Highlights from Baby Bloggy Boot Camp – San Diego

Baby Bloggy Boot Camp (Baby BBC) San Diego

Disclosure: This post is written by me on behalf of Liz Lange and Ergobaby.  Product was provided.

A while back, I drove down to San Diego to attend Baby Bloggy Boot Camp (Baby BBC or #BabyBBC), an offshoot of the main Bloggy Boot Camp hosted by the SITS Girls. I wanted to hear how other bloggers made their blogs work while BWP (blogging while pregnant) or BWM (blogging while mom-ing). That is, do these bloggers lose their identity and just become another “mom blogger”? In some cases, I believe yes. In others, it doesn’t really change except that you add a new category. At the end of the day, this blog still remains a personal lifestyle blog where I run into cool products and experiences and live to tell about it.

Baby BBC – special mini conference for new moms and preggos like me

Rookie Moms presented first, and I found their session to be helpful to differentiate whether your blog was a personal blog about your experiences or a resource blog. Some resource blog ideas include:

• How-tos
• Solve a problem
• Curate & Round-up
• Commentary
• Share an Adventure

With personal blogging, ask yourself, would you tell this to a friend? (… that I have Godzilla-sized breasts and am a mouth-breather now? Yes, yes I would tell my friends this.)

Tiffany and Francesca, the founders of SITS Girls, started off the next panel on general blogging basics like design, SEO, and working with brands. While I work at a 20,000-foot level in social and online marketing, I don’t think about myself and my blog brand as much as I should. This session was a great reminder to remember that my blog is a business, too, and it needs as much attention as I pay to my corporate clients.

Top points to keep in mind:

• Keep your profanity to a minimum or null. (What the f*ck? Kidding.)
• Use big photos that look good
• Blog design is important
• Put your damn contact info on the front page – I can’t believe people still don’t do this. Don’t be an a-hole – put your damn contact info somewhere EASY TO FIND for brands and PR folks
• Fast load time – this is something to think about as I have deleted a ton of plugins to help this site load a bit faster.

The last highlight of Baby BBC for me were the sponsors showcase. The team from Ergobaby sent us home with some sweet swag – the new Four Position 360 carrier, Wrap, and the Swaddler. The 360 Carrier is not in stores yet; we were the first to get a sneak peek! It’s super padded for my shoulders as well as pretty well built for baby. There’s also a hidden hood if you want to protect the baby from the sun… or from strangers breathing on her/him.

Ergobaby awesomeness – carrier, wrap, swaddler – Baby BBC

Ergobaby Four Position 360 Carrier – not yet in stores (April 2014) – Baby BBC

The Wrap is really neat. I didn’t know Ergobaby made a Wrap.  I’m also relieved there are tons of videos on how to wrap the Wrap correctly. The first time I did it to show The Wife, I nearly choked myself and strangled my waist. He rolled his eyes and asked if I paid attention to the demo. I did! I took photos of Christina the marketing manager at the conference:

Ergobaby Wrap – Baby BBC

I showed the wife the new Swaddler we got, and he was excited. “Clarice…..ssttsttttttt.” Inside the swaddler are two arm pockets (as well as leg pouches!) where you can place the baby’s arms in each slot. We’ll have our own baby Lechter!

Ergobaby Swaddler – Baby BBC

Not everything was for baby. Liz Lange was also a sponsor, and I got to choose a dress from her maternity line. You know I love me some Liz Lange Maternity. I have a print top from Target as well as her full panel jean shorts.

There are several reasons why I keep going back to Liz Lange. First is style and fit. The clothes don’t look like tents. They are designed to fit boobs and bellies, and they make you look good. Second is quality. I’ve already killed my first maternity t-shirt from [insert a brand I’m not going to name]. It shrunk and the seams are all crooked now. I do appreciate that when I buy something from Liz Lange Maternity, it’s not going to get jacked up. Third is affordability and accessibility. Lots of Liz Lange Maternity clothes are available at Target, one of my favorite stores.

The dress I picked out is fab! It’s a little big on me at Week 23, but I know that by Week 30, this dress is going to fit perfectly. But even now, I could wear it as a midi dress with a wrap sweater. Bam!

Look at me all model-y! Liz Lange Maternity – Baby BBC

Last but not least, The Honest Company also dropped in a starter kit and some baby diapers for trial, as well as special jelly beans from Sugarwish! The candy was valuable during my drive back up to LA – that day, it rained so hard, I had to stop in Orange County for a break.

The Honest Company and Sugarwish swag – Baby BBC

All in all, this mini boot camp was terrific. It got me thinking about positioning my blog and to create a better plan on what I want to do with this ultimately. The sponsors’ products were invaluable and I so appreciate the team at SITS Girls/Sway Group who invited me to come join their Baby BBC in San Diego!

If you have the chance to go to a SITS Girls conference, I highly recommend it. I know that my other blogger pals stayed for the full Women Get Social (formerly known as Bloggy Boot Camp) that weekend, and they loved it. I wished I had blocked the time to stay and attend, too. Next time!

If you would like more info on the products, here you go! Official links:

• Ergobaby Four Position 360 Carrier – not yet y’all!
• Ergobaby Wrap 
• Ergobaby Swaddler
• Liz Lange Maternity
• The Honest Co
• Sugarwish

Disclosure: This post is written by me on behalf of Liz Lange and Ergobaby.  Product was provided. Some of these links are affiliate links.