New year, new image. As promised end of last year, I have done some cleaning up and facelifting to this travel photo blog. As what you are seeing now, the layout is much more cleaner and tidier (or you didn’t notice it at all? ).

Firstly, I have added a new Title image. This is a photo taken on my travel to Phuket a couple of months ago. I found the turquoise sea colour is just right to blend into my blog theme so I made it into a title image. Secondly, I’ve included more posts in the top featured post slider and a secondary slider of my istock photo collection. Thirdly, a new Twitter icon is inserted on top of my sidebar for readers to follow me more closely. Lastly, I have taken out some of my sidebar widgets which were found idling or not so active or popular among my readers over last year, while adding in some useful sections like the ‘Contact Me’ and blog ranking buttons. I leave my footer ‘Flickr‘ slides and ‘Hotel Combined‘ search panel alone as I still find them useful to my readers.

The most significant changes to the sidebar would definitely be the disappearance of those separate link groups for travel blog links, travel links, travel e-book links and travel feeds links. I’ve filtered them all and deactivated those inactive links or travel blogs and group the rest into a complete new page called Travel Links (also see them by clicking the top tab above Title image). Sorry for those who have submitted your travel links to this blog a year ago through my link promotion and found your blog link disappeared from the list. If you think your travel blog is still worth to be included in this blog’s link list, please drop me a note in the comment section of this post and be more active in my community and I’ll put it back on the list!

Ok. Here are some notes to guide you through the navigation process of this travel photo blog to make it better and more efficiently. Don’t get me wrong. Readers can still find everything they want and we have, or understand what are featured on this page. I’m just using this special post to promote these features a bit harder. Can’t I?

• There are 2 rows of tabs above and below the title image on the header;  top tabs are special links to my other blogs, travel links with travel blogs that I read and author and Contact Me page link;
• Bottom tabs are popular categories of my published posts so far. Each category tab features relevant posts in a new page;
• If you are on the home page, you will also see a slideshow featuring 15 recent posts that have the highest visitors traffics for the past month. Clicking any of these image will bring you to a new page for full story of the post;
• On the sidebar, first you can see is my istockphoto collection slideshow. Sit back and view my collection slideshow powered by JWPlayer. Click the photo for next photo. If you like any of them and wish to purchase, just click the link below the images to navigate away to my profile page of istockphoto;
• Next to it is 2 big icons, RSS Feeds and Twitter icon. Click RSS Feeds for free updates of this blog via e-mail. Clicking the twitter bird will let you follow me on Twitter;
• Scrolling down the page you would see some links section connecting to my older but popular posts, my paid text links, my commentators and tags;
• Further down again on left bar is featuring some useful and popular products from Amazon. Buy online and you can support me to earn some commissions while you won’t lose a single penny;
• Not much changes to the right bar except both Archives and Categories section are now ‘drop-down’ instead of ‘show-all’ list, to make it tidy; Also, new buttons for Trusty Index and new section for Contact Me is now included.

Simple, isn’t it? In other words, for certain circumstances, readers can also use these guidelines:

• To see what my other blogs are and also my introduction and Contact Me page, click those top tabs above my title image;
• To see my travel blog lists, click the Travel Link tab on the same row as above;
• To see my popular categories, either click the header tab or select any of the drop down menu on right sidebar;
• To see the most popular posts (in terms of visitors traffics) of 15 posts over the last month, click the image of the slideshow on top of blog to open up a new windows;
• To see the most popular (in terms of comments) commentators for the past month, check the ‘Some Popular Posts’ section on sidebar;
• To search for other older posts, try looking into the Archive or Categories section of sidebars. If you have a tag in mind, try looking for your stories by clicking any of the tags. Or you may check out those related posts listed after the post content;
• To check through the blog’s ranking and reputation, check the ‘Trusty Index‘ section.
• To contact me, click the top tab or read some information at the bottom of my right sidebar.
• To see what’s on offer from the Amazon online shopping facilities, check out the left side bar below the fold;
• To subscribe for fress updates vie e-mail or RSS, click either the big button on top of right sidebar, fill in the subscribe form below it, or click the link at the bottom of each post, and
• Finally, if you think this travel photo blog is worth your time reading it, consider to buy me a cup of coffeee!

So, you don’t have any excuse to not view other pages or sections of Travel Feeder by now. Enjoy reading! Please comment if you have any issues or recommendations to this travel photo blog. Thanks.  – Travel Feeder.

This is an important and exciting moment of Travel Feeder. Yes! I’m so excited to announce this and I hope you will too! As an effort to promote my travel blog, Travel Feeder, a complete list of useful and informative links is proved to be essential. It is inevitably one of the most common characteristics of popular travel blogs that I’ve come across. And I think now is just the right timing for me to include these links in Travel Feeder since it’s going to be 3 months old very soon.

However, adding links by myself is inadequate and too personal. There are so many great and popular blogs or websites around that I might have overlooked or not discovered. Since they are shared with everybody, links suggested by everybody would be ideal. Then it was 1 evening while I was surfing net searching for some travel information, this idea suddenly stroke my mind: To Open For Public To Submit Websites or Travel Blogs to Travel Feeder, and it could be your own blog or other quality blogs that you have just Stumbled Upon or Digged! Once I’ve received your submission, I will link it up in Travel Feeder immediately!

For the moment, as you could notice it in both of my blog’s side columns, I’ve categorised links into 5 different link groups, namely:

1. Travel Blogs;
2. Travel Links;
3. Travel Tips;
4. Travel e-Book, and
5. Blogroll for other quality blogs.

What you need to do is to submit your comment to this post with the URL of the blogs or websites and that’s it! Based on the category of your submitted URL, I will add it into one of the groups above. This exercise is starting NOW! Upon request, I could review your websites or blogs too, subject to its suitability to my travel blog. START COMMENTING NOW! ‘Why should I?’ Here are the Top 5 Reasons:

1. Your blogs or websites are going to be linked by this upcoming and agressively self-promoting travel blog and NO link exchange is required ;
2. Your blog link will be PERMANENTLY appeared in Travel Feeder, as long as it’s something great for other travelers;
3. Upon request, your blog could also be featured in Travel Feeder‘s blog reviews of the month;
4. As part of the community love to help sharing useful links to fellow travelers, and
5. Last and the most important reason: Come on and SUPPORT ME!!!

If you think this is just another gimmick of blog promotion, you may be right. But before you leave, COMMENT this first! This exercise is for a limited time and limited space ONLY. So better be HURRY and start to COMMENT NOW! Cheers, mate! – Travel Feeder.

p/s: 1st update! On top of the above, I’m now offering an addition RSS Feed link group! Yes, RSS Feed Links! That means you may include your RSS Feed URL in your comment to this post and I’ll add it under the group where travelers could subscribe to your RSS feed HERE in Travel Feeder!! If you are too busy to visit Travel Feeder for the update, you may prefer to subscribe my RSS Feed for FREE!

NEW: Thank you very much for your link submissions. The FREE promotion is just over! You may still submit your travel website and we will post it to our Travel Link section with a nominal fees to my PayPal account. Contact chienchoilee(AT)hotmail.com for more information. Thank You.

I’m not self-promoting, mate! I’m just being an observer viewing from a helicopter at those popular travel blogs in the blogophere and I’m also trying hard to learn from them too! My conclusion is those popular travel blogs have certain common characteristics and features and I hope my finding here could be a preliminary guide to whoever going to start blogging travel OR just starting to blog about travel (that’s me!). If you these would interest you, please read on. If not, please read on too.

Here are the top 5 undisputable keys to success:

1. Great content – Yes. The contents must be great and original. It sounds simple but actually not. You have to post something interesting and informative blog and other people likes to read about. It could be either your travel experience, the latest travel related news or travel tips. Moreover, your writing skill have also to be lively and humorous, or sometime narrative enough to attract people to continue reading. It could also be some other people’s experience but first blog it by you! On top of that, good contents have to be continuous and frequent but not once and for all;
2. Great Blog Design – Eye catching and refreshing blog design certainly a must in all popular travel blogs. Travelling is all about leisure so travel blogs have also to be entertaining and exciting. Colour scheme in this case could be more vibrant but navigation about blog must still be easy;
3. Full of links – Links about travel related information, travel tips, hotel information, airline  booking links are among those popular lists in those popular travel blog. Travelers visit your travel blog for stories about travel and they are definitely interesting to know more about other related travel info. The more beneficial travel links your blog has, the more often your readers will visit you again;
4. Great Photos – This is the first thing that caught my attention. Travel blog is always related to travel photos. Photos for travel destination, travel experiences, travel news, foods or even happening on your travel. In order to make up a complete travel weblog, writing must be accompanied with related photos, or illustration. Nice photos could always attract people drop-by your blog more often. Not all travelers afford to travel the world and they will appreciate your photos to that travel destination more if it’s original. You may want to include some sneak shots to places or people that we will not be able to see from the newspapers or magazines!, and
5. Personality of the author – This is the most important aspect of a popular travel blog! I put it here as the last key because it overrides the all other top 4 characteristics above!! Why I think the author is so important? Let’s imagine this: Will you visit a travel blog, IF, it’s author is Barack Obama? Or Bill Gate? Or Jakie Chan? Or Brad Pitt? Angelina Jolie? Who else? No matter how bad is the story, the blog design, the photos, huge amount of people will still visit their travel blogs, right? Beside those celebrities or Billionaires, travel blogs of a girl will have certain advantages over those of a guy! (you can dispute this though but it’s my finding and I’m not sexist! ).

What do you think? There are other features that could make a travel blog popular off course and that’s up to you folks to figure out. Or you could always comment on my above Top 5 characteristics. If you agree on what I’m posting here, you may prefer to subscribe for free RSS updates of Travel Feeder. However, for those who blog travel for other travelers in this world will need to achieve these standards if you want to popularise your blog. I’m learning…. – Travel Feeder.

This is the second consecutive month after we kick started this exciting project last month: The montly review of the Top 5 Travel Blog in the world. This review extends our commitment to provide another source of travel guides to our readers through recommending the latest popular travel websites around us. Same as last month, we picked only 5 of the many travel blogs we explored in the internet as our top 5 travel blogs of our choice, in terms of its ingenuity, popularity, informative and easy reading plus frequently updated. From there, we review each one of them and add this blog to our featured Travel List so that our readers could, in addition to all the travel tips and guides we are feeding, further benefit from these carefully selected travel blogs. Happy reading!

This month, for the second month, based on our criteria, we picked and reviewed these 5 travel blogs of the month: August 08:-

1. Malaysia Food Blog, Malaysia Travel Blog- The title says it all; It’s all about foods and travel in Malaysia. That’s partly why I love this blog. For a blog of slightly more than 2 years old, Ah Lum, the author has been concentrating on all kind of good foods and hot places in Malaysia. His efforts in promoting Malaysia is very encouraging. Apart from the ‘straight-to-the-point’ blog title, what this blog really caught my attention is those sharp close-up photos he took by his Canon Powershot which are extremely fantastic! I shall say that whatever food and places shot by him will all turn delicious and attractive! Oops! I meant more delicious and more attractive… phew… A google Pagerank-4 site with over 600 unique visitors/day, MFBMTB is surely successful. Reasons why are very simple: Good contents, distinguished close up photos, clean blog layout and easy to navigate about. Light or white blog background colour just make those photos more outstanding. He argued that his english writing is not as narrative but at least he is better than mine. If you want him to review your food, you could always ask him, for Free (no longer available as of 2011)! ;
2. Travel Blissful - Previously called Blissful Travel, this travel blog posts articles about trends in travel, travel destinations, foods, events, fashion to travel gadget! The author, Erica Johansson is a freelance writer and photographer from Sweden. Her tempting writing skill has made all posts alive and attractive for reading further. It was an interesting experience when I just couldn’t resist but to continue reading for more then 20 posts in my first visit to Blissful Travel. Though some of them are featured post by other travelers, her careful selection of such contents has just made her blog more informative. How about her blog layout and theme? From Blogger.com to self hosted, Erica blogs on WordPress platform now and the magazine-like blog theme just made Travel Blissful even better to read. Only one thing to complain: No current potrait of Ms. Erica for me to post it here (hope Ms. Erica won’t mind to let me post her childhood potrait here instead);
3. iTravelnet – Initially created by James Clark as a travel directories for travelers. James launched his blog section in year 2006 to feature all his travel experience, news and tips with plenty of photos and these have further enriched his already informative travel blog. You could find lots of travel information including links to hotels, airlines, insurance and travel blogs as well. You know what? Travel feeder is featured in the list too ! About the blog design: Four columns simple wordpress theme while black and blue coloured text on white background surely impressed readers for its professionalism. And I personally love his review of every single detail of Singapore city but when are you coming to Malaysia again?;
4. Lifecruiser – One of the common charateristic of a popular travel blog is the author’s ability to humor. Lifecruiser has it. Though the author, nicknamed Mrs. Life Cruiser hasn’t got as wide the travel experience around the world as some other travelers, Mrs. Lifecruiser has successfully written posts around her country, Sweden, in such an amusing manner. Readers especially travelers love these style, including me!! Mrs. Life Cruiser just loves to enjoy her life, blog only when she feel like and most importantly, it’s not just for money (according to Mrs. Life Cruiser but if she sells it, whoever like it will need to pay over $500k for how much it worth!), friends and family are her assets as well. It could be witnessed from all her and Mr. Lifecruiser’s outing and parties sessions with their friends. About the blog design: I would say unique and beautiful. Custom designed by Leanne Wildermuth, Mrs. Life Cruiser is just another pirate of the Carribean, anchored in Sweden. Because of copyright issue, I could only post this cartoon figure here….
5. Everything Everywhere – Yes, it’s about everything in everywhere in the world Mr. Gary Arndt has travelled to. This is a travel blog about travel experiences of a self-traveler with full of exciting moments. ….Gary explained: [The question I get all the time from everyone I talk to about my trip is “where are you going?” My reply is always “everywhere”]. Since March 2007, Gary has visited many places in New Zealand, Australia and also Asia countries, including my Malaysia . All are without proper planning and schedule. He just made me jealous for this scarce opportunity to travel alone with little time and cost constraints (Wow, when could I have a chance like his?). Great expedition experience, lively writing skill and nice photos are 3 main attractions for such a popular blog with over 600 RSS subscriptions! About the blog design: no fuss 3-column layout, straight to the point, clearly distinguished content area with white coloured background. After all, Gary is good in internet marketing too!

These are the Top 5 Travel Blogs I discovered last month and which I think are worth a review from Travel Feeder. And because they are so popular with so many fans around, I really stretched my head and spend more hours to write this review more carefully. I hope you will like this as much as I do. And if you like this post and hope to have more stories and regular updates from me, please spare a couple of minute to Subscribe to Travel Feeder’s RSS Feeds – Travel Feeder.

Travel Feeder is proud to kick start this exciting project: The montly review of the Top 5 Travel Blog in the world. This review extends our commitment to provide another source of travel guides to our readers through recommending the latest popular travel websites around us. In every month, we will pick only 5 of the many travel blogs we explore in the internet as our top 5 travel blogs of our choice, in terms of its popularity, informative and easy reading plus frequently updated. From there, we review each one of them and add this blog to our featured Travel List so that our readers could, in addition to all the travel tips and guides we are feeding, further benefit from these carefully selected travel blogs. Happy reading!

This month, for the first month, based on our criteria, we picked and reviewed these 5 travel blogs of the month: July 08:-

1) The Cranky Flier

• This is the winner of 2007 Travvies Best Single author blog for Best informative/ practical travel blog; 2007 Readers’ Choice Best Travel Blog; The Observer’s Choice of the 50 most powerful blog in the world; The following is about the author:-

• “There’s nowhere to hide for airlines these days. Not with self-confessed ‘airline dork’ Brett Snyder, aka Cranky Flier, keeping tabs on their progress. He’s moved on from spending his childhood birthdays in airport hotels, face pressed against the window watching the planes come in, and turned his attention to reporting on the state of airlines. His CV is crammed with various US airline jobs, which gives him the insider knowledge to cast his expert eye over everything from the recent 777 emergency landing at Heathrow to spiralling baggage handling costs and the distribution of air miles to ‘virtual assistants’.” – According to The Observer (UK) magazine.

• For those frequent flier, you can’t miss his insight stories about so many airlines from Virgin, USAir to Alitalia;

• “If there are travel pundits, The Cranky Flier is one of the best. With snarky, critical and sometimes humorous comments about the airline and travel industries, The Cranky Flier is a crowd pleaser.” - Performancing.com

• We love his idea also to have an online store selling Cranky Flier’s apparel, mugs and hats. Wow, he is such a dork. Need we say more?

2) Travelerfolio.com

• This inspiring travel photo blog could sometimes be grouped as photo blogs with lots of beautifully taken photos of many attraction tourists destination in the world like Italy, New York, Vietnam, Malaysia, France, German, Austria, Shanghai and so on;
• Blog is clean and beautifully design with hints of energetic lady’s spirit in it with a sweet author’s avatar on top of it; Very easy to explore about with post archive and photos being categorised according to geographical areas;
• Readers could even download some of the nicely taken wallpaper from the wallpaper section;
• Author’s passionate to share her travel experiences until she would disclose how she did her *business* in the toilet in the dark!
• Readers or her members can even chat with her live through its interactive chat box provided, and
• Travelerfolio.com is currently ranked 1st at the Top100travellingsite. The author, Eunice, is eager to have her visitors to vote for her for Best Photo Blog in Singapore Blog Awards.

3) Nomatic Matt’s Travel Site

• The author, Matt, set this blog up to track his travels as well as give people practical advice on traveling so that they can also explore the world;
• In July 2006, Matt quit his job in America and went explore the world to all around America, Central America, Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia. He is still travelling the world now! While he is travelling, he blogs, and that’s why this blog is so interesting;
• This travel blog is full with rich travel experiences from Matt and lots of extraordinary destination with lots of photos taken. Though it is a bit tricky to explore its blog, once you click around and you will find great stuff beneath!
• With his 41 travel goals set, namely climb to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Everest, learn scuba diving, visit every continent, visit pyramid, see the nothern light, visit Tibet, fly first class and so on, and his publication experience, surely readers will be hooked to this blog, and
• 3rd ranked travel blog in Top100travellingsite is doubtless.

4) Travel Blog.org

• This blog is actually not a personal travel blog but is a travel blog portal website for travelers to create their individual travel blogs online;
• As the author explained,

• Travel Blog is a unique free online travel diary for travellers across the world. It works from internet cafes and computers world wide, to allow you to update an online travel diary, it is free to join and takes just minutes to setup, all you need is a working email address;

• Nonetheless, the author, Ali – Alistair Watters, is also a travel enthusiat that his go-around-the-world travel experience is featured here also;
• The blog has over 50,000 members with over 200,000 blog entries and 1.5 million photos! So, you could get whatever information here by selecting your country or area of interest which have been well categorised and managed;
• With the new inclusion of forum, members could share their ideas and comment when they prefer not to write post articles, and
• The membership is growing rapidly; Perhaps you should start your own?

5) Intelligent Travel

• The 2007 Travvies Big winner for Best Travel Blog, the ultimate award; From National Geographic Traveler, Emily King and researcher Jessie Johnston round up travel tips and news in a very National Geographic way of presentation; As IT quoted :-

• Intelligent Travel is about exploring the intersection of authentic and sustainable travel. We want to showcase the essence of place, what’s unique and original, what locals cherish most about where they live. And we want to highlight places, practices, and people that are on the front lines of sustainable travel—travel that preserves places’ essential uniqueness for future generations.

• With the mission of Inspiring people to care about the planet, readers could always find some good quality travel stories there, and
• We love to explore the other aspect of travel that IT is about. Do you?

Ok. It wraps up our Top 5 Travel Blog Review Of The Month. We found out that it is so challenging trying to look for quality travel blogs around and our selection is just our personal opinions as a traveler and blogger and perhaps readers of this blog may have different opinions and suggestions. Travel Feeder reserves the right to revise these selection anytime. Bravo! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog