BlogHer Plans and Growing Your Blog Community

// 2.24.09 // 7 Comments » // Homeschooling, Parenting, Tech & Blogging, Thriving

I’m busy making plans for BlogHer ‘09. As regular readers of this blog know, I use to speak on how fitness professionals and enthusiasts can benefit from using the internet (which seems, like, really obvious now, but back in 1999, not so much), and after last year’s BlogHer, I told myself I would get back on my game and speak at this year’s conference.

And so I am. I’ll be on a panel with Jennifer James discussing Blogging as a Homeschooling Tool.

Hooray!

I’ve also submitted an idea for the “Room of Your Own” sessions at BlogHer. I’m conspiring with the awesome Jessica of MomForce.com and Jessica Knows. Please vote for our session!

Whether we blog as a career, as a supplement, or as a creative outlet, most of us want something in return for our efforts. Readers. Commentators. Friends. Shoulders to lean on. We read blogs for similar reasons — to find kindred spirits, to share information. One of the key elements in developing a successful blog is becoming involved with a community and establishing a support network.

This session will discuss the give and take of this crazy lifestyle we call blogging. We might write killer content, but if we’re not interacting, commenting, and supporting other bloggers, we’re not likely to have much success. Our success can also be sabotaged by a weak offline support network. How do we find (or create) a community of bloggers and a network of people that will support us in our goals?

By setting up support networks we can help others help us, while we help them, too. We’ll discuss developing support circles around our friends (both online and off), our family, and service providers like Care.com. Learn about how conversations expressing your explicit needs can make your relationships stronger and your blog or business more successful.

Join Shannon of PHAT Mommy (who homeschools her children and sacrifices sleep to work on five blogs) and Jessica of MomForce.com and JessicaKnows for an enlightening session full of shared ideas that will leave us all with strategies to harness the power of community and support networks.

Please vote for our session and help us spread the word. Then come chat with us at BlogHer09.

I’m Back and Paying It Forward

// 1.23.09 // 16 Comments » // My Daughter, Thriving

So I haven’t blogged for over a month. I’m back, but with no promises. As usual, I have lots of ideas. Lots of plans. But there’s no guarantee any of that will actually translate into more frequent writing.

We had a wonderful holiday season in the PHAT household. Then we all got sick. There’s some nasty cold / fever / coughing / hacking up a lung thing going around. Half our homeschool co-op was out sick today. And I read that there is an outbreak of whooping cough in the local schools. Yikes.

My daughter got hit especially hard. She could hardly breathe. This is, in fact, the third time this year that she’s had a cold turn into a very bad coughing /wheezing / can’t breathe event. So we’re getting her tested for asthma as soon as she’s fully recovered from this current illness.

Other than that, things are going very well for us all. I feel very fortunate to be able to continue to live my life comfortably in this economy. And I’m very thankful for the good friends I’ve made over the past couple years and the people that make my days happier – online and off.

And here’s where “paying it forward” comes in. Last month I was sent a yummy New Hampshire Maple Candy from Ashlie at MommyCosm as part of the Pay It Forward Blog Game. I don’t know where the idea originated, but I can post as much as Ashlie found out:

I won from Heather at CMGD, she won from River Poet at Poetic License, who won from Daryl at Out & About in NYC. He won from Flea, who won from Peach, who won from Adventures in JujuBoo who won from Ronda’s Rants, who won at Zander and Me, who won it from Mamahut’s House… and then, phew, I gave up.

Here are the rules:
The exchange focuses on doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and pay it forward. I am going to send something fun, cute, & nice to three blog owners who post a comment on this entry. In turn, those three will post this information and pick three people they want to send something to and so on. Unfortunately, due to postage costs, I can only pay it forward within the United States. If you are interested in participating, be one of the three randomly chosen blog owners to leave a comment! The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found. Just a gift that will make the person smile. There are no cost restraints, but don’t go crazy! You have to promise that you will then post about this on your blog, link to me, and then send something to three people who sign up to play along through your blog.

I’m ready to Pay It Forward to three people. Leave a comment if you want to play.

Congrats to the winners: Angela, Robert, and Sonyia.

I Seriously Love the Back-End

// 12.3.08 // 4 Comments » // Link Love, Tech & Blogging, Thriving

Now, settle down. If you arrived here after Googling some porn-related connotation of “back-end,” you can go back to Google now. I am referring the back-end of a blog. The programming. The graphics. The SEO. The marketing.

A few months ago I embarked on a project with my husband’s cousin, The Present Professor. She’s been cranking out the posts, offering up her unique finds in the world of gift-giving. And I’m happier than happy that I DON’T have to write. I’m thrilled to log in to the Wordpress dashboard and see 5 drafts that I can add images to, set keywords for, and then hit the publish button. I love tinkering around with the theme, making sure the right posts are highlighted on the home page, and thinking of new ways to promote the site. This is my calling, people.

Me and The Professor, we make a great team. Check us out.