Growing, Changing and Adapting

You all know this song...

and we all know the only constant in life is change.  Why should it be any different for The Blogstress Network?

The primary difference between this song and the aspirations of Lee Romano Sequeira, Doreen Creede and myself is that we weren't waiting for the world to change.  We wanted to create change.  A good place to begin, we thought would be in changing the way we network as women bloggers.

After the three of us got together and immediately realized the distinct advantages of having friends who understand this crazy blogging world... friends you could sit across from and exchange ideas and tips with... we immediately wanted to share that with the world.

We were so excited about the idea of encouraging other women bloggers to find friends in their area and meet regularly to improve their blogs we had this website, our facebook and twitter accounts up and running in less than a week in early January 2011.  So many of you jumped on board right away our enthusiasm escalated.

Sometimes being in a hurry to change the world isn't the best way to go about it.  Our excitement created a haze that seemed to distort the fact that we all had our own blogs and businesses to run at the same time.  With the best of intentions to build this network of women helping women succeed we were overwhelmed by it's rapid success.

I know many of you tried to start Blogstress Networks in your own towns and it wasn't meant to be.  Our initial founders meeting was serendipitous and perhaps shouldn't be forced.  However, without the face to face meet-ups we still grew and shared and helped one another.  In the end, that's what is most important.

We have made so many great friendships through this expansion we don't want to end it.  We are simply changing it.  Since our facebook page is the most active aspect of the network (142 and still growing!) we are concentrating most of our efforts there.  As always, we encourage you to share any news, tips or advice on the facebook page.

Feel free to post links to your latest blog posts there.  And most importantly interact with each other and with us.  Continue to be supportive and generous with shares and comments.  That is the true spirit in which this began and with your help it will continue.

Barbara

Sharing the Blogstress Love!

Hello Blogstresses!

Transition can be tricky with uncharted territory that's difficult to trudge through.  It can also be exciting and give us a devil may care sense of adventure.  We choose the latter attitude.  With all the dissension in the world of late we thought a return to love was in order.

The primary goal of this network from the beginning was to connect women bloggers and provide support that will make it easier for all to grow their blogs and social networks.  

To that end, in this month we celebrate LOVE, we would love it if you could leave us a link to your favorite blog post that speaks of love.  (Yes I just used love three times in one sentence.)

You can also leave the link to that post on our facebook page.  We are all about spreading the blog love this month.  But wait... there’s more!

At the end of the month after reading your posts we will choose one post that wins the signed LOVE poster by Barbara Hammond pictured above.  

If there is not one clear winner because we are overwhelmed by your ardor and passionate prose we will put three finalists in a (very fashionable) hat and draw the winner.  

Only the links left here in the comments will be considered, but we encourage you to add them to our facebook page as well. 

Happy Valentine Month!

xo