Welcome to my weekly check in, where I share the under-the-hood view of being a professional travel writer and the editor of In The Know Traveler. This week has been more about web servers than writing and editing.
As an owner of multiple web sites, much of my time is dedicated to attempting to publish good travel content – I assume I sometimes fail. This means I read, evaluate, edit and publish – then rinse and repeat. Still, the technical aspect of maintaining my sites is something that many potential site owners and bloggers forget about. If you are one of them, allow me to let you in on a secret. Web site ownership can be a pain.
This week is a good example. I have been looking for a needle in a haystack, trying to find what might be causing my CPU consumption to soar. My host company has let me know that the problem could be anything, anything at all. “Great!” I say (with a hint of sarcasm). They need the fix asap if I want to keep my sites online, but their trained technical team cannot help me. As an untrained non-tech, I should find it myself. “Great!” I say (with sarcasm and annoyance). Despite all of this, the week did have some bright spots.
I just had my first travel article appear for the Huffington Post about Clubbing in Jamaica. The article is light and fluffy, like one of those “whipped” yogurts made with minoxidil and nonoxynol-9, and offers little precious nourishment. Still, I am glad I started with this article. Jamaica is an adventure and its nightlife worth exploring, even for an older guy like me. I will also submit my first blog for Technorati, one of the largest web sites in the world. I received the request via email while I watched President Obama’s motorcade whiz by as I stood behind police barricades, trapped two blocks from my home. Here are a few shots of the whizby, which looked more like aliens returning to the mother ship than a flashing police escort.
And now for the coming week.
Publish
After a week of tracking down an elusive technical issue, I now must get back on track. I have been lining up a slew of backlogged material for scheduling on ITKT.
Evaluate
Sadly, I have to do something about my server issues and will likely have to move to a new web hosting company. Any suggestions? I will have to firm up a couple of likely candidates unless something miraculous happens.
Writing
My projects, Travel Writing Rockstar and a book proposal still move forward. However, I have a new Huffington Post and my first Technorati blog due as well.
Traveling
I have been confirmed for this year’s CATM (Central American Travel Mart) in Guatemala City. The trip will include a pre-tour around the Guatemalan countryside and a post-tour to Honduras for its most famous attractions. I will be bringing cameras and a computer for daily updates. Still looking for a confirmation to Mexico City in September.
And how is your week?
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