One of my lowest points financially hit me like a brick. I was standing in the supermarket and I had a choice. I could buy a clearance sale bag of French Fried potatoes or a roll of toilet paper. I could not do both. At that moment I felt helpless, angry and questioning why I was even here. I was not questioning why I was in the supermarket. I questioned how did I get to this point where I had to make this kind of choice? That was my financial bottom. Like Scarlett O’Hara, I vowed to change the situation. I did not know how I was going to do it but it was going to happen. I was a journey and I made missteps along the way. I did know that my ignorance was putting me in jeopardy of harming my spirit. I’d seen the walking dead; the people who go through the motions of life waiting to die.  That scared me more than anything and inspired me to learn what I needed to know. This series of Women’s History posts came from seeing the 1929 Depression as a metaphor for surviving and thriving in the mist of chaos. The fact is that there have been multiple recessions since 1929 and there will be others.

The Be a Better Blogger series of posts is almost finished. The series began with the post You are Invited: Share your Goals and Questions about being a better blogger. We asked you what you wanted to know, and boy, did you answer! Here's a wrap up of all the articles coming from the responses to the opening invitation to share.

I know a lot of bloggers who don't consider themselves writers or journalists. They consider themselves bloggers.  I'm not one of those people.  I blog because it's writing, and I love to write. Added bonus:  Self-publishing is a heck of a lot faster than the traditional method. And less painful emotionally. And ... I want people to read me.  I do. I admit it.  Is it vanity? Insecurity?  Not sure. Don't care.  

Blog metrics are a way to measure the success (or at least the popularity) of a blog. In this article I will introduce you to several of the sites that are most popular for determining a blog's success: Google PageRank, Technorati, Digg, and Alexa. Whether you put any stock into them is your call. (wink)

In January, BlogHer launched the Do it Better series to help you make lasting changes in 2009 once and for all. So, as we approach the end of the first quarter of 2009, where do you stand? Are you still on track? Did you fall off your path? Or, perhaps you got so sidetracked by the little daily crises that you forgot you were even riding the train at all.

I’m a few months shy of my 29th birthday, so in ten years I’ll be approaching 40. It seems kind of crazy to think so far ahead, wondering what my life will be like and what kind of relationship I’d like to have, but I know it’s not really all that long in the grand scheme of things.

Now that the First Lady has announced the creation of an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn, I’m feeling empowered.  Like maybe it was my BlogHer post on the subject that may have tipped the scale in our favor.  So now I’m wondering what else we can revive, preferably a well-established idea onto which I can just piggyback at the last minute.  I know.  Bartering!

Most of us are either experiencing the effects of the current recession or know others who are. It raises the question: Do you need a financial planner?

I tend to approach blogging from a "passion" angle and not so much the "money" angle. I don't think I'm alone, either. I know there are women out there who want to have their voices heard and the income (if any) is secondary to that goal. (Don't get me wrong, it's a great perk, but it wasn't what made me start blogging.) My feeling is if you write about your passion, you've found your niche. Choosing your niche based on its potential profitability rather than your passion will lead to burn out and dissatisfaction.

Aimee Semple McPherson was a woman that is a cultural touch point to the future by reflecting her time and place in the world. Looking through the lens of Women’s History Month Sister Aimee provides an interesting way to look at survival during the Great Depression and what a determined woman can do if she is called to her purpose and follows it full steam.

Unless you've decided to blog in a vacuum and don't care if anyone reads what you have to say, at some point you've probably looked for ways to encourage new readers to find your blog.

It is Women’s History Month. One thing that is absent from the financial discussions of the past is how did women cope? I think of that time with images of flappers dancing, bread lines and hundreds of men on Wall Street looking solemn. Yet there were women in America in 1929. They are invisible on a surface level but our great-grandmothers and grandmother do have information for their children’s children. How Did Folks Know What Was Happening?