Carmella, aka whereshegoes

Well, it’s been an active summer for me as I’ve taken full advantage of the warmer temperatures here in Western Canada. After a few good months of camping, fishing, roadtrips, and festivals, I hit the grand finale. I’ve just finished unpacking the car from last weekend away and I’m already packing for my big trip south. I have saved the best for last and really look forward to taking a few weeks off to explore, adventure and frolic in the desert dust. Plane rides to road trips, ocean to desert to mountains… loads of stories just waiting to be written. What a way to wrap up a great holiday season!

Volunteer of the Month

Susie, aka wakingdream

August was a great time to check out the TravelPodium as there were many great tips to be had. Our Volunteer of the Month this time is Susie of Wakingdream who always has something positive to share. Thanks Susie for supporting all of our new and seasoned members. Check your Support my Travels account for a $25.00 token of appreciation.


New TravelPod Traveler IQ Challenges on Facebook

Would you like the fame and fortune of creating your own challenge ( well, maybe not the fortune )? Do you have a great idea for a new Traveler IQ Challenge? Do you wish there was a challenge based on something we don't already have?

We’ll soon be opening up the Traveler IQ Challenge to let travelers create their very own challenges.

Although we’re currently not accepting challenges until we launch the new version ( soon! ), have a read through the titles of some great challenges we’ve already received:

Great sports sites, Ski resorts, Top Scuba sites, Stadiums around the world, Famous Battlefields, Great Greece, Wal-Mart IQ Challenge, Famous People's Birth Places, US Colleges, NHL Arenas ... and challenges for just about every country, state, province and region out there.

Hang tight, the Traveler IQ Challenge is about to get a lot more fun!

Moment with a Member - How a Professional Writer uses TravelPod

John Sinclair TravelPod ID: johnsinclair

John Sinclair is a poet, performer, journalist and lecturer who found TravelPod when his road manager suggested it after losing all his work due to viruses. “Adam turned me on to TravelPod as a way to keep track of my activities in the framework of moving from place to place, and it's turned out to be the perfect tool for what I wanted to do. All my life I've wanted to keep a journal of my varied activities but never managed to make it happen until now.

I studied the TravelPod format and determined to write an entry for each geographical stop, with additional entries from places where I stay for more than a day or two. My TravelPod log enables me to keep track of where I go, the friends I see and the people I meet on my travels. I produce a weekly podcast for our internet radio station, www.RadioFreeAmsterdam.com, and I'm able to link the radio programs to my Travelogue so I can share them with my readers, along with new poems and writings composed along the way and news items I clip from the myriad publications I read. Sometimes I paste in poems or reports from my friends so I can share their thoughts and creations as well.

I send notices of the new entries to about 420 people and keep my address list up to date as best I can, adding new addresses and deleting the ones that fall out for one reason or another. It's been amazing to me that so many people find their way to my TravelPod entries-I've logged over 13,000 hits to my first series from the Spring of 2006 and I'm always running into friends who tell me how much they enjoy keeping up with me this way.

As a professional writer, it's kind of mind-boggling when I realize I'd rather write my TravelPod entries than seek and complete paid writing assignments! But in my old age I'm pretty determined to do exactly what I want to do and not do anything I don't want to do, and this is what I want to do. Thanks for providing the opportunity to do it.”


Best Photos of the Year – This months winner is…

Photo courtesy of Psykokristin

July’s Best Photo turned out to be Sunset at Independent Pass. Well done Psykokristin whose photography skills impressed our members enough to vote you number one. You will be one of the first to receive the 2008 TravelPod Calendar with your photo in it.

Remember to vote place your vote for next months winner.



Lucky’s Words

Luc Levesque, aka Lucky

”Hello everyone, July’s been a fun month for us. We’ve been busy with some internal upgrades and stuff to make TravelPod run smoother but we’ve also launched some cool stuff that’s been desperately needed on TravelPod for a while.

As a follow up to last month’s new photo uploader ( which seems to be a big hit ), we’ve launched several new video upgrades.

The main enhancement is that videos now stream ( no more long wait times before you can watch a video, woohoo ). We’ve also added the “Latest Videos” to the TravelPod homepage to give you a better view into all of the new videos streaming into TravelPod.

We’ve also been working heavily on the Traveler IQ Challenge and will be launching a new feature that will let you create your very own challenges.

Other smaller features for the month included integration with another social network called Plaxo Pulse and some final tweaks to the photo uploader based on your very helpful feedback.

That’s it for now. Catch you next month! ”

Last call! There’s only one month left for you to submit your Happy 10th Birthday TravelPod videos and have your chance at winning the iPod. I am hoping to capture some witty and unique birthday wish video next week when I am on holiday. Time is running out!

See you next month…

Carmella
TravelPod Community Manager