Writing for life

Hello all!

Yes, I know you’re out there, lurking, because the mighty Google Analytics tells me it is so. There are real, live people visiting this blog. Trouble is not many of you are commenting. Well let’s remedy that, shall we?

One of the best things about blogging is that it’s a two-way street. I want to hear what you have to say… whether you agree, disagree or just want to say hi!

If you’re not sure how the whole commenting thing works, check out Darragh Doyles Commenting 101 post for the full run down. Then come back here and let me know what you’re thinking!

Come on, join the conversation and let’s get to know each other a little bit better….

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Glengarriff Lodge,

Glengarriff,

West Cork,

Ireland

A few weeks ago we spent a wonderful weekend at what has to be one of the most enchanting houses in the whole of West Cork, perhaps the entire country. Nestled on its own little island between a fork in the Glengarriff River, this thatched former hunting lodge of the Earl of Bantry is like something straight out of a childhood fantasy.

Set in three acres of beautifully tended gardens, surrounded by mature trees that blend seamlessly with nearby native woodland, the fairytale house sits gently in this idyllic rural landscape. As we drove over the little wooden bridge onto the island I had to pinch myself to make sure what I was seeing was real. This was Glengarriff Lodge… and it was absolutely breathtaking.

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Rated 5/5 on May 8 2008

Vote on Calvin’s reviews at LouderVoice

LouderVoice review tags: Accommodation, West Cork, Glengarriff Lodge, Self Catering, House

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Tom Raferty of “Tom Referty’s Social Media” has just set up a new blog to explore green issues. He ran a competition on his blog to suggest a domain and ended up choosing lowerfootprint.com — which was one of my offerings.

Tom passed on a Fire Eagle invitation (thanks Tom) for the winning suggestion. Fire Eagle is Yahoo’s new geographically aware platform that, in theory, will let other applications “know” where in the world you are at any given time, allowing them to tailor their services accordingly. I’ve signed up, but so far there’s no user-level application for the technology… although I see there are a few things in the pipeline. I’ll write more when there’s something to report.

Meanwhile I’d like to wish Tom all the best with his new venture. The more we can all do to bring the issues surrounding climate change to a mainstream audience, the better. Check it out, subscribe to the RSS feed, comment, encourage debate, spread the word, raise awareness.

Businesses are slowly coming around to the fact that they need to become more ecologically responsible — and the greener application of technology certainly has a big huge role to play in that transition. At present jury’s still out on how many are doing it for ethical/environmental reasons and how many are simply jumping on the eco-PR bandwagon — but the fact that they’re doing it at all is, I suppose, a step in the right direction.

Technorati Tags: climate change,environment,lower footprint,carbon footprint,Tom Raferty,fire eagle

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Wow! Just saw a post about this great competition on Tom Raferty’s Social Media blog (sorry Tom, but I don’t think your appeal for people not to enter is going to work).

This has to be one of the most compelling pieces of “link bait” I’ve seen in a while, and a great way to generate buzz in the local blogosphere. Who, within striking distance of this superb looking accommodation, wouldn’t want to enter this competition?

Glengarriff Lodge — a former hunting lodge of the Earls of Bantry

I’ll have to post this as an example on my Digital Marketing blog… which is woefully in need of more attention than it’s getting. Funny, but researching and writing the book it sits alongside (due for publication by Kogan Page later this year) seems to be taking up all of my time!

I wonder if posting the competition to another blog means I get two bites at the cherry?

All you have to do is link to their homepage using Luxury Self Catering as your anchor text, and, in the same post, link to the site of a friend who might also be interested in the competition.

For more information take a look at the Luxury Self Catering Weekend Give-Away Competition Page on the Glengarriff Lodge website.

Now all I have to do is think of a friend who’d be interested in the competition and link to their site. Now, let me see… friends with websites I can link to…. Hmm… that’s trickier than it should be… OK, how about Marc Holden over at Firehorse Imaging.

Good luck with the competition… as long as you don’t win, of course! I’ve decided that’s my prerogative.

Technorati Tags: luxury self catering,competition,digital marketing success,viral marketing,link bait

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Apologies to anyone who tried to subscribe to this blog’s feed recently. I changed my FeedBurner account a while back to use the MyBrand feature, which means the feed for the blog retains the cjwriting.com domain. Something got screwed up in the process, and I only noticed that it wasn’t working properly last night.

It’s all sorted now though, so if you’ve been having any trouble subscribing to the feed, or if you were subscribed and noticed problems, please re-subscribe. Everything should be working normally now.

Again apologies for any inconvenience.

Cheers,

Calvin!

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