In keeping with the momentum that’s been building over the last couple of weeks, today I’m announcing the launch of my latest project, Argentina’s Travel Blog.  (Yea!) This project has consumed most of my time over the last couple of weeks, and luckily I’m happy with the result.  The purpose of Argentina’s Travel is to fill a niche in Argentine travel information.  Specifically, the niche that falls smack between official travel guide information, and user-generated forum- and blog- content.

My observation is that official travel site information is definitely informational, but often dry, somewhat boring, and devoid of personality.  The other end is populated by forum discussions about travel, and a myriad disorganized travel blogs, all of which provide very personable and often insightful recommendations, but which can be a pain to find and navigate through.

So Argentina’s Travel aims right for the middle, providing personalized and interesting stories of travel in Argentina presented in an organized and well-thought out manner.  You won’t find any dry descriptions or population estimates here, but the information you do find will be fun, organized (through the use of WordPress’ categories) and properly indexed.

For those of you who might be interested, Argentina’s Travel is (of course) built on WordPress, using a heavily modified version of the Simple Corners theme by In My Pad.  I chose the theme because the three column structure is good for Adsense earnings, and because you can’t be web 2.0 without rounded corners.

Of the many mods, the most important are probably the subscribe box (powered through Aweber), the RSS button, the site index which is a simple template file I wrote, the awesome awesome Flickr photo album courtesy of tan tan noodles, the snazzy archive listing courtesy of Chris Pearson, and the fun random headers, which I wrote myself before realizing Chris Pearson had done the same.

I also have the pleasure of working with several great writers (and travelers) on this project, including Danielle Del Balso and Justin Sharkey.  Not having to focus on writing the articles will free my time to promote the heck out of the site and concentrate on marketing and maintenance.

Finally, please take a look and let me know if you have any recommendations.  I know the amount of content is still slim and it will be growing by about 1 new article a day.  Anything else?  Truthfully, I’m still not completely satisfied with the hierarchy and organization of the site.  This is a problem that I’ve always had with WordPress though, once your articles get a little old, they inevitable get buried, unless you link to them specifically from somewhere.  Ideas?

Technorati Tags: blog_network, celebrate, entrepreneurship, launch, adsense_template, webdesign, website_network

Erik Vossman is using an old concept in a creative new way to encourage back-links to his Blogtown Press Network, which he recently launched.  Check out the Link to a Coconut Contest.  I for one, am in.  It’s a great idea in that it creates a lot of goodwill, it’s transparent so people don’t feel used, and most important of all, it generates backlinks!
Once the contest is over, I sure hope Erik will post about what this did to his traffic and Technorati stats; I’d be really interested in finding out.

One more tidbit about Erik and then I’ll make my entry.  This one is for those of you who wonder how these crazy interwebs are so related.  Erik is a good friend, and was a coworker of mine when I lived in Hawaii.  Him and I became interested in internet entrepreneurship at the same time, about a year ago today.  We even worked on a project together, a podcast transcription service that sputtered and derailed before we ever got it off the ground.

Erik is also one productive son of a gun.  He’s a prized asset at my former employer, he trains and surfs on a daily basis, he keeps a beautiful fiancee very happy, and somehow he still finds time to put together and launch a quality network of blogs (which he write for mostly by himself!)

As for his blogs, I’m a big fan of Fueling The World, where he wrote a great article about wind power in the US.  He’s also got a great Hawaii blog at Aloha Update.  I remember the couple of days that we spent staring out the window and wondering what the heck this big ball off of Ford Island was.  And lastly, here’s one for the good old days, back when we used to talk about becoming millionaires over lunch on a daily basis.

You’re several big steps closer to it buddy!

Technorati Tags: blog_network, contest, entrepreneurship, launch, linktoacoconut, marketing, erikvossman

That’s right ladies and gents; this disconnected jumble of projects which I call my business now has a name, a home, and a purpose!  Today, I officially launch Kokua Web - A Network for Good.  From here on out each of my sites will live under the Kokua Web umbrella.  Theoretically this doesn’t make much of a difference - just a few extra links here and there, a little more transparency towards the community, and maybe a small logo on all my sites.

But psychologically, it is already making a world of difference.  First, I’ve more closely aligned my entrepreneurial pursuits with my values.  I’m a big believer in giving back, so I’ve committed to giving 10% of the profits to social causes.  This year, the beneficiary will be Unitus, an organization that lifts up the world’s poor through social entrepreneurship.  An unexpected upside is that aligning my efforts to my values is doing wonders for my motivation and my vision for the future.

Secondly, structuring my projects in this way is helping me to focus on what my function really is.  I’m the publisher of a network of sites.  I’m not the writer, I’m not the designer, and I’m not the coder.  From time to time I can fill any one of these roles (and I do) but my main functions are to increase the usefulness and value of the sites, to increase the network traffic through marketing, to improve the revenue performance, and to keep everything running smoothly.  The design, the coding, and the writing can all be contracted out in the long run, but the management, promotion, and success is in my hands.

Thirdly, giving the collection of sites a structure is helping me to get organized.  I can more easily see which projects are worth my time and which ones aren’t.  I can see where each project has room for improvement.  I can choose to leave projects dormant without feeling guilty.  And I can more easily see future avenues and directions for expansion (and there are lots of ‘em).

Lastly, perhaps now I’ll have something to say at parties when people ask me what I do.  Instead of fumbling for words and saying that I’m a web designer, that I do “internet stuff”, or that I work from home, instead I’ll smile, relax, and I say that I’m a website publisher.

Then, I’ll down my gin & tonic and wait for the inevitable, “Huh?  What’s that?”

Technorati Tags: entrepreneurship, networkforgood, publisher, purpose

Amazing but true.  I’ve now been blogging for just over a year.  And to think this all started as an experiment inspired by Steve Pavlina!  Well, so far it’s been an interesting ride and I have certainly learned a lot.  A lot about myself, about entrepreneurship on the web, about responsibility, and about perseverance.  I’m sure you’ll all understand where I’m coming from when I say, I’m just getting warmed up.

I’ve been wondering about this since I wrote about website networks recently.  How do you keep track of your properties on the web, and how do you present them to the outside world?

Do you subscribe to the open book theory?  What I mean by this is that you don’t hide anything about the sites you own.  You post links to all of them clearly on the sidebar of your site or blog, or perhaps you have a name for the network and a parent site that points to all.  This site can also serve to declare your intentions, name you as the owner, and help you sell advertising.  This is the approach that I think I am going to follow.  I think transparency on the web, especially in blogging, breeds trust.  And trust is a huge asset.  Also, giving your disparate sites a home, or a parent entity can help to solidify your ideas about what exactly you are trying to accomplish.

Another approach is to treat your anonimity on the web as an advantage.  This might protect you from others copying your ideas.  Also, it’s an approach that could give you more leverage in your negotiations or interactions, because the other party can’t just google you to find out how well exactly you’re doing on the web.  You can always keep track offline.  And you could argue that being open and blogging about your sites is a somewhat narcissistic and not an effective use of your time.

So which are you?  Perhaps you approach this topic from a completely different third perspective?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Face it, if you’re going to launch an e-venture successfully, you need a strong, supportive network to keep you on track when the unavoidable obstacles loom in your way.  And unless you come from a family with a strong history of entrepreneurship, such a network can be very hard to come by.  Often, friends and family take a cautious viewpoint because they’re worried about you.  They point out everything that could go wrong with your ideas and your chosen path.  They’re quick to see huge obstacles, opportunities for failure, and all the risks involved.  Also, many have positive experiences in the career world, and use them to point you to safer paths you could perfectly well be following.  It’s perfectly understandable if you realize that they are expressing a concern for your future.

But if you’re settled on entrepreneurship, it’s not helpful.  Sure, you have to be realistic, you have to understand the risks, and you have to foresee obstacles.  But you don’t have to focus exclusively on them.  You need a support network that focuses on solutions, opportunities, possibilities, and calculated risks.  People more like you, with skin in the game and an understanding of what it’s going to take.

In an effort to build such a network, a few months ago I signed up for Meetup.com and joined several entrepreneurship groups meeting in the LA area.  Meetup is a great idea; it uses online communities to organize groups that meet offline on a regular basis.  On the internet, it’s a lot easier to find people with your interests and mindset, and now with Meetup, you can go out and meet them.

I’ve attended a few entrepreneurial meetups and already made some contacts through the site.  Overall, my experience has been positive.  Meetup is open to everyone, so it does mean that some people join for prospecting and marketing purposes, and also that some of the joinees won’t be good matches for you.  But there are plenty of entrepreneurs members just like you, which makes joining a few groups well worth the effort.

Last month I took over as the organizer for the Entrepreneurial Minded Internet-Business Owners Meetup Group in LA.  (Yeah, don’t ask me, I didn’t come up with the name.) We had our first Meetup yesterday, which was a success.  I met many interesting internet entrepreneurs, all of varying skill levels and with different interests, and all supportive and willing to look at each others problems from a solutions mindset.  I’m excited for future events as the group continues to grow, and I have plans for presentation-based, and workshop-based events in the future.

If you’re in the LA area, join our group! It’s free, and you’re going to benefit from building your entrepreneurship network.

Technorati Tags: entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, meetup, networking, puppy, supportive