Disclosure: I am participating in a competition in an attempt to win an all access pass to Blended Conference here in Arizona in October.

Last year, I got the opportunity to attend my first ever blogging conference –
.

With my anxiety, attending a blog conference out of state scared the living daylights out of me. Not to mention, I hate being away from my kids so attending Blended Conference was perfect for me. It’s here in Arizona so I don’t have to stay overnight without my kids, and I could attend a smaller scaled conference to get my feet wet (some of the “bigger” conferences have far too many in attendance for my comfort level).

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I attended. I’ll be honest again, I didn’t think I would walk away from there with everything I had gathered.

Here is what I gathered from Blended Conference:

• I made new friends with some lovely ladies that I met at the conference (and was able to put a real face with bloggers that I had been following!)
• I found new bloggers to
  
  stalk
  
  I mean, read.
• I learned new ways to improve my blog. I took pages and pages of notes and have been putting them to use over the months since I attended Blended Conference to improve my blog, improve myself, and improve my writing.
• I have shared what I learned with others. Knowledge is powerful and I love helping others.
  
  Once upon a time I was the new blogger asking a million questions.
  
  Who am I kidding? After almost 3 years I still ask a ton of questions and I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful support group of friends who are always kind enough to answer my questions. I like taking what I learn and paying it forward to others as well.

Here is what I hope to gather this year at Blended Conference:

• I hope to learn how to make a media kit and what is important to be on a media kit by Miss Maureen. Last year she shared about building a solid business foundation and I felt I learned a lot from her so I cannot wait to learn more from her!
• I hope to learn about SEO from the ever so popular Dan Morris. SEO is still lost on me so I’m hoping this will help me!
• I want to learn and meet more friends!

Last year, we were able to separate into two smaller groups and just have an open discussion and question/answer about blogging and I really enjoyed learning from other bloggers and how they do things.

Blogging is constantly changing and growing. I am constantly learning, changing, and growing to share the best content I can with my readers. I love to write and I love blogging. It isn’t just a hobby for me. I have a passion, I have a business, and I love to share with others.

I am hoping to win an all access pass to Blended Conference to be able to continue learning and growing. I had so much fun last year and I felt that it has made me a better blogger from before I attended. I’m hoping to only become better with more education!