Happy New Year everyone! We're excited to ring in another new year here at Living the Dream, and much like last year we are starting this year out with our annual list of travel resolutions for the next year. We had a hard time figuring out how to out do 2012 where we launched our first book, got married, went on an amazing food centric honeymoon to Spain, and even brought Angie on as a permanent author - but I think we figured it out.The following are just a few of the major items we have in store for you this year, so sit back and enjoy the great content we have coming your way!
Personal Goal - To Step Out of Our Comfort Zone
Our first travel resolution is a bit of a no brainer because we have it on our list every year as one of our travel mantras. Be it in an experience or trying a new food, we are going to continue with our goal of stepping out of our comfort zone to try the unique no matter where we travel. What could that entail for 2013? Well, getting Angie to jump off the side of a mountain is one (but where at?), plus several others that we unfortunately can't talk about yet. Suffice it to say, if we are there and something unusual is an option, we'll be the first to raise our hands to do it this and every year.
Attending a Blogging Conference (Two!)
Even though 2013 will be the beginning of our fifth year travel blogging, you may be surprised to find out that we have yet to attend any professional travel blogging conferences. They exist, and we've never had a reason to attend.
Sure, all of our travel blogging friends show up to these conferences, but the conferences themselves have never been much of a draw to us. We do not like to follow the pack and do what the group is doing when it comes to blogging, and we'll chug along no matter what the current trends are. Dropping several hundred dollars to fly across the world to attend a conference I don't need to see just never seemed worth it, even though meeting blogging friends is one of my favorite activities.
2013 is going to be different. This year's Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) Conference is in Toronto in June and we are conveniently only a few hours away. That is about all it takes to convince me, so if you are a travel blogger I'll be seeing you in Toronto! I'm even mulling the idea of giving a talk myself, but we'll see if I get up the nerve to do so. I've been to Toronto several times in the past, but I have a feeling that being surrounded by hundreds of travel writers will cast the city in a new light.
But wait, there's more! The annual Travel & Adventure trade show is in Washington DC this March, and I'll be making a special road trip there to meet with representatives from some of the largest travel companies in the world. Let us know if you or your company will be there so we can plan to meet up!
Bring Out the Blogs
2013 is going to be the year of the "new" blog. Over the next few months we will be redesigning the homepage of Living the Dream and are nearly finished with our redesign of The International Food Project, which Angie will be taking control of starting in the next few months. Our planned content for both blogs will be the same, but we will be just doing a slight touch up to the appearances of the site to get a fresh new look for the new year.
Want to help us out with the redesign? We'll be sharing new header images, tagline options, and other changes on our Facebook fan page that we'd love your input on. Head on over and 'Like' us to help be a part of the redesign!
Likewise, 2013 will also be the year we bring out a few more travel websites to the main stage including our travel blogger directory, Trust a Traveler (all travel bloggers welcome to join!), and our newest directory for world tourism boards, The Travel Atlas (75% completed but live now for your enjoyment!). We'll also be keeping up with our travel contest directory, Free Travel Contests, and providing great content for their respective blogs as well that were just recently launched.
A Major Announcement.. But Not Yet
We do have one final surprise in store for 2013, but you'll just have to wait until late April for the biggest announcement we've ever had here at Living the Dream. Are we going on many Very Cheap Holidays this year? Did our book get published? Something else altogether? Well, you will have to wait a bit longer before we're allowed to announce it. Don't worry, we will start dropping hints on our Facebook page the closer we get to the big reveal, and may already have started to if you've been paying close enough attention!
The Top 5 Posts of 2012 in Review
While we are underway getting ready for our plans for 2013, we wanted to look back on our Top 5 posts from 2012 that you may have missed! These are not only our most popular in terms of traffic and comments, but our favorite experiences and musings from traveling around this amazing world of ours. Check them out:
1) 10 Travel Photos for Your Facebook Timeline Cover - Facebook went and changed, again, and this time rolled out the great cover feature for your page. We converted 10 of our best photos to cover style and released them in high resolution absolutely free! Check them out and use them!
2) A Guide to Singapore's Best Hawker Centers - If you've been to Singapore, you know that hawker centers are the cornerstone of everyday eating. This was our guide at what we thought was the best centers and the best eats the city has to offer.
3) Angie Eats NYC! - The Verdict - Angie's first major posting series, "Angie Eats" is a two part series that researches the best restaurants in a major world city (Part 1) and then subsequently reviews the ones we hit (Part 2). It should be no surprise that when Angie talks about food, the post is a hit. But how about 2013? Here's a little hint for you, Angie is working on Angie Eats Paris as this article is being published, and that is just the first for the year.
4) I'm Thankful for My Passport - At Thanksgiving time I put together a post with a photo of every single page of my passport. Certainly my favorite travel companion. I'm a bit sad I have to send it out, but at the same time happy that 48 new pages will be my reward for parting with my precious.
5) Granada's Best Kept Secret - La Oliva's 17 Course Dinner - Angie's first full restaurant review on our site, focusing on the intense 17 course meal at the olive inspired shop "La Oliva." Be prepared to drool, this post was our favorite of the year!
As we said way back in our 2012 resolutions post, 2013 will be the best yet for our site but we can't let it out just yet. We'd love it if you would stick around and check out some of over 600 posts from our experiences in 35 countries around the world and what is shaping up to be an amazing year!
Happy New Year!
