During a recent press trip to the Azores of Portugal I had dinner with the owner of the restaurant that was hosting me.

Over dinner we discussed many topics, including a new tourism program he was starting.

When the topic turned to how I could make money as a blogger I rattled off some of the ways, including sponsored posts. He seemed interested but did not pursue the topic.

The following month, after I published the posts about my time in his country, I received an email from the hotel owner.

He was interested in having me write the copy for his new program. He liked the way I had promoted tourism to his company and the timeliness in which I delivered the finished product.

By sitting down with him and explaining what I did without presenting a hard sale I had planted a seed.

Later, when he was able to see and appreciate my finished product, he wanted to further the relationship. In this way I was able to take a free hotel from a free trip that I was on and turn it into a paid opportunity.

My biggest takeaway was that someone is always watching. While I thought in the moment he wasn’t interested because he didn’t pursue the conversation it turns out he was watching.

He wanted to see my output from the project that caused us to initially cross paths.

Be consistent, talk about your work and the services you provide, and know that people are paying attention even when you think they might not be.

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Nathan Aguilera left his home of Oklahoma City more than three years ago on what he thought would be a six-month trip around SE Asia. Since then he’s seen more than fifty countries across four continents. You can follow his journey at www.foodieflashpacker.com

 

 

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Nic Pappas, a reporter with the Palatine Star newspaper, is assigned to cover a cold murder case known as The Brown's Chicken Massacre. Pappas meets, and falls in love with, Mary Jane Santos, who lost her brother, Roland, Jr., in the tragedy, tempting Pappas to violate the ethics of the reporter-source relationship. Believing the only way to end his dilemma is to solve the case, Pappas and Santos make a pledge to catch the killers...