I had the absolute best time and learned a lot.  I met Bob the Teacher at the airport shuttle to the hotel and made some what I hope to be life long friendships.  What really impressed me though was the feeling of acceptance.  From the moment I step into the hotel until I boarded my plane back home, I felt like I was a member of a large family.  I never once felt like I was less than anyone else just because I wasn’t as popular or making as much money as other people were.

The highlight of the workshop for me was when Paul Evans gave a keynote message Saturday night about motivation.  Boy did it motive me!  He started his presentation with a Bible Verse!  How awesome is that?  Through out the entire message he continued to include his faith and the power of God in it all.  I was impressed.  Here was Paul Evans telling over 200 internet marketers that we are here to serve and give.  It was just amazing.

The next NAMS is in January and I am already praying that the Lord will provide the way for me to attend again.

During my free webinar, I will discuss these tools and tell you how I use them to help grow my blog, stay in touch with my readers, get more traffic, and keep track of what my friends are doing on their blogs.

You can sign up below. Of course, if you are unable to attend live, I will send you the recording. Just sign up below!

The first online blogging/business prayer meeting will be Monday, July 28, 2010 at 9:00pm CST.  If you would like to join us, just sign up below with your name and email address.  This will put you on my prayer group mailing list so that I can email you reminders about the prayer meetings and the login link to my conference room we will using.

Edited: Due to other obligations, I am going to have to move the prayer meeting to Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 9pm CST. Sorry about. The prayer meetings will be held weekly, just on Thursday nights instead of Mondays. Thanks for understanding.

While there where not a lot of people in attendance, only 6, since it was a Memorial Day, it was enjoyable to talk with others who use and love WordPress too.  I was surprised to see that two of the people in attendance, hadn’t even used WordPress before but were merely there to learn more about getting started with it.

The Oklahoma city WordPress Meet-Up group meets monthly and I hope to be able to attend next month as well.

This got me thinking, what other live events could I attend?  I am going to the NAMS conference in August and can’t wait to meet some people I know online in real life, such as Lynn Terry, Kelly McCausey, Traci Knoppe, and Michelle Waters (who I actually already know in real life).  Of course, I’m also looking forward to learning from the awesome panel of teachers lined up.

Have you attended any live events?  Which ones?

If there is one thing I have learned so far in my online business journey it is this – you need support.  You need encouragement, someone to push you to do better, someone you can go to to ask questions and get answers.  Joining a group of people who are doing the same thing you are and have encountered the same problems you have is invaluable.

I have it on good authority that when Lynn reopens the Elite group, the price will be higher than the current $27 a month, which is a steal if you ask me.  The amount knowledge I gain from the group on a monthly basis is worth way more than $27.  Anyways – just wanted to let everyone know that the option to upgrade to Elite group will end tonight.  So if you have ever thought of joining, now is the time.

Have you been wanting to jump into blogging but feel overwhelmed by all that’s involved in getting started?  My friend Kelly has a great opportunity for you to make the leap in style. All the hard work of installation and theme set up will be done for you – you’ll even be able to watch!

It’s all part of Blog Week – a special event running from March 15th to 19th.  You won’t believe the deal she’s put together for you.  It includes your domain, three months of hosting and a blog set up.  Here’s what you get:

• A Domain Name ($12.00 Value)
• Three Months of Mom Webs Hosting ($15.00 Value)
• WordPress Blog Installation ($10.00 Value)
• WordPress Theme Installation ($10.00 Value)
• Custom Header Graphic Creation ($50 Value)
• Promotional Button Graphic Creation ($25 Value)
• Lifetime WordPress Orientation Access ($19 Value)

You can’t bet this deal for only $79!  If I didn’t already have my domain name and hosting, I would be all over this deal!

So why am I attending Blissdom?  As many of you know Kelly and I started Faithful Bloggers as a place for Christian bloggers to come to for support, encouragement, and advice.   When reading different  blogs and tweets about the people who were attending or hoping to attend, it became apparently that a large number of those people were in fact Christian bloggers.  While I do hope to learn and leave with some valuable information, I also hope to be able to connect with other Christian bloggers.

I want to encourage Christian bloggers to keep blogging for the faith as well as be encouraged.  I prayed about Blissdom long and hard before the ticket was purchased.  I asked the Lord that if it was His will for me to attend, that He would show me the way.  And He did just that.  So I’m supposed to be at Blissdom.  What for?  I don’t know yet.  But I do know that the Lord is working in my heart and many other Christian bloggers’ hearts, so the outcome is sure to amazing.

Are you planning to go to Blissdom?  If so, drop a line and let me know.  I would love to meet up.  I already know that I get to meet Jendi!  (So excited about that!)

LaTara’s show is called Let’s Talk Integration and will be aired lived every Monday at 12:00pm CST.  You can also listen to a replay of today’s  show over at Blog Talk Radio as well.  I highly recommend listening to the relay.  LaTara gives out some great information and a listener who called in, JoJo, chimes in with great food for thought.

I attended this mornings breakthrough session and we talked about finding the holes in our business and blogs and getting focused to get them fixed.  These holes could be costing us money and when they are fixed could actually start making us money.  So that is something I am going to work on this week, finding the holes in my online businesses and blogs.

I invite you to join us next Monday for another Monday Morning Breakthrough.  Just follow Kelly on Twitter and she will tweet out the link to join on Monday.

P.S. If you have ever wondered about the type of information and support you can find at Mom Masterminds attending the free Breakthrough sessions is a great way to find out!

photo credit: Charles Williams

What I love the most about having a self-hosted WordPress blog is that I have complete control of the entire site.  There are no rules about what I can or cannot put on my blog.  Plus the community is just awesome as well.  A couple of months ago I got to attend WordCamp Dallas and it was awesome.

If you have ever wanted to know more about WordPress and how best to use it, then I suggest you check out Kelly McCausey’s WordPress Orientation.  WordPress orientation is a three hour group coaching session where the participants will join Kelly in her conference room and be shown every area of WordPress. They will be able to ask as many questions as they need to. For only $19.00 it’s something that anyone thinking about using WordPress but thinks it’s too overwhelming shouldn’t miss out on. Heck even those that use WordPress but still find some areas a mystery should check it out too!

Are you using WordPress for your blog?  If not, why not?

P.S. If you just want to learn more about blogging, give Blog Internship a try. It is the same internship curriculum Kelly uses with her Mom’s Talk Network Blogging Interns.