Blogging in Bali: Retreat with me!

I get to do all kinds of fun things for my work but this is going straight near the top of my list: I’m running a five-day Blogging in Bali retreat as part of the Creative Living Retreats series run by Anna Kwiecinska!

What? You’re “working” in Bali?

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. The good thing is that you can join me too. This retreat is running 21-25 June 2018 and is going to be a really intense extra-long-weekend of concentrated work and learning on your blog … along with some eastern Bali-related fun, of course. It will be held at Villa Nilaya which is located on the eastern side of the island, in rather nice surroundings, as you can see in the photo below. Looks a bit beautiful, right?

Content of the blogging in Bali workshops

The finer details of the workshops will depend a little on the participants – I’ll tailor it to suit the needs of the group – but I will be teaching five, three-hour workshops across the retreat, covering topics including:

• “big picture” thinking about your blog, its audience and your goals
• passionate content planning – nutting out your key messages
• auditing your blog to date and planning for the future
• batching and blogging productivity hacks
• basic tech checklist
• identifying and expanding the community around your blog
• writing better blog posts: looking at your voice and how to engage the reader
• using images effectively (with Anna’s help –  since she has masses of visual intelligence, way more than me!)
• Canva, graphics ideas and using images with social media in mind
• different approaches to blogging (with practice on retreat – we will share some experiences and then get everyone to blog about them with their own authentic voice – making your blog personality come alive!
• and lots more! We will basically be talking about (and doing) blogging non-stop from Thursday to Monday 🙂

And the added extras

Anna’s retreats at Villa Nilaya have been running for seven years and she has a whole host of extras that will make it a very special experience. She knows all the best local spots and we will make time to experience them! For example:

• the welcome dinner will be at a local restaurant in Candi Dasa with live jazz
• we’ll have a hands-on cooking demonstration (and meal) – where we can also practice some food photography and blogging as well as filling our bellies!
• a half day boat trip will take us to a gorgeous swimming spot
• yoga is optional … but highly recommended … with Anna and Kawi Dana on the deck at Villa Nilaya, looking towards the sea
• rest your weary blogging muscles with a one-hour Balinese massage or reflexology session
• we’ll have a farewell dinner (probably a reluctant farewell!) at Villa Nilaya on the last night with a beautiful seafood BBQ

And so on!

Costs and details

You can find all the official details on this Blogging in Bali PDF, but I wanted to mention that it’s extremely affordable. Especially if like me you’re from Perth and Bali is literally closer and cheaper to get to than Adelaide.

There’s a minimum of six participants for it to run, and a maximum of 12, so it will be lovely group! (Given that I haven’t yet promoted it apart from mentioning it in passing on one Facebook post and already have three people who’ve put their hands up, I suspect it will fill up to 12, but I do find that a perfect number to teach.)

So basically, there are three different accommodation options, which you can read about on the PDF, and depending on which you choose, the cost for the five-day retreat (including my workshops, all the extras, all meals apart from two “nights off” dinners, accommodation, one-way transfer, etc) ranges from $860 to $1,040. Basically add your airfare and you’re done.

Sign me up! Of course I want to blog on Bali with you!

Haha! I get it. If I wasn’t running this retreat I would want to go as a participant too! You can see all the details on the Villa Nilaya page (if you click through before an error gets fixed: the retreat is definitely 21-25 June, not July) or even better download the PDF of all the information.

Of course you can also email me at any time with questions or just to say “count me in”!