How “Betty la Fea” became the beautiful “Ugly Betty”

As a lover of Latin soaps I am very pleased to say that our telenovela culture has finally made a cross over to the Anglo world with Ugly Betty.

As a young child growing up in Venezuela I used to watch telenovelas with my grandmother. This was the neighborhood entertainment. We would always share impressions and comments with the butcher, the manicurist, the florist and other people that would make up the community. This was a very important part of our culture. The cliffhangers and final chapters were discussed at length for several days. You could feel the excitement building up as the novela of the moment reached its agonizing end.

In 2002 a little not so known novela “Betty la Fea” made its discreet entrance on Telemundo. It was produced in Colombia and it told the story of a very unattractive but clever girl that was hired by a modeling agency. This broke the standards of traditional telenovelas where the heroine is usually beautiful and her only aspiration is to be married. The show caused a worldwide uproar.

Crossing over from the Latin world to the Anglo world is almost impossible for a telenovela. Now with the huge expansion of the Latino community in the US we are now experiencing a whole cultural exchange with the advent of pop stars like Shakira, Juanes and glamorous movies stars like Salma Hayek. We now have a novela to call our own that is equally appealing to the audience. Ugly Betty made its appearance September 2006. With America Ferrera as the star. The show is entertaining and has made the crossover painless. In fact interestingly enough, “Betty” is also a novela fan.

Yesterday I watched my evening novela with my friend. She had never seen a Spanish show before. She was so delighted she now wants her daughter to watch. By the way, did I ever tell you it is the best way to learn Spanish!!!!

¡Hablamos luego!

Your “NEW” community

The “WWW” is now your new neighborhood!
Here is how it works: Imagine you move into a new neighborhood and you open a new bookstore. You want to establish a community presence to sell your books and to get known.

So you begin to circulate and promote yourself by joining a networking group. Slowly but surely you start meeting people.

You patronize some of the stores for your personal needs, like the local market, the bank and others. As you go along, you invite people over to visit and take a look at what you are offering.

People you meet along the way will come and visit your bookstore and send over some of their friends if they like what you sell.

The web works in a similar way — when you put up a website or a blog, you have now moved into the new community. You invite people to visit your “store” by submitting your blog to social web engines like Digg, del.icio.os, Google, Yahoo and also creating a profile in MySpace.

Then you send out emails to all your friends and tell them where you are and what you are doing.

You will also join online networking groups that will introduce to other online web owners.

You will ask your new friends to refer you and offer them an incentive. These will be your affiliates.

Once you have created a little “buzz” for yourself, you now want some of the pages that you link to, to link back to you. That would be the equivalent of your friends and your vendors in the neighborhood. In return for your patronage they will recommend you if they know you and like you.

Eventually you will get visitors and to come and see you and send their friends over to visit and buy.

The beauty of the online community is that there is ample room for everyone, to name a few: stay at home moms, teachers, lawyers, writers, nannys, returning war vets with injuries, the hard of hearing, nurses, doctors and anyone you can think of that has information they want to exchange and share in the “NEW” community.

So, welcome everybody!!!!

Also stop by and visit me at webmomonline

Happy Holidays and some more thoughts:

During this hectic time of the year we all get very overwhelmed with holiday shopping, parties and commitments. In the middle of all the mess I try to remember all the events that have taken place during the year. I definitely have a lot to be grateful.

1. My family and friends
2. My health
3. My job
4. My readers
5. My freedoms

While remembering all these wonderful things in my life, I can't help but think of the children in Africa and other parts of the world that are enduring terrible hardships.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to be more thoughtful of people in need.

I got an email from UNICEF with an actual shopping list in which it listed lifesaving items for kids around the world. It includes blankets, medicines, food, vaccines and clean water storage.
https://www.unicefusa.org/
I am making a personal gift as I write this! Happy Holidays to all.

TTYL

Where did your ancestors come from?

Did you ever ask yourself who your ancestors were, how they arrived here, where they lived and what they did?
Ancestry.com is a site that tracks immigration records online from 1810 to 1960.

At ancestry.com you can start your family tree, search historical records, stories and publications and many other items on the facts page: http://www.ancestry.com/

So try it out it see what comes up!

TTYL

Family get together — how fun… NOT!

So finally the most awaited moment has arrived. You child is back from college and the family is together, like old times everyone is at the table having dinner... However, something is different! What’s wrong with this picture?

That’s right, your college student is no longer the same as when he left. He has been living alone for the last 3 months and the rules have now changed.

I soon discovered that my house was disrupted during Winter and Summer holidays. So I told my kids that we needed to make a business arrangement so that we do more than “co-exist” and that both parties are happy.

So we negotiated a curfew — a suitable time that would allow me to get some much needed sleep and for them to visit all their friends.

Other “house rules” were simple once identified. Rule #2: Our home has to be kept the same way they found it once they got back from college. NO MESS!! This was a little tricky since I was once again picking up for them around here. Again a conference was called to review the problem and everyone agreed to clean up their own mess. Amazing how many fewer parties were at my house last summer!

By the way, I NEVER DO LAUNDRY!!! That was MY golden rule. If you are old enough to go to college and keep your clothes clean there, then you are old enough to do your own laundry here.

That’s it TTYL

Domain names for those entrepreneurs out there....

For those of you planning an online business, the first thing you need is obviously a domain name.

For staters try to pick a name that has something to do with the business you are in i.e.: www.mynamelawyers.com or www.mynametherapy.com. Your new domain name or url will also be part of your keyword phrase.

It is also wise to take your geographical location in mind when you are buying a domain name (LAmynamelawyers.com) if you live in the Los Angeles area. This will help you target your market to the area you work in.

Once you are ready to buy you can select one of the many companies out there that sell domain names at very reasonable prices. Take a look at www.GoDaddy.com. Get an account from them. They always have specials for as little as $5.99 for a domain name.

Then check to see if your chosen url is available and voílà! You have a registered domain name

Hope that helps

TTYL

WebMOMonline Goes Live!!!

So...here it is! Although I expect this to be a work in progress. The WebMOMonline is up and running. www.webmomonline.com

There is a place on the website for your questions which I will answer within the next 48 hours. If I can't answer it, I have plenty of people that will.

I will also be putting up a resources page where I will make recommendations. So if you have read a book, or tried something new or you think you have a service that would be useful, send me your link. In return, please link to me too.

On a separate note, I am finding that this blog is circulating and people out there are digging my articles. Thank you and do keep in touch.

TTYL