I’m usually not one for talking myself up or saying much when the spotlight has been shown on me but there are always exceptions and I feel that a recent award and interviews bear noting.
The first I would like to bring up is the Thailand Voice Blog of the Month Award which was given to Thailand, Land of Smiles for June 2010. While I am very flattered and appreciative of the award I would much rather point out how great Thailand Voice is to the Thailand blogging community.
Blogging isn’t as easy as many people think and, as most bloggers know, it takes a long time and a lot of effort to get your work noticed. Many blogging communities struggle along in more of a competition than a community which makes it even harder to get those eyes on your blog and keep them there.
We are lucky in that the Thailand blog niche is different than most with many bloggers supporting and recognizing fellow bloggers all the time and Thailand Voice takes that to the next level. Thailand Voice is the brain child of Richard Barrow, a prolific Thai blogger if ever there were one, which serves to bring together and highlight all the stories and news in the Thai blogoshpere in one place. Since it’s inception I know I, like many other bloggers, have seen my visitor numbers jump due to daily click throughs from Thailand Voice.
Thailand Voice & Richard Barrow are all about promoting Thailand and Thailand blogs and that is an awesome thing for this community. Thank you Richard and Thailand Voice.
To get an Idea of just how prolific Richard is check out the Paknam Web Network to see all the great work he is involved in.
Next up are a couple of interviews of me by fellow Thai bloggers Steve of Thailand Musings and Jon of Jonny Foreigner.
Steve has been featuring a series of excellent interviews of Thailand bloggers on Thailand Musings and I was fortunate to be asked to partake in that series which led to his May 25th post Talen from Thailand-Land of Smiles. This really is an excellent series of interviews because you get to see into various Thai bloggers lives and get some background information on them as well as find out more about their love of Thailand. Steve has done a wonderful job with this series and I really appreciate being able to take part in it.
Jon knew I was moving to Thailand and asked if he could interview me about this to help perhaps bring more insight to others out there thinking about moving to Thailand. My interview with him , Moving to Thailand: Talen, Thailand, Land of Smiles, was posted today. This is also going to be a series with the next installment being an interview of Martyn from Beyond the Mango Juice. Jon asked some great questions and this series is sure to be helpful to anyone interested in moving to Thailand.
Anyway, it will probably be a long time before another post like this sees the light of day because I’m not too good at this spotlight thing but I really wanted to bring some much deserved attention to these blogs and bloggers for setting the example and showing us what community is all about.
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Talen I would certainly second what you say about the community here-very supportive.
Richard Barrow does some excellent work on Twitter as well.
I think Jon’s idea was good and I am sure you might develop it further regarding the move. Lets face it first hand experience beats the bullshit you get to read on a certain well known forum.
Mike´s last blog ..Indochinese Spitting Cobra Photo/Image
Mike, Richard was definitely the man on the ground during the recent troubles in Bangkok.
Jon definitely had an excellent idea …I’m hoping I can add to it as I make the move and afterwards.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Catherine Wentworth, Talen. Talen said: Accolades & Interviews | Thailand Land of Smiles http://bit.ly/cME3fX [...]
Congrats on the accolade and thanks for the excellent content for my post.
Definitely agree with you about Thailand Voice, it does an excellent job of pulling together content, the search option is quite interesting too. Brings up vast quantities of blogger opinions and stories which can be of use if visiting somewhere new, for example.
Blogging is hard work indeed, you deserve you time in the spot light!
Jon´s last blog ..Moving to Thailand: Talen, Thailand, Land Of Smiles
Jon, Thanks for having me do the interview, I can’t wait to read Martyn’s.
Well done. I have enjoyed this blog for about two years by RSS feed. Strangely enough, although I have been familiar with Richard Barrow’s Thai-Blogs.com for a long time I was not aware of Thailand Voice, so that is an added bonus.
Peter M.
Thai Connoisseur´s last blog ..Chiang Mai – A lot of Thai cooking school
Thai, Thanks for the kind words…Thailand Voice is definitely an added bonus to our community.
Hear, hear! That goes to Talen for the obvious hard work and, it must be said, pure passion, that go into Thailand, Land of Smiles. It shows every time.
I just did an unexpected cleanup of my blog bookmarks. I visited dozens of blogs last night and found many hadn’t been updated in three or four weeks and some as long as a month and a half. A few even longer. I downgraded them into the farthest reaches of my bookmark file. I have about a dozen top must-sees and Thailand, Land of Smiles is one.
And cheers to Richard Barrow for the support he gives Thailand and fellow bloggers — and for those non-stop, informative and untainted Tweets during the recent unpleasantness.
Last, it’s a good, very supportive community. Let’s all continue to respect each other even if we may disagree a little bit from time to time — although I can’t remember much of anything at the moment.
Siam.Rick´s last blog ..Cheap to live in Bangkok? Not so much
Appreciate the kindness Rick…we really do have a great community and even though we all have our opinions everyone seems to get along fine and hopefully that continues well into the future.
Talen, You deserve the spotlight! I live in the states and when I feel the need of a quick trip to Thailand I go to your site. Between you and Cat at Women Learn Thai I can almost smell the fragrant scent of that wonderful place. I do appreciate all that you write and also the sense of community here. I will visit this site often. Thank you for taking the time and putting the effort into this.
Thank you Sophie…You just made my day
Talen well done on your award and I have got to agree with your comments about Richard Barrow and Thailand Voice. Richard is a tireless worker who has built a great platform of information about Thailand through Paknam Web and Thailand Voice’s monthly blog award is a good idea and their site a massive help to most bloggers. Perhaps they are planning a Thai blog Oscar type ceremony.
The Thai blog community is wonderful and I know that without everyone’s support I’d have probably given up by now. Thankfully I received and still do get back up from everyone and I try to give as much back as I possibly can. Without doubt our Thai blogging scene has to be one of the friendliest communities out there (web).
Martyn´s last blog ..Thailand Blogs – May 2010 Review
Martyn, I don’t know where Richard finds the time to keep so many blogs going while starting new projects at the same time.
Congrats Talen. Being the blog of the month at Thailand Voice is a grand treat.
Catherine´s last blog ..Chris Pirazzi Updates Slice-of-Thai.com