Keeping You Posted - Feedback Please
Posted Saturday, March 31st, 2007 · Permalink
There are three things that are running that I’d like to give you an update on: the Trusted Travel Blogs Network, an in my All Stars site redesign, and my recent aside on my plans for Vietnam. I’ll deal with them in that order.
Things with the Trusted Travel Blogs Network are going pretty well. I’ve gotten fantastic feedback and have made some decisions. First of all, it will definitely be called the Trusted Travel Blogs Network. I first wanted to have something a little more creative and fun, but a good name didn’t come to mind and this one’s descriptive, which is good. I went ahead and bought the domain name, and have set it up (though as of this writing there is not even a simple index page online).
Because of the fact that it’s already done and dealt with, I’m not really interested in feedback on the name because that would me think twice about it. However, two things I would love to have feedback on are the logo and what you think the ‘rules’ of membership should be.
First, here’s the proposed logo. As you might notice, it’s a compilation of a T, T, and a B. It’s also a little network-looking, don’t you think? Anyway, positive feedback on this is always nice to hear, but if you have anything contructive to say, I’m all ears.
In addition to this, I’ve made a PDF which will, when finished, detail what the network is, why it is, and list the ‘rules’ of membership. Please take a look at it. See the white area? That’s the area that still needs to be filled with the things that make being a member a good thing (i.e. ensuring high standards). The two criteria on the left have to be explained and detailed there. If you have any suggestions, this is your chance to contribute to what will eventually be written there!
Please let me know what you think by either leaving a response or using the contact form.
Now two quick updates with regard to this site and my recently announced plans to go back to Vietnam.
I’ve been working on a redesign of this website. Although my brother seems to really like the current site design, I think it’s a little too texty and contrasty. It needs a little more subtlety, blends, and images. I can’t really show you what it’ll look like yet, but if anyone’s utterly against a redesign, let me know and I might put it off for a while.
Lastly, a lot of people have been asking me about my recent aside on my plans to go back to Vietnam this summer. I’ve accepted a job with a Dutch guy who lives in Vietnam and runs tours through Vietnam. My job, simply put, is to keep things running on a few of the tours.
Many of you know that touring isn’t really my kind of thing. But this job was too difficult to refuse. I’ll be going back to a country a I love… and I’ll be paid for it. The tours also have a fantastic itinerary. I’ll be in Vietnam for a total of three months (when all added up), and in Asia for a total of four and a half months (e.g. visiting Japan as well).
Have a nice remainder of the weekend! I hope to hear from you.
Responses feed9 Responses ↓
1pam // March 31st, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I haven’t really thought the whole thing through yet, but I do wonder what you’ll be showing on the site. Are you imagining that the TTB member sites will just bear a seal or some such thing, and that maybe the site will be an RSS aggregation of posts from TTB bloggers that feeds traffic back to the member sites?
There are, I think, too many things that call themselves “networks” and really, they’re just hosting services. This isn’t to diss what they do, but I do want to ask how TTBN will differentiate itself from sites like BootsNAll, GoNomad, [fill in the blank] - there are so many.
Finally, I’m leary of “love and traffic” claims. Promises of “readership” are rife thoughout blogland, easy to make and hard to deliver upon.
More thoughts post coffee. And please don’t mistake my questions and comments for criticism - they’re all wrapped in wishes for your success.
2Timen // March 31st, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Hey Pam,
Thanks so much for your response so far. You have excellent points. I look forward to what else you have to say.
I bought trustedtravelblogs.com, so it might be worth taking out the “Network” part and replacing it with something else?
Good points. I’ll consider them all.
Thanks.
Take care,
Timen
3Stacy // March 31st, 2007 at 10:09 pm
1. Logo: I like it, with or without the “Network”. It looks professional, and it says, “you can trust these blogs”.
2. Standards: All the blogs that I subscribe to have one thing in common, no matter what they write about, they do it in a classy way. ie: they make everyone feel welcome, and they don’t turn me off with offensive language or extreme left or right wing politics. It’s about travel, and while that includes intelligent discussion about the environment and resources, it’s not a time for bashing any of the views (you won’t change anyone’s mind by yelling at them).
Everyone may not agree with me, but I wanted to put my subscription criteria out there as possibilities for the network.
3. Your site: I’m looking forward to seeing your new design, although I hope you keep the clean look of this one. Some blogs are too busy, and it’s hard to find what you are looking for.
4. Vietnam: What a great opportunity to go back to a place you love, and think of the material you’ll get for writing! One of my favorite books was written by a tour guide in Italy, his stories about the places he visits and the people he meets are fascinating (and pretty funny, too)
4Timen // March 31st, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Pam,
I reread your comment and think that I can at least answer one of the questions you bring up.
I do not intend this network to be a hosting service. No. Way. The network is solely a response to the article I read in National Geographic Traveller which criticized the reliability of travel blogs. This project has the intention of being a network of established travel blogs (i.e. they currently exist) and the seal, indeed, would show affiliation to the network (but there is no larger thing going on here). I want to make a community of individuals who are recognized as being a valuable resource for travelers. I also want to make it a fun thing–something that people like. Not so much a say-all “authority.” I wouldn’t dare that.
As far as I can tell, there’s nothing really like this so far. Yes, BNA and GN are all calling themselves networks but, like you said, these are simply hosting solutions. TTBN isn’t hosting anything except a little hub of links (to start–with features added later). I see it as 9rules for traveling.
The front page of this network will begin with just a good explanation of what the network is and a list of links to members of the network (along with a quick-link to their rss feed). In the future I hope to add the RSS update functionality. First thing’s first.
I hope this clarifies things. I need to make sure that there is no confusion in my short explanations that will show-up on the network’s front page.
Take care,
Timen
ps: There will also be no hugely prominent connection between this blog and the TTBN. in my All Stars will just be the blog of the guy who admins the network.
5Marilyn Terrell // April 1st, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I like the logo. I think it has the feel of a maze and a radar screen at the same time, and there’s a mesmerizing quality to it.
6Doug Dosdall // April 1st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Interesting idea. Very ambitious though. The reality is that travel writers taking perks from travel providers and writing about them is hardly new to bloggers. The whole travel magazine industry is based upon this and they almost never disclose their freebies.
I do love the idea though of a place to find more trusted travel writing or even just plain good travel writing. I recently wrote a post on my Puerto Vallarta travel blog about how difficult it was to find good blogs and travel stories on a particular destination–simply because there was so much crap out there.
Google is not doing a good job of separating the wheat from the chaff. As such a facility I’d love to see on this site is a meta-search which searches all the blogs in the network for content as so brings back just quality content (or at least content from blogs the network deems to be of good quality).
7Stacy // April 2nd, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I like Marilyn’s maze and radar analogy. It seems appropriate, the network’s radar will help people find quality travel blogs in the maze of the blogosphere. It made me smile.
8jv // April 5th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Like the logo, but it could probably use some color. I’m not a design expert. That’s just my gut feeling. Perhaps keep the text black and “fill in” some of the target/circle areas.
Rules of membership? I’d like a blog network that I could trust to be consistently interesting, entertaining, and engaging. None of these blogs that pump out endless vapidity — content for the sake of content.
For me, a network should be about attracting the highest quality. Bloggers should be good writers, have interesting ideas, not post exclusively on the same things everyone else is posting (unless they have a very engaging take).
If you’ve got all of the above, I think that all the other things I also care about — such as not accepting freebies — would follow.
9Timen // April 9th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Thanks for all your feedback so far. It’s all been great. I’ll be working on finalizations in the next days and have a launch coming in a week or two.
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