Top 7 Posts Worth Revisiting

Many of our readers are already familiar with TripBase’s 7 Links Project

…And many have already participated.

For those of you who may not have heard of it, the idea is for nominated bloggers to offer their readers a roundup of links to previous posts, one in each of seven categories, as a way of introducing new readers to older content, as well as remind long-time readers of some of the “gems” you’ve produced.

Recently I was nominated by my good friend Nancy Brown, who is a well-known and oft-published travel writer, as well as the lodging editor for Uptake.com, and the publisher behind the popular What A Trip blog and Writing Horseback.

However, we found this task to be quite difficult…..and had trouble narrowing down the candidates to just one post in each category…. so I willingly confess to the crime of including a second link in a couple of categories, technically making this our “9 Links” post.

So without further ado, here are the links to 7….um, 9 previous posts appearing on TWE:

Our most beautiful post

It’s difficult to find beauty in posts that are primarily intended to be educational, so it took us a while to choose “Finding Inspiration: A Year-End Reflection. What we decided made the post beautiful was simply its subject – inspiration, and where one finds it. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll make this a year-end tradition, or simply let the post remain my singular monologue on this subject, but I hope it motivates others to take a look around them and discover their own sources of inspiration.

Our most popular post

Without question the post that received the most number of page views – by far – is “The Art of Personal Essay Writing“, by contributor Jen Westmoreland Bouchard. Jen is an excellent writer, and those aspiring to learn the ropes of narrative essay would do well to read her spare-but-still-descriptive style. Without resorting to cliche, she draws readers into her world and lets them peek at her life through her prose. Her brevity and honesty in her writing is a joy to read. This post by Jen offers up some very useful tips on writing narratively. Thanks, Jen!

Our most controversial post

We knew this post would be controversial, given the sometimes-heated opinions on media trips, but didn’t shy away from publishing “Hosted Trips: It’s All a Matter of Principle” by Maralyn Hill. The ironic thing is that I received a flood of email about that post, primarily from writers who definitely had strong feelings, but claimed unwillingness to share those feeling through the comments. I understand that – it’s sometimes hard to take a stance that can effect relationships you may have in the industry.

Our most helpful post

These two posts drew an even number of votes here at TWE – we simply couldn’t decide which was more helpful to beginning writers and bloggers, so I’ve included both.

Our two-part series, by contributor Wendy VanHatten, “Do’s, Don’ts, and Editors (Part 1)“, and “Do’s, Don’ts, and Editors (Part 2)“, offers up excellent advice on developing a good working relationship with Editors, vital to the success of every writer. If these tips were embroidered on a throw pillow, I’d buy a few dozen to give out to new writers as Christmas presents. Really.

Inspired by a conversation with a PR pal of mine, “Travel Media Trips: Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts” is still highly relevant, even two years after its initial publication. And I still see writers/bloggers making some of these mistakes when I’m on a media trip. Sigh.

A post whose success most surprised us

This post grew out of a conversation I had with a fellow blogger, and yes we were surprised that it received a great number of page views….I assumed that many more bloggers were curious, either about why they were not getting press trip invitations, or about how to get them….either way “Why Am I Not Getting Invited on Press Trips?” seemed to hit a nerve.

A post we feel didn’t get the attention it deserved

This was the other category where we were evenly split…..everyone here at TWE agreed that both posts offered great advice, and yet did not garner as many page views as many of our other posts. Hmmm.
Doing Interviews? You Should Be!” reminds writers and bloggers about the benefits of occasionally mixing in relevant interviews with your normal content, and that they can make useful “filler” content, when you’re in between your trips and have run out of your typical travel stories, to keep your readers interested and engaged.

And “Why Are My Article Pitches Getting Rejected?clearly didn’t get enough attention, because I’m still plagued with pitches from writers who don’t follow the guidelines, as are many of my fellow editors. Sigh again.

The post that we are most proud of

I absolutely loved this post by my friend and PR Chick Extraordinaire, Lisa Gerber, because she gives very concrete and useful advice to writers on developing the second-most important career relationship (after the writer-editor relationship, naturally), which is the writer-PR Professional bond. “How to Score the Love and Admiration of your helpful PR Professional” should be required reading for any writer/blogger who doesn’t yet understand just how much of an ally a PR pro can be.

If you missed these posts the first time around, I hope you’ll find them useful, and if you did read them previously, I hope you’ll take time to enjoy them again.

In order to keep this 7 Links Project going, I nominate the following bloggers:

James Hills, ManTripping.
Heather Hills, Chick Vacations
Marcy Gordan, Come for the Wine
Rebecca Sebek, Savvy Writer

Yes, I know I’m supposed to choose five bloggers, but, darn it all, so many of the bloggers I would have asked have already been nominated! Oh well, such is life.

~ Trisha

Feel free to offer your feedback on these posts here or on the original post.

About Trisha Miller 116 Articles
Trisha Miller Editor-in-Chief, TravelWritersExchange.com - Trisha joined the Travel Industry in 1996 with a background in telecommunications and helped to build (and later sell) one of the industry's top inbound call centers specializing in air travel. Her career in Travel Writing began with creating destination-specific content for a corporate travel intranet, and continued as she contributed content to a large number of travel-related companies that were establishing an online presence throughout the late '90's and early '00's. Currently she is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and a former Board Member of the International Food, Wine, and Travel Writers Association (2009-2015).  Still a frequent world traveler, and occasional guest-blogger on a number of other Travel Blogs, Trisha writes about travel and technology, sometimes both at the same time. You can follow Trisha on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/TravelWriting

6 Comments

  1. Ha! I just came over here from your FB link thinking I don’t get over here enough. I was reading the post thinking what a great idea, and what great content. yay a, I’m finally going to share some of your content! and then I was almost bummed (but only almost) when I saw MY name on there,, because now it seems like I’m sharing it because of that.
    But I’m not.
    But THANK YOU. I love being the author of the post you are most proud of, and I thank you for asking me to write it. :)

    • Oh Lisa, I would never think that you’d only share content that you star in. But that said, I’d encourage you to anyway – after all, PR Wiz that you are, you know that there’s nothing wrong with shameless self-promotion!

      And FYI, we love having your voice here on TWE….come back soon, ‘kay?

  2. I bookmarked Trisha’s Travel Writers Exchange and use to read on daily basis to find something new. Even i read “Expand Your Portfolio To Access New Markets” blog and its awesome. So really appreciate Trisha to shared “Top 7 Posts”.

  3. Brilliant idea for a post. Bloggers usually try to write about best places, hints, trips, while a successful “top” is right in front of them…

    • Thanks Lynn! I wish I could take credit for the idea, but it originated with TripBase and their 7 Links Project. I don’t think it’s really necessary to be nominated to participate, but just be sure to link to TripBase, let them know about your post, and nominate a few of your blogger friends. :-)

  4. Great post. You really have some intresting things to read about. Finding Finding Inspiration was well written. Great work

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