Ok. Where are they?
This blog is owned and operated by a woman – yes, that would be me. I know there are tons of other blogs by women but where are they?
The reason I’m asking this question is simply that I was thinking the other day about women and that we, as a group, don’t really have a place online or enough places online that are just for us.
Okay, guys, no eyeball rolling please.
And to take it one step further, I don’t really see women-owned blogs at the top of the heap. My line of thinking…which (I have to warn you) tends to run rampant once I latch on to an idea…really got started by doing a Google search on women bloggers.
Go ahead. Try it.
#1 womenbloggers - web ring (directory) but still a great place to get a link from and good information.
#2 blogher - cool conferences, good information
While the blogs I found were interesting and offered up valuable information. They still didn’t quite answer my questions. I wanted to know who those other women were and what they were blogging about - work, family, kids, parents, hobbies? Are they on Technorati, Squidoo, or using social networking in any way? Women tend to be relational by nature. They talk and share -a lot. So, why am I not hearing those voices? Is it because I’m not listening? Is ANYONE really listening?
I think it’s time to turn up the volume.
I saw an article last week posted in the Reuters Second Life bureau where one of the top Technorati bloggers Arianna Huffington was interviewed on her new book. There were two things that struck me:
First, she's a grown-up, successful businesswoman, author, radio personality and she has an avatar in Second Life (Arianna Hera). Don’t know about you, but for some reason, I just hadn’t thought about the two going together but it makes sense when you realize she has a grasp of technology and definitely knows how to use it.
Second, she’s not afraid to be bold, put herself out there and create controversy - thus her new book on being fearless.
Interesting.
So, here’s my challenge. If you are a woman and you are a blogger – leave me a comment or send me an email about your blog, about you. You can be brief and add your links. I’ll post the responses (links and all) and let’s see what kind of conversations we can get started.
Here’s an example format to follow:
Name:
Blog:
Description About You and/or Your Blog (3-4 sentences):
Your Biggest Challenge in Blogging (feel free to dish!):
Women of the blogosphere….UNITE!
(um, just couldn’t resist that one)
Hi Sonya,
Not only am I blogger and a woman, but my blog is about how to blog! My business is writing coaching, meaning I help small business people write better for their business. My specialization is in business blogging.
This is an interesting point that you raise. Honestly, I hadn’t really thought about the gender difference in blogging, but now that you’ve raised my awareness, I agree that it seems to be male dominated right now. My hunch is that it’s due to two reasons: 1) men tend to be more likely to be techie geeks, and 2) business is still a male-dominated industry.
Here’s the other thing I just thought of–English classes and writing workshops are dominated by women. So maybe you’re onto something. If more women write than men, where ARE all the female bloggers?
Thanks for mentioning BlogHer!
Actually BlogHer is more than conferences and information, it’s a directory of women bloggers. We have over 7,000 women bloggers who have self-categorized themselves across more than 20 categories for easy findability.
Check out the blog rolls to find the women bloggers you seek
http://blogher.org/bloghers-blogrolls
Blogher is a great resource (and I’ll check out that blogroll) but I didn’t find a heck of a lot of other resources. Is that the ONLY place women bloggers congregate? I love knowing there are at least 7000 women bloggers hanging around.
Plus, I do want to hear those blogging stories! Pass the word around and send ‘em on in!
I’d like to expand on on what Rachel said.. Yes, men are usually more geeky than us girls.. which means that most women bloggers are most likely on a hosted solution like blogger and because a lot of these sites are purely personal, you don’t get alot people looking around for different groups to network at, etc.
I love blogher too. I’ve been a member for a while now and eventually would love to get to one of their conferences.
I have several blogs actually and they all serve different purposes. My personal blog is the one listed with my name above which discusses technology mostly with random bits of me mixed in. I have a blog for family and friends that would be boring for most people to read unless you want to know about my son losing his tooth. I blog at a site with several other people on topics regarding webmasters and web development. I have a few others but you get the point :).
I love blogging–it is something I am really passioned about. I am developing what i hope will be the ultimate blogging resource. It will have a community, a directory (think free backlink to your blog), articles on blogging, a blog all about blogging (focusing on tips, tech issues, plugins, themes, etc) and also extra resources to get you blogging better. It’s still in production but the logo is there so you can get a feel for the look of the site.
I just read the rules about the format. Apparently I didn’t follow them very well!
I’m in! Can’t wait to see what you’ve got in the works, Sara…looking and sounding pretty cool so far!
Kewl
Name: Janet Meiners aka newspaperGrl
Blog: http://www.newspapergrl.com (needs a facelift)
Description About You and/or Your Blog (3-4 sentences): I’m an internet marketer and professional blogger (which means people pay me to blog for them)
Your Biggest Challenge in Blogging (feel free to dish!): time to think and organize my post. I also want to do more than I have the time or know/how to do.
I’m so used to being the only GRL around! I go to events and I’m the only one. I socialize with a lot of bloggers and I’m used to it.
I love reading your blog because I relate to how you express your thoughts.
thanks!
Janet
I think its great that you ask where the women bloggers are. I’ve been blogging about 4 months now, as a way to increase traffic to my online store: http://revivalink.com. My blog: http://indiefashionrevival.blogspot.com is about indie fashion, and features handmade artists like myself. Since I’ve been blogging, I have noticed there are a lot of women bloggers, but most of the top bloggers, are men. I think they devote more time to it? I’m a member of Blog Catalog, where I’ve met lots of women bloggers. I’m also a member of Bumpzee, MyBlogLog, Digg, Stumble, and many other blog networking sites where I’ve noticed a decent amount of women bloggers. http://www.blogsbywomen.org has 5,625 women bloggers listed, and I’ve also found some on Posh Mama, and Divapreneur. Hope this helps!
Cheers,
-Tara
Revival Ink
Hey there Tara,
Love indie fashion! Blogging is a great way to drive some traffic to your online store. I have found more resources for women since I originally posted this article - divapreneur being one. I’m actually working on a list of places where women entrepreneurs can get information, network and help each other along. If you come across anything, feel free to throw it my way.
Hello! I’m here. Can you see me? I caught your article posting over at Biznik. I’m a female business blogger. I mostly link my blogs to Blog Carnivals and business affiliations. I do have Stumble, Technorati and such but I haven’t worked with them too much. I should. I mostly write addressing information that I feel possible clients or entrepreneurs could use. I also have genealogy information posted.
My blog is called cmjoffice.com Blog and it is located at http://www.cmjoffice.com/blog.
Thanks for the great topic. Colleen
I’m Kare Anderson and my two blogs are
http://www.movingfrommetowe.com/
http://sayitbetter.typepad.com/say_it_better
My challenge is to keep up with the related technology of blogging, podcasting and other social media
- and find the right geeks to help in that -
while sticking to my main passions in writing and speaking… but that’s a might fun challenge most of the time
Name: Monica
Blog: M.O.M. - Multiple Object Manipulation -http://www.multiobjectmanipulation.blogspot.com/
Description About You and/or Your Blog (3-4 sentences): I write about trying to juggle it all.
Your Biggest Challenge in Blogging (feel free to dish!): Finding the time to juggle it all AND write about it frequently!
Hi - I’m Sandra Watson.
My Blog is
http://bridetiquette.blogspot.com
I’m an Event Planner - and decided to target a blog to Brides, Wedding Planning & Related Issues.
My style of writing & content has quite a different edge than other ‘Bridal Blogs’ out there.
Biggest challenge is getting traffic directly to the blog, and to drive that to my business website as well, http://www.go2girlevents.com
Other challenge? Figuring out how to read those Feedburner stats accurately! Is is just me?
Thanks for your candor.
Sandra
Go2Girl Events