On Saturday, I had my first speaking engagement at Bloggy Boot Camp in San Francisco.  I was going to do this whole elaborate presentation with Powerpoint and all of the bells and whistles.  I decided to do a handout and speak/storytell about the subjects that I outlined.  I stumbled a little here and there, and I may have talked a little too fast at times. But, I think it went over pretty good and I got my points across.  I have had some great feedback and e-mails already, but I wanted to share my outline in a post.

Photo by modchik

PRIVACY and YOUR BLOG
Privacy, tracking visitors, and more about keeping your personal info personal, while still blogging authentically.

TEN TIPS TO REMEMBER WHEN THINKING
OF YOUR PERSONAL PRIVACY

1.   Real Names

• Do you use your real name? Last name?
• Do you use your family member’s names?
• Do you use examples of people you know (IRL) In Real Life on your blog?
• Do you have permission to use this information?

2.   Location

• Do you talk about where you live? Actual city, state?
• Do you talk about vacations, events, before you go to them?
• Do you use location based web applications?
• Twitter, Whrrl, Foursquare

3.   Blog Tracking Programs

• Do you have a stat tracking program installed on your site?
• Google Analytics, StatCounter, Sitemeter
• Have you ever tracked an IP address?
• Do you know how to track and IP address?
• Previous comments, IP tracking sites

4.   Photographs

• Do you post pictures of your family? Your kids? Your house? Your neighborhood?
• Do you watermark your photos?
• Do you post “birthday party” or event pictures with other kids in them?

5.   Content

• What is too personal?
• Search engines and your content?
• When you hit “publish” it is there forever, sometimes even if you delete

6.   Facebook

• Do you have privacy settings “set” on your account?
• How do you select and approve “friends”?

7.   Domain Registrations

• Do you have your own domain(s)?
• Are they registered private?
• Check Who Is?

8.   Cyber Stalkers and Trolls?

• Do you have a troll/stalker policy?
• Have you ever had a troll problem?
• How far would you let it go?

9.   Comments

• At what point do you close comments?
• Have you ever closed comments?

10.  Telling People About Your Blog

• Have you told family, friends, co-workers, playdates?
• Do you regret people knowing or telling them?
• Have you had negative experiences because of it?

I may or may not do all of these things.  These are just some good points to think about when you are blogging.  After blogging for three years, my thoughts on some things have changed.  I have loosened up in some areas, and I have totally locked down others.  What ever you choose to do with your privacy and your blog is your opinion, and only yours. Because really, it is your blog.

Tomorrow, I will be heading on a road trip from Southern California to Northern California.  I will be carpooling with Ciaran (@momfluential) in a brand new 2011 Lexus LX SUV.  Ciaran says that we will be floating along in a gray cloud of luxury.   I hope we float along smoothly, and make it through Los Angeles before the traffic starts.  Our third partner,  Kelly (@according2kelly), had to cancel last minute as her son had an accident and broke his arm.  Ciaran and I have been thinking about Kelly and little Owen all day.  Kelly didn’t know it, but she was supposed to be our pilot.  She is the planner….

Ciaran and I are headed to Bloggy Boot Camp in San Francisco….we will be joining over a 100 other bloggers for a one-day conference. Ciaran and I will both be speaking at the event, and we can’t wait!

I’ve been working on fabulous presentation the past few days, ok maybe, I’ve been up all day and night working on it.  I even taunt myself how to save my document from iWork09 to a PDF, yay me.

I can’t wait to speak, although I’m sweating bullets.  I just won’t mention that I took public speaking about three times in college.  I went from an F-to a D-to a B, I think?  I have a problem with talking too fast.  I might have to remember to breath amongst my chatting, I mean speaking.  I’ve developed a presentation that works around my fast-talking/non-memorizing issues.  I will be combining a handout with some storytelling.  I’m always good at telling a story.

I guess I should start packing, or sleeping right now…since I’m leaving at 5am, or something like that.  Oh, and my presentation, here’s my topic!

PRIVACY and YOUR BLOG
Privacy, tracking visitors, and more about keeping your personal info personal, while still blogging authentically.

P.S. While writing this post, my blog crashed.  It was a server issue with my host company. They were able to fix it.  I swear, I have a curse.  EVERY time, I go to a major event or conference, my blog goes down, and messes up.

Disclosure: Ciaran got the Lexus LX SUV for a review.  I know, crazy, isn’t it.  We get to do a road trip in style.  How posh is that!

Photo by Shannon from ForTheMommas

A little over a week ago, I attended my fourth blogging conference within one year.  It all started with BlogHer09′ in Chicago last year, and last weekend was BlogHer10′ in New York City.  When I headed to Chicago last year, I had dread, skepticism, and apprehension as it was my first conference.  Would I fit in? Would I have a good time? Would I attend another conference?

In the three plus years of blogging, I have never thought of myself as a writer.  I can tell a pretty funny story, but usually my stories are delivered better in person.  I have an odd sense of humor, and you really have to know me to understand.  I always tell people, “I’m better in real life than my blog”. Seriously, I can’t tell you how many times people have told me, “you are not really angry”.  Duh, I have a hint of sarcasm to my humor. When I talk to other bloggers, I will always mention, “Oh, I loved your post and xyz, etc.”  I NEVER get that said to me.  I get, “Oh I loved the photograph that you took at Disneyland, or I heard you photographed Bloggy Boot Camp.”  I write about some awesome things, sometimes, I swear.

When I start working on blog posts, I tend to write them around my photos.  It is very rare that I publish a post without a photo.  I rarely use stock photographs.  I mostly use those when I’m doing some kind of review or giveaway.  You can tell when I have a busy week, because I don’t post as much here.  When I’m busy with work, family, or whatever, I don’t always have a camera in my hand.

I think my photography and blogging has completely evolved in the past year.  I’m spending more time on my photos and I’ve learned to edit them better.  I actually attended two sessions at BlogHer this year, and one of them was about photography, shocking, I know.  I attended the ROYO-How to Take Great Pictures, Whether You Have a DSLR or Point-and-Shoot session which was put on by Mishelle, Lotus, and Rachel.  While listening to the lovely photographers in front of me, I did a lot of head nodding.  As in, “Ok, I’m doing this photography thing right, I think?”

I think my perspective behind the lens has definitely changed in the past year.  I’ve also tried editing my photos a little bit different, here and there.  While I was in NYC for BlogHer, I served as one of the official photographers for a private party, better known as “Social Luxe Lounge”.  I took over 300 photographs at that event and dealt with some of the major nightmares for a photographer; white balance issues, lighting, night club atmosphere, and some colored lighting.  I learned a lot while editing those photographs.  I hope everyone enjoyed what I captured though.

So when people ask me now the million dollar question…what is that question? Oh, you should know by now.  “What is your blog about?” I will answer, “Photography, I blog through my photography. Whatever I capture through my lens, I blog”.

I’m sure that I will be writing a ton of other posts related to BlogHer and my reflections on it.  I enjoyed it this year, much more than last year.  I was more comfortable this year in my own blogger skin.  I knew what to expect.  I was prepared.  But {giggle}, the photo editing was much worse this year, after.

I took many many more photographs, but I’m doing other posts, where I will highlight specific events I attended, etc.

If you want to see my photographs, feel free.

BlogHer10′ Set

Social Luxe Set