Well, hello Rockers,

I hope you don’t mind this extra special weekend post – I have some news outside of our normal article schedule to share with you. Grab your coffee, swat that buzzing mosquito, and let’s gab.

In case you missed it, last week Saturday I conducted a survey on our Facebook page.

*If you did miss it and would still like the opportunity to submit your feedback,
you’re welcome to add your input to the survey by clicking here.* 

As the Women Who Live on Rocks community continues to grow, the purpose was to reach out and learn more about all of you who follow us and what you’re looking for when you come to our site.

I am overwhelmed by all of the encouraging, kind things you had to say *major warm fuzzy alert*. Just the fact that over 500 of you took time out of your day to share your thoughts with me is incredible and I am so grateful. This site is my passion project. My focus is always to provide a fun space for people who love islands to connect, share stories, and laugh together. And so it brings me joy to know you appreciate our efforts. Thank you!

Since so many of you asked me questions in the comment boxes on the actual survey – but I couldn’t reply to you personally because the survey is anonymous – I decided to provide you with some more info here. You took the time to message me, so it’s important to me that I return the favor. Here are a few notes in response to your survey feedback:

To those of you who offered up suggestions of things you want to read here…

This was by far the most interesting part of the survey for me. I got a ton of awesome ideas for future posts and all of the contributors are excited to write them, so stay tuned! Island life is never short on fodder, is it?

Something to consider – if you were one of the people who asked for something you don’t see here but think should be here, perhaps you should be the one to join us and submit it! I’m always looking for fresh perspectives – here’s the details on how you can write with us.

One thing I heard several times was that local islanders want more posts written by local islanders, not just expats. While we do have some fabulous local women contributing, there is always room for more – perhaps if you’re a “born here” island gyal, you should write with us too. Not a writer? Share this with some of your girlfriends who might like to represent. This site is for all island women from all different types of backgrounds – always has been, always will be. Everyone is welcome.

Many of you asked for content that already exists on the site – score! After three years, we have a lot of good stuff here, you just have to know where to look. Here’s how to find whatever it is that you’re after:

Looking for posts about life on a specific island? Visit the “Meet the Women” page. All of our contributors are listed by island. From there, you can click to expand the island(s) you’re interested in and find a list of contributors writing from there. Each contributor’s name is a hyperlink leading you to all of her posts.

Looking for posts about a general aspect of island living? Our site is catalogued into sections such as “Island Mama” and “Retired on a Rock” etc. You can find a list of post categories just to the right in the sidebar —-> .

To those of you who offered constructive criticism…

I heard you and appreciate your candid feedback. Some of it is already stuff I’m working on, some of it gave me some useful insights I hadn’t thought about. Thank you!

One thing I will ask you to keep in mind though: we have a wide range of contributors writing for the site – just like any social gathering, there are some you will connect with and some you may not. Just because you don’t like a couple of posts doesn’t mean there aren’t more posts on the way that you may relate to better. The thing I love about Women Who Live on Rocks is that it helps me to appreciate the perspectives of my fellow islanders, including ones whose paths I may not have crossed or understood without reading about their experiences. I am a more accepting person now than I was three years ago. And I think that’s a good thing.

To those of you who asked for MORE, MORE, MORE – here’s what’s coming:

The top three things that you all asked for again and again were MORE photos, MORE opportunities to connect with fellow islanders, and MORE frequent posts. So I’m working to deliver all three!

To start, I’m doubling our Facebook content. (If you don’t follow our page already, there is so much there in addition to these blog posts and a super active island community to chat with – come say hi!) In addition to the daily AM posts, I have added a daily PM post to our line-up called “A Peek Into My Island Life”. Each evening, I will share an island photo submitted by a fellow rocker with a blurb explaining the moment and where it was taken. Not only will our writers be sharing candid shots from their island lives all over the world, I invite you to share yours too. You can find more details on how you can join in the fun here. 

Also, I’m definitely aware that it’s time for the website to be jazzed up a bit and have more space to showcase some more island life photos. Over this year of WWLOR, I have several sparkly projects in the works *jazz hands* and this is one of them.

As for more frequent blog posts, that may be in cards if I’m able to find a way to deliver the same level of content consistently with more posts. Quality will always be valued more over quantity in my book. But more is definitely a worthy goal!

To those of you with questions about email subscriptions…

If you’ve tried to subscribe a few times but still aren’t receiving our emails, it’s because your subscription didn’t get verified in your inbox. After you hit “subscribe”, we send a confirmation email that you must click to verify your address in order to make it official. If you didn’t see this email, check your “junk” or “spam” box.

If you love receiving our emails but feel like you’re receiving them too frequently, you can change that too. In the email box you receive from us, there is a link to update your subscription preferences. You have the option to get our posts as they come out brand spanking new (usually twice per week), in a weekly digest (once per week), or in a monthly digest (once per month).

P.S. I’m sorry if you find the pop-up box annoying. Thank you for putting up with it, I’m working on a solution.

To those of you who said you want to meet me someday…

That was a surprise – thank you! Seriously, I’m so flattered that anyone would be interested in hanging out with me. If you’re ever in the British Virgin Islands (I live in Virgin Gorda), please don’t hesitate to reach out – I’d love to meet you too. And the next time I travel to another rock, I’d love to arrange a WWLOR meet and greet. We just had an impromptu gathering in St. John a couple weekends ago (coffee date and a workout) – it was a blast hosted by Ashley (of Prescription4Change and Twerk and Tone fame). I really enjoyed meeting all the women who came out in the USVI and BVI. So many of us follow each other on social media, it’s a real treat to meet face to face finally.

I think that about covers it for now. Thank you for being a part of this tribe. It was amazing to hear from so many of you and to receive such positive feedback overall. I appreciate you all more than you know.

And remember – if you ever want to connect with me personally, you can find me on Instagram or shoot me an email to chrissann@womenwholiveonrocks.com.

Sending you sunshine,

Chrissann