Bicycle Journal – The Triple Tiered Approach

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I’m getting a ton of questions about this new Triple Tiered Approach, I’m taking with this summers bike tour.

Let me explain it a little bit further.

The Written Blog

I love to write. When I write a lot I feel really good. Part of why I love cycling cross country so much is that it gives me the time think and time to write. Keeping a bike journal is a project, I thoroughly enjoy doing.

And im not even writing about anything cool, I’m just riding a bike everyday.

The written blog is the heart of the triple tiered approach.

When I wrote my other 2 bike journals I was writing them all day long. I was literally jotting down notes as I rode my bike. And then every couple of days bust out my laptop, drink a few beers and compile all my notes into a few blog posts.  If I didn’t take notes all day long, those journals would have been 100 times smaller.

Without the written journal, there is no bike trip.

James O’Brien used to say, “If isn’t written in our Bike Journal, then it didn’t happen.” And he’s right.

I have an incredible long term memory and a terrible short term memory. I need to take those notes and tell the story in a written form. I could never convey all that information through a conversation off the top of my head. Its impossible.

 

The Video

Why even bother with video?

I genuinely want to learn video. I’m a stereo typical Architect, I want to learn the skills to do everything and then when I get over my head. I hire a real expert to untangle my mess. Jack of all trades master of none.

I’ve been blogging actively on Young Architect for 2 years now and moving into video is really the next logical step for me in my master plan of complete domination of the world and the internet.

No seriously. I love to write, but I also love to talk.

One of the things I hate most about blogging is that I sometimes have to think about how my voice translates to the people reading my posts.

I said in one of the other posts that I used to have a good time reading all my blogposts to Jamie and Chuck and they loved getting the audio blog version of what I was publishing.

The internet has drastically changed since the last trip. Youtube was a little kid in 2007 and now it’s a grown man.

To be completely honest with you the real reason why I’m dragging video into this bike tour is so all the women in my life can see my handsome face and hear my sexy voice.

Oh and about the gear…

I have absolutely no idea what computer, camera, software or microphone I will be using and im not soliciting for advice. I want to figure these things out on my own. When I need help I will ask. In the meantime my videos will be pretty low tech, which is better the no video in my opinion. But I hope to progressively up my video game with the more videos I keep making.

 

The Audio or Podcast.

I will also splice off the audio from the videos, so you can listen while you walk your dog. If you have to drop everything to pick up a dog poop, you’ll never miss a beat.

Once I hit the road and start posting everyday I’ll the audio as podcasts on Itunes. I’ll figure out a plan to strategically time and launch my podcast so it rises to the top. I may need your help with doing that. But in the meantime I have many bigger fish to fry then Itunes.

Why?

I know right. Good question, why am I doing all this extra work?!??

I don’t think its that much extra work. My plan is to really focus on getting solid systems in place. I will find quality people to help me, push all the buttons and execute, So I can ride my bike and write the journal. the blog.

Its going to take awhile before I start getting comfortable with the video and audio. The only way I will get there is to keep doing it and testing out what works. I apologize in advance if these first few videos are a little bit awkward.

 

Being Particular

2 years ago when I started writing Young Architect someone said something to me about my twitter presence. And I was like:

“I hate twitter, I don’t have time to waste on that crap. I have a blog to build.”

Little did I know that twitter would become one biggest referral sources of traffic to Young Architect. Apparently Architect’s love twitter. I love it too now.  A significant amount of my audience was hanging out on twitter and for the first 1 year, I had my head too far up my ass to realize this.

I later learned another important lesson.

There is no rhyme or reason to this, but everyone has a personal favorite social media platform. Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Linked-In, google plus and whatever platforms exist.  There are too many options so most people embrace one and ignores the others.

People are just as particular with their media as they are with their social media.

I know I am..

I like to read about architecture.

I like to listen to podcasts about business and entrepreneurship.

I watch videos to get my news.

What I don’t do is.

Watch videos about architecture.

Read about business and entrepreneurship

Listen to podcasts for my news.

No that’s ridiculous.

Some people like to read about bike tours, while they sit in their air conditioned offices and pretend to work.

Others enjoy watching youtube videos about bike tours, on their smartphones while they lay in bed at night and should be sleeping.

And others have no time, so they listen to the bike tour on their head phones while they throw a ball to their dog

What Else Do I Hope?

I hope in deep my heart that the triple tiered approach helps me inject more personality into my bike journal. There’s already way too much written text on the internet. In the future noones gonna read all this written crap. Streaming online video is the future. Google is training robots right now how to watch videos so they can learn how to index it.

I also hope I can figure out how to deliver this triple tiered approach effectively.

I also hope it help makes for a damn good travel journal and amongst all the written words on the internet.

That’s all I got. I hope this sheds a little bit more light on the Triple Tiered Approach.

Click Here to Visit The Table of Contents
Click Here to Visit Previous Page: Planning a Bicycle Tour
Click Here to Visit The Next Page: The 2016 Coast2Coast Bike Route