The Travelbloggers Fundraise For The Heifer Foundation with ‘Passports with Purpose’ Raffle...

Looks like the holiday season is in full throttle now, with everyone focusing on shopping, planning, and organizing their Christmas holidays. Sometimes with all the holiday hype, it's hard to remember that a large percentage of the world can barely put food on their table, let alone buy extravagent presents and travel long distances to gather with family and friends.

This year, some Seattle based travelbloggers - Pam Mandel from Nerd's Eye View, Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick, Debbie Dubrow from Delicious Baby, and Michelle Duffy of WanderMom - (all of whom I include amongst my cyber-friends) have created Passports with Purpose, a travelblogging fundraiser for the Heifer Foundation. It’s a great way of giving something to those who have very little.

The Heifer Foundation, for those who don't know, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to eliminate hunger and poverty around the globe.

Here's how Passports with Purpose will work...

- Various travelbloggers from around cyberspace (and the world) have spent the last couple of weeks gathering great prizes to raffle off.
-Starting tomorrow (1st December) each of these travelbloggers will post about Passports with Purpose on their blog, along with the prize that they have procured.
- readers are invited to purchase raffle tickets (at $10 each) throughout the month of December at the FirstGiving.com account set up for Passports with Purpose.
- a established raffle committee will pick the all prize winners on 30th December 2008.
- the proceeds of the raffle sales (minus minimal transaction fees to FirstGiving.com) will go directly to the Heifer Foundation.

Stop back tomorrow to see the full list of participating travel blogs and the prizes on offer, as well as exactly where to go to purchase a ticket or two...

(This is cross-posted on Perceptive Travel blog)

Two Travel Bloggers Talk About Travelblogging…

Check out this interesting podcast from Internet Marketing for Tourism. It’s host Todd is talking with travelbloggers Pam Mandel (Nerd’s Eye View) and Sheila Scarborough (Family Travel). They talk about how they became travel bloggers and how travel, tourism, and blogging can be an essential components of marketing travel experiences.

Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers…

1. 10 Things You Should Keep for Tax Purposes

2. More Tips on Managing Multiple Freelance Gigs

3. Freelancing FUBARs: 8 common mistakes

4. Write Email Subject Lines that Get Read

5. Five Great Ways to Conquer Your Fears

Win a Copy of Organic Explorer New Zealand...

Just posted about the latest edition of Organic Explorer New Zealand over at Perceptive Travel Blog.



Head on over and leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of this great book. Listing over 550 of New Zealand's artisan and eco-friendly places to eat, drink, explore, and sleep, it's a must for anyone considering a trip to the 'land of the long white cloud' or anyone who just likes to dream about beautiful places to visit...

Travel Writing Miscellanea...

The Traveling Mamas interview travel writer and blogger Nancy Brown.

Kim Mance asks Does Travel Really Matter Anyway?

Don't Forget to Write suggests that You're not a travel writer because you never made it a goal...

The Salt Lake Tribune reviews some travel books that make you feel better about staying home.

Bryan at Brave New Traveler wrote an interesting article about 5 (Western) Thinkers Who Understood Inner Travel.

Janelle Nanoson at Intelligent Travel interviews photographer Alexandra Avakian. A veteran National Geographic photograper, Alexandra's new book Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in Muslim World recounts the stories behind the pictures.

Are travel writers able to simply 'take a vacation'? That's what Leif Pettersen from Killing Batteries hopes to find out as he heads over to Thailand. (Breaking news: legendary travel writer decides to travel “just because”)

the traveler's notebook has put together a list of 20 Great Wordpress themes for travel blogs for anyone considering creating or updating their blog.

Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...

1. The Truth About Press Trips

2. How to Be on Time (And What to Do if You Can’t)

3. 10 Tips on Querying Magazines and Websites

4. Inspiration on Demand: Create a Swipe File

5. Living Simply: The Ultimate Guide to Conquering Your Clutter

UK Telegraph’s Travel Writing Competition.

Got a travel story in you that needs to get out?  Why not enter it into the Telegraphs’  Year of Discovery travel writing competition.

Here’s how…

“Write a feature of up to 500 words about your travel discovery of the year – be it a new destination, a journey or experience, or just a fresh take on an old favourite at home or abroad.

The best entry, chosen by our editors, will win a 10-night holiday for two in South Africa, taking in Cape Town, the wine lands of Stellenbosch, whale watching in Hermanus and safari trips in Sanbona Wildlife reserve. The best runners-up (one from each of the six categories below) will each win an Asus Eee 910 PC netbook (a compact laptop). Submissions will be judged on the quality of the writing and the originality of the content.”

Go here for more information.

What the Election Taught One Blogger About Blogging….

There’s an interesting post over at Problogger called What I learned about Blogging from the U.S. Presidential Election. It cleverly outlines not only Obama’s election strategy and shows how it could be related to blogging.

Written by Trisha from Ideas for Womens, it highlights a number of things you need to either win an election or create a successful blog post and, in turn, a successful blog.

- you need a story

- you need a community

- Pay attention to the numbers, but don’t take them too seriously

- Everyone has an opinion

Reviews of the Recent TravelBlog Camp...

Last week in London, two events were held that attracted the attention of travel writers and bloggers.

One was the annual World Travel Market, a four day gathering of the global travel trade industry to meet, network, negotiate, conduct business and stay abreast with the latest developments in the travel industry.

The other event, smaller and lesser known, as the inaugural TravelBlog Camp (BlogCamp08) set up by Darren of Travel Rants.

If, like me, you weren't able to attend, you can still get the feel of the event by reading these reviews...

Sandwagon - Travel Blogcamp, London 2008 - pints and pondering

Midi sur l’Asie - Travel Blog camp: When Travel meets Social Media

Mr and Mrs Smith - Travel Blog Camp 2008

Roaming Tales - Travel Blog Camp in London

A full list of reviews can be found at Travel Rant's Wrapup of the Travel BlogCamp and World Travel Market

Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...

1. Freelancer Pro Interview: Paul Spicer

2. 7 Tips for Making Email More Effective

3. How to Deal with Difficult Interviewees

4. The Lazy Man’s Guide to Getting Things Done

5. Writing Inspiration: How to Break Through Mental Barriers



plus two...

Copywriting Grammar Ain't Perfect

Entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki doesn't accept failure

Dealing with Writer's Block...

Discovered Dr Wicked's Write or Die the other day. Looks like an interesting way to write yourself out of writer's block...



You can find Dr Wicked's Write or Die web application here.

Travel Writing Miscellanea....

Everything Everywhere and Killing Batteries have an interesting discussion on the need for travel guides on the road.

Jennifer Marlow comes up with 6 Predictions for the Future of Travel.

Happy Hotelier has a three new 10 Questions posted, this time with : Shannon Hurst Lane from Traveling Mamas, Pam Mandel of Nerd’s Eye View, and Kevin May of Travolution.

Find out more about freelance travel writer David Farley with this half interview/half book review article called Chasing History.

Travel writer Brian Thacker is Stepping back in time, along the hippie trail, '...retracing the 1974 journey through South-East Asia of Lonely Planet founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler using their original guidebook — based on information they collected during their adventure a third of a century ago — as his only reference.'

Here's an excerpt of Dervla Murphy's latest book The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba.

William Least Heat-Moon got a new book out. Called Roads to Quoz. Here's the The Los Angeles Times review.

Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...

1. Five Simple Ways to Instantly Improve Your Writing and …And Five More!

2. How Do You Really Make Money Writing Books?

3. 10 Ways to Avoid Writing Insecurity

4. 7 Important Lessons Freelance Writers Can Learn from Working in Fast Food

5. Branding 101: How to Promote Your Blog Like the Big Guys Do


plus...

The Ultimate Productivity Toolbox for Creative People