Showing posts with label IWAC news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IWAC news. Show all posts

15 March 2017

The IWAC Revival

After a five year hiatus, the Interview With A Cruiser Project is coming out of intermission.

I am toying with different formats, mulling over the question bank, reaching out to my contacts, and thinking through the project from top to bottom.

Here is your chance for input before the project gets up and rolling again!

What did you enjoy about the project? What did you find lacking? Did anything annoy or frustrate you? If you could run the project, what would you do differently? What subjects fascinated you? Which subjects weren't covered enough?

Comment here or on the same topic on our Facebook page.

Cheers, Livia

09 September 2011

All good things must come to an end

This is a heads up to let the IWAC readership know that I will be putting the project on intermission.

What does that mean? As I post this, there is another month worth of interviews already scheduled. Interviews will continue to roll out, as per usual, for at least the next 4 weeks. I have a number of interview requests out and as those interviews come in I will continue publishing them on the site. However, I will not be actively recruiting new interviews and after the next month, I will not be posting interviews on every single Monday.

Why?! First, I've accomplished my own personal goals. There are now a large body of interviews, chock full of opinions and experiences, publicly available for free. Second, we seem to have reached a point in the information gathering process where most interviews contain information that has already been mentioned. Third, and not least, our cruising plans are taking us out of easy wifi connectivity and so the project will become even more work for me.

Why do you say intermission? I reserve the right to come back to this project, at a later point, and expand on it.

Why didn't you hand off the project to someone else to continue? Mostly because I would love to see how a different person would approach the task. I encourage someone else to start their own version. In fact, I'll pimp any cruising, interview based projects out here once they are up and running as I have done for other interview projects in the past.

Thank YOU. It's been a good run and I very much appreciate the time the interviewees have given to the task and the support of the readership. I want to thank everyone who put a badge on their own page, linked to the project, suggested interviewees or questions and who provided some liquid motivation by direct donation or by visiting the ads. I hope that people will keep the badges up on their websites and continue to direct cruisers-in-prep or armchair cruisers to this project as a cruising resource. The interviews will still be new to those who have never seen the site.

This is a good death. There is no shame in this, a project's death, a project that has done fine works.- (mis)quote from the movie Serenity

31 July 2011

16 January 2011

New IWAC Companion Site: Newly Salted

A few months ago, I asked for feedback on ways to keep this site useful. Via comments and direct emails the suggestion was raised to interview cruisers who had been cruising fewer than 2 years. In this way, the Newly Salted companion site was formed.

The first interview, with Zero to Cruising, will go live this Wednesday, January 19th, 2011.

Please make yourself at home and learn about the Newly Salted site. Or more importantly suggest interviewees or volunteer to be interviewed.

Interviews will come out sporadically, not every Monday like the Interview With a Cruiser Project. For this reason, and so you don't miss them when they arrive, I recommend you subscribe either by email or by feed reader using the options at the bottom of every page on the Newly Salted site. You can subscribe to this site in the same way - remember that your subscriptions to each site are separate and that I won't use your email address for anything.

16 December 2010

Presents!

A few exciting upcoming events on the IWAC site:

- Perhaps it is the changing of seasons but I've received a flood of incoming interviews. For that reason, on occasional Thursdays I will post a second interview. At reader request, next week, two boats under 30 feet!

- Also at reader request, I am conducting just a few pilot interviews with newer cruisers which will be published on a new companion site: Newly Salted.

- Coming soon: Thanks to direct reader donations and also the trickle of revenue caused by your use of (or at least tolerance of) the ads on the sidebar, I will be posting a "liquid motivation" page to show you how those funds are being put to good use.

For those just joining the site, don't forget that you can sort the interviews by question, and suggest interviewees or questions. Also, the flyer has been updated to a tab format for posting in your community.

12 November 2010

You spoke. I listened.

...and I acted.

Last week I asked for your opinions on the question bank and I asked what type of interviewees you would like to see and for suggestions on where to find those types of cruisers.

Regarding questions, I'm going to assume that the fact that no one responded to this issue means that they are good as is for now. That's great.

Regarding types of people to interview, by email and comments to that post, I heard two major suggestions:
  1. Cruisers on budget and/or in smaller boats.
  2. Newer cruisers (< 2 years) with the caveat that these would either need to be on a separate site or marked clearly somehow so that they don't defeat the purpose of having experienced cruisers answer questions.
Here is what I'm doing:
  1. Renewed my efforts to track down smaller/budget cruisers. Since the first day I started this project, I've been trying very hard to find budget cruisers in smaller boats. What I've found is that they are extremely difficult to track down. There seem to be fewer of them "out there" (the average boat size is increasing) and those that are out there seem to be more likely to not have an online presence (website/blog) and to have a shorter than 2 year cruise. With that being said, I've sent a bunch of emails following  up on some more leads and am renewing my efforts to try to find these cruisers. I have an interview in this category coming out on December 20th. I think once my husband and I sail South this summer I will meet more of these people in person and have a better chance of finding them. If you can think of anyone in this category, please do suggest them. I can only ask people and I can only ask people I can find - there are limits to my powers as a non-paying site.
  2. I'm mulling this one over. I think it is an excellent suggestion. Because I'm doing this for free*, in my free time, while I'm cruising myself, I need to make sure that this site stays on the fun side of the fun-to-suck ratio for me and for that reason I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. Still, I love the idea so I'm considering it and even have a few ideas on how to make it a fun occasional add on to this site without diluting the initial purpose. What I have done in the meantime while I'm mulling over options is to add 3 questions to the bank which I've already started sending out to interviewees: In your own experience and your experience meeting other cruisers, what are the common reasons people stop cruising? / In your first year of cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult? / What mistakes did you make in your first year of cruising?

Also, please remember that once I "act" it can take months for those interviews to appear on the website. First, there is a back-and-forth email chain between two sets of people who are both traveling which can take months. Then, once I have their interview I try to keep a backlog of 2 months of interviews ready in advance so the new interview won't see the front page for weeks or months after I have it in hand.

Thank you very much to everyone who responded on the post and those who emailed me directly with your feedback. I appreciate your time and involvement. For those people that gave specific suggestions on cruisers to ask, thank you - I will have looked into each one by the end of the week.

*actually, with the Google ads you readers have to put up with, I'm probably earning a pint or two a month. I like to measure progress in frosty cold ones.

05 November 2010

Got opinions?

I know that many of you readers out there have read every single one of the more than 30 interviews on this site and at this point are starting to form strong opinions about what you would like to see more of and less of with your Monday morning coffee.

I've opened up the comments to this post - so please, speak and be heard.

1) Of the questions that I ask, which would you like to see asked more often and which would you like to see asked less often? Or is there a question you would like to see added?

2) What other types of cruisers would you like to see? And can you recommend any? I've made a push to include more cruisers with children (some of those interviews have started to come out) and am currently struggling to find more non-American/Canadian cruisers. What other types of cruisers should I ask? And do you know of anyone who fits that category? I am willing to spend a limited amount of time on Google to push for a type of cruiser but I rely heavily on suggestions from YOU on whom to interview. Please, pretty please, with sugar on top, use the power of your own "blog reading list" or google or friends lists to suggest people to me to interview.

24 October 2010

Where boaters congregate

If you know of a posting board in a marina, a sailing club, or even a laundromat by a marina, take a moment to print this snazzy flyer ((link fixed)) and post it somewhere that boaters congregate.

Alternatively, if you know of somewhere online where boaters congregate, please share this site with them and/or post a link to your favorite interview on your own blog/facebook/twitter.

Finally, don't forget all of the other ways to help.

11 August 2010

Facebook and other news

The Interview With A Cruiser Project is now on Facebook making it easier to get your Monday morning fix. Join us there and start your work week out on a dreamy note.

I've made a minor design change to the site. The Interview With A Cruiser project is now easier to SHARE. Click on the buttons at the bottom of each interview to email the interview to someone, tweet it, post it on your facebook page or add to your Google buzz. Share a favorite/interesting/controversial interview with your friends!

In other news:
  • The discussions posts are pretty ghostlike so I'm eliminating them. 
  • There are approximately 170 people who get the interviews via a feed reader, 25 via email and another approximately 100 direct visits per day.
  • I have interviews formatted through September 20th.

21 May 2010

Happy Two Months!

Can you believe it? Thank you to all of the interviewees who took the time to share their experience.

The state of the first two months:
- 9 interviews published
- 7 interviews formatted and scheduled for publication through July 5th.
- More than 20 additional boats who have agreed to participate and have their 10 questions in hand.
- The question bank has grown substantially thanks to interviewees and readers.
- And finally, thanks to you readers we've had a lot of good press.

As usual, I can use your help particularly in promoting the site (on forums, local publications, your message board at your marina, your blog, etc) and in finding more cruisers to interview.

Cheers, Livia

28 April 2010

Where is IWAC?

Below is a list of all of the places where the Interview With A Cruiser project has been mentioned. Thank you very much to everyone who has been spreading the word.

If I've missed a place, the link I have here no longer features the site, or if I've made any other error, please let me know via the comments section here or by email.

As always, there are many ways you can help including spreading the word and always feel free to shoot me an email (iwac.project@gmail.com) with a suggestion. You can always email an individual interview to a friend by clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom of each post. Also, the Question Bank has really been growing thanks to your feedback.

Magazines
April 6 - Three Sheets NW
May - Duckworks WebWatch (listed with BoatBits)
June Issue - SSCA Commodore's Bulletin (Around & About section - publication is members only)
((upcoming)) Latitudes & Attitudes (July - Scuttlebutt section)

Featured on Blogs & Websites
2010 May -
6 - Cetus
17 - Women and Cruising
17 - SV Del Viento
2010 - April
6 - Boat Bits
7 - Yoders Afloat
19 - Messing About in Boats
20 - Follow the Boat (Esper)
23 - Bright Eyes
28 - Master of None

18 April 2010

06 April 2010

In The News, Update, Thanks & Reader Support

News: The Interview With A Cruiser Project was recently featured on the front page of the online publication Three Sheets NW and on the blog Boat Bits.

Update: Interviews come out on Mondays and I now have completed interviews through May 3 with others in the works. You can check back on Mondays or be notified via email, feed or twitter - see the bottom of the main page here.

Thank you: A big thanks to our readers who have been submitting suggestions for interviewees and also new questions to ask. New reader questions have been added to the Question Bank and have already been sent out to new interviewees.

Reader support: If you enjoy the resource and want to see it grow, there are two main ways you can help:

1) Please continue to suggest people who have been cruising outside of their home country for more than 2 years as potential interviewees. Feel free to suggest yourself! In particular, I will have a difficult time reaching people who do not keep their own blog, or keep a blog but not in English, who hail from outside the US and Canada, who have finished their cruise or who don't frequent the online forums. Email me with your suggestions at iwac.project@gmail.com

2) If you participate in an online sailing forum and enjoy reading the interviews, please do post a link to the site. Or make a post about the project, or add a link, to your own blog/website. For the internet savvy, there is html for a "badge" on the right side of this page.

Cheers, Livia

18 March 2010

Welcome!

The first interview will go live on Monday, March 22, 2010. I hope to have a new interview every Monday thereafter.

Please make yourself at home and learn about the project with the navigation buttons up top. Submit questions or volunteer to be interviewed.

If you want to hear about interviews when they come out, subscribe using one of the three options at the bottom of this page.
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