But first, time for a bit of a autumn cleaning. You probably noticed the new blog looks and i hope you like it – now it’s much easier to get to the Belgrade Inside Out website with a lot of questions about Belgrade already answered there.
New blogs on the blogroll – maybe you have already noticed them but i’ll mention them here once again – Serbia Blog is the newest blog by Bg anon, covering everything about Serbia. John is back with his ghosts after a month long break. D.R. Fairday decided to fullfill his long time dream by writing about being a “Yugo in the U.S”. and might i say he has a great start with breaking (and still trying to break) some myths about Yugo’s abroad. Balkanology is probably best site on travel to Balkans there is and now there’s a blog, currently on hold, hopefully not for long. Cvijus started a new blog in a great way, but now his DiasporaSerb blog is waiting on his return from well deserved rest in Bulgaria. I also stumbled upon this hidden gem – a great travelogue from Belgrade by Stephen Hurford! It’s in PDF so be you can download it and read it at your own paste.
When you finish with that i suggest reading Ed’s Belgrade travelogue at Balkanbaby.
I’m starting to make a list of “help desk blogs” covering cities and countries in the region the way Belgrade blog does – meaning that you can send a message to the author and ask a question about a specific city/region and hopefully get an answer before you decide to visit that country/region. So far the list is surprisingly small, due to the fact that only a handfull of people started such “help desks” or to the fact that i couldn’t find them. In which case i have to ask you to send me a link if you own such a blog, know someone that has such a blog or know someone that knows someone who owns such a “help desk”.
And now, here comes the idea i mentioned in the title.
If you don’t fall into any of above categories, but live in one of the following cities: Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje, Bucharest, Pristina, Istanbul, Athens, Bratislava and other major cities in East Europe, have internet connection and decent English language skills, than what are you waiting for? Start a “help desk” blog about your city and start recieving questions almost instantly from your blog readers (this happened to me when i started Belgrade Blog). The important thing is to remember to leave your email address or link where people can send you questions.
I reccon that this type of blogging is far more usefull and interesting than your everyday “diary” sort of blog. There is a new blog started in the world every 7,8 seconds, they say. If that’s true, this seems like an area still undiscovered by bloggers. I guess that this is going to be fertile ground in the future, being that there is an increasing number of tourists coming to Eastern Europe lately and they tend to get their info on the internet prior to departing to this still “unexplored area”.
There, that’s enough free tips for today, now choose one of the thousand blog engines and start your own tourist info help desk. Hurry before someone else beats you to it. And if being a helpfull Samaritian is not enough motivation for you i have to add this one bit: Some people are actualy making money blogging 
See some good examples:
Izmir Blog – Sandra started a help desk about Izmir, Turkey, and it seems she is overflown with questions – meaning a lot of interesting things to blog about.
Our man in Tirana and Letters from Exile are two blogs covering Albania.
Guide to Croatia Name is pretty self explanatory but the address where you can send questions is a bit hidden.
Glory of Carniola is one of the best of this kind, covering Slovenia, and is probably the best written one.
Know of more such blogs? Send us a link or use email: belgrade.inside.out@gmail.com
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
…and for those about to start, it may be good to know that besides bloggr.com/blogspot.com there’s other free blog providers, for example freeflux.net – which offers more options (and the google ads can be turned off in the admin menu
Black on yellow is beautifully easy to read.
Hi,
Just to let you know, I’ve just blogged about the time I most recently visited Serbia, and Belgrade inparticular.
It’s a little long but has some photos and gives my thoughts (mostly very positive) on the place.
Take care,
Ed.
http://www.balkanbaby.blogspot.com
Yes, like Kev said, there are litteraly hundreds of blog engines, many of them better than blogger.com – do some reaserch on that.
– it’s almost scary how easy it is.
The good thing with these blogs is that you don’t have to think very hard to write about some sujbect – they practicaly land in your lap by themselves everytime somebody asks a question – and it’s fun to do some research if you dont know the answer at once, plus you learn something about your city/region yourself.
And, if you happen to be the first to blog about your city/region, than you are automaticaly the best blogger on that topic, so called “authority site”
Owen, i’m glad you like the new design – it still has some bugs, but it’s nothing serious, im on it.
Ed, cool, i missed it somehow but i’ll link it now!
Yes I think the blog looks much better, really. Now the link between the blog and the site is much clearer to all visitors and the colour change better.
We only have to think about the Serbia blog now…
Oh there is a blog you should include in this post Viktor – the Malonso Times.
She is now coming ‘live’ from Serbia and deserves an increased audience. I’m sure she will make some interesting observations of her own.
Oops help desk blogs oh I see. Apologies, short attention span.
Well anyway perhaps you could add her blog to the blogroll…