The Travel Blog by TravelPod

New TravelPod Blog Dec 25, 2007

I just realized that we never posted here about our new TravelPod News blog which has replaced Lucky’s News.

If you somehow landed here, you can find our new blog at blog.travelpod.com

Cheers!

Small update to photo weaving Oct 25, 2007

We received several messages from members that disabling the automatic weaving didn’t put the thumbnails back at the top of the entry like it used to be.

We agree that it makes sense that when disabling the new feature it should go back to the old way so we’ve updated TravelPod to do just that.

Now, if you choose to disable automatic weaving, the old-style thumbnails will show up at the top of the entry again.

Cheers!

Automatically weave photos & videos Oct 24, 2007

Automatically weave photos into your entries

We’ve had lots of feedback on how difficult it is to weave photos into entries over the last months. To make this easier for everyone, TravelPod now automatically weaves your photos into your entries.

To make sure we don’t mess with many of our member’s great layouts, if you’ve added any photos to your entries, TravelPod won’t weave any photos into it.

If you prefer that TravelPod doesn’t weave photos into your entries, you can disable the new feature by editing your photos for the entry and unselecting “Automatically weave photos & videos in this entry?”

Enjoy!

Embed your TravelPod videos on other sites Oct 15, 2007

You can now embed your TravelPod videos in others sites.

A recent request has been to update TravelPod so that TravelPod videos can be embedded into other web sites… you ask, we listen. This is now live on TravelPod.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Happy 10th Birthday TravelPod! Oct 12, 2007

TravelPod turns 10 years old (young!) this year.

Drag the timeline below to take a trip down memory lane and have a good laugh at the old TravelPod designs … what was I thinking?

… Check out the winning birthday video submitted by digitalexplorer. Enjoy the iPod Digitalexplorer and thanks for the birthday wishes!

The Traveler IQ Challenge in USA Today ( Today… ) Oct 12, 2007

The Traveler IQ Challenge in Today’s USA Today

USA Today wrote an article about testing your travel IQ that featured our very own Traveler IQ Challenge.

Here’s what they had to say:

“At TravelPod’s addictive Traveler IQ Challenge ( http://apps.facebook.com/travelpod-challenge ), Facebook players are given a world map and told to find a city or landmark, then awarded points on how close they get to the actual location and how quickly they can find it. The 12-round game gets progressively more difficult.”

September TravelPod meetup in Ottawa Oct 11, 2007

We had a small TravelPod meetup a few weeks ago…

We had a chance to meet some members and to get some great feedback.

This post is a little late but better late than never right?

Thanks to everyone for coming!

For pics, check out the forum post

Photo comments Sep 21, 2007

New feature – Your guests can now comment on your photos

Hmm… I think I’ll toss this one in the “It’s about time” category too…

It’s been on the roadmap for a while… now you can finally accept comments on your photos.

So the next time you see a cool pic, post a comment and let the member know. Once you start commenting it gets a little addictive… so watch out.

Enjoy!

Large profile photos Sep 20, 2007

Now when you upload your profile photo to TravelPod, we’ll keep a large copy of it too rather than just a small thumbnail.

When your guests click on your profile photo from your profile page, they’ll actually see a bigger photo rather than a small one again.

Seems logical that it should work this way, but we avoided this to save disk space in the past.

Check out my profile page and click my profile photo to try it out

Delete and upload your new profile photo so that we can show your guests a nice big photo of your mug!

August newsletter Sep 6, 2007

Check out the August newsletter if you haven’t yet:

August Newsletter

We’ll remember you! Sep 5, 2007

New feature – We’ll remember you

“It’s about time” would be how I’d describe this new feature…

Oddly we’ve never received a request for this but this year we’re spending a good amount of time looking over TravelPod and making updates to make sure that TravelPod is as easy to use as possible.

So, we’ve added a new “Remember me from this computer” option on our login page. When selected, you’ll stay logged in to TravelPod on your PC so that you don’t need to enter your TravelPod ID and password each time you need to edit your travel blog.

If you’ve got a peave or an idea that would make TravelPod easier to use, please let us know. As always, we’re all ears…

Cheers!

Plaxo Pulse and TravelPod Aug 22, 2007

Integrate your Travel Blogs on Plaxo Pulse

You can now integrate your TravelPod travel blogs onto another social network. Plaxo Pulse ( a new social network ) now supports adding TravelPod travel blogs.

More information about integrating your travel blogs on Plaxo

Video and Photo enhancements Aug 17, 2007

TravelPod video streaming

We’ve launched 2 new features for your videos and photos:

Video Streaming: New TravelPod videos are much more fun to watch now. We’ve made some enhancement so that you no longer need to wait for the video to be downloaded before starting to watch it. We’ve also released a much better video player too.

Videos are in the process of being converted, I’d expect all videos to be taking advantage of this late next week.

New upload option: Based on your feedback, we’ve added a new option to the uploader. Check the new box when uploading to have your uploads added to the bottom of your photos rather than the top.

Thanks for the feedback everyone,
Enjoy!

July Newsletter Aug 6, 2007

I’m a little late with this post ( Thanks Carmella for the reminder ).

Check out the July Newsletter!

Site of the day – TravelPod’s Traveler IQ Challenge Jul 30, 2007

Johnny Jet ( a professional travel blog ) featured our Traveler IQ Challenge as the site of the day.

His posts includes a wise warning that if you have any work to do, avoid playing the challenge! I guess we’re not the only ones who’ve experienced the addictiveness of the challenge.

If you haven’t yet, give it a try

Press release: TRAVELPOD’S TRAVELER IQ CHALLENGE ON FACEBOOK REVEALS WHY MEN DON’T ASK FOR DIRECTIONS: THEY’RE BETTER AT GEOGRAPHY THAN WOMEN Jul 30, 2007

We’ve just issued a fun press release that highlights some of the statistics we’ve gathered from over 2M Travel IQ Challenges played.

The press release has some interesting stats and is titled:

TRAVELPOD’S TRAVELER IQ CHALLENGE ON FACEBOOK REVEALS WHY MEN DON’T ASK FOR DIRECTIONS: THEY’RE BETTER AT GEOGRAPHY THAN WOMEN

Check it out!

New! Photo upload & editing improvements Jul 23, 2007

The new TravelPod photo editing & upload system is here!

You’ve asked for it, and now it’s here! We’ve just released a massive upgrade to our photo uploading & editing features.

Here are a few of the features:

- Album Editor – you can now edit all your photos for an entry all at once! No more editing one image at a time.

- Photo Sorter – you can sort your photos by dragging and dropping them in place, no more wacky numbered titles.

- Video thumbnails are now created for videos automatically after you upload them.

- Media Player – we have a new player for MP3′s and windows users can now view your videos in an embedded media player instead of downloading the video first.

- Photo Uploader – finally a drag and drop photo uploader that allows you to upload files from your hard drive by dragging and dropping. Photos are automatically previewed, resized and optimized *before* being uploaded for lightening fast uploads. You can even rotate them before you upload. We’ve also improved photo handling so that you should very rarely see any errors with uploads.

- Photos with duplicate titles are now allowed – no more “Ooops you have a dup title” errors

- Now you can upload as many photos as you want, no more “5 at a time limit”

- That’s just a taste of what we’ve released, the upgrade infact includes many more features. Our goal was to make it very easy to use so we took the time to rework everything to make it easy as possible for you to upload and edit photos, videos and mp3s.

We’ve tested it as much as possible but please let us know if you have any problems. You can always switch back to the old uploader if you’re having problems too.

Post feedback in our forums

Enjoy!

It’s the little things… More updates that make TravelPod easier to use Jul 6, 2007

We know that when you’re on the road and updating your travel blog you rather be traveling about than in an Internet Cafe… that’s why we do everything that we can to make TravelPod easy to use.

Today we’ve launched 2 small updates which should help. We’ve added popup calendars so that you can quickly set the dates of your entries. We’ve also added a cool “City Autosuggest” feature that will suggest city names as you type them.

Edit or create an entry to check it out…

Cheers!

Auto-suggest city names

Popup Calendars

June newsletter is out Jul 1, 2007

Carmella just sent out the June newsletter … check it out!

More map enhancements Jun 29, 2007

We’ve just updated the TravelPod maps. The “Show Trip Route” button on your entries now shows the entire trip route without opening a new window.

You can still view the enlarged map by clicking the “Enlarge Map” button.

This gives your visitors an easy way to see the entire trip route quickly while reading your blogs.

Cheers!

Challenge! Try our new Traveler’s IQ Challenge on Facebook Jun 24, 2007

Try our new Travelers IQ Challenge on Facebook!

If you’ve traveled a bit ( if you’re reading this you probably have ) you’ve most likely played one of those games where you try to guess the location of a city or where a country is on a map.

Personally, I can remember spending hours waiting for the bus in Bolivia playing “name that city” with other travelers, or killing time on the long bus ride to Palmyra in Syria guessing capital cities as other travelers tossed country names at each other.

That was the inspiration behind this challenge… We thought we’d whip this up to let you compete with other travelers on Facebook.

Try it for yourself to see what your “Traveler IQ” is. Watch out though, it’s a little addictive.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Install the application on Facebook

More info on Facebook

Send notifications of new TravelPod entries to your Facebook friends! Jun 11, 2007

New TravelPod feature: Automatically send entry notifications to your Facebook friends

Since we launched our Facebook application 2 weeks ago, we’ve been busy working on new enhancements. Today we’ve launched a new one we’re sure you’ll like.

Now you can send a notification to your friend’s newsfeed whenever you post a new entry!

How?

It’s simple, just install the TravelPod Facebook application and whenever you send future notifications, you’ll have the option to notify your Facebook friends too.

How cool is that!

Cheers,

Map enhancements – Another big batch of o’features Jun 10, 2007

We’ve just launched another big batch of map enhancements. Yes, this is what we do on Sunday mornings …

Here is a quick overview of what we’ve launched:

- The maps now load faster, big time. Thanks to some great work by the team the maps are lightning fast now.

- We’ve updated the maps to be more consistent throughout the site and made it easier to set map pins by changing some of the colors and interface options.

- We’ve updated the maps to make it easier to set the pins in several ways like actually defaulting the pin to the city that you enter when creating an entry.

As always, thanks for the great feedback. I think we’ve addressed almost all of the email requests you’ve sent in but keep them coming.

Cheers!

May Newsletter May 31, 2007

The May Newsletter is out. Check it out!

Facebook + TravelPod = your next trip! May 31, 2007

Link your TravelPod and Facebook worlds!

We’ve been working long hours to integrate TravelPod into the new Facebook platform that launched last week and are happy to announce that TravelPod members can now link their TravelPod blogs onto their Facebook profiles!

TravelPod is the first Travel Blogging site to launch on the new Facebook platform and we’re still working hard and rolling out new features. Expect more integration in the next days and weeks.

Here are some links to try it out:

TravelPod on Facebook Application URL

More information

Install the Facebook application

Cheers!

Major upgrades to TravelPod & a new home in Washinton DC! May 24, 2007

After several months of planning and prep work, we’ve completed a massive upgrade to TravelPod.

You may notice TP running faster thanks to some seriously beefy hardware in our new data center.

This marks the 9th TravelPod move since we started TP in 1997. This time, our servers are located in Washington DC where we can take advantage of the top-notch facilities that TripAdvisor has setup down there.

Although the upgrade should be transparent to everyone, let us know if you bump into any bugs and we’ll jump right on em’.

Cheers!

Big batch of site updates… May 11, 2007

We just launched a batch of site updates that we’re sure you’ll enjoy:

- Many mapping enhancements ( and a few more to come ) which increased the performance & speed of the maps by 300%!

- On member profile pages, you’ll now see how many other travelers have added you as a favorite. Check out your own page to see how many people have added you! I have 25 but Carmella takes the prize with 114!

- On your profile page we now list the total number of favourites that your favourites have.

- We also added the “Bookmark” option to the list of tools for all of your photos.

Enjoy!

TravelPod on FaceBook.com May 11, 2007

Join the TravelPod FaceBook Group!

So many of our members ( including myself ) also have a profile over on FaceBook so we’ve setup a TravelPod FaceBook group for everyone to join.

If you haven’t yet, join the FaceBook TravelPod Group and find out more info about other TravelPodders…

TravelPod is now part of the TripAdvisor family! May 8, 2007

Hello everyone,

Not only does 2007 mark the 10 year anniversary since TravelPod’s humble beginnings, it’s also a year of big news. Today I have the pleasure of announcing something very exciting. As you may have already heard, TravelPod is now part of the TripAdvisor.com family of websites.

Along with TravelPod, TripAdvisor has added 4 other top notch web properties ( bookingbuddy.com, smartertravel.com, travel-library.com and seatguru.com ) to their family and although all of this excitement started several months ago for us, we’ve been patiently biting our tongues until the official announcement had been made… and it wasn’t easy, believe me!

The TripAdvisor folks, who are based out of Boston, have been great to work with and are excited about helping us make TravelPod better than ever. TripAdvisor already has the largest travel community on the Internet and is a great fit for us.

So, you may be asking yourself, “what does this mean for me”? The good news is that TripAdvisor “gets” travel blogging and is happy to see us continue adding new features to the site to make sure we give everyone better tools for your travel blogging needs… and we have a whole lot coming up.

Myself and Carmella ( aka. Whereshegoes ) aren’t going anywhere and have been busy growing the team. Now that we’ve joined TripAdvisor, we have more resources to help us out so you can expect to see many of those requests you’ve emailed to us added into the site a lot faster.

Be on the lookout for great new enhancements to TravelPod this year.

We couldn’t have made it to where we are today without all of you passionate travelers who’ve been with us along the way. Thanks everyone for your support. As always, if you find yourself traveling through Ottawa, make sure to let us know and we’ll make sure to buy the first round.

Cheers!

Luc Levesque aka. Lucky
Founder, TravelPod.com

Silent Update for photos May 7, 2007

A “Silent Update” update option has been added to photos. Now you can choose to quietly update your photos and videos without alerting your guests.

Cheers!

More map enhancements May 7, 2007

Your map type preference ( Hybrid, Satellite or Normal mode ) is now used when setting your map pins.

April Newsletter May 1, 2007

Check out the April Newsletter!

Choose Satellite, Hybrid or Normal default map views Apr 28, 2007

Choose a default map view for your guests

Thanks to some feedback from our members, we’ve added a new feature that let’s you pick which default map view to show your guests.

Choose between Satellite, Normal and Hybrid mode.

Cheers!

Site updates Apr 27, 2007

We just released a batch of site updates based on your feedback.

There are too many to list but major ones include:

- Moving the map to the top of the entry page
- Bigger photo thumbnails on the entry page
- Several enhancements to our mapping system including making the Satellite Maps available for everyone.

Cheers!

New map enhancements Apr 13, 2007

Satellite Map Enhancements

We just launched a few updates to our Google ( Satellite ) Maps on all of our members blogs.

First off… thanks everyone for the feedback… several changes were added / fixed today.

1) Searching for map pins in the UK works now! Yep, search throughout the UK without a problem.

2) We made a few enhancements to speed up the Google Maps load time. Should be faster and more detailed now.

Cheers,

Attract more visitors to your travel blog – New bookmark button on your blogs! Mar 5, 2007

Attract more visitors to your blogs with the new “Bookmark” button on blog entries.

We’ve added a new button to all travel blogs on TravelPod that will let your visitors bookmark your entries on various sites.

Encourage your guests to submit your entries to various sites by clicking the “Bookmark” button on your entries to get more exposure and more visitor to your travel blogs!

“Best Travel Blog” of the Net awarded to TravelPod! Mar 4, 2007

TravelPod named “Best Travel Blog” of the Net!

What a great way to wake up! I happened to catch TravelPod in yesterday’s edition of the Guardian Unlimited this morning.

TravelPod was crowned the “Best Travel Blog” of the Net!

Here is a snippet from the article:

“Our award: Travelpod.com

This year Travelpod will be 10 years old. It’s great because anyone can join in and it deftly edits such a wealth of contributions.”

Check out the article here:
best Travel Blog of the Net – Guardian Unlimited March 3rd

Thanks!

“Remember Me” – New feature for protected travel blogs Mar 1, 2007

We’ve just launched a new feature for our protected travel blogs this morning.

Now, when your guests login, they’ll have the option to save their login for a week or a month so that they don’t need to login each time.

Cheers!

New TravelPod gear is now available… check it out! Feb 27, 2007

New swag in the TravelPod shop

Carmella has spent some time spiffing up some of the options available in our TravelPod shop and has added a few new designs and options.

If you’re in need of a new travel shirt have a look!

New photo page layout! Feb 19, 2007

We’ve just launched a new cleaner layout for the photo page…

The old layout was a little clunky and was in desperate need of an update. We’ll be fixing up some more pages in the coming months too.

You can see what the new layout looks like here.

Cheers!

Best TravelPod photo of the year calendar! Feb 15, 2007

Best TravelPod photo of the year

Check out our Best Photo Calendar contest. Each month you’ll be able to vote for the best TravelPod photo and at the end of the year we’ll put together a cool calendar with all of the best ones.

Check it out!

- Contest Details
- Vote on January’s best photo

The January newsletter is out! Jan 31, 2007

Check out the January Newsletter

How we select featured photos… Jan 29, 2007

Ever wonder what we look for when we feature a photo?

How can your photos be selected as a TravelPod Featured Photo?

Every day we select a photo as a feature on our main TravelPod home page. The following guidelines are by no means comprehensive but should give you a general idea of the judging criteria. If you believe your photo is of quality, you can request it go through the selection process. To request your photo to be featured, use the “Feature Request” link next to the photo you would like submitted in your photo album under the “options” column. Please be careful to submit each selection only once or it may drop from the queue. Here are some tips on what we look for in a Featured Photo - DO be in focus. We like sharp clear photos unless there is an intentional, artistic use of blur. - DO be balanced using the Rule of Thirds when possible. - DO show pleasing colors using correct exposure. - DO show an artistic eye making the most of the unique and inspirational - DO be creative and experimental to show interesting effects. Notice lines, patterns, shapes, forms and colors. - DO consider the overall clarity of meaning and focus of statement. Show your intention and main subject as obviously clear as you can. - DON’T submit photos of yourself or your travel buddy waving at the camera. - DON’T submit photos with morally questionable content. We have so many amazing photographers among our members. Due to the volume of photos submitted, unfortunately many excellent entries are eliminated. Overall, we are looking for beautiful, truthful, and creative photos. So, grab your camera, get out there, and give it your best shot.

Minor enhancements to TP Jan 28, 2007

A few small tweaks were released recently which you may not know about.

We’ve tweaked new entries to default to the province / state of the last entry which was created. We’ve also launched a new rich text editor for creating entries which included updates based on all of the feedback we’ve received from you since its launch.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Whereshegoes in the Vancouver Sun Jan 28, 2007

Whereshegoes in the Vancouver Sun

Carmella ( aka Whereshegoes our community manager and top travel blogger ) was just featured in a great article in the Vancouver Sun.

Check it out:

“On the road with the blog at your back

When Carmella Lesiuk set out to travel the globe, little did she realize ‘the entire world’ would go whereshegoes on travelpod.com

Rebecca Osler, Special to The vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, January 27, 2007

It used to be a lonesome road for travellers. When homesickness, a rotten day or the creeping “what have I gotten myself into?” feeling struck, a backpacker had a limited arsenal of tools to relieve isolation. A battered journal, a stack of postcards or a coin-gobbling phone booth — that was about it.

But now, an explosion of travel blog websites is enabling travellers to join virtual communities that stay put no matter their physical whereabouts. More than just platforms to showcase trips, these sites enable instant communication with family and friends as well as the opportunity to forge new relationships with like-minded wanderers.

Carmella Lesiuk is well-acquainted with the ups and downs of being on the move. In 2002, the Edmontonian quit her IT job, sold most of her possessions and embarked upon a four-year odyssey to discover not just the world, but her own destiny.

“I realized I didn’t want to become a computer,” says Lesiuk, now 30. “I didn’t know where my fingers ended and the keyboard began.”

Not wanting to assault loved ones with obnoxious group e-mails, Lesiuk joined TravelPod, a free Ottawa-based site that claims to be the Web’s original travel blog.

As she journeyed across Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, Lesiuk posted religiously under the username “whereshegoes.”

She wrote not just of her journey, but of the emotions she met along the way. FOR INSTANCE:
“I’m sitting on my sunny rooftop patio in Riomaggiore. My freshly washed laundry swaying lightly on the line as I nibble on toast with Camembert from France and vine-ripened tomatoes. I look out beyond the terrace dotted with flowerpots spilling over with pink and purple blooms and notice a lemon tree with what seems like hundreds of plump neon yellow lemons.

“In the past, I have been so caught up in trying to anticipate the next moment that I have forgotten to breathe in this one,” she wrote.

At first, Lesiuk assumed only her mom was reading her photo-laden missives.

“Then I started receiving these random e-mails from people … strangers from all over the world commenting on my blog and how they were enjoying it,” she says.

“There were actually people who sent me messages saying: ‘Okay, you’ve inspired me. I’ve quit my job and I’m going to travel around the world now.’ “

The cheerleading went two ways, especially on those occasions when Lesiuk felt down and very much alone.

“It was almost like having a friend that was always there to listen to me and to be there for me. It was like therapy,” she recalls. “The days that I considered quitting and was having a bad day and just wanted to go home, I would get an e-mail like that and it would just change my whole view.

“It’s probably one of the biggest reasons I stayed out travelling for so long,” she says. “The entire world would encourage me.”

Furthermore, Lesiuk says the blog provided stability when everything around her — location, people, cuisine — was changing daily.

Four years later, Lesiuk is now TravelPod’s top-ranked user, as whereshegoes has garnered more than 400,000 views. TravelPod itself has mushroomed since its inception, having tripled its membership (which currently sits at 65,000) in the past year alone.

And unexpectedly, Lesiuk — who found herself back in Edmonton struggling with reverse culture shock — was offered a job moderating TravelPod’s forums, which she gladly accepted.

Like many sites, TravelPod is not limited to virtual connections. It also enables users to search for specific destinations, allowing members to meet in person if they so desire. Lesiuk says she met 10 to 20 members on her trip, including a guy from Calgary who saw that she was in South Africa and asked to converge.

“We ended up meeting and working in the same hostel for a month or two and becoming really good friends. The guy is one of my best friends now,” she says. …”

For the full article go to:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

TP in Shape Magazine Jan 22, 2007

TravelPod in Shape Magazine

Another TravelPod media spotting recently in Shape Magazine…

“5 best ways to leave it all behind” Jan 7, 2007

Two long time members wrote an article titled “5 best ways to leave it all behind” which was published a few weeks ago. The paper describe them as:

“– Gerry and Sharon Channer, who sold their home, farm and business just outside of Ottawa, and who have been travelling throughout Central and South America in an ’87 VW camper van since January, 2004. Travel vicariously with them at www.Travelpod.com/members/thymeoff“

Their #4 tip is to use a travel blog like TravelPod, we couldn’t agree more of course … have a read.

5 best ways to leave it all behind

TravelPod’s Video Bloggers in the Press Jan 5, 2007

The Michigan Daily posted an article on 2 of our Video Bloggers ( aka Vlogabond ) today as they start their video blogging adventure.

Check it out!

The Washington Post & TravelPod – December 31, 2006 Jan 3, 2007

TravelPod in The Washington Post

The Washington Post reviewed TravelPod on December 31st 2006. This is the 3rd ( or is it the 4th? ) time that we’re featured in this newspaper. Check it out!

They loved the new text editor but were a little turned off by the long registration page which we’re fixing up as we speak.

Ohh yeah, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve also removed some of the ads on our member’s blog entry pages, we agree, it had one too many.

Here is a small chunk from the article:

Travelpod.com (www.travelpod.com)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Formed in 1997, Travelpod claims to be a “proud founder of travel blogs on the Web.” It has plenty going for it, but we were turned off by the market research-esque registration process: Personal information such as sex, age, nationality and marital status is requested. The basic service is free; for $39.95 a year, posters can disable ad displays and add a password protection feature.

PROCESS: Once again, our login name was part of the URL. To write a travelogue, we selected a trip ID and a title and wrote a welcoming message. You can choose what sort of guest options you’d like (we opted to let guests leave comments), as well as a map style (classic or satellite) and a photo-by-way-of-mobile-phone option, good for posting on-the-fly snaps.

WHAT WE LIKE: The spell-checker is a top feature, as are the italics, bold and underline options. You can preview your page to catch any typos and create an e-mail list to send updates. It can take a while to go through the process of posting, but there’s an “update express” option that’s great for when the clock’s ticking at an Internet cafe.

December Newsletter is out! Jan 1, 2007

Check out the December Newsletter!

Happy New Year!

Feature your photos, even the ones without stories! Dec 11, 2006

We realize that our members have great photos but just don’t have the time to write stories for all of them.

We’ve heard you loud and clear and have removed the old restriction where members couldn’t have their photos featured unless they had a story.

If you’ve got a great travel photo and want to have it featured, just send us a request ( it’s the “Feature this” button next to the photo when you login ) and we’ll give it a look.

We’re dying to see your great shots,
Request away!

Cool new editor Dec 7, 2006

Cool new travel blog entry editor

We’ve just released a cool new text editor which should make adding and editing entries much easier.

Login and check it out today!

Give us your feedback!

November newsletter Nov 29, 2006

Check out the November newsletter!

The Sydney Morning Herald – Article on Travel Blogging Nov 18, 2006

Check out Today’s Sydney Morning Herald for a cool article on how traveling is so hi-tech these days.

They talk about travel blogging a little and even refer to our very own Whereshegoes as a “travel celebrity”

Check out the article

October Newsletter Oct 31, 2006

Check out our October Newsletter. Cheers!

Cool new way to weave photos into your entries! Oct 15, 2006

Another great feature was just released this morning! We’re sure you’ll love this one. Now on TravelPod you can add your photos, nicely framed anywhere in your entries. This is an improvement to our previous clunky way of letting you add HTML tags into your entries.

Give us your feedback on this new feature!

Now weaving photos into your entries is easy, really fun, and I have to admit, just looks freaking cool!

Check out one of my entries to see just how cool your entries will look with your photos right in your entries!

You can go edit your entries right now to start adding your photos in right now. Just click the new “Weave photos into your entry” button on your “Edit Entry” page.

Enjoy!

Map Enhancements Oct 13, 2006

Based on your feedback we’ve enhanced our satellite maps ( aka Google Maps ) to now allow you to set your map pins using those very same maps ( instead of our classic maps ).

Previously, members could choose to view their travel maps on our classic or the satellite maps but could only set their pins using our classic maps. Now, when you set your trip properties to use Satellite maps, you’ll be able to set your pins using those same maps as well.

Why should you care? Setting your map pins on the satellite maps gives you the following benefits:

- Full 100% coverage of the globe ( no problems pinning small islands in the pacific )
- Search for a city, country, or even a street address and we’ll place a pin there for you.
- Better accuracy when placing pins.

Enjoy!

A bigger and badder TravelPod for all! Sep 30, 2006

Our upgrade of TravelPod went without a glitch today. Thanks for your patience! TravelPod now has over one Terabyte of storage space to hold all of your precious travel memories. Keep em’ coming!

TP Sponsors a member on the “Water for Life” Challenge Sep 26, 2006

The “Water for Life” Challenge: Cycling from Darwin to Ayers Rock for “Water Aid Australia”.

Aurelien Jondeau, 27, from France is about to set on a 2000 km cycling journey to link Darwin to Ayers Rock through the Stuart Highway. He will ride to raise awareness and money for “Water Aid Australia”, an international charity dedicated to helping some of the world’s poorest people escape the stranglehold of poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation.

Darwin, Northern Territory, September 26, 2006 – One of our TravelPod nomads is on his way to cycle from Darwin to Ayers Rock to raise awareness and money for “Water Aid Australia”, an international charity who has been working for the past 25 years to help people from under privileged countries to get out of poverty caused by living without safe water and sanitation.

He will start the ride on the 1st of October 2006, cycling on average 100 km a day to follow a regimented schedule, stopping at every town on the way to promote the charity organization and planning to reach Ayers Rock by the 23rd of October.

The wet season starts to build up slowly but surely, so he will cycle under rough conditions, fighting against the elements of Nature, desert heat, heavy rains, sand winds…trying to keep up with a tight schedule to reach safer areas where to sleep at night through the Tanami desert.

If you want to support the challenge by making a donation to “Water Aid Australia”, you can find all the information on their website at www.wateraid.org/australia. Once you’ve made a donation, please send an email with your name, surname, email address and amount donated at thewaterforlifechallenge@hotmail.com so you’ll be among the great supporters of the challenge and will be updated with all the adventures that would have happened during the trip.

Aurelien Jondeau through the “Water for Life” challenge is proud to present the partners and sponsors: Greenspeed Tricycles (www.greenspeed.com.au) TravelpPod, the Web’s Original Travel Blog (www.travelpod.com) Worldnomads Travel Insurance (www.worldnomads.com)

Aurelien is planning to make this “Water for Life” challenge becoming an annual event where people from around the globe would join together and cycle through the same path to raise awareness and money for “Water Aid Australia”.

Should you or your organization be interested in becoming a partner or a participant of an annual “Water for Life” challenge in the future, which would mean a greater exposure and impact, please contact Aurelien at thewaterforlifechallenge@hotmail.com.

P.S. If you want to know more about Aurelien and his adventures, please check his travel stories at www.travelpod.com/members/beyou.

Thanks and wish him Good Luck !

Members in the news! Sep 23, 2006

This morning, one of our long-time members, uncle_davros was telling his tales in The Guardian, a popular UK based newspaper.

Looking good Dave!

New Feature: More personal info on your profile page Sep 23, 2006

You asked for it and now it’s here! We’ve added 11 new options in your personal account settings where you can enter:

What’s your profession?
Where were you born?
Which languages do you speak?
What are your interests and hobbies?
What’s your favourite book?
What music do you listen to?
What’s your favourite movie?
What’s your favourite quote?
What’s the most amazing moment in your life so far
What’s one thing you want to do before you die
Your friends would describe you as

We’ll show this info to your guests on your personal profile page. This is one more way to personalize your travel blog for your own unique personality.

Enjoy!

New “Jump to latest entry” link Sep 13, 2006

Based on your feedback, we’ve added a new link to your travel blog welcome page which will bring your guests right to your latest entry.

Check it out!

Thanks for the feedback!

New city level browsing Sep 6, 2006

In case you haven’t noticed TP now has a city level search.

See the “Most popular cities:” box on this page for a sample
New city level search

Instead of just getting “Canada” level results, you can drill down to Ottawa.

You could search for this before but now the browsing interface allows you to easily get to content.

This should make getting to our photos, travel blogs and videos much much easier

Enjoy!

Radio spotlight on TravelPodder going from London to Australia by car currently in Iran Aug 28, 2006

One of our members ( jennykelly ) is currently going from London to Australia by car!

She called into a radio show ( ABC Local Radio – Australia All Over ) in Australia from Iran for an interesting interview about her adventures.

Listen to the interview

Jenny Kelly calls in at 26:18 into the show and speaks until 29:50 at which point there is a break for weather, news etc. She then comes on again at 42:30 and speaks until 48:00.

Here is her blog

She is in Iran now and reports that gas is: 2.4 cents per liter, woa!

Looking forward to her next update next Sunday… stay tuned.

South American Starter Kit Jul 27, 2006

If you haven’t checked out our South American FAQ yet, check it out:

South American Start Kit

New Feature: Find other travelers! Jul 27, 2006

After our last feature which showed you which other travelers where NEAR you we had requests for a tool to let you find other travelers in any city.

At your requests, here it is!

Find travelers in any city

Enjoy!

New Feature: TravelPod Friends Jul 22, 2006

You’ll notice when you login that we’ve added a new information box to the right titled “TravelPod Friends”.

This is where you’ll see all of the other travelers on TravelPod who are registered in your address book.

It’s a great way to see who within the TravelPod community is your friend and gives you eazy access to them!

If you want to add more, simply import your address book from gmail, yahoo, hotmail, outlook and others using our address importing tool.

Cheers!

New Feature: Find other travelers near you! Jun 19, 2006

Hello, Did you know that because of the very nomadic nature of us TravelPodders, the odds of another TravelPod member being very near you right now is pretty high?

Unfortunately, before today, it would have been very difficult to meet that traveler, well, not anymore!

I’m happy to announce that a long awaited feature has arrived. We’ve added a new “neighbourhood” to TravelPod but this one doesn’t show you other travelers LIKE you ( we show you that ), but rather other travelers NEAR you.

Now, when you login to TravelPod we will show you a list of other travelers near you at this very moment. Many of you asked for this feature as a way to meet other travelers while traveling and also while back home.

We have found that the TravelHood is also good to quickly identify other members and their blog posts which usually contain good info regarding places you are currently traveling in.

So, how does it work? Well it’s pretty simple. Just login and you’ll see a new gray box on the right named “Travelers near you”. In that box you’ll see travelers in and around the city you are currently logged in from. You can also see when they logged in last to see if they are still near you.

If you click the “more” button, you’ll be taken to what we are calling your “TravelHood” for more info on the travelers.

If you rather other people not know that you are near them, you can disable this feature too from your TravelHood.

This is only phase one and much more is coming like mapping and expanded searching.

We did our best to get this right the first time but as always, we are counting on your feedback to guide us to perfecting it so please don’t hesitate to write in via our forums here:

TravelHood Suggestions and Feedback

We would also love to hear about your experiences meeting people using your TravelHood or any other neat ways you have found it useful.

What is the TravelHood?

Have you ever been somewhere and want to meet up, share info or just chat with another TravelPod member who also was traveling where you where right then? With your TravelPod TravelHood, which is sort of a Geographic Neighbourhood, you can do just that! Your TravelHood lists travelers who are near you which you might want to get in touch with! How do we do this? When you login we try to determine your geographic location using some snazzy tools we’ve spent a lot of time developing. We then match up your location with the location of other TravelPod members who are geographically close to where you are. We show you who these travelers are and when they last logged in from that spot. From there it’s up to you to get in touch with them and take it from there! What better way to find a travel partner, get travel info or just meet new interesting people with similar interests who might be sitting right next to you. Give it a try. You’ll be surprised just how many other travelers like you are right around the corner!

Enjoy!

Charlotte to Croatia Jun 5, 2006

Here’s a cool one. TravelPod Member Chuck Horton, better known as chuckh is featured in a story posted to the Charlotte Observer site today (June 5 2006). Chuck is travelogging from Croatia. Check it out.

Site Upgrade – Single Sign-On May 24, 2006

Site upgrade and maintenance efforts never end in this business. While there haven’t been any major happenings that you would notice in a while, you can be sure that there’s a team of plumbers hard at work on the pipes nearly every day.

Having said that, there is a change that will impact some Members coming down those pipes in about a week’s time. TravelPod is moving to a new unified login scheme that will mean one ID and password for access to the whole site including the TravelPodium, that is: the TravelPod Forums.

Briefly, this change will require a quick ID and/or password reset for a small group of Members. The notes below explain things and formal email notification, complete with all the details, is forthcoming.

IMPORTANT NOTE: TravelPod.com will be unavailable for approximately 2 hours, between 2 and 4 PM EST on May 31, 2006 while we cut-over to the new unified login system.

Single Sign-On – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is single sign-on?

Single sign-on (SSO), aka “Unified Login”, is the ability for a member to login to TravelPod once, with a single user ID and password, and get access to all the services of TravelPod, including the TravelPodium discussion forums, aka “the Forums”.

So what’s the big deal?

The TravelPodium discussion forums are powered by Invision Power Board. This purchased software comes with its own database and management of members. We were so eager to provide the Forums to our members that we initially took a short cut and did not integrate its members database with the existing TravelPod members database. This means that a TravelPod member had to separately register in the Forums, and also log in twice. This was confusing and inconvenient. Many members thought the Forums did not work and so did not participate. Quite understandably, many members complained. There are many great topics and active discussions in the Forums, and we don’t want anything to stand in the way of our members from participating. So enough! Lets do the work and unite the members databases!

When does single sign-on take effect?

We will cut-over and unite the members databases on Wednesday, May 31, 2006.

What will change with single sign-on?

Members will notice the following changes: • You only have to remember one user ID and password for all of TravelPod. • A new TravelPod member is automatically registered with the TravelPodium forums. • When you log in, using the Login link in the TravelPod banner, you are automatically logged in to TravelPodium. • If you were not previously registered in TravelPodium, you are automatically registered when you first log in after the cut-over. • The Join and Login links, as well as your login status, are now displayed in the TravelPod banner displayed on the Forums pages, just like on other TravelPod pages. • We have removed the Forums-specific links for Log In, Register, and Log Out; just use the common ones in the TravelPod banner instead.

What stays the same with single sign-on?

You should realize that behind the scenes there are still two members databases, we just make sure you have the same user ID in both. TravelPod and TravelPodium forums still provide separate pages to manage your profile information. If you make a change to your TravelPod profile, say change your e-mail address, it does not affect the TravelPodium profile, and vice versa. Also, TravelPod and the Forums still use different browser cookies to track your login sessions. Your TravelPod and Forums login sessions expire at different times. If you return to the site after being away for a few hours or days, you may notice that you are r Forums session is still active but not in TravelPod.

Will current members need to change anything when TravelPod cuts over to single sign-on?

Yes, some members will need to make changes to their user ID or email address. We had to make minor changes to the membership rules so that we could bring the two member databases together. We sent e-mails to all members that are affected by these changes, but it is possible that some e-mails did not get delivered. • You must have the same user ID in both TravelPod and the Forums. So if you registered in the Forums with a different user ID than your TravelPod user ID, your Forums user ID must change. In many cases, we have been able to match your Forums account to your TravelPod account and will change your Forums user ID during the cut-over. After the cut-over, just login with your TravelPod user ID and password. • In some cases, we were not able to match your Forums account to your TravelPod account. When you first login after the cut-over, you will likely get re-registered in the Forums with your TravelPod user id. However you’ll also have a new profile and posting history. Don’t worry, we can fix things up for you, just send an e-mail to unified@travelpod.com and tell us your TravelPod user ID and your old Forums user user ID. • TravelPod user IDs must now be at least 3 characters long. If you have a shorter user ID, you will be prompted to change it to a longer user ID when you first log in after the cut-over. • Each TravelPod account must have an e-mail address. If you have an account with no email address, you will need to add one, using the Personal Settings page. • Each TravelPod account must now have a unique e-mail address. If you have more than one account with the same email address, you will need to change the e-mail address in the other accounts using the Personal Settings page. It’s OK for you to have multiple accounts, you just need to have a different e-mail address in each one. Alternatively, you can send us e-mail at unified@travelpod.com and ask us to delete an unused account or even merge together the contents of multiple accounts.

I registered in the Forums with a different user ID and password than in TravelPod. Which one do I use?

After the cut-over, only your Travelpod user ID and password are valid. If you had a different Forums user ID and password, they no longer work. We tried very hard to match your Forums account to your TravelPod account so that you can access both after the cut-over.

How did you match my Forums account to my TravelPod account?

Well, it wasn’t always easy, and we weren’t always able to do it. Mostly we tried to match on the e-mail address in your Forums and TravelPod profile. If the e-mails were the same or similar we likely had a match. We were even more certain if the user IDs were the same. However if you had the same user ID but completely different e-mail addresses in the profiles, we didn’t think this was a match. If we made a mistake in your case we apologize, just send us an e-mail at unified@travelpod.com and we will correct it.

I was registered in the Forums but not in TravelPod. How do I log in after the cut-over?

No wonder we couldn’t match your Forums account to your TravelPod account! First, you need to join TravelPod – its free! Then send us an e-mail at unified@travelpod.com with your Forums user ID and your new TravelPod user ID, and we will match the two accounts. You won’t be able to access the Forums until you do this. Note you may not be able to keep the same user ID, it may already be taken in the TravelPod members database. Please ensure you send us e-mail from the same address that appears in your profile so we can verify we are matching the accounts from the same person.

Why does the Login page have a “Login to Forums” check box?

This box is checked by default so that you automatically get logged in to the Forums when you log in to TravelPod. But just in case you cannot or don’t want to be logged in to the Forums, you can uncheck this box before pressing the Login button. If you are having a problem, please let us know at unified@travelpod.com.

Why don’t I see my old Forums profile and posting history when I log in?

Perhaps we were unable to match your Forums account to your TravelPod account. If so, we likely re-registered you in the Forums with your TravelPod user ID the first time you logged in after the cut-over. Don’t worry, we can restore your old Forums profile and posting history. Just email us at unified@travelpod.com and tell us your TravelPod user ID and original Forums user name, and we’ll fix things up for you.

I liked my Forums user ID better than my TravelPod user ID. Why can’t I keep it?

For single sign-on to work, we had to pick one members database to be the master, and that was the original TravelPod members database. However, if you really liked your Forums user ID better, you have two possible options. First, your Forums display name can be different than your user ID, you can change it to whatever you want – as long as that name isn’t already taken. Or you can e-mail us at unified@travelpod.com and ask us to change your TravelPod user ID, as long as it isn’t already taken.

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.
Francis Bacon

Cheers!

Hometown Attention May 24, 2006

You already know that TravelPod is headquartered in Ottawa ON Canada. We’re pleased to draw your attention to some flattering hometown attention in the form of two stories in the Travel Section of The Citizen (Ottawa’s main daily newspaper) on Saturday, May 20, 2006.

One of those stories is about your very favourite travel blog site. Read it here.

The other story is about a pair of our favourite TravelPod Members, the globe-trotting duo known to you all as thymeoff. Read their story about Leaving It All Behind.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality,
and instead of thinking how things may be,
to see them as they are.
Samuel Johnson

Cheers!

BBC, DeKalb Daily May 12, 2006

TravelPod Members continue to the make news around the world. Last week, Members Ray and Jan Ott were featured in the DeKalb (IL, USA) Daily Chronicle. Seems the footloose Otts have been hankering to return to the Peace Corps for about 25 years, and the time has come. You can read about Ray and Jan’s excellent plan and maybe drop them a line of encouragement at rayandjan.

Meantime, halfway around the world, our own Steve James has achieved yet another moment of fame. Steve’s writing on TravelPod is cited in the current Weblog Watch, a new feature in the BBC’s online Magazine. In a world where there are hundreds of millions of blogs, Steve’s has risen to the top. We say Congratulations! and you can do the same at stevejames.

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.
Oscar Wilde

Cheers!

DATELINE: INSPIRATION Apr 10, 2006

Some more media coverage to report, folks. This time it’s the Edmonton Journal in Alberta Canada (which just happens to be home-base for TravelPod Community Manager Carmella aka whereshegoes) and this time, it’s not one but two articles that together consume all of the front page of the Saturday (April 4, 2006) Travel Section and spill over on to page 2.

In the first story, entitled Travel blogs keep wanderers in touch you’ll read the familiar TravelPod.com rags to (maybe… someday…) riches story. As a bit of an aside, I continue to be fascinated with what reporters and editors choose to include in their published pieces. The facts in the article are completely correct (as checked and double-checked by the Journal’s fact-checking department) but it is almost amusing to note that there is always far more discussed in a preparatory interview than makes it to the printed page.

Some of that can be attributed to the finite amount of space available to many competing writers and their stories, but I suspect the same thing happens in longer forms of journalism including magazines, closely managed on-line media outlets, and even book-length travel memoirs. Knowing how many words are enough to get the point across in an engaging, entertaining and informative manner is valuable knowledge, but it always requires that something be left out of the story.

Not so with travel blogs. How many words are enough? Exactly the number you use to have your say your way. Self-editing has a place and we all do it to some extent, but what I find most compelling about TravelPod members’ writing is the serendipity: the almost accidental moments of revelation; the characters and the local colour that are revealed when we just let the words flow into our travelogues. Yes, there will always be newspapers, magazines and books stuffed into my backpack, but nothing compares to the magic of an earnest TravelPod raconteur’s tales from foreign roads, typos and all.

But wait! I haven’t told you about the second story in the Edmonton Journal. TravelPod is mentioned (in passing, more or less) but the real subject is Carmella her very own self! It’s entitled She quit her job and hit the road. This may be the first time (and let me know if I’m wrong) that a TravelPod member has parlayed a passion for travel into a Warholian moment of fame.

We are justifiably proud of Carmella’s tireless efforts to make TravelPod the best travel blogging site on the Web (in addition to being the original and first) but the Journal profile reminded me of one of the very most valuable things about Carmella: she has been and continues to be an inspiration to others. To quote from the paper, Carmella “… has inspired some people around the world to follow her bold move and tread their own path….”

Yes indeed. That is what Carmella and every one of you TravelPod travel bloggers is really all about.

Do read the stories. They’re inspirational in themselves.

Cheers!

Connections That Inspire Mar 28, 2006

Regular readers of this space know that we like to call attention to any and every mention of TravelPod that we come across in the media: magazines and newspapers, television and radio, and anywhere on World Wide Web.

In the magazine department, one of the latest examples can be found in the March issue of Outside magazine. Here’s a link to the on-line version of the Outside article and that’s one of two points we want to make: there is precious little that appears in the traditional media that isn’t also available in some electronic form. Does that mean we no longer need the good old paper-and-ink version of “the news”? As travellers, we don’t think that to be the case.

Internet access may be what some folks call ubiquitous but as travellers we know that there are many, many, many places on earth where we cannot and may never be able “log on”. And the truth is, much of what we enjoy most about travel comes from not being connected. To some extent, we hope that never changes. No on-line magazine article can ever tell the kinds of stories you’ll hear on a long and dusty bus ride through the Andean foothills.

Our second point? Well, we admit to being just a bit conflicted. Obviously, TravelPod is an on-line medium itself and the internet is essential to our existence. So how do we all strike a balance? We strike a balance by recording the stories we hear on the buses, in the cafes, and on the streets. We post words, photos and videos, share them with the entire TravelPod community and the connected world beyond… and inspire others to climb on board the next bus heading for the hills.

On the topic of media and the connections that inspire, I would be remiss if I didn’t put in a good word for our very own TravelPod Newsletter. Subscribers know that we made some exciting changes in the February issue (check it out) and the feedback has been nothing but positive (and thanks very much for that.) With the March issue of the TravelPod Newsletter, we’re at it again. To get your copy of the TravelPod Newsletter delivered right to your inbox:
1. Visit the TravelPod home page. Look for the frame dubbed “Join our Newsletter” on the left hand side of the page.
2. Type your email address in the spot provided.
3. Click on the button with the arrow and that’s it.

‘Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind
and I like to write standing up.’
Ernest Hemingway

WELCOME FORUM MODERATORS Mar 13, 2006

The TravelPod Forums have been serving up expert travel guidance for some time. Forum membership gives you a direct connection to fellow members and an easy way to ask pointed questions about specific travel destinations, about the ins-and-outs of TravelPod itself, and about travel in general.

Until recently, staying on top of the Forums was a task that fell to Carmella (whereshegoes) but with both membership and forum activity levels on the rise, your tireless Community Manager sent out a wise call for help… and a few truly dedicated Members have answered that call.

Today, we are pleased to welcome and tip our hats (all the way) to a new slate of TravelPod Forum Moderators. Without further ado, let’s meet them, shall we?

Barrett Barrett
Linda grannytravels2
Jenn Incrediblelife
Kevin & Siankevandsian
Steve stevejames
Ross technotrekker
Scott ScottWoz
and, of course, whereshegoes.

These folks give of their time and wisdom to support the entire TravelPod Community and we can’t say THANK YOU often enough. On the other hand, all of you Members at large can say thank you by dropping in to the TravelPod Forums right now . You’ll discover an ever-expanding body of trusted travel advice. You’ll connect directly with travelers who share your unique interests and concerns. And you’ll find ample opportunity to contribute your own travel wisdom.

Please note that TravelPod.com Membership and TravelPod Forum Membership are not, at present, one and the same. We are redesigning our member registration facility to streamline the process and we appreciate your patience. To register for the TravelPod Forums now, click here.

The travel writer seeks the world we have lost—the lost valleys of the imagination.
- Alexander Cockburn, Harper’s, Aug 1996 -

Millions Of Visitors Can’t Be Wrong Feb 23, 2006

In 1997, when TravelPod.com was first launched, there was one “member”. That member was me. And I could just about count the number of monthly visitors to the site on two hands and a foot. Truth is, I could even name those visitors, every one being family or friend.

Things have changed… a lot.

It wasn’t that long ago that TravelPod welcomed its millionth visitor (on a cumulative basis, that is.) Today, TravelPod.com is approaching one million visitors every month. While that in itself is a wonderful milestone, the real story is in the timing.

Put it this way: between 1997 and 2004, TravelPod grew at what you’d have to call a leisurely pace. Then, in 2005, a couple of things happened that really opened up the gates.

One was the explosion in interest in blogs of every kind. Looking back, I could have chosen some other technology or format for TravelPod, but I think I made the right decision. There is no doubt that a full-featured blog site is the very best way to capture and share our travel experiences.

The other thing that changed in 2005? The media caught up with the revolution in travel blogging, specifically. Newspapers, radio and television, and on-line information and review outlets all came knocking to find out what it was all about. I bet a good number of you found TravelPod through some of that media buzz. (You can take a look back at all the great coverage TravelPod has enjoyed right here.)

These two developments have had a tremendous impact on TravelPod.com, and not only on the number of visitors. In fact the TravelPod Team is very proud to announce here and now that membership has tripled in only 10 months. Active travelers and armchair travelers, travelogue writers and travel photo bugs and travel videographers: all are joining the TP family at a furious rate!

For the more visually inclined among us, I’ve drawn this little graph to illustrate.

My point? Simply this. Thank you all for elevating TravelPod to a whole new level.

Travel on, friends… a world of wonders awaits.

Zoom In On TP’s Backyard Feb 16, 2006

Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) is my hometown, and TravelPod’s base of operations. (World Headquarters, we like to say.)

If you’re not familiar with Ottawa, let me just say that for a metro area of close to a million people, we still enjoy a comfortable small-town feel and most Ottawans like to know what’s going on in our own backyard.

One of the ways we keep tabs on things is through the small but nimble newspapers that zoom in on the local stories.

The Ottawa Business Journal (OBJ, for short) is one of those newspapers and I’m pleased to report that our story found its way into last week’s issue.

So, here’s a chance to take a peek over the virtual fence and into TravelPod’s backyard… from a business perspective, that is.

Read the OBJ article here and let us know what you think.

Post-To-Winners Announced Jan 31, 2006

The winners of December’s Post-To-Win contest have been announced and as you might guess, our panel of experts wanted to reward every member that posted in December but they couldn’t come up with the dosh, so we had to stick with the original plan.

From a random selection of 25 of December’s posts, the judges chose 5 that were particularly meritorious. A tidy $100 Canadian goes to each of…

mr-mrs_pickles for Sherwood forest and Nottingham
stevejames for Big Trouble In Little China
longwalktour for Bulgaria
rich for Canyon Swing
and
the tardifs for What To Do In Siem Reap.

Well done, good friends.
Well done.

Travel With Care Jan 26, 2006

There are as many reasons to travel the world as there are world travelers. Like many of you, TP member Maggie Cashdollar has found hers in the desire to help others. Yesterday, the Arizona Republic ran a nice story about Maggie and a group of Rotarian friends, traveling India with a splendidly simple objective – caring for children.

Read the Arizona Republic article here.

Follow Maggies’ TravelPod posts at mcashdollar.

TP On The Air Jan 23, 2006

We’ve just received our copy of the recent radio interview featuring TravelPod Community Manager Extraordinaire Carmella (whereshegoes).

The interview aired on KPAM in Portland OR on December 24, 2005 and Carmella did a great job of summing things up for the uninitiated. Bravo, Carmella.

Grab your copy and give it a listen. Then spread it around among friends, family, and anyone considering a travel adventure.

Happy Trails, to one and all.

Pints with Barrett – TravelPod meets with a member. Jan 18, 2006

Andrea, Lucky and Carmella meet with a long time member in Ottawa!

We’re always more than happy to meet and have a pint or two with members when ever they’re in town.

So, when we received an email from a long time member telling us he was moving to Ottawa and wanted to hook up for a drink we were more than happy to take him up on the offer.

Luckly, Carmella ( whereshegoes ) was in town too. It was great to get his feedback about his experiences with TravelPod and we got a real kick out of his enthusiasm for TravelPod and traveling in general.

Barrett recently ended a big trip and posted a great blog about it on TP.

Have a read!

Which maps are right for you? Jan 9, 2006

We’ve been getting some great feedback from our members regarding our new Google satellite maps.

Apparently some of our members prefer our own TravelPod classic maps over the new Google Satellite maps. We’re flattered .

To accommodate everyone, we now give you the option of selecting which map type is right for you. You can change the map type by going to your trip properties and changing it from there.

Which map type should you choose?


First off, you can always change the default map type at any time so feel free to try one and then to try the other to see which one you like best.

So, which should you pick? To some degree it’s a matter of personal preference but there are some differences you should be aware of before picking a map type.

Detailed Satellite Maps	Original Classic Maps
Recommended • Satellite based maps • Full global coverage • Map zooming supported • Dynamic interface • More accurate	• TravelPod based maps • Does not cover all countries • No map zooming • Static map • Less accurate

Your Blog In Ink? Jan 4, 2006

It’s happening more and more often: Traditional media outlets like newspapers and magazines are discovering that on-line travelogues are a great source of unique material that their readers really enjoy. I couldn’t agree more and here’s an opportunity for you to see if you can get some national “ink”.

Canada’s Globe & Mail newspaper invites you to “Sound off and share your travel tales from the road.” Just copy some of your best travel blog words (200 to 800 maximum) and paste them into an email to the Travel section at the Globe and Mail.

I’ll be watching for it.

TP In The News Jan 4, 2006

Happy New Year, to one and all… and here’s good start to it with your TravelPod mentioned in the Tuesday (Jan 4) edition of Canada’s Globe & Mail.

Interesting angle: the writer didn’t start with travel in mind, but simply wanted to find some information about far-flung places. I think this underlines the fact that TravelPod is a great source for more than wanderlust inspiring and the thanks go to all you TP members – an extraordinary community of in-country documentarians, if I do say so myself.

Read the story here.

Visualize! Dec 28, 2005

Ever wondered what the picture of all of the connections you have made while traveling would look like? That’s what Jeff Axup, author of a new University of Queensland research study has been working on and he is asking for our help.

All TravelPod members are invited to weigh in on several fascinating approaches to visualizing personal travel connections. I’ve looked them over and every one of them has fantastic possibilities.

Which one makes the most sense to you? Get involved in defining the future of social networks. It’s a quick sign-up and contributors will be entered into a contest to win quality TP gear. (Details to follow.)

THE VERY BEST Dec 23, 2005

In case I haven’t said it loud enough or often enough, THANK YOU – each and every one of you – for supporting TravelPod.com through another fantastic year.

Whatever your celebration, the TravelPod team joins me in wishing the very best to you and yours “at this festive season of the year…”

Cheers!

5 TAKES Wants Your Video Dec 21, 2005

Calling all TravelPod V-loggers! Discovery’s Travel Channel wants to audition your best travel video. If you make the cut, you’ll become a first-hand travel journalist (TJ) for the hybrid internet/television series 5 Takes. Very cool.

Now, we know that TravelPod video hounds are among the best anywhere so hurry on over to the 5 Takes at the Travel Channel site page and get your entry into the hat.

Cheers!

Scheduled downtime for upgrades Dec 16, 2005

It’s time for another upgrade ( yup, another one ). We expect about 1 hour of downtime during this upgrade which will occur tomorrow at 9am EST ( Saturday December 16th ). Apologies for the inconvenience, Cheers!

Right here! Right now! Dec 13, 2005

It’s here! We’ve launched the new MOBILE PHOTO UPLOADER.

What does this mean for you? For one thing, it means no more waiting for a spot at the internet cafe before you can “send” photos home. If you travel with a camphone, you can now upload your photos complete with captions right from your mobile communications device.

No more I was there. Now it’s I am right here! Right now!

Learn more about the TravelPod.com Mobile Photo Uploader and get snappin’.

Cheers!

New easier registration Dec 12, 2005

Thanks to some of the feedback we’ve received from our members, new TravelPod members only need to enter their:

- User ID
- Email address
- Password

We no longer require that they give us their first & last name, gender, city, country, etc…

Thanks for the feedback!

New TravelPatch Style Available Dec 9, 2005

Having trouble getting your TravelPatch to “stick”?
Try the latest TP TravelPatch Style 5, the pure HTML version!

We’ve received reports that there are still some blogs out there that don’t support javascript. That’s the technology we used to develop the 4 styles of the TP TravelPatch released in November.

We fixed the problem by releasing a 5th TravelPatch style. It is available now, it is pure HTML (no javascript involved) and it should do the trick.

To grab your own TP TravelPatch now, login to your TravelPod account. On Your Profile page, you’ll see the Extras frame in the upper right hand corner. Click on Your TravelPatch and follow the simple instructions.

Patch a blog today!

Post To WIN Dec 2, 2005

Been meaning to put some of your travel thoughts down on virtual paper? Looking for a little motivation to freshen up your TravelPod presence? How about cold hard cash? Would that help?

We’re running the Post To WIN contest during the entire month of December. All you have to do to enter is post to your TravelPod.com blog. With every post your name will be entered into the big draw in January 2006 when we’ll select five winners of $100 each.

The catch? No catch. Just a few simple rules: Post To WIN Contest Rules and more.

But hey, maybe for you it’s not about the money. Maybe you do it to share, warn, and inform fellow travelers. Maybe you value the first-person accounts of the people, places, and wonders that have meant so much to you in planning your own travels.

Nothing new to write about? How about sharing some stories from your past travels. Let your readers know what to look for and what to avoid.

Whatever inspires you to write, just Post To WIN in December!

The TP TravelPatch – New and VERY Cool Nov 29, 2005

When preparing to set out on one of my travel adventures, I often patch a flag onto my backpack to let people know that I’m from away. It’s a great way to invite folks to approach me and ask about my journies.

I started wondering if an online version of a backpack patch wouldn’t be a great way to invite people to visit my travelogues and get the answers to their questions, and here’s what we came up with – the new and very cool TP TravelPatch.

The TP TravelPatch is like an on-line calling card that you can leave on a personal website or the special interest blogs you keep somewhere other than TravelPod. It’s a miniature webpage alive with thumbnails of your travel photos and maps. It even comes in four different versions so you can select the one that works best for you.

Here’s what one of my TravelPatches looks like.

How to get your TP TravelPatch:
1. Log in to your TravelPod.com account
2. Click on Your TravelPatch
3. Follow the simple instructions to Select one of the four TP TravelPatch types and Copy the supporting code to your clipboard.
4. Switch to your personal website maintenance environment or alternate blog site, paste that code into place, upload and…
5. Viola! You have created your first TP TravelPatch.

Hope you’ll agree that this is the coolest way ever to attract attention to yourself and your TravelPod.com travel blogs… and what a great cross-community bridge-builder, too.

Enjoy!

The New York Times and TP Nov 26, 2005

TravelPod in the New York Times

Did you see the piece about TravelPod in the Sunday (27 Nov) New York Times?

It’s a terrific acknowledgement of the inspired and inspiring snaps and stories TP members bring to the world of travel.

The Sunday Times is read by more people than you can shake a walking stick at so don’t be surprised if some friendly strangers show up on your blogstep. check it out.

New Country Info Capsule Nov 24, 2005

The TravelPod enhancement team is still working overtime. (We’re very serious about TravelPod being the best travel writing place on the web.) Some changes are small but helpful (we hope) like the additional info you now get when you use the Destination tab (at the top of the page) to start your research on a country you would like to experience. You can even see how many others have written about that country on TravelPod.com.

Remember: some TravelPod members have upgraded their accounts to keep their blogs private for family and friends. They will still be counted as travelers to that country in the Country Info Capsule, but their blogs might not be accessible to you.

And while I’m on the subject, is there any other high-level data you think might be good to include in the new country capsule? Let us know. We’re here for you.

From Search to Slideshow Nov 22, 2005

We’ve added a very cool capability to see the results of a TravelPod Photo Search in a slideshow. It’s a great way to get a hands-free view of every TravelPod photo that matches your search criteria. Using the Search (upper right-hand side of the TravelPod.com header), enter your keyword (city or country, usually), select ‘travel photos’ and click on the Search button. You’ll get a photo Album View of the results of your search. To switch to the slideshow view, click on the Slideshow View button, sit back, and enjoy the show.

Satellite Maps Nov 15, 2005

Sometimes we build our own great travel blogging widgets. Sometimes we build in the great stuff we find and that’s the case with our new Google satellite maps. Haven’t noticed? Go to your blog or that of one of your Favourites and check it out. We’ve added more satellite maps and are going to be slowly adding the satellite option to all of our maps.

We love it.

NOTE – If there are more than 50 ‘been there’ pins in a map, the default will be the TravelPod classic map. Why? Well, without getting too technical about it, it simply takes too long to load a 50-pin satellite map and we don’t like to make you wait. If you have the patience, though, you can click on the map header to switch back and forth between classic and satellite maps.

Travel on, friends!

1,000 Videos Nov 10, 2005

That’s how many videos all you aspiring documentary makers have uploaded to TravelPod.com. Actually, there are more than 1,000 but we have to admit that it has been a little hard to tell… until now.

Video searches are now live on TravelPod.com.

Find videos of your favourite travel destinations with the toolbar Search or browse through our Destinations where all matching videos are now included. Happy viewing!

Who Are Your Favourites? Nov 7, 2005

Is there a fellow TravelPod blogger you would like to recognize as an inspiration or a good writer or just plain fun? Add them to your new Favourites list by going to their profile and clicking the “Add to favorites” link. You have to be logged on to your account of course, but that’s all there is to it. Go ahead. Make their day. (Note: You can always change your Favourites through your Admin page where you’ll find the option to remove links.)

All That We Survey Nov 1, 2005

Yes, we are running another survey and we really, really need your reponse. Why? 3 good reasons…

We Need Your General Feedback
We like this stuff the best. We read it over and over again. Some of you are eager communicators and you let us know what you think without hesitation. Others not so much. We’re asking for general feedback in the survey because if we don’t ask, some of you won’t tell us how we’re doing.

We Need To Stay On Top Of the Advertising Thing
Advertising is a necessary part of TravelPod and every other free-to-use website. The survey results will give us the kind of information that helps us decide who gets to advertise on The Web’s Original Travelblog.

We Do It All For You
The survey results will tell us what kinds of features and enhancements are important to you and help us prioritize them. The fact is, we’ve been getting some positive comments on the things we’ve added in the last month or so. Besides making us feel good, these comments tell us we’re on the right track and your survey reponses will help us stay on the right track.

Ohh yeah did I mention that you can win some cool stuff too? We’ll be giving away some TravelPod clothes and gift certificates for amazon.com.

Take our survey

Sincerely hope you can take the time.
Thanks,
Lucky

Just say I DO with TravelPod Oct 28, 2005

As if getting married weren’t adventure enough!
Thanks to TravelPod members Andy and Jill for attracting attention to themselves and TravelPod in the Dec/Jan issue of Modern Bride magazine.

Check it out! MODERN BRIDE Article

Upgrades on TravelPod Oct 25, 2005

You may have noticed that we’ve been offline a few times in the past days.

We apologize for the inconvenience as we upgrade TravelPod. Your patience is appreciated.

Thank you.
Lucky

Match your travel styles in your neighbourhood Oct 24, 2005

Ever wondered how many TravelPod members share your your travel style? Curious to know who they are? Where they’ve been? Where they’re headed next?

You may have noticed our new Neighbourhood feature. It’s the first of a bunch of neighborhood-builders we have planned; ways to help make connections between TravelPod members. To check it out, login to your account or have a look at your profile. You’ll see “Your Neighbourhood” followed by a personalized list of others whose TravelStyles are a close match to your own: it’s your own neighbourhood of fellow travelers you might find interesting

And future neighbourhoods will be even cooler. Be on the lookout for the neighbourhood that is literally a neighbourhood. That’s right. You’ll be able to see the list of TravelPod members who are physically nearby right now. (This makes us wonder if on-line technologies aren’t finally catching up with traditional social structures like neighbourhoods. If you have any thoughts on how you would define your own TravelPod Neighbourhood, we want to hear them.)

What’s a neighbourhood? Your neighbourhood is made up of people with similar travel styles which you may find interesting. Everyone’s neighbourhood is unique and reflects your own personal travel tastes.

We use various bits of information which you’ve given us to find your neighbours. The more information and entries you post, the better we can do to find other travelers which match your travel style just right.

Your neighbourhood is a dynamic place, as you submit more entries and do more, we’ll update your neighbourhood to show you other travelers.

So go ahead and check out your neighbourhood often, you never know what interesting adventures and travelers you may find!

TP on TV in the Bay Area Oct 20, 2005

TravelPod on Bay News 9 TV

We stumbled onto a neat review of TravelPod on Bay News 9 TV this morning. The video is available online too, so you can check it out on their site here!

Here is a little snippet they wrote on their site about the review:

“Great site for the traveler or the traveler want to be.

While you’re on the road you can post a travel diary for your friends and family to follow. If you’re trying to put together a great travel vacation of your own read the blogs from other word travelers just like you. The pictures and stories are real, not hyped like some travel magazines.”

Mobile Travel Blogging with Rabble & TravelPod Oct 16, 2005

TravelPod Map on a Rabble enabled Verizon phone

We’re happy to announce our partnership with Rabble.com today!

Rabble is a leading mobile blogging application that enables its subscribers to post blog entries and photos from their mobile phones on selected mobile networks.

We’ve partnered with Rabble as part of our big push to bring mobile technology to you, our members at TravelPod. By integrating with Rabble’s mobile application, you can now synchronize your TravelPod travel blogs with a Rabble blog.

Travel Blogs + Rabble = Mobile Travel Blogging

Rabble is a leading mobile blogging application that enables its subscribers to post blog entries and photos from their mobile phones on selected mobile networks. We’ve partnered with Rabble as part of our drive to bring mobile technology to our members. By integrating with Rabble’s mobile application, we’ve enabled our members to synchronize their travel blogs with a Rabble blog. If you have a Rabble.comaccount, it’s easy to set it up to work with your travel blogs, just login to Rabble.com and setup your Rabble blog to synchronize with your travel blog from there. If you aren’t signed up for Rabble yet, when you download and register Rabble on your phone, you will be asked for an offer code, be sure to enter “travelpod” so that you will be able to take advantage of all the special features offered to our members. Click on the links below to find out how to get it on your mobile phone. More information: What is Rabble? Rabble & TravelPod And there’s more to come! For starters, we are supporting synchronization from TravelPod to Rabble but we’ll be rolling out more features and capabilities in the coming months that will allow you to update your TravelPod blog from Rabble, too. Stay tuned!

Press release

How to upload photos while you’re on the road Oct 13, 2005

Scott Woz, a dedicated and long-time TravelPod member, wrote a great community article which describes how to upload photos from your digital camera while you’re on the road.

Thanks Scott!

Check out the article here

Google Maps are here! Oct 12, 2005

Now you can view your profile map showing all the places you’ve been on a satellite image of the planet earth. (If you’ve actually been to other planets, let us know.)

Check it out!

Click “Satellite” to see your map in satellite mode. You can still view your original map by clicking “classic map”.

Search enhancements Oct 10, 2005

Have you noticed that we’ve launched some major enhancements to the TravelPod search facility? Most of the improvements are thanks to our members’ feedback.

New Search Tool
The new TravelPod search tool (find it in the header) now gives you a convenient way to search blogs, photos, and even locate other members.

Photo Search
One of the biggest new enhancements is the ability to search all of TravelPod’s photos. Did you know that we have over one quarter of a million photos on TP? And that number is growing by thousands every day! To search for photos, just select “travel photos” in the search tool and type in your search keywords. Give it a shot, but be warned – it’s a little addictive…

Member Search
You’ve always been able to search for members through TP’s advanced search and also in the “Our Travelers” page but to make it drop-dead easy to find a member, we also added this search to our new search tool.

Search Accuracy
Several members noted that searching by keywords wasn’t always producing the most useful results, so we have changed all of the ‘under the covers magic’ and searching TravelPod now produces much more accurate and relevant results. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Browse the World
For those time when you don’t really know what you are looking for, try the “Destinations” tab in the toolbar and browse by country through our world of photos and blogs.

USA Today Weekend Edition Oct 9, 2005

TravelPod in today’s USA Today Weekend Edition

We were still waking up this morning when we caught wind that USA Today Weekend posted a nice little article about travel blogs including TravelPod.

Have a read:

“Keep an online journal

Share your vacation photos and stories online while you’re still on the road.

No need to wait until you’re home to share your vacation with family and friends. Online travel journals keep everyone informed while you’re on the road.

Dozens of websites now offer easy-to-build pages where you can upload trip photos and log day-by-day journal entries others can access online. The best part: Programming knowledge is not required.

Three of the more popular sites — TravelPod.com, MyTripJournal.com and TravelPost.com — feature automatic itinerary mapping, address books to notify friends when you’ve posted a new entry, as well as photo galleries for browsing.

Most sites are free (they make money from ads that appear on your page) but may charge for extra photo storage. Others have yearly fees. MyTripJournal.com costs $59 to $89 annually after a 45-day trial, but your page is ad-free and has ample storage.

And best yet, the journals don’t expire after your trip, so you can relive your travels again and again.”

Forums upgraded Oct 8, 2005

Yesterday we released our upgraded and enhanced forums which have a whole bunch of new features.

Check it out!

New slideshow photo albums! Oct 3, 2005

Check out our new snazzy slide show feature. It’s available on all of our photo albums as of today.

This new feature shows a photo album in a very slick animated slide show.

Check out one of my old photo albums in slideshow mode to see what it looks like.

Lucky’s slideshow

More goodies Sep 19, 2005

We’ve rolled out a few goodies for you tonight.

I won’t go over them all but you might like these:

– When you roll over the latest photos on our homepage, a preview should now show up without having to click the photo.

- Thanks to a member’s feedback, when you create a new entry, the default map pin location is now set to your previous entry. This should save you some time when adding new entries.

– We’ve reversed the order of your travelogues on your profile to list the most recent first.

- We’ve changed the look and feel of your entry pages to use more of the available space. The new layout is easier to navigate and lays the ground work for some really cool stuff which is coming up.

Cheers!

New browsing and searching Sep 17, 2005

We’ve fixed up our browsing and searching on TravelPod to make it easier for you to find our travel stories and photos!

Aside from adding the latest entries on TravelPod to our homepage and a few new “top members” lists to the “Our Travelers” page, we’ve also added a new tab in the toolbar which let’s you browse our photos and stories by clicking on maps. Click the “Travel Blogs” tab to reach the new browsing.

We’ve also shnazzed up our search results to look prettier and get your more relevant information.

Cheers!

Car Rentals – Find the best deals on the Web Sep 14, 2005

We’re happy to announce that we are now offering car rental price comparisons through our partner Kayak.com.

Our new search tools will search the web’s best car rental sites to compare and find you the best rates.

Give it a try:

Find the lowest priced car rentals

Donate to TravelPod Sep 9, 2005

Some members have expressed that they would still like to donate to TravelPod even though we are giving away unlimited disk space now.

What can we say… thanks

If you would like to donate, you can do so here:
donate

Note: Donations are appreciated but do not enhance your accounts priviledges. If you would like to go ad-free or to enable private travelogues, please purchase an enhanced membership.

FireFox syndication supported Sep 7, 2005

Download Travel Stories with FireFox Syndication

We’ve updated TravelPod to allow our guests and members to use our TravelStreams™ with the FireFox web browser.

When you use FireFox on TravelPod, you should now see a new orange icon at the bottom right of your browser.

Click this to subscribe to our TravelStreams™ directly in your FireFox browser.

Upload unlimited photos @ TravelPod Aug 31, 2005

Hello,

You may have noticed some cool new changes on TravelPod. Based on our survey a few months back, we’ve made some enhancements we’re sure you’ll love.

One resounding request came through in our survey which was for higher upload limits. So, we decided to remove the upload limits all together. We now allow all of our members to upload as many photos, mp3s and videos. Yippee!

We’re also no longer accepting donations and have added a new enhanced membership for members who want ad-free travelogues.

This FAQ should answer most questions, but don’t hesitate to contact us if you still have some questions you would like answered.

If you’d like, post comments you have in our forums and read what our other members are saying.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What’s changed?
In a nutshell, we’re no longer accepting donations and have removed the upload limits for everyone! That’s right, upload as many photos, MP3s and videos as you want. We’ve also added an enhanced account for members who would like ad-free and private travelogues.

What can we expect next from TravelPod?
Expect the same ferocious rate of innovation, new features and an even better service. Here are some examples of what we’ve done in the past months:

- Moved our servers to a new home with very FAST Internet connections,
- Added TravelStreams ( RSS/ATOM ) feeds to your travelogues,
- Added tons of new features like “Our Travelers” and the “New Photos Gallery”,
- Reworked our interface based on your feedback,
- Added a new Travel Search Engine,

And there is much, much more to come!

We’ve also beefed up the team and brought in a few key industry leaders like Stowe Boyd from corante.com to help us out and to make TravelPod even better for you.

Why is TravelPod doing this?
It’s our intent to continue to offer the best travel blogging service without having to charge our members for it. We don’t want to become a pay site. The one time donations we received in the past helped but really didn’t make much sense in the long run.

For members who rather not have ads on their travelogues, we understand and now offer an enhanced account which removes ads from member travelogues.

Hey, I donated already, what happens to me?
We recognize that our members who originally donated are very important to us and are considered our founding members, we truly value them. If you donated in the passed 8 years, you’ve been given a special status on TravelPod and here is what you get:

- Unlimited uploads,
- “Founding Member” badge on your account for all to see,
- A place on our founding members hall of fame,
- If you donated over $20, we’ll never show ads on your travelogues,
- If you donated over $50, we’ll never show ads on your travelogues and you’ll also be able to create private travelogues forever without ever having to give us another penny.

We think it’s a pretty sweet deal and a great way to acknowledge those of you who helped make TravelPod what it is today!

Will my special “Founding Member” status ever expire?
Nope, you’ll always be special to us

What am I losing with this change?
Nothing, nada, zip… Actually you’ll be gaining an unlimited supply of disk space to document your trip in every way, shape, and form. This includes unlimited photos, videos and mp3s!

So, if you aren’t accepting donations any more… how are you making money to support the site?
Through advertising, paid memberships and a few wacky ideas we have. It’s our goal to continue offering the best free travel blog service on the Web.

Does that mean that TravelPod will be loaded with annoying ads now?
No way… we believe that a few tasteful, travel-related ads are ok but are dead set against pop-up ads and other annoying advertising tricks.

Members who rather not have any ads at all on their travelogues can upgrade to the new enhanced membership.

Will I lose my privacy privileges?
Of course not. We respect your privacy and will never disclose your private information without your explicit consent.

How many MP3s or movies can I post?
As many as you want.

Can I pay in monthly installments?
No. Currently you’ll need to pay for a yearly upgrade.

How will this affect my current involvement with TP? It won’t… in fact, other than being able to upload as many photos, MP3s and videos as you want, you won’t notice a difference.

You mean I can put as many pictures as I would like? Yep, no more limits. Upload away!

What kind of advertising will go on my travelogue?
If you donated $20 or more in the past or are an enhanced member, no advertising will appear on your travelogue at all.

Otherwise, TravelPod will continue to show the ads it always has and we may consider adding in new non-intrusive ads where appropriate.

TravelPod has been, is and always will be “for the travel community” service.

Flights & Hotels – Find the lowest priced deals on the Web Aug 11, 2005

We’re happy to announce that we’ve partnered with Kayak.com to help you find the best deals on flights and hotels.

Our new search tools will search the web’s best airline and hotel booking sites to compare and find you the best rates.

Give it a try:

Find the lowest priced flights
Find the lowest priced hotels

TravelStream™ – Have TravelPod streamed right to your PC Aug 11, 2005

We’ve just released TravelPod’s new syndication feeds which we’re calling our “TravelStreams™”.

You can use our RSS/ATOM direct feeds to have TravelPod’s latest entries pushed to your PC directly or, use a member’s stream to have their latest entries pushed to you!

Check it out!

Texas Upgrade completed! Aug 7, 2005

As of 8:30am this morning, we’ve successfully moved the TravelPod servers to our upgraded facility in Texas.

For the next 12 hours or so, as the changes propogate to the new servers, you may experience mild a degradation in service.

** Please note, that you may have difficulties logging into the forums during this period.

Please let our support staff know if you are having any problems.

Cheers!

Maintenance Alert Aug 3, 2005

Please be aware that we’ll be performing a major system update Sunday August 7th at 7am EST and expect there to be some downtime from 7-9am EST and also spuratically through the day.

TravelPod @ the World Youth Congress 2005 Aug 1, 2005

Travelpod @ the World Youth Congress 2005

Follow Cobi along as she sends her TravelPod travel dispatches from her experiences in Scotland at the World Youth Congress.

Check out Cobi’s travelogue

The TravelPod Toolbar Jul 29, 2005

The TravelPod Toolbar

We’re happy to offer a customized TravelPod Toolbar to our guests and members. We’d like to ask our community to download the toolbar and install it. Not only is it a great toolbar which will let you quickly access TravelPod, search Alexa and block pop-ups, when you install it and visit TravelPod, it helps us out by letting Alexa know just how much you love our site .

So, if you’d like to install a cool new search bar ( even if you already have one installed ) and you’d like to help out TravelPod, please take a minute or two to download and install the TravelPod toolbar.

Install the TravelPod Toolbar Today!

New “top” travelers page on TravelPod Jul 26, 2005

You may have noticed that we’ve added a new tab to the toolbar which goes to our new “Community Page“.

This new page allows you to search for TravelPod members and, most importantly, features 4 new “top” traveler lists.

1) Top Traveler by # of visitors
2) Top Traveler by total countries traveled
3) Top Traveler by # of photos uploaded
4) Top Traveler by # of entries

Have a look to see where you are on the list!
Cheers,

Winners! The TravelPod Survey ends. Jul 19, 2005

The TravelPod survey ended yesterday, thanks to all who participated. The information we were able to gather has already started to help us in our evolution of TravelPod.

So, the big question is… who won the prizes??!?!?!

Drum roll please… and the winners are:

iPod Mini Winner
Julie Cooke
http://www.travelpod.com/members/jrcooke7

Amazon.com Gift Certificate Winner
Alicia Young
http://www.travelpod.com/members/aliciay98

We were happy to see that both randomly selected winners were TravelPod members. Again, thanks to all for participating.

Congratulations Julie & Alicia!

New Look @ TravelPod Jul 18, 2005

Getting our look and feel redesigned has been high on our priority list for some time now. Specifically, updating our old header’s style has been a recurring request from our members.

Thanks to your feedback during the TravelPod survey, we were able to put together a new header design which should make TravelPod much easier to navigate.

The new look and feel is a lot easier on the eyes too

Cheers!

Get a chance to an iPod by taking our survey Jun 18, 2005

In a never ending effort to improve our site, we are running a survey to know more about our members and visitors.

We’ll be using this information to help us decide which features to add to TravelPod and would love your feedback!

As a big thank you for taking 2 minutes to fill out our short survey, you’ll be entered into a draw to win an iPod mini or a second prize of a $100 Amazon gift certificate.

Take our survey

New search type Jun 15, 2005

Based on member suggestions, we’ve added a new search by last name option to our search engine.

This should help your friends and family find your blogs

CNN & TravelPod May 27, 2005

More good news from CNN this time. Here is the article:

“Forget sending postcards back home while on vacation. Specialized Web sites cater to the traveler who wants to create an online journal that includes pictures, maps and more. Before signing up for one, it’s best to know how it works and who has access to your writings.

Online journals are often referred to as blogs. There are certainly many places online where you can set up and maintain a blog. Travel blog sites, however, provide tools generally not available on generic blog sites.

For example, visitors can follow your itinerary as you write and upload pictures during a trip. There is also a mapping feature that traces your route. Some sites also let you upload video and audio files. And you can do all this from the road with a Web-connected laptop or from an Internet café. More about that later.

With that in mind, here are three travel sites:

At TravelPod, you can upload video (MPG, AVI, WMV and MOV files) and photo (JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP) files. You can also upload MP3 audio files. Storage space is limited to 5 megabytes. TravelPod claims this is enough for 600 compressed photos.

TravelPod is free to use as long as you like. However, if you make a one-time donation, your storage space increases. Each $1 gets you another megabyte of photo storage. For $20, the ad banners go away. If privacy is important to you, spend $50 for a password-protected travel blog. This way, only people you authorize can view it.

You can send automatic notifications to friends and family when you post a new entry. Visitors can post comments, but they must register first. Comments can be disabled and posts deleted, if you choose. In the site’s terms, TravelPod retains the right to use your travel blog for promotional purposes. ”

TulsaWorld News & TravelPod May 17, 2005

We have a bit more propaganda to share with our community. Last week TravelPod was sighted in an article in the Tulsa Work newspaper.

Not only was the article published in TulsaWorld but, through syndication, it also appeared in dozens of North American newspapers such as the Asbury Park Press, the Denver Post and the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Comments on your entries May 16, 2005

Based on your feedback, we’ve added the capability for your guests to add comments to each of your entries. You can configure how you want this to behave from your trip properties.

By default, all of your entries now have this enabled. Have a look at one of your existing entries to check it out ( look at the bottom of the entry ).

What are entry and photo comments?
Comments are short messages which allow your guests to give you some feedback regarding your entry or photo. Each photo and entry you create can accept comments, which are shown at the bottom of your entry or photo.

Check out some sample comments.

If you select “Open” as your comment status then you will be notified of any comments made on your photos or entries. However, if you prefer to not allow your guests to post new comments, you can change your travel blog’s comment status to “Closed”.

Thanks to all of our members who wrote in to request this new feature.

Cheers!

USA Today & TravelPod Apr 29, 2005

Here is an extract from yesterday’s USA Today which recommends TravelPod to its readers:

“Web logs, or blogs, have become indispensable to travel enthusiasts planning a vacation or seeking a quick escape during their workday. More personal than Fodor’s, some travel blogs provide unique, irreverent reviews of lodging, restaurants and sights. Others are more like a diary, inviting readers to join adventures vicariously as writers post from the road. Romantically juicy or richly informative, the following blogs are recommended by USATODAY.com travel writers:

…

TravelPod.com: This is one of the first travel journal sites and an excellent start for someone new to the blogosphere. TravelPod.com has “Top 5″ lists, a “quick search” list of 199 countries, clickable maps and more. ”

Add more contacts to your address book Apr 22, 2005

Based on a member request, TravelPod now allows members to store 300 contacts in their address book.

Earn extra money from your travel blogs! Apr 15, 2005

Raising funds for an upcoming trip?

Want to make some extra cash from your previously or soon to be written travel blog?

Why not make a little extra money!

We’ve just launched our patent pending Support My Travels™ fund raising tools to help you raise and sustain travel funds!

We’ve been dying to release this new feature but we’ve been patiently waiting for our patent pending status before releasing it.

This new feature will let you quickly and easily accept donations from visitors to your travel blogs! This means that you can now collect and raise cash from your guests to help fund your travels.

What is Support My Travels™?

Support My Travels™ is a system that assists our members in raising funds for their travels, soliciting donations from friends and family, making extra money while traveling and to also earn some cash after a trip is over. Let us explain how. ( Comment on this new feature ) Overview of Support My Travels ™ Believe it or not, people want to give you money! It could be friends, family or simply fellow travelers reading about your experiences. By enabling Support My Travels™ on your travel blogs, you can begin to accept donations from these people who want to give back and also want to help support your travels. Support My Travels ™ is ideal for… - raising funds for upcoming trips, - receiving funds to help sustain ongoing travel, - earning extra cash from existing travel blogs, It’s perfect for anyone who could use a little help to fund their traveling spirit! The better your travel blog, stories and photos, the better of a chance you have that someone will donate so it’s important to put a little extra effort into your travel blog too. All you need to do is create a PayPal account and Donation Button ( detailed instructions are available to help you do this ), and then you can enable Support My Travels™ on one or all of your travel blogs. When your guests send you a donation, you will receive an email informing you of the amount. That’s it, we’ll take care of the rest for you!

Comment on this new feature

Cool site of the day – The Kim Komando Show Apr 13, 2005

The Kim Komando Show, a popular US based radio show, has selected TravelPod as their “Cool Site of the Day”.

Check it out!

“Summer’s approaching quickly, and many of us will be taking a much-needed vacation. Why not use technology when you share your experiences with friends and family? For instance, you can post your very own travel blog – for free!

Once you get it set up, you can upload pictures, audio and video, and send notifications to friends and family. They’ll be able to view what you post immediately. Plus, they can trace your route on an interactive map. It just doesn’t get any cooler than that!

My mother is taking my nephew to Europe this summer for a six-week cruise. I have asked Chris to keep one of these travel blogs. So, if you know someone who might want to do something like this, pass this Cool Site on.

I’ll see you tomorrow with another great site! Kim “

Top 100 – TravelPod is a PC Magazine pick! Apr 11, 2005

TravelPod.com holds a proud listing in PC Magazine’s “Top 100 sites you didn’t know you couldn’t live without” this year!

Here is a sample from the article:

“Read the diary of someone who drove across the Sahara from Tombouctou to Addis Ababa – or about a confrontation with a balky customs computer in Kazakhstan. You’ll find it all in this compendium of travel blogs.”

TechTV talks TravelPod! Apr 1, 2005

Amber talks TravelPod!

We did a little searching and managed to get our hands on the transcipt from the episode of Call for Help which talks about TravelPod. It’s a great read. Check it out!

>> Leo Laporte: IF YOU’VE EVER SUFFERED THOUGH A BORING FAMILY VACATION SLIDE SHOW, AMBER’S HERE WITH A NEW AND INNOVATIVE WAY TO PUT PEOPLE TO SLEEP. KEEP YOUR FRIENDS UPDATED WHILE YOU’RE AWAY AND SHARE YOUR WILDEST ADVENTURES BY CREATING A TRAVEL JOURNAL ONLINE.

>> Amber MacArthur: WE’RE NOT GONNA PUT ANYONE TO SLEEP.

>> Leo Laporte: NO, THIS IS MUCH MORE EXCITING!

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, THIS IS MUCH MORE EXCITING, THIS IS A SITE CALLED travelpod.com, WHICH IS A FREE SITE WHERE YOU CAN GO AND —

…

>> Leo Laporte: SO WHAT — BLOG IS A DAILY JOURNAL OF YOUR —

>> Amber MacArthur: EXACTLY, SO IT’S A DAILY JOURNAL, SO THE DIFFERENCE HERE IS THAT YOU COULD USE SOMETHING LIKE BLOG, BLOGGER OR TYPE PAD OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO CREATE A, JUST A DAILY JOURNAL WHERE YOU HOST YOUR OWN PICTURES ON YOUR OWN SITE, OR — BUT THIS ALLOWS YOU, THIS IS, IS CUSTOMISED SPECIFICALLY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE TRAVELLING, SO IT HAS A LOT OF INFORMATION HERE THAT WILL HELP PEOPLE AT HOME KEEP TRACK OF WHERE YOU ARE, LIKE PINS IN A MAP —

>> Leo Laporte: OH NEAT.

>> Amber MacArthur: YOU CAN SEND EMAILS AND THOSE TYPES OF THINGS.

>> Leo Laporte: AND IF YOU CAN GET TO AN INTERNET CAFE, WHICH YOU CAN NOW, EVERYWHERE —

>> Amber MacArthur: EXACTLY, EVERYWHERE, YOU CAN JUST UPDATE YOUR, YOUR TRAVEL BLOG REALLY EASILY, SO —

>> Leo Laporte: YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS ON YOUR TRIP TO CALIFORNIA.

>> Amber MacArthur: I, I DID.

>> Leo Laporte: YOU DID?!

>> Amber MacArthur: YES, I STARTED TO DO IT. SO WE’LL TAKE A LOOK HERE, SO YOU’LL SEE, UM, SOME OF THE TRAVEL BLOGS ARE ACTUALLY PUBLIC, SO IT’S KIND OF FUN, ‘CAUSE YOU CAN ROAM THROUGH THEM —

>> Leo Laporte: I LIKE THAT IDEA.

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, I KNOW, PEOPLE TRAVELLING IN MEXICO, TWO WANDERERS WITH THEIR BACKPACKS IN BANGKOK, THAILAND, LITTLE BIT OF VOYEURISM HERE, BUT IT’S KIND OF FUN TO CHECK IT OUT, SO HERE IS MY TRAVEL BLOG FROM —

>> Leo Laporte: YOU MADE IT PUBLIC?

>> Amber MacArthur: I MADE IT PUBLIC, YEAH, I DON’T HAVE THAT MUCH ON IT RIGHT NOW, BUT SO YOU CAN VIEW IT, SO —

>> Leo Laporte: YOU WERE TOO BUSY HAVING FUN.

>> Amber MacArthur: I WAS TOO BUSY — I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA UPDATE IT EVERY DAY, THAT WASN’T HAPPENING, I STAYED FAR AWAY FROM COMPUTERS. (Laughing) SO I WROTE A LITTLE THING HERE ABOUT —

>> Leo Laporte: “THELMA & LOUISE”.

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, THIS IS KIND OF FUN. (Laughing) SO WE TRAVELLED DOWN THE COAST AND —

>> Leo Laporte: DID YOU MEET BRAD PITT, BY THE WAY?

>> Amber MacArthur: YOU KNOW WHAT, I DIDN’T, BUT I’M STILL OPTIMISTIC THAT ONE DAY IT MIGHT HAPPEN. (Both laughing)

>> Amber MacArthur: OKAY, MAYBE NOT, BUT ANYWAY, SO WE HAD A GREAT TIME AND THIS IS WHAT WE’VE DONE, YOU JUST BASICALLY DO YOUR START AND FINISH —

>> Leo Laporte: AND IT PLOTS THE —

>> Amber MacArthur: AND IT PLOTS THE COURSE, SO — AND ALSO YOU CAN KEEP A PHOTO ALBUM HERE, SO WE’VE UPLOADED A PICTURE OF US, THIS IS ACTUALLY ON UNION STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO, WE WERE SITTING ON THIS BENCH, I THINK WE WERE THERE FOR 2« HOURS AT JAVA JUICE OR SOMETHING RIDICULOUS LIKE THAT.

>> Leo Laporte: ON THAT BENCH?

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, ON THAT BENCH, WE JUST SAT THERE.

>> Leo Laporte: AND YOU DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO UPDATE YOUR TRAVEL BLOG?

>> Amber MacArthur: NO, YOU KNOW WHAT, THIS WAS OUR FIRST DAY THERE, SO WE WERE REALLY EXCITED AND IT WAS SUNNY AND WE HADN’T HAD SUNSHINE FOR A WHILE, SO THAT’S US THERE.

>> Leo Laporte: YOU WERE JUST WATCHING THE BOYS WALK BY, I KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING.

>> Amber MacArthur: (Laughing)

>> Leo Laporte: I KNOW THAT BENCH VERY WELL. (Both laughing)

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, IT’S A GOOD BENCH IF YOU WANNA DO THAT.

>> Leo Laporte: IT’S A GREAT BENCH!

>> Amber MacArthur: SO IT’S REALLY — (Laughing) IT IS. ANYWAY, SO YOU CAN LOG IN TO UPDATE, I’M JUST GONNA SHOW YOU QUICKLY HOW TO UPDATE YOUR TRAVEL BLOG.

>> Leo Laporte: OKAY.

>> Amber MacArthur: SO YOU CAN LOG IN WITH YOUR I.D., AGAIN, IT’S ALL FREE, SO YOU’RE ABLE TO GO IN AND THEY HOST ALL YOUR PICTURES —

>> Leo Laporte: DO THEY — THEY MUST PUT ADS OR SOMETHING ON THE PAGES OR SOMETHING —

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, YOU KNOW WHAT, THERE’S SOME ADS, AS YOU CAN SEE UP HERE, ONLINE HOSTEL —

>> Leo Laporte: JUST A LITTLE BIT.

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, JUST A LITTLE BIT, NOT, NOT TOO MUCH. SO YOU CAN CONTINUE THROUGH HERE, AND THIS IS THE HOME PAGE OF MY TRAVEL BLOG, SO I HAVE A PICTURE HERE AND MAPS OF PLACES THAT I’VE BEEN ON MY TRAVELS, SO THIS IS KIND OF A NEAT FEATURE, AS WELL. AND THEN ALL YOU DO HERE TO UPDATE YOUR TRAVEL BLOG IS, IS ADD A NEW ENTRY OR EDIT THE EXISTING ENTRY OR SEND A LINK TO FRIENDS AND EVERY TIME YOU DO THIS AND YOU UPDATE YOUR BLOG, YOU CAN ACTUALLY GET AN EMAIL SENT OUT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SIGNED UP TO RECEIVE YOUR TRAVEL BLOG.

>> Leo Laporte: OH, THAT’S A GOOD IDEA.

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, SO THIS IS A REALLY GOOD IDEA, SO YOU JUST ADD A NEW ENTRY, ANYONE CAN USE THIS, IT’S REALLY SIMPLE, SO YOU DON’T NEED A LOT OF TECHNICAL SKILLS, YOU DON’T NEED TO BE AFRAID OF ANY OF THAT, SO YOU BASICALLY ADD IN YOUR DATE, THE TITLE OF YOUR ENTRY, YOU CAN ADD IN PICTURES OF WHERE YOU’RE TRAVELLING —

>> Leo Laporte: I SEE, THAT’S WHERE THEY GET THE MAP, YOU SAY WHERE YOU ARE.

>> Amber MacArthur: EXACTLY AND THEN YOU GO IN AND YOU ADD IN SOME TEXT AND THAT WILL BE YOUR JOURNAL ENTRY. CHECK SPELLING AND THEN YOU HAVE SOME OPTIONS TO FINISH IT UP AND, YOU KNOW, AND —

>> Leo Laporte: HOW DO YOU GET PICTURES, IS THAT HARDER TO DO?

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, YOU CAN JUST GO BACK INTO YOUR ORIGINAL POSTING AND JUST UPLOAD PICTURES, SAME WAY, YOU JUST PICK THE PICTURE AND UPLOAD IT.

>> Leo Laporte: OKAY.

>> Amber MacArthur: AND IT HOSTS IT ON THEIR WEB SITE, SO YOU DON’T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT ANY OF THAT. I JUST WANTED TO SHOW QUICKLY, A FRIEND OF MINE, ANJALI AND ROBERT, WHO ARE MARRIED AND WHO ARE TRAVELLING THROUGH ASIA RIGHT NOW, THEY’VE CREATED A BLOG AND THEY ACTUALLY DO UPDATE IT, SO, YOU KNOW, THEY’RE ACTUALLY MAKING AN EFFORT TO UPDATE IT ON TIME.

>> Leo Laporte: OH, THAT’S — WE MET THEM JUST BEFORE THEY LEFT, AT, AT CHRISTMAS TIME.

>> Amber MacArthur: EXACTLY, EXACTLY, SO WHAT THEY’VE DONE IS THEY’VE CALLED IT “THE MEDIOCRE RACE”. (Both laughing)

>> Amber MacArthur: STARRING ROB “WHERE’S MY PASSPORT” SAWATZKY. SO THIS IS A MAP, THIS IS REALLY FUN, BECAUSE ALL OF OUR FRIENDS ARE SIGNED UP TO RECEIVE THIS TRAVEL BLOG, SO YOU CAN SEE HERE THAT THEY’VE STARTED IN TORONTO AND THEY’RE TRAVELLING ALL OVER THE PLACE. AND THEY’VE ACTUALLY UPLOADED A TON OF PHOTOS AND RIGHT NOW WE KNOW THAT THEY’RE IN, IN THAILAND. SO THAT’S WHERE, THAT’S WHERE THEY ARE AT THIS TIME AND THIS IS THEIR ENTRY FROM THAILAND AND WE’RE ABLE TO POST COMMENTS HERE THAT THEY’RE ABLE TO READ WHILE THEY’RE AWAY, AS WELL.

>> Leo Laporte: OH, I THINK THIS IS A GREAT IDEA.

>> Amber MacArthur: YEAH, IT’S REALLY NEAT AND THEN AGAIN, SO THIS IS THE, THIS IS THE, THESE ARE THE ENTRIES DOWN HERE ON THE LEFT OF ALL OF THE DIFFERENT POSTING THEY’VE DONE, WHEN THEY LEFT TORONTO, FRANKFURT, KUALA LUMPUR, GEORGETOWN, AND THEY’VE GONE ALL OVER THE PLACE AND THEY ALSO HAVE PHOTOS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH OF THEIR ENTRIES. SO YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PHOTOS AND YOU CAN CHECK OUT WHERE THEY’VE BEEN AND AGAIN, YOU KNOW, POST COMMENTS AND THERE’S A LITTLE STORY OF ALL THE PHOTOS THAT THEY’VE TAKEN AND SO IT’S A REALLY FUN WAY, ‘CAUSE THEY’RE GONE FOR SIX MONTHS, TO BE ABLE TO KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THEM AND KNOW WHERE THERE ARE AND SO THEY DON’T HAVE TO SEND INDIVIDUAL EMAILS TO ALL OF THEIR FRIENDS.

>> Leo Laporte: RIGHT, YOU’RE REALLY PARTICIPATING IN THEIR TRIP WITH THEM.

>> Amber MacArthur: EXACTLY, EXACTLY, SO WE’VE ALL BEEN POSTING HERE AND IT’S, IT’S BEEN A LOT OF FUN, SO IT’S travelpod.com AND IT’S REALLY EASY, IT TAKES PROBABLY FIVE MINUTES TO SET UP AND WHEN YOU GO AWAY, YOU CAN JUST GO TO AN INTERNET CAFE AND UPDATE YOUR BLOG.

>> Leo Laporte: travelpod.com, MORE INFORMATION ON THE TRAVELOGUES AMBER FEATURED, CHECK OUT OUR SHOW NOTES AT callforhelptv.com.

Community Article – “Updating your Travelogue on the Move” Mar 28, 2005

Scott Woz, a devoted TravelPod member has posted a TravelPod Community Article describing how he has used a portable ( or PDA ) to update his travelogue while on the road.

Find out how updating your travelogue with a portable device can be a great way to update your travelogue while you travel in this great article.

Scott Woz’s Community Article – “Updating your Travelogue on the Move”

If you are looking for a little fame and would like to contribute to TravelPod by writing a Community Article, write to us!.

TechTV and TravelPod Mar 28, 2005

To our pleasant surprise, we woke up this Saturday with a slew of new members streaming in based on a broadcast of a show called “Call For Help”.

On the show ( Episode 169 ), Amber MacArthur spends some time telling its viewers about TravelPod and all of the great things it can do. We’ve been hunting down the video for you but for now, here is the TV Guide style description:

“Create a travel journal online!

Share your wildest adventures with your friends and family.
By Amber MacArthur

Travelpod
www.travelpod.com

When you sign up for your own account on Travelpod, you can create an online travel journal so you can post adventures and pictures of your travels. If you’re stuck at home you can search through thousands of stories and dive into a world of wanderlust!”

Team Canada & TravelPod in South Africa Mar 18, 2005

Team Canada & TravelPod

We are pleased to announce that TravelPod will be helping Team Canada at the upcoming International Kickboxing Team Championships in South Africa!

While in South Africa, Team Canada will be using TravelPod to stay in touch with their family and friends back home.

They’ll also be posting their experiences during the events on their Travelogues for all to see.

Good luck team!

Michelle Braun, Mary-Beth Stanistreet, Victor Provost, Sali Zeidan, William Houtart-Masse, Leigh Crawford, and Samantha Wall-Provost

Show off your best travel photos with TravelPod Mar 6, 2005

We want to show off our member’s best travel photos. Starting today, we’ll be featuring a new travel photo from one of our members every day on our main page!

If you have some great shots you would like featured, you can recommend them to us by simply logging into travelPod and navigating to your photo. There, you’ll see a new button called “Feature Request”.

Click this button to submit your photo to be reviewed.

Cheers!

WebSoup’s Spotlight on TravelPod Mar 3, 2005

WebSoup.org has selected TravelPod.com as its March 3rd 2005 spotlight website.

Cool!

A long awaited mapping enhancement has arrived! Feb 28, 2005

You can now add every little pit stop and side trip you visited to your TravelPod travel maps. TravelPod has enhanced its mapping engine to allow members to create multiple map pins which do not contain entries and photo albums.

If this doesn’t mean anything to you… read on!

More information

TravelPod in Travel + Leisure Magazine Feb 28, 2005

TravelPod was spotted in this month’s Travel + Leisure Magazine. Here is a sample from the article: “Dispatches from bloggers in 192 countries are sortable by place, popularity, keywords, or newest post. Bloggers pin a map so you can follow their progress. Readers rate entries; TravelPod editors pick favorites, too.”

Bandwidth upgrade success Feb 21, 2005

We’re happy to announce that our Internet connection upgrade was a success today. This should mean faster and more reliable downloads for you and your guests. Enjoy!

Maintenance Downtime Feb 20, 2005

Hello,

We will be upgrading our Internet connection Monday February 20th from 9am – 5pm. During this period TravelPod may be offline intermittently.

Cheers.

The TravelPod Guided Tour is ready! Feb 12, 2005

liquidPearl Design Studio

The TravelPod Guided Tour is ready! A big thanks goes to the talented people at liquidPearl Design Studio for putting this very impressing demo together for TravelPod. // Check it out!

“Web Site on edge of big time” Ottawa Citizen Feb 7, 2005

Photo from the article

The Saturday Feb 5th edition of the Ottawa Citizen featured a flattering full color story about TravelPod on the front page of the business section. Here is a sample: “Ottawa website on edge of big time It was an idea that was ahead of its time, but time has finally caught up with a once-globe trotting Ottawa man’s brainstorm, writes Andrew Mayeda. Luc Lévesque was blogging before blogging was even on the map. Nearly eight years ago, when nobody had heard about web logs, or blogs, the young computer engineer went backpacking across Europe. Before he left, he built a makeshift website so he could recount his travels to friends and family. “I thought, wouldn’t it be neat if I can put a website together so I can post stuff from abroad,” said Mr. Levesque, 29 [...] These days, barely a month passes when he doesn’t get a call from newspapers or magazines looking to tap into the blogosphere. The site, TravelPod.com, has become a mecca for travellers who want to chronicle their adventures, and a window to the world for the Internet denizens who want to live vicariously through them. [...]“ The story goes on to talk about the site and it’s features.

TravelPod in the Bottom Line Personal Feb 7, 2005

Thanks go to a new TravelPod member, Eldon, for letting us know about a recent feature in the Bottom Line Personal magazine. Here is a sample from the article: “TravelPod.com for enthusiastic postings about the joys of travel.”

The January Newsletter is out! Jan 29, 2005

Check out the January 2005 Newletter

TNT loves TravelPod Jan 14, 2005

TNT, once again sings the praises of TravelPod.com, check it out: “Blog websites, and especially travel ones are 10 a penny nowadays, but six year-old Travelpod looks like one of the better ones. Sign up so you can tell everyone at home how AMAZING!!! your adventures in Australia are – ha. Visit http://www.travelpod.com”; PS: We’ve been around for 8 years, not 6

TravelPod Messaging is here! Jan 9, 2005

(Give us your feedback on this new feature!)

Finally, it’s here!

The first release of the TravelPod Messaging System. What is it? It’s your very own trip forum which will let your guests communicate with you and amongst each other.

Check out your travelogues today to have a look. Use the 3rd tab at the top of your travelogue page to reach it.

Sample message board

We aren’t 100% sure about the name “Guest Book” and are open to suggestions. We wanted to pick a name which would let people know what exactly it was without having to educate them ( ie: TravelPodium was a great suggestion but didn’t really let people know what it was. )

We are considering “Message Board” and others… suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks for all of your feedback.

TravelPod in the latest Lonely Planet guide Jan 7, 2005

TravelPod was recently spotted in the latest Lonely Planet (LP) guide book. Being avid LP guide book readers ourselves ( collectively we must own over 50 guide books ) we are honored by the mention.

TravelPod needs your help, donate today! Jan 5, 2005

Did you know that TravelPod runs solely thanks to your donations? That’s right, servers, bandwidth and all those technical gadgets that make TravelPod run would grind to a halt without your help.

If you are one of the thousands who have taken advantage of TravelPod.com, consider giving back.

If you haven’t donated yet ( or even if you have! ) please consider helping out. You get some great benefits!

Find out more about the benefits of donating and help the TravelPod wheels continue to turn!

TravelPod Flood Relief Dec 30, 2004

Hello,

As you have all heard by now, a terrible earth quake and an ensuing Tsunami have devastated much of the coast from East Africa to Indonesia. It’s estimated that the death toll may be as high at 100,000.

TravelPod will be collecting funds to send to our contacts in Sri Lanka who helped with our flood relief fund raising effort last year.

If you would like to help, please send your donations to TravelPod. We will be sending funds to Galle, one of the most heavily affected cities.

Of course we can’t help but to think of our members and up to now we beleive that no one has been badly injured or worse.

We’ve compiled a list of a few travelogues from members currently in the area:

rich2005
chrisandlara
lizand_rich

Safe travels.

TravelPod in the Washington Post (Dec 12, 2004) Dec 24, 2004

TravelPod was spotted in a recent edition of the Washinton Post. Here is a sample of the article: “On TravelPod.com (www.travelpod.com), visitors can trace bloggers’ journeys on clickable maps that take you right to the entries about that particular destination. Now here’s a valuable warning to travelers who’ve been wearing the same pair of socks for 83 days: Milan is like the Beverly Hills of Italy. Very rich and very fashionable. This is no good when you are a backpacker and your nicest pants are a pair of jeans and your nicest shirt has a Nutella stain on it and smells like B.O.” Thanks go to Andrew Lance Beath for taking the time to send in this news snippet.

Maps now wrap around the Pacific Ocean! Dec 16, 2004

You’ve asked for it, now it’s here. When you place a map pin, you are now prompted to answer the following question:

“Did you travel over the Pacific Ocean to arrive at this location?”

If you answer “Yes” TravelPod will wrap your map line around the Pacific rather than showing your travels over the Atlantic.

Comment on this new feature!

Hide lines on busy maps Dec 1, 2004

Although the connecting lines on our travelogue maps are great for showing where you’ve been, sometimes zoomed views of highly travelled areas show a jumble of lines.

Based on feedback sent in by our members we’ve added a new feature which now allows your guests to hide the lines on the map which appears in your entry.

This is done by clicking the “Hide lines” link under the map.

TravelPod review at Lovemark.com Nov 19, 2004

Check out what some of our users had to say about TravelPod on the LoveMark.com web review site and post your own review!

LoveMark.com review of Travelpod

New “Silent Update” feature Nov 18, 2004

You can now update your travelogues without alerting your users of the change with the “Recently Updated” indicator.

This is great for fixing little typos and the like.

This enhancement was brought to you thanks to feedback sent to us by tina.

When you update an entry or a photo, it is flagged to your guests in your Table of Contents with the label “Recently Updated!”. This informs your users of recent changes which they may be interested in reading.

Although this is informative for your guests, sometimes you may want to make minor updates to your entries ( like fixing a typo ) that you rather not alert your guests of.

The “Silent Update” check box, allows you to do just that. When you submit changes to an entry with the Silent Update check box selected, TravelPod will not show the “Recently Updated” label when guests view your travel blog.

New Quick-save option Nov 16, 2004

Don’t waste time paying for Internet while you update your travelogues!

When creating entries with “Quick-save” you now have the option of skipping the map pin update for faster updates.

TravelPod defaults to the capital city of the country you selected when chosing this option.

TravelPod in the Sydney Morning Herald (Nov 4, 2004) Nov 9, 2004

For the second time, we’ve been spotted in the Sydney Morning Herald! Here is a sample of the article: “TRAVELPOD is one of the best sites around for travellers. Set up by an itchy-footed Canadian called “Lucky” it offers free web space to log your adventures and favourite travel photos. …” TravelPod in the Sydney Morning Herald TravelPod in the News ( Nov 7th 2004 & Feb 2003 ) TravelPod has been spotted twice in the Sydney Morning Herald. Check out both snippets below which were scanned and sent in by our members! Syndey Morning Herald – Nov 2004 Syndey Morning Herald – Feb 2003 Thanks go to Mal Colledge for taking the time to scan and send in this news snippet.

Fresh map enhancements! Nov 5, 2004

Entry-level maps now show all of your travels, not just your current location!

(Give us your feedback on this enhacement)

Thanks to your feedback we’ve changed the zoomed-in maps which are shown inline with your entry. They now not only show your current location, but a also your other travels relative to your current location.

When you select your map pin placement, you’ll also see your other pins on the map. This will make it easier to see where to place your pins relative to your others.

Thanks go to kimberish and baldtel_on_tour for requesting this enhancement.

New photo upload tool! Nov 5, 2004

Our new progress bar gives you accurate information on your upload progress!

(Give us your feedback on this enhancement!)

We have received many requests for a new upload tool which provides accurate feedback of your upload status over the past months.

Thanks to a recent request from plasticrover we’ve realized just how much this was needed and moved this enhancement to the front burner. We are happy to say that we’ve now added a new advanced tool which gives you accurate feedback on the progress of your uploads!

No more waiting around in Internet cafes, wondering when your upload will be finished!

Enjoy!

New tools for placing map pins! Oct 30, 2004

( Give us your feedback on this new feature!)

Thanks to your feedback, we’ve been packing in tons of tweaks and enhancements to the map system.

Today, we’ve released yet another enhancement which let’s you copy map pins between entries. This allows you to place new map pins to the exact location of an existing map pin.

This can be very useful if you have visited the same place multiple times in the one trip and want the map to show this accurately.

This enhancement was brought to you thanks to feedback sent to us by kimberish and jonr17.

When you add a map pin, a popup is shown with a map where you can select the exact location of your entry. This provides a quick and easy way to place a new map pin.

This flexibility can also make it very difficult to place a map pin at exactly the same place twice. For example, if you start a trip in Paris and end it in the same city, you probably want the two pins to be exactly at the same spot.

To make it possible to do this, when you place a map pin for a trip which has other entries from the same country as the entry you are working on, TravelPod will present you with a list containing these entries. By selecting one of these other entries, you can quickly copy the exact same pin to your new entry.

This “copy a pin” feature also enables you to quickly place pins by simply selecting the placement from the list rather than placing it onto the map yourself.

Note: The list is only shown if you have other entries within the trip you are working on with already placed map pins from the same country. If you do not, the list is not shown.

Country-level maps are here! Oct 29, 2004

The TravelPod mapping system currently has world, continent and region level maps. Now, it’s time to start the country level ones!

We expect this to be a big chunk of work ( there are a whole lot of countries out there! ) but are happy to say that we’ve upgraded TravelPod to support the new maps and have begun with New Zealand.

Have a look at one of our entries to see the new detailed map in action!

Entry with New Zeland map

Expect more maps to trickle in over the next 12 months until we finally finish them all off.

If there is a specific country you would like to see sooner than later, let us know and we’ll put it at the top of the queue!

More cool maps! Oct 29, 2004

The old, generic maps which used to be shown inline with your entry text has been replaced with a dynamic map which shows the exact location of your entry with a nice little glowing red dot!

Mapping system is 100% live! Update your map pins today! Oct 22, 2004

With the new “Set Map Pin Button” you can set the precise location of your entry!

We are proud to announce that the TravelPod mapping system is now fully online!

Give us your feedback on this new feature!

This final upgrade to the mapping system gives TravelPod members the ability to set the precise location of their entry on travel maps. This is easily done by simply clicking on localized maps which sets your map pins for your entries.

What is a map pin?

TravelPod uses map pins to automatically plot your travels! When you create an entry, a map pin is automatically placed on your travel maps to indicate your location. These pins are used by TravelPod to plot your trip on the travel map shown with your travel blog and also on the map which is shown with your profile to show a summary of all of your travels. By default, TravelPod will place a pin on the capital city of the country you select when you create the entry. If you prefer, you can change this at any time. By making the location of the pin more precise, TravelPod can better illustrate your travels to your guests. We highly recommend updating your maps to the exact city of your travels.

If you prefer, we’ve also left the option for members to default the entry location to the capital city of the country which your entry is from. So, if you’re slightly geographically challenged, don’t worry, simply keep your entries set to the capitals and your maps will still be generated for you!

So, it’s finally time for you to do some work , all of your entries need to be updated. We suggest that you update your entries to specific map locations. This will give your travelogue guests a much more precise view of your travels.

In true TravelPod-style, we’ve done our best to make this easy for you. The next time you login, you’ll be shown a menu which let’s you easily update your existing entries.

Enjoy!

The October Newsletter is out! Oct 20, 2004

Check out the October 2004 Newletter

TravelPod in National Geographic Traveler ( October 2004 ) Oct 1, 2004

As if a mention in the Wall Street Journal wasn’t enough, the October edition of National Geographic Traveler goes on to recommend TravelPod to it’s reader who are planning to travel in a fold out 4 page section on travel advice! Here is a sample of the article: “It’s an online journal you can share with friends (or the whole world if you prefer). Websites such as TravelPod (www.travelpod.com) let you post your travel experiences and photos for free from your Web-connected laptop or from an Internet Cafe.”

TravelPod named “Best for inspiring wanderlust” by the Wall Street Journal! Oct 1, 2004

TravelPod receives special mention in a Wall Street Journal article on Travel Blogs. Among other details, the lengthy article mentions how TravelPod is growing fast and specifically names the site “Best for inspiring wanderlust”. A title we were honored to accept!

TravelPod gets a speed boost after a successful upgrade! Sep 19, 2004

As we mentioned in our past newsletters, we have been working at increasing the bandwidth of TravelPod’s connection to the Internet for a few months. After a lot of hard work, we have successfully upgraded our link to give you a much more reliable connection and DOUBLE the original speed!

What does this mean to you? It means faster and more reliable uploads and faster access to your travelogues!

Enjoy!

TravelPod makes it easier to find updated entries! Sep 17, 2004

TravelPod makes it easier to know which travelogue entries have been recently updated by highlighting travelogue entries updated within the last 5 days.

When you update an entry, TravelPod will now add:

( Recently Updated! )

This is added next to the entry on the travelogue’s table of contents ( bottom of the print entry page ).

Thanks go to Garrie Powers for requesting this feature!

New advanced photo optimization feature Sep 16, 2004

It is now possible to disable the automatic TravelPod photo optimization when uploading photos to your travelogues. This can be done by selecting the “Do not optimize photo” when uploading the photo.

This allows you to optimize the photos yourself if you would rather. Thanks to Tom Wilkinson for writing in and requesting this new feature.

Can I disable the automatic photo optimization?

WARNING: This is an advanced feature! Choosing to disable the automatic optimization is not recommended and will result in larger file sizes which means that you will be not be able to upload as many photos. Only enable this option if you are very familiar with photo compression and are sure that you do not want TravelPod to compress photos for you. TravelPod automatically optimizes the JPG photos you upload in several ways: – removing useless information attached to your photos which digital cameras add ( like exposure and camera type ) - reducing your photo quality to 92% - we also do several other optimizations which reduce the file size even more but do not compromize the quality JPG photos store a lot of information and can be compressed at various levels ( 0-100% ). As a best practice, photos compressed at levels above 95% are considered to be wasteful in the file size they consume. As an example, an photo compressed at 90% compared to the same photo compressed at 100% will have minimal difference in quality but a huge difference in file size. Although photos compressed at 92% retain a very high quality, if for some reason you prefer to compress the photos yourself before uploading them and not have TravelPod compress them for you can disable this feature by selecting the “Do not optimize photo” option when uploading the photo. When this option is selected, TravelPod will not optimize the photo, leaving the original compression ratio intact. This may result in photos consuming more space than they need to and taking a longer time to view. Make sure you are knowledgeable in this area before disabling optimization.

More new dynamic maps on TravelPod!!! Sep 3, 2004

( Give us your feedback on this new feature! )

Woa! We didn’t expect to roll out these maps so quickly but it took us a lot less time to put them together than expected.

TravelPod is proud to announce the release of the dynamic travelogue maps on your travelogues today! That’s right, what you’ve asked for is finally here… a dynamic map, on your travelogue which visually shows your travels.

This is only the first release of the maps, expect more accurate map points and localized ( continent, region and country level ) views soon.

TravelPod spotted in another newspaper! Sep 1, 2004

It looks like we just can’t keep TravelPod out of the press this summer! There has been another TravelPod sighting in a London Newspaper last week.

New maps on TravelPod! Aug 30, 2004

( Give us your feedback on this new feature! ) As you know, we are rolling out our mapping system in small phases to make sure that you have access to the new features as quickly as possible ( ie: not waiting until it’s done in all of it’s glory before releasing it ). We are happy to say that phase 2a is ready and live! In this phase, a new world map which shows hyper-links to your travels is shown on your profile page, just like the map on the right! One thing to keep in mind is that TravelPod will put a little circle on the capital of each country you have an entry for ( not the actual city you visited! ). Don’t be worried if the map seems slightly off ( ie: an entry to Vancouver would show a dot on Ottawa, the capital of Canada ). This is temporary and we’ll be rolling out the next phase that will let you pin point your entry location to a specific city. This will let you make the map more accurate. The next phases will also bring some awesome maps which will show your travels on localized maps! Cheers!

TravelPod in Art Frommer’s Budget Travel Magazine Aug 5, 2004

It’s been a busy week for TravelPod! Not only were we spotted in “The Economist” Magazine, but also in “Art Frommer’s Budget Travel” Magazine!

TravelPod in The Economist Magazine Aug 5, 2004

TravelPod was recently spotted in The Economist Magazine “Innovation Watch” section.

Cool!

Better handling of failed uploads at TravelPod Aug 2, 2004

Dodgy Internet connections and crusty old computers at Internet Cafes sometimes cause image uploads to your travelogues to fail. Although we can’t do anything about that, we’ve added a new feature to TravelPod which maintains your upload settings ( Title and story ) should such an event occur.

Thanks to your feedback, when image uploads fail, you’ll now be able to restart your uploads without loosing all of the text you had just entered.

Thanks to Khaled Shivji and Tom Wilkenson for sending in their feedback which contributed to this new feature.

Better image compression at TravelPod Jul 21, 2004

TravelPod now compresses images better by removing extra-unused information from the images you upload to your travelogues ( like your camera type, model, exposure, etc… )!

This means that you’ll now be able to store more images on your travelogues than ever before!

SpamSafe messaging at TravelPod Jul 19, 2004

We’ve implemented a new web form ( here is a sample ) which replaces the previously shown link to member email addresses on their travelogues ( This is only shown when enabled from the “Trip Options” menu. )

This makes your email address safe from crafty spammers who harvest the Internet looking for email addresses!

TravelPod takes a member out for pints! Jun 19, 2004

MrJoey meets TravelPod

Having run TravelPod for over 7 years, we’ve always been keen to meet with members when they’re passing through Ottawa.

Last year, Justin Breen ( modernoddyseus ), a long time member, and 3 of his friends crashed at TravelPod HQ ( My apartment ) while hitch hiking across Canada. I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting up with Justin Cormack ( jrcormack ) in London, England as we criss-crossed each other’s paths while traveling.

So when Joey Rayner ( mrjoey ) emailed to let us know he would be in Ottawa as part of his 20 month trip, I jumped on the opportunity to show one of our long time members some hospitality and gladly met up for pints.

Check out mrjoey’s travelogue for more on his travels.

Are you going to be passing through Ottawa, Canada on your trip? Email us at admin@travelpod.com and, we’ll be glad to show you some Canadian hospitality as well!

Easier Image Editing May 18, 2004

Ever upload an image to the wrong entry by accident? No need to delete and re-upload the image, just move it.

Thanks to a member’s suggestion ( Joanna ), it’s now possible to move images between entries.

New TravelPod Mapping system ( phase 1 ) completed May 15, 2004

We’ve been working on adding a mapping system to TravelPod for some time now and are getting close.

The final system won’t be done for a few months yet but we’ve completed phase one which is to add country images to entries ( we’ve also added country flags to the entries as well )

Have a look!

Be on the lookout for dynamically updating maps ( which show your travels ) this summer. Cheers!

TravelPod Upgraded! May 4, 2004

As of 7:30pm May 4th 2004, we are proud to announce that the TravelPod upgrade, better known as TravelPod v2, has been completed!

Some of the new enhancements are:
- 1500%+ speed increase
- Enhanced security
- Enhanced backups
- Increased capacity
- New functionality which will make it easier to add your suggested features into the site.

We’ll be finishing up the final stages of the upgrade which affect our other systems which help TravelPod run over the next weeks and will keep you up to date on the progress.

Thanks for all your donations which made TravelPod v2 possible!

Improved Searching at TravelPod Apr 11, 2004

To help our guests ferret out travelogue stories and photos they are looking for on TravelPod, we’ve changed our search engine to perform better and to return more accurate results.

Give it a try

Import your Outlook Express contacts to TravelPod Mar 21, 2004

It’s now easier than ever to add your email addresses to your TravelPod address book!

TravelPod now supports a new feature which allows you to import your existing contact lists from Outlook Express into your TravelPod Address Book!

If you don’t use Outlook Express or you prefer to type your addresses in yourself, we’ve also changed TravelPod to let you add 10 at a time instead of 3.

Can I import my current address book into TravelPod?

To keep your friends and family updated, TravelPod can send out notification messages when you update your travel blog. To do this, simply fill in your TravelPod Address Book and we will prompt you to send out notifications when you finish your entries. To add addresses to your address book you can type them in manually ( 10 at a time ) or you can import them from your email system. TravelPod uses a great import wizard from Plaxo that is able to import addresses from most email systems, including Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, Outlook, and Outlook Express.

WMV movies now supported at TravelPod Mar 19, 2004

If your digital camera can record videos in WMV format, you’re in luck. We have now added support for WMV Windows Movie files to TravelPod travelogues.

Special thanks to Tom Wilkinson for his feedback which led to this new feature

TravelPod in USA Today newspaper article Mar 18, 2004

TravelPod was mentioned in the March 19th, 2004 edition of USA Today!

TravelPod in USA Today

	TravelPod in the News ( March 19th, 2004 )
TravelPod received special mention in USA Today’s article on Travel Blogs. Here is a short sample of the article. “TravelPod.com aim[s] squarely at peripatetic travelers, hosting free or low-cost blogs that serve as a cross between electronic postcards and personal journals, complete with digital photos and maps. And unlike group e-mail, travel blogs can be easily archived and accessed long after the suitcases have been unpacked.”

Add bold and underlined text to your entries! Feb 4, 2004

Bold and underline HTML tags are now supported in entries.

Spell Check your photo stories Feb 3, 2004

Stop worrying about your spelling!

TravelPod now has an added feature which allows you to spell check your image titles and stories before uploading them.

This feature is brought to you thanks to a great suggestion by sharadnsusan.

New feature: TravelPod now let’s you save your entries as drafts, you choose when your entries are ready to be published Jan 31, 2004

Writing a full entry in one sitting can be a difficult task at times, this is why TravelPod let’s you save entries as drafts before you publish them.

By setting your entries as drafts you can take your time and perfect your entries in multiple sittings without publishing half finished entries.

What is a “Private Draft” entry?

Entries that are set to “Private Draft” are not readable by visitors to your blog. Set an entry to “Private Draft” if: - Your entry isn’t finished yet ( once your entry is ready you can uncheck this option ) - Your entry if your eyes only. Sometimes, you need to write some things that aren’t for your guests. This could be some private feelings, thoughts or opinions that you rather keep to yourself. When you check the “Private Draft” option, instead of showing your entry when your guests select it from your travel blog, we’ll show a message indicating that it’s a “Private Draft”. This way you can make sure your entry is just perfect before making it viewable to your guests or, you can keep it like this is you rather not share that one entry.

Special thanks to jonboy and kimberish for the feedback which led to this new feature!

TravelPod is voted Best of the Web on Bonweb.com Dec 20, 2003

Add your comments to the bonweb blob at:
http://weblog.bonweb.com/index.php?s=40666

TravelPod is written up in the Sydney Morning Herald Nov 19, 2003

TravelPod has been spotted twice in the Sydney Morning Herald. Check out both snippets below which were scanned and sent in by our members!

Syndey Morning Herald – Nov 2004

Syndey Morning Herald – Feb 2003

JPE images now accepted at TravelPod Nov 5, 2003

Check out our first monthly newsletter Oct 16, 2003

October 2003 Newsletter

Is your travelogue Auto-Subscribe enabled? Sep 19, 2003

Login now and enable Auto-Subscribe

Check out our new Travel Discussion Forums Sep 13, 2003

TravelPod Discussion Forums

TravelPod receives tons of great feedback from our members Sep 13, 2003

Jump to emails

If you would like to send us your feedback, please send your emails to: feedback@travelpod.com

The TravelPod Sri Lankan Relief Fund has sent out over 100 packages to children in need! Aug 28, 2003

TravelPod receives a 50$ donation from whereshegoes, thanks Carmella! Aug 28, 2003

Check out Carmella’s travelogues

Upload MP3s! Let your guests hear the sounds of your adventures with this new TravelPod ability! Aug 18, 2003

Can I upload videos and sound clips to my travel blogs?

TravelPod members can upload both videos ( MPG, AVI, WMV and MOV ) and sound clips ( MP3 ) to their travel blogs. This allows a richer experience for your readers by allowing them to not only read about your adventures but also to see and hear them!

TravelPod now offers premium travel insurance made just for backpackers and adventure travelers like you! Jul 18, 2003

Find out more…

TNT Magazine readers find out about TravelPod! Jul 16, 2003

TravelPod in TNT Magazine

	TravelPod in the News ( January 2005 )
“Blog websites, and especially travel ones are 10 a penny nowadays, but six year-old Travelpod looks like one of the better ones. Sign up so you can tell everyone at home how AMAZING!!! your adventures in Australia are – ha. Visit http://www.travelpod.com”; PS: We’ve been around for 8 years, not 6
		What people are saying about TravelPod

	TravelPod in the News ( June 30th, 2003 )
One of TravelPod’s members, Nerida Walters ( cherry ) helped spread the word about TravelPod when she sent this tip into TNT Magazine. Thanks to Nerida Walters ( cherry ) for sending this in to TNT Magazine!

TravelPod receives a 70$ donation from David Manning, thanks David! Jul 4, 2003

donate today!

Check out the new Top 10-100 rankings. Jun 21, 2003

Go to top 10

The TravelPod Sri Lankan Relief Fund: Help the children recover from the floods. Jun 19, 2003

The TravelPod Sri Lankan Relief Fund: Help the children recover from the floods. Jun 19, 2003

TravelPod, an online travelogue hosting service, through it’s ties in Sri Lanka, is trying to help local Sri Lankan children get back to school as quickly as possible. Through our travels, we’ve all seen poverty and, in some way or another, we’ve helped by giving, sharing and also by simply telling others back home how people live and the hardships they survive everyday. TravelPod has been helping travelers do this online for over 7 years. [...]”