I know I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I was headed to the RewardStyle Conference and I wanted to share my experience with you guys and give you a little background. RewardStyle is an affiliate marketing company for bloggers that allows them to monetize their site and once a year they host a 3 day conference dubbed #rStheCon in Dallas, Tx.

I was flattered to be asked to attend and was immediately excited to be headed to Dallas on a girl’s trip with some of my favorite people Blair, Kelly & Jenn (thanks for the pic Kelly!) As far as the conference I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous. I was unsure what to expect from my one on one brand meetings and how the other girls would interact. I have to say I was so pleasantly surprised by the classes and meetings and loved the learning experience.

Besides the amazing sunny weather I thought the conference was packed with helpful information and amazing collaborators being friendly and open instead of guarded and competitive like I feared. It served to provide some enthusiasm and motivation for myself which I desperately needed.

There is no doubt blogging is evolving and with so many bloggers and so many social media outlets it can start to wear you thin. The constant ‘I have to share this here’ and ‘I forgot to send someone this back’ are full time sources of anxiety but I was so happy to hear blogging is here to stay. With so many social media changes (I’m looking at you Instagram) it’s important to remember to invest in what you own. Your website if your hub and everything else is just an added branch. It was a great reminder to be investing my time here connecting with you guys and enjoying the content creation process because that’s why I started this little site.

However, now more than ever companies and brands are investing heavily in bloggers and social media influencers. I think the amount of collaborations through RewardStyle had more than doubled since last year. That is huge. Companies are seeing their ROI (return on investment) and coming back for more.

The tricky thing now is how to find your place in this community. I was reminded that I need to always circle back to why I started this site and make smart business decisions for myself but also value my voice. It’s easy to get wrapped up in ‘collaborations’ and who is doing what but I realize not everything is for me & it’s okay to say no and pass on certain things. I recently passed on a campaign I thought wasn’t a great fit and got a kind email from the company saying they appreciated me staying true to who I was and would love to work together soon on something else. Don’t be scared saying no means you will never hear back from someone! At times, I need to take on projects to be able to sustain this blog but I hope and try to organically incorporate it and make it useful for you and fun for me to create! Trying new things is awesome so don’t close yourself into too small of a box but be true to yourself and you will lose much less sleep (trust me!)

Although blogging may be evolving and social media has transformed from an online ‘instantaneous’ diary to a well curated beautiful gallery of images I’m excited to be along for the ride and see where it goes! Blogs are still my favorite place to go for inspiration and useful information whether it’s about my house, clothes or life and hope that always remains!

What do you guys think? How are you dealing with all the changes?