Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
A few weeks ago, I asked the main AskAsheville author to tell me a little bit more about himself. I still don’t have his name, or where he’s from, or what he does for a living. But he did tell me more about the AskAsheville philosophy, which I appreciate. Here you go:
One of the reasons we started the Asheville North Carolina blog was because we wanted to market and promote the area we now live in. Many of us have been here for years and Ask has been in the area for about 16 years. It would be too much for us to jump in another blog (and be attacked for spamming “their” blog), so could not head in that direction.
We also believe that information is education, and there is always someone that will read your message. The reason for the multiple Authors is because people are so different and there are some many points of view. Readers are the same in this sense.
Some of the Authors I know personally, and some are my Asheville MySpace friends. We do not invite people that will agree with what “we” think, but rather have some open information for readers to look at and then judge for themselves. We are definitely not a click, in any way. Just people contributing info to one “hub”.
AskAsheville is an Asheville North Carolina dashboard. If there is a “main” site in Asheville, we want it linked from our site. Main blog sites in AVL added soon. The company that consists of about 21 people/mentors/advisors/contibutors directly or indirectly. AskAsheville.com was created as an “open information system” where you can add your site for free and find some other useful area info. We wanted to open it up a little before the competition for “Asheville” became fierce. So we advertised whoever we found and evalated (was not too blog wise when AskAVL was developed so working on that now), put them in the search engine, and they are a part of our site.
We all have other sources of income, so we can say “not for profit” if we need to. Money is never the motivator. I guess providing Asheville information would be what inspires us.
As far as the videos on YouTube.com/AskAsheville, I simply got addicted to YouTube and did not see too much on “The Real Asheville”, and I heard a voice telling me from above, below, in my head, wherever; to do it… so I did. I love it more everyday and enjoy helping businesses get featured in video from a “neutral” source. If anyone has some good Asheville video, send it to us at [email protected] and we will post it.
Now if you post this and I get hundreds of emails, I will start charging because I live on 5 hours of sleep as it is (and fine with that), but no less. I just video where I am and where I go. I make memories for others, and sometimes myself.
We do not compete, we just do what we do, kinda effortlessly, you could say. It is in our schedule and life, so why strain? If people want to compete and offer something better, more free, and resourceful full… then go ahead… Make our day! There are no competitors as far as we see it. We are together on this. If you promote Asheville and contribute in any way, blogs, business, life, whatever… We consider you part of the fam, even if you are a little distant.
Our main sites are:
www.AskAsheville.com or www.AskAVL.com
www.AshevilleNorthCarolina.blogspot.com
www.YouTube.com/AskAsheville
