What better way to examine the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations of trying to break into the blogosphere than to follow the confessions of a new Blogger.
Jools Stone is based in Edinburgh, UK and joined our Blog network a couple of weeks ago with his new Blog ‘He Thought of Trains‘. Writing a Blog is something new for Jools and alongside his main content focus – train travel – he has been sharing a great insight into the experience of getting started.
This is a collection of excerpts from Jools’ posts that refer to his first month Blogging experience.
Jools attends an Edinburgh Tweet up / Flickr photo from He Thought of Trains
All Aboard (and a thousand other clichés!) | 11 Jul 2010
A very warm welcome to He Thought of Trains, just another sad armchair globetrotter’s paean to the magic and mystique of international rail travel in the digital age. But it’s not all trains, to paraphrase Vic and Bob. I expect there’ll be general stuff on travel and travel writing, books, film, music and other pop culture, plus probably all manner of weird and wonderful things I’ll stumble upon in this big old sphere of blog. I’m excited about my foolhardy journey into the depths of cyberspace, but fairly self conscious too. I’ve barely stepped on to the platform and already the niggling self doubt has crept in. What if no one reads this, shuns it with cool indifference or worse still I’m sneered into humiliating retreat? Who the hell am I and what do I know anyway?
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
Should I backtrack for Flightster? | 25 Jul, 2010
Every now and then I have myself a cursory mooch on the Problogger Jobs Board. It’s rarely an inspiring use of my time, trawling through swathes of posts from content farms and ten bob blogpimps who want the moon on the stick in exchange for penny-a-word rates. But today I stumbled upon (I wonder how long it will take in the (d)evolution of our language before the two words actually morph into one in everyday usage? ) an intriguing posting from an outfit called Flightster. Now, not only are they seeking travel bloggers but they’re actually offering to pay them a pretty respectable rate by online standards: $75-100 per post. Yes, I read it twice myself.
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
Edinburgh TweetUp Hatches | Jul 27, 2010
I attended my first ever tweetup in Edinburgh last weekend. A great experience all round. This took place in St Giles Cafe (and NOT the St Giles Cathedral Cafe where I first went – which reminds me, £5 for a thimble of coffee and slab of oozy lemon cake, WTF??) near the Mound on the somewhat tenuous pretext of combining it with a visit to the Taste of Spain event nearby. I confess to being a little apprehensive beforehand. I had visions of everyone hunched over their notebooks engrossed in frantic tweet streams-of-consciousness, but thankfully it was a lot more ‘normal’ than that. Just a regular bunch of friendly travel bloggers enjoying a drink on an irregularly clement day in Embra, swapping tips, stories and gossip.
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
When will trains catch planes? | Aug 2, 2010
My legion of loyal subscribers (all 3 of them) may be wondering by now if I’ve run out of steam. I haven’t posted for about a week and I’m getting the heebie-jeebies about it. Oh I know, I’ve missed you too. The truth is I’ve been getting a little distracted and despondent recently. I’ve read that many blogs don’t survive their first month in the wild, so this landmark has been hovering over me psychologically like a giant swinging axe from one of those annoyingly hard platform games. So what the blazes have I been up to then? Well, I’ve discovered the joys of twex, been commenting like mad on other travel blogs I’ve enjoyed, got active on the TBEX discussion boards and volunteered my services for various guest blogging gigs. I’ve even met some real, live, flesh and blood travel bloggers right on my own damp doorstep (well, not RIGHT on my doorstep that would be a bit freaky.) All this good stuff has spurred me on a little but it hasn’t had any tangible impact on traffic which has seriously nosedived more in the last week than Will Self in a BA toilet. Nor has it helped me to stockpile future posts that you dear readers might want to read.
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
The trouble with other people’s rail travel blogs | Aug 3, 2010
There’s no shortage of ’travelogue style’ rail blogs out there. I’ve found so many it’s not even interesting. These are fine for people just wanting to record their trips while still fresh in their minds and share them with jealous friends and family back home, some of them have fun anecdotes and one or two nice pics, but few of them transcend this. Usually they survive only as long as the journey themselves and the afterglow of the bloggers’ memories.
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
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What it’s like to start a Blog
What better way to examine the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations of trying to break into the blogosphere than to follow the confessions of a new Blogger.
Jools Stone is based in Edinburgh, UK and joined our Blog network a couple of weeks ago with his new Blog ‘He Thought of Trains‘. Writing a Blog is something new for Jools and alongside his main content focus – train travel – he has been sharing a great insight into the experience of getting started.
This is a collection of excerpts from Jools’ posts that refer to his first month Blogging experience.
Jools attends an Edinburgh Tweet up / Flickr photo from He Thought of Trains
All Aboard (and a thousand other clichés!) | 11 Jul 2010
A very warm welcome to He Thought of Trains, just another sad armchair globetrotter’s paean to the magic and mystique of international rail travel in the digital age. But it’s not all trains, to paraphrase Vic and Bob. I expect there’ll be general stuff on travel and travel writing, books, film, music and other pop culture, plus probably all manner of weird and wonderful things I’ll stumble upon in this big old sphere of blog. I’m excited about my foolhardy journey into the depths of cyberspace, but fairly self conscious too. I’ve barely stepped on to the platform and already the niggling self doubt has crept in. What if no one reads this, shuns it with cool indifference or worse still I’m sneered into humiliating retreat? Who the hell am I and what do I know anyway?
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
Should I backtrack for Flightster? | 25 Jul, 2010
Every now and then I have myself a cursory mooch on the Problogger Jobs Board. It’s rarely an inspiring use of my time, trawling through swathes of posts from content farms and ten bob blogpimps who want the moon on the stick in exchange for penny-a-word rates. But today I stumbled upon (I wonder how long it will take in the (d)evolution of our language before the two words actually morph into one in everyday usage? ) an intriguing posting from an outfit called Flightster. Now, not only are they seeking travel bloggers but they’re actually offering to pay them a pretty respectable rate by online standards: $75-100 per post. Yes, I read it twice myself.
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
Edinburgh TweetUp Hatches | Jul 27, 2010
I attended my first ever tweetup in Edinburgh last weekend. A great experience all round. This took place in St Giles Cafe (and NOT the St Giles Cathedral Cafe where I first went – which reminds me, £5 for a thimble of coffee and slab of oozy lemon cake, WTF??) near the Mound on the somewhat tenuous pretext of combining it with a visit to the Taste of Spain event nearby. I confess to being a little apprehensive beforehand. I had visions of everyone hunched over their notebooks engrossed in frantic tweet streams-of-consciousness, but thankfully it was a lot more ‘normal’ than that. Just a regular bunch of friendly travel bloggers enjoying a drink on an irregularly clement day in Embra, swapping tips, stories and gossip.
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
When will trains catch planes? | Aug 2, 2010
My legion of loyal subscribers (all 3 of them) may be wondering by now if I’ve run out of steam. I haven’t posted for about a week and I’m getting the heebie-jeebies about it. Oh I know, I’ve missed you too. The truth is I’ve been getting a little distracted and despondent recently. I’ve read that many blogs don’t survive their first month in the wild, so this landmark has been hovering over me psychologically like a giant swinging axe from one of those annoyingly hard platform games. So what the blazes have I been up to then? Well, I’ve discovered the joys of twex, been commenting like mad on other travel blogs I’ve enjoyed, got active on the TBEX discussion boards and volunteered my services for various guest blogging gigs. I’ve even met some real, live, flesh and blood travel bloggers right on my own damp doorstep (well, not RIGHT on my doorstep that would be a bit freaky.) All this good stuff has spurred me on a little but it hasn’t had any tangible impact on traffic which has seriously nosedived more in the last week than Will Self in a BA toilet. Nor has it helped me to stockpile future posts that you dear readers might want to read.
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
The trouble with other people’s rail travel blogs | Aug 3, 2010
There’s no shortage of ’travelogue style’ rail blogs out there. I’ve found so many it’s not even interesting. These are fine for people just wanting to record their trips while still fresh in their minds and share them with jealous friends and family back home, some of them have fun anecdotes and one or two nice pics, but few of them transcend this. Usually they survive only as long as the journey themselves and the afterglow of the bloggers’ memories.
Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains
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