Here’s a sweet news release that offers a great opportunity for travel bloggers and writers… not to mention a great prize.

Anyone gonna give it a go?

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GUIDEGECKO LAUNCHES INTERNATIONAL WRITING CONTEST 2010

Winner receives Trip to World’s Largest Book Fair in Frankfurt and Jump-Start into Professional Writing Career

Singapore, June 30, 2010 – GuideGecko.com, the innovative publishing platform for travel and lifestyle guides today launches its 2010 International Guidebook Writing Contest. Three winning titles will be showcased at the prestigious Insight Guides booth on the world’s largest book fair in Frankfurt, Germany, and the winner will be flown to the fair to meet and mingle with publishers from all over the world.

From now to September 15, writers worldwide can submit their own guidebooks on www.GuideGecko.com/writing-contest and stand a chance to jump-start into a professional writing career.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to meet international publishers and gain exposure to 299,000 visitors and 10,000 journalists”, says Dr. Daniel Quadt, Founder and Managing Director of GuideGecko. “We are happy to partner with world-famous Insight Guides; showcasing one’s title on their booth is a big boost for any writer.”

The contest is open to casual writers, bloggers and established authors. All travel, food, lifestyle and entertainment guidebooks with a minimum of 32 pages are welcome. Submissions can be new titles as well as existing titles previously published on GuideGecko or elsewhere.

The winning titles will be selected by a jury of guidebook industry veterans. “We have assembled a jury of renowned travel writers and editors with Tom Le Bas, Nicholas Gill, Maralyn Hill and Tim Leffel. Their feedback alone makes it worth to participate”, adds Quadt (jury profiles are included on the website).

The jury’s decision is augmented by popular online votes, starting with immediate effect. The submitted guidebooks will be published instantly and listed on GuideGecko’s front page to receive maximum visibility. Viewers can choose to vote for and even order these guidebooks immediately. Participation in the contest is free and the authors receive full royalties and retain their copyrights.

The Frankfurt book fair takes place from October 6-10, 2010. The winner will fly with Lufthansa German Airlines and stay at contest sponsor Maritim Konferenzhotel Darmstadt while in Frankfurt.

Closing date for submission is September 15, and prize winners will be announced on October 1st. For more information, to enter the contest and to place votes, please visit www.guidegecko.com/writing-contest.

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About GuideGecko

GuideGecko is an innovative publishing platform and online travel bookstore for travel, lifestyle and entertainment guidebooks. GuideGecko currently offers more than 3300 guidebooks as print and PDF download, on 169 countries and 270 cities and regions around the world. All well-known series are available, including Lonely Planet, Rough Guides and Insight Guides, along with a large variety of less conventional titles such as Hedonist’s Guides and Trailblazer, amongst many others.

GuideGecko invites casual writers, bloggers and established authors to publish and sell their own guidebooks on www.GuideGecko.com. GuideGecko makes such guides available as PDF downloads and as printed books/booklets. Publishing is free and authors earn 50-75% on every copy sold. Become a writer and get published on GuideGecko!

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For media enquiries, please contact:

Dr. Daniel Quadt
Phone: +65 94555974

Email: media_at_guidegecko.com

Over lunch, a girlfriend recently asked me, “What would you be doing if you could do anything you wanted to do?”

I didn’t have to think at all before answering, “I’m doing it”.

I expanded a little by explaining that I love what I do to help others achieve their dreams and I do that while traveling around the world.

For example, right now I’m in the middle of a 5+ week long cross-country RV camping trip. I’ve met all sorts of new people, visited with family and friends and seen a lot of territory that I hadn’t seen before… even getting caught in a violent thunderstorm in Wyoming. Internet connections throughout the trip have been spotty, and so has my ability to work.

But that doesn’t affect my earnings as my business is set up to run even when I’m on the road and can’t get connected.

While we were staying in Toronto on this trip, I ended up having an hour long conversation with Karol Gadja, who had won a consultation with me through a charity auction. I was delighted that it was Karol (pronounced ‘Carl’) who won the auction as I’d worked with him in the past, but had lost touch with him in recent years.

He’d all but disappeared from the Internet marketing world… and during our talk I found out how and why.

Karol has been traveling far and wide – crafting a guitar in India, learning to cook in Thailand and then trekking in New Zealand. For the next 4 months he’s staying in Poland to visit family and work on his next online project.

I particularly enjoyed hearing about Karol’s disappearance from the IM guru ‘promote anything and everything’ scene to make oodles of money to a place where he’s happily doing exactly what he wants and making as much money as he wants, when he wants.

He discovered what I’ve learned as well – that you get where you want to be by doing what you want to do – not by waiting for the money to roll in or chasing money. The money WILL come if you are true to yourself and others.

Seems like a strange concept, but it works.

Karol has just written a book called How to Live Anywhere about how to make this lifestyle work — from the perspective of being able to live and travel anywhere while making money.

I could (and probably should) have written this book, but I didn’t. And I like that Karol’s travel perspective includes information on how to fly for free and how to get executive class tickets for free. He covers a lot of ground on how to save money while you’re making it… something that I’m still in the process of learning.

In the “Money Module“, Karol offers a number of different ways to make money online without compromising your values (selling your soul to make a buck) with affiliate marketing and information product production. He also includes a detailed case study of how he made $1,542.24 profit in 24 Hours with an affiliate promotion.

If you want to combine travel, work and really living life to the fullest, then I highly recommend you pick up Karol’s “How to Live Anywhere” book.

By the way, Karol and I wanted to do a webinar for you this week, but because I’m traveling and can’t guarantee an Internet connection where I’ll be camping (because I never know where I’ll be next), we’ll do that once I’m back in B.C. near the end of June. 

Looking for cheap thrills, were you?

Well, you should be VERY glad this post isn’t what you thought it might be!

Actually, this picture was taken specifically for use on a blog post at Roamsters.com, our new travel blog, to promote winter clothing essentials.

Note how I’ve personalized the promotion, relating what I wear in the picture to items of clothing that I suggest and link to.

Note too the Technorati tags that I use to increase traffic back to the site.

Lastly, notice how not every bullet point includes a link or promotional material. Instead I try to get the reader to smile… which keeps them reading.

Think of ways you can show your visitors how they will benefit from products you sell and you’ll sell more!

So, how can you personalize your affiliate promotions?