Name: LaDonna Dennis
Community Name: Mom Blog Society
Contact E-mail: [email protected]
Community Web Address: http://momblogsociety.com
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mom-Blog-Society/107131069310114
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/momblogsociety

Tell us about your community.
Mom Blog Society is a knowledge base; for moms and by moms. We feature bloggers from around the world. And although we are new, we are becoming a powerful group.

When did you create this community?
I created Mom Blog Society in September 2011.
How did you choose the name of your community? I’ve always thought of mom bloggers as a unique society, thus Mom Blog Society.

What motivated and inspired you to create and move forward with your community?
I created Mom Blog Society, because I believe that every mom’s blog is essential to the blogging world. Therefore, I strive to promote our members and encourage each and every member of our site to speak up and tell the world what’s on their mind!

Tell us a little about your family.
I’m a proud mommy of three 2 boys and 1 girl. I’m married to a wonderful man who is not only my life partner, but my business partner.

How do you prioritize your family and your community?
My family always comes first. That is just a given. But honestly, I’m a workaholic. I work from the time I get up, till the time I go to bed. And then, I work in my sleep!

Where do you see your community and yourself in 5 years?
I see Mom Blog Society growing into a supportive group of bloggers. Sharing, teaching, and learning from one another. Our members are so passionate about their blogs. And, they are a great inspiration to me.

Biggest life lesson learned since building this community?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is, what works from one community may not work for another. You have to find what works for you, and then run with it!

Do you have a favorite business / social media tool / resource?
Hootsuite

What is your secret to success?
Dedication. If I’m not dedicated to the members of our community, then there wouldn’t be any success.

All Entrepreneurs encounter difficult days. How do you handle yours?
It depends on the issues. Sometimes, just stepping away and working on something else helps me find the right course of action.

What was your sweetest success story?
Watching members of Mom Blog Society interact! How sweet is that?

How do you relax?
Relax? What’s that?

Share your favorite motivational quote or inspirational thought:
When you start looking at your blog as a business, that’s when you’ll succeed.

Do you belong to any other social media networks?
Facebook and Twitter

What blog(s)/communities do you just have to read daily?
There are a lot of great bloggers in our community. When I see a new post go up, I run right on over to their blog and read it.

If you could have anyone particular person be a part of your community, who would you invite?
I would invite Jennifer James of Mom Bloggers Club. Although our communities are on the same platform, they are totally different in content. But, I believe that Jennifer James has a lot of wisdom to offer. We encourage the spread of wisdom on MBS.

Have you attended any business or blog conferences?
If yes, which ones? I went to the Social Media Network in Miami a few years back. It was great. I’ll also be attending the Blogher in 2012. I plan to attend more, I just haven’t made time to go.

What has been your most memorable experience at a conference or event.
The enormity of knowledge all in one room!

Do you send out a monthly newsletter? How can we get on your mailing list if we are interested in more information? Yep, in the right side bar of Mom Blog Society.

If you are a blogger, business, or a community and you would like to be featured, please click here.

Name: Romona Easterling
Community Name: SitterTrade
Contact E-mail: [email protected]
Community Web Address: www.sittertrade.com
Facebook Fan Page: Facebook.com/SitterTrade
Twitter: @SitterTrade

Tell us about your community.
SitterTrade is a co-op social network for babysitting trading so parents can get free babysitting.

When did you create this community?
June 1st 2011

How did you choose the name of your community?
I wanted the name to be catchy but somewhat self-explanatory.

What motivated and inspired you to create and move forward with your community?
I am a work at home mom and whenever I had work to do for clients I would have to call around and ask my friends to babysit. I hated bothering them and my budget did not allow me to pay anyone. I didn’t really have the time to run around and start a babysitting co-op and there was none in my area. I thought what if there was a way for parents to get free babysitting in a co-op type situation but with it being a social network. I’m on Facebook and have made some really great friends with people I didn’t know. I decided to apply the social networking concept to a co-op. SitterTrade is a place where you can trade with friends and know that you’re not bothering them. It’s fair and everyone is there for the same thing. You can trade with your friends and make new ones.

Tell us a little about your family.
I live in Jacksonville, Florida with my hubby Michael and our son Michael III whom we call Trey.

How do you prioritize your family and your community?
Family first everything else is secondary. I have a very opinionated toddler who won’t be denied.

Where do you see your community and yourself in 5 years?
I see the community growing and being able to help as many people as possible.

Biggest life lesson learned since building this community?
Apparently everyone else was thinking the same things as I am I already have 15 members throughout the U.S. and the site has only been up for a month just from word of mouth.

Do you have a favorite business / social media tool / resource?
Twitter I have been able to make so many excellent websites from that site.

What is your secret to success?
Persistence and doings things to actually help people. Everything else will follow from there.

All Entrepreneurs encounter difficult days. How do you handle yours?
Focus and think about the positives. Anything worth having takes hard work.
I just focus on why I’m doing this and how I know people need what SitterTrade is all about.

What was your sweetest success story?
Turning the idea into a live site in less than a month.

How do you relax?
At night after everyone in my house is sleeping I stay up at least an hour and do whatever I want. That’s my me time.

Share your favorite motivational quote or inspirational thought:
Where there’s a will there’s a way.

Do you belong to any other social media networks?
Yes

What blog(s)/communities do you just have to read daily?
Various ones that I find interesting from twitter.

If you could have anyone particular person be a part of your community, who would you invite?
You

Have you attended any business or blog conferences?
No

Do you send out a monthly newsletter? How can we get on your mailing list if we are interested in more information?
Not at this time. It’s most certainly a plan I will roll out at some point.

If you are a blogger, business, or a community and you would like to be featured, please click here.

Name: Leah Segedie
Community Name: Mamavation
Contact E-mail: [email protected]
Community Web Address: http://www.mamavation.com
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/mamavation
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bookieboo

Tell us about your community.
Mamavation is an obesity prevention campaign for families and the first virtual sorority in social media. Moms learn healthy living practices slowly at their own pace and support one another.

When did you create this community?
2009

How did you choose the name of your community?
It’s a combination between healthy “innovation” and “moms”
What motivated and inspired you to create and move forward with your community?
After struggling my entire life with my weight, I lost over 100 lbs. At my biggest I was a size 22 and now am a size 6. I lost weight the old fashioned way through proper nutrition and exercise. After doing all this, I wanted to give back and help other struggling mothers. Thus, Mamavation was born. Mamavation also houses a boot camp where Mamavation Moms go through 7 grueling weeks to inspire other moms to be healthier.

Tell us a little about your family.
I’m pregnant, in my second trimester, and have two young boys, 2.5 and 5.5, and a husband. My life is NUTZ! I’m constantly running around, working, loving on my kids, cooking, running errands, tweeting and blogging.

How do you prioritize your family and your community?
Family is first and then my community. It’s hard to find balance sometimes when you are as busy as me, but I somehow make it work.

Where do you see your community and yourself in 5yrs?
I think there is more video and television opportunities in our future.

Biggest life lesson learned since building this community?
Sometimes I have to swallow my own pride for the betterment of the community. It’s a tough thing to do, but at the end of the day, worth it. Also, I’ve learned that having a clear direction is VERY important to keep people motivated. AND people are more important than things. (I’ve always believed that but having a thriving community forces me to make that decision almost daily.)

Do you have a favorite business / social media tool / resource?
My iPhone is paramount to what I do. About 65% of my business is done on the fly. I also use tweetdeck, hootsuite, Klout, and Getclicky daily.

What is your secret to success?
Secret to success is to put more positive out in the world and treat others as you would like to be treated. It comes back to bless you.

All Entrepreneurs encounter difficult days. How do you handle yours?
Cardio. When I get my workout in, the world is safer from my temper. No joke. Don’t forget I AM a redhead.

What was your sweetest success story?
Mamavation Moms under my supervision have lost over 350 lbs. in two years. That is what I’m most proud of. But there also a couple other cool things that have happened. Shape Magazine made me one of their “Mother of the Year” and SONY asked me to film 3 short webisodes with them.

How do you relax?
Sleep, tweeting, reading, and drinking wine.

Share your favorite motivational quote or inspirational thought:
Healthy living is something you should start of gradually take on. Never completely change your lifestyle in one week. Make slow graduate changes that are manageable in your lifestyle and environment. And support is paramount, so find some buddies online or IRL to help.

Do you belong to any other social media networks?
Other than Mamavation, I’m also part of Social Media Moms.

If you could have anyone particular person be a part of your community, who would you invite?
I’d love all the contestants from the Biggest Loser to join Mamavation. Just the women, not the guys. LOL

Have you attended any business or blog conferences?
If yes, which ones?
OMG…All of them. Blissdom, Mom 2.0, BlogWorld, Fitness & Healthy Bloggers Conference, EVO, BlogHer, SheStreams, Windy City Social, & Fitcation. I sadly missed Type A Mom this year because it conflicted with another conference I was helping to plan.

What has been your most memorable experience at a conference or event.
At Evo, they had this INCREDIBLE media training session. I’ll never forget it.

Do you send out a monthly newsletter? How can we get on your mailing list if we are interested in more information?
Yes, just join Bookieboo.com and you will receive the newsletter.

If you are a blogger, business, or a community and you would like to be featured, please click here.

Community Name: SITS Girls
Contact E-mail: [email protected]
Community Web Address: www.thesitsgirls.com
Facebook Fan Page: facebook.com/sitsgirls
Twitter: @sitsgirls

Tell us about your community.
We are a group of more than 10,000 women bloggers dedicated to supporting one another by leaving comments. Besides our famous “featured blogger” we offer education and networking in a supportive environment.

When did you create this community?
July 2008

How did you choose the name of your community?
SITS is short for “Secret is in the Sauce”, which has evolved into “The Secret to Success is Support.”

What motivated and inspired you to create and move forward with your community?
After starting my blog in March 2008, I recognized a need for a community where bloggers could be featured based on participation.

Tell us a little about your family.
I am a mom to a 1 year old boy and wife to a smokin’ hot husband who is my partner in business, parenting and life.

How do you prioritize your family and your community?
Family comes first. Period.

Where do you see your community and yourself in 5yrs?
Supporting women in however is needed at that time.

Biggest life lesson learned since building this community?
You can’t please all the people all the time, so know your audience and choose wisely.

Do you have a favorite business / social media tool / resource?
Hootsuite!

What is your secret to success?
Support. And, knowing my audience and only saying yes to opportunities, guest posts, campaigns, etc that are a match. I am fiercely protective of my brand.

All Entrepreneurs encounter difficult days. How do you handle yours?
Shut my computer and hang out with my family and friends.

What was your sweetest success story?
There have been so many touching moments- especially meeting all these fabulous women at Bloggy Boot Camp.

How do you relax?
Family, friends…. Wine.

Share your favorite motivational quote or inspirational thought:
Where you put your attention is where you get your results.

Do you belong to any other social media networks?
We love Twitter and Facebook.

What blog(s)/communities do you just have to read daily?
Depends on the day. I adore MamaKatslosinit.com, Scarymommy.com and AngryJulieMonday.com.

If you could have anyone particular person be a part of your community, who would you invite?
Everyone’s invited. They just have to play nice.

Have you attended any business or blog conferences?
If yes, which ones?
Obviously, I am bias to Bloggy Boot Camp! We have also attended Blogher, Mom 2.0, Blissdom and have heard great things about EVO.

What has been your most memorable experience at a conference or event.
I love the follow up I get after I’ve spoken. Hearing that I gave someone a tidbit of inspiration thrills me.

Do you send out a monthly newsletter? How can we get on your mailing list if we are interested in more information?
Yep. Just come on over to our website.

If you are a blogger, business, or a community and you would like to be featured, please click here.

Name: Kelby Carr
Community Name: Type-A Parent
Contact E-mail: [email protected]
Community Web Address: typeaparent.com
Facebook Fan Page: facebook.com/typeaparent
Twitter: @typeamom
StumbleUpon: typeamom
Linked In: kelbycarr

Tell us about your community.
Type-A Parent is an online community of parents who blog. The site is a combination of social network and magazine-style, multi-author blog. Hundreds of bloggers have contributed, and “Type-A” has become synonymous with power blogger.

When did you create this community?
I was sitting on bed rest with my twins for two and a half months. Thankfully, I had a laptop and wi-fi or I might have lost my mind. Once I was put on bedrest, I couldn’t work at all for my job (even though it was a reporting job and certainly could have been done from home). If it hadn’t been for having online gigs, it would have been a real financial hardship even with short-term disability.

I had been writing for About.com since a month before my first was born (in 2002), and during this bed rest stint I applied to be the Family Travel Writer for Suite101 and was hired. I was writing like crazy while in bed. Then it struck me: wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a site that allowed people to write from home and only hired moms? Wouldn’t it be great to have a site that offered parenting advice BY parents (at that time, most did not)? Wouldn’t it be great to have that advice continue well after the article was written? If I shared breastfeeding advice, ten other people could add tips that I missed that worked for them.

The idea for Type-A Mom (later changed to Type-A Parent) was born.

How did you choose the name of your community?
At that time, almost every site related to moms or parenting had one color scheme and it was pastel. They also all seemed to assume that all moms care about is changing diapers. That just wasn’t my style at all, and I knew there had to be other moms. Moms who were parents AND had brains. I struggled to come up with a name. Variations of modern didn’t quite capture it. I needed something that represented all of the facets of the moms like me. Moms who juggled the desire to have success with the desire to have happy, healthy children. Moms who have brains and interests. Moms who do a mental, physical and emotional marathon from sun up (or before) to well into the night. Moms who are ambitious, who get things done. Type-A just fit.

What motivated and inspired you to create and move forward with your community?
Initially, I wanted to provide a place where any mom could write without having to jump through a bunch of hoops, apply to write and so on. It evolved into most of the active members also being moms who blog, so when I rebranded to Type-A Parent, part of that involved targeting the site to digital, blogging, social media parents. Previously, all of the content was geared at all parents.

Tell us a little about your family.
I am married with an 8-year-old daughter, five-year-old twins.

How do you prioritize your family and your community?
It is a frequent challenge to balance both. Primarily, I like the flexibility of being self-employed and being able to impulsively decide to take a trip or spend the day out sightseeing when I want. I think ultimately I spend an awful lot more quality time with the family than I did when I was working full-time.

Where do you see your community and yourself in 5yrs?
I don’t really have some master plan for where the business will be in five years, but my main goal would be to make enough money off of the site to provide income to many other parents.

Biggest life lesson learned since building this community?
Go for it. I am a huge believer in strategic risk taking. I think many people leave their dreams on the table for fear of failure. I would much rather fail, pick myself back up and jump into the next thing than to never try.

Do you have a favorite business / social media tool / resource?
Twitter! Twitter! Oh, did I mention Twitter?

What is your secret to success?
I have no big secret. I just take my ideas, figure out how to make them work, and then bust my butt making it happen.

All Entrepreneurs encounter difficult days. How do you handle yours?
I read. This is actually a pretty new thing (I hadn’t read for pleasure in ages until about a year or so ago when I got a Kindle). Now, no matter what, I read for fun (not learning) every night before bed.

What was your sweetest success story?
It would have to be the feeling I had towards the end of the first Type-A conference. My husband looked at me, amazed, and said, “Wow! You did this!”

How do you relax?
See books above. I also get massages whenever humanly possible.

Share your favorite motivational quote or inspirational thought:
Before the first Type-A, when I still had no or very little sponsors and had committed to spending thousands and thousands of dollars, I was freaking out a little in bed every night. Then I saw this quote, and I realized I was mid-leap and I stopped freaking and started enjoying the ride:
“We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.”

Do you belong to any other social media networks?
I belong to a whole bunch, but then social media is a bit of an obsession. I spend most of my time on Twitter and Facebook.

What blog(s)/communities do you just have to read daily?
I often end up reading what I hear about through Twitter and Facebook. I do subscribe to some feeds but find I end up forgetting about my feeds and just see what my friends are recommending.

If you could have anyone particular person be a part of your community, who would you invite?
Wow, that is a tough question. I am actually pretty thrilled to have the members we have now.

Have you attended any business or blog conferences?
If yes, which ones?
Yes, I love attending conferences when I can work it into my budget and family schedule. I have been to Blissdom, Blog World Expo, BlogHer, ConvergeSouth, and of course, Type-A Parent.

What has been your most memorable experience at a conference or event.
Meeting two people I had been friends with online for many years at my first BlogHer. Kim (@prairiemama) and I were friends online for seven years before we met at BlogHer ‘09, and Kris (@littletechgirl) and I were friends online for four years before we met at that conference.

Do you send out a monthly newsletter? How can we get on your mailing list if we are interested in more information?
You can sign up for the newsletter by registering to join Type-A Parent at typeaparent.com.