Health blogs provide a port in life's storms

Local bloggers find safe haven for sharing their health battles

11:57 AM CST on Tuesday, February 26, 2008

By KATHLEEN GREEN / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
dmngreen@sbcglobal.net

When Kathleen Weaver got her Type 2 diabetes diagnosis five years ago, she started the fight of her life. The disease that took her father wasn't about to get the best of her.

Denise McCallum of Fort Worth (left) talks to multiple sclerosis support group co-founders Teresa Wynne (center) and Tracy Brinton at Fielder Road Baptist Church in Arlington. "

Denise McCallum of Fort Worth (left) talks to multiple sclerosis support group co-founders Teresa Wynne (center) and Tracy Brinton at Fielder Road Baptist Church in Arlington.

"Living with him terminally ill for two years because of the diabetes and cardiovascular complications, it scared the hell out of me," says Ms. Weaver, who just turned 48. "That kind of slapped me in the face."

She was determined to live well past the age when her father died: 48. So she made it her mission to educate herself about the illness. The Internet became a trove of the latest research, advances and medicines.

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But her biggest source of help was a blog. Like many other Americans living with chronic conditions, she turned to faceless friends for support and information.

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Mom Blog Network™ Releases Dynamic Widget and New Tools for The Mom Blogger Community

Providing the latest technology for bloggers to self-promote and reach more readers by making it easier to share content and grow viral audience.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 12, 2008 -- Mom Blog Network™ (www.momblognetwork.com) is proud to introduce the latest developments for its members: a dynamic, customizable widget and a multi-platform 3rd party blog integration tool. Both of these new features are designed to give mom bloggers additional opportunities to promote their posts across the web, reaching more readers and driving traffic.

The widget was created to be an important channel for extended network syndication as it dynamically pulls in the "hottest" headlines from MomBlogNetwork.com and displays them in a stylish sidebar module. "We thought it would be great to give all bloggers and other site owners the chance to conveniently offer their readers the latest headlines and links to a broad and diverse range of mom bloggers," says Andra Davidson, co-founder and president of MothersClick.com, the social network and parenting site which operates the network. "Our motto is: 'What moms are talking about' and, in the true spirit of community, the widget really helps our members distribute their content more widely."

Our motto is: 'What moms are talking about' and, in the true spirit of community, the widget really helps our members distribute their content more widely.

The integration tool was developed with the active blogger in mind. It provides the elegance of inline promotion through the simplicity of cut-and-paste, easily adding some code to any existing blog. This step is required only once and, thereafter, the system automatically creates a "voting" button which appears on every new post.

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