... Somewhere along the way I ran into Travelpod and for about the past two years it has been a site I have visited most days. I love to travel and I checked out a few travelblog sites but this one is the one I have chosen to stick with.
Join us.
A pretty stock standard process to run through ... Read review
Advantages: SImple to use, Free, Great Community Feel Disadvantages: None. I really love this site.
...the way I ran into Travelpod and for about the past two years it has been a site I have visited most days. I love to travel and I checked out a few travelblog sites but this one is the one I have chosen to stick with.
Join us.
A pretty stock standard process to run through to join up. Whats your name, email and a few other options some of which aren't compulsory like "How did you hear about us". There are also options ... ...further way to "meet" the Travelpod community.
Within your own community there is a section where you can see if any of your friends have joined and you are also able to post links to your favourite members, whether you know them or not.
The front page will post links to the last five entries and last five photos posted.
We also know who started Travelpod, Canadian Luc Levesque. Luc is quite ... more
"A traveller without observation is a bird without wings." - Moslih Eddin Saadi
Update at end of rewivew..
As I am wont to confess I have a very boring job, with very little to do during the day and as a result I have tried many many internet sites and signed up to them all. Somewhere along the way I ran into Travelpod and for about the past two years it has been a site I have visited most days. I love to travel and I checked out a few travelblog sites but this one is the one I have chosen to stick with.
Join us. A pretty stock standard process to run through to join up. Whats your name, email and a few other options some of which aren't compulsory like "How did you hear about us". There are also options to receive the monthly newsletter and a travel deals newsletter. You must, as is usual, accept Travelpods terms of use. Pick your user name wisely as it cant be changed! From then on you can just log in from the main page with your username and chosen password.
Percentage Now the feature I am about to start with is probably the main reason I joined in the first place, its the "Percentage of the world travelled" feature. To use this logging in is required and then entering each destination you have been to. From this you can then see, according to Travelpod, how much of the world you have travelled. I'm currently sitting on 12%, which doesn't seem like a lot but considering the size of the world I figure I can hold my head at least slightly high.
The calculation for this formula is a closely guarded secret, right up there with the herbs and spices of KFC. It will for the most part regard one visit to a country in your percentage ratio, for example if I have been to London it will count as whatever percent (its not always 1% per country) but if you have been to London, Leeds, Newcastle, Brighton and the Isle of Wight it will count as the same percentage points. That's the best I can figure it out anyway. I recently added three whole new country visits and my percentage went up by a measly 1%.
The calculations were changed about a year ago and everyone's percentages dropped - it caused chaos for days as everyone sulked but according to the team it's a more accurate reflection, and I think they might be correct. Several forum posts have suggested alternate methods for calculation but I think it does a decent job, however it does it!
Community Aspect: This is a big plus to this site, and comes about in many ways and I think is constantly encouraged by those friendly souls that run Travelpod.
Firstly it starts in the forums. New travellers to the site are encouraged to introduce themselves in the forum and answer a few questions like "If you could travel anywhere.." and someone will always respond with a friendly welcome note.
Then there is the new feature of the "Community Hood". As long as you are logged into the site you can see what other travellers logged in near you recently. This isn't always completely accurate, I'm showing up an hour outside of where I am but that's the server at my works fault!
The main page also has a link of "Top 100 blogs this month/ever" where you can see the blogs most looked at. The top five or so blogs rarely change but those in the rest of the 100 often change about to new travellers. These blogs do tend to be the most well written, or those that have been to the most places and those that blog regularly which gives you a bit of indication of what blogs to read when browsing as some people tend to blog things along the lines of "In Rio today, bought shoes. Hi Mum". Reading through these has introduced me to a few travellers and even though we have never spoken, and I don't even know if they are aware I exist I feel as if I know them. Two of them are a couple and it is interesting to read their different viewpoints as they travel around together.
Our travellers is a section which is linked to from a tab on the main page which will list the top 25 travellers in regard to most forum posts, most entries, most photos and most visitors. Generally the same travellers that feature in the Top 100 section are found here, but not always. There was once a section here Top 25 travellers by countries travelled which I sadly miss, apparently it was abused by people so they took it away. I have assumed that to mean people made false entries.
The main page will also feature a "Random Traveller" photo so you begin to recognise a few faces. The monthly newsletter has begun to feature a new "Meet the member" section where they interview a site member, there is a link to this on the main page and its a further way to "meet" the Travelpod community.
Within your own community there is a section where you can see if any of your friends have joined and you are also able to post links to your favourite members, whether you know them or not.
The front page will post links to the last five entries and last five photos posted.
We also know who started Travelpod, Canadian Luc Levesque. Luc is quite the traveler and came up with the idea for Travelpod while on the road, he began the site in 1997. Luc (or Lucky as his site ID is) posts a news article every now and then on the main page which often includes news of what some special Travelpodders are doing, or Travelpod featuring in the news.
Snobs Now some of the people on this site have done a lot of travelling, packed up for a year or more and just roamed so you could wonder if there is any travel snobbery on the site? The answer is no. There are travellers on there from Tours, travellers who go on shopping trips, day travellers and the hard core. As mixed as a bag of Liquorish all sorts and everyone is welcome. Snobbery is something I have seen on other sites but never in the land of Travelpod.
Love Travelpod love their podders so much they hired one of them! The new Community Manager is a podder who posted so much, as she travelled so much that in the end they bought her on board.
Travel help Another fantastic use of Travelpod is in trip planning. Firstly and most obviously you can read other peoples blogs who have been to the place you are interested in, there is a section you can go to that will show a world map and a list of countries and by clicking on these you can read through the blogs. There is also a section on the main page "Where are people blogging from right now" which lists random countries and links to blogs written from those places.
A section that has slowly taken place within the forums is an FAQ for certain destinations. Travellers post things up that they believe will be relevant to someone travelling to a region.
There is also, again, the forums where you can post questions and someone will usually answer.
Forums: This is probably the most underrated section to the Travelpod site, but its one that has lots of potential and goodness knows they are trying. A forum is of course a brilliant idea for a travelblogging site but its sadly underused, which is why I name it as showing potential. The thing is to keep the forum active those nice guys at Travelpod have taken on some "Community Advisors" and to keep the forum active they post prolifically, and to each other. This unfortunately leads to posts along the lines of the following: Admin person 1: This is my 200th post Admin person 2: Congratulations Admin person 1: Just think, you will be there soon (at 200 posts)
Though I don't hold this against them as I can see what they are trying to do, to bring the forum to everyone's attention and keep it more active, all I can say is I do hope this happens soon. That said the forum is still often used for travellers asking each other questions, such as someone posted today a question asking for advice on travelling as a nurse as this is something they would like to do soon.
There are many different sections to the forum including one for specific destinations where you can post specific questions about a region under the title "Destinations". There is also a section where you can post if you are looking for a travel companion.
The forum will occasionally have online polls and they have recently and slowly tried to introduce a new competition of "Best Photo of the month" and "Best Travelpod post of the month".
If you have problems with using your blog there is also a support function within the forums for you to post any questions and someone will respond.
There is also Wonders of the Worlds, Inspiring Words, Worst Travel stories, the Travel Lounge - you name it they have though of it and if they haven't?
Well then we come to one of the best features of Travelpod the forum topic "Travelpod Community". This section is where you can tell the team what you hate about Travelpod, what you love about Travelpod and what you think they should do. And you know what? They listen. They don't necessarily take everyone's advice, but they listen and respond and explain why things are so. They even sometimes ask what you think of a possible idea, and this truly is part of what makes this site so fantastic, not only was it begun by a traveller but its added to by travellers both staff and random site users.
There is a search function on the forum but you do need to be logged in to use it, though you can read posts without searching if you aren't logged in, but you also cant participate in online polls. You are able to respond to posts and post your own whilst not logged in. Your log in profile is linked to your blog profile but as the forums are run by a third party you need to recreate a profile, this doesn't take long and you can put as much or as little information in your log in as you please. As you continue to post you will get a new name dependant on how many posts you make, in a similar way to Ciaos community points. I am an "Armchair Adventurer" on the forum, as I have not made too many posts.
There is also a section within the forum for posting advertisements. I have pretty rarely seen a few spammers trying to post irrelevant or downright rude advertisements and the Travelpod team has quietly removed them. There have also been very rare instances of shudderingly horrible nasty posts on the site, which have been removed.
The Blog. All this and I haven't even hit the blog itself yet, which is the sites main feature. While there is a welcome note on the main page that explains to you what a travel blog is, I think it's pretty obvious, for the most part it's a blog about travel. Travelpod offer a template for you to make blogging easier. For the less technically minded, for those that want community or for the simple fact that while you are travelling who can be bothered to think about HTML this is what Travelpod offers.
Once you log in you will be taken straight to your blog and if you don't have one yet, or want to add another one, there is a green button that says "Create Travelogue". From here you are taken through a template that will ask you for a trip ID (which cant be changed later), a title and a description to show on your welcome page. You can enter in dates of the trip from when it began to when it finished, or leave this blank. If you leave the dates blank it will say unknown. You can also leave one or the other blank such as trip started January 1st 2002 and finished Unknown, my return date says unknown - this is because I still am travelling!
You are then asked to create a new entry, within the travelblog you have just created. Each new entry will ask you what date you travelled, where you travelled and offers you the option to enter a story and photos, or just leave it as a map pin (explained below). When you have entered in a destination this is when your percentage will start to calculate.
A map pin is simply an entry with no text; it will put the place where you went to on a map within your travelogue and just say "No entry". Map pins will still count towards your percentage. If you want to enter a story, or add photos you will need to choose an option "Map pin and entry" as you enter your details. It is quite easy to fill in your story on the template and as with a map pin only once you click next you will be taken to a page where a map appears and you are asked to click where you went. Each map will default to the countries capital city so if you went outside the capital you will need to click on the map. Then next and you are done. It's really a very simple and well-labeled process.
To add photos you need to go into your travelogue, and choose the option that says "Photo album" and again follow through an easy template to upload. Photos will appear as Thumbnails at the top of your entry but can be seen as full size by clicking on them, and are also offered as a slide show. By clicking on one photo in an entry it is easy to see the next photo in an entry by choosing "Next Photo" so it is not necessary to view each photo one at a time, lucky as unlimited photo space is offered. Yes that's right, unlimited. HTML is also enabled so if you wish to display a photo within an entry it can be done.
You can choose to comment on a photo, or not comment on it, but if you are particularly proud of your photo you can nominate it to be a photo of the day. Photos of the day feature on the main page and are often stunning or just simply quirky shots. You can also nominate your blog itself to be Blog of the Week, and a mark will appear next to your blog "Travelpod pick" these feature on the main page.
There is then an option from within your blog to email your address book and let them know you have updated your blog.
Your blog also has options for people to comment on individual entries, you can choose to have these sent to you before allowing them to be posted for a bit of censorship or you can allow them to go straight to your blog. Your blog also has a guestbook and a section for you to show your favourite websites.
Back to the main page There are also tabs to look for insurance, tours, cars, hotels and flights these will take you through to a third party search engine.
There is an FAQ section and you can even buy Travelpod gear, like t-shirts.
Money While Travelpod is free there is a link to donate money to Travelpod though I have never been asked for money. There is also an option to buy membership, which will give you advantages like being able to keep your Travelpod password private and remove advertisements from your blog. I don't find the advertisements intrusive so I have never upgraded to enhanced membership.
When I started writing this I didn't realise how long this review would turn out to be, or just how many features Travelpod does have. I have skimmed over sections and missed smaller parts of the site as there is just so much good on Travelpod and that takes up a lot of review space!
Though there are so many features the site still retains a small community feel despite the fact that there are thousands of members. This is a great site for an armchair traveler as its people who have been there and real stories, without (for the most part) prices of hotels etc. It's a great site for someone about to travel as again you can read real peoples opinions on places and learn about attractions that don't necessarily show up in a guide book, I learnt about the hostel Celica (which I reviewed earlier) through Travelpod. And finally for the traveler it's great, you can meet people in the same place as you, again read peoples stories and write your own. I use Travelpod to record my own stories for me, and it's just a bonus that I am able to share it so easily with those I miss in other parts of the world. Travelpod was the first and as is so often the case, it's the best.
Unless you place an offensive comment in your travelogue it will never be deleted. But just in case you were worried, it can be printed into a book (I think this one is still in the works though) or downloaded (text only) into a word file. Oh yes, they have thought of everything.
Again, excuse the spelling mishmash between American and Not. I do try so hard to not let that little spell checker win but sometimes it is just smarter than I am.
Update: Just to clarify, its www.travelpod.comIts been a while since I wrote this one and I have been traveling a lot less, so have been on the site a lot less. Am just amping up for a big trip around Canada (at last at last) so had a quick look on the site today and have noticed some new improvements.
Facebook: One new feature that I love is that you can advertise your blog on facebook. Add travelpod as an application to your facebook page and it will show your travel map and link into your blog. Just one more place you can show off your trips! You can also do this through other sites like MySpace and Friendster.
The forums; They seem to have update the forums a far bit and posts now seem more travel relevant than they once were. Each continent has a person or two allocated to that forum section and are on hand to keep the posts and answers flowing. There is also a section "photo of the year" found within the forum that has some stunning shots for a calendar planned. You do need to sign in to be able to vote for these.
Within your blog there is now a place to indicate where you stayed. Probably not something you would write in the main section of a blog, unless it was somewhere unusual. Travelpod has a large database of hotels, hostels to choose from and it will indicate this at the bottom of your blog. As much as I tried I couldn't find "Daves Couch" in their database, however they do offer "add new location".
The site also has a new Community Manager and more staff. This basically just seems to mean they post more articles about themselves (sightings of travelpod in newspapers, other blog sites) and tooting their own horn. Well I love the site I guess so good on them! 36,654 travel experiences from 154 countries shared this week!
