Mom bloggers LOVE the swag.

If you haven’t already seen my video walkthrough of the MomSelect.com Swag Suite where my company participated in the swagfest, take a walk through the swag suite with me here.

Check out the Silicon Valley Moms Blog. See that pink banner in the corner about the Mom’s Summer Tour? Click it and check out the swag sponsors.

Nor, bear in mind, this was swag put together for a BlogHer Sub-Group made up of the 200 or so contributors to the collaborative Silicon Valley Moms Blog site.  Not even for the 1000 bloggers that attended the BlogHer event.

There were at least two other huge bags of Swag for all BlogHer attendees. One, a red bag from Scholastic for people who attended the People’s Party. I didn’t go, so I can’t tell you what was in the Scholastic bag.

Plus, registration for the event included a whole bag of swag and there was a whole separate swag room just for mom bloggers.

If I seem a little obsessed with this swag thing, I am. It’s fascinating on both a personal level and a business level.

I’m both a swag consumer and a swag creator. And, I’m obsessed like everyone else. I imagine we love it because it makes us feel celebrity-like. Or maybe that’s just me and everyone elsejust likes free stuff.

It’s big business this swag. Even GM and Michelin, two of the huge BlogHer sponsors, gifted some swag. One of my bags had a little michelin guy in it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7iOAyq8DnE&feature=related]

Anyway, I have 4 bags of swag I put in a huge box and brought back on the plane with me from San Francisco. I’m givin’ it all away.

Want some?

I’m having a contest. I’m not sure how it’s going to work yet though.

Any ideas? Please share them with me by commenting here and then I’ll pick the format of the contest out of the commenters. The one I pick can have first pick of the swag bags.

Points are given for:

1. simplicity,
2. least work necessary from me
3. attracts new people to my blog and makes them want to stay
4. FUN!

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5707540400141371803&hl=en]

I’ve got to admit that before today, I never would have taken a second look at Redbook.  Ever.  Redbook what?  But, after listening to Stacy, I’m a new fan.  She’s smart, she’s hot and she’s real.  Check out her blog.

Lesley Pinckney from Essence Communications just told us that Warner Bros is putting the entire Friends catalog online.  Wow.  That’s a pretty big deal.  She says the big companies are paying attention to the audience and letting the audience desire drive the conversation more now than ever before.

Bravo TV’s Senior VP of New Media and Digital, Lisa Hsia, is talking about Hulu.  I didn’t have any idea what Hulu is, but it appears to be some sort of online TV service.  This is part of how the digital arena makes me feel dumb.  I generally feel like a really smart person, but not in the tech world.  It’s all moving faster than I can keep up with.

Back to Stacy again.  I think I love her.  Stacy acknowledges that the big media companies are struggling with how much to give away free and how much not to give away.  I get that.  I struggle with that too.  What I’ve found is the more I give, the more I get.  It’s scary to do it though because my mind is constantly screaming NO, hoard it.  Keep it.  Don’t give it away.  And yet, when I can move beyond that, I almost always come out on top.

Damn Stacy is smart – she just said she loves to make mistakes and she feels really lucky that her company lets her make mistakes.  She just wants to make the best mistakes.

She says the sex properties are the bestsellers even though no one admits to reading anything about sex online.  Sex Life Road Test is their most popular.  It’s hilarious, check it out.

So funny that they are now talking about Twitter on the panel and Twitter crashed at the same time.  Is it possible that every blogger at BlogHer signed into Twitter at the same time and brought it down?

I have to admit that I find it difficult to pay attention during much of this.

Once again, Stacy wows me – she said she is a person who has absolutely no personal boundaries.  Oh boy, I can relate to that!  Stacy is not her audience.  Her audience is conservative, religious and requires a certain amount of constraint that Stacy says she doesn’t have herself.

Stacy was definitely the highlight of this program.  You rock Stacy Morrison.

Instead, I’m going to recap my day and what I need to not forget to do after leaving here.

As with all conferences, I am reminded that the conference sessions themselves are generally not the best part of the conference. It’s all about who you meet in the hallway.

In fact, I didn’t really make it to many of the sessions today. But, I did make some great connections.

I talked with Sabrina Parsons of Palo Alto Software, makers of Business Plan Pro. Sabrina is the CEO of the company and when I was checking out the site, I found out her husband works in the business with her and her dad was the founder of the company. We talked a bit about family business issues and she said she’d be open to an interview about it. Let me know if you’d be interested in hearing about that and if so, we’ll get it on calendar.

Before lunch, I stumbled into the exhibitor’s area where I didn’t see much of interest, but I did kick myself for missing the emails about calls for authors. I so should have been signing books at BlogHer! So, I got the contact information for next year.

And, I connected with a few women from PBS who I need to follow up with about their community tv show, which would be a perfect place for me to get the word out about naming guardians.

Then, instead of having lunch, I spent some time with Zameer and James from Baby Spot. They’ve got lots of cool strategic alliances lined up, which I can’t talk about or they’d have to kill me. They interviewed me for their site and I’m looking forward to hearing from them on possible partnership opportunities for us. I’m going to go set up a BabySpot account now.

As I was being interviewed by the Baby Spot guys, who should walk by but the Savvy Auntie herself Melanie Notkin. I interviewed Melanie and I’ll post the video as soon as I can upload it. One thing’s for sure, Melanie is one hot tech chick.

Speaking of hot tech chicks, I learned about Kirtsy for the first time today. How catchy and cool is that name? It’s a website of all sorts of cool stuff for women. I can’t remember the tag line they had on their buttons, but it was something like – where the bitches get together. Love it. And them. Must sign up for a Kirtsy account and then connect with @lmayes to learn how to promote the Kids Protection Plan website.

And, we can’t forget the stylish Patricia Handschiegel who sold her company Style Diary to Style Hive last November and is now about to launch a new TV show that is yet to be discussed in public. We’ll be getting together in LA to talk about the reality of launching a TV show. Thanks for showing me the ropes, Patricia!

Then, I was totally zonked and wandering aimlessly into random rooms and came across the spa retreat room and happened to open a brochure that promised to get rid of my cellulite. The name of the treatment is escaping me at the moment, but apparently I can now have a device rolled over my body 1x/week for 4 weeks at $300 a pop and I’ll be free of cellulite. Hmmm….. tempting.

To top the day off, I was invited to the Silicon Valley Mom Blog Contributors party at Saks for makeup and photos. I almost didn’t go, but I’m so glad I did because it was fun and I got some great photos! Head on over to Facebook to check them out.

If you are in San Francisco and need headshots, Tom Upton is great. And, I also met Stacy Libby, a PR gal who focuses on social marketing media and we’re going to plan a meeting when she’d down in LA.

Other random connections to follow up:

Krista on food: http://www.londonelicious.com

Jenny Lauck Blog Her Ad Guru and Mom: http://threekidcircus.com/threekidcircus/

Nicole Pelton: http://notjustaworkingmom.blogspot.com

Nina Moon: http://www.charlieandnina.com

Jennifer Satterwhite: http://www.MommyNeedsCoffee.com and http://www.MommyBloggers.com

Mommy Needs a Cocktail – http://www.mommyneedsacocktail.com/

And several others who gave me teeny rectangular cards that are now at the bottom of my bag and I can’t reach them at the moment, more to come …

There’s just one thing I have to say before I go and that is that there are parts of BlogHer that make me feel really dumb. It’s weird because I’m definitely not dumb and yet more than once today I’ve felt that way. Definitely more to come about that.

We were staying at a different hotel last night and had to switch over to the Westin St. Francis where BlogHer is being held this morning. So no ice breaker for me. You’ll have to hear from someone else about that.

The first session I am attending is the What We Do: Taking Care of Business with @taxgirl (Kelly Phillips Erb), @linseykrolik (Linsey Krolik), and @mommyceo (Sabrina Parsons).

Linsey Krolik was up first and talked about defamation, fair use, and incorporation. If you don’t already know about creative commons, check it out. Plus, if you are running a business and want to protect your personal assets from liability, form an entity, such as an LLC or Corporation. If you aren’t sure what kind, contact Linsey or a Personal Family Lawyer in your neighborhood.

Kelly Phillips Erb is next. She’s a tax attorney and clearly loves tax. I loved tax law in law school. It’s like a game. Kelly makes it a fun game.  Kelly discussed income and deductions. In case you are not writing off your BlogHer expenses, you should be! Keep your receipts.

Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, talks about how can I make money with my blog.  How do I price proposals?  How do I price my time?  What can I do to bring in revenue and make this thing a revenue generating activity.   If you are not paying yourself a salary, put it in the books as a loss.  This is GREAT advice and often overlooked.  She says the biggest mistake you can make is to devalue your time and your services.  Create a plan!  Where do you want to be in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years?  Write it down.

Each of these sessions was absolutely consistent with my advice for small business owners.  If you’d like to get a free mp3 from me about the insider secrets you need to know so you can take maximum business risk with minimum personal risk, go here right now and request it.