Travel Blog Theory

Travel Journal Theory
Ouidah Benin
Monday, September 11, 2006

I like to write, I like to enter information in my diary of sorts. It helps me immensely to understand a country, culture and to work through ideas, plan; there are numerous benefits to blogging.

I do like to connect a photo.

It is easy to put up many photos, however to put up one photo now takes as much time as a page of photos.

Travel Journal Theory
Ok, I am not able to totally ignore readers of my blog, I try, however I at the end of the day a business, wanting to greatly increase readership whereby I make more money. Having more money I can pay my way around landmines of expensive travel problems.
Example: How to pay to go to Antarctica.

I am not on vacation; I do not earn money, then go travel. I am hobo; I earn money as I travel, in the place as I can… I must earn money in every location.

I was telling Stellan from Sweden how to blog, and realized I dropped the ball on my own advice. Saying a good photo, with a story, examples in photos, then explained in word make the reader happy.

I said,
- Think of a magazine article. -
- But written on your blog. -

Chicken and Egg theory, what came first the Photo or the Story. This is easy for me, the thoughts came first.

Truth…
Honesty…

I take many photos, I wander around, I see thing, I observe, yet I do not know why or what I am looking at, I am only curious. Then slowly the same same continues, there is a common, collaborated photo that I am able to take that evolves. I can see many of the same, the culture has many of this X, and I can see that it is part of the culture, not some aberration, exception, odd piece of the culture.

After I think this, or more correct, while I think it, I blog, later I find more photos to collaborate what I blogged about. If, I blog daily it is too late, the posting is already up and at them, I could add a photo, but be real, I am in Africa, not in a 24 hour per day connection to anything world.

A good Travel Story is impossible to check, pulls on the heartstrings, sells a myth, blames the rich, and make all poor look like saints.

THIS the stories I read, nothing to do with truth.

A true story will explain something like the Saddu in India was drunk on his butt, or a beggar stole a many wallet when he was not looking.

However this is my evolved theory of writing a story, I suppose what an editor would slowly steer any write towards.

1. Attention Grabbing Title:
Note, I make google.com grabbing title, knowing it has to be read first. A person has to find the post to be read. The number one failure in blog post, making the site findable.

2. A quote, something that is fun, interesting and supports the overall opinion or story. The name of the person who is being quoted needs to be well known by the readers so they relate, and then the creditability of the person being quoted will be transferred to the storywriter. He agrees, so you should agree with me.

3. Photo
Good photos supporting the story get rid of the too much information in one photo problem. Focus on one subject in the photos. Present many views.

NOTE: Added later…
If you delay your blog for maybe 5 days or less, however delayed, write what you are thinking about, then put tack a note to your forehead, that says,
- Take a Photo of X, that support this blog post. -
You will write about what you feel, however help the reader to understand. I unfortunately believe most blogger collect photos and think until they can write a story. That to me is not a diary, more of writing stories. The cleaning of confusion, the process of learning about a place, the ying, the yang, the whole confusing karma experience allows me to enjoy blogging. If I made it all make sense, always being cogent and consistent, I would sacrifice myself, for someone else, deny myself the experience of thinking, musing, wondering about this wandering of the planet, and all the wonders.

4. Digital, NOT paper.
This is digital, if a person wants, they can put up 100 photos, I see as many photos as needed to explain the story. This can be too many for time when explaining something like how sugar is processed.

5. Beginning, middle and end.
A complete thought, only one though, only one subject, full of opinions on how the writer feels and thinks.
6. Links to sources, references, and pages that are related, this will get reciprocal links, as the page you referenced will maybe eventually discover the links and link back. Note, professors, colleges, and this type of page are not maintained, they do not tend to link back and the links often break. Better to chop out the needed phrase, the push the links, hoping they do not break. Most links eventually break, About.com, Wikipedia.org, or only major sites are a way to be better. Deletion of links is a very stupid things webmaster do, a problem in HoboTraveler.com. I have to constantly stop any new site from just wiping out old links, or not making a referral link, that leads to the new pages. Never delete a link.

7. Announce the story…
Yuk Yuk Yuk, marketing, I wrote the world greatest story on Africa and nobody read, there is nobody on the page, it has no HITS. - How IDIOTS test Success. The number of Unique Visitors is zero.
RSS Feeds
Atom
Yahoogroups.
Googlegroups.
There are hundreds of sites that will publish a newsletter, an RSS feed, an Atom and other more techie thingies. This is a complicated and confusing aspect of marketing a blog post.
SEO and Announcing the blog is the two problems with bloggers, they think the story carries itself, and maybe if they are an idiot, like to write trash, be controversial and agree with all the myths, like saying the persons think their souls are being stolen by the camera. This is a myth now; people know what cameras are now. However, if they wish to repeat old ideas, old nonsense, support mythical stuff they can be famous overnight, no respectable person will think good of them, however the masse will eat anything hook line and sinker.

8. Get paper or magazine exposure.
A person can do a press release, and pay to get this; it not like some journalist is doing some research and finds you. 99 percent of people self promote because of a desire to be famous.
Hiring a press release distribution service, about 400-600 dollars per pop. I have NEVER done this, think about it, however I fear a crashing of my Hosting computer as I know, there is only about 3000 person going to be able to look and then, the computer crashes. Load balancing is the solution, however one major article in a major offline publication will crash the site, the host says no, I say yes…hehehe.

HOW
How can I put photos, quotes, etc in quickly, not impossible, but it takes lots of practice and experimenting to come up with a methodology that allow me to do this as quickly as I type.

VARIABLES
- Folder full of photos, I can view as thumbnails.
- Make the link, I can do this with the program macro express quick, fast and accurate, I can also copy and paste, however time consuming because I must leave the page I am typing on.
- Quotes - Encarta Encyclopedia has many if I wished or wanted. I personally do not feel the ambition to support my own beliefs. I believe in my own thoughts.
- Publishing: This is the huge problem, what seemed to be perfectly constructed, connected, and done to perfection has a few errors. Then as is now the problem I can never say where the internet will work sufficiently well to publish easily. Is there a way for me to connect my computer, do I need to use a USB, etc, Flash drive, etc. What is possible to do in the internet café.
- The long-term POSSIBLE solution is to have a BGAN Satellite system I carry, 10 dollars U.S. per meg, the word are small, the photos can cost a fortune, or maybe a GPRS Cell phone system, the problem here is every country is different to connect I have to go to the headquarters of this company. Have them configure, impossible to do any overland, over many country trip. Then there is the weigh problem, I carry double what others are too lazy to do. They need to stop saving pennies though and use a taxi, I do not carry my backpack, in Europe, and I buy a two-wheel cart. Europe is the worst for big heavy backpacks.

Connecting the dots, thinking it through allowing the readers to join in the confusion, to me this is a travel blog. Any made for prime time, too much work done, every post is picture perfect seems ridiculous. The person is posturing, there is no way they can write, type, and explain the thousands of things they see quickly and do perfect. The enjoyment is in talking, musing, and blogging to myself. The logging, writing, journaling helps me to understand a world that never ends.

On a business them, I think one post will make 80 cents U.S. per year, thus the reason for separate thoughts, and good google.com happy titles. SEO and all the buzzwords. 80 cents per year, 10 years and you made 10 dollars per hour, if you did only one. It is a residual income, not a big hit income.

QUOTE:
Has anyone here been raped and speaks English?

Anonymous
Said to have been shouted by a television journalist to a group of Belgian civilians waiting to be evacuated from the Congo in 1960 (2)

ME QUOTE
- I would think, anyone want to be famous, on TV and say what we want you to say to support our totally controversial and guaranteed to make people angry story. Nothing to do with the truth, but you can be on TV.-

What come first, photo, story, the story idea, the assumptions. A good story can takes years to compile and more money and energy than anyone wishes to devote. A book needs to be written to make enough to even justify, and then there is only hope.

QUOTE:
Have you noticed that life, real honest to goodness life, with murders and catastrophes and fabulous inheritances, happens almost exclusively in newspapers?

Jean Anouilh (1910 - 1987)
French dramatist.

QUOTE;
The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800 - 1859)
British politician, historian, and writer.

Referring to the press gallery in the British Parliament.
Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review, "On Hallam's Constitutional History"

ME
- Nothing matters and what if it did? -
At the beginning of the day, I drink a cup of coffee, at the end of the day, I fall asleep, all the noise in the middle is entertainment, and I like to be entertained. However, really, is all this that important, the answer is no. Do not fret, there will be a disaster daily, a catastrophe and some made to sell hogwash spoon-fed daily. Enjoy you dose, it is entertainment not reality.

Travel Journal Theory

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1 comments

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Hi Andy:

Nice entry about posting a blog entry. I have referred to your posting in one of my own, Making my blog work , about my experience so far with my travel blog.

My friend Karthik also recommended a decent article called, 5 ways to building a better blog.

Cheers,
Mark

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