Whew, I can’t believe it’s already been three whole years since I started this blog! This post marks the three-year anniversary of the site and highlights where the blog is headed for 2013.
In January 2010, I created Happy Black Woman as a personal blog to document my journey of going natural and becoming self-employed. Today, it has grown into a supportive online community that encourages women to live their ideal lives. Here, we have positive, affirming conversations about personal development, self-care, relationships, business, lifestyle, travel and what it means to be free.
Incidentally, it’s also been three years since I quit my job and started working for myself.
I’ve shared my entrepreneurship journey with you through personal experience posts as well as topical, how-to posts like my how to start a side hustle series. It’s been incredible to engage with women who are on the same path and feeling the same way throughout the process. But those are just a few highlights from the blog thus far.
In the past three years:
- I’ve published over 300 posts here on HBW focused on personal development, relationships, business and lifestyle.
- I’ve hosted seven HBW Happy Hours in four different cities (DC, Charlotte, Atlanta, NYC), getting out from behind the computer to meet you.
- I’ve taught several online and in-person workshops and seminars on resetting your life and starting your own business.
- I blogged throughout my month-long, bucket-list trip to Europe, publishing a travel diary that brought in the most pageviews on HBW ever. The series also inspired many readers to plan their own solo trips abroad!
- I published an ebook, 31 Days to Reset Your Life: A Practical Guide to Personal Transformation that’s sold hundreds of copies and impacted so many lives.
- I launched the official HBW t-shirt! If you have one, I’d love to feature you on the site wearing it with a big smile
Thank you so much for being here.
I appreciate you taking the time to read and share the posts here. I especially love hearing about how you have used the information to improve your lifestyle, change your mindset or even launch your own business Thank you to the many ladies who have been here with me since the beginning of my blog and business - Halona, Zakiya, Danielle, Paula, Amanda, Nicole - just to name a few who are on my heart today. I so appreciate everyone’s support and love as HBW has grown, not just as a blog but as a lifestyle for me personally.
I’ve become a much happier, more fulfilled person over the past few years as a result of my own personal development strategies, but also through the inspiration I’ve received from YOU. From the stories you’ve shared with me both publicly and privately over email, on social media or at our happy hours. My eyes still well up in tears (like right now) when I go through some of my emails and read about what the women in our community go through on the path to our own happiness.
Through it all, the biggest value of having this blog is that I’ve been able to connect with so many amazing women around the world. I even got to meet a lovely HBW reader when I was in Barcelona, Spain last year!  There are so many stories you’ve told me over the past three years that I want to share with the entire HBW community. Which is why I’m so excited about the following announcement…
The Happy Black Woman blog is now accepting guest posts! Â
This year, I will be introducing some new voices to our readers for the first time. I’m excited to invite guest contributors to share information and inspiration with our online community of over 2,000 email subscribers, 7,000 Twitter followers, 16,000 Facebook fans and an average of 50,000 pageviews per month. Click here to read the guidelines that outline standards for guest posts and how to submit your best articles for the site.
Thank you for an amazing three years. I hope you’ll stick around for a few more! Over the next year, I’ll be focusing on providing more value to you through even higher-quality content about living your ideal life. Look for more in-depth posts about:
- starting and succeeding in your business (I’ve been dying to share what’s worked for me over the last three years and how I’ve been able to stay in business this long – which has surprised even me)
- traveling abroad by yourself (I will likely embark on another BIG trip coming up in April, fingers crossed and lips sealed for now until everything is finalized)
- enjoying the single life by dating without expectations (this was one of my biggest lessons from 2012 that has made the dating process so much more enjoyable)
- living a minimalist lifestyle (I’ve continued to go without my own apartment since August 2011 and it’s been amazing for me financially and otherwise)
- maintaining a set of self-care practices that work for you (I’ve learned a lot about my body and energy through my mostly-vegetarian diet and meditation over the past year or so, definitely want to share more basic steps that are simple to keep up with for us non-health nuts!)
In the meantime, I’ll turn it over to you for today’s three-part question:
How long have you been reading the HBW blog? Which post(s) has been your favorite so far? What would you like to see more of on the site this year?
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Hi. I just found your website through my facebook page and I like what I read. I am interested in reading more. I too am working on being self employed but have endured a lot of part time jobs that aren’t steady, not enough assignments that I can see for me to accept as well as other problems. But I still persevere. I am hoping however to possibly send you guest posts as well. If you could let me know what I need to do for that I do appreciate it and I am also going to look to see if you have a posted submission policy.
Read my latest blog post…Questioning the Use of Traditional Publishers versus Indie, Self Publishers?