Summertime Stoke

Here are a few highlights, in no particular order:

* The Traveler’s Notebook migrated all topics (travel jobs, travel advice) to other blogs in the Matador Network , and began focusing exclusively on publishing travel narratives, notes, and journal excerpts, as well as articles on travel writing, photography, and video.

* Brave New Traveler broke 4,000 RSS subscribers.

* The Matador Network began consistently reaching nearly 800,000 unique visitors per month.

* Matador Community members began winning some great awards, such as Jenny Williams winning the StorySouth Award 2009 , Craig and Linda Martin winning Lonely Planet’s award for Best Travel Podcast.

* Various Matador members have published books. This includes, among several others, Beebe Bahrami, whose book, The Spiritual Traveler Spain–The Guide to Sacred Sites and Pilgrim Routes, was published in May 2009, and Nora Dunn, whose book 10,000 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget, was also published this May. Other Matadorians are just about to publish books, such as James Workman whose work, Heart of Dryness is already receiving advanced praise from literary giants such as Rick Bass and David James Duncan.

* Matador launched its newest blog, Matador Sports.

* In probably the biggest news of all, we’ve spent the last 7 months working on Matador’s first educational component, MatadorU. The first course offered at MatadorU will be a Travel Writing School unlike anything else on the web or in print, a true step by step guide that lays out exactly how to become a professional Travel Writer.

Happy final weeks of summer to everyone at Matador.

David Miller

8/07/09, Atlanta