SEMO Blogger's Unite!!

Hello friends and fellow bloggers! I've been tossing this idea back and forth in my head for a couple weeks now and wanted to just throw it out there and see what ya'll think. Yes, ya'll b/c we're from Southeast Missouri :)

I've heard of several major cities having Blogging Conferences, or Women Who Blog Meetings. These are simply get-togethers where other bloggers can share ideas or their purpose for their blog, whether they write for their own relaxation or if their purpose is to help others. There are several questions I have about blogging (since I'm pretty new at this myself) and I'm thinking that others out there may have similar questions.

1. Graphics- How to create a creative/original background to your blog
2. Layout- What google tools are necessary and unnecessary? What are some of the different page elements/google gadgets that are out there that you've found to be beneficial?
3. Making money- What is Google AdSense and would it be something worth trying?
4. Photos- What type of cameras have you found to be the best for blog use?
5. Legal stuff- When is it ok or not ok to mention another business or blog in a post? What's the best way to keep from infringing upon copyright laws?

I was thinking that we could meet in a coffee shop or even in one of the meeting rooms at the University. I also think it would be great to have a guest speaker or a veteran blogger cover a few different topics. Of course we'd have tea and snacks and we could all get each other's contact information/websites as well.

Here are some other Blogger Groups websites you might want to take a look at. Sounds like they cover a variety of different topics and they meet about once a year. I'd like to meet maybe every quarter or bi-yearly.

1. Blog World Expo- this seems pretty formal and not really at all what I have in mind to do here. Some of the topics seem pretty interesting though
2. Casual Bloggers Conference- these are my kind of bloggers! These ladies are advocates for stay at home moms, craft gurus, clean freaks, and more! Seems more like what I'm thinking of for SEMO, but I'd like to include men as well.
3. Mom 2.0 Summit- All about mom's who are entrepreneurs and wanting to expand their social media skills.
4. Show Me Institutes Blogoshpere Event- this is the only conference I've found for Missouri and it was geared more towards governmental focused/political blogs. I would welcome any bloggers to our conference who write for this purpose but I don't want to have an entire conference on it.


Anyway, what do you guys think? Is this something worth doing? Or do you know of a group in Southeast Missouri who is already doing this? If several of you respond positively and want to make a go of this then I say let's do it! Email me or reply on this post if you'd like to participate!