I have been gearing up to go to this year’s BlogHer Conference on Navy Pier this weekend. I am SO EXCITED! I have been really looking forward to this conference for many reasons. BlogHer is an online community for women who blog. It’s not just made up of “mommy bloggers” but women in general who blog about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. It was founded in 2005 by three women and has grown substantially since then. I found the BlogHer community about a year ago. Basically what I’ve used the site for is to list my review blog, MumsTheWurd. Listing your blog on public sites like this one helps increase the traffic to your blog. Increasing traffic (aka “visitors”) allows you to educate and inform your readers of specific areas of interest. Our area is promoting mom and pop-type boutiques that offer unique parenting/kids/baby products. It’s been a blast so far and our traffic has grown consistently. We offer giveaways, test out fun products and most importantly, give exposure to smaller businesses.

An added bonus for me in attending this conference is that I will have the opportunity to meet my fellow Chicago Mom’s Bloggers and Silicon Valley Mom’s Bloggers. We are a dynamic group of women who blog about the world through a mom’s eyes. We don’t always blog about our kids but about any issues that affect us or those around us. It has been a pleasure writing with these fantastic women.

Tonight, I will attend a dinner sponsored by Yahoo! Corporation with my mom blogger group. I CAN NOT WAIT to put faces to names! We will be dining at Chicago’s Viand and digging through the fabulous goody bags provided by numerous businesses in support of our venture. I happen to be the “swag queen”, as I’m so lovingly referred to by our management team, Beth Blecherman and Jill Asher.

As you can see, I’ve been “swimming in swag”.

I plan on blogging here on Hailey’s blog all weekend during the conference. I will be spending the weekend learning how to attract visitors to my website and learning how to better navigate the “blogosphere”. I’m also looking forward to meeting some of my favorite bloggers like, Antique Mommy, Dooce and the amazing Shannon from Rock’s in My Dryer. Hailey will be spending this evening with her Auntie Em in the city! What a lucky duck.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! I’m looking forward to keeping you all posted on my fabulous weekend at the BlogHer Conference! Maybe next year you’ll join me?