Tag Archives: black bloggers

Black Web Friday – 4/27/12

It’s another week of Black Web Friday, and during the week I was reminded once more why I started this process to begin with. One of my friends wrote to tell me about another list of top 50 whatever online. At least this list had 2 people of color on it, but my friend wrote anyway to ask why there were only 2, and the woman’s answer was that these were the only 3 she’d ever talked to online.

Black Web Friday

Well we can’t have that now can we? After all, the internet is replete with people of color, supposedly one of the fastest growing demographics for creating websites and blogs in the nation… okay, that would be black people specifically, and I thought I’d best go back to that to be clear with my terminology. So let’s see who I can share with you this week.

The site Loop 21 is something a little bit different. It’s a site that has news and commentary like some other sites I’ve highlighted before, but it also has magazine-type articles that I find kind of interesting, and that’s what sets it apart from the others. It also partners with sites such as Huffington Post and the Daily Beast, both definitely not black sites, to show a bit of diversity in its coverage. Very entertaining site.

Okay, I’m not going to lie; I don’t do pilates. That doesn’t mean no one else does them, and even though it’s not my thing, I found the site Pilates For Fitness by Gina Jackson intriguing. She’s a certified Pilates trainer who looks like, well, she does Pilates, and her blog covers other health topics such as dieting, cleansing and yoga. It also has a very cool look and a standard commenting system; if you’re looking to get healthy and want more than learning about my new healthy eating ways, check it out because it deserves a lot more attention.

Are you looking to learn more about working a small business? If so you’ll want to check out Melinda Emerson’s blog and website Succeed As Your Own Boss. She has a lot of articles that pertain to running a small business and articles on how to make it easier to do business as well. She has a lot of bonafides including being a TV producer, and there’s a lot to learn here. And it’s a WordPress standard comment system; gotta love that.

Mavis Nong breaks the mold on Black Web Friday with her Attraction Marketing Online blog because she’s the first non-American, being from South Africa but living in England. I ended up deciding to include her here because she writes a lot of great stuff about, well, marketing online, and I felt that she deserved to be better known as well so she gets in. She adds talking about MLM to her list of ventures, though I’m not an MLM kind of guy, but I know some of you are so here’s a nice resource for you. One post in particular that I liked was when she talked about LinkedIn Marketing giving more of a tutorial for doing it right as opposed to when I talked about the reality of trying to market on LinkedIn. And for the second straight week, all the blogs I named here have the standard WordPress comment system; yay!

There you go, 4 sites to check out as we head into May; wow, it’s going to be May already! Enjoy the weekend and check these sites out.
 

Black Web Friday – 4/20/12

Could it be that time already? Yes, it’s time for another edition of Black Web Friday; yay! I don’t have anything else to add so let’s get right into it.

Black Web Friday

David Richeson is a young guy but his site 360° Success offers motivational posts based on something called “hermetic philosophy”. It’s all very uplifting stuff and personally, I don’t think enough people are checking it out. I found one of his posts titled The Power of Why a very interesting and short read that explains why we all need to probe more, ask those questions we might be afraid to ask because we’re afraid someone will look at us funny; great stuff. It’s a traditional blog commenting system but he moderates comments.

I met Danyelle Little on Twitter first and discovered her blog The Cubicle Chick from there, which is what got her listed on my 29 More Black Social Media Influencers post last year. In a way hers is a non-niche blog that’s more geared towards women than men, even though there are a lot of things there that men would also be interested in. She’ll talk tech and entertainment, then she’ll switch to child rearing and losing weight. Yet it’s all done in an entertaining way; I like her style. Standard blog commenting system.

I’m just going to be truthful here; many of you probably won’t want to visit this blog I’m highlighting, but I think you should. It’s written by Brother Jesse Muhammad and titled Brother Jesse Blog, and it’s about issues concerning black people, plain and simple. He doesn’t hide his loyalties or opinions on what he has to say, and that’s pretty refreshing to me. A post that particularly impressed me was on the topic of black on black violence because often when there’s a crime where a black person is killed by a white person someone else white eventually says “how come you don’t complain when a black person kills another black person?” Yes, it happens every single time and I’m tired of hearing it and Brother Jesse addressed it; good for him. This is a Blogger blog.

Oliver Willis‘ eponymously named blog is about politics, and I love his tagline: “Like Kryptonite to Stupid”. Occasionally he’ll write about his favorite football team (the team I hate most, being a Cowboys fan), but his political point of view is illuminating and he’s got the chops to back it up, whether you agree or disagree with what he has to say. A very intriguing piece he wrote in February concerned the Tea Party; check it out if you dare. lol

There you go, 4 diverse blogs for your review this week. Then again, these posts really are about diversity in more than one form, which is why I’m doing them. Enjoy your weekend folks!
 

Black Web Friday – 4/6/12

Yes, it’s the 12th week (thanks Carl) of Black Web Friday, and I think it’s going to be another great week of highlights. Since I wrote about Dr. King on Wednesday I don’t really have a lead in this week, so let’s get right to it.

Black Web Friday

Alexis Kenne’s website is named after him (I’ll use that “E” word later probably) and he talks about making money online; I’m trying to remember if I’ve featured anyone that specifically does that yet. He accepts guest posts, so if you’re looking for an opportunity to spread your fame his might be one of the places to go. I will say that he’s more of a facilitator on his blog than a content writer, since his last original post seems to be from December, but that doesn’t negate that there’s pretty good content there from others. As a matter of fact, one I know our buddy Beverly would like was on adding press releases to your marketing; I still need to work on that one. His blog offers both the traditional WordPress way of commenting and Facebook commenting.

I mess with her from time to time, but Evelyn Parham‘s eponymously named blog (see, told you I’d use it) talks a lot about eating healthier; actually, eating like a vegan, which we all know I’m not about to do. lol She was highlighted in my very first post on black bloggers in December 2010, and gets more love because she’s got a lot of content on this subject as well as staying healthy in general. She also deviates here and there and talks about internet stuff because, probably like me, it’s intriguing, and we just can’t stop ourselves sometimes. Of course I have to say I’m still not drinking any smoothies! It’s a traditional WordPress commenting blog.

Deeone Higgs writes a blog called Releasing Me Today and it’s a blog geared towards motivation and making you feel good; man, do I need a lot of motivation and good feelings these days. He calls himself a life apprentice and spirit encourager; can’t be mad at that. There’s a lot of nice content about life lessons and moving forward, and who couldn’t use more of that these days? Once again, traditional WordPress commenting system.

Kesha Brown writes the blog Confessions Of An Uncommon Chick and in a lot of ways reminds me of me and this blog. That’s because she writes about whatever she wants to write about and does very well in that vein. You might get a post on motivation or on movies or on internet stuff or even about her; nothing wrong with that. She states that her goal in life is to be happy; I’m feeling that. She uses a cool customized theme, but it’s a traditional WordPress blog commenting system; a 4-0 sweep this week!
 

Black Web Friday – 3/30/12

Week number 10 of Black Web Friday is here, and the series is progressing well. I have to admit that I’m not sure part of what I’m hoping for is working, that being to show other black people some of what’s out there as well as everyone else. This is important as well because there can’t be any true support of minority websites if the minorities being written about aren’t helping out in their own way. At least that’s how I see things.

Black Web Friday

Of course, the big news this week in the United States has been the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida and whether this was a true self defense case or the case of another young black man being gunned down for, well, being black. There’s a lot of America that, in this case, have rallied around the cause, but it’s always been there, whether it’s always resulted in people being killed or not.

A part of why I do this series is to show a humanity that many people may not know exists, as well as expose people to a different way that people think based on their background. If you’ve followed the series you’ll realize that I’ve shown some sites that are geared towards black perspectives, and others were you wouldn’t know the person was black unless you saw their picture. That’s all on purpose; no one person represents us all.

And with that, let’s get to this week’s listing.

I initially featured Justice Wordlaw’s eponymously named blog last June in my first series titled 21 Of The Top Black Social Media Influencers. At that time I said he talked about internet marketing but he really talks about business in general, as well as web stuff. I was pretty impressed that he wrote this piece recently, Entrepreneurship, Is It For You? Maybe Not> since I’ve been talking about marketing so much lately. Young guy moving forward with business on his Livefyre comment blog; check him out.

Torrey McGraw writes Grind and Thrive, which is a business motivational blog with a lot of positive posts and, something a little different, many posts and interviews with people in the music business. It’s very interesting reading and could help offer a different perspective to get your mind going in the right direction. He also just became a new father a couple of weeks ago and I almost broke my no Disqus blog rule but I didn’t. Still, if you don’t care go over and give him some love.

Also named after herself, Monique Neeley writes and talks about social media through a mix of writing and videos. She really keeps up to date on the latest trends in social media, with one of her latest posts about Pinterest, and she also has posts on internet marketing and has interviews as well. And she’s a military wife, so since I’m a military child I feel an affinity for her. She has a Disqus blog, just so you know.

Finally there’s Black Like Moi, which is kind of a combination blog/black news site. I say it that way because there are a ton of posts there on black issues, entertainment and politics, but every single post is formatted like a blog, waiting for comments that, well, most of the posts don’t have. Yet I still like the site because it does have lots of content, and it’s a standard blog commenting system which I believe makes it easy for anyone to participate on.

That’s all for this week; enjoy and have a great weekend.
 

Black Web Friday – 3/16/12

Welcome to week #9 of Black Web Friday, my once a week homage to websites owned by black companies, individuals, etc. If you want to know why I do this you can check out the very first Black Web Friday post.

Black Web Friday

This week I learned that one of the people I highlighted on my 2/24/12 post, Wayne Sutton, was the recipient of an award for being one of the top ten Blacks in Technology for 2011, awarded to him at the SXSW conference; way to go Wayne! It’s been a pretty good 12 months for Wayne as he was also featured last summer in a story by CNN on black people in technology and how they’re often overlooked. Seems my quest isn’t just my quest after all. 🙂

With that said let’s get on with the proceedings. The first person I want to highlight today is a lady named Abiola Abrams, whose website is called The Passionista Playbook. She talks about fashion, celebrities, relationships, and basically living your life passionately so that you can enjoy it more. And man, does she look like she’s enjoying life, and in a big way! It’s mainly geared towards women and yet some of what she puts out is interesting for men as well. It’s a Disqus blog, which means y’all will never see me commenting there, but it’s nice anyway.

Talk about another really cool blog, this one written by Thaddeus Howze, A Matter of Scale talks about blacks in science fiction, of all things, and science fiction in general. He’s also a big time fiction writer and an IT specialist and I’m surprised that my boys Mitch Allen and John Garrett haven’t found him yet. But I figure now that I’ve mentioned him they will and they’ll enjoy it a lot. I loved his article titled Is It Important To Show People Of Color In Science Fiction a bunch; of course my response would be “yes”. It’s a WordPress.com blog, which means I can comment, but if I forget to go back & look at it I’d never know if he responded to me or not.

The website Your Black World is another black news site that offers… well, let’s just say that it’s a little different from other news sites I’ve highlighted to this point. Most of the stories you’ll read here aren’t in regular news and the commentary doesn’t always support black people just because they’re black, which is spot on and definitely a fairer way to report and comment on the news. Frankly I think it’s very entertaining and thought provoking and I hope you check it out.

That’s it for today. If you visit any of these folks, don’t forget to tell them they got some love!