in celebration of BlogHer ‘08

July 18th, 2008

Today, blogher’s 2008 ~~party~~ conference begins in San Fran. Officially, this is what it’s about (according to their site):

Featuring technical labs, educational workshops, intense discussion sessions, relevant sponsors, speakers from every corner of the blogosphere, established and new, and plenty of opportunities to network and socialize. Appropriate for anyone and everyone who’s interested in any kind of blogging, from the personal to the professional to the political.

Some heady statistics (according to Katie Couric):

36 million women read and/or write blogs
46% of mommy blogs are political and/or issue driven
Women spent $2 trillion last year (ie. we are a powerful market force)

Blogging is a perfect medium for women (according to me):

We fit it into our lives and schedules when it works for us.
We have ultimate control over our domain (pun intended).
We decide who can and can not talk back to us.
We are a growing community of women who share advice, support and connection on every topic from breast cancer to how to build a website to parenting tips to career coaching to fertility, infertility and miscarriages to fashion to…
We are no longer isolated from each other and the world.
We are creative, daring, inventive and take risks with ourselves and our careers.
We are financially independent.
We are rewarded for being our real selves by site traffic, sales, revenue streams and peer acknowledgment.
We are able to combine family and work, or at least make the ‘have to choose’ scenario a bit fuzzier.
We buy products and services from each other circumventing big business that don’t incorporate our voice, needs or wants.
We have a voice.
We’re powerful.

Back to blogher ‘08: I’m insanely jealous, wish I was there and pray that next year blogher ‘09 will be on the east coast. For those of you lucky enough to attend…have a fabulous time…I can’t wait to read all about it.

Filed under Blogging, News | Tags: blog, Blogging, blogher, blogher 08, blogher conference, copywriter, copywriting, internet stats, Julie Roads, katie couric, women, women and internet stats, women blogging, women blogs, women online, women web 2.0, Writing Roads | Comments (2)

when writing is used for bad things

May 5th, 2008

Please tell me this is joke and that this book doesn’t really exist in the world.

This children’s book was written by a plastic surgeon, Michael Salzhauer, and here is its mission: to help kids deal with their mommy’s transformation due to plastic surgery.

Yes, I’m sure it is a shock when mommy comes home covered in bandages, when her breasts point to the sky and don’t move when you try to hug her, when she can’t show any emotion because of the botox pumped into her face, when she no longer looks like your mother.

Thank goodness mommy doesn’t need to find the words to explain it all away, now she can just shove this book at her kid.

Here’s an idea. Let’s tell women that aging is an incredible journey. That beauty is so much more than droopy boobs and wrinkles. That their worth increases with their life experience and everything they accomplish each day.

Let’s tell children that there is more to life than the way they look. That doing good and productive things in the world is what’s important. That there are people in this world who need food, clothes and shelter - and giving to them would be a worthy repository for their extra money.

Writers (and all people)! Use your words for good.

Thanks to Brett Blumenthal of www.sheerbalance.com for the heads up.