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Seeking advice on travel blogging

Posted by Nomadic • 6/08/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: advice, blog, bonn, Germany, host, travel

I have been writing on my Travel Pod hosted site for a while now, and I wonder whether it is the best one for me? I quite like being able to have structure and maps, but the community seems small, the hit rate very low, and it is a little clumsy to navigate. I have two other blogs on blogspot, but don't want to go down that route again. Can anyone recommend a good site to host?

To give you some idea of the site and my writing, my latest travel tales uploaded today from Germany are here
www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/nomadic/5/tpod.html

User Comments

6/08/08

carlgalloway

I would think you could probably get a far better response by just having a wordpress blog, although dragging maps into things could be more difficult. One way around that could be hosting the images on Flickr and using mapping tool to place the photos, then on your blog you could hotlink to the thumbnail of your photo, and if you wanted, you could also link to you map page.

Of course you could do all of the above with blogger but my preference would be either a free wordpress.com blog or get your own domain and hosting simply because wordpress gives you more options for widgets etc out of the box than blogger seems to do, such as anti-spam, top posts, stats that sort of thing

[reply]
1. 6/08/08
  
  Nomadic
  
  I noticed a couple had moved from blogspot to wordpress lately. I will check it out. I like the map thingy thing, and I like the "community feel" of travelpod, despite its clumsy navigation.
  
  I tried posting a few specialised questions like this in the "groups" part of BC, but I rarely get much of a response. I would love to get a proper forum going just for travel bloggers.
2. 6/08/08
  
  carlgalloway
  
  I would love to participate in a good travel bloggers forum. Let me know if you need any help with that, please!
3. 5/23/09
  
  BestWordpress
  
  Yeah I agree switch to wordpress for your design is not very stylish
  Wordpress has a lot of themes but many are crappy, so go there rather:
  www.wordpressfreepremiumthemes.com
6/08/08

OzScot

Nomadic - I'm unsure if there was an issue with images (like maps) in Wordpress before I started using it - but I find that criticism of them largely unfounded now. When I place an image in my post I only need ensure it's hosted on photobucket or wherever - paste the url into the image box in my editor and I can instantly resize or locate the image where I want it within the post - it doesn't show up in the editing box as an url - the image appears there for me to drag around in my editing box - maybe I got lucky with a good, well written wordpress template - I dunno?

Ben

[reply]
1. 6/08/08
  
  Nomadic
  
  See Ben, I am not too technical....the Travel Pod site has a map that automatically maps your journeys with pins.....ah, never mind. I can probably live without it.
  
  @ carl. There ARE a couple of travel groups I have joined on BC, but not very active....in fact I think I may post about that....
2. 6/08/08
  
  carlgalloway
  
  Nomadic that's been my experience as well, I just wish there was a forum somewhere (I haven't found it) with about 100 or more active travel bloggers we could network with
3. 6/08/08
  
  Nomadic
  
  @ carl. I am on a quest for us both then.
4. 6/08/08
  
  carlgalloway
  
  If you don't find anything, but get enough people interested I'll happily front the domain cost and the hosting unless it needs a dedicated server, and ad free as well.
5. 6/08/08
  
  Nomadic
  
  Woa! We should talk off line carl. I like the cut of your jib (gib?).
6. 6/08/08
  
  carlgalloway
  
  Let's do that, but if it needs a dedicated server then it needs a bit more thought
6/24/08

Nomadic

I have tried wordpress - but I am not too impressed with it, it seems far clumsier to navigate than blogspot. I can't change the font size for love nor money and despite a couple of hours of trying I can't add the blogcatalogue link back properly.....I hesitate to add a link to such a pathetic attempt - but it is here www.4nomadic.wordpress.com - and open to scrutiny and suggestion. Help!

[reply]
1. 5/23/09
  
  BestWordpress
  
  Don't go to wordpress.com, use your own webhosting service. It's now cheap some are even free.
7/03/08

idealpinkrose

i also have two travel blogs and i don't know how to get more traffic. hmmmmm....

[reply]
7/03/08

pedagang

just ... make money online and travel

[reply]
5/23/09

haaki

Wordpress is for sure the best when you know how to use it!

I started of with blogspot, switched to wordpress.com and now my blog is selfhosted through wordpress.org, and i love it!

You have so much freedom to do anything you want! And it is extremely logic to use when you get into it!

You can check out my wordpress blog, called The 4 Season Travel Blog on winter-travel.org

PS: I checked out your wordpress blog, and I think it looks great. But keep playing around with it and you will learn how to make it look unique!

[reply]