Women Are Blogtastic!

By Jocelyn Geboy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 2, 2007 6:40PM

We got the privilege of attending last weekend's Blogher conference, and in an ironic twist of fate, our two computers went on the fritz. However, it was an experience we still wanted to share with you.

Blogher is a conference geared directly toward women bloggers. It was filled with lots of interesting and useful sessions aimed at helping women in the blogosphere. Whether you hadn't yet started a blog or you were looking to really monetize your blogging efforts, there was a session for you.

We sat down with Eliza Camahort to talk about Blogher -- why it was started, how it's been and where it's going. We discussed things over lunch, and we tried to cover a variety of topics with her.

On blogging/email/internet pet peeves:
"When emails don't include their other contact info and they say, 'Fax or email me that ...' [and don't leave the proper contact information]"

On blog comments:
"One in five people who read a blog actually writes a blog. If you don't have comments enabled, you leave out 80% of your audience. The definition of the blogging 'community' has gotten bigger with MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and Youtube."

On what the past Blogher conferences have tried to achieve:
"The first Blogher was there to answer 'Where are all the women bloggers?' The second Blogher we saw where they were. We wanted to know how blogging is changing [the participant's] world. And how we could change our own careers, own lives and the world. We wanted to validate everyone from the personal blogger, to someone who blogged for business, to someone who was involved with Katrina relief. This year, we are acknowledging that we are all so different, yet we can come together to make a difference. Difference is good, but working together is good, too."

Elisa was very gracious and easy to talk to; she was very down-to-earth and even though her life was a whirlwind for that reason, she took the time to listen carefully and answer my questions thoughtfully. You can find more of her thoughts on some of her nine blogs and on Blogher. All in all, we were thrilled to have been a part of this year's conference and went away inspired, rejuvenated and interested in new techologies, new strategies for blogging, and ways to brand ourselves and our blog.

Image from 2007 SXSW.