blogging life

And while I’m on the topic of platform, I’m personally looking for models of author websites that incorporate blogs and workshop listings, because my workshop offerings are expanding. I’m working with a fabulous intern this summer (Kristen Loveland) to revamp things a bit over here at GWP. So far on my list I’ve got Elizabeth Merrick and Marci Alboher. Anyone seen anyone else that’s doing this on their site, and doing it well? Thanks for leads, in comments!

And PS. Keep an eye out for some guest posting from Kristen in this space too. I’m going to be learning a lot from her, I know.

I often suggest that writers I’m working with start blogs to start building a platform around their book. My colleague Ashton (of the post below, and not a coaching client of mine, btw) has done just a good job of that, I wanted to send her a shout out and make her blog visible as a model for others of you who are trying to do the same. Again, the site is called So When Are You Going to Retire, and what I love about it is that Ashton has included lists on the side called “Stories I’m hearing,” “Stuff I’m reading,” “Questions I’m asking,” “Zeitgeist,” and then she also has a bibliography link. These categories are great not only for folks interested in her work (whether interest means participating or coverage) but also for Ashton, who can then go back to these links later as she’s ready to return to this material for the book. She’s also written, right up top, the following: “questions? critiques? stories? please comment or email me” to encourage reader response.

Has anyone seen other examples of good platform building blogs? If so, please add them in comments!

I may be late to the party on this one, but I just came across a blog called The Frisky, a sexy site–or, in their words, a “Venuszine”–for women highlighting women in music, art, film fashion, and DIY culture. The Frisky sent me an email (target marketing to feminist bloggers, and hey, it worked!) with links to some awfully misogynistic and creepy sexist ads, with their critique attached: “First we seriously question the Disney Push Bra. Does this fall under “soft” kiddie porn? And well we are speechless about this one.”

Do check em out–The Frisky.

Veronica Arreola, blogger and blog mentor, alerts us over at Viva la Feminista to the way NARAL Pro-Choice America successfully launched a blog with integration on Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. For all your orgs out there, do check out the way they’ve navigated all three. It’s IMPRESSIVE! And inspiring too, for all of us still trying to figure out the ins and outs of Web 2.0. In Veronica’s words, “[G]o check out how NARAL Pro-Choice America is using blogging + social networking to = one kick ass feminist network.” What she said.

A hearty welcome to the blogosphere to Dr. Television, aka Elana Levine, a supersmart colleague of mine from my graduate school days at the University of Wisconsin. I blogged here earlier about Elana’s book, and I’m THRILLED that she’s thrown her voice into the blogpool, because this gal has got it going on.

A shout out to Kathy LeMay, the genius behind Raising Change, for forwarding info about a great blogging opportunity for social change bloggers (or folks who want to be). Here’s the deal:

Apply to be a Blogger for Change.org!

Want to blog on an issue you are passionate about for an audience of hundreds of thousands of activists and nonprofit leaders?

Want to create the premier online space for your issue and become a leading voice for social action?

Change.org is launching a social action blog network this summer and is currently hiring a team of part-time bloggers/editors to help create a movement for change around the major causes of our time.

Each blogger will lead an online community focusing on a different social, political, or environmental issue, maintain a daily blog covering news and offering commentary, convene leading nonprofits and activists working on the issue, and help people translate their interests and passions into concrete action.

For more info, click here.

The image to the left comes courtesy of Catherine Morgan, who published a great list of 375 political women bloggers back in March. For more on that, check out Catherine’s The Political Voices of Women Blog.

I promised participants from my blogging workshop at CCF last weekend that I’d post a list of the links we showed. Here they are – have at ’em, and enjoy!

Blogs mentioned by participants…
The Juggle (Wall Street Journal’s work/life blog)
Yarn Harlot
So When Are You Going to Retire (Ashton Applewhite’s blog)
Viva La Feminista (Veronica Arreola’s personal blog)

A few big progressivey political blogs…
Huffington Post
AlterNet

A sampling of the Momosphere…
Chicago Moms Blog
Work It Mom
The Motherhood

A few group blogs…
BlogHer
WIMNsVoicesBlog

A few blogs to check out by academics…
BitchPhD
Feminist Law Professors
Afrogeek Mom
Hugo Schywzer
Culture Cat

Blog hosting:
Blogger
WordPress

Widgets (aka bells & whistles):
Springwidgets

Carnivals:
Carnival List

Blog readers (to simplify your blog reading):
Bloglines
Google Reader

And of course, Google Alerts (caution: ADDICTIVE)

If I missed any that participants would like to add, please add them in comments! (And if you’re still working on figuring out what that means, learn how to post a comment by clicking here.)

Greetings to all those from the Council on Contemporary Families conference who are new to GWP! As promised, I’ll be posting links from my session on blogging in this space soon. Stay tuned…!

Mediabistro’s Laura Palotie interviewed me recently for an article on guest blogging–the how, what, and where of it all. The story’s now live. Here’s an excerpt:

Talk to most professional journalists, and they are quick to say that the age of “making it” exclusively through traditional media outlets has passed. Wait for the green light from The New York Times, and you’re quickly missing your opportunity; download the fruits of your reporting online and comment on the message boards of other writers, and you’re on your way to creating a footprint that becomes more pronounced with each post. Blogs, too, have quickly transitioned from vanity projects to the building blocks of large communities.

Opening up one’s site to the work of another writer or expert can build traffic and help form a more multidimensional platform. These “guest blogging” gigs rarely provide a financial solution for journalists — in fact, many are unpaid — but can help establish credibility, build up expertise, and increase the public’s interest in a writer’s work.

Deborah Siegel, author and lecturer, initially began blogging in January of 2007, when she started touring with her first book, Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo. More than a way to seek publicity, she intended her blog to be a way for her family and friends to keep track of her whereabouts during the tour. Soon, however, she began including broader feminist commentary, from mothering to popular culture, and saw her page views increase. “I’d get comments from people I didn’t recognize, and I knew it couldn’t all be my mom,” she says.

Besides keeping up her own site, Girl With Pen, that currently gets between 1,000-2,000 hits a week, Siegel guest blogs for The Huffington Post and Majority Post. She doesn’t make money from these gigs, but extending her public scope consistently spikes traffic on her own site and helps her draw attention to her other work, including her newest book, Sisterhood: Interrupted. Siegel has also been asked to give a talk on blogging at this spring’s Council on Contemporary Families Conference in Chicago.

“I don’t think of blogging as separate from my work,” Siegel says. “It helps me stay accountable at keeping up with the areas I write about. It also has a real sense of immediacy with an audience, those comments that people post that really make me think.”

Full article posted here.

And here at GWP, Guest Blogger Laura Mazer is up next!
(Image cred)

Today is my day to review Rachel Kramer Bussel’s new book, as part of a blog tour. And I promise my post is coming soon–just want to run out and catch some exercise before the day begins. I’m psyched to be in such good company on this one–check out who’s also reviewing as part of the tour, and do visit them too if interested:

April 9 Deborah Siegel
April 10 Babeland
April 11 NYC Urban Gypsy
April 12 FunkyBrown Chick
April 13 Boinkology
April 14 Audacia Ray
April 15 Pretty Dumb Things

For all you writers wondering how a blog tour actually works–and how to set one up for yourself–I’m teaching blogging seminars at upcoming conferences and will def cover the topic. For starters:

Council on Contemporary Families – April 26, U of Illinois, Chicago
National Council for Research on Women – June 7, New York University