blogher

Why it's a good time to blog

This week I feel like I've reaquainted myself with my bretheren. Following through on a New Year's resolution, I promised to blog more. There was a time when I promised to blog less, as I feared I may be writing myself into a bleak, non-social existence, where nothing happened if it wasn't published on the Internet. However, just as our work relationships, marriages, and lives shift, sour, and soar, so, apparently, do our relationships to blogging.

I've seen people leave the B-sphere and come back, for various reasons.

• For one, a bad breakup renewed her vigor to blog.
• One's leaving to go on book tour--throwing herself to a whole new breed of troll, The Book Reviewer. If the big bad traditional media world doesn't appreciate your snark, just know, AMC, we won't go anywhere!

And some have stepped it up:

• One realized she liked blogging so much, she bought a web network.
• Three decided to launch a content network celebrating all things female and bloggy.
• One put her money where her blog is and took off to Asia to report on post-tsunami Thailand.

As BlogHer Britt would say: There's something in the air in 2006 that makes me think that BlogHers are at the right place at the right time. Some indicators:

• Mainstream media is saying, "WTF!": Companies like Time Inc. are ripping down the walls of paid content, preferring to share in the wealth of eyeballs and link love (see that wasn't so bad, was it?)
• Social media start-ups and blog conglomerates are getting bought by companies coming late to the party (at least they're showing up, I say).
• Blogs and social media trendwatchers are being added to the must-read lists by anyone who wants to be in the know.
• Blog networks are being hatched by passionate women who want to expand their influence, and established blog networks keep on truckin'.
• Bloggers have learned to make blogging pay through blog advertising, writing gigs, book deals, technology, and consulting.
• Female gurus are being coined--they can sit with the boys on panels, but also love hanging with the girls. I predict we'll see more women on conference panels (and not just BlogHer's) in '06.

It's a good time to blog.

UPDATED: BlogHer seeks contributing editors

Newsflash: Earlier today Yesterday, BlogHer announced openings for contributing editors to post fantastic, insightful updates on a new BlogHer Web site launching later this month. We've received so many strong applications that half the many openings are considered filled for launch. Check the complete post (below) for remaining opportunities. Thanks.

Opportunity: BlogHer seeks contributing editors to write BlogHer's surfing guide to blogs by women. When we relaunch our site later this month, we're organizing our blogroll into 20+ popular topics. The contributing editors will blog short, fantastic, pithy guides to their favorite posts from  5-10 blogs listed in BlogHer's blogroll for that topic. We ask editors to commit to posting two to three times a week, Monday through Sunday, to help tell the world about the latest breaking news, commentary and buzz by women who write about this subject. Here's an example.

What BlogHer will do for contributing editors: These are volunteer positions. In return, the BlogHer site will work hard to promote all contributing editors and their blogs, including a profile page on the new site that is uniquely branded. We want to give all contributing editors a high profile on this well-trafficked site.

How to apply: Please add your name and the topic you'd like to edit in the comments below, or email me directly with a subject line that reads, "Topic: (Topic name), (Your name)". Please also list your blog(s) and links to any posts you think are particularly relevant to your writing about a topic. I recommend you sign up ASAP if you're interested -- there are so many terrific writers in this network that I'm planning to assign topics on a first-come, first-served basis.

List of topics and contributing editors thus far: Here's the list below, and the names of bloggers on our board and team who have signed up thus far. I realize this list of topics (below) is not a comprehensive taxonomy. We don't want it to be – these categories are designed to aid as a surfing guide to the latest, greatest posts by women who blog. Here's the list:

UPDATED: The BlogHer has landed! Announcing our 2006 conference site.

Get ready to party with the BlogHers, because we have secured the perfect spot for our 2006 2-day Conference on July 28th and 29th: the Hyatt San Jose.

Let me introduce you to some of the features of the Hyatt San Jose. First, there are a number of conveniences for BlogHers coming from out of town:

-Only half a mile from the San Jose Airport
-Free shuttle service from the Airport to the Hotel and back
-On-site Hertz rental car center
-Full service Business Center
-2 restaurants, plus room service until midnight
-Free WiFi in all public areas
-In-room high speed Internet
-Full re-model to be completed by the time of the conference
-Pool and whirlpool
-On-site Fitness Center included
-Plenty of free, on-site parking for our local attendees

And, drum roll please, we have been able to secure a rate of only $75/night for BlogHers! We have a block of 200 rooms set aside for the night of Friday July 28th, but the great part is that they will extend the $75 price for up to 3 days before and 3 days after that date for attendees who want to turn their stay into a longer vacation. The deadline for securing this rate is Saturday July 1st, so mark your calendars now.

The reservation number is: 408 993 1234, and they will also be setting up a special web page for BlogHer reservations. Our group name is: BlogHer. Stay tuned for the web link as soon as they set it up.

As for their accommodations for our conference itself, there are a few more details I'd like to share:

-Power strips to every table
-There will be both WiFi and plenty of actual Ethernet connections, to eliminate not only the bandwidth, but also the authentication bottleneck.

And perhaps my favorite feature of all: networking events out on the patio by the pool!! Yes, there is a large outdoor area at the center of all the Day Two meeting rooms...complete with mucho greenery and a large outdoor swimming pool. It's a very tropical feel and should be lovely on an evening in July in California!

We checked out several places for BlogHer this year, including convention centers, but we loved the fact that BlogHer will really be able to take over the Hyatt. We'll be the only event there, and we will probably represent a majority of the people staying there for those couple of nights. So that is why I said the BlogHer has landed...the Hyatt had better ready themselves for a BlogHer invasion in late July!

UPDATED: Everyone is going gaga for the $75 price , so I really have to give credit where credit is due. BlogHer Team member Maria Niles (who organized last year's festive pre-conference dinner) did the legwork on the Hyatt San Jose, and that $75 price was in place before any of the rest of us even checked it out. Thanks Maria!

What should BlogHer's tagline be?

Can you help us boil BlogHer down to a single, catchphrase? One that will help remind us why we come here -- and answers the question "so what?" for people new to the site or the conference? I think BlogHer needs a tagline. Quick-like. One as good as these:

• The X-Files: The truth is out there
• Burger King: Have it your way
• Global Voices Online: The world is talking. Are you listening?
• Three Kid Circus: Bananas is our business

Here's the opportunity: When we relaunch the new BlogHer Web site in a few short weeks, I'd like to put a single sentence at the top of the homepage that delivers all the promise of the mission, vision and positioning statements we refined in October based on your survey feedback.

But instead of paragraphs, this phrase should be just a handful of words or even a sentence. Plenty of blogs have taglines (hat-tip: Toby Bloomberg). Some of them, like Global Voices, are good. But others strike me as too wordy or too limited. I want BlogHer to have a tagline that combines inspiration with a dig in the ribs.

So here's a starter list. Which do you like? Hate? Please add your own in the comments below (number them!) and/or vote on them all:

1. BlogHer: By, for and about women who blog
2. BlogHer: Where the women bloggers are
3. BlogHer: Please pass the megaphone
4. BlogHer: Be seen. Be heard.

Spoils to the winner: Everlasting gratitude and permanent credit on the Web site. Let 'er rip...

Lights, Cameras, Vendors! How Would You Like to Interact with Exhibiting Sponsors at BlogHer '06?

At last year's BlogHer Conference we set up a Vendor Alley where exhibiting sponsors could demo products and chat with attendees. For the most part, Vendor Alley was a success, but we knew we could improve it by:

1. Offering even more visibility. Sure, on the floor plan of Tech Mart, Vendor Alley is in the center of everything, but the map didn't account for a 5-foot wall that cordoned the vendors off from everyone else.

2. Integrating the exhibiting sponsors with the programming a bit more. Note that I didn't say REPLACE the programming with exhibiting sponsor content. The two should not compete, but if an attendee wants to learn about, say, podcasting, and then talk to some providers on her own free time, we should make it easy for her to get all the information she needs.

3. Naming the exhibiting sponsor area something other than Vendor Alley. The name is kind of cool, but it's also too reminiscent of darkly-lit, forgotten areas where people throw out their trash. We want to provide a meeting place for commerce and illumination.

We've witnessed a number of approaches to featuring sponsors--some less appealing than others. BlogOn provided an Innovators Series that included 15 to 20-minute demos in-between sessions. This turned off a few attendees, who preferred to view demos and talk to vendors at thier leisure, not during prime content time, even if some of the presentations were interesting and useful.

We've witnessed the Holding Pen Approach to exhibiting sponsors, where in an attempt to keep sponsors and content separate, vendors are relegated to their own lonely room, away from the hot debates and natural walking patterns of the crowd. At least the exhibitors can catch up on some sleep.

We found ourselves in an interesting position this year, wanting to please our sponsors, but not wanting to infuriate attendees who invested time and money to get a non-commercial education. And we couldn't forget those press, IT decisionmakers, and tech heads who attend conferences to get their dose of the latest, greatest products. They want to hang out with the exhibitors and see demos. We think we've come up with a solution and we hope you'll let us know what you think about it and who you will want to see in the Exhibition Area of BlogHer '06.

We propose an Exhibitor Pavilion, separate from but located near the centrally located Exhibitor Area, where sponsors can schedule public presentations, and where BlogHer attendees may go at their leisure to hear about product launches and upgrades and view demos. We would publish a schedule so attendees knew when presentations of interest were being held. Sponsors would have the option of adding to their presence at BlogHer by offering presentations Comdex or Seybold-style in a theater setting.

Attendees, we're wondering: Would you find this feature helpful? Would you be willing to see demos scheduled during content sessions, or would you want these relegated to only breaks and networking times?

Sponsors: Would you find the additional exposure useful to you?

We're presenting this option to sponsors now. I'll follow up with feedback we receive. 

Is it so sad that I need this?

I saw this little item on popgadget and thought: I bet just about every BlogHer could use one of these. (Except Halley Suitt who is, we learn today, a woman who prefers a bath.) I have definitely reached either the age, or the level of busy-ness, that necessitates my writing something down if I actually want to have a hope in hell of remembering it. Now, I haven't noticed flashes of brilliance hitting me in the shower particularly, but somehow I think having this erasable note tablet in the shower would inspire such flashes.

At the same time, I feel a little obsessive admitting this appeals to me. Who's with me?

So, you want to sponsor BlogHer '06?

Or perhaps you know someone who would? Here is our handy dandy Sponsor Kit,

BlogHer '06 Sponsor Kit (PDF)

which offers a number of cool things:

1. BlogHer '06 FAQs: such as dates (July 28-29, 2006), target attendance, and theme;

2. BlogHer '05 stats: Including attendee feedback;

3. Sponsor Packages: What can I sponsor? What can I do within my budget? Can I send people to BlogHer?

One of the beautiful things about last year's group of sponsors was the range of organizations that participated. We had large presences like Yahoo and Google; established blog/RSS companies such as Feedster, Technorati, Pheedo, and Six Apart; established media like Law.com and KRON, technology companies like Nokia; small but growing companies such as Webligo, Common.Net, and WinkSite/NextVillage, and nonprofits such as Omidyar Foundation and Level Playing Field Institute all take part. Every one of these sponsors was able to build a presence that fit their objectives and their budget.

We've made sponsorships more flexible this year. Instead of us packaging premium sponsorships, for example, premium sponsors can choose what they would like to sponsor with the amount they are contributing--an a la carte-like approach. Want to demo at BlogHer? Not a problem. Want to exert quiet influence by sponsoring a session? Easy. Want to feed--and thus gain the undying devotion of--750 hungry BlogHer attendees? Call me--we'll talk. 

I'll be posting more information on some of the cool things we're doing for sponsors this year, updates on companies that will be sponsoring '06, etc. Needless to say, with no sponsors, there is no BlogHer. We need your help to spread the word and keep the energy alive.

Color me not surprised.

Happy New Year everyone!

Just thought I'd point you all to the latest Pew report on Internet usage, broken down by gender, in case you haven't seen it.

Coupla high points:

*Young women outpace young men (that's 18-29 years old, incase you were wondering about today's definition of "young") 86% to 80%.
*Among African Americans, 60 percent of women are online, compared with 50 percent of men.

One low point:

*The only reason men still hold a 68% to 66% overall advantage is that in the oldest age segment (65 and older) men lead women 34 to 21%. Ouch. That'll be a stat we'll be talking about at our SXSW Interactive Respect Your ElderBloggers session.

There's other interesting info about adoption patterns, and I thought something else too: with women getting online as much, and often more, than their male counterparts, it's clear that developers need to care quite a bit about our perspective, no?

One last key data point, pulled not from the news story about the report, but from Pew's site:

"Still, our data show that men and women are more similar than different in their online lives, starting with their common appreciation of the internet’s strongest suit: efficiency. Both men and women approach with gusto online transactions that simplify their lives by saving time on such mundane tasks as buying tickets or paying bills.

Men and women also value the internet for a second strength, as a gateway to limitless vaults of information. "

What's in a word? You tell us.

Certain topics never die. Since bloggers are pretty much by definition wordsmiths you know that language and word choice and the impact of specific words is going to come up again and again.

During my holiday reading I came across a sudden increase in posts examining the power of a single word.

Take word #1: MommyBlogging

Tracey from Sweetney.com has started a conversation that just won't quit about the term. For every woman who finds it belittling or sees derision buried in the use of the term, another woman pipes up to reclaim it and empower it and celebrate it.

If we decide to eschew the word, are we giving credence to whoever those people are who use the term to marginalize? Are we giving jerks too much power?

On the other hand, is it going too far to talk about "reclaiming" the word, as though it were as offensive an epithet as similar "reclaimed" terms used by members of the African American community or gay community, for example? I mean I called my mother "Mommy" until way too old...I have trouble thinking of it as a hurtful term!

And let's not ignore the fact that businesses and advertisers are sitting up and taking notice of the MommyBlogging phenomenon in a big way...sponsoring podcasts and blogs and trying to reach out to the whole crowd. You've certainly got their attention, no doubt about that.

When we sent out the post-BlogHer survey we had a section to self-categorize your blogs. We used the category "Family" to be, I suppose, sensitive to this issue. A not-insignifcant number of you said, "Hey...how could you forget the MommyBloggers?" And you categorized yourself as "Other"!!

So, can't we simply say "to each their own", or is this a line that must be drawn? I'm not a Mommy. I have no answers. I'm just fascinated by the conversation.

And there's more...

Happy Holidays from BlogHer

Jory is on the East Coast. Lisa is in Montana. Sheesh, am I the only one who knows it gets really really cold in those places at this time of year? But from our far-flung corners of the country we are still busily planning BlogHer '06. I think, however, that we will actually take the next few days off. From our businesses. From BlogHer. Even from each other!

So Happy Holidays to you all.

Get some rest. Get some quality time with whomever you've been missing having that quality time with. And get some presents!

And give too. Give a gift. Give a break. Give a hand. Give a damn!