I went to the most amazing conference last weekend.  It was called Brands & Bloggers Summit.  Now, you know that I’ve been to many conferences and events.  Instead of rehashing the events of this weekend (because there are a ton of posts already out with what we learned.  You can also see a lot of what happened on Twitter using the hashtag #bbsummit11.)  However, if you are wondering if you should come next year, I’ve got the list:

1.  The people.  Yes, it was mostly women, so we also know how to take care of one another.  One blogger tweeted that they wanted a Diet Coke.  If you can believe it, another blogger brought her one.  :)  Another blogger needed some aspirin and some was given to her.  Now, I can honestly say I’ve never been at a conference where I’ve seen such big hearts.  Oh yes, we also all took turns holding the babies (who have to say were seen and not heard.  And they were cute.)

2.  Affordable.  Since it was one day, a lot of people drove in Saturday.  Some women even drove home Saturday night.  It is much more affordable to get a room for one night.  (For me, it was a 30 minute drive, so I went home late Saturday night).  The conference itself was $100 (I think.  Somebody correct me if I’m wrong on that).  That include breakfast, lunch, and two snacks.  I could have easily spent $100 on food in downtown Chicago myself on a Saturday.  :)  It also helps that we have 2 airports for those flying in.

3. Wifi and power cords.  I can’t tell you how many conferences I’ve been to where the Wifi doesn’t work or there are 3 outlets in the entire room and hundreds of bloggers.  MJ (the awesome lady who put this on) is a blogger herself, so she knew we’d need this stuff!

4.  Breaks for networking.  I’ve never been to a conference where there was actual time scheduled into the day, so we could all network.  That’s what this is all about — making connections and learning new things.  In our networking time, I found out that one of the women at my table (who I’d never met before), actually lives 5 minutes from my house.  Now, how crazy is that?  If that network time wasn’t there, I may have missed ever talking to her. I also found that that another wonderful woman at our table had read my interview in the newspaper (it was a couple of years ago), and she’s read my site ever since.  I can’t tell you how warm and fuzzy that makes me feel.

5.  Organization.  We all had QR codes on our badges.  Also, the back of the badge was our agenda for the day.  (Again, I’ve never seen that done before).  At all times, you knew what was next and how long it would take.  Everything pretty much ran on time.

6.  It was great for brands also.  Our information was put in for a grand prize.  All we had to do was visit each booth and get a sticker.  I thought this was brilliant, so that we visited each booth (which I would have done regardless, but not everybody did).  The brands there also were a great fit with the moms there.  I found products that I would have never even seen before.

7.  Miss Lori.  Not only did we get to hear her perform for us, she also gave an awesome speech (which I’ll be blogging about this week).

8.  No egos.  The speakers hung with us during the conference and even after.  I’ve been to many of a conference where the speakers weren’t good enough to hang with the rest of us lowly bloggers nor would they talk to us either.  (I do have to add that the conferences I’ve been at with John Chow and Chris Brogan that they have never acted like that even with their A list status.)

9.  The after party rocked.  We got to go to the John Hancock Observatory.  I’ve never been there, so it was pretty awesome.  It was also great to network with the other bloggers I didn’t get a chance to during the conference itself.

10.  This was the best conference I’ve ever attended hands down.  I’ve been to BlogHer, and it was even better than that.  Many times, the complaint I have with conferences is that I’m not a beginning blogger.  I’ve been doing this longer than some of the speakers at other conferences.  I’ll be honest — nothing is more annoying that knowing more than speaker (and I’m not trying to be rude about that.  You know what you know.  However, I don’t like paying hundreds of dollars to learn what I already know.)  I learned something from each of the speakers at the Brands & Bloggers Summit!

I highly, highly, highly recommend heading out to the Brands & Bloggers Summit next year.  It is definitely worth and hope to see you there!

Disclosure:  I did receive a complimentary ticket to this years event.  However, all opinions are mine. 

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My friend Connie alerted me to this great cause and I wanted to pay it forward, because Elmer’s Virtual Bag It Forward will pay it forward for every blog post that is written up to $10,000 to Adopt-A-Classroom.  If you want to join in, here are the rules:

• Copy and paste these rules into your blog post.
• Create a blog post giving a “virtual bag of school supplies” to other bloggers or write about your Back to School shopping trip at Walmart.
• Link back to the person who gave you a bag of school supplies.
• Let each person you are giving a virtual bag of school supplies know you have given them a bag.
• Leave your link in the Elmer’s Virtual Bag It Forward comment section. You can also find the official rules of this virtual #bagitforward program there.
• Elmer’s is donating $10 for each blog participating in the Virtual Bag It Forward Donation to Adopt-A-Classroom (up to total of $10,000 for blog posts written by August 12, 2010).
• Please note that only one blog post per blog url will count towards the donation.

So how cool is this?  My virtual bag is being sent to:  Anne at The Megalomaniac Mommy because I know that she’ll #bagitforward!

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Now, I am not writing this to piss anyone off. I know I research companies before I work for them, and I just want to give you a point of view that you don’t see unless you blog for them. Now, anyone who does blog for them won’t ever post one bad word ever, because if you do, you will be kicked out (yes, I know people who this has happened to). If you happen to mention something that got said on their “private” forum, you’ll get kicked out (but this rule hold true for only certain people because I’ve seen things blogged about and nothing was done to that person).  Before I go on any more, let me tell you my story, what I’ve seen, and why I am not sure I’ll go back even when I will be allowed back in.

I think it was about two years ago when I received an email from PayU2Blog asking me to join them.  I was flattered, and it was a great way to make money off my blogs.  You get paid $5 for a minimum of 60 words.  Those were the rules when I started.  However, they aren’t posted anywhere, and if you don’t have access to the forum, you’d have no idea to all the changes that just seem to magically show up at their whim.  One day you can be following the rules, the next you aren’t.  The latest example of this (besides the reason I just got kicked but I’ll go into that a bit later) is when Izea came out with blog sponsorships.  If you had one on your blog, they (at least sent you an email BEFORE they did it) kicked you out.  Now, no where in their “rules” does it say you can’t have them nor would any new bloggers even have known it.  Actually, I understand the reasoning behind it.  However, there are so many bloggers that left Izea, because they felt PPP was telling them what they could and could not do with their blogs.  Well, this step is one big one towards that for PayU2Blog.

Another issue I have with them has to do with a friend of mine:  Drew.  Now, the upper brass their have a bad habit of calling out who they think are “cheaters”  on the forum.  Drew decided to quit and emailed them to let them know.  This was exactly what he was suppose to do.  He then wrote a post about why he left PayU2Blog.  He then was called out on their “private” forums by PayU2Blog for being a jerk and other things.  He couldn’t even defend himself, since he was locked out of the forums.  Well, low and behold, they found his email.  They then issued a half assed apology on their “private” forums, and actually, sent him a pretty snotty message before they realized their mistake.  I’m sorry, but this whole mess could have been avoided if they didn’t badmouth their bloggers.  They also start witchhunts among their members and I often myself unable to disagree with them on their forums.  You would often find that the members would gang up on the one lone person who disagreed.  I found that long standing members would no longer comment on the forums, because they felt they couldn’t.  Now, I also noticed that my work seemed to go down if I disagreed (now, this could be purely coincidental since it didn’t happen every time I spoke out, but did seem to happen enough that I noticed).  As much as all this annoyed me, I keep working for them, because money is money.  That may make me a bad person, but that money paid for Christmas and a lot of other things for my kids.

Now, what happened to me.  As you all know, I was picked to be an Izea Insider.  I have written a small amount about this.  However, no where to the level of a “personal cheerleader” like I was accused of being.  However, PayU2Blog disagrees and has told me that I cannot work for both Izea or PayU2Blog.  It is one or the other.  I was not the only one told this either – Brett, Corrin, Heather, and Julie were also kicked out.  Now, PayU2Blog seems to think that Izea has it out for them, and we are all spies.  Ummm, no.  We applied for this position never thinking in a million years that this would be considered a conflict of interest.  I consider myself a professional blogger and can separate what I do for each company.  Heck, Izea obviously agrees since they knew we all worked for other companies besides them and have no problems.  The best part of all this — the blogs that are not affiliated with the Izea Insider thing I am doing (like Lisa Reviews) are also kicked out.  Now, I don’t mention PayU2Blog or Izea on that blog, but since I am Izea’s so called personal cheerleader now (which I have done no post to even suggest that) nothing I do is good enough for them anymore.  Now, their advertisers lose out the most with this decision.  This blog got over 300,000 visits in October alone, and I average anywhere from 500 – 1,000 visits a day on here.  Since their advertisers are only after SEO (and maybe some hits from the posts itself), it really shouldn’t matter what my other posts are even about.

Now, what does this “personal cheerleader” get for being an Izea Insider?  I will get a template makeover for this blog (it’s coming and looks awesome!).  I was given an Affiliate Summit Pass and Sears gift card to give away.  I am also being given a $1500 stipend to spend on conferences.  Now, I actually have to pay out of my own pocket first and get reimbursed.  As you can see, this isn’t as glamorous as it was made out to be by PayU2Blog.  I have been nothing but transparent about this, but whatever.

I hope this doesn’t come across as sour grapes — I really do.  I have a lot of friends that still work for PayU2Blog and that I hope this doesn’t affect our friendships.  However, I do feel that you need to hear both sides of a story, and if you are thinking about working for this company, you need to be prepared for what may happen.  You will not hear this from somebody currently working for them, because they will get kicked out if they even mention in a blog post that they are doubting this company.  If you do a google search, you can see all the people who have had problems with them.  I can’t vouch for those posts — only what I personally went through and what people I know have also.  Since, I am over 1,000 words, I’ll end it here even though I could probably go on for another 1000 words).   I just have to say that it isn’t fair to change the rules in the middle and not allow me to work for both companies especially on blogs that have nothing to do with me being an Izea Insider.

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As a mom, how often do you hear this question?  At my house, this is a daily question.  I never grew up with pets.  My husband grew up with a ton of them.  Right now, we use to have fish (and we are getting a little fish tank next week).  That is the only pet Madison has known.

She asks all the time for a dog or a cat.  However, she does ask if we can keep the rabbits, squirrels, ants, chipmunks, and pretty much anything else she sees on the ground.  If she’s sees a commercial for an animal on TV, she has to have it.  She’ll even go as far as pausing the tv (we have a dvr, so she can do that) to make sure we see it!  Yes, I think she needs a pet.  However, we are often gone on the weekends which does not make our house too pet friendly.  I am also allergic to both cats and dogs (not a bad allergy, but one nonetheless).

What kind of things do your kids want as pets?  What do you have as a pet?

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King Corp.

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Oh the joys of having a four year old (who is almost five and cries almost everyday because she is not five yet).  Madison has finally started noticing things – especially things called commercials.  Every single commercial she sees she wants whatever product their are selling be it a pancake ball maker to a baby that swims (though she said she wanted that and a towel to dry her off too so she is able to think beyond the commercial).  It has gotten to the point that she actually will take the remote and pause the TV to make sure you see what she wants (and no I am not kidding about that).  Needless to say, we have started talking about money.

I will be honest — Madison has no concept of money whatsoever.  However, we have explained to her that daddy goes to work to make money so we can buy things we want.  (Madison asks every morning where daddy is and why does he have to go to work).  This conversation is daily so hopefully one day she’ll get it.  She is too young to understand that 5 pennies is the same as a nickel.  In her head, more coins equals more money.  I am hoping that because we are starting to talk about money now already that she won’t fall into the traps so many of us have.  I don’t want her to be one of the many Americans who carry loads and loads of credit card debt (which her parents do not.  We pay off ours every single month.  If she does choose to have credit cards, I want her to be smart about it.  For example, the one credit card we have gives us 1% of purchases.  That 1% is then directed to the principal on our mortgage).  I want her to be able to live within her means and be happy (which her parents also try to do).

Capital One has stepped up to the plate and has developed a Moneywi$e eLearning tool to help us teach our kids about money.  It is more for teenagers than my little ones.  However, there are definitely some tips on there that I can start teaching my children now.  I have to thank Parent Bloggers for bringing this to my attention.

When did you start teaching your children about money? Over at Bargain Life, there’s a great article on the effects of couponing and the family.

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