Mighty love, and other things.

Let’s just talk straight for a minute or two here:

Blogging as a career can be really wonderful. There are days when I feel overwhelmed in the best possible way by the freedom, the creativity, the opportunities for mistakes and small triumphs, all equally and all on my own terms.

But sometimes being a blogger can be tricky. First there’s the awful name to contend with, and then there’s everything else. Since I decided to accept sponsors on my blog last spring, I’ve had to make difficult decisions about my blog as a business. I’m really proud of the team of independent sponsors that support and grow this site, but I’ve also made some mistakes. I’ve turned down opportunities that maybe I shouldn’t have, I’ve accepted others that didn’t feel quite right. I still feel iffy about affiliate links. There’s not a manual for figuring out how to make your blog a small business–or maybe the trouble is that there are too many–in the end it feels mostly like trial and error. As I’m figuring this out, I have been incredibly, unbelievably grateful to other blogging women who I’ve met–women like Natalie and Becca and Cara–who are willing to talk about blogs as businesses. We need more conversations about this sort of thing.

But lately I’ve been thinking that in addition to figuring out ways to make blogs function financially, we need more conversation about how to make blogs function socially. In the rush to figure out a way to grow a blog into a business, what sometimes gets left out of the equation is how to use a blog as a way to make change, to do something good.

Yesterday, my dear friend Natalie partnered with Go Mighty and launched a #mightylove project: a small-scale campaign to encourage women to compliment other women on social media all with the goal of raising money to donate to a battered women’s shelter. And I thought: YES.

So after all that blathering: here’s a little encouragement to write a nice thing or two about women on the internet who inspire you, who move you in some way, who just seem to get one thing (or lots of things) right. Tag your compliment with the hashtag #mightylove. When there are 500 compliments, $500 gets donated. All the details are here.

Full disclosure: I can be reluctant to join movements like this one. They can seem clichéd at best and insipid at worst, but that’s an awfully cynical perspective. Let’s spread some positivity on the internet, friends. Let’s raise some money for good. Right now. We’ll figure everything else out later.