Booked came about this way.
I was sitting around a couple of months ago – early 2011- mulling over future writing projects, actual and proposed. I wasn’t really jazzed by any of them, and spent a few minutes whining to myself…what I really want to do is travel writing. But that can’t happen because…
But wait….why not?
So the idea for Booked was born. Because this is the Internet and I can write about anything I please, right?
Charlotte Was Both will still exist and I will still post there – about books, movies, faith. But I’m going to concentrate more of my energies into travel writing. Readers have enjoyed my travel-related posts in the past so maybe this is a season of just going with that for a while. I am thinking that I can spend a few years seeing things and telling people about those things in interesting and occasionally amusing ways – right?
We’ll be a work in progress here for a while, as I go through my other blogs, bring travel-related posts over here, and get everything organized.
A couple of points about what Booked will and won’t be. I’ll start with the won’t.
It won’t be a travel advice or tips blog. I don’t do advice. Every person has different expectations of travel and varied likes and dislikes. Even though I will spotlight, for example, some of my favorite accomodations,it won’t be because I think everyone will like them or should stay there. It will simply because I enjoyed it and thought it was great and something interesting happened there. When it comes to things like accommodations and traveling styles – to each his own, really.
What Booked will be is a journal of my travel experiences and reflections inspired by travel, all enriched by your input.
Booked will also be a little different from my previous blogs in that it will be, as we say these days, “monetized.” That means I’ll be using the blog itself to bring in a little bit of income.
Now – how that will happen prompts another set of wills and won’ts.
I will be a little more aggressive about referral programs – every Amazon link will be an affiliate link, and I am looking into other travel-related affiliate programs. I really can’t do anything about that, ads or blog networks until we have a little bit of traffic to show. But I hope it will come.
What I won’t do – and you can depend on this – is do product-sponsored posts or reviews of items or accommodations that have been provided to me. It is just not going to happen. You can trust that everything I experience here has been paid for by me.
We’ll see how this goes – I’m excited about it and am ready to hit the road, children in tow and laptop in hand.
I have to give due credit to two people who’ve made the look and shape of this site possible.
First, Dorian Speed, friend, blogger and proprietor of Convolare Design Services, who worked with me in designing the site, has done the heavy lifting of coding and such, and who convinced me to go with WordPress.ORG and Studiopress for a more professional experience. She has been GREAT and our witty email repartee has really enhanced my life at that normally dull hour of 1 am, especially when we fall into YouthGroupSpeak and assure each other that everything is Awesome, You Guys!
Secondly, Elisabeth Englehart, brand-new graduate in graphic design and daughter of my friend Ann Englehart, designed the fantastic header. Elisabeth took the sensibility I wanted and just described in words - clean, retro and whimsical, and created a design that I think is just about perfect. You can find Elisabeth through her blog here.
You can follow me on Twitter here (it’s my old account – I’ll just stick with that) and “like” Booked and get new postings through Facebook here. Just a note on Facebook: I do have a personal Facebook account but I don’t accept friend requests from people I don’t “know” in some sense. I’m pretty picky about that. I mean – I’m really picky.
Oh – and those of you who have followed my blogging know that I am a fairly random blogger. I can’t blog on a schedule (you know, like…I’ll blog on airfare on Monday and road signs on Tuesday…) and I’m not really one who can (or is interested in doing) “My compleat guide to Colonial Williamsburg” or “Our first day in San Diego.” Posts will continue to be daily, but they will also be random, specific and bemused.
So….let’s go!
-Amy Welborn
5.9.2011
(Photo: Vulcanelli of Macalube outside of Aragona, Sicily. Summer 2009)
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