Archive for the ‘Werk’ Category
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
I spent about an hour on Sunday morning trying to calculate what kind of travel experience I could have for ten dollars. I figured I could take the bus downtown, get a drip coffee and maybe a cookie, and then, take the bus back again. I could drive to Tacoma and back in my car on about ten bucks worth of gas, I might also be able to get a soda or a candy bar, but not both, from a 7-11. There’s some stuff I could do locally for free — walk over to the park or ride my bike down to the beach or hey, there’s the library, it’s a godsend, right? But travel, on ten dollars? What could I finance?
Van Gogh was poor all of his life, if I’m remembering my art history correctly. Crazy and poor. Gauguin, there’s a guy who had the sense to bug out to the tropics, but I read his letters home while I was hanging out at friend’s place in Italy and he was always hitting up someone, I think it was his brother, to send him money and materials. Vermeer used to cozy up to his mother in law for loans. Sure, all that work became valuable later, but while those artists were alive, they suffered unintentional vows of poverty. [We're told that] Mozart died poor too, tossed into an anonymous grave while now his likeness graces countless money making souvenirs and schemes. Who can name all the artists — be they writers or musicians or painters — who left their lives poor because art, like crime, does not pay.
On Sunday morning, I slouched on the sofa for an hour, maybe it was longer, thinking about these underpaid artists. I thought about how, when I used to paint, (I did not suck as a painter) I paid for materials and a place to work and when I’d ask for 300 dollars for a painting, potential buyers would walk away — perhaps 50 was more a fair price? That price would leave me with not enough money to pay my rent, not enough money to cover the time I’d taken to make a painting, or the weird immeasurable part of thinking things up and finding that a drawing of a bird on a scrap of paper stuck into a notebook two years ago was exactly the right thing to use as a stencil for the upper right corner. Then there was all that education, learning how to mix color and how to see and stitching together the back story for a painting out of the wallpaper in my grandmother’s apartment and failed gardening attempts and waking up in the middle of the night knowing you are in the wrong life.
I don’t waste a lot of time feeling outraged about writer’s wages. It’s not a good use of my time — of anyone’s time. Plus, it turns out that in spite of all the outrage, someone, perhaps you reading this right now, will write for less than I do and do so joyfully. Perhaps you are keen to have a soapbox on which to stand and that is more important than cash in your pocket. Perhaps you are new to the written word and figure writing for small change is a temporary step in your path to the big bucks, it’s the publishing equivalent of doing your time. I also know that as a “real” writer, I’m supposed to devote a certain amount of time to pursuing publication opportunities — the artists equivalent of sending out your portfolio and hoping for a gallery to charge you an arm and a leg for framing while keeping 50% of your sales as commission — “Oh, but we bring in the buyers, you know!” I’m no good at marketing, I’m a writer, not a salesman, and I’m aware that being a salesman is a critical part of being a successful writer.
I have a sophisticated enough understanding of the game to understand why there’s no money in writing, especially now, as publishing collapses. Hand set type was eclipsed by digital publishing and paper is losing to online writing and now, anyone who hits publish can call themselves a writer. Words are a commodity and so cheap, too — your six or seven figure Internet start up guy knows that Google likes words, it eats them as a snack from Costco sized packages and writers are everywhere, eager to have our writer’s vanities catered to by the thrill of seeing your luscious words under the weighty shadow of a digital masthead not your own. We feed the machine now, cranking out endless boxes of lunch sized essays but we can not feed ourselves on the resulting income.
Sunday morning found me feeling bleak and sorry for myself and truth be told, a little bit angry. The source of this gray black mood was an ad seeking travel stories from “real” writers; the pay for said stories was ten dollars a piece. Ten dollars. What kind of travel experience could I have for ten dollars? (I should be clear — it was not so much this particular ad that pushed me down the well, it was the realization that what the publisher was offering was quite common.) Surely there are places in India or Tanzania or Guatemala where ten dollars could get me an amazing experience, be it a taxi ride across town or entry to a local theater. It’s three dollars, I think, to attend the Honolulu Poetry Slam and that could potentially make for a great story, but even in low season, and from the West coast, a plane ticket is about 300/USD round trip. This potential ten dollar story would put me 290 dollars in the hole and I have not had a meal, taken public transit from the airport, paid for a bed, given myself one thin dime for my writing time, or paid the three dollars to see the poetry slam.
Once, a long time ago, I was paid a dollar a word to write a 750 word piece about a very fancy hotel in Vienna. My hotel stay was comped but my travel was not — a plane ticket from Seattle to Vienna was about 900/USD at the time. And then, there were tips and the subway and coffee and so many other incidentals, my profit on that piece ended up negative. The guidebook I wrote to Hawaii netted me 400 dollars after expenses and I spent about two months working on it — that’s right, that’s 200 dollars a month. Sometimes I feel that perfectly understandable craving to get my work off of this little blog into places that will wrap it in a veneer of credibility. When that hits, I call on the painfully logical part of my brain to explain to my writer’s fragile ego that it makes no economic sense at all to pursue travel writing gigs elsewhere. The internal writer pleads with the internal accountant — “But we have to do more than just BLOG!” — as though blogging were a dirty word — and the writer always loses. The accountant, she writes the checks and both sides of me like a warm, dry, place to sleep and regular meals and the fictional comfort of a very crappy health insurance plan.
It was not raining on Sunday morning, but it might as well have been. I felt so saddened by the idea that the kind of writing I like to do has been utterly devalued. It’s a good living for a select few and for the rest, perhaps they’ve taken that unintentional vow of poverty. Or they have patrons or a modern kind, wives or husbands or magical income from some unknown other source, an inheritance, perhaps, combined with a modesty of lifestyle. Maybe they’ve made a deal with the devil — the devil isn’t a great business partner, but man, can he sell the idea — and that’s how they manage groceries while writing stories about travel. I sent the devil packing, lowered my expectations for what my writing could bring me, and got some skills that let me earn an okay living while not eating all my time. It’s not a bad compromise, most days, but on Sunday, I sulked on the couch thinking about how ten dollars could not begin to compensate me for everything that comes with me when I sit down at the keyboard. Ten dollars felt like an insult, the compromise felt like a sell out, and writing… writing… Van Gogh was crazy. He loved to paint, you can see it when you look at his work. I love to write. I really love to write and sometimes, sometimes, it makes me more than a little bit crazy.
Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night poached from Flickr via Creative Commons. Vincent, wherever you are, I’m sorry.
Posted in Werk | 35 Comments »
Monday, January 18th, 2010
I had an unexpectedly awesome time in Cancun on the Bloggers in Paradise tour put together by Diamond PR to promote a bunch of their tropical properties. My main contact prior to the trip was Kara Rosner, the VP at Diamond PR.
There’s always a bit of mystery around who gets invited on these trips and why. Last summer, when Peter, Kelly and I did the TBEX road trip, we had the opportunity to work with lots of supportive PR folks and many of them agreed to help our readers understand the answer to that question. I figured the Bloggers in Paradise tour was another good opportunity to ask the same questions and Kara was game. Here’s her take on the PR Chat questionnaire.
What does a “good†blogger looks like to you? Are there any consistent characteristics in the bloggers you choose to work with?
A “good” blogger for me is someone who reaches an audience that fits with the client’s demographic. Having an established following, reaching a target market for our client, a professional and visually friendly blog, and being active and interacting in the online realm outside of just their blog all contribute to a “good” blogger.   You don’t have to be the biggest in the blog pool - you just have to make sense for a client’s investment of time and/or money.
What makes you decide to give resources to a blogger?
Ultimately, there’s no magic formula or finite set of criteria when it comes to evaluating media requests – it’s a sliding scale, that takes in to consideration a variety of factors – from the blogger’s credentials, experience and reach, to the individual client and their goals, budget and needs. Creating a relationship with us also helps – and bloggers can do that with us the same way a PR person reaches out to writers – engage us on Twitter, check out our Facebook page, etc. We’re more likely to work with someone we recognize, even if we haven’t worked directly with you in the past.
How do you vet a blogger? Do you look at their traffic, their Technorati ranking, or other statistics?
We base our decisions on the writer’s sphere of influence… basically, who they have the potential of reaching and how. Traffic/unique visitors is considered, as is relevancy. Plus, with the increase in direct to consumer conversations, we also look at a wider range of variables, such as where and how they promote their blog, their Twitter activity, links to/from other sites and the potential for reaching additional audiences outside of their blog. And while numbers give us a tangible, the demographic is just as important. You could be writing for a top ranked blog, but if the audience isn’t a good fit for the resort, then the ROI diminishes. Reaching a million people is great, but not if those million people are looking for a family oriented vacation and we rep an adult only resort. Also, the ability to contribute to more than one blog or outlet certainly helps your cause.
How should a new blogger approach you?
I love that you ask this question – because we’re always being told how to approach writers, it’s nice to be asked how to approach us… and for me, an email introduction works best. It also helps if you provide details up front that I’ll end up asking for anyways – info about your blog, recent ranking/traffic, what other sites link to your blog if any, specifics about what you’re asking for, etc..
What should bloggers ask you for? What should they NOT ask you for?
You can ask for whatever you want – worst case is we can’t do it and we’ll simply let you know. That said – if you come to me asking for a two week stay, all F&B included and flights for you, your husband and your five children, I’m likely going to laugh at the request and probably think you’re high maintenance, unrealistic and probably a little egotistical to think you really warrant that. However, if you’re planning a family vacation and writing for a credible blog and simply ask for help with accommodations – I’ll take a serious look at your request. Basically – just be reasonable. These are hard economic times across the board – not least of all among the travel industry, and while our clients know they have to invest in their own success, they still have limited budgets and resources.
What’s the best way for a blogger to catch your interest when they’re contacting you directly?
Just follow all of the above – send me an introduction email explaining who you are, what you want to do and why and how you’re interested in covering/reporting on it. Be professional and flexible. Just as PR pros are expected to do their research before reaching out to writers, make sure your request makes sense – don’t cut and paste an email that you just sent someone else (yes, we’ve received requests asking for accommodations at hotels we don’t represent – i.e. the writer forgot to change the name of the hotel from their last email.)  On a similar note, the best way to lose my interest is to lie or be evasive, or throw in last minute requests after we’ve agreed upon something – that’s a definite red flag.
Do you receive a lot of sponsorship requests and what percentage of those do you say yes to?
We receive some, I wouldn’t say it’s a ton, but the queries do come in – and with a bit more frequency in the past months. We evaluate each on a case-by-case basis – and we say yes to a lot. It’s always our goal to help and do what we can.
What do you expect from a blogger in exchange for your product or service?
It’s different in each case – but we expect whatever was agreed to in initial conversations – and then anything above and beyond is fabulous, and definitely gives us reason to look to work together again.  If you say you’ll blog daily and tweet regularly – then that’s what we expect. If you say you’ll post a blog review after the trip – then we hope to see that come to fruition within a reasonable amount of time. Basically, we’re running a business, and this is a business transaction. If we hold up our end of the bargain and help you get what you’re asking for, in exchange we expect you to hold up your end of the agreement and produce what was agreed upon – just as in any other business arrangement.
What do you do if a blogger negatively reviews the product or service you represent?
That’s always a tough situation. First things first – we don’t ever expect a blogger to lie or make statements they don’t agree with – we understand 100% that a blog is opinion based and needs to be honest and authentic. That said, if a blogger has a problem with an experience they have, we appreciate the opportunity to address it prior to their posting, or for them to include a hotel executive’s comments about the situation in their post.  And we’re a fan of the golden rule, “If you have nothing nice to say…”.   But we understand bloggers are more likely to say so when they come across something questionable or not to their liking, we just hope that they’ll also find and report on the positive side of things as well.  Finally, we hope that a blogger would keep in mind the long term relationship – if you travel to our client resort and we bend over backwards to help coordinate that for you – and then you rip our client to shreds, well, let’s just say I’m pretty sure we’ll think twice before suggesting another client invest in working with you.
What do you have to show your boss as results for supporting a blogger?
Basically, we have to prove the ROI to our clients – which is more difficult with blogs bc we don’t have all the metrics that we do with other editorial avenues. We use blog posts, tweets, links, etc to show them what was written or otherwise communicated to the world and why it was worth their investment.
Briefly, give us the elevator pitch for you and your company.
Diamond Public Relations is a progressive PR agency with a focus on travel & lifestyle. Clients include hotels, resorts and restaurants in Aruba, Curacao, Belize, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Miami, Puerto Rico… and more. We’re often told that we’re not your typical PR agency – and we take that as a complement. We like to stray from the beaten path, take risks, try new things, have fun. We are quick to respond and understand the need to meet a deadline.  We create long, lasting relationships with the writers we work with on both a business and personal level. Work with us – you’ll like us; travel with us – you’ll love us. We get what we want by helping others get what they want. How can we help you get your story?
There are a few more PR Chats here and here.
Posted in Administrivia, Werk | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
I’d been invited to travel to Oahu by the Oahu Visitor’s Bureau in exchange for blogging about my adventures there. At the same time, Christine Lu was planning re[Think] Hawaii, a small conference about start-ups, sustainability, and social media and the dates lined up perfectly. Christine generously waived the attendance fee in exchange for… well, let’s say I owe her a favor or three. Neenz, a Hawaii social, um, universe, she’s a social universe, invited the attendees of reThink Hawaii to TEDx, a morning of interesting ideas and speakers. Now for some long winded contextual stuff…
I’ve attended what feels like a pile of conferences this year — SxSW, TBEX, BlogHer, BlogWorld Expo, reThink Hawaii was the last in a long run. Unfortunately, it solidified something for me that I’ve been slowly concluding with each event that I attend — I don’t thrive in these environments. I’m not particularly shy, but I don’t like to do things in large groups. I’d really prefer to have dinner with two or three smartypants types, being in a room with 100 of them just isn’t that rewarding for me.
I can’t work a room. That’s not to say that I don’t want to meet you, it’s rather that I don’t have the skills to compete for your attention, a cheerier extrovert will do a much better job than I will and because of that, we probably won’t talk unless I sit next to you at breakfast or in those funny between times when everyone is elsewhere. I’m happiest in quiet conversation in a room where I can hear you. Though ironically, I have loved the speaker opportunities I’ve had this year, so I guess I like the spotlight when I don’t have to compete for it. How lazy is that?
All of this is just so you can place my experience in context. Bookish type, kind of a nerd, socially not that great, especially in a room full of extroverted success stories. Yeah, not so much my scene. I’m going to sit over there and observe, quietly, and process, thank you, and I probably won’t show up to shout at you in a noisy bar later, I’ll be in my room, reading and eating take out bento.
This doesn’t mean I’m not absorbing information or learning or making some good connections. I was able to connect with some great people in the pantheon of Internet stars that attended and plan to follow up with a few — they’re doing work directly related to things that I’m doing. I loved the local presence — reThink and TEDx gave me the chance to spend quality time with people who live and work in Hawaii and I adore those folks, they’re wonderful. I’ve never felt so at home while living out of a suitcase. All that fuzzy stuff, the stuff around the edges, that was great.
But I was struck, repeatedly, but what was NOT talked about at both reThink Hawaii and TEDx. My short list:
- Tourism: A lot of time was devoted to discussing sustainability, a critical issue with Hawaii’s limited resources. But we didn’t talk about tourism until I asked. This wasn’t a tourism or travel event, but with 800,000 people passing through the islands every year, including many of the people in that room, not talking about tourism seemed to willfully deny one of the biggest impacts to Hawaii’s economy and environment.
- Education: I attended more than one talk that mentioned how Hawaii could be the “Silicon Valley of energy” and how it’s got great potential as a business environment. While I sat in that room, restless teenagers sloped about the streets of Waikiki because of Hawaii’s embarrassing furlough Fridays — the state doesn’t have the funds to keep the kids in school full time. Skilled jobs in Hawaii are badly needed, but who’s going to do those jobs if Hawaii residents aren’t getting a quality education? For personal reasons, I’d love to see a Hawaii tech corridor, but that’s because I want to live there. Is Hawaii creating the skilled workforce needed to fill those jobs once they’re created or are they going to go to lucky imported mainlanders?
- Censorship: I really enjoyed Kaiser Kuo’s talk about our difficult relationship with China via the Internet, but I have a hard time removing the shadow of censorship from the conversation. I don’t understand the first thing about China. But I know that my friend B, when traveling there, couldn’t share his stories with me via his blog, he was blocked by what is amusingly called the Great Firewall of China. There’s a lot of excitement about China’s opening markets, but when it comes to open communication, what’s available to us as citizens? How much of the tone of the conversation with the outside world is controlled by the government? China certainly has the manpower to apply a heavy hand when it comes to censorship — are they? I don’t know.
- Consumerism: I’m not really anti-consumer, I like my stuff just fine, but I sure wish we’d dial it back some as a society. I was frustrated by Henk Rogers talk about the new virtual world. It’s just one tiny thing, but he mentioned how virtual worlds make it easier for us to get virtual stuff. He’s also got the Blue Planet Foundation, an organizaiton that wants to end the use of carbon based fuels. That’s great, but isn’t the drive for stuff what causes us to burn all that carbon based fuel? Is the ability for us to get virtual stuff really going to diminish our desire for real stuff, or is it going to frustrate us, making us wonder why we can’t have that stuff in real life? Again, I don’t know.
[Related side note: I REALLY appreciated that reThink and TEDx were swag free. Swag is fun, but when an event becomes more about swag than substance... TBEX did a nice job of making sure everyone got the same stuff and that it wasn't just stuff.]
- Success: Wow, there were a lot of very successful people there. And that’s really great for them, but for me, a person of a modest (but really very amazing life) I felt like the lessons of failure were eclipsed by the glamor of success. The most valuable stories are in lessons learned from failure, but I felt like I was hearing a lot of glowing reports on how awesome things were. A lot of success models aren’t replicable — they’re a magical cocktail of inspiration and work and luck and connections. But failure is a unifying experience and it’s a good thing to learn how to fail without giving up. I realize that’s vague, but I loved beatboxboy Jason Tom’s remark about successful people failing more often. Sharing the failure factor? I would have like to see more of that.
The networking aspects aside, I suppose if Neenz and Christine Lu intended to send attendees out into the world thinking differently about, well, a few things, then I’m probably a fair argument for their success. I’m still rolling these issues around in my head. I dont have any real conclusions at this point, but I’m thinking, thinking and rethinking, a lot, about the last ten days in Hawaii.
Posted in Aloha Oy, Op/Ed, Werk | 12 Comments »
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
It’s my public shame and embarrassment that a few months back, I missed a red-eye flight to Cozumel. I’d been invited on a press trip with a handful of other bloggers. I was packed and ready to go, I just had the date wrong in my head. I’m still taking heat for this — seasoned traveler blows flight! — but the one guy who’s never given me a hard time about it? The guy who invited me, Sean Carroll from New Media Strategies. For that, I’m really thankful, it was, after all, a mistake.
Not only did Sean not give me a hard time, but he helped connect the dots to set us — three bloggers on a road trip to Chicago for TBEX — up with a Routan minivan for our adventure. Talk about a good sport. Sean took time to answer a bunch of questions about PR and bloggers and how that relationship works. I did a series of these as part of our road trip, you’ll find the rest here. If you’re a blogger struggling with the hows and whys of PR relationships, they are an interesting read.
Below the jump — Sean’s answers to my questions. (more…)
Posted in Op/Ed, Werk | 6 Comments »
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
- Everyone screws up. Even the most seasoned of travelers has a story about that one time when… And if you are nice enough, those sheepish travelers will share their disaster stories with you. It will make you feel a little better, but it’s a bit like putting iodine on a scrape. Ouch.
- People will take pot-shots at you if you accept the terms of writing in exchange for travel. Let them. It’s your call, pal. There’s a lot of contention about bloggers and press trips and you’re going to have to find your own way.
- Not every one practices disclosure. I happen to think that indy bloggers and reviewers should state the terms of their stay. If it’s on the house and you’re being wined and dined by the PR folks, you should say so. I’m starting to wonder if I’m in the minority on this, but also, I have no intention of changing my policy.
- If you have the kind of friends who will take you to the airport at midnight, you are a lucky person. Yup, that’d be me. I have the best gay boyfriend on the planet.
- Military time is underutilized. It’s a lot easier to mentally digest those post-midnight flights if they’re listed in 24 hour time. See you in Terminal A at oh dark hundred!
- Do not say yes to the trip until you have seen the itinerary. Oh, sure, it’s all fun and games until you’re in Houston for nine hours on a stopover.
- Enlightened PR folks aren’t interested in having everyone write the same story. It’s boring for readers and doesn’t add insight into a destination.
- The public library is an amazing asset for pre-trip research. It’s how I know that what I really missed out on was the opportunity to buy a perfect Yucatan “matrimonial” hammock and how I learned about the wonder that is the Mezoamerican Barrier Reef. Also, The People’s Guide to Mexico
is truly an amazing guidebook. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
- My home town is way the hell out there. Because of the diversity, because almost everything I could want is here, I don’t often think about the fact that we really are in the northwest corner of the country. And yet, here we are, awfully far away from so many places in the US. It’s easier to get to Asia than it is to get to middle America. In spite of that…
- Seattle is freakin’ awesome. Okay, I knew that already, but in seeking out consolation prizes for missing this trip to Mexico, I found a perfect Mexican moment a mere 20 minutes from my front door. God, I love it here.
Posted in Passport Travels, Werk | 4 Comments »
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Photo: Waikiki Highrise by Mr. NEV
Well, the draft got eaten, didn’t it? And when I sat down to post, it was nowhere to be found. Forgive the one day delay, kindly, and with no further adieu, here’s the massive link fest that’s The Carnival of Cities! (more…)
Posted in Fish Wednesday, Passport Travels, Werk | 5 Comments »
