Yodeler Appreciation Day

Dear fellow yodelers,

Thanks to readers like you, One Big Yodel is well, a big fun yodel.

If you’ve left a traceable comment from March 21 until May 16 as of the writing of this post–and you have a blog–you’ll find a link to it below. Yodelers, please check out these fellow readers’ blogs this week. Thanks for being a part of One Big Yodel.

Hattie’s Web: Unfrozen Cavewoman Blogger 

From Sheep to Alligators: Relocating from North England to Florida 

No Goat’s Going to Lick That Off: Adjusting to life in Zurich

E-Nature, music, life and work

Kelly & Wojtek’s Blog

Traveler in the Kitchen

A Year in Pictures

Any Latitude

Globatris: Expat support and Swedish Lessons 

Reader Appreciation Day

To counter a certain kind of “who cares about the customer” customer service in Switzerland, The Frau would like to have a reader appreciation day.

Here's to the yodelers

It’s high time she thanked some of her readers. Because without them, she would just be blogging for one person: her mom. And if she wanted to do that, she could just write emails. So thanks, readers.

Anyhow, the Frau loves all comments—even anonymous ones—but obviously Anonymous is hard to thank. So if you’ve left a traceable comment since June, and you’ve got an up-to-date blog, you’re included in the list below. And fellow yodelers, if you like this blog, you’ll probably like some of the following readers’ blogs too:

Queso Suizo: In Search of the Cheese Life

Kelly & Wojtek’s Blog

Newly Swissed

Made in Suisse

Dibulous

From Bratwurst to Bulgogi: A NJ girl’s journey from Germany to South Korea.

Swiss Side Jewellery etc

Miguev.net

Moms, Tots, & Zürich :hiking with kids in Switzerland

Wandering & Blathering

Tra mucche e cioccolata: la svizzera tedesca vista da una italiana

Alli McBally: A nail polish fanatic with too much time on my hands as some people say

Thanks, Fellow Yodelers

One Big Yodel is taking a commercial break to let you know that this blog is now officially worth reading. Whew. Aren't you glad you haven't been wasting your time, after all?

Along with Swisstory, One Big Yodel has received The Expat Focus Recommended Website Award for Switzerland. This award is given to outstanding expat websites (their words, not mine) which provide information that those moving to or living in a foreign country would find useful.

Wow. This blog is useful. And to think I started it back in 2006 with only one reader: my mom.Thanks to all of my fellow yodelers who have come along for a read or a feed since then. I like writing so much, I'd do it even if no one cared, but it's nice to know you're out there. Merci.

Blogging For Business (and Pleasure)

Many expats I know have blogs. Most start out as journals to connect with people back home. But some, like Toma Haines' blog, The Antiques Diva, inspire full-blown businesses. (Haines' tour business, inspired from her blog, now gives up to 48 antique shopping tours a year in various locals like Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin.)

Then there are expat blogs like Swisstory that make money through different kinds of advertising like the Amazon affiliate program.

As one gets established in the blogging world, working as a professional blogger is also a possibility. For example, Jul of This Non-American Life, has blogged for several b5media sites and yours truly has blogged for swissinfo.org, glimpse.org, and affordablecallingcards.net.

To find out more about how some expats are turning their joy of blogging into a (small) business, read my article, Blogging for Business (and Pleasure), in this month's Swiss News.

Debut on Swissinfo.ch

Swissinfo.ch is a great source of news about Switzerland for English readers. If you can’t quite piece together an article from 20 Minuten or Blick am Abend, for example, you can just go to swissinfo.ch and find your story there. Auf English. Auf Spanish. Or even auf Japanese, if you prefer.

Swissinfo.ch also runs several blogs, including one in English called Write On, which is written from an outsider’s point of view about life in Switzerland. For the next two months, I’ll be the Write On contributor. You can read my first post by clicking here. It’s about my transformation from a spa virgin to spa snob. And it’s all Baden’s fault.

Further Write On posts will be available every Friday on swissinfo.ch.

Looking to Interview a Full-Time Blogger

As some of you know, I work as a freelance writer. Currently I have an assignment with Swiss News (The National English Journal of Switzerland) that includes profiling a blogger that makes a living by blogging. To qualify you must:

-Blog as your full-time job (have a strong financial return from activities related to blogging--can include book deals that arose from your blog, working as a blogging consultant, writing for several blogs, etc.)

-Blog in English

-Preferably be an Expat (Extra bonus if you have a tie to Switzerland)

If you fit this profile (or know someone that does) and would like some publicity for your blog, please leave a comment with some way for me to contact you.