Sadly, there's no travel in the horizon for me this year. But not traveling does mean I have plenty of time to wander through cyberspace, reading, listening, and watching others on their journeys throughout the world.
Such is the case with TBEX 12, billed as 'the world's largest gathering travel bloggers, writers, and new media content creators'. I may not be there physically but I'm there virtually, chasing around the internet, tracking down posts about the conference.
Thanks to Travelllll.com, who are providing video coverage, a chatroom, and streaming updates, I've just been watching Rand Fishkin's informative talk on SEO Without Selling Your Soul (see video and also slide presentation)
Rand talks about how 'branding is key', even for travel bloggers and that you need to start thinking of your travel blog as a brand.
This TBEX presentation led me to Rand Fishkin's SEOMOZ website and his extremely detailed SEO 101 for Travel Bloggers, a must read for anyone serious about travel blogging.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Travel blogger takeaways from TBEX 12
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Top 5 Weekly Blog Posts for Writers...
1. Is blogging really a way for women to earn a living?
2. Does rejection get you down? How to develop resilience as a freelance writer.
3. How to stop procrastinating and start writing
4. What's it take to be a Lonely Planet guidebook writer? An interview with Brice Gosnell
5. Adapt or die - the choice for guidebook writers?
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Video: Travel Writer Lee Foster talks...
Travel Writer Lee Foster talks at the April 2012 meeting of the Bay Area Travel Writers organization.
The video quality isn't great and the first 4-6 minutes are full of introductions and meeting formalities but if you skip forward to Lee's talk you might find some helpful tips on getting published as a travel writer
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...
Thursday, March 29, 2012
'The Next Great Storyteller' Competition closes soon...
National Geographic and Matador Network have teamed up in a competition to find 'The Next Great Storyteller.'
Think you have what it takes to a great travel storyteller?
Can you move, touch, surprise, and entertain with your stories?
Then this is the competition for you.
Here's what you have to do.
Submit a story in any of these four categories by March 31st...
Blog (300 words or less)Magazine Article (700 words or less)Video (No more than 3 minutes)Photo Essay (5 photos or less on a single subject)The First Prize winner in each category will be...
"...invited to a “Storytellers’ Day” with the National Geographic Traveler editorial staff at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, DC. Airfare from any location in the US and one night in a hotel will be paid for by NGS for each winner. Each winner will also receive a one-year subscription to National Geographic Traveler magazine."There's not much time left.
To find out more and to enter, head over The Next Great Storyteller page. Sphere: Related Content
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A conference for family travel bloggers...
Day 1 - Sunday May 6, features a family travel expo (bring the kids) with exhibits from fabulous resorts, tips from experts, and chances to win dream vacations! Discover amazing travel experiences, take advantage of great offers and deals, win trips and prizes, and more. You’ll hear travel tips from experts, learn about great new products, and discover how you can make your dream vacation a reality.
Day 2 - Monday May 7, kicks off an amazing day of keynotes, seminars, networking events and more for established and aspiring family travel bloggers. With content designed specifically for travel bloggers, attendees will take part in sessions on topics such as resort-blogger relations, blog design, pitching resorts & products, photography, building your readership and more.
For more information head over to the Macaroni Kid's Family Expo and Conference page.
Sphere: Related Content
Monday, March 26, 2012
Overnight Buses Travel Magazine looking for submissions....
To find out what they are looking for, download the Overnight Buses Travel Magazine App for iPad. There's some great featured essays by award winning travel writers such as Michael Shapiro, Marcia DeSanctis, Nathan Comp, and Ayun Halliday in the first issue.
According to their guidelines, they want...
"...travel essays, literature, travel journalism and personal narratives; the stories of your adventures in far-off places that changed you in ways you didn’t expect. We’re looking for the stuff that will make our readers laugh, cry, shout and say “Damn! That was a darn good read.” We take pride in the fact that we publish the articles that other magazines don't. The gritty stories, the trips to the middle of nowhere, the personal narratives that really make you think, the hard-hitting journalism. If you've got it, we want it.
Articles should be in English, with American spellings (color, not colour). Non-fiction, obviously. 1000 words or more in PDF or Word format (.doc, .pdf). 4000 words is the sweet spot, long enough to draw our readers in, short enough to read in an hour."
Send submissions via email to Tom at submissions [at] overnightbuses.com
Sphere: Related Content
Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...
1. How to Create a Successful Editorial Calendar
2. Tips for Writing Productivity – The Star Freelancer Guide
3. How to blog on an iPad
4. Branding for Writers: An Essential Step to Building Your Author Platform
5. 7 Pages Your Freelance Web-Writing Website Must Have By Christina Gillick
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
52 Perfect Days Food and Wine Travel Writing Contest...
52 Perfect Days fourth annual travel writing contest is now open for submissions.
The topic this year is Culinary or Wine Tourism.
Submission guidelines...
* article no more than 1,000 words on your perfect experience with Wine or Culinary tourism
* detail how to spend a perfect day, evening, weekend, or week focusing on one of the following: wineries, tastings and tours, culinary explorations including culinary schools, foodie tours, B7Bs well known for their food or pairings, and food movements in particular cities. Or share a day of exploring the best restaurants, food carts, wine bars that a particular location has to offer.
* the travel story must be not only unique, engaging, and exciting to the reader and but also well-crafted and well edited.
* send the completed article and photographs to this emailThe four best entries as chosen by the 52 Perfect Days editors, will wine one of these prizes
- a trip to Calistoga in Napa Valley Wine Country
- a trip to Valle de Guadalupe in Baja Wine Country
- a WordPress website by ZDDesign
- a BottleWise Rollup wine travel case
Interested?
Then read the full submission guidelines and get writing.
Deadline for submissions is November 31, 2012
Sphere: Related Content
Monday, March 19, 2012
Wanderlust Magazine's travel writing advice...
Travel magazine Wanderlust has published a few online articles focusing on travel writing...
Peter Moore, Wanderlust's associate web editor and author of six travel narratives, provides tips on How to convince a publisher to put out your travel book.
Peter Whitfield, author of Travel: A Literary History, offers 7 top tips to be a better travel writer
Book editor Jennifer Barclay gives the inside scoop on how to get your travel book published
Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...
Monday, March 12, 2012
Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...
1. Enhance Your Freelance Writing Career with These 5 Tips
2. The Author’s Guide to Social Media: How to build your media empire and take over the internet.
3. Freelance Focus: How to Pitch a Column, Part 1
4. 18 Online Tools for Freelance Writers that Help Boost Productivity [Part 2]
5. Build Your Arsenal to Better Promote Your Freelance Writing
Monday, March 05, 2012
Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Travelllll.com is hiring writers...
Travelllll.com, a travel blogging and media news site, is looking for a few good writers to provide content on travel blogging trends and the latest trends, news, and products in the online travel market.
What they are looking for...
If that sounds like you, head on over to Travelllll.com to find out how to apply.
- People who are passionate about the travel industry. We’re looking for two people who are on the bubble when it comes to the latest trends, news, and products in the online travel market.
- Good writers. We’re looking for people who can craft some English prose. You don’t have to be Shakespeare. But you should feel pretty comfortable with your abilities.
- Social media enthusiasts. We write about the online travel industry, not the destinations. You’ve got to have an interest in how travel as a whole is evolving online, not just pretty beaches and where to get the best Margarita.
Sphere: Related Content
Monday, January 30, 2012
Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...
1. How to Instantly Transform Your Landing Page Images from Good to Great
2. 10 Ways Multi-blog Authors Can Stay Creative and Generate Great Posts
3. Having Trouble Getting Yourself To Write? 9 Tips
4. 8 ways freelance writers earn more by setting their sights higher
5. Are you afraid to pitch to editors? this is the reason you shouldn't be
Monday, January 02, 2012
Get writing with the 'National Travel Writing Month' project...
Need a push to get started on all those freelance writing goals that you keep promising yourself you will get onto?
Then why not give National Travel Writing Month (NaTraWriMo) a go.
It might just be the push you need.
Monitored by Lanora Mueller & Lola Akinmade Åkerström, this project is running from January 1 to 31st.
Here's the scoop...
What you're expected to do *Whether you're a travel writer, travel blogger, or travel photographer, your goal for the month of January is to send out a query, pitch, and/or letter of introduction to a publication (print or online) you'd like to see your work published in for the next 30 days.
Sign up here to get started.
* This challenge is mostly for those who are freelancers writing and/or photographing for other publications and not necessarily for their own blogs.
* We're assuming you already know how to craft a solid pitch. NaTraWriMo will not be teaching you how to write one.
* The goal is not to bombard inboxes of editors with poorly thought-out queries. Please do your research when approaching a publication and make sure your pitches are tailored to the publication's needs.
* Please remain professional when approaching publications you'd like to be published in.
How to record your progress* Once you've sent out your pitch, go to the "Daily Update" page and find the thread for the particular day you sent your pitch. You can share some information about the pitch you sent, but please - do not share the editor's name, publication, or even your idea so it doesn't get poached.
* Under "Edit Profile", update your NaTraWriMo count, and save your updates.
Sounds like just what I need to get me out of the 'procrastination' phase I find myself in a present.
But as I'm heading to Perth, Australia tomorrow for a weeks R & R, sans computer, I guess I'll have to be late to the party...
Tips on how to succeed as a freelance writer in 2012...
Looking for answers on how to succeed as a freelance writer?
Then head on over to The Renegade Writer and have a read of their 'ultimate guide to succeeding as a freelancer in 2012'.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Video: TED Talk about 5 million books and Google Labs' Ngram Viewer...
Fascinating talk about by Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel about the many surprising things we can learn from 500 billion words and how you can search for words and ideas via Google Labs' Ngram Viewer.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Laurie Gough will conduct Travel Writing Workshop at the 2012 San Miguel Writers' Conference
Laurie Gough, author of Kite Strings of the Southern Cross and Kiss the Sunset Pig, will be leading a ninety minute 'Introduction to Travel Writing' workshop at the 7th Annual San Miguel Writers' Conference.
Gough is just one of the 42+ great speakers lined up for this bilingual conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in February 2012.
