London class 2 is done and dusted, and today we’re getting ready for our next weekday session! We had the best time, and we can’t wait to do it all over again tomorrow!
We thought we’d share a few pictures from the weekend…
We had a brilliantly jam-packed weekend, and it was such a delight and a privilege to spend time with 30 fiercely intelligent, curious, upbeat and enthusiastic women. You can see some more photos here!
Love always,
Gala, Shauna and Kat.
Photography: Devlin Photos
We are so excited about the upcoming workshops in London! Gala & Shauna fly in to the UK this week and we can’t wait to be together again (aww). We have a massive SIXTY undergraduates signed up for our London events, and so here is a little reminder about what to expect.
The workshop is taking place at Curtain Road Studios, Shoreditch. Both days kick off at 10 am and we plan to be wrapped by 6 pm each day, with post-workshop drinks in a nearby bar on day two!
To pack in your school bag:
♥ A pen. Each of you will be given a branded workbook and a gorgeous Moleskine in your goodie bag for making notes, but make sure you bring something to write with!
♥ A camera. On day two we have a basic camera skills lesson with a professional photographer. While this isn’t a massively technical workshop, you will have time to practice what you’ve been taught, so if you have a camera, bring it! If not, don’t worry, the camera on your phone will be totally adequate!
♥ Snacks and lunch. We’ll be providing snacks for munching on throughout the day (including vegan and non-vegan cupcakes from Restoration Cake!) but feel free to bring your own too. There are plenty of places to buy lunch locally, but if you prefer to bring a packed lunch, be our guest! There’s a kitchenette in the workshop space where you can store it.
♥ Business cards… Because you never know who you might meet!
We are SO EXCITED to meet you all,
Much love from your overenthusiastic headmistresses,
Kat, Gala & Shauna
Dear West Coast babes,
It’s finally time! We hear you and your excited requests for a Blogcademy in your sweet region… So we’re bringing the Blogcademy to you!
We’ll be bringing the turquoise tornado to Portland, Oregon at the end of March, and whooping it up in Los Angeles at the start of April. Can you tell that we’re excited?! We can’t wait to gorge on sugar at Voodoo Doughnut, peruse the stacks at Powell’s, and hang out in Shauna’s cute house! Los Angeles is one of our favourite cities, too: from walks along the beach to amazing vintage shopping, sometimes it seems like that city really does have it all!
We can’t wait to teach you everything we know about blogging, to hand you a copy of our brand spanking new magazine, and conduct a graduation ceremony at the end of day two!
As always, we’re offering an earlybird special for the first 48 hours — so don’t bide your time! — and giving away a scholarship to both classes. You can read about the scholarship at the very bottom of our FAQ page.
Is the West Coast really the best coast?! Here’s hoping… !
Eternal love,
Gala, Shauna and Kat.
How did you ring in 2013? We hope it was fabulous! Your headmistresses spent the last few minutes of 2012 drinking pink cocktails, popping bottles of champagne and giggling a lot! We say: start as you mean to go on!
That brings us to our next point, which is the idea of setting yourself some goals for your blog over the course of this new year. We could say “resolutions” but they are so wishy-washy, and really, when we’re honest about it, made to be broken!
Nope, it’s plain to see that if you want to make the most of your blog in 2013, you need to know what that looks like to you. Do you want to earn a buck or increase your readership? Do you want to change the direction or improve the content? What do you see other bloggers doing that inspires you?
Once you know the answers to these questions, you can start to march forward with intent. So take a moment over this next week to really think about your answers.
Where do you want to go, and what do you want to achieve with your blog in 2013? Mindmap your ideas and then tape them up right next to your computer. It’ll help keep you on track as the weeks roll on!
Whatever you come up with, we’re right there with you… and we hope we’re able to hang out with you and help you make it happen!
Infinite love,
Gala, Shauna and Kat… (Your whip-cracking headmistresses!)
I just wrapped up a digital media kit for The Blogcademy and I’d like to shed a bit more light on media kits overall. Over the last three years, I’ve switched from traditional press kit folders to digital media kits and my clients have found huge success using them. With sharp editorial-style layouts and clickable links all in a PDF format that’s email-friendly, it’s easy to get the word out in a quick, professional manner whether you’re a blogger or a small business.
Historically, digital media kits have been most commonly used by large magazines to provide information including circulation rates and stats of their target audience for advertisers. Often, they also include a brief bio, testimonials and contact information.
After designing my first media kit for a print magazine in 2008, I had the realization that they would be ideal for bloggers too. Sometimes a one-sheet just isn’t enough information if you’re trying to land bigger gigs and advertisers. I’ve designed a lot of media kits over the last few years — my two personal favorites are for Rock N Roll Bride (this is Kat’s older version — we just wrapped a 2013 refresh that more closely matches her magazine) and Veronica Varlow (who happened to be our special guest at the New York Blogcademy!).
At The Blogcademy, we’ve had a one sheet since the beginning to send out to sponsors but realized that while that was perfect for filling goodie bags, we needed something more robust for larger corporate partnerships that may pop up. It’s important to always be prepared for those potentially huge moments! 14 pages later, we’re feeling much more prepared for what 2013 holds.
In the media kits I put together, especially for bloggers, I usually start by suggesting the following:
• Front and back covers with a visible URL and logo
• An introduction with key accomplishments
• Testimonials from readers and clients
• Stats including traffic and social media numbers
• Rates / packages / availability
• Suggestions for how to make the most out of your partnership (recommendations for achieving the best results)
• Professional images of your brand / blog / yourself throughout
• Contact page with clickable links
From this list, we add and subtract content until the balance feels right. Each media kit should be very specific to that brand. There are some crossover design elements I’ve used but for the most part, every media kit is a clean slate.
If you’re attending The Blogcademy London, we do a much more in-depth media kit overview during my branding segment. I hope this glimpse inside media kits makes them feel less mysterious!
*All photos in the media kit are by Devlin Photos and Made U Look Photography.
Penny, we loved your creative video. We had some seriously (SERIOUSLY!) amazing entries this time round. You can check them all out on our Facebook page — we had everything from sketches to sequins and interactive videos to fancy dress! It really was a tough job to pick just one winner, and we debated every entry back and forth for ages. But in the end, Penny’s cute stop motion video won us over. We loved how it showed her personality, and it really demonstrated the value she’d put on attending the workshop.
And here was her reaction…
OMFG!!!! Can’t tell you how excited I am! Thank you all so much!
Will definitely be shouting from the rooftops, once I come down from the clouds!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Penny xo
I guess she’s excited, yes?! Well, so are we! We can’t wait to see you in January, babe!
We only have a few spaces remaining at the second London workshop on 23rd & 24th January. If you’d like to come and party play learn with us, then don’t delay, book your spot today!
With much love from your headmistresses,
Kat, Gala & Shauna
Today we have a very special announcement: The Blogcademy has a new and improved website!
Our workshop has come a long way since its launch back in August! To say that there was a time crunch when we were getting ready to launch doesn’t quite sum it all up…it was more of a mad dash. The workback schedule was nearly nonexistent — I had one day to design the site design and Kat’s husband coded the entire thing in a weekend. And even better, the night before our big launch, I headed across state lines to a Mötley Crüe & Kiss concert, promising Kat & Gala I’d finish up any final assets that night when I got home.
I made it back from the concert in one piece and the next morning, the launch went better than any of us could have imagined. Since that time, our first workshop in New York has came and went and London is now on the horizon.
Beyond all the excitement, each of us had the nagging feeling that our website could be a lot better. Truth be told, it just didn’t feel complete — post New York, we had a video, amazing testimonials and a one-sheet but nowhere to really put them. I didn’t want to just tack on more content to the existing pages. We needed an overhaul.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I got to work on the redesign. Kat’s coding whiz husband Gareth quietly worked away and surprised us with the finished product this morning and we couldn’t be more happy to share this next chapter of The Blogcademy with you!
Take a look around (we have lots of new content, including Testimonials and Sponsors pages) and let us know what you think! And if you’re interested in joining us in London, there’s a few spots left.
Photograph by Eneka Stewart!
What an adorable bunch! A few of our Blogcademy: London students met up at Sketch this weekend, to chat about their upcoming class (and a lot of other silly things, we bet!). We’re loving this photo so much we just had to post it… We can’t wait to meet ALL of you next month!
(Oh… By the way, there are only 10 spots left! If you want to join us, don’t be a stranger!)
xo Gala
Did you know that we offer one scholarship spot in every city!? Yep, that’s right, one completely free pass to the whole workshop!
For the London classes we’ve mixed it up a little, so to enter we’d like you to pull together a blog post and let us know, in whatever format you like, why you should win!*
You could draw a picture, make a video, create an animated gif, start a facebook campaign, get a tattoo (Kat’s idea and she’s only half joking…!) Basically anything that your crazy little brain can come up with.
Publish your entry on your own blog and then simply post a link to it on our Facebook page by 14th December 2012. The winner will be notified via email shortly after so be sure to have a contact page somewhere obvious on your blog.
We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
With much love from your headmistresses,
Kat, Gala & Shauna
*The scholarship winner can choose which date they’d like to attend.
Yes you read that right! The Blogcademy London sold out so fast (in 24 hours whoa!) so we’ve decided to add a second date!
What utter nut jobs…
The third Blogcademy class will take place on Wednesday 23rd & Thursday 24th January 2013, again at the Curtain Road Studios, Shoreditch. The same rules apply so if you’d like to join us hop to it. No excuses for missing out now guys – hurry hurry!
And don’t forget about our scholarship! We’re giving one place away (you can pick whichever date you’d prefer to attend) to the guy or gal who can dazzle us with their creativity. You can read more about The Blogcademy scholarship here.
BOOM! London you rock our world. Come on the UK, let’s BRING IT!