Link Love 2011 - A Site for People Who Love Blogging - #love2011

I'm very excited about The Love Project 2011... I've been faithfully repeating my affirmations:

The Love Project will be a great success!

I will spread love throughout the world!

I will give and receive love openly and abundantly!

I will get RICH!

....uh.. wait a minute? Get RICH? That seems like one of those... "which of these things is not like the other" kind of statements. (Unless, of course, we are talking about our latest heart-throb named Rich...) Wishing to get rich seems selfish, not loving...

But, hey, I'm human. It would be great to make money, too, while I'm spreading around the love. I don't expect to get rich, but I do hope to get another book out of this project, and let's face it, to sell a book, you have to promote it. And to promote your book, you have to get publicity.. and that's where blogging comes in. (Sef-Promotion Side note: if you're looking for a quick read about a woman who makes a lot of embarrassing blunders in dating, check out The Laptop Dancer Diaries.)

Now I don't expect to get rich from selling my books or blogging, but some people are very successful at it, so this year I am working on getting more serious about increasing my blog traffic.

Well, one of the sites I stumbled across while looking for love websites (it turns out I'm not the only one using the #love2011 on Twitter) was GatherSuccess Link Love 2011. Though this isn't a site about love, it's a site that will help bloggers out by spreading the "link love." The site looks like it has some useful information about how bloggers can really monetize their blogs.

So, if you are a blogger, or a blogger wannabe, first of all... join the Love Project by subscribing to my site and watching for weekly prompts. I will add a link on my blog roll for you. And then check out GatherSuccess for some additional ideas for monetization.

This is going to be the year we are going to love and GET RICH! YAY!

Funny video about Manscaping

You’re watching A Woman’s Perspective on Manscaping. See the Web's top videos on AOL Video

As you probably have surmised, I'm a cyber-junkie. I read lots of blogs which send me to other cool websites and blogs and I could spend all day Web-surfing. And every time I come to an interesting post or site that has anything to do with dating or love, I think to myself: I should blog about THAT!

Well, today, thanks to a sweet comment she left on my blog, I've been perusing "girl nutkin in the BA"... quite an interesting blogger, who also is participating in the reverb10 project! And, of course, when I saw she had a post about "dating," I had to check it out and I found a couple of funny videos, including this one on "manscaping".

Of course, I'm way too pure and innocent to write about such personal topics on this blog, but figured I'm overdue for a funny video, so thought I'd pass this along!

December Game: Best blog posts of 2010 about love or relationships

Gamers, Bloggers, Readers, and People who love Love,

My post from yesterday reminded me how much I enjoyed games, and I often like to make up games at the beginning of the month to match my goals. So, it being December 1rst, and since I've had a goal to find great blogs and posts that are about love and relationships, I decided to host a December game about finding the best, most loving, inspirational, blog posts of 2010.

Here's how it works:

* Between now and December 20th, submit in the comments a link to a blog post you've read or written about love or relationships. If you have any trouble with submitting a comment, feel free to email me at yvette.francino@gmail.com.

* Bloggers should submit a link to the post from their own blogs! Don't be shy! Just pick one of your posts that you feel is particularly poignant or inspirational. If you can't decide, submit a couple.

* I will compile these and create a poll so that readers can vote for their favorite between December 20-31.

* On December 31, I'll announce the Best Blog Post in 2010 About Love and Relationships (based on votes.)

* The person who submitted the entry will win a wonderful prize of the best selling humor memoir about love and relationships: The Laptop Dancer Diaries - A Mostly True Story About Finding Love Again.

* I'll go ahead and compile the blog posts into a free eBook that can be shared. This will provide hyperlinks and visibility to all your wonderful blogs and spread love throughout the world! Yay!

Help me by retweeting or posting on Facebook or to your networks and let's make this a great end of the year "Love project!"

10 Best Love Blogs for Women

It's time for me to start getting serious about promoting The Laptop Dancer Diaries. Self-promotion feels a little weird, but I know it must be done.

I was telling my friend, Rebecca Mullen of Altared Spaces, that in order to get visibility into your blog, one strategy is to find others that are blogging about similar things.

There are several blog catalogs and different methods for doing this, but one easy way is simply to google. In my case, I googled "Love Blogs" and quickly found an article at All Women' Stalk called: 10 Best Love Blogs for Women!

What a treasure chest of great blogs and love stuff! Well, the problem, of course, is then you find so much great information that you spend all day reading and get distracted and never end up blogging yourself.

So, I'm just going to take one resource at a time and try to blog as much as possible about "All things LOVE" and today the resource I'll point you to is All Women' Stalk.

First, the title... The play on words is Totally Cool!! I much prefer "All Women's Talk" to "All Women Stalk" as the FaceBook Fan Page has it listed -- but Talk/Stalk... OK we do both. I hate to think of myself as a "stalker," but... I suppose there are times when I've been infatuated enough to fall into that mode. One of my friends once had this great quote about stalking. It was something like: "The difference between a secret admirer and a stalker depends on whether or not the object of their affection wants their attention." I'm going to assume any person that I'm interested in would like that I'm interested in them, and thus absolve myself from any "stalker guilt."

In any case, I perused the site and it looks like a good women's eZine. The main menu shows categories for Fashion, Beauty, Celebrities, Love, Dieting, Wellness, and Lifestyle. I, of course, honed right in on the "Love" category, 'cause, again, I'm preparing to be the Love Know-it-All. Under Love, there is Dating Tips, Breakup Tips, Sex Tips, Relationships, and Wedding.

All of that is interesting to me, so... where to begin? Well the first article that is up today in the Love Category is: Top 12 Seduction Tricks That Always Work on Guys. Hmmm! I think I could definitely benefit from reading that. In the sequel to The Laptop Dancer Diaries, I could try and use a new seduction trick on each man-of-the-month! Actually, since the sequel is going to be mostly untrue, this is sounding like a very achievable goal! (But, of course, I just MAY need to do a little research along the way...)

Exposing Yourself

The other day an email was sent out by to my "Rebuilder" network by a fellow "Rebuilder", Matt, advertising "Resingled a Divorce Blog" , a male perspective of the newly divorced life. I read it with interest. Relationships are my favorite topic, and, of course, my own blog is about being "resingled". That being said, besides being a female perspective (and 5 years past divorce), I'm not nearly as open as Matt is in his blog about thoughts around sex. Not only are my thoughts about sex ever-changing, it's a very confusing topic. And then there's the fact that sex is very personal. Describing how I feel about it on the internet feels a little bit like posting a nude photo of yourself. It's something intimate. It's kind of like one of those things that you work your way into as you get to know someone.

A male friend once told me a story about a woman he'd met from match.com. She was from out of state. He's a commitmentphobe and has this habit of meeting out-of-staters...Ms. Utah, Ms. Florida, Ms. California, he calls them. Anyway, he flew Ms. Something...I can't remember the state...out for the weekend. They had a nice day, strolling around Denver, and went back to his house (by the way he has this GORGEOUS house...) She "freshens up" and when he comes down to his entertainment room, she is lying nude on his couch. She proceeds to ask if he wants to see her "man in the boat". This, apparently, is a euphemism for asking if he wants to examine her female genitalia. She spreads her legs ready to give him a guided tour to her "boat" and the "man" within.

My friend, who I'll call "Hugh", since he I think he fashions himself another Hugh Hefner, was not prepared for this. He certainly has been around the block a few times, but never had he so abruptly been thrust into this kind of surreal sexual scene. Ms. Out-of-Stater was confused by his lack of eagerness to explore. It seems that other men have jumped (literally) at such an opportunity. I mean, it does sound like something that only happens in porn movies, and I guess her body (I'm not sure if that would be considered her "dock") was playboy material. But still "Hugh" was ready to run for the hills. Where's the mystery? Where's the anticipation? This almost sounds like a gynecology appointment, which I can tell ya, is not that sexy!

"Hugh" once advised me that if I was going to write very personal "stuff" in my blog, that I should never let anyone I'm romantically interested in, read it. He said that's like going "Open Kimono". And I suppose, the more personal it is, it can even be like exposing your "man in the boat" prematurely. On one hand, it feels wonderful to be able to express your innermost thoughts, especially when someone validates those thoughts. You get a feeling that you are not alone. Someone else has these fears, these insecurities, these hopes, these joys. But part of intimacy is to discover these things over time and together. You share a little, he shares a little, a touch, a smile, a bad mood, an embarrassing moment, a fear, a quirk, a hug, a kiss... let it grow. Don't rush to get to the "man in the boat" before you've even had the joys of experiencing the little stuff. There is nothing like those tingles you get from the light touch from a man you have a huge crush on. Though the ultimate fantasy is to have mind-numbing sex, if he whips out his penis and says "Wanna do it?" your infatuation is most likely going to morph to disgust.

There's a lot I'd like to say in response to the entries in Matt's blog, and I know he's looking for comments, but a comment is not enough to give justice to my female perspective about sex and singlehood. I would say that though it may be closer to "typically female" it's unique in that every one of us is different in how we feel about this topic. I commend Matt for his openness in sharing his thoughts. Though some I agree with and others I don't, it confirms my belief that we are all different, and discovering our inner thoughts (without necessarily exposing our "man in the boat") is how we get closer to love. Perhaps that's why reading blogs can be so entertaining. You get a glimpse into someones "real" personality and you feel a sense of closeness to them. But when it comes to "real" relationships, it must be a journey that you're walking together side by side. Whether your goal is sex or love, enjoy the small steps of intimacy along the way.