Social justice and feminism are topics with scads of opinions and resources to back them up. The niche known as womanism, however, is scant and Womanist Musings is looking to fix that by covering hard to find issues in a safe space.

Renee, writes 3-4 posts daily about race, class and gender and has been doing so since April 2008. "The purpose of Womanist Musings is to raise attention to bodies that we neglect. I believe that they don't get enough attention by the mainstream press and because of that are incredibly invisible and this allows the exploitation to con

tinue."

A beacon of social justice, Renee wants to focus on getting more responsive traffic. Currently receiving about 500-600 hits daily, conversation - rather than conversions - is her main goal.

In fact, by the end of the year she would like to have an average of 50 comments per post and upwards of 3,000 visitors daily. Since she works on her blog full-time (and even some overtime) this can be done in a few simple steps:

1. highlight comments

2. encourage viral traffic

3. state a comment policy

Let's break that down a bit more...

1. highlight comments

With a few regular readers, it may be time to help visitors truly debate issues by not only participating in the discussion area but by creating posts based on particularly intriguing comments. Whether or not that highlighted commenter has a blog, they will be more likely to tell their friends, family and colleagues about being featured on Womanist Musings.

2. encourage viral traffic

Speaking of which, it's possible to get viral traffic from your comments section by including a simple suggestion to tell a friend about the post's permalink. Investigating a script to facilitate this in Blogger would be ideal.

3. state a comment policy

Just as simple suggestions can help make a blog's comment area a viral center, a simple comment policy - even if you want to be as transparent and inviting as possible - can encourage input as much as discourage it. Creating such a policy in conjunction with your current readership is ideal.

Blog posts are often less about statements and more about collaboration and Renee's approach to comments along with her active participation in the blog's comment section will help to put her on the road to reaching her goals.

As a beacon, Womanist Musings has the personal drive and capacity to be a guide for feminists and all social justice seekers on the concept of womanism.

STATS

Blog Name: Womanist Musings
Blog URL: http://www.womanist-musings.com
Blogger(s): Renee
Platform: Blogger
Age: 4 months
Feed: http://www.womanist-musings.com/feeds/posts/default

At ease! Since this blog is written from the heartfelt experiences of a military wife, there's no need to stand at attention. In fact, things are pretty loose around here.

Patricia, also known as Military Wife, posts on topics ranging from her children along with tidbits about her life as a military wife (or, as she mentioned in an e-mail reply, a 'married single parent').

"My readers consist mostly of parents. I like to connect with other parents and give tips when I have them or compare stories and get advice. Kids do not come with instructions. All parents are kind of winging it and learning as we go along," Patricia mused on her readership.

Typically done several times each week, the number of posts depend the daily events of family life but Patricia finds the frequency perfect. "It fits my schedule a majority of the time," she stated.

Not only does the blog fit her schedule but it seems to also fit her ideal reader since more traffic appears over the weekend when parents the world over have a bit more down time.

There's a lot of content - from free to sponsored - available for them and this review focuses on ensuring that all of it is accessible to the right parent at the right time.

That would start a task a simple as moving the search box from the footer up above the scroll. That way, visitors could make more use of it and the extra data provided by Google's back end would help Patricia get another angle on her reader's interests.

Another consideration would be to have the horizontal, pink button navigation lead to her popular Labels as opposed to a mix of link exchange partners and housekeeping items.

Patricia's blog is a testament to how much stay at home and work at home parents - mother's in particular - network. With sidebars full of social network widgets, links and carnivals, it's easy to see why Patricia leads the troops of a blog linking event, or meme, called Musical Mondays while participating in a regular photo posting event called Wordless Wednesday.

More than a year in, though, it may be time to consider going AWOL on networks that don't perform by either bringing in traffic or leading joint venturing opportunities like Musical Mondays. Any remaining space in the sidebars and footer can be optimized with appealing monetization options that convert in addition to occasional sponsored post spots.

"I have paid advertising spots available on my blog and I have done a few paid posts. I would like for it to make more. I plan to keep blogging and hopefully increase my readers which will give me  better opportunities for paid posts."

HerProBlog.com salutes you, Patrica, and encourages you to keep blogging to reach your goals!

STATS
Blog Name: Stay At Home Mom & Military Wife
Blog URL: http://sahmilitarywife.blogspot.com/
Blogger(s): Patricia
Platform: Blogger
Age: 1 year, 3 months
Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/StayAtHomeMilitaryWife

If writers are to blogs what chefs are to food, then LaTara Ham-Ying is a Chef de Cuisine. One of the newest blogs in her natural health communication web site network is a three-month old recipe membership site called Vegan Meal Helper.

With years of vegetarian eating under her belt, for herself and her family, she knows how to easily plan vegan meals and shares this in her blog.

So how can one enhance a network of health communication sites with a meal planning service for people on a strict vegetarian diet by blogging? LaTara was kind enough to give us a peek into her corporate kitchen.

LaTara got the idea to create a membership blog to offer simple meal planning for vegans but ran into a snag. "I couldn't afford or hire a VA to help me set up a membership site and the basic scripts are anywhere from $150 and up."

Instead, she applied a bit of do-it-yourself ingenuity to cook up a simple front end for her members and a robust backend. "Wow, I can do this for little or nothing," she quickly realized.

Front end: Members sign up via the
sales page get a password and username then login to the WordPress dashboard. "Very much like anyone who has a WordPress blog," she added.

Back end: There is limited member access to backend office thanks to a selection of WordPress plugins like these:

• BT-Active Discussions
• Member's Only
• Private Plus

When put together, she's able to offer monthly audios and tutorials along with exclusive articles on meal organization, vegan cooking and eating. The tight focus on veganism complements her web site network which focuses on natural health and living. Each site, whether it be on health communications or family living tips, promotes eating whole foods where ever possible. LaTara believes that whole foods will help her visitors take control of their health instead of their health controlling them.

When asked about her membership site's design, LaTara mentioned that she noticed one while surfing. "I was on somebody else'ssite and I liked the simplicity." When she found the original template source, she downloaded it and started to mold the simple template.

So simple, in fact, that she did the blog's header and colors herself. She admits that this site isn't a pure
do-it-yourself project, however. That's because LaTara, who is also a freelance writer and used to dealing with editing, got her design proofed by a professional graphic artist.

While this cook may be budget conscious, with the foresight to supplement her work with professional insight, she is resource rich. "I belong to a membership site for women called
MomMasterMinds.com and we have a wonderful network there of women. It's a very welcoming and secure environment. And I have Twitter where I can also connect with a lot of people. I might go on Twitter and say 'I need someone to proof my page for me.' I use social networking to find folks."

This self-proclaimed novice techie also credits social networking for her web site traffic. "It grows at a steady pace. Every month I get more visits," she added.

Monetizing your blog to make money with fruits and vegetables is possible and cooking coach, LaTara Ham-Ying has the chops to prove it.

STATS
Blog Name: The Vegan Meal Helper
Blog URL: http://www.veganmealhelper.com/
Blogger(s): LaTara Ham-Ying, vegan cooking coach
Platform: WordPress 2.5.1
Age: 3 months
Feed: http://www.veganmealhelper.com/feed/