Back in 2004, before blogging was as mainstream as it is today, and there were perhaps 2,000 bloggerati putting up links and opining views (and many more people doing their personal community thing on xanga and live journal), the whole concept of business blogging blew up.

Suddenly, there were business blogging conferences, and 200 + bloggers who hung out shingles to tell the world--especially companies with money--about blogging and why it mattered to their business (and why they had to hire these folks to tell them this stuff.)

Fast forward 5 years and we have many more people using social media tools on the web, and many more twitterati, and now we have 10,000 people, instead of 2,000, who would classify as hard core social media users, and we have 2,000 people, not 200, telling the world--the business community in particular--to hire them so they can teach everyone--especially companies with money--how to use twitter and all the other tools to support closeness to the customer, viral marketing and the new new transparency.

One take here--which has some truth to it--is that the noise to signal ratio has gone waay up, and that 50% of the people putting out their shingle don't necessarily know what they are talking about.

But another take--which I think also has some truth to it--is that there are 2,000 people across the country who really are expert in using social media, and they all have something to teach. After all, if the premise of Web 2.0 is that users can be the center of the toolset, why would it be surprising that growing numbers of users would actually become expert?

Or that there'd be an incremental acceleration of skilled users (and free agent consultants) since the tools were getting both more intuitive and better marketed (now that we have five or seven leading tech news blogs).

Of course, there is a moral to this story(sparked both by reading this post and by a chat at the Oakland meet-up yesterday): If you ARE a social media expert type, and you are looking for clients, DON'T go hang at the social media conferences--most of the customers will be elsewhere. Go somewhere else and get away from those 2,000 peers; your client pipeline will be so much better.

Have you seen the twits asking if you're going to Blissdom? Or whether you're saving it for BlogHer, instead?

 Curious as to what this Blissdom was, I poked around and discovered that Blissdom is a blogging conference for women, to be held this February for the second time in Nashville, Tennessee.

Looking at the web page, Blissdom takes more than a little inspiration from BlogHer's conference energy--only with two significant differences--Blissdom has a strong Christian faith-based subtheme--and has Walmart as a sponsor.

Sponsored by some Nashville bloggers (would they call themselves girls? I'm not sure), February's Blissdom '09 is a repeat of  October's Blissdom '08.  This conference started life as a plans for a local party after the BlogHer business tour stop in Nashville, but turned into a day-long event after BlogHer cut back the tour, eliminating the Nashville meet-up.

Now, Allison Worthington, aka Mrs. Fussypants, and her partner Barbara Jones, aka one2onenetwork are calling in the tribe to Nashville for a lingerie and Cosmo-tinged party that Carrie Bradshaw and her gang of pals would surely enjoy (if they were moms of 5 with their own businesses, a relationship with their lord Jesus Christ, and blogs and blog-based businesses of their own, that is.)

The conference pitch is to come to Nashville for fun and fellowship  and "learn from other women about building your blog, your brand, and your business while achieving bliss in those other areas that are so important too: being a mom, a wife, and being true to yourself."

So here's the thing:

• Would I, an irreverent New York Jew transplanted to the Bay area, feel comfortable at Blissdom?
  
• Could I too be a Belle of Blissdom?
  
• Or would my life as a Bella strike me from the lists?
  
• Would the fact I don't have small kids, or a husband annoyingly but charmingly underfoot a home, deter me from feeling welcomed at this conference? 
  

And how about that Jesus thing? If God's grace comes with a cross on it, would I feel welcomed?

While it's clear the conference wants to bring into people by the boatload who aspire to Allison Worthington's ability to balance  "her magazine, her mommy blog, her photo jewelry business, five young sons and a wonderful husband with lots of coffee and God's grace,"  it might also be true that this conference isn't interested in attracting people who doesn't fit that model, including childless and single people, LGBT ers and people of color who don't fit the demo.

On the other hand, this might be the just the women's blogging audience that  Walmart is looking for. Maybe Walmart has funded Momtourage (iVillage) and Blissdom( this event) because these are their people.

(Of course if that means the more  diverse group at BlogHer just isn't, it will make me want to scream loudly for at least an hour.)

Short version: Am I the only one who gets the vibe that Blissdom is ground zero for the post-sorority, married with children version of SATC with blogging?

Or am I just being Mrs. Crankpants this morning?

(Update: I'm not angry about this at all. I think it's fine for everyone to organize into whatever affinity groups ring true for them, and I respect all beliefs and religions, At the same time, this is the first women's blogging group I've run into where many of the organizers list both having kids, being a good wife, and their Christian faith as key to their lives--and while it makes perfectly good sense--it's also, uh, surprising, especially with Walmart forking out $$ so fast and all.)

Update 2: Mom 2.0 Summit, another niche conference in a rapidly crowding category.