PHAT Mommy on blogging, the parent blogosphere and more

May 9th, 2008 HACK

As part of our efforts at ParentPower to highlight parent bloggers, Geoff Livingston recently interviewed Shannon Entin, homeschooling mother, blogger, web designer, and, as she puts it, “lover of all things internet.” Shannon is the author of PHAT Mommy, as well as a contributor to New Jersey Moms Blog, and a Web Guru at Blissfully Domestic.

In addition to being a talented woman and parent of 2 children, Shannon has been blogging since 2005, and also is very active in pushing RSS technology.

What else is there about Shannon, you might ask? Here is some more insight in her interview with Geoff.

GEOFF: The parent blogosphere is extremely diverse. You write on New Jersey Mom’s blog. How is the parent blogosphere different in the Garden State?

SHANNON: I don’t think it is. The greatest part of the blogosphere is that no matter where you live or what your background is, you can connect with, identify with and support other parents.

GEOFF: PHAT = Parenting, Homeschooling And Thriving. Tell us about your blog, and how it discusses these three descriptions?

SHANNON: The original plan for my blog was to share updates on our homeschooling with family and also to archive the activities I do with the kids. But once I started blogging, it became much less about homeschooling and much more about connecting with others and sharing my thoughts. Over the past 3 years, I wrote a lot about parenting, but not much about homeschooling. That was also a function of the ages of my children - they were young and we weren’t actually doing that much “homeschooling.”

Now that my kids are getting older (3 1/2 and 9 1/2), I’m actually about to re-focus the blog a bit. I’m becoming less comfortable writing about the escapades of my children as they get older. It’s not “cute” anymore - and it could be embarrassing to them as they grow older. My son uses the internet now and could read my blog if he wanted to. In the next few days I’ll be re-designing my blog and tag line to: Parenting, Homeschooling and Tech-Loving. I’ll be writing more about social media - which is one of my passions.

GEOFF: What do you love about the parent blogosphere?

SHANNON: I think my answer to #1 applies here. I love how easy it is to “meet” new people and get answers and support at the click of a mouse.

GEOFF: What could you leave behind in the parent blogosphere?

SHANNON: Comment trolls. Judgmental parents. The whole (dreadfully tiresome) “mommy wars” thing.

GEOFF: What do you hope your children will get out of social media?

SHANNON: Well, first I hope they will be smart about it. I personally love social media, but it can get out of hand. I don’t want my kids sharing too much. I plan to teach them how to use social media wisely — to use it to further their goals. What do I want them to get out of it? Education, friendship, support, and fun.

GEOFF: Thanks, Shannon. If people want to reach your blog, where do they go?

SHANNON: My personal blog is at: http://phatmommy.com

If people are interested in New Jersey Moms Blog, they can go to: http://www.newjerseymomsblog.com

Lastly, Blissfully Domestic can be found at: http://blissfullydomestic.com

If you are interested in being interviewed for ParentPower, please let us know. We can be reached at: myvoice@parentpowerindex.com

Posted in Blogger Interviews | No Comments »

Strength in Numbers

May 9th, 2008 mlovings

Moms, be proud. New studies show that it’s definitely not a select group of us online, but a large percentage.

A new report from eMarketer compiles findings from different Internet tracking services showing the uptake of Internet usage among all women. Overall, moms represent 43.7% of all adult females (or 35.3 million) who go online.

Nielsen Online reports women online with children under 18 in their household as of winter 2007/2008 make up 22.6% of all adult Internet users. The report details more findings from comScore Media Metrix and Experian Consumer Research for different demographic groups and expecting moms, but they all point to the same thing – mom’s are online and most likely making their voices heard.

So why are we online? There’s no doubt that the Internet is an incredible source of content offering good and bad parenting information and social opportunities to talk with parents across the country, but it’s a place most of us feel comfortable turning to willingly because we understand it’s value.

If we find something we don’t like, we can use new social technologies like Blogs and Twitter to inform other parents or post a response ourselves. The power is at our fingertips to extend our knowledge as moms to one another like never before. Plus, it’s an incredible forum for blending our precious job of parenting with the greater social (online) community that keeps more and more of us connected daily.

So, here’s to the numbers of moms online increasing and all of us using everything we have at our disposal to not only be users but contributors.

Posted in Moms and the Internet | No Comments »

ParentPower Interview with Christine Louise Hohlbaum of Mama’s Musings

May 9th, 2008 HACK

Following the launch of the ParentPower Index and Application (BETA), Geoff Livingston of Livingston Communications had the opportunity to speak with parent blogger Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of the book DIARY OF A MOTHER, and “SAHM I AM: TALES OF A STAY-AT-HOME MOM IN EUROPE”. She also is the publisher of the blog, Mama’s Musings.

A part from being an award-winning American writer and frequent commentator on NPR’s The Parent’s Journal with Bobbi Conner, Christine is one of a few American bloggers operating overseas in Germany - providing a fascinating perspective on life and parenting.

GEOFF: The parent blogosphere is extremely diverse. How is it different in Europe?

CHRISTINE: I don’t think you can make geographic delineations. I live in Europe, but my voice is distinctly American. That’s the beauty of the blogosphere. You can blog from wherever you are and carry on the conversation as if you were at home. If you read some of the foreign blogs, you get a distinct flavor for their culture as well.

GEOFF: Tell us about your book: Sahm I Am: Tales of a Stay-at-Home Mom in Europe?

CHRISTINE: SAHM I Am is the sequel to Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff, my first book about the transition from being an Ivy League educated career woman turned housewife. Mind-blowing stuff.

Diary of a Mother sort of left my readers hanging. “So what happened once you got to Europe?” they chimed. SAHM I Am was the answer.

In reality, I find blogging to be a fabulous extension to my other writing. It’s also very liberating as I can write whatever I want (within reason – I don’t like to use profanity because one day my kids will read it and then they’ll roll their eyes that they aren’t allowed to curse like Sailor Mom…)

GEOFF: How does Mama’s Musings continue the conversation?

CHRISTINE:I suppose you could look at it in terms of the grieving process.

My book, Diary of a Mother, was about denial through humor, then anger.

SAHM I Am is less desperate and transitions into acceptance.

Mama’s Musings is really a celebration of life with kids, what will make moms’ lives better, and a motley of personal stories tossed in the mix. It’s meant for people to feel better about themselves when they walk away, chuckling to themselves about the silly things that happen in life, and feeling grateful for what they do have.

GEOFF: What could you leave behind in the parent blogosphere?

CHRISTINE:It’ll be a blast for my children’s generation to read what preoccupied their parents’ generation. Most likely they won’t understand all the references, but what a great way to leave a legacy.

GEOFF: What do you hope your children will get out of social media?

CHRISTINE: Social media has an addictive component to it. Trust me. I know. I was offline until today for five weeks, yet I still blogged when I could (bloggers are Creatives – we get creative when we can’t get online any other way than to beg the local Internet café owner for one more minute – please, just one more minute, man!). I never knew how much time I spend in front of the computer until my DSL subscription didn’t transfer when we moved to a new house!

What I’d like for my kids to get out of their interaction with social media is a sense of place in the Universe. Sound lofty? It really isn’t. They can connect with people from all over the world, establish relationships with kids in foreign countries and learn new things.

GEOFF: Thanks so much for your time, Christine. If people want to reach your blog, where do they go?

CHRISTINE: Well, thank you. My blog is at: http://diaryofamother.blogs.com

If you are interested in being interviewed for ParentPower, please let us know. We can be reached at: myvoice@parentpowerindex.com

Posted in Blogger Interviews | 22 Comments »

High-quality parenting information highlighted in new ParentPower application

May 9th, 2008 HACK

Today we at ActiveAccess launched the Beta version of the ParentPower Index application. As many of you know, ActiveAcess develops custom-branded applications for media companies, corporations, colleges and universities, non-profits and government agencies. This application launch represents the first time we have developed one of our own for an existing community.

In developing this application (and its corresponding Index of the top 200 parenting bloggers), we have been working for several months with many bloggers in the community - gathering their input. We want to especially thank the focus group participants for their great suggestions for improvement. We are still gathering ideas on how to make the application and Index better, and appreciate the continued input.

As of today we have added over 200 bloggers into the index and hope that the community will add many more fantastic parent bloggers over the next few weeks.

We also hope that during our Beta phase you will continue to help us make a number of tweaks to our offering. Be sure to give us your feedback. We have set up a survey at PollDaddy, and you can access us directly at myvoice [at] parentpowerindex dot com, or on Twitter at Twitter.com/ParentPower.

ParentPower is broken down into two parts, the Desktop Application and the Index and Headlines. Here is a some information about each of them.

The Desktop Application and Reader

The ParentPower Desktop Application is designed to make your life easier and to help you find great content fast. In the ParentPower button you can find the index, blogger headlines, BlogHer Mommy and Family, Sk*rt Family and Parenting, and CNN Health/Parenting.

In the menu there are quick links to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Sk*rt. And we have put together a list of links that you might find useful such as movies, traffic, shopping and more.

On the left sidebar, the application includes games, parenting videos and podcasts - which you can find in the media feeds on the Menu. Plus, we are known for delivering the weather.

We have also included an RSS reader that you can customize. If you aren’t using an RSS reader, it is a powerful and simple tool. If you do have an RSS reader, you can use this one for specialized tasks and to cut down on clutter in your main reader.

The Index and Headlines

Rankings. Some people like them and some people don’t, but we have seen first-hand how they have enabled other communities to easily discover and enjoy bloggers. In fact, we have taken this a step further and put together a Headlines page, so that you can quickly get a snapshot of what is happening in the Parenting Blogosphere. We hope this brings great visibility for the bloggers in the index and for parents looking for parenting tips and other information. Plus, it means you don’t have to be a top-ranked blogger to get noticed. We have put together a primer on using ParentPower to promote your blog.

Index Methodology

The Index uses a percentile ranking system that uses Technorati inbound links and rank, Bloglines subscriptions, Alexa rank, Google PageRank, and Yahoo inbound links. All of these are averaged and each blog is given a percentile score. We adjusted the formula so that the blog defaults to its highest possible rank. As you will see, many blogs have identical positioning on the index. You can read more about the ParentPower methodology on the page we put together for that purpose.

Posted in Intro to ParentPower | No Comments »