Just saw this over at Caterina Fake‘s blog. So many great points…

This post may seem a bit contradictory at first, considering the fact that I’ve built two successful businesses based in large part on attracting lots of eyeballs to the sites and then capitalizing on the numbers of readers they bring in. Yes, my newest venture churns out gobs of content aimed directly at striking while the iron is hot — but we haven’t (completely) gone the way of the content factories, the SEO-driven sites and pageview hungry blogs.

We still believe in quality bringing in quantity.

There’s too much buzz now about quantity: How many pageviews? How many uniques? How many articles? How many Twitter followers? How many Facebook fans?

These numbers that have such importance in our world can be — and usually are — all manufactured. Pageviews increased by teasers, articles churned out based on search-friendly keywords, Twitter and Facebook followers skyrocketed with promotions or help from ‘friends’… yet are any of them truly providing a real return? At the end of the day, the artificial numbers are doing a huge disservice to the businesses we’re creating and the brands we’re partnering with.

As with everything, the eco-system needs balance to thrive…and this shift in quantity over quality is throwing it all off. And, I say if it continues down this path, we’ll see the bubble burst just like it did in the early 2000′s…when I saw 90% of the companies I worked with vanish. Different circumstances, similar problem.

So what if? What if the majority of the bloggers, publishers, vloggers, etc. stopped trying to manufacture more views? What if we didn’t drown posts in purely SEO-friendly drivel, create videos with mediocre at best content — and what if we put more focus on quality? And what if the advertisers focused on a balance of quality and quantity? Would we see the numbers we want and actually have them mean something — providing quality returns for us and our partners?

I say yes. I’ve seen it in action, I’ve seen it work for my projects and a good handful of others. It may take a village to get this eco-system back on track, but it’ll be worth it.

Ten years ago, if I had to fly across the country for a meeting — and to New York no less — you could bet on it that I’d add at least a day or two to enjoy some time in a fun city.

But lately? My trips to New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Austin…wherever…last about 24 hours.

On Tuesday morning I flew to New York, got in at 7pm, checked into my hotel and crashed. I woke up Wednesday morning, went to my meetings and hopped back on a plane to get home. Am I exhausted? Yes. But these guys were waiting for me at home, so that’s reason enough to fly across the country for 24 hours.

I can’t think of a better reason.

If you haven’t been watching the first couple of episodes of Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” on ABC, start watching. The famed British chef — one of my favorite Food Network stars — is making waves in the small town of Huntington, West Virginia — named the unhealthiest town in America — and across the U.S.

While critics question his tactics and commentary on the state of our country and food, one thing’s for sure — Oliver is revealing some pretty scary and indisputable details with the series. In this past Friday’s episode, students at the local elementary school were unable to identify basic vegetables — like potatoes and tomatoes — and chose to eat ‘chicken nuggets’ even after the chef demonstrated them being made from chicken carcass and left over skin.

My boys and I will be watching each week. Will you?

Catch up on episodes on ABC.com and tune in on Friday nights.

Being a single mom can be tough, but I’ve done a pretty good job of adjusting and am managing my role as parent and primary breadwinner pretty well, if I don’t say so myself. When my friends get in arguments with their husbands and tell me, “I wish I was like you and didn’t have to deal,” I usually agree. I’m not the kind of single mom that gets angry and shoots back a tirade on how hard single motherhood can be.

I’ve dated here and there, and so far, no one has knocked my socks off. I’m happy being single and have some good guys in my life that I can have fun with on occasion, without a big commitment. It works for my life which currently is focused on my boys and my career.

But, I need a fake boyfriend. I’m sort of sick of being the 5th wheel. I spend more than 50% of my leisure time with two of my closest (married) friends and their husbands. I love all four of them and it really isn’t an issue for the group that I’m single, but it would be nice to not be the odd-woman-out.

My idea of the perfect non-mate? He needs to be funny but not obnoxious, smart but not a know-it-all, chatty but not too chatty. Someone who can go with me and my coupled friends to movies, out to dinner and — is this too much to ask? — vacations. OK, that might be a bit much.

Got suggestions on how to find my fake boyfriend? Lemme know.

Growing up, I dealt with my fair share of “mean girls” but never had huge issues with bullying or teasing. So, I never gave the issue much thought with my children, until about two years ago. 

…full post at LAMomsBlog.com

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Being an east coast transplant, we typically stay in Los Angeles for Thanksgiving and opt to head back east for Christmas, so my house has become the hub for friends who live too far away from family — we spend the Thanksgiving holiday together. It’s grown over the years — now it’s not unusual to have at twenty-plus friends and their children over on Thanksgiving enjoying a fun day together and the feast.

I’ve cooked dozens of Thanksgiving meals–and have tried countless recipes. I’m still deciding on the menu for this year, so in the meantime I thought I’d share my three favorite menus from Thanksgiving’s past.

Read the menus at GLOSS…

I’m sick of the whole Baby Einstein refund drama that’s been the buzz for the past week. Here’s why:

Don’t be a pushover–be confident in the choices you make as a parent. Don’t let others make you feel bad about those choices. Especially when we’re talking about puppets and classical music.

Comment over at mamaGLOSS: http://mygloss.com/babyeinstein