I’m psyched to announce the official launch of Husbands & Dads, a community “where it’s cool to be a family man!”

This project originated several months ago through an exchange of Twitter messages between me and Cory from A Good Husband.  We both wanted to create something that would build on our existing efforts and appeal to a broad range of men who wanted to live well and take care of their family.

We talked on the phone a few times, exchanged some e-mail ideas, and within a few weeks the concept and idea for Husbands & Dads was born!  We decided to build the site using a WordPress blog platform, and we went with a magazine style theme:

In addition, we wanted to create an opportunity for readers to connect and create conversations of their own. We decided that the best format to do that would be the Husbands & Dads Forums “where it’s cool to talk about being a family man!”:

About three weeks ago, we reached out to about 50 friends and fellow bloggers to come and look at the initial site designs and provide us with feedback.  Since neither Cory or I are coding master minds, it took us a little longer to customize the site than expected, and it’s still a work in progress.  We feel like the quality of both sites from a content, design and usability perspective was at a point to “go live” though today, so I invite you all to go now and check out Husbands & Dads.

Still here?  Well, let me share some answers to a few of the common questions asked by people during the Beta phase of development:

1.  What’s the difference between Husbands & Dads and Discovering Dad?

Great question, and I’m glad you asked!  Discovering Dad is a site that focuses on “learning what it means to be a good dad.”  It is a site that I take great pride in sharing my personal experiences and thoughts, as well as those of my friends and contributing writers, about what it means to be a dad.  I also enjoy putting on a good series of articles every once in a while, as well as having fun contests for both dads and moms to participate.  I will continue to grow Discovering Dad and bring you top quality content on a daily basis.

Husbands & Dads is a site “where it’s cool to be a family man.” The content here appeals to a broad audience of men (and women), so it provides me an opportunity to write about things that don’t quite “fit” into the theme of Discovering Dad.  Like many writers, I have a variety of interests that I’d like to write  about, including marriage, entertainment and technology.  Husbands & Dads has all of these additional categories.  As a trained journalist, I’d use the analogy that Discovering Dad is like the editorial page while Husbands & Dads is like a feature section of the newspaper.

2.  Is Husbands & Dads just for “husbands” and “dads”? What about the “moms” or “single folks”?

The site is for anyone who is interested in family life.  The content will be written from a male perspective with a male reader in mind, but hey so is Discovering Dad, and yet more than 50% of my readers are moms/women.  Seriously, though, we encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about family men to subscribe to the feed and visit the site often.  I would think that moms would find articles like How Paternity Leave in America Compares and What Wives Want in a Vacation to be of interest.  As for the single folks, I imagine that articles like Amazing New Ecofriendly Products of the Near Future and various film reviews would make subscribing or visiting worth while.

3.  Is Husbands & Dads a blog, a magazine or both?

The site is a blog that uses a WordPress magazine style platform.  Content will be published daily, as opposed to a monthly or quarterly schedule like most magazines or journals.  The content and types of articles published each day, though, will closely match things you might find in your favorite magazine for men, parenting or family life.

4.  With all of the content you put out, do you ever sleep?

Yes, I get plenty of sleep. I have found a way to program my computer to create original content for me while I sleep.  I actually pirated the program from Nora Roberts the famous romance novelist who somehow writes a new book every month.  Seriously, though, I have cut back on my workload in other areas in order to keep my focus on Discovering Dad and Husbands & Dads.  I believe in the potential of this category, and it is something that I am passionate about doing.  I do sacrifice some sleep in order to get things done, but the feeling I get from creating something that makes a positive difference in the world makes the sacrifice worthwhile.

Alright, enough stalling!  Go visit Husbands & Dads!  And, don’t forget to Join the Forums too!

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