Okay its only 2.5 months before I depart for my RTW trip for a year or more if the money holds out. Anyways, I was wondering what people are using to document their travel.

I know many are using websites (some free some not)to update blogs, journals and store pictures. I don't plan on replacing a physical journal when documenting my journeys but wanted some insight to what other are using for the virual world.

1. Would you use a free site to blogs events and updates or use one of them website builders websites (not to costly)? -not sure if i know what the full benefits are but might provide more options.

2. Any advice on which site I should look into (either free of paid for site)?

3. Are people using doing it themselve via dream weaver or other applications to building our their websites? What do you recommend using if so?

-Jason

err...

I don't know how to make websites from scratch although Im told it is easy enough with basic knowledge and software.

Personally though, as a blog/website reader I dont care if you use a paid website or a free site like blogger so long as your content is fascinating, informative and basically interesting. I will likely bookmark it and return to it again and again.

AFTER your trip(and you got a blog full of info) you could always switch to a personal site which I understand many people do nowadays. Honestly, a cool personal site with no content is a waste of virtual space and money.

For my blog, I purchased a domain name and then linked it to a free Wordpress account. I like simple and this was as simple as it gets. Sure I could have gone fancier....but what's the point. My readership consists of my family and friends. They don't care what the site looks like as long as I update regularly.

For most people, I think just keeping a blog on a free site - BnA or Blogger would be my suggestions - is adequate. BnA is better for just set up and go. Blogger doesn't have very nice themes premade, so if you want an attractive site, you pretty much have to know how to design your own template...more powerful, but also more complicated.

As for photo storage, I find it's generally worth paying for. Free sites will all downsize your photos to take up less room on the server. I'm most familiar with Flickr for this function, and I really like their system (they do have a free version, but it's well worth the $25/year to upgrade).

If you're going to build your own site, do it properly. Sites built in WYSIWYG editors stand out, and not in a good way. Implement a CMS of some sort - I'm really not up to speed on what the good ones are - and design a good template for it. Building a personal site that doesn't suck is not an easy task.

Check out the website I used on our 12 month round the world trip. www.getjealous.com it's a free website for up to 30 photo upload I had the £30 annual fee account which allows over 2,000 uploads (wizard guides you thru this process), there's a video sections which I didn't use but may be useful to you. I'm not techni I'm in my 60s and managed to get around and use this site for the whole trip. You have the journal/diary, a map showing your route and where you are,a message board for family and friends to keep up to date with you. It was perfect for us I also kept a hand written daily journal.
Check out our website to see what the format is
www.getjealous.com/trio
Use the libraries worldwide for free Internet use.
Best of luck
Jean

I've said this before around here: I don't like the blog format. I'm not somebody who checks websites on a regular basis or uses RSS to keep up with them. When I do remember a site, I want to go there and easily see where I've left off. With the standard blog template that is a pain in the neck and usually I'll never visit your site again.
Additionally, while stories are great - I'm somebody who's visually inspired. I like photos and maps. Again, the standard blog is not really satisfying me that way.

That's why my favorite sites are not in blog format - nor is mine. 2wanderers is right: if you build your own site, use/create a CMS and work with templates. There are hosts out there that include CMS' in their packages. Shop around. The most important thing you'll have to think about though is Information Architecture. What are your visitors coming to the website for. What do they want to see on first glance. How can you get them to important aspects of the site in one or two clicks (galleries, logs, countries, etc.). How do you streamline your site so that the information is clearly structured for the visitor and that she never feels lost/frustrated with your page. Stuff like that.

2.5 months is not a lot of time to learn all you need to learn. You better get going.

My blog is run by WordPress (it started out in Movable type back in 2003) installed on my own server. If you're not into programming I don't see why you can't use a blogger or other free site that's not personalized.

Now, I'm a graphic Designer by trade (although not really a web designer) and I have basic programming skills. Most people using a service like WordPress use one of the templates for their site and switch out the top image to make it their own. That's pretty easy to do even without programming knowledge.

The design of my site is incredibly personalized, but I'm a designer. I don't think with your time it's realistic to design something from scratch. I created a gallery with free software but I had to install it on my server and tweak it to fit my design. What I did would be very time consuming for someone to learn from scratch and probably not worth it.

My advice is to get something free (blogger, ball of dirt etc.), personalize it with a photo to whatever extent you're allowed and then write. Start writing now about your upcoming trip. Even if you're not ready to write the long write up you intend to on the road keep it up to date. Write one sentence about something that happened to you on the bus. People like blogs with content that is smart, funny and continuously updated.

While I did a trial of most of the 'out of a can' travel blog/website products on offer I didn't really like any of them. Although most people seem to.

After a little more research I ended up setting up my own. Of the CMS that I tried on the market I settled with EE. The support on their forum is second to none and what finally won me over.

As has been said though. It is a lot of work to go down that road. Personally though I think it is worth it as I can have my site and content the way I want it.

Not many people know of the photo site I've been using, Photagious. Main benefit is that the slideshow allows you to play music!

i use a bootsnall blog...i think its great, there is a limit on photos you can upload to the blog but all in all does the job...granted they have ads on it, so your helping them out with it...but if you want something like "yournametravelstheworld." then i suggest godaddy.com and build your own website...there are plenty of free website builders out there, html based which are easy to create...go daddy.com is 1.99 to register and I think maybe 5-10 dollars the second year to have...i do boots because its free and easy and if i have a problem someone at boots can usually help me out...

also I suggest bringing a tiny laptop like an eepc so you can keep track of your travels and then upload them when you have a chance...

As someone with a website as opposed to a blog (tiered navigation rather than chronological), with 250+ pages it's quite an endeavor. Of course anyone can throw up a site by registering a domain name with Go Daddy or anyone else, but putting up a quality website with decent navigation and acceptable design takes an awful lot of work.

If I were on the road right now and wanted to document my trip and keep in touch, I would use a blog, no contest. And of course free! Why pay if I don't have to?

We use wordpress and bought a domain name as well. We're about 4 weeks into our RTW and have had no problems with it thus far. If I could get my wireless working again on my laptop, that would be great, but hey, what can you do?

Thanks all for the great responses! I'm also trying to start up a travel blog and all this info is really helpful.

as someone who runs multiple travel websites, and is a web designer (and devout traveler- work on the road!), i can say that blogger is the worst thing since new coke. go with wordpress- it is much easier to use and comes with many more features.

You can go free with wordpress.com or start your own site with domain name (about 15 dollars) with a hosting coming like mediatemple or hostgator and just install the wordpress platform (one click install). You'll get more functionally from it too and be able to customize your theme.

There are many good blogs out there and the better ones end up getting well known and sponsorship (amtrekker is a great example).

PM if u want more info.

We have a whole website that my husband built from scratch - and it's beautiful! That being said, it's a LOT of work to maintain. If we didn't have a reason for having a website, I would just go with a blog - probably Blogger, but any of them would work just fine.