Introducing “Links I Loved”, a Legal Nomads Newsletter

Jodi Ettenberg Wadi Rum

In my Istanbul through a Pinhole post, I hinted at the fact that I would be starting a Legal Nomads newsletter. I’ve quietly put up the enrolment form on the sidebar, as well as on my Facebook Fan page. I’m thrilled to see so many of you signing up without an announcement. But I wanted to explain a little bit more about why I’m starting a newsletter, and how it will be different from Legal Nomads.

The Legal Nomads Newsletter

Links I Loved: A Legal Nomads Newsletter

Thanks to my friend Wes from Johnny Vagabond for putting it together for me. It’s simple, clean and matches the scripting on the sidebar. Also, it has lobster font – and we already know I love the lobster font.

Lobster Font’s official mascot. No, I’m not kidding.

But back to the “why”…

Before I quit my job as a lawyer, I would aggregate “daily linkies,” a compendium of science, technology and other interesting online reads from my day. These were culled during long conference calls, and probably not what my employer had in mind whilst negotiating indemnities. Regardless, I still got my job done and managed to send out a few daily linkies before I left the office.

When I joined Twitter in late 2009, I started sharing those same links, but in real-time. The feed was (and continues to be) vaguely travel-related, with the majority of the postings a sprawling bucket of assorted nerditry to learn from. My business card has the word “curator” in my bio and while these days, curation is a very popular buzzword, I think it does hone in on what I’m trying to do. In a world of informational abundance, it’s great to sift through the noise and pull out the links that you want to learn from. And I love sharing them, too, as many people don’t want to do the sifting – but I do.

Maria Popova, one of the best curators out there, noted last year

Ultimately, I see Twitter neither as a medium of broadcast, the way text is, nor as one of conversation, the way speech is, but rather as a medium of conversational direction and a discovery platform for the text and conversations that matter.”

As Twitter became more and more popular, so have those links, and I’ve loved interacting with (and learning from) people in 140 characters. Through Twitter, I’ve met some wonderful people who have become friends and discovered an endless series of rabbit holes, full of knowledge.

When I say “sprawling bucket of assorted nerditry”, this is what I mean:

Ideally, I want to share those links to everyone, and not everyone is on Twitter.  And there are just too many “space is awesome” links to post on Twitter alone. But also, friends like Christine and Shannon and Michael all urged me to take these links and put them into a more digestible format.

Thus, Links I Loved, my Legal Nomads newsletter was born.

I’m going to start with a bi-weekly newsletter, perhaps moving it up to once a week if people enjoy it. I plan to divide it up into sections – photography that resonates, space is awesome, brainfood on the web, and others – with links that I hope will be interesting.

In addition, as my 4-year anniversary of departure approaches, I’ve maintained the same philosophy I started out with on Legal Nomads – namely that while I will occasionally hop on press trips and partner with companies I really respect and enjoy (e.g. my Wanderers in Residence gig with G Adventures), I have continued to decline advertising or sponsored links on this site.

What this means is that my income derives from revenue sources outside the blog, and I’d like to share those projects too – I’m proud of them! I’ve recently been hired as a contributing editor to Longreads.com, one of my favourite sites on the web, and I’ve been writing for the Hipmunk and other companies for quite some time. I’m looking forward to showcasing some of those outside sources, as well as recent press for the blog, in a section of Links I Loved.

Thank you, as always, for reading and I hope you enjoy this supplemental batch of Legal Nomad-ism. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, you can do so on the sidebar, on the Newsletter tab of the Legal Nomads fan page on Facebook or by clicking here.

-Jodi

 

24 thoughts on “Introducing “Links I Loved”, a Legal Nomads Newsletter”

  1. catalina norman

    I was reading your blog when you posted! I am a new follower after reading the post in NYT 2 weeks ago and I got hooked! I even bought some of the books you suggested on your blog! so happy to have found you, Jodi! big hug from Catalina.

  2. You already know how much I value your curation, so I truly cannot wait to receive these newsletters. Also, isn’t it about time that the gods of online dictionaries accepted “curation” as an acceptable word into their ranks? [The squiggly red lines of ‘misspelled’ are bugging me!]

  3. I couldn’t agree more, with all Roxanne said. And I’m excited for what this new project may bring into your life. Yes, figuring out our path isn’t always easy but I think you’re making the right strides. XO

  4. gene in montreal

    As is the case with this lovely nomad, “more” is definitely better. Looking forward to this more!

  5. I’m so glad to see this happening, at last! I’ve always enjoyed your tweeted linkies, but I can go a day or more without checking twitter, thus missing out on good links. There are very few sites that I sign up for via newsletter. This one gets through the gates :)

  6. You had me at Lobster Font! Great idea and excited to follow along. Thanks for making me think more responsibly/creatively about my twitter feed.

  7. Great idea Jodi, I especially like that you’ll be helping to help promote the great content of others too! Wil be checking it out ‘fo ‘sho.

  8. My first thought is this when I read this:

    “how the hell does she do all this?!”

    Love the font, and seeing I love all the links you tweeted, I shall sign up on the newsletter. Even just to oogle on the graphic and font. *Signing up right after I post this comment*

    :)

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