I’ve pitched my tent in the business blogging track room for the day. I’m currently listening to Penelope Trunk, Stephanie Cockerl, and Nina Burokas talk about personal branding with our blogs.
Currently we’re talking about how to distinguish yourself in a sea of mommy bloggers – a participant wanted to know how to do just that – and Penelope nailed her with the perfect question, “What do you stand for?“. The participant couldn’t immediately answer that (she’s certainly not alone in that, either). But indeed, I think it’s a question everyone should be able to answer.
We then talked about keeping a tight niche – a very tight niche – but I made a point about some of my posts which have tended to seemingly stray off topic. I’ve found that as long as I tie it into home business, I not only pull it off, but they tend to be my most popular posts of all.
In a great ironic twist, Darren Rowse just put up a post about this exact subject today as well – Darren, are you with us here in spirit? 
You must be, because the presenters just cited you as a source for more info. Gotta love serendipity.
Ah – Penelope just made an inspiring point – that if you are blogging every day and not worried about pissing people off, you aren’t taking enough risks. Well said.
We’re now talking about getting bigger than our blogs – Nataly Kogan from WorkItMom just talked about a new-to-me source of getting yourself in front of traditional press called PRLeads.
Now we’re talking about getting book deals - a major publisher just raved about ChezPim and made an example of how this blog is both intriguing and appealing to a book publisher. She didn’t exactly go into detail as to what it is about ChezPim that makes her this way – hopefully I can corner her later and find out.
I loved this session – I definitely learned some things and made some great distinctions by listening. At the end, someone asked the panelists how to make money off of a blog and – get this – they said “You Can’t”. I nailed them on that one – and it’s certainly not easy and takes patience as you well know. But thankfully they graciously agreed with me that you CAN make money blogging.
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Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow). 
Easton Ellsworth is owner of 
Thank you so much for this running commentary, Wendy. I certainly appreciate it – it’s the second best to being there! (if that makes any sense…)
i thought my ears were burning
Wendy, thanks for the updates from the conference. As you know, I missed the deadline to register and didn’t see your message until too late today.
It sounds like the quality of sessions has been pretty high and I hope you are having a good time!
I’ve visited ChezPim and would be interested in her reply.
Some great nuggets in here, Wendy — thanks for sharing.
I like the “what do you stand for?” question, too… and, I know you’re big on that topic, based on your presentation at SOBCon this year.
It was also fun to imagine you live-blogging at BlogHer, too!
Wendy, thanks for the notes. I wish I had attended this session. Even though I’m not a mommy blogger, I think the question “What do you stand for?” is relevant to anyone who wants to start a blog and needs to set themselves and their business apart from the crowd.
BTW, I agree, you CAN make money from your blog. It may not be directly from ad revenue but if you attract new clients and sell products as a result of your blog, in my opinion, you’re making money from your blog.