Arieanna’s Go Global talk at UBC liveblog

Arieanna is presenting at the UBC Go Global week on a workshop on “creating a dynamic travel blog”. Her slides are MUCH better than what my liveblog could be, I’m just going to write a few tips as I capture her talk.

– Setting up a blog that is general and then add some travel content – has more longevity.
– Choosing your URL, setting the blog & its design
– Learn the tools (add posts, photos, links)
– Choose a photo-sharing service (like Flickr)
– Set up your design
– Use WordPress.com (hosted, super easy, you can customize it, everything works really easily)
– You can upgrade later to WordPress.org
– You can use Facebook, there’s definitely a role – you can set up your blog to update both Facebook AND your blog/photo sharing accounts.
– Travelpod.com – (I had NEVER heard of this and it’s so awesome!) – Search engines are not very efficient apparently but it’s a nice service.

What to write about

– Your experiences, not your itinerary
– Give a story or talking on the phone – talking to a person
– Don’t go on so much about stuff – be careful about things that you say (and potentially could regret).
– Spellcheck – look for grammar
– If you are out of ideas on what to write, write about what you ate (really! food is very popular)
– It’s very valuable for people (your readers) to write about your stay as well (where you stayed, was it good, was it expensive/pricey)
– Make sure to link to restaurants, hotels, etc.
– Maybe try to socialize with people (local bloggers) – they might take you around

Your writing
– Writing style – smaller paragraphs, shorter posts, spell check.
– Pretty it up – use images, bold words
– Link – linkages to people/places/restaurants/hotels, etc.

Photos
– Not all the photos end up online (neither on the blog nor in the photosharing service)
– Find a peculiar element
– Rule of thirds – when you’re taking a photo of a person, put it in one of the thirds of the photo.
(one of the students just exclaimed “I wish I knew all of these tips before!” – I think that’s a measure of success, Arieanna should be proud :))
– Upload all your photos online so that you can have a backup.
– Help your readers “visualize” what you’re enjoying/experiencing.
– You can embed slideshows in your blog.
– You can blog directly from Flickr (“Blog This”) because it will do it for you (and it’s really easy to set up).
– Creative Commons (I raised the issue because you could upload photos on to your blog, but if you put them on Flickr, you can actually indicate the licensing scheme) – we are very social, and it’s very nice to have your photos seen somewhere else.

What NOT to post online

– Where are you staying.
– Your phone number.
– Revealing photos.
– Anything you don’t want a future boss to read.

Questions – I might have missed a couple

Advice for people who already have a bunch of photos (say from Europe) – Choose ONE photo and build a story around it, and then just link to your whole Flickr set.