Like most of us, when I’ve got an issue pertinent to my stage of life, such as a medical or financial issue, or when I’m in need of advice concerning fashion and beauty, my first choice is to go to “someone like me,” who understands deep in her bones what I’m going through.
In fact, if I had enough time and expertise — as well as life experience and smarts — I’d just go figure it out myself. But alas, I’ve only had time to fit in one doctorate into my already-overbooked life. There just hasn’t been the time to get the medical, legal and financial degrees — nor to go to work for one of the top women’’s magazines where I would be privy to the inside scoop on every new cosmetics product. Go figure.
So, to make a long story short, I promised you in my last blog post that I would fill you in on the exciting new offerings that are about to be made available to members of the VN community. You will recall that we have been on the hunt for a way to keep all of the benefits of our beloved community free to members, including all the conversations, blogs and our popular editorial newsletters, while figuring out a way to pay for the costs associated with managing an online community.
I said we would settle for no less than a win-win. In speaking with many of you, as well as going through our own thought processes, we realized that the logical extension of our core mission would be to step in with in-depth reports on subjects pertinent to women 50+ but ignored or underrated by others. We would retain physicians and experts in health, beauty, finances, relationships and more who are also in our unique stage of life. And we would make summaries of their findings available to you for free, and if you want to learn more, make it easy for you to purchase in-depth reports at a fair price.
Drumroll, please! I am pleased to let you know that the first wave of such guides written by “women like us” — but with the specialized credentials pertinent to the subject matter — are rolling off the presses as we speak, and will be available to Vibrant Women 50+ starting next week. Watch your inbox for the announcement, as well as the opportunity to order any (or all!) of the reports that interest you.
The titles of our first round of whitepapers speak for themselves, and not surprisingly, were inspired by many of the most popular conversation topics in our community:
- 2011 Skin Care and Cosmetic Product Guide for Women Over 50: 150 Anti-Aging Cosmetics and Beauty Products that Work
- Recognizing and Treating Menopause Symptoms: A Woman’s Guide to Managing Hot Flashes, Weight Gain, Mood Swings, Depression, Vaginal Dryness, Night Sweats, and Other Menopause Symptoms
- Cosmetic Procedures and Cosmetic Surgery After 50: Everything a Woman Needs to Know, and of course
- Great Sex After 50: Getting Your Mind, Body, and Relationship Ready for Pleasure
The topics ought to ring a few of your bells. And just as compelling are the stellar group of experts — all women 50+ — who we retained to author the reports. So, in my next blog post, I will share who our first wave of experts are, along with their impressive credentials: four women who would be “just like me” — if only I’d had time for those couple of extra degrees.
ReginaLove, that is SO great to hear! As for soy, it may help with menopause symptoms -- it it controversial. The best way to use soy is in the form of whole fermented soy foods (miso, tempeh, tamari and natto). Non-fermented soy foods such as soy mi
Agreed. I never thought I was vain until I had a mastectomy at age 39. I was devastated and told the doc I wanted to wake up with implants. Now at age 60, I am lopsided and wondering if I was just avoiding the inevitable. You get what you get and you
Sounds very interesting.
Spike, you are awesome! Love your perspective, thanks for sharing.
Carol, I prefer my chimes, easier on the ears, hahaha, thanks VN…TRACK
There is no woman like me!! LOl, LOL Trust me, my friends will attest to that. As for those titles, I cannot relate.
I am interested in making a difference in the world (I do that by counseling abused women), and don’t read women’s magazines; one more tip about makeup, diet, exercise, losing 20 lbs in 2 days……..yuck.
I am an expert in the subject of verbal and physical abuse…..1 in 3 women on our planet are living like that and every 9 seconds a woman is assaulted.
I grew up abused by a violent mother, physcially and emotinally abused, never knew my father (met him when I was 32), extreme poverty: no phone, car, refrigerator, bathtub/shower. Molested by a drunken neighbor, had my hand held over an open fire by another drunken neighbor (woman, ick)
i took the only way out…….joined the Women’s Army Corps, and was a sargeant at age 19 , then married the original abuser (mother) and tried to fix the past….after 36 years of abuse I found the courage to get a divorce,
then was met with spiritua abuse; voted out of membership by my church on my birthday (Septgember 29th five years ago): http://www.churchabusepoetrytherapy.com was the beauty that came from the “ashes” of this debacle; one in which I fought for 18 months to stop the “pastor” of disaster…from “counseling” other women.
http://www.soulpoetry.org is my site for my book, Sanctuary of the Soul (poems of anguish, healing, hope, comfort and celebration), endorsed by Elie Wiesel, Wayne Dyer, Nikki Giovanni, Drs Larry Dossey, Ellen Langer, Alice Miller, et al.
Won a scholarship at age 61 because of what I wrote about my life and am a freshman. For me (ONLY speaking for me) those topics mentioned, I cannot relate to…..went thru menopause without a twinge…..no lines or wrinkles on my skin yet (genetics), my libido is the same as when I was 20.
Just my thoughts……..
Wow — I am sitting in puzzlement regarding your ‘skin care’ and ‘cosmetic procedures’. Is this a sales-pitch? It sort of feels that way. I suppose the only true way to know is to wait for the first edition. Sounds like you put a lot of hard work and thought into this. I’m with Track on chime swinging and Alicia who has stood the test of time, and strong, solid choices in her life. Maybe I’m missing your point?? Orrr — there is room for all of us??
Hi, sounds good to me. I also know that I’m unique, but I recognize the conundrum of being unique while sharing more rather than less in common with other women….well, not just women, actually, but every other human being.
I will say, as a veteran of several INvoluntary surgeries, that I will never understand cosmetic surgery. ALL surgery is dangerous and fraught with unanticipated consequences, whether complications from anesthesia, infection or whatever. But, we’re all adults here and capable of weighing our own desires and risks.
Thanks! MM
Hi Maggie et al! Thanks so much for taking the time to express your concern. All the features you know and love about VibrantNation.com will continue to be available to you free of cost, and you can easily opt out of any sales pitches regarding our new paid offerings. (Guidance on how to do this will be introduced simultaneously to the offerings, themselves.) That said, the topics we’re leading with were selected based on the subject matter women 50+ search out most frequently on the web. And yes, while we will have free summaries available, we sincerely hope women in our community (and beyond) will want to purchase one or more of our reports because A) These are subjects specially written for and by women in our demographic on subjects that it is hard to find objective advice about elsewhere and B) It will help us underwrite the costs of operating our community–particularly as we continue to grow. You have expressed concern that this is a “sales pitch”–so here’s the answer in a nutshell. We don’t expect you to need or be attracted to every topic we address (but thankfully yes, there is room for all of us!) And even if you are attrtacted to a particular topic, we aren’t selling you on what to do. Rather, we are presenting you with the latest, best intelligence so that you can make your own choices. I hope this clears things up and that sooner rather than later, we will be issuing a whitepaper on a topic that you will be glad to pay for!
Carol, This sounds interesting and I look forward to future topics. I hope it works out so that we can continue having free Vibrant conversations on all sorts of topics.
Hi Carol,
From the start of my adventure with VN, I knew that everything that got posted and everyone who felt compelled to put their concerns, experiences etc, etc, etc was contributing to the bigger picture. The bigger picture is clear now. I truly thought that the advertisements that pop out from our peripheral vision was how you paid for this. That and having topics started that are a plethora of experience from our group. I have enjoyed coming here, from reading to posting, but with the economy the way it is, I will not be able to “buy” any more info.
Here’s wishing you the best in this edeaver.
MG
OK then, thanks for the explanation and freedom of choice again!!! How does one get ‘retained’??? Is there an application???
Hi All,
Thanks for sharing your support as well as your questions. Again, I want to reassure everybody that all the features you know and love about Vibrant Nation will remain free and intact. We, too, had been hoping that advertising and sponsorships would produce enough income to underwrite our community, but as it turns out, that model very rarely works– the vast majority of sites are not supported by advertising revenue, regardless of subject matter. Our addition of a paid component, the reports, is very cutting-edge, and we hope it works, too. We don’t expect everybody to be able to or want to purchase the reports, but we are hoping that enough of us do for us to have a win-win for us all.
In terms of being retained to author one of the paid reports, we have our first group of reports already ready to go. We welcome your ideas as we go forward and produce guides on more topics of interest to you, and hope it will be clearer what we’re looking for once the first wave of guides is launched. Meanwhile, it will be business as usual around here for the next few weeks, as we put the finishing touches on our new features debut. We’ll keep you posted!