Flightster

Creating a live trip report on your blog

• by Shannon Albert
• on December 8th, 2010
• 2 Comments

Those of us who have blogs will often collect information while we’re traveling so that we can compile it all and create a trip report when we return; however, with the prevalence of smartphones, it’s become possible to easily update our blogs while we’re traveling. Doing this not only helps our blog visitors stay informed but it also helps document the trip for ourselves. Here are some ways to update your blog while traveling.

Location-based services

I’m a total scrooge when it comes to location-based services because I don’t really need to know that you just picked up a prescription and you’re now at a restaurant. I do love these services for trips though. Being able to check in at interesting places makes it fun to have your friends travel along with you. Obviously you can use these services as normal and push updates out to social networking sites but you can also incorporate this on your blog.

FourSquare, for instance, has a plugin for WordPress that allows you to show the most recent updates you’ve made and it plots them on a map. Friends can follow along and see where you have just been.

Twip Tweets

Ok, by now I think every word in the English language has been butchered with a “Tw” on it thanks to Twitter and apparently I’m not above doing that. Everybody has heard of Twitter at this point and many of us use it regularly. There are widgets that many Twitter users incorporate into their blogs to show recent Tweets but you can use it slightly differently while traveling.

Before you leave, decide on a hashtag you’ll use for your trip. Then, while you’re traveling, add that hashtag to Tweets that are related to your trip. Install a widget that can filter by your new hashtag so only that content shows up (apps like Tweet Blender for WordPress provide this functionality). After you’re home, you can do a Twitter search of that hashtag to have information for your own record.

Photos

Many of us now prefer to use our phones to take pictures which makes it easy to upload immediately. If you use a service like Flickr, you can upload and have a Flickr badge streaming those photos onto your blog. Instead of relegating it to a sidebar, maybe you could leave this badge as the main content area of your site while you’re traveling so you can show larger photos.

While Flickr has many of their own badges, I often prefer the ones available from BigHugeLabs.com because there are so many options available.

If you prefer to use your camera, the Eye-Fi memory card is a genius little invention that allows you to wirelessly upload your picture with geotagging information. This can also be used with Flickr. You can also plot your photos on a map since they already carry the geotagging information with them.

Make sounds

We aren’t just restricted to text and images online. You can also use a service like Audioboo which allows you to post audio messages to your site. Just use their app or website to record a message. Their app also allows you to add a picture or text, integrates with many social networking sites and provides an iTunes feed so that others can follow you. For your blog, you would need to install their widget which would show recent activity to your visitors.

Use Evernote

When I was jotting down the items I wanted to mention in this post, I wrote down Evernote without knowing exactly how or what but assuming it had to have a useful purpose in this context. Turns out, there is.

First, if you haven’t heard of Evernote, it is an app that allows you to collect many types of information – pictures, audio recordings, handwriting, etc. – and store it all in one application. Evernote then allows you to tag each item so it can be stored in an organized way. There is functionality to change text to audio and many other features that I don’t know about included.

The way that this can be used for travelers is that you can create what they call a Notebook which could hold the information from your trip and share that through various social media platforms, including your blog. This allows you the freedom to incorporate many more types of content than normal while keeping it organized in your app.

Blogging platform apps

What I didn’t mention yet are the apps you can use to actually blog on the road but that is always an option as well. Every blog platform has an app that allows you to create posts and upload from your phone. There are also apps that allow you to publish to more than one platform.

What other thoughts do you have? Have you ever live blogged during a trip? If not, would you consider doing it now using any of the ideas from this post?

Shannon Albert

Shannon loves to share awesome, fun and hopefully useful info that she's collected and to connect with other travel freaks. She loves the planning part of travel as much as the traveling itself. Shannon's background includes working as a web developer and as a digital producer for an advertising agency. She lives in Texas with her husband, 2 kids and dog. New York City is her favorite city. Her blog is shannonalbert.com.