Earlier this week I headed out to a local Captain D’s with my eight-year son at the invitation of O2O member and Nashville blogger Sami Cone. Captain D’s has recently revamped their menu and is in the process of redecorating their restaurants as well.

The main focus of our evening was the food! Captain D’s wanted us to experience their new menu, most especially, the new kids menu that includes two grilled options (from four total entree options) and comes with two sides (from a list of TEN side dishes). They told us that between the four entree items paired with two of the ten side options, you could come every day for a year and not have the same combination! I can’t think of any other fast food restaurant that can make that claim about a kids menu.

In addition to new food choices, the kids menu now features the characters of The Pirates: Band of Misfits movie and comes with 3D glasses because everything from the box that the food comes in to the drinking cup & the activities booklet are in 3D! The children were encouraged to come dressed as pirates and Captain D’s brought in a face painter (a very talented woman who also did balloon toys, mostly swords of course) for the kids.

The adults were in for a treat, too. There are several grilled options on the menu and even some more high-end options like the Surf ‘n Turf (that I enjoyed) but without the high-end prices. (The Surf ‘n Turf meal was priced at about $8 and included 2 sides plus rice!) With everything priced so reasonably and so many options to choose from, Captain D’s has positioned itself to be a viable dining option for busy families on the go.

On hand during the event were several Captain D’s corporate  team members as well as their executive chef. All of them were happy to answer questions and consistently worked the room, checking in with each of us multiple times to make sure we were taken care of. The manager and staff of the restaurant where the event was held were very friendly and accommodating, especially tolerant of kids chasing each other with balloon swords (yes, mine was among that group).

All in all, this was an excellent blogger outreach event. I was very impressed with Sami and her organizational skills as well as the attention and generosity of the Captain D’s staff. Not only did they give us a chance to get together (because even though we all live in the same area, we’re rarely all in the same place at one time!), treated us to dinner, entertained our kids, and sent us home with lovely gifts; they listened to us, were genuinely interested in what we had to say, candid in their answers, and showed true southern hospitality!

Thank you Captain D’s and Sami for the wonderful blogger event!

What about you? What has been a memorable and well organized blogger event in your area? Was is corporate sponsored or organzied by local bloggers? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: I was invited to attend this event by a local blogger. This post is written because I wanted to share about my experience. I was not paid to write it, One2One Network is not currently involved with any Captain D’s marketing initiatives, and all opinions are my own. I received thank you gifts for attending the event. 

BlissDom is a truly unique and gratifying experience for the O2O Team. Since BlissDom started in 2008, we’ve been a devoted sponsor partner. We go there to meet, connect and maybe even ‘hug on’ the attendees a bit – many of which are O2O members.

Each year at BlissDom, we hope to show you the #girlpower side of O2O; our small but mighty team that loves working with women who love blogging and social media.

We hope to show you that we know you are more than the number of page views you get a month or the number of people who follow you on Twitter or the number of subscribers you have on YouTube. We hope to show you that you are valued for simply being you.

This year the BlissChicks took pampering us to an all new level with a fabulous Bliss Suite sponsored by One2One Network, Office Candy, V05, and NYX Cosmetics. … I had my hair and makeup done, got my photo taken, and then headed out to face whatever bliss might come my way! ~Beth Zimmerman

BlissDom is our chance to connect, one to one and face to face, with the women who participate in our projects and campaigns throughout the year. Plus we get to meet so many new people and tell them about the network!

The Alberto VO5/One to One Network suite had the absolute best vibe. VO5 was showcasing its new haircare line and had hairstylists on hand to fix you up, while One to One was offering makeovers and free headshots. The two fit together perfectly and the suite was buzzing with activity each time I went through. It felt like backstage at a Fashion Week runway show. ~Gigi Ross from KludgyMom

We also get to play and party and soak in all that BlissDom has to offer. From dancing at Girl’s Night Out to sitting on a ballroom floor soaking in the comedic brilliance of Ana Gasteyer and Jeremy Sisto during Girl’s Night In.

We posed with Stuart the Minion, drank coffee with Johan, perused the Handmade Marketplace, had margaritas at the Cantina, hung promises on the J&J tree, hung out with Chris Mann, and had our hair done by the VO5 girls.

BlissDom, through our eyes, is more than just another conference or ‘day at the office’. It’s connections and relationships and feeling part of something bigger.

We hope you saw that, too.

Cheers!

The Gals from O2O,
Barbara, Paula, Amber, Maryellen, Krista, & Malia

Thankful for their eyes: SprittiBee, Jana Warnke, Becca Ludlum, Becky Branch, & Taylor Williams!

Hi y’all! It’s “Post-Bliss” week and the recap blog posts are coming in fast and furious! We love reading what you have to say about your BlissDom exerpience and we wanted to take this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who stopped by the Bliss Beauty Suite to say hi, have a coffee, get your headshot, and enter our giveaways.

Malia, Maryellen, Barbara, Paula, Krista, Amber

We figured, why must the fun end now that BlissDom is over? So, guess what? We have MORE gifts to giveaway! (We just can’t help ourselves!)

Simply link your BlissDom recap post below and you will be entered to win one of FIVE BlissDom prize packs that include: a BlissDom coffee mug, a Lisa Leonard ‘Follow Your Bliss’ Necklace, a BlissDom t-shirt, a Chris Mann ‘Roads’ CD, and a journal courtesy of Blissful Media Group!

We loved hanging out with the girls from VO5 and NYX Cosmetics. They made sure everyone had a fabulous look for their headshot taken by the awesome Kate Mackley! (If you’ve not seen your headshot yet, you can find them here.)

Here’s a look at some of the fun we had in the Bliss Beauty Suite!

Photos courtesy of Jana Warnke, Erica Mueller, Becky Branch, Becca Ludlum, and Malia Carden

We had the opportunity to sit down with some very smart bloggers and get their tips for simple, effective things that can be done to improve the look and functionality of your blog. During our chat, we discussed design and coding tips, SEO tips, and some general blogging “best practices”.  You can watch the chat below and I’ve also highlighted some of the key tips that came out of our discussion.

Our panel members for this chat are: Angela England of AngEngland.com and Untrained Housewife, Becca Ludlum of Our Crazy Boys and Digital Media Consulting, Elan Morgan of Schmutzie.com, and Erica Mueller of EricaSays.com and EricaMuellerOnline.com.

Design and Coding Tips

• No black background with white text
• No cursive writing fonts – use sans serif fonts
• Usable header – put social media icons, search bar, etc in the header (good use of otherwise wasted space)
• Header should always navigate back to home page
• De-clutter your side bar – Google doesn’t like it when you have more than a 100 links on your home page
• Mobile optimization – use a mobile responsive theme
• Increase load times by getting rid of widgets and anything java script based and plug-ins that automatically search your site, and making images smaller
• Pingdom.com will tell you how long it took your site to load and what was slowing it down, also try https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights

SEO Tips

• Every post that you write should link to another post on your blog
• Post titles – cute, whimsical titles will not get good search engine results. Title should say what the post is about.
• Beginning paragraphs should be about the post – share stories later on in the post
• Title images to match the post title
• Use alt-tags for images (you can get a lot of traffic to your site from Google Image Searches)
• Categorize and tag posts clearly
• The best keywords are what your post is about
• Use Google Author Rank – good article on CopyBlogger about authorship http://www.copyblogger.com/claim-google-authorship/
• Author Rank goes across blogs – good for guest blogging
• When you guest post on another blog, make sure there is link back to your blog to a specific post (not just your home page)

Best Practices

• Easily found contact and about info – above the fold
• Search bar – easily found, above the fold
• No Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc., post titles – even if your post is in a series, clearly title your posts to reflect what the post is about
• Use categories (not tag clouds — too busy, too hard to read) and choose them based on the natural themes of your blog
• Not all posts have to be SEO optimized. Don’t lose your voice, tell your stories, engage with your audience.
• About pages are a must but they need to be short and to-the-point, think elevator pitch, no more than 3-5 paragraphs.
• Break up your text – paragraphs no more than five lines long. Web writing it different that print writing.
• No centered text
• Pop-up and walking ads are a real turn-off, just say no to them. (If you are going to use a pop-up for newsletter sign-up, make sure it comes up right away (no delays) and make sure there is clear way to opt-out of it.) And NO pop-ups on mobile!

What would you add to these tips? Are there things that you wish bloggers would or would not do on their sites? Let us know in the comments!

It’s been a LONG winter. Are you flush with Spring Fever yet? Capture your best skin for the upcoming season! Nowadays, our cell phones have turned every moment into a photo op worth a thousand words. Our friends at POND’S® have partnered with supermodel Molly Sims so you can get glowing every day. Picture perfect! 

To encourage women to live life more luminously, POND’S® just launched its 30-Day Luminous Photo Challenge. And to kick off the challenge, One2One Network is having a #LuminousEffect Twitter Party on March 14 at 12pm ET.

Our host Molly Sims and co-hosts Danielle Smith, Jenny Ingram and Nicole Feliciano are no strangers to putting their best faces forward on camera. They’ll be sharing tips on looking and feeling luminous—inside and out!

And you know it wouldn’t be a Twitter Party without prizes. We’re giving away twenty-five gift bags throughout the hour, all containing the entire POND’S® Luminous Line of products and a $50 AMEX gift card.

•  Date:  Thursday, March 14
• Party Time (excellent!):  12-1 pm ET
• Location:  #LuminousEffect
• Custom TweetGrid: bit.ly/LuminousEffectGrid
• Host: @MollyBSims 
• Co-Hosts: DanielleSmithTV, @JennyOnTheSpot, and @MomTrends
• Prizes: 25 gift bags containing the entire POND’S® Luminous Line of products and a $50 AMEX gift card.

Enter to win by RSVPing below, following @PONDS on Twitter, and tweeting with the #LuminousEffect hashtag during the party.

Eligibility Requirements:

• You must be RSVP’d on the above link list to be eligible for the prize drawing.
• You must be participating in the Twitter conversation using the #LuminousEffect hashtag between 12:00-1:00 pm ET to be eligible to win prizes.
• You must be following @PONDS on Twitter.
• Winners are chosen using Random.org.
• Winners have 10 minutes to respond to their prize notification tweet. If no response is given, another winner will be chosen.
• Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of the prizing.