Guest Blogger - Charlene from GALTime.com It's Time

There is a new online magazine coming July 20th!! It is going to be great ladies!! You will HAVE to join as soon as it launches!
Charlene Bert has been great to work with and I am thrilled to be one of the contributors to her magazine. With all she has going on with the launch of this magazine, she still was gracious enough to write a guest post for me when I asked! CHECK IT OUT!!

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IT’S TIME…

www.GALTime.com

It sounds ridiculous, but my business partner Susan Krivelow and I literally had an ah-ha moment early this year, a strange sense of clarity in a world of chaos. The economy was tanking, dozens of friends were losing their jobs, and the collective mood was, well, crap. Susan and I had been talking about ‘doing something’. She had been toying with starting an online magazine with a mission and I had become hooked (OK, more like the 10-step-program, get-yourself-some-help sort of addicted) to Twitter. Originally, I used it to find and distribute news. See, Susan and I are broadcast journalists and distribute stories to media outlets nationwide. We are definitely old school—‘nuthin’ but the facts ma’am’ , triple check, never go with anything that you can’t prove 100%, type journalists. We stake our reputations on each and every story. We’ve spent our careers informing people, uncovering scandals and revealing the truth. But, we’re also new edge social media mavens and I had discovered an amazing community online through places like Facebook and Twitter. In the midst of turmoil and negativity, I found-- and became immersed in-- this generous group of people willing to help each other succeed, especially women. Within one conversation, we knew, IT WAS TIME. We merged the online magazine idea with the ‘it takes a village’ philosophy. The result:

The premise for GALTime.com -- A for women/by women community meant to help each other. How could we be different from all the other women’s sites out there? Think…Think! What if we could bring women real access to the experts we’ve met throughout our years but not in a ‘newsy’ way. Nope—instead we’d bring them video conversations to get real, down-home advice from the best of the best in all the areas that matter most: health, family, money, careers, DIY, home organization projects, cooking, travel, even car care tips…and more. We’re video vixens, so production is ‘our thing.’ We’d up the ante on the quality of video on the Web and, of course, provide compelling text as well. OK, we thought. Let’s see if the idea holds water. We reached out to a few of our contacts. Marquee women who could just as well be on the Today Show as GALTime. They said yes. A few more—OF COURSE. The next few, SIGN ME UP. WHY? Everyone wanted to help women. We knew we were onto something.

Next, we knew there was an AMAZING array of women online, many experts in their own rights who deserve to share their advice with as many gals as possible. So, of course, we tweeted! Twitter became (and still is) an invaluable resource. We met fast friends who couldn’t wait to share. Within weeks, we had DOZENS of contributors, including Sandy Jenney. (Thanks, Sandy!) Uh, oh… guess we’d better build a site!!! That was mid-winter. First step, as any girl knows, a good logo! I think Susan and I took two weeks designing it. Yes, we drove the poor logo company crazy. We hope you like the results. Next, the site. We’ve been through A LOT with the site, but we have moved heaven and earth to make sure it is something our members and contributors will be proud of… and you’ll get to see it next week… at our 7/20 launch!!


Our goal is to ‘pay it forward.’ We will provide an open community where we will help drive traffic back to the sites of all 50+ contributors. It will help them succeed and help members find everything they need in one place. We will profile charities and have plans to help our female soldiers. We will cover light topics like home design and fashion/beauty, but will also offer support for serious subjects like eating disorders and domestic violence. We will look for feedback and will evolve according to our members needs.
Managing content areas, learning technology, thinking about giveaways, marketing, writing, editing, and giving our fabulous contributors the attention they deserve. A lot of work? It’s like building a house and getting ready to give birth AT THE SAME TIME. Like an impending birth, however, you know it’s about to change your life, but it’s something you wouldn’t change for the world.
Check out our preview at www.galtime.com, sign up and get ready for an unforgettable journey. It’s time women help each other.

Charlene Bert