Category: Blogging

Some Concerns about Tips From The T-List

Tips From The T-List Banner

After three conferences with dedicated sites, the initiators of Tips from the T-List decided to start a more permanent site.

The site and its lay out need urgent attention imo!

  1. My main complaint is that the RSS feeds don’t work as they should: During a certain period of time they produced duplicate content. That has been taken care of in the meantime. The feeds are intentionally delayed. However to me it seems that the feeds are not added automatically with a delay of one or two days, while I believe they should. The time lag is so big the Blog loses momentum.
  2. Contributers to the site should be able to withdraw posts they deem less suited to publish over at Tips from the T-List.
  3. Contributers to the site should be able to edit posts. I understand the need of some over all editing of the site, but it is clear from looking at the site for some time now that the editors have very little time available for the editing;
  4. The navigation of the site needs attention, because it is not easy to wade through. I don’t like the difference between tabs and categories. Throughout the site there is no consistency.

All in all Tips From The T-List doesn’t take off as it should. Presently there are only 30 some travel related bloggers putting together their content. WiWiH has travel blogging as a lesser priority than its other activities and therefore was not chosen to act as a platform for the Tips from the T-List posse. Nevertheless WiWiH performs far better better imo. It gives you a clear overview of some travel blogging.The new startup Alltop’s Travel Alltop with currently 81 Blogs featured even gives a far better overview.

The income from the site

The initiators have announced that all income from the site goes to a good cause. I am glad they announced that. No fear anymore that they will earn some Adsense cents over my content. However I was not asked neither informed on beforehand that they would open up the site for advertising. Maybe I don’t like advertising at all….

The various agendas from Travel Bloggers

During ITB Berlin Bloggers summit it became apparent to me that the initiators of Tips From The T-List have their own limited area of interest, which is internet marketing for travel. I have a feeling that their main aim is to convince travel providers that they should listen to and engage travel bloggers as a marketing tool. There is nothing against that idea, but I am afraid that when one looks at the huge reservoir of thousands of Travel Bloggers, they forget they could make a far bigger Travel Community than Tips From the T-List is doing presently and consequently are losing big opportunities and huge momentum.

In my prior post I noted that Hotel Blogs Org, another Travel Bloggers aggregator presently seems to be hacked. I am sure the participants won’t like to be part of that. I wouldn’t. However Hotel Blogs seemed becoming a far better sharing tool than Tips From The T-List is at present.

Some Travel Bloggers don’t want to be part of Tips From The T-List because they are afraid they might jeopardize their Google ranking.

Some other Travel Bloggers don’t want to be part of Tips From The T-List, because direct competitors of them are behind the site.

It is my strong conviction that Blogging is sharing and not only sharing what you deem in your own commercial interest. I myself for instance have blogged about a fellow small hotel that blatantly had stolen the look and feel of the website of my own hotel. In another instance I have written about the opening of another hotel that is a direct competitor. A Blogger should be as impartial as possible without becoming impersonal.

Dear Friends can’t we finally bridge these gaps?

Finally we should reconsider its name: T-List
While every startup nowadays seems to reconsider its name, I suggest we reconsider T-List as a name for a posse of Travel Related Bloggers.

Create a Google alert for “T-list” and see what happens: All sorts of post are reported by Google:
Sh*t List
I don’t list
won’t list
didn’t list
can’t list
doesn’t list
weren’t’ list

All very negative.

Let’s go positive!

Maybe Travel Bloggers Posse could be a better name? Anybody a better idea?

Or should we just forget about the T-List and go on with TravelTwit.com solely?

Winding Down from ITB Berlin part 2: The Travel Bloggers

I have to get this post off my chest, be it for mere reference for myself, but also as preparation for the tagging of the many photos I took and uploaded already.

Here are the travel bloggers that were listed for the Berlin ITB Bloggers summit:

  • Ram Badrinathan PHOCUSWRIGHT (India)
    Ram commented that only recently he started to blog, but also started to like it.
  • William Bakker WILHELMUS (The Netherlands / Canada). Nice to meet, dine and talk with. He was blogging and twittering on the fly as a real professional.
  • Annalisa Ballaria RELACTIONS (Italy) Unfortunately I had no chance to talk to her.
  • Florian Bauhuber TOURISMUSZUKUNFT.DE (Germany)
  • Claude Benard LES EXPLORERS (France). Nice to meet, dine and talk with.
  • Vicky Brock TRACKING TOURISM (Scotland). Nice to meet, dine and talk with.
  • Karen Bryan EUROPE A LA CARTE (U.K.). Nice to meet, dine and talk with. She came in rather agitated because she had booked in a Hostel right across Berlin, only to find out early in the morning that public transport in Berlin was on strike.
  • Stephen Budd TRACKING TOURISM (Scotland). Nice to meet, dine and talk with. I’ll nickname him “Our Professor”, because he has already forgotten what I still have to learn:-)
  • Joe Buhler TRAVEL MARKETING IN THE AGE OF WEB 2.0 & BEYOND (U.S.). Nice to meet, drink and talk with. Our Veteran Hospitality Guru
  • Philip Caines TOURISM TIDE (Canada). One of the initiators of the Book Tips from the T-List.
  • Martin Cowen TRAVOLUTION (U.K.) Newly arrived at the Travolution crew.
  • Darren Cronian TRAVEL RANTS (U.K.). Who missed his train and unfortunately couldn’t make it.
  • Ralf Eggert TRAVELLO (Germany).
  • Klaus Hildebrandt FVW (Germany).
  • Yeoh Siew Hoon THE TRANSIT CAFE (Singapore). Our Asian Travel Guru.
  • Jamie Horwitz CANADIAN TOURISM (Canada). Nice to meet, dine and talk with. The lonesome hockey fan who took it upon him to solely make Mexican travelers understand Canada better as a travel destination.
  • Stephen Joyce TRAVEL & TOURISM TECHNOLOGY TRENDS (Canada). Another initiator of The Tips from the T-List book.
  • Kevin May TRAVOLUTION (U.K.). The editor of The Industry blog who can listen and write and edit at once. I envied him.
  • Detlef Meyer ROUNDTRIP (Germany)
    Who seemed a bit busy with other appointments at the Fair.
  • Abbas Nokhasteh OPENVIZOR (U.K.). Not a Blogger per se, but trendy he is!
  • Jens Oellrich TOURISMUSZUKUNFT.DE (Germany)
  • Goetz A. Primke LE GOURMAND (Germany). Likes Girls (who doesn’t:-).
  • Eckart Reiche OPENTS (Germany).
  • Henri Roelings WIWIH (WHO IS WHO IN HOSPITALITY) (The Netherlands). Watch my sleeping with Henri post.
  • Bruce Rosard PHOCUSWRIGHT (U.S.). A swell guy.
  • Karin Schmollgruber FASTENYOURSEATBELTS (Austria), who unfortunately couldn’t make it due to the strike.
  • Carlo Alvarez Spagnolo TEXTING ALL OVER THE WORDS (Spain).
  • Ludolf Stavenga REISPORTALS (The Netherlands).
  • Jens Thraenhart TOURISM INTERNET MARKETING (Germany / Canada). The third Tips from the T-List initiator.
  • Guido Van Den Elshout HAPPY HOTELIER (The Netherlands), yes, Yours Truly.
  • Dr. Klemens Waldh BLOGS IN TOURISM (Austria).

I intend to add the photos later.

Do You Woopra? You Should!

Woopra Screen

It was Lorelle VanFossen (from her Family name I guess she or her hubby has Dutch ancestry), avid WordPress advocate, who drew my attention to Woopra with her post Whooping Woopra Blog Statistics Program, starting as follows:

I’m rarely totally and completely blown away by anything, and yesterday at Dallas WordCamp, John Pozadzides of One Man’s Blog, who works together on this project with Elie El Khoury [italics added by HH], who blew the whole crowd away with his new blog statistics program, Woopra.

I now fully concur with Lorella’s observation. I am not such a stats lover that I write for my stats. I blog because I find blogging a reasonable orderly way of cataloging my work / life / interests / finds for myself and sharing them with my readers. I use my stats mainly out of curiosity, because it shows me how people land on my site and what they are interested in. It always gives me (too) many ideas what to write about.

What is Woopra?

Woopra is not just another stats program, it is the re invention of the blog stats program.

Still a Private Beta
It was launched recently. Is still in private Beta. It is a small 4 man operation. You can sign in on their site. Then it takes quite some time before they let you in, because the demo at Dallas WordCamp drew so much attention that they can’t handle all requests in a timely way.

My short experience
I signed up shortly after Lorella’s post dated March 30, 2008. My patience was honored and I was let in on April 27.

I am in the process of installing several new workstations and a new server. Especially for Woopra I now have installed a second screen that constantly features Woopra. It is fascinating to see readers check in real life. You can see where they landed from, which search terms they used, where they land and which posts or pages or categories they read. It is almost too addictive and together with Twitter makes me forget Face book entirely.

Woopra has a built in chat functionality. I have tried it out with some of my readers and it works. I presume it scares the hell out of a reader when he gets a pop up screen out of nowhere and there are some concerns about the safety of the chat function. I take it that has to be ironed out yet. Also they have a plug in for WordPress that I haven’t even downloaded yet. You can tag your readers, so you can really start communicating with them if you wish via the Chat box. Twitter or mail.

For me the biggest surprise is that Woopra shows me that from all my posts here the two posts that draw the most readers are almost totally unrelated with my main subjects.

I suggest you check it out!

Update

If you want to see other peoples raves on Twitter, just check out Tweet Scan on Woopra. A link I found through a visitor just a few minutes ago.

May 15: Bloggers Unite!

In an initiative to unite the power of bloggers around the world BlogCatalog has launched BlogCatalog – Blogging For Hope, an initiative to pay attention to human rights worldwide.

I second the initiative and would like to address three items myself:

  • I would like all Authorities to reconsider their post 9/11 madness with fingerprinting everyone and everybody who wants to travel, apply for a passport or for a visum. See my post The Finger of Suspicion;
  • I would like to ask the Olympic Games athletes to follow the suggestion and be colored orange/red during the opening ceremony to draw silent attention to what China did and does in and with Tibet. Visit Amnesty’s page China: Olympic Legacy;
  • I would like the USA to reconsider their policy of keeping “terrorists” outside of their fine jurisdiction in Guantanamo Bay. Please visit Amnesty International’s Denounce Torture: Get Involved! I do hope a new Democratic oriented US Government will terminate this shameful theater;

Travelrants wins Travolution Consumer Travel Blog Award

Travelrants

Travel Blog author Darren Cronian has won the Travolution Award for best consumer travel blog with his Blog Travel Rants.

He was chosen from the following shortlist:

  • Travel Rants (Darren Cronian)
  • TravelMail Blog (various authors)
  • Viator Blog (various authors)
  • Select World Travel (Lee Harrison)

I believe winning from these great blogs will add extra to this award for Darren.

The Laudatio says:

Darren Cronian has single-handedly set the benchmark to which other consumer-focussed blogs should aspire. Controversial, relevant, thorough and, perhaps most tellingly, much better than something mainstream media organisations are trying to achieve.

In the week before the award Darren was very nervous and even in bed with the flu.

I wasn’t aware how nervous he was until, only after I had heard of his success on Twitter, I red his post Travel Awards and Blogging:

I’m not sure why but I’m nervous about the awards; I’m not too great around people I don’t know, and what about if I do win, the thought of getting up and collecting my award – nervous.

I still remember fondly that Darren once kicked my *ss to go on with blogging and he became a real virtual friend in the meantime: Never hesitating to share his experiences with anyone.

Keep on the good work Darren !