Archive for the ‘Administrivia’ Category
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
National Geographic’s fabulous blog, Intelligent Travel, and Ben’s Daily Transit both had nice things to say about my recent “Thin Edge” post. Thanks for the link love, comrades in travel!
The prolific author of Less Than a Shoestring nominated me for a Travvie, submitting NEV in the best single author blog category. I don’t expect to win, my forays into the magical land of seafood and ukuleles will probably disqualify me in the first round, but I’m thrilled to be a contendah. Thanks for tossing my hat in the ring, “PLRS.”
The “alltop” blog aggregation site is dishing up NEV headlines under travel - I’d find this a nifty way of browsing the travelblogs even if I wasn’t included - but I’m delighted to be in some pretty glam company. Thanks to Maria at ConsumerPop for submitting my site.
What’s with the big new ads, you’re asking? Well, they’re part of a test run with Divine Caroline. I publish travel stories to their site, they dish up ads to mine. They tell me it will bring new readers to NEV, but the real reason I signed up was for the ad income. (Hey, it costs money to travel!) Meanwhile, I’m republishing some older stories from NEV on Divine Caroline, do go have a read.
As always, you can read my travelblog roundups and occaisional rants under Travel on BlogHer. I’m planning to attend the conference to host the meetup with other travelbloggers, but you can bet I’ll also be roaming the San Francisco with my camera, hanging with the art school friends, and making sure my room has outlets where I can reach them. See you there? Sam Wo’s, anyone?
Posted in Administrivia | 3 Comments »
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
“Steeeerike TWO!”
If you felt a tiny twinge across the travelsphere today, it might be because my proposed travelblogging panel for BlogHer ‘08 didn’t exactly win approval. This particular rejection comes with a consolation prize - there will be a travel session of some flavor, just not the flavor I’d proposed. (Okay, maybe that twinge was another civil right crumbling, but there’s so much of that going on that I’ll bet you’ve got calluses by now.)
Instead of a lively discussion about travel blogging with award winner Sheila [Family Travel and other publications], Mary Jo [Fly Away Cafe, B5 networks travel editor], Beth [Wanderlust and Lipstick, travel publisher and blogger], and Suzanne [CUSS, travel book about NYC coming out this year] there will be a “Meet the Editor” session with Q&A about travelblogging led by, um, me. [Crickets chirping.]
(more…)
Posted in Administrivia | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Strays are appealing, you want to take them in and feed them, maybe make a cute flier with a picture of the lost critter to staple to phone poles in your neighborhood “If I belong to you, would you please come get me?”
Citizen of the Month and Great Interview Experiment blogger Neil mentioned that he had a few strays lurking around his imaginary neighborhood and that’s how I got to meet a Peach. An Indecisive Peach, that is. She’s just finishing grad school and looking for jobs, but made time out to be part of the Great Interview Experiment. Nice to meet you, Peach. (more…)
Posted in Administrivia | 2 Comments »
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
- I’ve loaded up way too many photos of Hoi An. What can I say, it was photogenic there. I wrote a little about Hoi An here and here.
- Jetlag, and boy howdy. Yesterday, instead of taking a nap, we went out for treats with our excellent ex-neighbor at the Columbia City Bakery. A walk in the sun and coffee helped a lot; last night I was able to sleep most of the night. FYI, I’m sorry, Columbia City Bakery, you are good, but no Bakery Nouveau.
- Are you going to the Seattle Metblogs meetup at Bimbo’s? I’m thinking I might. It’s been ages since I’ve had a good burrito.
- I’m working on a project about stay at home stuff to do - both social and solo - for you, fabulous hipster chick. (Has the word ‘hipster’ been replaced with anything new yet?) I could use a little brainstorming material. I now know about Apartment Therapy and I knew the soup swap loving Not Martha would come in handy one day, but do you have other suggested links for me to peruse?
Posted in Administrivia, Seattle, Werk | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 21st, 2008
You gotta hand it to a guy who, in his search for fame in blogland, realizes that he might not be alone. A guy who looks up from his computer and thinks, hey, there are probably loads of other people in the exact same state and they’re just as worthy.
Props to Citizen of the Month Neil for creating the Great Interview Experiment. Meet your online neighbor (who could be anywhere) and introduce them to your readers, that’s the gist. I liked the idea a lot - I’ve met some swell humans through the web (Hello, expats and former expats!) so I wanted in. Plus, Neil’s no amateur when it comes to the Web - how’s that Technorati ranking now? - and I can see how this project would be a great way to bring new readers to NEV.
I was interviewed by Ascender, a visual artist who blogs here, and I’ve interviewed McKay. It’s tough to interview a total stranger so first, I cruised her blog to see if I could find out who she was. I had a little brain seizure over her politics, but I told myself, hey, you’re just meeting your neighbors, you don’t have to have a debate. Say hello, already, and stop being such a bore.
Okay then. Here’s McKay. She’s a divorced mom, directs live theater, is politically conservative, is candid about her life, and likes lower case. My e-talk with McKay is below the jump. (more…)
Posted in Administrivia | 3 Comments »
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
Or, how the marketers got to Nerd’s Eye View.
First things first. I was asked to participate in a 25 entrant writing contest to win a trip to Martinique. You should totally vote for me because, duh, of course I want to go to Martinique. One of the 25 bloggers “recruited” for the contest is going to go, it might as well be me, doncha think? Yes, you’re going to have to hand over an email address, but then you get entered in the contest also, and wouldn’t you like to hang out with me in Martinique? I’d sure like to hang out with you, eating excellent seafood, drinking tropical cocktails, watching the sun go down, or having a leisurely breakfast before we head off for a strenuous day of lolling about the beach… you get it. Go here.
Okay, here’s the deal. The whole thing is a marketing program for whoever is handling Martinique tourism these days, isn’t it? They contact me and offer me Martinique-esque swag and a shot at a trip to the island. I tell you and off you go to the website, and they get your email address and send you stuff about the island and all of a sudden, you’re thinking, huh, Martinique! There’s an idea… It’s clever marketing, a little back door media through an unconventional channel. Thing is, you don’t have to sell ME on the idea of a getaway to the tropics, hell, I’m always up for it and as far as passing the word along to you? I feel okay about that. Come on, don’t tell me you wouldn’t like a sun break about now. Unless you’re sub-equatorial, in which case, I’m sorry.
But check this out, too. On the heels of the Martinique pitch comes another PR mail. “Thought you’d be interested in this travel blog…” says the mail. Meh. okay, I click through and I don’t get it. It’s a nice enough blog but shockingly free of advertising. What’s the pitch? I click through a few times and I give up. Why is the PR company promoting this one guy’s blog? And, in a more self-serving question, why aren’t PR companies promoting Nerd’s Eye View? What gives here? What the hell, I email the PR company back and ask them.
Here’s the deal. The blogger is an artist. The artwork is displayed at a restaurant chain. The idea is that I point you to the blog, you get interested in the art, you go to the restaurant to see the work and there you are, eating your franchised meal. This one, no can do. I can’t vouch for the quality of the food, I don’t think you should eat a chain unless you’re out of options, and even then, are you sure you wouldn’t do better just going to the supermarket? But I do have to say that I appreciate the honesty from the PR folks. When I asked, they told me exactly what the deal was. I wonder how many people ask.
I can totally get behind the idea of a vacation to Martinique; I can’t get behind the idea of a chain restaurant meal. I might eat at a chain restaurant in Martinique because I’m not really a snob, I just don’t think you’d believe me if I said, “Dude, you have to go to Olive Garden to check out this artwork.” (It’s not Olive Garden, FYI, but you get the gist.) Interesting stuff from the land of marketing to blogs, through blogs.
blogging, marketing, PR
Posted in Administrivia, Passport Travels | 1 Comment »
