to let us know if you’ll be at Blissdom. We’d love to clink glasses with ya.

Sign up for our second free webinar

Our Blogalicious Bytes: Lessons in Social Media series continues with Session # 2 on February 11th at 2 p.m. Please join instructor Adria Richards of freshworkshops.com and butyoureagirl.com as she presents on the topic How to be Number One On Google without paying a Small Fortune.

Please RSVP today and tell your friends.

Download webinar #1 - "Monetizing Your Blogs"

Our first webinar held on Monday January 18th, 2010, with instructor Ken Gibbs, Jr., former Site Development/Real Black Network Director on Essence.com, on the topic of "Money Matters: Monetizing Your Blogs" is now available for download here!

Social Media and the Haitian Crisis: Blogalicious 2009 Keynote Speaker James Andrews Explains

Using Social Media for Good

For anyone on Twitter today, the message is clear: #HELPHAITI.

I logged in expecting to see a few tweets about the tragic earthquake and was immediately taken aback that #HelpHaiti and #TextYele and #Port-Au-Prince and #RedCross are all trending topics. This, this, is where the power of social media really shines through. My heart was warmed to see the support that Yele Haiti, Wyclef Jean's Haitian Relief Organization, is receiving. Mamalaw has long been a supporter of Wyclef and this great organization and we keep the Yele button on our blog to spread the word to all of our visitors. His plea for everyone to donate $5 by simply sending a text is being re-tweeted like wildfire.


The country of Haiti is near and dear to our hearts. Justice Jonesie's family comes from Haiti and she still has several family members that live there. In fact, she just returned from visiting Haiti for the holidays less than 2 weeks ago. My mother volunteers with Project Medishare for Haiti and frequently makes trip to the island to help the poorest of people. I often hang up the phone after our conversations in tears after listening to her describe the sad scenes and unthinkable conditions that she'd witnessed. In short, Haiti is special to us.

And how amazing to see that Haiti is important to the Twitter community too. Our very own Blogalicious supporter @LuvvieIG has rallied her blogging community to generate support for Haiti by challenging everyone to place the Yele Haiti banner on their blogs and to donate both money and clothing to Haitians in need.


Blogalicious Weekend will be donating $.25 to the people of Haiti for each Twitter follower that we have. The mobilization and charitable support for Haiti on Twitter and the blogs today is amazing. And really embodies the essence of social media: Community.


We encourage our community to spread the word about the various ways to donate and to keep the earthquake victims in their thoughts and hearts.


A word to the wise: Don't take your social media influence lightly. With a quick re-tweet on Twitter, a short status update on Facebook or a meaningful post on your blog, you can make a difference in the lives of people hundreds of thousands of miles away. That's the real beauty of social media.