GoBackpacking

Working to Fix: RSS / Subscription Feed

Dave — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:22:55 +0000

I just realized this blog’s feed hasn’t been updated since June 19. Ironically, the people who I want to see this message the most probably won’t see it because they’re use to reading updates in their RSS reader!!

I identified the mistake I made with altering a setting, and tried the recommended Feedburner fixes, but so far to no avail.

Until the issue is resolved, please accept my apologies for the technical difficulties.

Video of the Week – Costa Rican Waterfall Jump

Dave — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:36:25 +0000

__________________

Back in 2005, I backpacked around Costa Rica for 18 days. In Montezuma, I hiked up to a series of 3 waterfalls. The middle one is a good 30-feet high, but I didn’t have my camera, nor was I ever able to find a decent photo of it thereafter.

And then Christian from Around the World in 175 Days jumped off of it too, and posted great shots and video to boot! So, to satisfy my ego and share this classic Costa Rican feat of adrenaline and adventure with the world, I offer you his footage.

What’s the highest waterfall, cliff, or bridge you’ve jumped from?

Christan leaps (as I, and many others did before him)

Friday Flashback – Last Night in China

Dave — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:16:09 +0000

Photos were not allowed, but I snuck this one for the blog

I spent a few weeks with my friend Charlie from home in Chengdu, China before heading to Nepal. Before leaving, I pulled an all-nighter despite having to catch a 6 am taxi to the airport in the morning.

We hit a popular Chinese club where the music was bad, the fruit plates ornate, and the racism anti-Japanese. Charlie taught me a popular drinking game with dice, and the night ended with a Guitar Hero jam session back at his apartment.

Read about my late last night in China here.

Adventures at a Colombian Finca

Dave — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:27:41 +0000

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Adventures at a Colombian Finca

From left: Cristian, me, Lina, Airton

On weekends and holidays, the city folk in Medellin like to escape to the countryside. I’d been hearing about foreigners visiting fincas (country houses) from time to time, and was hoping I’d have the opportunity to experience this aspect of Colombian culture as well before heading home in a few weeks.

Cristian keeps an eye on the food

I met Andrea through Couchsurfing last week when we went out salsa dancing. She brought two friends, one of whom was Lina. A Brazilian couchsurfer named Airton and a Colombian couchsurfer named Cristian also joined us, along with a few others. We danced, we stayed out late, we had fun together. I invited them to the party I was throwing at my apartment. The day after my party, I received my long-awaited finca invitation!

Lina, Andrea, Airton, and Cristian picked me up quite late. First, I’ve learned to really appreciate a normal car ride after having to depend on public transportation and walking for so long. Then, the hunt was on for our dinner. We drove across town to Las Palmas where we stopped at a 24-hour grocery store. The girls and Airton picked out much of the food, including a bottle of vodka. I had brought some leftover rum and wine from my party.

We then drove about 30-40 minutes north out of Medellin, past the terminus of the metro line in Niquia, and into new territory. The late hour meant little traffic, and we were soon passing the town of Copacabana, after which we reached Lina’s finca. Her mom had recently moved there, but was in Cartagena at the time. We got out of the car at the foot of a VERY steeply graded driveway, and hiked up it with the groceries.

Lina and me

Atop the hill, we found a cute house with a view across the highway and valley. It was midnight, and I was already anticipating the morning view. Cristian took the lead on turning our lumps of charcoal into a red-hot foundation for barbequing a big chunk of meat, chicken drumsticks, corn on the cob, and arepas. Airton and the girls took the lead on food prep and cooking, while I supervised (j/k). We opened a bottle of chilled white wine and Airton, being the resident Brazilian, mixed up some caipirinihas too.

Dinner party (from left) - me, Cristian, Airton, Lina and Andrea

Around 2 am, we finally sat down for dinner, and it was a great one at that. I’m not normally a fan of steaks, but the meat was tender and delicious. We enjoyed some rice and boiled potatoes as well. There is a sauce down here which is a combination of mayonnaise and mustard, which is a perfect dip for chips and the little potatoes.

After dinner, I was helping to wash the dishes when Lina suggested I come out and have fun instead. She took out some musical items – handheld rattles, a metal cylinder which you play by scraping a special metal fork against, and a plastic jug for drumming. I would venture to guess we made some sweet, sweet music that night.

Airton and Andrea making music

I was reminded of a salsa combination I learned the prior week called “the sombrero” but I couldn’t remember it when I tried to show Andrea. This was my fear – doing well with the moves in class and then forgetting them once I was on my own! But having learned them once should make it easier to learn them again in the future.

To be continued…

Quimet and Quimet – Barcelona’s Best Tapas

Dave — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:18:27 +0000

A delicious salmon tapas at Quimet and Quimet

So I’m lounging on my couch after two late nights of partying in Medellin, waiting to be picked up by some new friends to spend the night at a finca (country house) for the first time, when Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations comes on the TV. It’s an episode on Spain, and the second segment is shot at a tapas bar in Barcelona. It looked VERY familiar…and then I saw him devouring one of the same salmon with cream cheese, honey and soy sauce tapas that I enjoyed there back in early January!

Not your average tapas

He was going on and on about how great the ingredients and food were. Of all the tapas bars in Barcelona, it turns out I go to the one he had visited! What are the odds. Maybe that’s why the Spaniard whose hostel I was staying at picked that location – so he could casually refer backpackers to one of the best tapas restaurants in Spain.

And since I didn’t give the experience more than a paragraph in a prior post, I wanted to revisit it and share a few more photos.

Inside Quimet and Quimet - Barcelona, Spain

Tony’s blog post entitled “Envy” which was written to correspond with the Spain episode.

The New York Times’ restaurant review

Contest – Win a $10,000 Summer Vacation

Dave — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:14:01 +0000

HomeAway® – the world’s leading online vacation rental marketplace – today invites people to join together to “save our summer vacation.” In fact, HomeAway is launching a national movement to help consumers relax and unwind during these troubled times.

As part of the movement to save summer vacations, HomeAway has created the website http://blog.homeaway.com and is asking consumers to sign a petition requesting Congress to proclaim a “National Vacation Day” on August 7, 2009.

“In stressful times, vacations help bring families together and let people recharge, getting them ready to return to work or school with a renewed attitude,” said Eileen Ogintz, family travel expert and author of the syndicated column “Taking the Kids.” “While several recent surveys have shown that families are putting off vacations in light of the economy and rising gas prices, there are actually many ways to cut costs – but not corners – and still stick to an affordable travel budget. For example, vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway.com allow you to rent a whole home for less than the cost of a hotel, and they come with added perks like full kitchens that allow you to dine in and save even more money.”

Searching for the Person Who’s Most in Need of a Summer Vacation

In addition to campaigning for a National Vacation Day, HomeAway is searching for the person in the United States and Canada who is most deserving of a week-long summer vacation.

Whether they’re stressed out, tired of hearing about the gloomy economy, or simply haven’t taken a vacation in years, HomeAway is giving them the opportunity to share their story for the chance to win
a $10,000 vacation getaway. Two runners-up each will receive a $5,000 trip.

“At HomeAway we believe now more than ever people deserve to take a break from work and stress and enjoy a relaxing vacation with their families and friends – without busting their budget,” said Brian
Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway.

As part of the contest, consumers can submit a short text, video or photo entry at http://blog.homeaway.com, explaining why they deserve to have their summer vacation saved by HomeAway. The entry period runs today through July 2, 2009, at which time the general public has the chance to vote for the person they believe is most in need of a vacation. The voting period ends July 16, 2009, when an expert panel of judges will select the winner from the top 15 vote-getters based on creativity, originality and effectiveness at expressing their need for a vacation. Judges include Stacy DeBroff, CEO of Mom Central, a one-stop web resource dedicated to providing busy moms with smart household and parenting solutions; Eileen Ogintz and Brian Sharples. Winners will be announced on or around July 28, 2009.

Friday Flashback – Scarred For Life

Dave — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:16:58 +0000

The effects of Ba Guan

I walked into the Tibetan-themed Chinese spa a naive traveler, and walked out with a back covered in purple welts which would take months to fully fade.

This week’s Friday Flashback is a cautionary tale for those travelers who can’t resist an exotic spa treatment abroad.

Read the full post here.

Contest – Enter to Win By Answering A Simple Question

Dave — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:41:27 +0000

Fresh oyster on the half shell

I’m excited to offer my first of many contests. It’s a fun way for me to give back to everyone who reads GoBackpacking.

Simply answer the question below by sending me a direct tweet on Twitter, or private message through Facebook or the blog.

Please note, I disabled Comments on this post to ensure the answer isn’t accidentally posted.

From the correct answers, I’ll use the highly scientific method of writing names down on scraps of paper and blindly pulling one at random to decide the winner.

Contest ends June 25th at 6pm, EST. The winner, along with the correct answer, will be announced here June 26.

Question:

I discovered an enjoyment for fresh oysters on my backpacking trip around the world. What is the name of the bay on which those oysters were farmed?

Hint: Test out my new Search box by Lijit if you need a little help.

The Prize:

$25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

Good luck, and I look forward to hearing from you!

DSTB – An Introduction to Key Blogging Metrics

Dave — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:37:23 +0000

My room at the Tibetan monastery - Bodhgaya, India

Backpackers are adventurous by nature, and while I realize this week’s topic of blogging metrics has the potential to put you to sleep like the heat of India’s midday sun, bear with me as this information is critical to tracking your travel blog’s growth and money-making potential.

Since travel bloggers are inherently on the road as they blog (at least part of the time), we don’t have an inordinate amount of time to become compulsive about tracking our site’s statistics. As a result, it is best to keep your eye on a handful of the most important blogging metrics.

Number of Monthly Visitors

If you’re only going to follow one statistic about your blog, the number of monthly unique visits should be it.

“A unique visitor is a statistic describing a unit of traffic to a Web site, counting each visitor only once in the time frame of the report. This statistic is relevant to site publishers and advertisers as a measure of a site’s true audience size.” — Wikipedia

Google Analytics is an industry standard, however there are a plethora of other free tracking programs you can use.

On a daily basis, I reference the stats (post/page views, referrers, links clicked) tracked by Wordpress because I was easily able to incorporate them into the admin side of this blog (Wordpress.com Stats plugin). When I want to view more detailed data, I fall back on Google Analytics. I also use the latter for the purpose of quoting my traffic to potential advertisers because it is a known and trusted source.

Alexa Ranking

Alexa.com, which is owned by Amazon, tracks web traffic and ranks sites accordingly. It offers quite a bit of clear, easy to read data and demographic information, and allows you to compare sites so you can see how you match up to the competition. The key metric of interest to potential advertisers is the 3-month Traffic Rank. This numerical ranking is used by a variety of internet marketplaces as well, such as Text Link Ads and Review Me.

For example, GoBackpacking’s current rank is 261,438 which represents an improvement over 135,420 other sites in the last 3 months. Four months ago, my new blog Medellin Living entered the field with a rank over 10 million. It now ranks 816,948 and continues to improve.

Google Page Rank (PR)

PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be. Also, the importance of the page that is casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a page’s importance from the votes cast for it. How important each vote is is taken into account when a page’s PageRank is calculated.

PageRank is Google’s way of deciding a page’s importance. It matters because it is one of the factors that determines a page’s ranking in the search results. It isn’t the only factor that Google uses to rank pages, but it is an important one.” –Web Workshop

Your travel blog’s page rank will help determine where your pages show up in Google’s search results. The scale goes from 0-10, however only the best of the best will reach the 5-7 range, while 8-10 is left for major corporations like Facebook and Yahoo! Google updates its methodology for calculating PR regularly to combat the strategies of bloggers trying to game their system. Google updates the PR of websites every few months.

The higher your site’s PR, the more money you can command from potential advertisers. You can check your site’s PR from time to time with free online look-up tools which ping Google data centers, or simply install a web browser add-on like Search Status for Firefox.

Technorati Ranking

In the same way Alexa ranks websites based on visitors, Technorati ranks blogs based on the number of links they receive from other blogs. In this way, it measures the popularity of a site in the blogosphere.

Based on my experience, Technorati is less influential than it use to be a few years ago. I haven’t checked my ranking in a long time, nor do I feel the need to. But, if it’s new to you, be sure to go “claim” your blog and see what’s on offer.

Number of RSS and E-mail Subscribers

Perhaps my favorite metric is the number of subscribers to this blog. Feedburner, which is now owned by Google, is the most popular option for syndicating your blog posts. Subscribers are valued for their loyalty to your blog. By agreeing to receive your content, they are potentially offering you their long time support. I’ve heard from readers who have been with me since early 2007 when I got started, and likewise, I still follow several of the first few travel blogs I ever read.

Don’t shortchange yourself when it comes to improving this number. Be sure to give visitors the option to subscribe via e-mail. While blogs have gone mainstream in the last few years, there is still a large segment of the world’s web surfing population which does not read and subscribe to them on a regular basis, and will not be familiar with the concept of RSS and its iconical orange button.

Number of Twitter Followers

Twitter followers are going to be less loyal to your blog than RSS and e-mail subscribers, however there is no denying the increasing importance of this new social network.

Further Reading

What other vital statistics would be worth your time to track while traveling?

Poll for Future Contest

Dave — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:04:11 +0000

I’m going to take my own advice and start offering the occasional contest going forward.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Video of the Week – The Evolution of a Thai Beach

Dave — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:16:39 +0000

Nomadic Matt recently wrote something of a diatribe against the popularity of Koh Phi Phi as an island paradise. It generated a lot of comments with some people appreciating his candor and others vigorously defending the island’s continued appeal. Along those same lines, this video highlights some positive steps being taken by Thais to keep their beautiful beaches and islands clean, though clearly more needs to be done.

When I visited Koh Phi Phi last year, and connected with Nate of Ubertramp, he told me about the efforts dive instructors on the island make on a regular basis to go out to the popular dive spots and simply try to clean up the garbage below the water’s surface.

Friday Flashback – Welcome to China

Dave — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:54:27 +0000

Hunan-style Chinese food

I didn’t know what to expect when crossing the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. Aside from a lack of English on the signs, it seemed surprisingly normal. Adam and I managed to find a room, and get our first taste of authentic Chinese cuisine thanks to a local connection, my mom’s friend’s son and his Chinese wife.

Read the original post

Update From Medellin #2

Dave — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:07:36 +0000

Salsa dancing at El Eslabon Prendido

A Colombiana recently asked me what I would be doing my last 4 weeks in Medellin. I replied that I would be doing exactly what I have been doing. I’ve been living my life the way I’ve wanted for the last 19 months. Why should I stop now?

It has been 2 months since I last shared what’s going on over at Medellin Living, so here is a new batch of my favorite posts and experiences:

Soccer (live): Independiente Medellin beats Brazil’s Sao Paulo
Riding the city’s unique metro cable cars
Salsa dancing at El Eslabon Prendido
Paragliding
Brazil night at a downtown theater
Partying at Blue with my roommates
Cien Fuegos Cabaret – a more upscale salsa joint
Visiting 3 Cordilleras Brewery
My typical Monday
The Arepa launch party (a new English culture and nightlife ‘zine I’m writing for)
Soccer (tv): World Cup qualifier – Colombia v. Argentina
Soccer (live): Medellin hosts a World Cup qualifier for the first time! Colombia v. Peru

If you like what you see, please subscribe. Even though I’ll be returning to the States next month, I’m already trying to line up a few contributors. Fresh perspectives on one of my favorite cities in the world.

I’m preparing to introduce Holly from Idaho – a dancer for 20 years, and base-jumper extraordinaire, who will be touching down July 28.

Into The Wild

Dave — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:20:12 +0000

I’m about 2 years behind the times with regard to watching Into The Wild -- the movie, based on the book by John Krakauer, based on the life of Christopher McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp). Last weekend, I finally sat down and watched it.

Into the Wild

I first heard about Alexander Supertramp’s tragic adventure on an episode of 20/20 many years ago so I knew the general theme and how it ended, but I wanted to feel inspired. Much of the music is by Eddie Vedder, and I found the melancholy sound of his voice suited the movie well. At times, it seemed to move a little too slow though (the movie runs 2.5 hours). The director, Sean Penn, was surely trying to capture the power of nature with certain shots.

It was great to see how Chris’ life touched so many people he encountered. I haven’t read the book yet, but I got the sense that the movie was a close adaptation. After all, he lived the last few years of his life in a way that is absolutely made for Hollywood.

Here is the long version of the (the bolded) quote I recently came across:

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

-- Christopher McCandless

What did you think of the book, movie, or the way he chose to live his final few years?

Tripbase’s Flight Carbon Emissions Calculator

Dave — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:38:31 +0000

The following is a sponsored post.

Cross-Atlantic flight

Back in 2007, I calculated the carbon offset for driving my German car around Virginia, and then made a donation toward renewable energy production. I have played around with the idea of doing the same for all the flights of my trip around the world too. And that’s where Tripbase.com enters the picture. They’ve developed a quick, new Flight Carbon Emissions Calculator to help travelers account for their carbon footprints in our increasingly green-conscious society.

To test it out, I used my cross-Atlantic flight from Madrid, Spain to Bogota, Colombia. I simply entered my flight class (Long Haul – Economy), departure and destination cities, and clicked “calculate.” According to the calculator, the approximate CO2 emissions I’m responsible for as a result of that flight are 0.647 tonnes. The methodology used for the calculator is cited at the bottom of the widget.

While this gives me a feel for how much carbon dioxide I’m tied to for the flight, I wish the calculator could go a step further and somehow monetize it so I would have a basis for donations.

I’ve added the free Tripbase Flight Carbon Emissions Calculator to my right sidebar. Be sure to give it a test drive and gain a little awareness about your carbon footprint on the world. For the green bloggers out there, you can download the widget at Tripbase.

DSTB – Involve Your Readers, Build A Following

Dave — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:08:49 +0000

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Developing A Successful Travel Blog

Air-conditioned hotel room - Varanasi, India

One of the first travel blogs I began to follow on a regular basis was written by an English chap named Joe as he traveled around the world for 12 months. Excited at the thought of having similar experiences, I left the occasional comment on his blog, and he usually responded, though on at least one occasion, he confused me with a guy named Dave he knew back in England. Otherwise, it was a very one-sided experience. He wrote, I read.

As I began to develop this blog in 2007, I wanted to ensure there was a more interactive atmosphere for my trip. I thought it would enhance the whole experience for both the readers and me.

Here are a few of the ways I and others help involve readers to keep them coming back for more!

Responding to Comments and E-mails

Blogging is about more than you as producer of content, and readers as consumers of content. It is about the dialogue which occurs between the two sides.

In an effort to strike an acceptable balance between time spent traveling and time spent blogging, I adopted an insular (borderline defensive) approach on my trip, ensuring I responded to the majority of comments on my blog and all the e-mails people sent me. I recommend this approach at a minimum. If people are taking the time out of their lives to leave a comment on top of reading what you wrote, they should be recognized for that effort and interest in being involved. On most occasions, a public response works perfectly.

If you start to notice regular contributors who comment frequently, a private e-mail to them directly, thanking them for their support, is a more personal way to show your appreciation (and reinforce the behavior).

Going a step further, if contributors have a blog or website of their own, which they include when leaving the comment, check it out. You help boost their traffic by simply clicking the link, and if it seems up your alley, subscribe. Even if you can’t read it while you’re on the road, you’ve bookmarked the site for future reference. Again, this indirectly helps them by increasing their number of subscribers, an important marketing statistic.

Lastly, if you really want to aggressively grow your blog’s traffic and build online relationships while traveling, then pick a handful of travel blogs and continue to read and comment on them consistently. The more popular the blog, the more visibility you stand to gain by associating yourself with it.

Polls

Asking for the opinions of your readers is a simple way to involve them. As a consumer of media, be it online, print or TV, it always feels good to know your opinion is taken into consideration. Why else would American Idol generate millions of votes by phone each episode?

The power you give readers over your decision-making process can be a fun dynamic to play around with while traveling. On this topic, I’m reminded of Jeremy David’s travel blog, Choose My Adventure, in which he opened himself up to the unknown by allowing readers to vote on where he went (mostly in Europe) and how long to spend in various places.

On my trip, I wasn’t so willing to give up control, however I always created polls which were relevant to my locations and future plans, and addressed curiosities. They are a great tool for interaction – simple to implement from the blogger’s perspective, and simple to use from the readers.

You can see the results of all my polls in the archive.

Dare Me!

My invitation to have readers dare me to do weird, gross, embarrassing, and adventurous things abroad was especially fun. Those readers who bet me a beer or money to do something then had a vested interest in continuing to read. After all, they had to see if I would be successful. On my end, I was pushed to do things I might not otherwise try, like eating dog or getting in the ring for Muay Thai training.

I adopted the premise from Challenge Steve.

Opportunities to Donate

As a travel blogger, you’ve got nothing to lose by throwing up a PayPal donation button on your blog. Unless you’re going for an especially professional appearance or money is not an issue, it leaves the door open for the occasional generosity of visitors who want to show their appreciation for your efforts.

Contests and Giveaways

A long time ago, when I was first getting started with the GoBackpacking domain, I recall having a contest or two where I gave away a free guidebook or gift certificate on Amazon in exchange for people subscribing to a site e-mail list. Around the same time, I had also created a fan page for one of my favorite bands. I ran a contest there for a gift certificate to Amazon.com, seeking concert reviews from readers. The investment on my part was small – no more than $25 in each case, however the contests were always received well and it felt good to offer something for free.

I haven’t seen many contests on personal travel blogs, however Gary over at Everything Everywhere has been running them successfully. For example, on May 31, he offered a book giveaway in exchange for users leaving a comment with what they like about China. In two weeks, he’s tallied 118 comments!

Social Networking – Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The ever-increasing popularity of social networking sites is leading to some interesting changes. They are becoming increasingly open with one another. For example, my blog posts, Twitter updates, and YouTube uploads all automatically post to my Facebook account, making the publication of micro-updates a lot easier.

Heck, my primary reason for joining sites like MySpace and Facebook were to publicize this blog and gain a few easy backlinks! I still have a lot to learn in regard to leveraging these networks, however at the least, you can consistently remind your family, friends, and coworkers about what’s being posted to your travel blog.

Further Reading

7 Ways to Get Readers to Stick

Getting Your Readers to Stick

What other ways do you use to interact with bloggers or readers?

Video of the Week – Arlington Rap

Dave — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:01:37 +0000

Aside from wherever my parents are living, my home as I’ve always thought of it during my travels has been Clarendon, Virginia. It’s a little town in Arlington, the County which lies along the western border of Washington, DC. I lived there for 5 years, and loved it.

I told myself I could always be happy to go back there and live, however seeing this new video poke fun at the yuppy (my) lifestyle makes me realize how far I’ve come in the last 19 months. I can recognize almost every outdoor location, and identify with ALL the jokes.

While most young people seem to experience the big city life when they’re fresh out of college, I spent my time in the ‘burbs. And after my experience living in Medellin, and traveling the world, I don’t think I can do that again, at least not in the next few years.

Hope you have a good laugh too!

Friday Flashback – Macau

Dave — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:44:37 +0000

Central Macau

I might not have made the side trip to Macau from Hong Kong if it weren’t for Adam. We set off to the former Portugese city for a a few days of high-stakes gambling in the Las Vegas of the East.

An Open Letter To My Blogging Bretheren

Dave — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:36:58 +0000

This post is for the readers of my blog who also maintain one of their own.

I recently requested another travel blogger add a link to my site on his. I first learned about this person’s blog from the comments he left on mine as I was traveling last year. The response was “no” because I didn’t comment on his blog in return. I fully understand his perspective, yet it has caused me to reflect on the way I tried to balance my travels with running this blog. I realize there are a lot of other bloggers who have proactively added a link to my site from theirs. I am very appreciative. Hopefully they’re still reading.

In advance of my trip, I spent much of my free time on the internet learning about blogging, asking and answering questions in the Bootsnall forums, reading other people’s travel blogs, commenting on them, and generally making connections within the online travel community.

Writing in a restaurant on Koh Phangan

When it came time to leave home, I switched gears, focusing solely on relaying my travel experiences in writing, photos, and videos. My #1 online priority was providing daily updates for people to read. If I had to guess, I probably spent an average of 1.5 hours per day on the internet, usually in a cafe where I was paying by the minute, often seated uncomfortably, and subject to a slower-than-ideal connection or small monitor. The main reason I read other people’s travel blogs before my trip was to stay motivated and entertained while I waited for my turn.

So, once I was off having daily adventures of my own, the last thing I wanted to do was sit in an internet cafe reading about other people’s adventures. As a result of this conscious decision to limit my blogging experience to the boundaries of Gobackpacking, I did not read other people’s blogs, even the ones I considered my favorites. And if I wasn’t reading them, I wasn’t in a position to leave comments on them. I insulated myself from other blogs for the sole purpose of maximizing my travel experience. Blogging became an integral part of that experience, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

I fell into a routine which did not involve making design updates. I rarely added a new unpaid link, and turned down many requests from other people, with the response that I was limiting my blogroll to people I met along my trip. In reality, it was more about not having a links page on the blog, and thus not wanting to fill up my sidebar with unfamiliar sites. I think this was a mistake. To correct course, I created a new Links page when I updated my theme a few months ago after settling in Medellin.

Now that my travels are wrapping up with this transition period in Colombia, I am trying to be more proactive about giving back to other bloggers – both the new ones getting ready for upcoming trips and the more established ones who’ve shown me such support the last two and a half years. I’m reading my favorite blogs again, and adding new ones every week. I’m become more social again, taking the time to comment on others’ blogs and answer questions in the Bootsnall forums. In an effort to share what I’ve learned, I began the Developing a Successful Travel Blog series. And if I can get my butt in gear, I’m planning to do some guest blogging.

These are some of the ways I plan to “pay it forward” for the support I received while traveling.

Regards from Medellin on a cool and rainy night, as I type to Bob Marley’s Legend in an apartment that is about to be mine alone for the next 3 weeks.

Dave

Drawing Parallels with The 4-Hour Workweek

Dave — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:09:30 +0000

The 4-Hour Workweek

I’ve been aware of Tim Ferriss’ bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, since it hit the shelves in 2007 because his whole philosophy is so well suited to bloggers, especially us travel bloggers. As a result, it received a lot of online publicity. I knew the basic precept, but didn’t sit down to start reading it until this past weekend.

While I’ve only read the first three chapters, it is reassuring to see how he has developed a structure and lexicon for something I was already doing. Not that what I was doing was groundbreaking. Plenty of people before me had quit their jobs to travel the world. But it is certainly far from the norm, especially in the United States. It can only be a good thing for such a radical book to reach bestseller status.

Here are a few key concepts he lays out in Chapter 2 which have paralleled my thought process and experience regarding life since 2002.

Interest and energy are cyclical:

Alternating periods of activity and and rest is necessary to survive, let alone thrive. Capacity, interest, and mental endurance all wax and wane. Plan accordingly.

The New Rich aim to distribute “mini-retirements” throughout life instead of hoarding the recovery and enjoyment for the fool’s gold of retirement. By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable.

Going through a layoff in 2002 was a blessing in disguise. It gave me the time to reassess my values and nerve to think I could liberate myself from debt, save more than I spend, and travel around the world. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself that I’ve done all that already, and a whole lot more!

The timing is never right:

For all the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never be all green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up all the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take yoru dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.

I recently received an e-mail from an American reader over on my Medellin Living blog. The person was questioning whether to use a recent layoff as an opportunity to travel and work in Costa Rica or Colombia. The crux of the concern was tied to a lack of money to take on such an adventure. But the beautiful thing about backpacking and budget travel and being up for the challenge of carving out a new existence in a country with a lower standard of living than the USA (or Europe, or Australia, etc.) is that it doesn’t cost a lot. Really. And what you stand to gain as a person is far more rewarding than you’ll probably be able to imagine.

Retirement as worst-case-scenario insurance:

It should be viewed as nothing more than a hedge against the absolute worst-case scenario: in this case becoming physically incapable of working and needing a reservoir of capital to survive.

He goes on to say that this attitude doesn’t mean you shouldn’t financially plan for retirement. Instead of contributing less to my 401k as I earned more money, I contributed more. I didn’t want to shortchange my long term situation for my short term trip abroad. This definitely delayed my departure, but the end result would’ve been the same, writing you 18 months later from South America!

I’m looking forward to continuing with The 4-Hour Workweek over the next week or so, and I’ll be sure to share any additional observations that strike close to home.

If you’ve already read it, leave a comment and let me know what you thought!

_____________________

PS – As far as I’m concerned, reading e-books will never replace the experience of holding a paper book in one’s hands (something I truly began to appreciate while reading books abroad last year), yet reality in Colombia dictates I read them. Someone really needs to open an English bookstore in this country!

Video of the Week – Bizarre Foods

Dave — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:49:30 +0000

Watch more travel videos at tripfilms.com

From my Dare Me page, it’s clear I’m willing to try some odd foods when I’m traveling. Even though I never managed to track down scorpions and win $30, seeing the image of them in Bangkok in this video makes me think that might’ve been a good thing. They are a bit bigger than I imagined! Otherwise, I can eat chicken gizzards and sheep’s brain with the best of them.

Friday Flashback – Hong Kong

Dave — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:18:55 +0000

Are you a Guitar Freak too?

The world’s longest escalator, a beer atop Hong Kong island, arcade games, and one of the most spectacular evening skylines (and urban light shows) you’ll ever see. My foray into urban Chinese society was one adventure after the next!

Video of the Week – Skytrain to Lhasa

Dave — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:26:07 +0000

Watch more Lhasa videos at tripfilms.com

I was three days away from boarding a similar train as in this video from Chengdu, China to Lhasa! And then Tibetans staged historic riots last March in advance of the Olympics, and I was all out of luck. I’m not bitter. Nope. Not me.

OK, yes I am! This video highlights the cool journey I had hoped to be a top highlight of my trip around the world.

Friday Flashback – Singapore Eats

Dave — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:06:10 +0000

Singapore is a foodie's paradise

Ian, the couchsurfing host for my 4-night stay in Singapore, took good care of me. He was especially helpful in introducing me to the wonderful foods available in his country. Therefore, for this Friday’s flashback, it makes sense that I pick a post that highlights eating crab at the same restaurant as Anthony Bourdain, and then getting my first taste of the stinkiest fruit on Earth, durian.

DSTB Series – How To Write Scannable Blog Content

Dave — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:00:52 +0000

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Developing A Successful Travel Blog

Breakfast and wi-fi - Chengdu, China

I am excited to reach this post in the Developing a Successful Travel Blog series because I’ve found it to be a glaring blind spot for a lot of travelers keeping a blog. It’s completely understandable. Most travelers are simply looking for a way to relay their experiences, not become professional writers. All the same, regardless of how much effort you want to put into your blog, it’s worth an hour of your time to learn how to ensure whomever does land on your page, fully reads and enjoys what you wrote.

In the online world of multi-tabbed browser windows and multi-tasking employees, time is limited and patience is in short supply. The best thing you can do to attract and retain new visitors is make your content easy to browse and read.

Take one more step toward travel blogging success by following these effective writing techniques for an online audience.

Formatting

Break your writing up within each post. It’s better to present lots of little paragraphs than long stream-of-conscience prose. It’s simply too difficult to read, especially when you account for the increasing popularity of web browsing from mobile devices. On a personal note, if I see blog entries presented in this manner, I don’t even bother to start reading, and I certainly don’t subscribe!
Use bolding, italics, or underlining to highlight important words or concepts. Don’t go overboard, that’s just annoying.
Consider altering your font, text size, and color. Again, make sure whatever scheme you come up with remains easy to read.
Create lists using bullet points or numbers.
Use blockquotes.
Start a multi-post series. It is a great way to develop a finite subplot within your overall travel adventures.
Include links when appropriate and make sure the color stands out from normal text.

Headlines

Travelers have an edge in the headline department. After all, if we’re not chopping through the Amazon jungle with a machete, then we’re on a camel trek across an Indian desert.

Write attention-grabbing, eye-catching, exciting, and/or provocative headlines. As blogs increase in popularity, subscribers have to manage dozens, if not hundreds of them. Often, these users will simply scan headlines to decide what to read, and if your headlines are boring or uninspired, you’ll be passed over in an instant.

Incorporate a Variety of Media

Photos and video are a great way to enrich your readers’ experience, while breaking up text. Photos are practically a given these days, yet you’d be surprised how many blog posts I’ve seen without them. I aim to share at least one photo per blog post, and while traveling it was often 3-4.

Video can be more difficult. The time required to upload large files can be overbearing in locations with slow internet connections. If you want to post videos as you go, try increasing or decreasing the length depending on the connection speeds of the city or country where you are located.

Mp3’s are another great way to let the reader in on your experience, especially if you upload local songs you are hearing along the way.

More Tips

Schedule frequent posts throughout the days or weeks to ensure each post is narrow in topic, and not too long. If you or your readers get tired scrolling down in a single post, it’s too long. Break it up and benefit from the added bonus of increased traffic.
Always use spell-check! You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and if your posts are riddled with typos, readers may not return. If you’re particularly challenged by grammar, double check your post in a word-processing program like Microsoft Word.
As you get started, ask for feedback from readers about their experience on your blog. E-mail people you know, add a poll to your blog, or simply write a post aimed directly at at soliciting reader feedback on their experience.
Once you establish a certain style, format, or approach, stick to it. Regular readers will grow accustomed to it and appreciate your consistency.

Further Reading:

I remember reading a lot of articles about how to write for an online audience when I was getting started back in early 2007. Little has changed since then, and after you read a few articles as well, the common themes will be evident.

Beds for 5cents – HostelBookers Birthday Giveaway

Dave — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:33:09 +0000

In celebration of its fifth birthday, HostelBookers is running an exciting deal – book a beach hostel for just 5 cents a night!

This discounted hostel holiday will be offered at five popular European destinations for travel between 6 and 10 July 2009, with the beds becoming available next week from 1 to 5 June.

50 beds will go on sale at the 5cents rate every day during this week at 2pm GMT, with a total of 250 beds at beach hostels in the Mediterranean on offer overall. There are no hidden costs or strings attached – travellers really will pay just 5 cents a night for their bed.

From the bustling city beaches of Barcelona and Valencia to the glitzy resort of Alghero, the discos of Corfu and laid-back Santorini, there’s a diverse range of great beach holidays available for this tiny price.

The five hostels participating in the birthday offer are in Barcelona, Purple Nest in Valencia, Sunrock Backpackers Hostel in Corfu, Hostel D’Alguer in Alghero and Santorini Hostel in Santorini.

David Smith, Chief Operating Officer of HostelBookers, said, “We’ve had a phenomenal five years at HostelBookers, and experienced unprecedented growth. This is the first time we have run a promotion on this scale but our anniversary felt like the perfect time – it’s a way to say thank you to all our customers, and give a little something back, after all their help over the years.”

HostelBookers is also running a competition as part of the birthday celebrations – they’ll be giving away 20 ‘presents’ to customers, including £500 in cash, an ASUS 701SD Travel Laptop and a Canon Ixus 85 Digital Camera

For further information please log on to HostelBookers.com

Travelgrove – Compare Deals and Save

Dave — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:53:36 +0000

The following is a sponsored post.

The summer travel season officially kicked off this past weekend in the United States, which means despite the world’s economic troubles, people are heading for the beach or about to take those long desired vacations. According to my January poll of readers, an impressive 77% intend to travel internationally for fun this year. Whether you are ready to hit the road, or still looking for ideas, Travelgrove wants to provide objective travel information to make your life a little easier.

Travelgrove’s purpose is to help consumers compare the costs of flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises and vacation packages from a single website. At the same time, it features the best deals on offer by a variety of travel companies.

The search process is as simple as it gets. When inputting the criteria for flights, be sure to check the available boxes at the bottom allowing you to compare results from sites such as Priceline and Kayak. For example, when I searched for cheap flights from New York City to Rio de Janeiro for a week’s getaway from June 18-29, the lowest cost returned was $534 on American Airlines. Cheap indeed! Plus, I saved time and the potential concern that the price might be less if I had just checked one more site before I made a commitment to buy.

Of course the ability to save time and money is a big seller when it comes to researching your next trip, however Travelgrove is trying to go a step further by offering World Travel Guides to help you get a feel for your next potential destination. Full of detailed demographic information on all the countries you’d want to visit, they also feature more reader-friendly write-ups of cities to give you a feel for where you might be headed. Underneath the guides are relevant travel deals for the same location. Spending time on the Rio de Janeiro guide, eying those deals, proved tempting.

In addition to the search functions and travel guides, Travelgrove has also set up a new Travel Community to allow for the exchange of information and to help answer user questions.

Easy to navigate, and attractive in design, Travelgrove’s aim to make the traveling public’s lives a little simpler is a reason in itself to give them a try.

A New Journey Begins

Dave — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:04:55 +0000

Camping adjacent a glacier in Pakistan (Photo: Cameron Honan)

Cameron (aka Cam), a thirty-something Australian yoga instructor I first met in Kathmandu, is probably the most accomplished hiker/trekker I’ve ever encountered. He spent a few months on a 2,650-mile solo journey through the Pacific Crest Trail which runs from Mexico to Canada, and when I saw his Lonely Planet guide to the Himalaya, he had his eye on more than a few treks which were highlighted in yellow.

As I previously shared, after we parted in eastern India, he spent time in northern India, Pakistan, Iran and Morocco before returning home. I just received an update that he is about to embark on a grand new journey, one that has pangs of envy reverberating through me.

He’s flying to London to begin a classic overland adventure to the Bearing Sea (east coast of Russia). While he informed me that a trekking blog was in the works, he’s not one to stay tied to a computer on his travels, so I have no blog address to share. Instead, I offer a few of his photos from Pakistan. Hopefully he’s not a copyright nut!

Cam amongst friends in Pakistan (Photo: Cameron Honan)

Friday Flashback – Gili Trawangan

Dave — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:44:45 +0000

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

Over a year later, I still think back to my week on the little tropical Indonesian island of Gili Trawangan often. I’ve managed to keep in touch with Jessica, who is back working in London, and Linus, who is learning to fly helicopters in Hawaii. Come Waste Your Time With Me is a post recounting my last full day on the island, named after “Waste,” the wonderfully laid back Phish song.

DSTB Series – Choose A Winning Domain Name

Dave — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:09:44 +0000

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Developing A Successful Travel Blog

Enjoying a beer and the view - Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan, Thailand

Ten years ago, I clearly remember the careful consideration I gave when purchasing the GoBackpacking.com domain name. The decision to buy a unique web address grew out of a desire to share travel advice, in addition to my European travelogue. I was ready to make the leap from an unsightly URL for my free account with (Yahoo!) Geocities to a hosted account with unique branding and a more appealing address. While a lot has changed in the online world since then, the factors I took into account a decade ago still apply today (and are a big part of why new readers and advertisers continue to find me). Regardless of your specific goals, it is best to take your time with this step in the process.

Keywords vs. a Unique Brand Name

The first fork in the road to buying a domain name is whether to load it with popular keywords people use in web searches, or develop your own unique brand name.

Keywords

Ensuring you have popular, relevant keywords in your domain name will be invaluable for obtaining traffic from search engines. In addition, a whole new industry has developed around the buying and selling of keywords on websites and blogs, so going the keyword route paves the way for potential advertising dollars. These factors apply whether your blog is hosted or self-hosted.

The challenge with buying a keyword-packed domain these days is the lack of availability for popular terms such as “travel” and “backpacking.” Even ten years ago, I had trouble figuring out a catchy, short name which included the valuable “backpacking” keyword. Since my goal was to motivate others to travel as I had done, adding “go” in front made sense. Choosing a domain name with keywords should also gives people a clear and concise indication of what you’re writing about. This is an important factor for attracting new readers.

Examples of well-trafficked travel blogs using this approach:

Vagabonding.com (3rd result on Google for “vagabonding”)
Japan Visitor Blog (5th result on Google for “Japan blog” and it is hosted on blogspot)
Overland Tales (1st result on Google for “overland tales”)
Medellin Living (4th result on Google for “living in medellin”)

As you can see, simply loading your domain with desirable keywords does not ensure you the top ranking on Google. Search Engine Optimization is too BIG a topic for me to sufficiently cover in this series, however I will be sharing the most essential, easy-to-incorporate tips in the future, as well as some links to great posts from authoritative professional bloggers.

Unique Brand Name

If you are making up long lists of keyword-heavy domain names, only to find none of them are available when you go to domain sellers like Go Daddy or Network Solutions, you may want to consider the other fork in the road – building your own unique brand name. This option allows you to be more creative and fun, and if your goal is less about making money and more about sharing your stories and experiences, then there is no reason to shy away from it. The downside is that unless you can get at least one relevant or niche-oriented keyword in the domain, you will be losing out on the superhighway to search engine traffic. It’s still possible to rank highly for the keywords you desire, it will just take more effort to overcome competitors. Of course there are plenty of other ways to ensure readers find you, such as referrals from other websites and blogs.

As with keyword-based domains, it pays to keep it short and memorable. As you are gallivanting about the world, meeting hundreds, if not thousands of people along the way, you’ll mention your blog often and the easier it is for others to remember the name, the more likely they will be to look it up once in front of a computer. In reviewing traffic reports, I routinely see people finding this blog by searching “dave backpacking blog” or some similar variation.

Examples of catchy and unique travel blog URL’s:

Travel Junkie – Boris achieved the rare combination of being able to benefit from a highly valuable keyword while creating his own brand from it. Well done!
Everything-Everywhere.com – Gary went over the top with this name, ensuring any visitor to his travel blog will know he is going to see as much of the world as humanely possible!
The Lost Girls (hosted on blogspot) – Three NYC media professionals quit their job and travel around the world, building a successful brand along the way.
Definitely Casual – This is a great domain because you immediately get a sense of how these California guys travel.
Corporate Whore No More – Justin clearly has a sense of humor, and if you couldn’t tell, was ready to ditch his office job for world travels.
Vagabondish – Mike’s creative play on a popular keyword, “vagabonding”, allowed him to create a unique brand.

Additional Considerations

Here are a few more thoughts to consider when choosing a winning domain name:

.com still rules people’s and advertiser’s minds so do your best to obtain this top level domain, and if you can’t swing it, then consider .net and .org as viable options too.
Keep your domain as short as possible, minimizing words (whowilleverrememberlongdomainnames.info)
Try to avoid hyphens and numbers as it is another roadblock to memorability
Write down your ideas and share them with a few people – both those with a background in blogging (such as the author of a blog you respect) and those without (possibly family or friends)
The cost of domain names tends to be around $10 per year, though you can often get them for free if signing up for a web hosting package. When I told Network Solutions I could renew my domain name with my web host for 5 years at half the cost they were offering, they lowered there price by $50 to keep my business. Don’t be afraid to negotiate!

Further Reading:

Choosing the Domain Name for Your Blog (very authoritative post on this subject)
How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips From the Founder of Phonetag.com (business oriented)
Building Your Location Independent Online Business: Getting Your Website Online (Part 1)