I've been considering a change to my publishing schedule ever since I went to 2 posts a week.
I occasionally do product and book reviews, but I don't want that to become what my blog is about. But when inspiration strikes I like to write about it, whatever it might be.
So here is my plan:
Monday - Photo of the Week
Wednesday - Travel stories/tips/advice
Friday - Product reviews of website/blog/podcast recommendations.
Let me know what you think. Or if you have recommendations on products, blogs, podcasts, websites or anything else travel related.
You can find me on twitter @Travelingiraffe
or you can email me at thetravelinggiraffe (at) gmail.com
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Friday, October 14, 2011
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
TBEX10 - New York City
This weekend I attended TBEX in New York City. Only having this blog for a year or so and only a handful of readers I that I know of, I have to admit - I felt like a little giraffe in a giant Savanna with the Big 5. Or is it the big 4? Who cares - giraffes aren't part of either one of them.
It was really interesting there though on several levels - meeting people, watching people and learning about blogging.
When I got on line on Saturday morning I realized I had made a big mistake. I had a good reason, but it was still a mistake. I didn't go to any of the pre-parties. My good reason - I get up at 4am to work in Brooklyn and leave work by 2pm and usually crash by 9pm. It's not a good shift for party people. Plus the whole dragging myself back into the city, blah blah blah. But I realized on line that there were a lot of people who knew each other already and many from the party the night before. I'm a shy person at times, so this was a difficult social setting for me. I did manage to meet some people and make connections but not as much as I had hoped.
But I did enjoy watching some of the "rock stars" of the travel blogging world. The first day at lunch Johnny Jet really struck me. He had an almost childlike exuberance, and I mean that in a good way. He was taking pictures and did it with no constraints on him - you could tell he was enjoying taking pictures and trying different angles without a thought as to the people around him. Then there were the ever evolving groups of "rock stars" you would see talking - Don George, and David Farley or Chris Christensen and Craig and Linda from the Indie Travel Podcast. There were many others, though I'm surprised now how many I totally missed, especially the ones I would have liked to have met.
I learned a lot though too, I'm going to try and take my writing in a different direction - write with more purpose. It will take more work, but then again if I want to make a go of this blog then I have to put in the work. I also realized why every video I take sucks - I'm just video taping stuff that strikes me, not with a purpose. I don't think I'm going to get into video anyway, but I think when I do take video it will be better quality. Then there's the concept of branding and finding a niche - I think it's easier to explain what I don't write about and I'm ok with that, but I think I will try to tighten things up with my content. I don't think I learned much about self promotion though - I didn't do a very good job of it myself - or maybe that was what I learned.
Then there was the community keynote - someone described it as bedtime stories for travelers and the description was too true. Heck, if I wanted I could have taken a nap. Not that the stories were boring, but it was so mellow and I was so tired.
All in all though TBEX was interesting, educational and a good opportunity to meet people. Will I be attending next year in Vancouver though? I'm not sure, I have to see where the blog goes and what is going on in the next few months, but I wouldn't rule anything out. But if you read, I'm more likely to go, so READ!!!!
And a big thanks to Kim Mance who made it all happen.
It was really interesting there though on several levels - meeting people, watching people and learning about blogging.
When I got on line on Saturday morning I realized I had made a big mistake. I had a good reason, but it was still a mistake. I didn't go to any of the pre-parties. My good reason - I get up at 4am to work in Brooklyn and leave work by 2pm and usually crash by 9pm. It's not a good shift for party people. Plus the whole dragging myself back into the city, blah blah blah. But I realized on line that there were a lot of people who knew each other already and many from the party the night before. I'm a shy person at times, so this was a difficult social setting for me. I did manage to meet some people and make connections but not as much as I had hoped.
But I did enjoy watching some of the "rock stars" of the travel blogging world. The first day at lunch Johnny Jet really struck me. He had an almost childlike exuberance, and I mean that in a good way. He was taking pictures and did it with no constraints on him - you could tell he was enjoying taking pictures and trying different angles without a thought as to the people around him. Then there were the ever evolving groups of "rock stars" you would see talking - Don George, and David Farley or Chris Christensen and Craig and Linda from the Indie Travel Podcast. There were many others, though I'm surprised now how many I totally missed, especially the ones I would have liked to have met.
I learned a lot though too, I'm going to try and take my writing in a different direction - write with more purpose. It will take more work, but then again if I want to make a go of this blog then I have to put in the work. I also realized why every video I take sucks - I'm just video taping stuff that strikes me, not with a purpose. I don't think I'm going to get into video anyway, but I think when I do take video it will be better quality. Then there's the concept of branding and finding a niche - I think it's easier to explain what I don't write about and I'm ok with that, but I think I will try to tighten things up with my content. I don't think I learned much about self promotion though - I didn't do a very good job of it myself - or maybe that was what I learned.
Then there was the community keynote - someone described it as bedtime stories for travelers and the description was too true. Heck, if I wanted I could have taken a nap. Not that the stories were boring, but it was so mellow and I was so tired.
All in all though TBEX was interesting, educational and a good opportunity to meet people. Will I be attending next year in Vancouver though? I'm not sure, I have to see where the blog goes and what is going on in the next few months, but I wouldn't rule anything out. But if you read, I'm more likely to go, so READ!!!!
And a big thanks to Kim Mance who made it all happen.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Fall Travel Plans
As I recently posted, I am considering doing a 2 week tour in Eastern Europe. Since I posted that idea I found out that I will have to shell out a lot of money for some dental work, enough that I started considering changing my plans.
I still want to go overseas and thought a 1 week trip to 1 City might fit the bill. I wanted the city to be in Western Europe to minimize the length of my flight and hopefully the price since I would only be going for a week. I was seriously considering Edinburgh and also maybe Paris as a second choice. The real question I need to answer is if this scaled back trip was really going to be much cheaper then what I was already planning.
But before I could started working on that I hit a roadblock with my dental stuff. I don't want to bore you with details of my dental work, but since I suspect this topic might come up again I'll say a little bit about it. I was born with a cleft lip and palate and would like to redo some of my old dental work, it will involve a palate expander, braces, a bone graft and dental implants. I may scale back what I do on my teeth or delay it until next year. If I do delay my dental stuff then I may feel a little freer with money to take that trip to Eastern Europe. If you want to read more about my dental issues, I have a blog about that: Creating a beautiful mouth.
I still want to go overseas and thought a 1 week trip to 1 City might fit the bill. I wanted the city to be in Western Europe to minimize the length of my flight and hopefully the price since I would only be going for a week. I was seriously considering Edinburgh and also maybe Paris as a second choice. The real question I need to answer is if this scaled back trip was really going to be much cheaper then what I was already planning.
But before I could started working on that I hit a roadblock with my dental stuff. I don't want to bore you with details of my dental work, but since I suspect this topic might come up again I'll say a little bit about it. I was born with a cleft lip and palate and would like to redo some of my old dental work, it will involve a palate expander, braces, a bone graft and dental implants. I may scale back what I do on my teeth or delay it until next year. If I do delay my dental stuff then I may feel a little freer with money to take that trip to Eastern Europe. If you want to read more about my dental issues, I have a blog about that: Creating a beautiful mouth.
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