DISQUS

Hey, I'll help rip off McCray! :)

I've begun to build my personal blog, Sheila Guides You To The Good Stuff, in an effort to develop something that is not anyone else's template, not on anyone else's network and is not a collaboration with anyone else.

I'm still happy to keeping doing most of my other bloggy stuff, but now that I'm focusing more on the intersection between travel/tourism/economic development and the social Web, I want my own home.

It's only a little guy just yet, but click my name and leave a comment somewhere to say Hi! Thanks for your support, Todd.

Thanks for this, Chris. When I blog about travel I do like to include local businesses, but it frankly hadn't occurred to me to write about any where I live, in Round Rock (just north of Austin.)

I see an opportunity, though - a new coffeeshop sort of place is opening soon on Round Rock's nice little Main Street (Friar Tuck's Pantry - http://www.friartuckspantry.com/) and I've spoken with the owners about doing some weekly Jelly Coworking there once they're up and running. Now I'll think about a good blogging angle, too. Thanks!

I used to live in Gainesville FL, and my first big travel writing break was an article about this part of North Central Florida. Paynes Prairie and Micanopy are wonderful; thanks for highlighting them!

Thanks so much for this post, Chris. I'm a writer specializing in travel, and one of my personal missions is to highlight the "small and unusual" places and events when I travel.

A blog is perfect for that, but as others have mentioned, the tourism industry as a whole is only now waking up to what we can do for their destination. I just returned from a major travel media conference (got to meet 3 of the 4 Traveling Mamas there, yay!) and you could count the bloggers in the room on, well, maybe a hand and a half. Most seem to know that "something" of value to them is "out there," but they're so worried about trolls and silliness that they don't engage.

One thing I've done for outreach is offer tourism bureaus a chance to write a guest post about their kid-friendly attractions for my Family Travel Logue on BootsnAll. I've had ONE office take me up on it - the Iowa Tourism Office - and Jessica O'Riley from there did a super job and really enjoyed interacting in the comments.

Crickets chirp as I wait on the rest, but kudos to the places like Philadelphia PA that are active and engaged all over the Web.

Thanks for your thoughtful commentary, and for reaching out to your readership.

I've only begun reading your blog and following you on Twitter within the last year, but so far, you have intro'd me to Kyte and Qik (so I can tell others about streaming from a cell phone although mine can't do it,) you've told me about Sifry's Offbeat Guides (I just ordered one yesterday for Grand Rapids, MI - there's a beta test!) you've told me about FriendFeed and why you like it so much (I'm not that into it but thanks to you I can understand the appeal of better threading, like Plurk) and I've downloaded the Microsoft telescope thingie but just haven't had time to look at it, though I know it'll be great when I do. Finally, I met Rocky because of you, and now I can say Hi to him occasionally on Twitter and keep him updated on drag racing news.

I'm a "regular Joe" writer with a busy life who likes having you out there "on point" for me - you're my own personal tech scout.

You bring enthusiasm and kindness to a medium that is too often in danger of snarkifying itself. The fact that you sit back and think out loud about self-improvement like this is testament to your professionalism and genuine regard for your readers.

Thanks for what you do - keep writing and I'll keep reading.

Nice post, Chris.

I'm glad you mentioned an editorial calendar. It is standard procedure at magazines and newspapers, and most all-print writers are quite familiar with organizing their workflow this way, but too many bloggers haven't heard of the concept (they just know that there's GOT to be some way to organize their idea/post flow.)

I also recommend the concept of "zero-ing in" on a topic. For example, I tell travel bloggers that a broad overview of, say, Paris, is a nice post, but you can also get tons of posts and blogging mileage if you zoom in to those little details and nuggets that make a place special. Post about a single great baguette bakery, a single Paris Metro line that has interesting stops, a single piece of music that you heard in a Paris bistro that added to your enjoyment, etc.

Here's an example from one of my travel blogs: a post about a small brewery near my former home in the Netherlands - nothing earth-shattering, but was fun to write and literally gave a flavor of the region: Dutch daily life: swing by the brouwerij (brewery.)

Viewing something through a restrictive "soda straw," rather than looking at the the big picture all the time, is the "staff of life" for a writer/blogger.

Thanks for this, Robert. Enlightenment is slow but it's coming, and meantime I had great fun discussing ANWR drilling last night on Twitter with @johnculberson - democracy is a wonderful thing.

Chris, thanks for your emphasis on Alltop's utility for the 98% of the world that doesn't know and doesn't much care how to find an RSS feed or sign up for one.

When I talk about social media/Web 2.0 with folks like that, they know very little about any of it besides blogs, and they often ask how to "find the good stuff" quickly. They do not want a tutorial on Bloglines vs Google Reader.

I used to send them to Technorati, but now I send them to Google Blog Search and Alltop. With two travel blogs on Alltop, I'm biased towards the site, but I do like its ease of use and catholic approach to selecting blogs across topic areas.

When people would ask me how to find "good blogs," I used to suggest a search on Technorati to get them started.

Now, I send them to Alltop.

I think most of the buzz about the Gawker memo is not about asshat posts; it's about whether Gawker bloggers should put up with an asshat boss, whatever the pay scale/bonus structure.

So, Robert, just don't be an asshat. :)

This was a fun read (I'm an Underdog fan, myself.) I'm so glad for cartoons like SpongeBob that are inane enough for kids and funny enough for adults. Every time I see the "Sailor Mouth" episode come on, my children point at me. :)

Can't make it to SF, but I have visited the Flying Boat Museum at Foynes, and had one where it was created. :)

What a sweet photo, and I'm so glad everything turned out OK for both of you. Congratulations!

Yeah, so true, I get some strange looks when I just talk about blogging, to say nothing of Twitter!

I think it was Chris Brogan who wrote that instead of answering the canned Twitter question, "What are you doing now?" it's better to tweet about "What's on your mind right now?"

Depending on which crowd I'm with, I'm either hopelessly retro/vintage or the most wild-eyed, bleeding-edge techie in the world. The key thing is to keep moving around in different crowds so I never forget that I'm confused. :)

Hi Chris,

Great to meet you at Blogtoberfest, by the way.

Part of my personality has always been to pick up rocks and look under them, or point out the 800 lb gorillas in the room. I don't do it to be a jerk; I'm just curious.

I'm very new to a lot of the social media apps, but it seems that not very many of my travel writer buddies are talking much about them beyond blogs. If I Google the topic, I get a bunch of links from travel companies and travel PR firms that are trying to figure out how to make money from it, but not many from straight-stick travel writers.

Since part of my brand is to provide practical travel info, I decided to take a swipe at it myself. Last night, I wrote a Perceptive Travel blog post 6 ways travelers can use social media.

It's laughably basic stuff from a tech expert perspective, but it's very new to many of my readers, so I don't mind looking dumb.

That's how I used social media to extend my brand, aka "Sheila who looks at the weird stuff." :)

I'm the least "early adopter" person you'll meet, but jumped right into blogging at age 45 and just drank the Twitter Kool-Aid last month at 46.

Ballmer is missing the boat, big-time. I know it must pain you as a former Softie. :(

Wow, I decided that I've been blogging long enough to start reading Scoble, so I just subscribed to your feed and find you in the throes of new fatherhood and the great nursing flapola.

Congrats on the baby, and hang in there. I nursed my daughter for almost a year and my son for a year and a half while on Navy active duty (it was shore duty at the time, but still.) The first few weeks can be kinda rough, but be pig-headed and stick with it. It's best for the baby and best for Mom, and the convenience can't be beat.

Check out www.motherwear.com for great nursing tops that make the whole process quite discreet and comfortable. The average guy I ran into while nursing my baby in public never had a clue what I was doing; they just thought I was holding a sleeping baby.

Hey Tim,

Just wanted to say congratulations; I've been following your successes since we met earlier this year at SXSW, and it's no surprise to me that you've done so well. Hope to run into you again soon!

While I second the noms for "The Renegade Writer" and anything by Marcia Yudkin, I'd go with Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird."

She is screamingly funny and self-deprecating, and it's so nice to know that she, too, writes "Sh**tty First Drafts" (one of the book's chapters.)