Attending BlogWorld Expo last weekend was sort of an eye-opening experience. While the actual BlogWorld leadership was supportive of the fact that I needed to be in close proximity to my baby for nutritional purposes, the Las Vegas Convention Center was not.

Now, I understand the arguments behind not having a bunch of kids at a professional conference. In my mind, it boils down to responsible parents. Had I actually been allowed to take my baby into sessions, I would have only done so when she was sleeping or quiet, and I would have sat in the back so as to leave quickly should she start to be disruptive. That’s just common courtesy.

The weirdest reaction I received probably came from the “gentleman” who informed me that children should not be allowed in Las Vegas. I got the distinct impression that he thought I sucked as a human being for having Dot there. I stuck up for myself, though:

The best reaction was from one of the BlogHer bigwigs who assures me I should come to their conference where they once had a session delivered by a presenter while she was breastfeeding.

One of my biggest concerns was that she might disturb other people by crying. Fortunately, she did me proud, and if you added up all the time she spent crying all weekend, it might have totaled about four minutes. Trust me, that is way less time than many of the attendees spent whining about how slow the internet connection was. Considering it was free and there were thousands of people using it, I found their fussing to be more inappropriate than hers.

The longer I spend dwelling on the subject, the more bothered I am that people feel that a baby (that they are not even expected to care for) is an inconvenience. Sure, if she’d been crying a lot, I could see how that would be quite frustrating. But for people to be annoyed just because a baby was in the room…that’s really their problem more than mine and Dot’s, isn’t it?

In some ways, breastfeeding is a sacrifice on the mother’s part. In other ways, it is more than its own reward. Still, I think it’s appalling that I should also be expected to sacrifice my career because I need to physically be close to my baby. I find it insulting, as a matter of fact.

In a manner of speaking, I really did feel somewhat discriminated against, and I’m not quick to jump on that bandwagon. It felt to me as if I was expected to choose between being a breastfeeding mother and being a professional woman. How is it possible that in 2008, we still don’t see that it is possible to be both?

Don't keep Shakespeare in the basement.

Overall, BlogWorld was a pretty great experience for us. Although we weren’t able to do as much as we’d hoped, we did meet some wonderful people and learn some valuable information. We’ll probably be talking about and offering up videos of our experience there for the next week or two, so I thought I’d start out with what has become one of my favorite analogies ever.

This one was brought to us by SEO expert Michael Wolf (aka GrayWolf), and the imagery has yet to cease making me laugh. In a nutshell, he said that no matter how great your content is, you have to take advantage of and pay attention to SEO; letting your product or service just sit there is like keeping Shakespeare locked in a basement. (Considering the fact that I have no basement – just a creepy crawl space oozing with spiders and things that go bump in the night – this is particularly ominous. I don’t think he would have liked it down there. Poe, on the other hand…)

The session I saw him in was all about using SEO to get your blog a bigger audience and higher page hits. Although quite a bit of it was related to the tech side of things, and was therefore way beyond my comprehension, a lot of what he (and the other panelists Brian Clark and Lee Odden) said made sense. Here’s a brief and paraphrased overview:

• If nothing else, always put your keyword in the title.
• The best keyword use in the world won’t help unless you have interesting, relevant content.
• Keyword stuffing techniques are NEVER a good idea, because Google will figure them out.
• Links in remain the best way to raise your page listing (i.e., be interesting and interactive enough to get people to link to you).
• If you don’t understand how to put the right plugins into your WordPress or tweak the technical stuff to optimize SEO, hire someone who does.
• Controversy sparks interest; there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
• Create a 404 Not Found page that is unique to your site and has your branding.

Although much of this information reiterates what many of us already know, it’s good to hear it from a group of professionals who are pretty much the experts of the experts in the field. Blog writing is fun, but we also have to remember that a successful blog is one that pays attention to page hits, views, and links. You may not be Shakespeare, but you certainly don’t deserve to be kept in the basement, either.

Stay tuned for regular updates here on Freelance Parent all weekend long. For even more coverage, visit the special Sparkplugging BlogWorld link, where all of our great bloggers will be submitting their videos.

Wish you were here!