RoutesSubjects and contents
Surfing in Internet to form Vagabondo's links library we saw a big lot of personal sites and could compare them, so we got an idea of the better working ones,
the most stimulating and the favourites.
So we hope our considerations may prove useful to you.
For a better understanding we'll divide personal sites about travel into: sites with a subject, and travelogues. We'll treat separately those two categories, proposing many examples we judge particularly valid.
Travelogues
Thema oriented sites
Reports: beware of tricks
Pages in the net are countless dedicated to tell ones travel experiences. The wish to partage one's travels is seductive, and it's easy to fall into some traps that are absolutely to avoid if you want your page to be successful.
The first one is that of the mere photo gallery: many sites are made of a series of pages with a title (for instance A trip to Kenya, third day) and a parade of pictures. Those photos are surely full of meaning for you, but represent nothing, without commentary and explanations, for anyone that wasn't with you in the trip.
The second one is the one of a report without a context: I happened to read a report about a travel to Paris that started "I woke up late and had breakfast, the barman..." then "I took a taxi and went downtown were I walked till to lunchtime, when I got into a Restaurant...". At the end of it I knew hour by hour what the genial writer had done, but if I hadn't seen by the title he was in Paris, the report would have worked as well as for Sidney, Barcelona or Vancouver!
Of course the report should carry a personal experience and should not be a tourist guide, but for this very reason it should also be strongly linked to the place: "to walk downtown" is radically different if you are in Sidney, Barcelona or Paris. In a travel I think we are always comparing our cultural point of view with the culture of the country we are visiting. The report arises from the adventure generated by this comparison.
Of course this one is only an example: some travels induce us to confront with nature, others with ourselves and there are countless possibilities...
Reports: in travellers net
Bruce Chatwin to describe "his" Patagonia wrote a whole book, whilst you probably won't have the time to do the same (he was payed for that, after all!), but Chatwin hadn't Internet!
If you put the wright links in the wright place you 'll be able to integrate your report with materials already existing in Internet.
A map with the visited place and the itinerary may be very useful for one who doesn't know the site.
A photo gallery well linked to the text may help a lot to get near to your experience.
Finally there will be someone willing to repeat your experience, who will enormously appreciate one page with practical tips:the best and worst places, prices, good and bad things in your travel...
Such a page will induce someone feeling like you to write to you and will contribute to create that net of travellers,clever ones, on whom to rely to organize one' travels!
An exceptional resource
A personal page becomes a very valid resource when it supplies something special, something that can't be found in a tourist guide: your knowledge and experience in a peculiar field.
For instance, if you intend to go to Greek Islands, Eva may give you info about the most beautiful walks, whilst Rune Alnervik will tell you, island by island, beach by beach, the most beautiful and less crowded sites, David A. Webb, finally, will show you,in a professional and pleasant way, a lot of material about archaelogy.
Would it be possible to find all this in a tourist guide? Could you ask directly a guide as you may do with the authors of these sites?
If everyone was going to write about the places they love (because they are born there or because they have discovered them, as for the persons quoted in this page) a net would be woven to exchange experiences that could really change the way of travelling!
Choosing the subject
Obviously the choice of the subject is very important: in our considerations we'll exploit may examples to give evidence
First of all we should choose the field of our interest in account of the time we dispose of to dedicate to our pages, and decide consequently. Internet is full of "portions of sites" and good intentions that have then been neglected.
Islandia (the site isn't signed) it's a great site to know Iceland, which is shown under all the possible aspects, but Iceland is small and the author dedicated to it a great passion. If one was to decide to do something similar with Spain (big and heterogeneous under any point of view) he should necessarily surrender or write something so vague that it would prove useless. (there is already the official site, the one of the Lonely Planet)...
Looking around to see what there is that's similar:
Let's say that by now we have clear in our mind which is the suject we wish to write about: this is the moment we must look around very carefully, because your page wan't be a separate thing (say as a book), but it means to become one stitch of a web.
Near to to link with
First of all look nearby, it's to say go and see if anyone else has already written anything interesting about the same area, the same country, region, etc. you are interested in, then get in touch with the author. This will give you great advantage:
- You may exchange your links so to enrich both sites ("I'll describe canoing in this park, but for biking go to site..., but if you're interested in historical and cultural aspects I recommend...").
- You'll so avoid to give twice the same info and have more time to dedicate to the things you wish to write about (for instance "To know alla about camping consult my friend's site...").
- You'll avoid writing duplicates.
- You'll get to be known muc sooner: people visiting sites linked to yours will visit yours as well.
Far from to learn
It's as much important to look far away: go and look, around the world, if anyone else wrote anything similar to what you have in your mind and try to learn from his experience (you may as well get in touch). He will surely have advice to give you or ideas to propose.
Take into accounts of foreign visitors
Never forget that your site may be visited also by people who don't know your country at all: Black Hills Hiker, is a very beautiful site on every regard but it's very hard to understand where "Black Hills"are :–)
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