Over the weekend, I attended the Family Travel Conference. I’ve already written about the AMAZING lunch I had at Virgil’s Real Barbecue but this post is more about the takeaways I learned from the conference itself.

While the conference was focused on travel writing, I believe these tips can be used in all genres:

• If you are putting together the conference – use TwitterFall.com to stream your hashtag live to the room. It’s a great way to promote conversation.
• Try to break article into several different posts. Have the post be specific about one part of the trip (which is better for SEO) and then link between each of your posts. Increases click through rates PLUS gives you more content to syndicate.
• The highlight of the post should be the one thing you lead off with. What’s the first thing you tell your mother about the trip?What’s the HOOK? Lead with that.
• Talk with other families on vacation – you don’t only have to rely on your children’s experience.
• Consider repositioning your content to make more $
• Don’t forget to Tweet official accounts to encourage further trips / experiences
• Clear Cut headlines are best for SEO – but sometimes the cutesy ones should still win
• Subhead every 2 to 3 paragraphs
• Use bullet points
• No more than 2o external links per page
• When using social media – 80% of what you push out should be about other people
• Your title plus your first paragraph of story must match
• Making video – don’t lead with your intro. Lead with your hook and then introduce yourself. Short on time? Use text or add your logo to mark the video

I had such an amazing time and am so thankful that I was invited to attend. Not only did I walk away with some useful tips, but I also made contacts with amazing brands and writers.