BlogHer.org: Where the women bloggers are

Last week (actually 5 days and 8 hours ago, according to my listing) I joined BlogHer.org, an open consortium of women bloggers. Their motto “Where the women bloggers are” embraces the simplicity of their coherence: women blogging. Their membership of more than 11,000 grows each day. I was excited to join since I feel that the organizers are women who take blogging seriously, who write about serious issues but don’t exclude humor, and who are not limited by a political agenda or a woman-only exclusionary feel. Indeed, men are welcomed too. When you join, you can write a description of your blog and categorize it by picking one or more labels that apply to the topics you write about. My blog is sufficiently general that I had to choose multiple categories, such as Entertainment and Books, Health and Wellness, Politics and News, Sports and Fitness, and Travel Blogs.

If you go to any one of the above categories, I guarantee you’ll find a blog that’s interesting, well-written, and worth checking out. On the whole, I have found this organization to include a tremendous number of writers who think, feel, and express themselves with flair.

Here’s my BlogHer description.

If that isn't motivation enough for me to feel excited about joining, the BlogHer group came out last week with an incredible proposal, which they have named BlogHers Act. In their own words:

BlogHers Act will take on two things—

1. Making a difference on a single global cause
2. Identifying the top four issues that women online want the U.S. Presidential candidates to address in order to win our votes in the ‘08 Election.

Until June 15, BlogHers Act is soliciting opinions from their members on what this single global cause should be (global warming, world poverty, the Iraq war?) as well as the top four issues that the U.S. Presidential candidates should address. These are year-long initiatives that member bloggers will help address and act upon. So I have but a few days to weigh in and contribute. After June 15th, they’ll produce a survey based on the submitted ideas and then tally the survey results. The real action will start at their annual BlogHer Conference - '07.