HispanicBusiness

She moved to Nashville from her native Miami with the intention of living there a few years.

Twenty years later, she is still there.

Her isolation from other Hispanics prompted her to start www.bilingualintheboonies.com, a now-discontinued
website that was a cry for the friendship of fellow Latinas interested in sharing stories, cultures, traditions, recipes—anything Hispanic.

Her early involvement there led to connections to other Latinas, which led to TikiTiki.

Yap, Yap, Yap

"TikiTiki—it means a chattering noise—'yap, yap, yap,'" she laughs, explaining that many Latinas are great talkers, and the blog site was intended to provide an outlet for socializing.

Ms. Weir is still getting her feet wet in the blogging business, attending conferences on how to grow her blogging "brand" and how to attract advertisers.

She currently only has a few hundred followers of the blog, but she is working hard to grow the business.

"What we do is curate content," she explains. "I don't have the money to pay writers, so I'll ask if I can republish material that has been written."

Her effort has resulted in a few affiliate advertisers, which provide income for the site on a click-through basis. She has been building a following for a little more than a year and plans to work hard to increase
traffic (and revenue) over time.

The connections she has made through "Latina Bloggers" has been invaluable to her.

"I was operating blindly before," Ms. Weir explains. "I reached out, looking for other Latina bloggers. I knew they were out there.

"From online connections a few of us got in touch," she adds. "We share information with each other, along with advice and media kits. A lot of resources."

She covers a broad range of topics, but they are all united by her mission statement, which in the best tradition of "Spanglish," has a bilingual flair: "Stories with cultura, color and sabor."

Among the recent postings at Tiki-Tiki: "Inspirations from a Baby Abuelita Doll," "How to Create Thanksgiving Placards," and "Are You Taking Care of Your Elderly Parents?"

"We like to feature Spanish proverbs— called 'dichos,'" says Ms. Weir.

She says the site will also often feature an inspirational photo or quote.

Highly Specific Niche

Monique Frausto, who lives in Los Angeles, Calif., went after a highly specific niche when she launched www.curvesandchaos.com, a fashion blog site for plus-sized customers.

Ms. Frausto decided early on that fashion would be the focus of her writing, but she found that conventional clothing designs were not the right focus.

"I thought, 'Why am I writing about something I don't even wear?'" she said. "I like writing about curvy fashion. All my friends think of themselves as curvy."

To help launch her career, Ms. Frausto established a network of Latino bloggers.

"I could not find other Latino bloggers at first," says Ms. Frausto. "Sitting behind a computer can be a very lonely world. You feel a bit lost out there."

One of her first contacts was with Ms. Flores, whom she met at a conference in New York.

"I felt like I knew her forever," she says now, adding that it was wonderful to find other Latinas who also are bloggers.

While her blog site is focused on fashion, Ms. Frausto writes about other topics as well. She and a number of other Latina Bloggers were recently invited to the sneak preview of a new Eva Longoria documentary on the accomplishments and impacts Hispanics have in shaping the United States, "Latinos Living the American Dream."

Common Threads

That is the common theme you find among all "Latina Bloggers": The challenge of straddling two cultures and carving out a successful business in a new medium.

Each is focusing on a different audience segment; each has different ethnic roots; and each struggles with the challenge of balancing their heritages with the social values and mores of the United States.

They all work together toward success in blogging, even though several of them are competing for the same audience.

They are all very proud to be Latina; equally proud to be Americans.

And all are well-versed in "Spanglish."