Blog Podium

I don't even know where to start with this! it was SUCH  a fun time!

Carly came Friday night and we spend the night sipping wine and catching up over yummy greek food. Love that girl so much! One of those people that months can go by and its like no time has even passed.

Saturday morning we headed downtown to Blog Podium and I have to admit I was pretty nervous about meeting all of the amazing women behind the blogs I read every day. The event was beautiful, they gave us notebooks to write in and lots of good information. The topic was monetizing your blog, so there was a ton of good advice about sponsors, advertising, giveaways and everything in between.

The number one thing I took away from it was there is no formula or right or wrong way to do things. you have to just go with your gut. Some things might be okay for some blogs, but if they don't feel right for you, thats okay!

I feel like blogs are such a new form of 'advertising' that many companies know even less about what to expect then the bloggers themselves. Go out on a limb, approach a company or etsy shop, the worst they can say is no.

Its more likely a company will give you a free product instead of money in your account. which makes total sense, and has my wheels turning about things that could be a good partnership.

after that we got to meet the great sponsors of the event and had some fun with the smilebooth!

Interested to know who these ladies are?

holly of holly knitlightly 

elycia (& ivan!) from love elycia

rachel from the paper hearts blog

julie from the life of a cupcake

chantilly from my girl thursday

kait from miss kait online

ang from the sunshine memoir

mel from smiles from mel

and after that we had TONS of fun going out for dinner and drinks and more drinks and more drinks and MORE DRINKS....it was a late night! 

It was soo cool to meet these people in real life, talk about blog people like they were our best friends, and have so many laughs. I had a feeling these bloggin gals would be awesome but I was totally blown away, it was honestly like we had known each other for ages! which, in a silly way, we have..just never in person. 

I can't wait for our next toronto blogger meet up and I'm so happy to have these awesome girls as new friends. (and happy that now I can say 'my friend' instead of 'this girl who's blog I read') 

xox