JenLeoLIVE!

Hello new friends from PhoCusWright 2008

Well, I've neglected this blog for some time now. With good reason. We're having a baby (meaning I blog for work and then I don't really feel up to blogging at night in my few hours of post dinner energy). And I can safely say it's just about to happen any day now. The Dr. says the due date is Dec. 6, but we're 37 1/2 weeks along now. I feel good, the only problem is I don't do well on my feet for long periods of time. Small price to pay for what's to come. I can't lie, I've had it pretty good.

However, nothing BUT the baby being born could keep me from PhoCusWright this year. I've wanted to attend it for years - the be all end all of conferences for the online travel industry. Now I'm going and I've recently found out JenLeoLIVE! is being passed around as my home - so I better give it an update!

Here's what the PhoCusWright folks probably want to know about. Besides being the lead travel blogger for the Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal Blog - (but now taking maternity leave till mid January), I also have a weekly print column called "Web Buzz". You can find it in the Sunday Travel section of the Los Angeles Times. Every week I review a website that's helpful for travelers and give them the what's hot and what's not report as I see it. Here's the online archive, and the websites I've written up since I inherited the column this summer.

Los Angeles Times Travel Web Buzz column

• 2itch.com searches 24-hour spots
• Metrotwin.com pairs shares what to do and see in New York and London
• Travel.Alltop.com helps organize favorite blogs
• MapMyRun.com keeps you on track
• Team up at SportsFanLive.com
• At WholeTravel.com, it's all about sustainable tourism
• Airline fees chart on SmarterTravel.com
• Placely.com keeps track of frequent-flier programs
• Google Maps offer a 'walking' plan
• HappyMedian.com maps meeting places
• Been-Seen.com's stylish take on global destinations
• Kayak.com helps you factor in gas costs for rental car
• Kid talks to kids in new Beijing Olympics blog
• Hot and cool night life at Thrillist.com
• Your personal postcards at Zoom and Go
• Find a good hotel room with TripKick.com

I'm in Los Angeles (Hollywood) for this conference until Thursday night or I go into labor. You can follow me on Twitter.com/jenleo. For a while I was giving house updates there, now I'm giving some baby updates - and since I have a large travel inudstry following - I try to pass links, news, and the occasional deal. Like an anthology, there will be tweets you can pass on, and others you'll appreciate.

Have fun and hope to talk to you soon.

CURRENT: Los Angeles
NEXT: Carlsbad

Blog redesign finally coming

Oooh I stayed up late last night working on my JenLeoLIVE! redesign. And then I couldn't get to sleep because my head was still spinning. I can't wait. I've been wanting this for ages and finally stopped putting it off. JenLeoLIVE! has been my personal blog but the problem is that I've neglected JenLeo.com. Don't even go look at it - it's 3 years old. So, now I'm going to make this a 1-stop shop. There will be a page for the books, the personal blog will keep going (and I'll probably update more because I'll enjoy looking at the blog again).

I even added a travel calendar so everyone can no what city/country we're in. And yes, that will include John's travel plans too.

This morning I hired John T. Unger (TypePad Hacks) to keep things moving along because I just couldn't get my head around CSS and what not last night. Our friend Bill with the great hair (who will play tournament blackjack but not poker at our home games) is the Photoshop hero working on my new header. I have to think of a really great gift for him as there has already been a lot of back and forth in trying to get it just right.

So. the bloggy blog blog will be up and going early next week at the latest, but I'm also begging for a rush job from John. Maybe I'll launch it first as soon as the header is done and then let him do his touches later.

Please tell me if you have any favorite personal website/blogs from a design standpoint. Especially if they're authors. I've always liked: Church of the Customer.

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: Seattle

Doing everything I can to blog with Windows Live Writer

I saw a demo of Windows Live Writer at BlogWorldExpo and was very impressed.

I blog on a few different platforms - TypePad and WordPress right now. I hate my Word Press experience so much, but there's nothing to be done about it, this is what L.A. Times Travel and Deal Blog is using. I know that there are lots of Word Press fans who try to convert me, but it's useless I tell you. I've been blogging six years or so going all the way back to Greymatter. TypePad is by far my favorite of the two and the easiest to use. Blogging is supposed to be simple. You are not supposed to have to hire a guy to blog or set up your blog. If I want to hire a guy, I'm going to hire him to design me a blog on Moveable Type. (And I felt this way before I worked for Six Apart).

So, when the demo of Windows Live Writer showed me that I can blog through their admin and then it will upload it to my individual platforms I listened. I asked them to show me how the photos and the videos worked, and bingo. I was sold. I even cut their presentation short. Stop, I'm sold, I'm going to get it.

Because I use a MacBook I can't just use the Windows right off the bat. So I've been jumping through hoops to get to the point where I can use Windows Live Writer. First I downloaded VMWare Fusion, and last night I went to Frys and bought the Windows XP (was cautioned against getting Vista). Today I'll try to set it up. Chris Parillo raves about VMWare Fusion for using Windows on Macs.  The Apple store guy had tried to sell me Leopard and to use the Windows with Boot Camp. I'll try it the VMWare Fusion way first.

Hopefully this will all get set up nice and easy. John was scared to have me try to install it all myself and begged me to wait for Harold to get into town next week to help me. Next week? Um no. Harold said go for it and confirmed that the way I was thinking of doing it was the way to go. Husbands. ;-)

I'll let you know how it goes. I am fully expecting Windows Live Writer to be the big blogger's hero - at least in my world - and I hope I'm right. (I'd never paid attention to other desktop blog editors before).

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: San Diego (Wed - Sat)

Dying for a Typepad blog makeover

The reason I haven't been updating JenLeoLive lately is because I'm having a tough time looking at it. I want a makeover so bad. I was almost there. I found a photo image that I wanted to center my design around, I even started filling out some "pages" a newish Typepad feature. But then it got beyond me because I don't know CSS. I met some guys at BlogWorld who design websites. They wanted to charge $799 flat for a makeover and were very pro Word Press. I didn't see any sites in their client list that I loved so I didn't get too excited.

Seriously, my web presence doesn't reflect the brand I'm trying to build. And I really care about that because my web presence has been a large contributor to how I've gotten where I am today. Besides that, I'm in love with the web and web marketing and strategy. How can I consult someone about their web strategy if I'm not showing by example?

I put an ad out on Craigslist but everyone ignored my request for someone who used TypePad. I did some searching of my own and found The Blog Studio. They look like a terrific fit. And if I have to switch to Moveable Type, that is a switch I'd be willing to make. The Blog Studio isn't cheap, but I like what I see in their portfolio and their testimonials. Their design style impresses me, so I'm going to start figuring out exactly - or near exactly - what my goals are. I've talked to people blind like this before and it doesn't help anything. I want to be able to tell them what I'm trying to achieve with my new presence and give examples of sites that I like and that are achieving this.

Life is good. I love love love thinking about this stuff, and I'm just happy that I found a company I want to use, even if I have to save up a little bit.

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: San Diego? (Thanksgiving)

Back to BlogWorld Expo

Yesterday I went to BlogWorld Expo here in Las Vegas. It was smaller than I expected. The exhibitors - as I supposed with any conference - were mostly companies that wanted to show their wares. Lots of blog advertising companies and a bunch of companies that have products to make blogging easier or more fun. I ran into Anil Dash and sat in on two seminars:

Secrets of Great Video Production and Vlogging with Bary Rosenweig. I've been meaning to start doing this for a few years now, so it was good for me. He gave some secrets and short cuts that were valuable for a vlog virgin like me, but most of the class was made up of people that were already vlogging.

I also took Making Money with Affiliate Programs with Dan Gray. It was very clear that Dan is making a good living from the web and affiliate marketing and knew a lot, but I had been hoping for instruction that focused more on the options for newbies like myself.

So now I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to take a stab at another Affiliate Marketing seminar or if I'm going to go to a workshop about Creating a Coherent Social Media Strategy with Jeremiah Owyang.

As you know I met the big steers at Utterz. I also was incredibly impressed with Windows Live.  I'm a Mac girl for life but this application could make my blogging life a lot better and make using Word Press a much more pleasant experience for me. So, I'm going to look into what I need to get - VM ware software to make Windows work on my MacBook. I also talked with Kristin Hall, Director of Marketing with Performics who gave me some great advice about my next project (I haven't told you about it yet because talk is cheap). On the way out I met Mike McAllen and we had a drink together while I chastised him for having a blogger blog. Hopefully I made up for it by giving his wife a signed copy of More Sand in My Bra.

CURRENT: Las Vegas, NV
NEXT: San Diego for Thanksgiving

So Sorry about Stumble Upon email

Hey Everybody, I'm really sorry that you got an email from Stumble Upon via me today. It sent something out to my entire Gmail address list, which is of course not up to date. I was only trying to add my friends that were already members and it sent something out to the whole damn list. I'm absolutely horrified. As you can imagine, there are people on there that I don't even talk to regularly. Work contacts, and so on.

The good news is that I hear it's a good tool to help you get more exposure to your websites and I've been having a lot of fun on it.

But still - Oy.

So sorry!!

Find Jen Leo at Plazes

I've been having fun with Twitter, but since I'm not blogging that much here on JenLeoLive, I signed up for Plazes so all of yous could still know where I'm at and where I'm going next. This will come in handy while I roam around sans Mr. C. He leaves for the Barcelona EPT next Sunday and will be staying over there for the 2007 WSOP Europe.

CURRENT: Las Vegas

NEXT: Los Angeles (Aug. 23 - 26)

NEXT for John: Barcelona &  London (Aug 26 - Sept 17)

New Job Blogging for the LA Times

I can finally tell you about my new job! I am the Travel Deal Watch blogger for latimes.com.

The LA Times launched a brand new travel site today. travel.latimes.com. And on the right hand side, you'll see the Daily Deal Blog. That's me. Our aim is to bring travel deals of all budgets to Southern Californians so they can getaway, relax, and have fun. My boss, Andrew Nystrom, said it best in his intro to the blog.

Go check it out! And please, pass it onto anyone you think might benefit. Obviously we're in early stages. The blog will expand to several writers, with hopefully some columns and posts geared towards building community. It's going to be a fun and inspiring resource!

CURRENT: PASADENA, CA
NEXT: ???

WiFi Beaches Across the U.S.

How cool is this?! A list of WiFi beaches across the U.S. Business surfers across America will be blocking me for a good patch of sand. Now, to design the battery supplied beach towel - so you never run out of juice! How about SPF 99 for techies. Intel's WiFi + computer surf board bundle is already old news.

Where to Catch Some WiFi Waves (Thank you Wired News!)

Another reason for Californians to secede.

CURRENT: Pasadena, CA
NEXT: San Elijo State Beach?

myTriggers and Fantasy Horseracing

Our evenings are fully booked every day until the 18th, on what is the day that I hope we will buy a Christmas tree. So, since I'm even more involved with my laptop (ha! I'm always this inolved) I've found a few cool things online.

Aggregate Shopping. MyTriggers.com is to shopping what Mobissimo is to travel. Only better. On MyTriggers.com you get to list your maximum price and then they will go and search millions of sellers to bring you back your options. Even better - they can also deliver resulsts in an email or by RSS. No need to keep re-searching day after day, let MyTriggers.com do that for you. Two things missing on their site, a blog, and a travel section. But they do have video games....

Fantasy Horseracing. TVGFantasy.com launched today. Now you can play fantasy games with your grandpa! All you hungry fantasy folks can "own and manage their own virtual stable consisting off!

This is what I love about the Internet - anything is possible. Have you found any interesting sites lately?

For those that want the personal juice....
WW update: up only one pound from Thanksgiving week and I think I happily ate three pounds the night before weigh-in.
Barista update: I practiced making steamed milk and foam yesterday. It's still hit or miss, but we took measures to practice with the steamer so that I'm not afraid of the sound.

CURRENT: PASADENA
NEXT: BAY AREA (Dec 2-7)