Passports with Purpose is cooking along nicely. We’re making and fixing lots of organizational things as we go along but on the whole, it’s going great and we’re so grateful for the participation we’re getting. Thank you, everyone for your patience and generosity.
Don’t know what the hell I’m talking about? Check back in a few days, I’m going to ask you to buy some raffle tickets.
SxSWi said “YES!” to travel. Sheila Scarborough and I will be leading what SxSW calls a “Core Conversation” about travelblogging. We are psyched. I need an oasis in downtown Austin where I can nap, blog, snack, and generally recharge my introverted battery. Your advice is oh so welcome. I do have some leads but if you’ve got suggestions, bring ’em.
I’d also love to know what you think we should cover. In my head I call the session “How to have a travelblog that doesn’t suck.” but I’m totally open other ideas. Oh, wait, I guess I said that out loud. Dammit!
Speaking of my excellent partner at SxSWi, Todd Lucier of Tourism Keys has a podcast up that could serve as a preview for Austin. We’re like the Car Guys of travelblogging. “Don’t drive like my brother! Haw haw haw!” “No, don’t drive like MY brother! Haw haw haw.”
Have a listen, here. We do a not totally idiotic job using things like the Butter Cow, children’s jammies, and icky conversations to introduce bloggers and their oh so strange ways to tourism and PR people. It’s worth it just to hear the way Sheila says “butter cow.” Thank you, Todd!
On the cards: A trip to Vancouver Island, one down to Oregon (including a stop in Portland for the Boots N All holiday party), a press invite to Mazatlan (I’m still trying to work that one out), and oh, may the winds blow us westward to Hawaii, hopefully in early January. I hung my plumeria lei on the tree just like they told me too, and yet, we still have no plane tickets! What’s up with that?
How about you? How are you doing? What’s new with you?
“In my head I call the session “How to have a travelblog that doesn’t suck.†but I’m totally open other ideas.”
That sounds like a great start! If I was going to give one piece of advice on how to make a better travel blog (or, how to make one I’m more likely to read and enjoy, anyhow) it’d be: find a niche, or a voice, or an angle. It doesn’t have to be limiting, but find something to define you and distinguish you from the zillions of other travel blogs.
Also, anecdotes can work wonders to bring sweeping generalizations about travel to life.
“How about you? How are you doing? What’s new with you?”
I am moving (temporarily) to NYC in January! And I am WAY excited. The plan is to work, eat, walk, and give myself a bit of a cultural education. Oh, and to shop. A little.
FOTFLMAO. Please don’t have a travel blog that sucks. That “category” is overpopulated. HA.
Already, yours doesn’t. Why? Because you’ve got a great “VOICE”. From my perspective, I’d jump all over the stuff you love to do and go cross-platform–just like you’re doing w/your podcast. Where’s the video? I cannot WAIT to “see” you in AUS.
Oh. Just one more thing. A POX on you if you do not take a trip to Alaska. You know I love Jet City (so M-e-t-r-o-s-e-x-u-a-l and all that), but Alaska. Wow. So many moms up here that want to read all about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Bring your Heifer friends. Come for drinks on our deck under the Midnight Sun. Moose munch on the trees in our backyard.