It just takes a little courage and perseverance = just like with anything worth doing well. Keep it up and you’ll be a problogger in no time!

It can be a little intimidating mixing with some that are so established, especially when you’re still trying to learn the proper protocols for things. I had no idea blogging was so big or that people actually did it for a living. It’s like a whole other world out there, but it’s exciting too.

I’m not really a problogger either because I’ve only begun to get my feet wet and am having fun exploring work at home options.

I also agree with the whole “non-parent” usefullness of this site as well.

Blogging is such a powerful phenomenon… it’s given private individuals like you and us an amazing voice, reach, and opportunity to reach untold number of people. I think we’re just beginning to see it’s impact on the Internet and on our culture.

Jeff Kee just put out a great post on “The Internet, Blogs, Community sites, and the Ultimate Democracy”:
http://blog.jeffkee.com/2007/03/04/the-internet-blogs-community-sites-and-the-ultimate-democracy/

Some great concepts, it’s definitely worth a ready.

Ok, lots of comments and thoughts already, but I have to weigh in

This first part is something I already shared with you yesterday by email, but I think it’s helpful here:

While you intended eMoms to be a a resource for the work-at-home parent, in reality I find your site to be very helpful to non-parents too. I don’t have kids for example. Well, there is Cujo, my psychotic little Yorkie that can absolutely do no wrong.

In practice, your site is a great help to blogger entrepreneurs all around. I would say it’s a great help for bloggers, alongside ProBlogger, John Chow’s site, and a few others.

Of course you also have the occasional Law of Attraction influence here and there. Overall, I’d say the energy around you, your site, and your community is just good and uplifting, and frankly that’s healthy for us all. People want to be around people who make them feel good.

As Scott metions about his site FindingYourMarbles.com, we’re definitely also seeing two communities converging – or at least cohabitating…

It’s interesting… our site is a Dating / Relationship advice column (yeah, a blog) – but most of our Top Commenters don’t have websites.

Seriously, look at our sidebar “top commenters” widget – the majority (6 of 10) of these folks don’t have websites. Not to say bloggers (like you and Ed Mills) aren’t quite active at our site, but non-bloggers are really getting into it too. Which is really great.

And as Ed points out, sure there’s a sense of clicque-ness… that’s just human nature. People gravitate toward people they have something in common with, people whose company they enjoy, and who make them feel good.

So I think that in part you and ProBlogger are seeing so much feedback and involvement from bloggers BECAUSE bloggers are a large part of your niche.

Ok, I’m rambling a bit… I have about 3 other angles I wanted to attack, but that’s plenty long for little comment box.

Blessings all around.

Have an awesome day!
Dan

I don’t want only bloggers to read what I am writing about in my newbie blog, and I note that there is a lot of mutual support and referral going on in the blog world. For those of us looking for business referrals as well as an opportunity to easily share in the blog world, the medium of blogging seems to offer awfully quick potential for connecting and becoming better known.

My personal sharing/support network is invaluable and highly prized!

Another note is echoing other comments that relate to websites having links to blogs, and the website world is recognized as a larger, broader venue, so a website reader can become a blog reader without ever specifically looking for blogs.

My last thought is that in the blogs I am most intetested in there is typically a warm, trusting dialogue going on that really is feeding goodness and sharing in the world. At the very least this is a forum for “spreading the love”, which is one darned good reason for existence in itself.

Thanks, all.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/03/10/the-balancing-act-of-where-to-pitch-your-content/

@ Tyler – welcome! And you definitely made sense in your post!

@Ed – great idea – and I Stumbled your Do Women Fart video – my god that was hysterical!

@Scamhunter – you know, Squidoo is a brilliant idea – I hadn’t realized it also had a community aspect to it. I’ll definitely check it out!

@SusieJ – I have found I really have to balance things for differing needs of subsets of readers. I have moms, dads, entrepreneurs, and bloggers that mostly read here. So I write some posts for all of them, and every now and then, I throw up a more specialized post just for one of them.

So my advice would be to embrace what you have, AND reach for what you don’t have.

I do think the above suggestion about highlighting the info for new people is useful. For example, I just came and started reading and only through this post, did I really see the info for Newbies. I’m not sure if there is some place in your right hand column that would be more noticeable.

I’m really excited by your eMoms blogging forum though. I have a couple of questions/issues that I’ve had trying to begin blogging and now I know where to take them.

Finally, possibilities to reach out beyond the blog are:
- write articles
- create a lens on Squidoo on the topic — Squidoo is doing well on the search engines and it sounds like you already have the material that you would put in yours.

If you do stop by Squidoo, which is a very friendly community, check out:
http://www.squidoo.com/pollyklaas/hq -
the Polly Klaas Foundation lens challenge is taking entries till March 20th. And stop by and visit –

http://www.quidoo.com/DogTips — Random Dog Tips for Random Dogs — hmm… wonder who put that one together?

One of the best ways to welcome new readers is with a “Top Posts” page so that they can read your…greatest hits, so to speak…and get familiar with your style. I plan to create that page once I’ve been around for about six months and have something more continuous.

As a fairly new person to the land of blogs, I too notice that most of my visitors come from other blogs because of the comments/feedback I leave on other people’s sites.

My site, I would say is a blog. I use to run a small gallery of my digital photography but that kind of died away and my new incarnation of my website is in the blog format. Though it has a mix of alot of things I suppose. There are some small PHP tutorials, drawings made by me and then various tidbits of information. Would you consider it a blog? Sure, what is a blog really?

Most people I talk to say a blog is more like an online diary, but most of the time it is not personal and I mean personal in a way that you don’t let skeletons out of the closet type of thing. But yes it is personal in the sense of they way people post information on their site, they give their opinion, thoughts etc right?

I should stop, my thoughts will start getting mixed up and I’ll stray off topic!

Again the information here in these comments is wonderful and I will definitely have to re-read them to soak it all in!

Got any clues as to why that is? Because I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while!

I like the usual info you’re sharing and I’m completely fascinated at the number of men responding on emoms.

Mindfully,

Maverick

I KNEW you guys would have some amazing things to say about this!!! I’ve read each and every one of these comments, I have to just tell you that this is really helpful, enlightening, and encouraging.

You also gave some great feedback – and you’re right, rI’m in a unique position here. When I write about blogging, traffic soars. So I have to continue to create content that current readers are interested in – while sneaking in posts every now and then to welcome new visitors into the “family”.

Very, very thought provoking stuff!