I had the pleasure of attending the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration for the second year in a row.  It’s a wonderful event held in Walt Disney World with blogging partners Amy Lupold Bair, Janice Croze, Jennifer James and Maria Bailey.  If you’ve ever been to Disney, you know they don’t do anything halfway, and for this event they pull out all the stops to entertain the bloggers and families and educate in interactive environments.

For example…

It’s not every day you attend a press event covering Disney’s 20th anniversary hosting weddings at the Wedding Pavilion by attending a renewal of vows complete with flashmobbing dancing groomsmen and bridesmaids, candy buffet, celebrity speakers including Carley Roney from TheKnot.com, David Tutera from  My Fair Wedding and to top it all off, Cinderella’s glass chariot. Whew…

You know, just your typical press event.

We attended another press / family dinner announcing the launch of Disney Junior and another celebrating Disney’s new initiative Magic of Healthy Living. These events featured celebrity and Disney character appearances and allowed the families to interact in a social environment while bloggers learned new and exciting things about Disney.

The Friday conference for the moms (and a few dads) was packed with inspiration – hosting speakers who shared both tips on social media and the struggles of being a mom.   Speakers included Matt Jacobson head of marketing at Facebook, Renee Syler (everyone’s new bff) a former tv celebrity, now author of Good Enough Mother, Fran Capo, comedienne and the fastest talking woman, Chris Brogan, Susan Egan, Belle of Beauty and the Beast and award winning composer Georgia Stitt.

Motivational and inspirational all with a Disney twist.

It’s great to attend an event with your family and also connect with your fellow bloggers and their families.  I think that’s one of the best parts about this celebration.  We love meeting our blogger friends in real life, but being able to put a face with the families we hear so much about and read about every day on each other’s blogs is a priceless experience.

Attending the Disney Social Media Moms was a “sweetheart deal” and tickets, accommodations, entertainment and meals were either given gratis or greatly discounted.

This year, like last year, Blissdom’11 is being held at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN.  The last week in January, hundreds of women will be getting their bliss on at the 5th U.S. Blissdom Conference (4th in the U.S with Blissdom Canada holding it’s inaugural conference in 2010)!   Blissdom brings together the brightest blogging, social media and business minds for info packed sessions on everything from blogging 101,  tips for monetization, niche blogging, and writing.    Sponsors such as Con Agra, Freschetta, Jockey, Intel and more offer looks at new products and technologies, while evening parties are opportunities to network or just let your hair down.

It’s a fabulous time to see old online friends and make new ones.  About this time blog posts pop up chatting about “what to wear”, “what sessions to attend” and “who you most want to meet”.  If you have a Blissdom ’11 post (*no posts seeking personal sponsorship though! they will be deleted), link it here and get to know more people before the event!

Also, be sure to stop by our booth to say hello and enter for a chance at fun prizes!

Earlier this fall a group of mom bloggers visited 2 family owned California Dairies in Modesto, California as guests of the California Milk Advisory Board.  They learned about nutrition in milk, the health and safety of the herds, life on a dairy farm and what cheeses are best paired with what wines (my personal fave!).

Everyone had a ball and came back with some practical knowledge that they shared on Blissfully Domestic.

From blogger Amy Oztan of Selfish Mom:

http://blissfullydomestic.com/2010/california-dairy-farm-tour

“I was impressed with the care the cows received at both farms.  They’re regularly tended to by veterinarians and every effort is made to ensure that they are as comfortable as working animals can be.  We saw firsthand how multiple generations of dairy families work the farms and contribute.  I loved watching the toddlers watching the cows – what an amazing thing to grow up with!”

Tonya Staab of  Create, Celebrate, Explore

http://blissfullydomestic.com/2010/holiday-entertaining-cheese-platters

photo courtesy Tonya Staab

“There seemed to be a general consensus with the group that the most creamy, mouth watering cheese tasted was won hands down by the Gioia Burratta.  It was drizzled with California extra virgin olive oil, and topped with fleur de sel (sea salt) and cracked pepper.  We also added a little smoked salt over the top.  The flavor and texture was absolutely amazing.”

Christine Mathias of Blissfully Domestic:

http://blissfullydomestic.com/2010/happy-california-cows

Great care and thought is given to the food the cows are given.  The farms have personal and ongoing relationships with veterinarians and nutritionists to ensure the cows receive a perfectly balanced diet; this diet changes as the cows needs changes depending upon their age and other life stages.

The cows physical comfort is always taken into consideration…an uncomfortable cow is a stressed cow, and that will affect milk production and quality.

Cows are NOT given antibiotics prophylactically.  When a cow is ill and antibiotics are necessary for its health, it is removed from the general herd and taken to a different location for the duration of its treatment.  Not until the antibiotics are out of its system and the cow is healthy again is it allowed to return to milking status.

And Ellen Durrer, who owns the family farm, Durrer Dairy Farm.

http://blissfullydomestic.com/2010/life-on-a-dairy-farm

“From our dining room window, we have a great view of our dairy farm, which has been owned and operated by my husband’s family for 3 generations. My father is a 4^thgeneration California dairy farmer, who lives and works on the same farm that he was raised on as a child and where my parents raised me and my siblings. We are Real California dairy families, representing 99% of California dairy farms that are family owned and operated and just like ours, many of these operations have been passed down through the generations.”

We also have an active forum conversation about cooking with milk. Sign up and join the conversation Also keep an eye on your inbox for information on a new Wine and Cheese app, which you’ll likely hear about this week!  Stay tuned!

Have you heard the new Norah Jones CD …Featuring Norah Jones? We have been listening to it in our house…it’s playing in the kitchen as I type. Norah, a multi Grammy Award winner, has a smooth, jazzy style that wow’s audiences in all age ranges.

Listen to a little, see how you like it, and share the music below with friends.

If you consider your blog a business, or even if you don’t, you are probably aware of your blog stats or metrics.   There are so many stat counters out there, it’s hard to know which one is best and honestly there is no right answer.  Ask around and get suggestions from friends.  If you are just installing an analysis tool for the first time, it may seem confusing, and it’s important to know what the terms mean.

Statcounter Screencap

You hear uniques, PV’s, bounce rate which are sometimes called different names in different programs.  Your tool should have a help section and that is where I have found the most help in deciphering the terms and their meanings.   But if you still can’t figure it out, here’s some guidance that will hopefully help you along.

Page Rank or PR>  Google has an algorithm to determine a page’s or site’s rank which basically means putting a number on it’s relative importance on the web.  PR goes from 0-10.  If you have a new site, don’t be alarmed if you are a “0″ or “1″.  Securing incoming links from sites that rank higher than you do will bring that up.  Blogrolls and guest posting are great for this.  I would research ways to improve your PR because some companies will only work with a certain PR or above, and that’s strictly a business strategy on their part. You can go to PR Checker to see what yours is.

Unique Visits>  When we ask for Uniques, we mean the number of times an individual has visited your website.  This is a number that varies from program to program.  Why?  Because some will consider a visitor unique if every day and some every 30 minutes.  So if your mother-in-law stalks your blog 3 times a day (eek) she may be considered 3 visitors.   If you think about it, people tend to read blogs on a daily basis, so setting it for 1 day (if you can set yours) makes more sense and gives a better estimate of your readership.  You may have a stat just called Visits.  I would Google the program you use and see if you can find an explanation of the difference in Uniques and Visits.

Page Views>  Everytime a person visits it’s one page view (PV).  If they go to multiple pages on your site, each one is counted as a page view.  It’s not surprising to find PV’s more than double your uniques.  Linking to other relevant posts of yours w/in your current post and adding widgets for “popular posts” and “commenters” are ways to keep people on your site looking around.  Google reevaluates this number ever so often, so you may see an increase so it’s important if you keep a media kit to keep this current.

Bounce Rate>  I feel not enough attention is paid to your bounce rate.  This is a measure of how quickly a person who arrives at your site leaves.  Obviously it’s better to have them stay around, right?  It shows people like what they see and actually read posts.  The lower the better.  You are going to get google traffic which can come and go quickly, and may raise your rate, but having dedicated readers will balance that out.  Rates can vary greatly too, depending on the type of blog you have.  Mine is at 38%, but I have a lot of tutorials on there and people might have to stay on the site longer to follow.  I have heard anything below 70% is good.

*Answering a question in the comments, if you do a lot of giveaways and promote them heavily, you may find this rate on the high side.  People come, enter, move on.  Bloggers who just post recipes may see a higher rate.   People search for the recipes, grab it and go, and this may be higher during the holidays…  think of it in terms of “what will keep people on my site longer”.  So for certain niche blogs, the number may vary by the nature of the niche.

I run two different stat programs.  I use Google Analytics and Get Clicky.  I ALWAYS suggest having two running as 1. they all produce different results and 2. one might go down and then you have a backup.  Most programs will allow you to specify a time period for capture.  PR / Brands typically either work by the month.  If your stats vary significantly at certain times like a holiday, you might want a 3-6 month average…

Other stat counters you might want to check out are Statcounter and Sitemeter.

We have added some links to the learning lounge that relate to blog stats and I would suggest you start reading there first.  Then if you have any specific questions, hit us up int the comments and we’ll try out best to answer.  And of course feel free to email us anytime (envelope on the sidebar!)

I love finding cool stuff online but what I love more is smart friends who introduce me to cool stuff!   Melanie Nelson is the brains behind Blogging Basics 101 and turned me onto a site called Flavors.me. It’s a fun site to showcase your online world whether it be your blog(s), twitter, facebook or linked in…or any number of preset social networks.

Melanie was even able to redirect her personal URL http://melanienelson.com to the site.

Click on the blog link and it’s set up to automatically show your blog feed as well.  Click on the twitter and show your tweets.  Click and show a linked in profile.  Click and showcase your flickr.  It’s very cool!  This makes it so easy for someone to find out about you and your activities all in one place with the creative twist of allowing you to customize the background, colors and font with one click.

Play around with it and if you set one up, let us know!  We’d love to see it!

I think we all know someone who has been touched by Breast Cancer in some way. You may have even been touched yourself. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month  and One2One Network is working with Milano again, this time to honor those affected by Breast Cancer.   Pepperidge Farm is turning their Milano packaging pink – inspiration for the cure!

Pepperidge Farm has launched a Facebook Campaign to encourage consumers to share a “Milano Moment” – one when they realized life is sweet.  Personally I have many moments and several of them include Milano’s!  Of course there are the obvious moments such as getting married, have a baby, watch the baby take his first step.   Maybe if you are a blogger it’s the first comment you got that wasn’t from your sister.  The hope is that we can have many moments when life is sweet and that fighting this disease will allow more people to survive and have those moments too.

Awareness is a good thing.

From now through October 31st, Pepperidge Farm is donating $.50 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for every Milano moment shared on the Milano Facebook Page (up to $50,000).

If you are a One2One network member, you can sign up to participate in the “Milano Moment” blog, twitter and Facebook campaign.  If you are not a member yet then what’s keeping you?

You’ll find details on your One2one Network page.  Won’t you help us spread the word?

Disclosure: Members are participating in a campaign with Pepperidge Farm and One2One Network and are eligible to win prizes for their participation. Their personal testimonials and opinions about the product are their own.

After our fun with protein stains in the last Wisk (with Stain Spectrum Technology) experiment, we got to try our hand at getting out carbs.

Tailgate style. With ketchup. I know you are cringing. Maggie at Dexter’s Super Savvy Mommy and her son took on the task.

And I couldn’t resist posting about them, since cartoon Dexter is one of my favorite scientists! How fitting!

After Dexter got ketchup on the shirt, I wiped the excess off with a dry washcloth. I then poured on the Wisk and rubbed on the ketchup for about 15-20 seconds. I then let the Wisk penetrate the stain for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes elapsed, I rinsed the shirt in warm water and presto, the stain was gone!

via Dexter’s Super Savvy Mommy: Wisk-Tailgate Party Experiment.

He’s so cute and seems like he’s got this science experiment down or at least the cute factor!

We have lots of other scientists at work.  See how Anne’s little one works her magic too at Mommy Needs to Work!

Tell us what your worst stain nightmare is!

Disclosure: These bloggers are participating in a sponsored campaign with Wisk and One2One Network. Their personal testimonials and opinions about the product and the results of their experiments are their own.

I love to read any food blog, but these are a few of my favorites because of the crazy good sweets the ladies write about.  I am a sucker for cupcakes, and I have found some that are “must read” and “must drool”.

Cheryl at Tidymom.net‘s photography is as yummy as her cupcakes!

“Well, my mom always enjoys a good dessert like the rest of us, but there is one treat she always LOVES…… Ice Cream Floats. A big tall glass with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, pour root beer or cream soda over the top, stick in a straw…….. THAT is mom’s idea of heaven!!

This moist nostalgic cupcake will take you to decades past, when ice cream floats (and sodas) were once so popular at the local soda fountain.”

via Root Beer Float Cupcakes | TidyMom.

It doesn’t even need to be summer for these floats!  It’s such a cute idea especially with the straws as an accent.  How do these ladies come up with this?  Thanks Cheryl for such a cool idea!

Liz at Hoosier Homemade has a weekly cupcake challenge, and so it’s a good bet you will find me on her blog on that day. Doing research…of course..

“Autumn is in full swing at our house. We’ve gone apple picking, bought some mums, decorated the Mantle and the Hoosier Cabinet, been baking up a storm…and now, making Scarecrow Cupcakes!”

via Scarecrow Cupcakes – How to Video | Hoosier Homemade.

These cupcakes would make any kid get into the fall spirit.  I can imagine these selling like hot “cupcakes” at any school fall festival!  If you try either of these tasty treats let us know, or give us a link to your favorite cupcake!  Y’all probably have some recipe we have to try!

iPad envy

I will admit when I saw some ladies at Type A Mom Conference with iPads I got a little jealous.  I’ve been a MAC convert for all of 6 months and now don’t know what I did before I switched.

Wait now I remember.  I watched my PC crash a lot!

What makes the iPad even more appealing is how you can dress it up.  There are some “fancy duds” out there for them to wear!

Keep it cute, keep it safe

I love pink and was immediately drawn to this fancy cover.  This would dress it up nicely don’t you think?  Available at Amazon.com.

Of course if pretty is not your thing, then go with the whimsical. This etch-a-sketch case made me laugh, and then click to see where I could get one….you know, for when if I get an iPad.  Available at GetaHeadCase.com.

Of course this looks more like me.  No need for cute.  I have stuff to carry.  TONS of stuff!  Love the setup of the M-Edge cover to keep all your essentials together.  More practical and as much as you spend on the iPad, cute is great but I’d stick with functionalities!

Do you have iPad envy?  Or if you own one, what cases / covers are you drooling over?