The interwebs are alive with discussion about changes proposed by the Federal Trade Commission that will affect product reviews and testimonials found in social media.

There is some real fear bubbling up here and there among bloggers and everyday social media users.  The idea that something they write their opinion about could get them in legal trouble is unsettling. As both a blogger and an affiliate and information marketer, I’m paying close attention.   I’ll admit I’m concerend about how all this will affect my business.

This past week I asked several of the Sparkplugging Interns to dig in and explore the topic.

What’s published below will give you a better understanding of the proposed changes and get you thinking about how it may or may not have an impact on you in the future.

Why I’m Not Worried About the New FTC Guidelines

From Traci Feit Love (@TraciLove)

A lot of people seem to be concerned about the FTC’s new proposed guidelines, which cover bloggers who endorse or review products in exchange for money or free stuff.

I’ve read through the entire text of the FTC’s notice of proposed changes (I don’t recommend this unless you’re really into dense legal writing), and concluded that there’s really not much to worry about.

The Guidelines Mainly Require Honesty and Full Disclosure

The main idea of the guidelines is to make sure that consumers aren’t deceived by bloggers’ product recommendations. That means bloggers have to disclose their financial interests and be honest in their reviews.

So, for example, if a blogger writes a review of a product in exchange for compensation (money, a free product, or some other benefit), the blogger should disclose that he is being compensated for the review. That seems fair. When I’m reading a review, I like to know whether the reviewer stands to benefit from promoting a particular product. So if I’m doing the review, I don’t have a problem with the reader knowing that information.

When it comes to the particular claims a reviewer makes about a product, the FTC guidelines mainly require that the reviewer be honest. You can’t say that a pill cures cancer, for example, if it doesn’t actually cure cancer. And if the product manufacturer isn’t making a particular claim, you shouldn’t make the claim. Makes sense.

They Could Lead To Less Free Stuff for Bloggers

When it comes to the guidelines, I think advertisers/sellers have more to worry about than bloggers. In some situations, advertisers can be held legally responsible for claims and statements made about their products by compensated bloggers – and that may mean less free stuff for bloggers in the long run.

Big brands tend to be risk-averse and may decide that the risks outweigh the benefits of providing free stuff in exchange for reviews. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Recommended Reading:

• Official Notice of Proposed Changes - This is a downloadable PDF published by the FTC.
• What brands and bloggers need to know – by Latoicha Givens. This article is written by an attorney and has a good list of things advertisers and bloggers can do to avoid liability under the new FTC rules.
• Advertisers brace for online viral marketing curbs -  David Gelles, Financial Times. This article focuses on how advertisers may be held liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers about their product, and points out that it may be difficult to determine when a blogger is acting as an “agent” of the advertiser.
• Blogola: The FTC Takes On Paid Posts-  Douglas MacMillan, BusinessWeek.com. This article explains how the new FTC guidelines will affect both paid reviews by bloggers and reviews prompted by free products sent to bloggers. It has some good examples from the blogosphere and explains how Google’s rules and restrictions may actually have a greater impact than FTC regulations.

Social Media Readers Have a Right

From Leigh Anne Wilkes (@homebasedmom)

This summer the FTC is expected to issue new advertising guidelines that will require bloggers to disclose when they’re writing about a sponsor’s product and voicing opinions that aren’t their own. The new FTC guidelines say that blog authors should disclose when they’re being compensated by an advertiser to discuss a product.

The practice of product manufacturers using blogs to advertise their product for them by giving them free product to review has proved to be an inexpensive marketing technique and a perk to bloggers. In these times of reduced marketing budgets it is a good use of advertisers money to give bloggers free product in exchange for an endorsement.

If the FTC proposed legislation is passed this will become more difficult. Bloggers will be required to disclose if they are writing about a sponsor’s product and if the opinions are not their own. Bloggers would also need to disclose if they are being compensated to discuss a product.

The blogosphere has become a popular place for people to look to for product suggestions and endorsements. As bloggers build relationships with their viewers their opinions and recommendations become like that of a good friend. “If Scribbit likes it, I would probably like it too.” This type of product endorsement carries more weight than one you see on TV or radio paid for advertising.

From what I have observed, the majority of bloggers do disclose in the review of the product when the advertiser has donated the product to them although not if they are being paid for the advertisement. As a reader that would make a difference to me. Are they being paid, have they themselves personally used the product? When I know a blogger is being paid for promotion a product the credibility of the review is diminished for me.

I recently did a review and a giveaway of a cookbook that was sent to me by the publisher. In the post where I shared one of the recipes I had tried, I let my readers know that I had been sent the cookbook by the publisher and that I had personal experience with the item.

Should a blog reader have the right to know that an opinion he is reading and taking at face value was paid for by an advertiser? I believe so.

It is my opinion, just as we know when we watch an advertisement on TV or hear one on the radio we know that it is being paid for by the advertiser. if a product endorsement is being paid for on a blog that information should also be disclosed. In order to trust and have confidence in marketing/advertising in the blogosphere there should be disclosure.

Recommended Reading:

• FTC Expected to Crack Down – The Huffington Post
• FTC Bloggers Regulation – Ideas that Spread
• Well known blogger Scribbit has definite opinions on how she handles product endorsements and reviews.
• Although, some feel that bloggers are being “targeted’ by this legislation and that mainstream media journalists are given “freebies” all the time with no regulation or legislation.

We Guarantee Our Product Will…

From Christopher Johnston (@chrisjohnston)

There has been a story bouncing around in the blogosphere since the FTC proposed rule changes in December 2008 relating to endorsements, where bloggers and other site owners may be held liable for claims made about a product or service.

The issue isn’t just with deceptive claims, but also with atypical results.

Marketers have used “results may vary” and “results not typical” to cover themselves in the past but apparently this will no longer be sufficient as a disclaimer. The FTC now wants us to use typical results only.

I imagine that the FTC is acting because of incredible weight loss claims from Acai berry, P90X or something similar.  Also there are many online tools claiming that you can make tens of thousands of dollars if you buy their report for $47, $97, or $197.

I see several problems with this rationale by the FTC. There are no magic pills when it comes to losing weight or making money. They all require action on the part of the purchaser. The 80/20 rule is always in effect and most people who purchase these things think that by simply purchasing them something magical will happen. They skies will open, light will shine down, and they will lose 100 pounds or money will start flowing into their checking accounts.

Some of us know better and realize that for any of that to happen there is a secret. It’s called WORK. If the FTC requires that you ONLY use typical results there will be no claim of results. Your only claim with a weight loss product that could be called typical will be that your wallet will be lighter or your credit card bill bigger.

There are many post that deal with the endorsements issue and they are much more eloquent than I on that issue.  I will put links to them at the bottom of this post. My stand on that issue is “full disclosure”. If you get paid to write about a product, say that you were paid. If they gave you the product, say that they gave it to you.

Recommended Reading:

• FTC To Shut Down Pay For Posts – Will Bloggers Become Criminals?
• Federal Regulations and Full Disclosure about Advertising
• FTC Considers Extending Ad Jurisdiction to Blogs and Bloggers

You want to have a clear mind when problem arises instead of adding to the stack of issues on top of issues. This group of people can be called your business A Team. Your A Team should cover the basic elements of business; legal, financial, technical, customer service, business support and administrative.

Legal/Business Lawyer – Attaining some level of business legal assurance at the beginning is a smart choice for your business. And the best part is there are others options today other than having to have a business lawyer on retainer. (Although, if you can afford it, it could be the best idea). Being prepared by having a legal company or lawyer ready when you need them will save you more stress.

Helpful Resources:

Prepaid Legal – you pay a monthly fee (around $30) to have access to legal professionals.

Legal Zoom – a collection of helpful business forms & letters such as

Financial/Accounting – This is probably 1 of the 2 most important aspects of your business to be sure is secured and concrete. Not secure in my knowledge – business accountant or book keeper business tax laws yearly changes. You have those bases covers….tax form, state or local government.

Helpful resources:
Bookkeeper ListAllows you to search for a local bookeeper.

Internet/Web Designer/Hosting – One of the most important ways to help promote your business is your website and you will want to be sure to have someone in your corner who is knowledgable about design, formatting, SEO.

Helpful resources:

Dauwd MiracleOur very own web man at Sparkplugging
Michelle Waters of Watersweb Solutions, LLC

Office Equipment Repairs – for your computer and office equipment. Your computer, fax and printer are those staples in your business providing your revenue. It is a smart idea to have a go to business or person to be answers those repairs or technical issues when things break down.

Helpful Resources:
Geek Squad
Hewlett Packard

Business Coach/Mentor – Obtaining a business coach will allow you to have another person “on your side”. There are even some coaches specifically targeted to help virtual assistants. This could be a good idea because they have been in your shoes with running a virtual business themselves at one point.

Helpful resources:
Kathie Thomas – Kathie has been in business since 1989 and has the experience as a VA coach to help virtual assistants starting in this field.

You should also seek for a business mentor. The great thing about having a mentor because they have been in business for several years which helps guide you and possible protect you from the common mistakes. One of the online mentoring Full Circle Mentoring founded by Sharlene Redway.

Networking Groups – it is all about support, support, support. When you are new to the business ownership world. This is another venue to find support from others in your similar situation. I have written this statement from husband and it is very true. Knowledge is power. Good, bad or in different. By being a part of groups, you will be able to access different backgrounds, situations, perspectives on various industries, titles and demographics.

Helpful Resources:

Powerful Entrepreneur Yahoo Groupassistance in receiving answers to business questions.

HER Mastermind Ryze Grouphelpful to women entrepreneurs to receive support, ideas and suggestions.

Virtual Assistant Forums – Many categories to help any virtual assistant – new or seasoned.

Teresa’s Tip: When choosing your “A Team”, draw on their strengths and cover your weaknesses. It is also smart to align your A Team with your determining your goals before hiring a virtual assistantbusiness goals.

Teresa’s Tip: Get referral from someone you know regarding your financial information. You don’t want your financial information with something you don’t trust.

Teresa Morrow is on Board of Advisors with The WECAI Network ™ (http://www.wecai.org) and Editor at Large at WE Magazine for Women ™ (http://www.wemagazineforwomen). She has over 15 years working with various industries to include property management, landscape architecture and financial planning firms in executive administrative positions. In 2007, Teresa started Key Business Partners, a virtual assistance & online promotional company for coaches, speakers and writers. She cares about her clients and is available for 20 minute free consultation. You can contact her via email at keybusinesspartners@verizon.net or visit her website at http://www.keybusinesspartners.com .

The two new blogs this week are exciting for me, because I’ve been wanting to get these topics covered at this level since I started the blog network here last September.

Simply Green :: Eco-Friendly Choices for Life, Home and Work

I *really* wanted to launch a green blog the first time around, I just wasn’t able to make it happen. Then when I hooked up with Melissa Moog, I was ecstatic. Melissa left her high-tech career to start her eco-friendly baby concierge service Itsabelly and is a frequent contributor on KATU local morning television show on green parenting (check her out!). Melissa is uber::geeking on green ideas!

She’s got great green living advice and is already is sharing great tips on how to greenify your home office on Simply Green as well.

The Marketing Eggspert :: Marketing in a Web 2.0 World

Regular readers will recognize the author of our new marketing blog, Susan Payton. While there might be a bit of overlap between what I write about and what Susan writes about, I really wanted to dedicate an entire channel specifically to marketing, and Susan has been a great resource for that. She’ll be writing on social media, marketing strategy, online PR, and advertising. Susan has also moved her entire blog over from her “old home”, so there is already a treasure trove of information for you to learn from.

By the way, Susan has helped me in the past with our own rebranding & with our press releases. She is also the author of the great little book Lifetips 101 Entrepreneur Tips.

Please go enjoy our two new channels and let these authors know what you want to hear about!! We are all here for you!

Don’t want 16+ feeds to manage as we add new blogs? Then subscribe to the Sparkplugging All-in-One Network Feed to get all of the content from Sparkplugging in one place!

• I was rather fascinated and surprised to find out that renaming eMoms to something like eParents would go over like a lead balloon.
• I was astonished to find hair remaining on my head after coming face to face with the booming domain squatting industry (grrrr… don’t get me started).
• And then I found myself somewhat lamenting the changes around here, realizing that in order to grow I had to let go of some things that were deeply important to me.

So I know you’re wondering, and I hate to keep you waiting, so yes, we’ve found a name. And I’ll tell you what it is. Soon. Very soon.

But an unexpected casualty of this whole naming process was that I didn’t know what to do with my own blog on the network with this new name. And this is where I need to tell you that yes, there are going to be bigger changes around here than just a new name.

I was actually having an email conversation about it with Darren Rowse last night; here’s part of what I wrote:

I never liked that my blog was the same name as eMoms at Home – I thought it was confusing. But in order to continue to be the ‘flagship’ blog of my own network, I realized I couldn’t be focused so much on Moms or blogging anymore, which was difficult for me personally. It’s really important to me to continue to provide support to the blogging community and to moms, even though I can’t do it directly anymore.

I really was only able to be OK with that decision by adding some blogs to our network to cover these topics on a more in depth level. And moving forward my own blog will shift focus a bit to be more entrepreneurial, especially because I’m thinking of doing some much bigger things with the site under our new name.

Before you go getting worried, I’m still the same eMom. I’ll still write about internet business. And my kids. Promise. I’ll just be doing that a little less and talking more about business building a little more.

I believe that blogging as a business has changed drastically, even since I started doing it. And I believe there needs to be less focus on monetizing blogs, and instead more focus on building sustainable online businesses that can work for you, while allowing you to actually live life, too. Yeah, that’s probably better expanded upon in a separate blog post. Too much to talk about there.

So what will be changing at eMoms at Home?

Next week, we are going to relaunch this site and…

• We’ll have a new name and a new URL. Everything will be redirected, but we’d certainly love you forever if you could update your bookmarks. (We’d love you even more if you could update your links to our site.)
• The eMoms Original Recipe blog will have a new name, but I will be keeping the same RSS feed address.
• We will be launching 2 new blogs next week, The Home Office Organizer & Believer in Balance.
• Every week for the following 4 weeks after that, we will be adding 2 more new blogs to the “BrandNewName” Blog Network. If you are math challenged like me, that’s 10 new blogs.
• And of course, what rebrand and rename would be complete without the obligatory kickass contests. So be sure to drop by to get free goodies.

But wait, you ask, what the heck is the new name?! Well, remember that I mentioned a conversation with Darren Rowse about this? He knows our new name. And because I truthfully can give Darren boatloads of credit for the success of eMoms at Home, I figured I might just let him tell you.

Soon.

“Dot” was 6lbs, 7oz, and came in after 38 hours of labor. (Good God.)

Please join me in welcoming the newest member of the eMoms family!

(What, no baby pictures?! Go to the post to see her!)

My Egyptian Heritage? When I was a toddler, I used to caress a statue of the Egyptian goddess Nefertiti that belonged to my grandmother. She insisted that it was a sign that she and I knew each other in a past life in Egypt. Although I don’t know if it’s true or not, I can say that I have always had a fascination with ancient Egypt, she and I were very close, and that same statue now sits on my desk today.

My REAL heritage. I am adopted, so I know very little about my genetic history. In fact, the only thing I know is that I am English, Swedish, Danish & Welsh. I would have to say that if I ever saw a resemblance between me and particular nationality, it would be Welsh. I’ve always wanted to go to Wales to connect with my biological past, because I’ve never really been able to find any information on my birth family.

My Clone? When my first daughter was born, I was amazed to find how incredibly alike we were, even as a baby. She has grown up to be my Mini-Me, and has even shared the same reoccurring nightmare dream I had when I was a child. Talk about w.e.i.r.d.

Famous – vicariously. I grew up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois and went to High School with Sean Hayes and Amy Carlson.

EEeeeewwwwwww… I went to college at Prescott College in Prescott AZ. Our new student orientation was a three-week backpacking trip in the wilderness, and we were not allowed to leave any trace of being there behind (read :: no toilet paper allowed :O)

How I piss off my family & friends. 99.9% of the time I am late to things, and it drives me nuts. But it doesn’t bother me as much as being early to things, which makes my skin crawl if I have to sit somewhere and do nothing for any length of time. Being stuck somewhere with nothing to do is my definition of claustrophobia. Same with having a computer with no internet connection. You seriously don’t want to be around me when Comcast has an outage; it’s downright embarrassing.

I confess. I am notorious for having a messy house. I actually love to organize things, and don’t mind actual cleaning (washing, polishing, laundry, etc.) – I just hate, hate, hate putting stuff away.

I’d like to get to know some of my new-ish readers better, so I would like to ask WAHM Tara, Dorothy Stahlnecker, Cory Huff, Rose, and WAH(Web)Mommy just how weird they are, too. But honestly, there are SO MANY of you that I’d love to hear from on this one, so please feel free to play along if you want to shake your weird thing with us, too!

As in, literally just him and his wife, in their bathroom, welcomed their third child together. It’s a great story.

And Laila is the spittin’ image of her daddy, too!!

The fact is that Drupal and WordPress play very nicely together. And I have some big projects coming up, so who better to turn to than our own community to find the talent I need? So I’m hoping I have some lurking readers who know how to develop in Drupal (and integrate WordPress, of course!).

So please contact me privately if you are a Drupal wiz. (Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this! Carry on, then!)

But this blog has quickly become the biggest challenge of them all as well – we found the contests were more time consuming than we anticipated, we needed to get a crash course in U.S. contest laws, and quite frankly my pre-launch monetization strategy was exactly what I had in mind when I wrote #3 on my list of 10 Signs That You are Way Outside of Your Comfort Zone: “3. Your old plan of action may now seem overly simplistic.”

Erika and I have had several heart-to-heart conversations about Parent Product Reviews, and one of the biggest things we found was that the original intention wasn’t the direction in which we wanted to take it. We wanted it to be more fun – and more geared towards becoming more of a shopping and giveaway site. Thus a rename and rebrand was in order ASAP.

So we are pleased to introduce to you Momsational! For now, the content over there will be the same great contests that you have been eating up on a regular basis, just different name and URL. Soon we will be getting our readers exclusive coupons and discounts as well! Plus we’ll be making it easier to keep in touch and stay on top of our giveaways as we launch a better email & newsletter platform.

So please update your bookmarks, links etc. Erika is getting ready to rock the holidays with some seriously rockin’ mom freebies, and I like it when you win.

The scope of the amount of work that needed to be done to pull this off was, well, more than I care to admit. A huge hug and special thanks go to the team who worked really flipping hard to get it ready to go:

• Steve Johnson :: Tech Wizard of WordPress
• Randa Clay and Sarah Lewis :: Design Queens
• Char Polanosky :: Magical Morale Booster
• My new hosting company pSek :: Stonehenge Solid Support
• Erika Jurney :: To-do List Disappearing Spells
  

I freely admitted earlier that I had to let “balance” slide to get it all done. Yesterday I did practically nothing, except ensuring I got a lot more time with my kids, who are happy to have their mom back.

I also treated myself to a trip to Target, probably my favorite treat of all.
Mmmmmm…. Target…….

But now I face… The Aftermath.

I’m holed up in a hotel right now because a small tornado touched down in my neighborhood on Thursday. Although a few people had some injuries in my town, for the most part everyone is OK, thank goodness. Part of the roof came off of our barn, and there was 8 inches of water in our basement, which is really driving me crazy because I can’t get back into the house to assess the damage.

A call to ComEd states only that there are “additional resources needed” to restore power to our neighborhood, and they have no estimates on when we will have power in our home again.

I know I’m supposed to be the ever-optimistic one, but I gotta tell ya, this one is really wearing on me.

UPDATE :: It’s 48+ hours later, but we are back online! Yippie!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for your support everyone!

Honest. I’m not trying to come up with crafty excuses to blow off responding to emails (OK, I do that sometimes, but not THIS time!).

It’s still not working, so please email me directly, or leave a comment below with your email address (which doesn’t get published, only I can see it).

Sorry for the interruption. Have a nice middle of the night on a Monday while I stay up late answering emails.

Everywhere I go these days, I can’t seem to use my email address anymore.

You see, my domain name is emomsatHOME.COM. Suddenly in the last two weeks, something has happened so that if I try to leave a comment, make a purchase, or fill out an online form, I’m getting error messages telling me that my email address is INVALID.

This could be the biggest pain in my a$$ I have ever encountered. I’m actually quite nervous about it. I think it is related to the fact that home.com is an obsolete ISP. But the error is happening across the board on very unrelated websites.

But it also explains why nearly all of my emails – even personal emails to friends – are landing in people’s spam folders.

How the HECK do you fix something like this? Is it even centrally regulated? Am I really on some kind of blacklist? Why else would I not be able to comment on blogs, nor make a swanky bloggy t-shirt purchase because I can’t even register on their site with my email address?!

Does anyone know anything about this at all?! Help!

Ben Yoskovitz & Amy Cham have both won two free gift cards to create a CuVid Video with a family face for your little ones. (Ben just had a baby – so this is perfect timing for him!)

Roxy, Jerky Beef, Jeri, Jordan and Derek have all won a copy of one of Fox’s Follow Along DVDs 

Steve Olson won the Cranium Family Fun Game

Phil Van Treuren won the ticket to Jennifer Laycock’s Search Marketing Bootcamp in Boston, August 8th

Suzie Cheel won a free license for MyMuseSite, a full blown online store with content management system.

Lucy Nixon won this yummy eBag straight from eMom!

Congratulations everyone and THANK YOU to everyone for participating in this GREAT Group Research project!!!

Want to know what it was like to talk with ShoeMoney and eMom? Shaz talks it up today on her blog.

This weekend, I decided to shut down my computer for the full two days and put everything out of my mind. Well, at least I tried – as an entrepreneur, it’s really hard to make your mind stop thinking about your business, but for the most part, it worked. We went out on the boat on Saturday and if you can believe it, I thought a lot about you, my readers.

As we went from the Morris boat launch down to Starved Rock, I found that I wanted to share…

• That the 17-year locusts were so loud that you could hear them over the boat motor even when we were going top speed.
• As we passed this beautiful campground on the river, I wished we could all sit around a big campfire and just hang out with each other.
• I’m excited to be working with new advertising client Amazon Grocery
• That Liz Strauss and I are going to hang out tomorrow night at Jeff Pulver’s Summer Party at the Chicago House of Blues
• That my kids are growing like weeds – my oldest daughter grew two full inches in the last nine months and my 4 year old is bigger than some of the kids in the first grade
• And I’m really excited to be working outside right now because I finally cleaned off my porch this last weekend.

As I sit here on our porch and write, I want to know what’s going on with you. I wish you were here and we were sitting over coffee (or tea, or whatever) and we could chat about your blogs, your new projects, and what’s going on in your lives – friend to friend.

So I’m hoping you will drop by sometime soon to catch up, because I definitely missed you.

I haven’t been able to write much of anything until the server move was complete – then couldn’t write for another day while the DNS transfer was in progress.

For those of you who are missing my writing, please check out my ProBlogger Guest Post today on how Elite Retreat helped to change my monetization approach (with great results!).

IMPORTANT

If you tried to email me between midnight Thursday night and 11:00am Friday morning, I didn’t get it – so please resend (this includes messages sent through the contact form).

I think the last of it is over! Pretty much everything is live on the new server and email is back up and running.

I’ll be throwing one mean server-warming party soon to celebrate!!!

Please bear with me over the next few days with probable service interruptions as the site gets moved.

Apologies for the inconvenience and for the interruption – I really didn’t expect to outgrow my server SO fast and I am frantically researching options to get back to normal uptime ASAP.

I’ve been tagged with David Airey’s meme – The Face Behind the Blog by dear friend Dawud.

What I love about this game is that bloggers site authors are showing everyone the personal side of themselves – via pictures. Since I’m such a visual person, every time a friend puts up one of these posts, I run to the post to get to know them better.

So without further ado, I introduce you to the real eMom behind eMoms at Home – Wendy Piersall – me!

This is my awesome hubby and me – eDad and eMom! Since he’s been sober for nearly a year now, our lives have changed drastically and we truly have an extraordinary relationship. He even asked me last night if I wanted to consider doing some of our own weekend relationship seminars for couples. Talk about a 180 degree turnaround!

This is my favorite picture of my kids – although it’s about 3 years old now.

This picture was taken 9 years ago this week. Happy Anniversary honey (yeah, I’m really a brunette – shhhhh!).

This is me and a good friend on our boat last summer. Fingers crossed the weather will be good enough this Memorial Day Weekend to go out for the first time this year!!

Once a River Rat, always a River Rat I guess – remember when I mentioned that I was living out of my truck making $75 a week? Well, this was it – my first job out of college was as a whitewater rafting guide on the Arkansas River.

This is eMom and ProBlogger - hanging out the first night of Elite Retreat.

This is our house – we live in the far west suburbs of Chicago near the area called the Fox Valley (named for the beautiful – and boatable! – Fox River).

Yep – this is my office – with my 12 year old Mini-Me. I’m sitting in this exact chair typing on that exact laptop right this very second!

Lastly, this is the entire family on a spring hike at nearby Starved Rock. We love getting family time in the great outdoors, so this is one of my favorite family pictures of all.

I think I’m supposed to tag people, but I really love this little project. So I request that any and all readers who have seen this please put together your own Face Behind the Blog Post together and PLEASE send me a link so that I can get to know you better too!

So why would you want to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress?

The main reason (besides ongoing security improvements) I wanted to upgrade was because I’ve been getting used to using the really great text editor on my other blogs:

I was feeling spoiled by being able to get to the post code easily and having the ability to create SEO-friendly subheadings on the fly. Plus, there’s now those nifty tools to clean up the code when you copy and paste from Outlook or Word (actually that happened in version 2.1, but I was still running 2.02).

For more reasons to upgrade to WordPress, read Technosailor’s 10 Things You Should Know About WordPress 2.2.