Hi all,

I was supposed to be giving at talk at the HUBB UK meet today but a leg infection means I'm at home with my leg up

So, I've decided to put the content of the talk here. I'll put each section as a follow up,

BACKGROUND

So first a bit of background...

The first Hubb I attended was in 2003 after a trip around Morocco with my good friend Dave (Adventure Spec) where I gave my first talk:



At the time I was working as a website developer but the lure of adventure was too much so I filled a Citroen C15D with adventure sports gear and headed off around Europe for a year and a half that involved a ski season, mountaineering, off-road riding in Romania and a few s. This was the first time I kept a blog as I travelled, writing up my escapades as they happened.



Upon arriving back in the UK, I changed jobs to manage website development projects working for marketing agencies. A house purchase in 2007 took away the adventure opportunity for a while so at the 2008 HUBB, to get me back into the spirit, I did a video talk on "Building the Bionic Adventure Biker" with the great assistance of my friend Jim "The Camera":





After the house renovation dust settled, in 2011 for a few weeks, I could be found on a Honda step-through in Thailand:



So...the present...in 2014, I ride a Yamaha TRX 850, am saving for a GS to persuade my wife to get on the back of a bike and am just back from a honeymoon in Costa Rica with some nice 4x4 on their dirt roads.

WHAT THIS POST WILL GIVE YOU

I plan to give practical guidance to help people blog from the road by using social media or setting up their own website. As head of digital for a marketing agency, I will certainly cover the technical aspects of setting up a website but want to go a bit further to help people get more from their blogging, thinking about their audience and content.



Jasper Ditton

The first step is to be clear about why you want to blog and what are your communication goals.

I've put what I think are the main reasons below:

1. A record for memory
The 2x photos at the bottom of this post are from a solo tour around Europe I did on my first motorbike, a Kawaskai GPZ 500. When travelling solo, you miss the opportunity to chat over the day's events over a and whilst a picture is a good prompt, it doesn't capture everything. For example, the flag photo is when the crowd in La Rochelle went mad (in 2000) after France did the double - winning the European cup 2 years after winning the world cup. 10 mins after that shot, I ended up climbing a statue, being given a flag and leading the 2000-strong crowd in their own national anthem. I was rather preoccupied about being found out as an English impostor to take a photo! When I got back to the campsite, I still managed to (slightly drunkenly) scrawl a summary of the night's events in my journal.

The other photo was a great camping spot I found on the east coast of France. My journal provided a lot more detail than the picture portrays: my excitement about finding a privy with a tap with running water (I think it was a summer garden) and some great rock to climb on the beach below.

2. Keep in touch with family & friends
Especially if you're planning a long trip, you'll want to keep in touch with family and friends. Particularly if you're in different time zones, a blog is a great way for them to see where you are and how your trip is progressing.

3. Commercial reasons
I'll come back to this later - but for longer trips, their may be a commercial element such as:

• Raising money for charity - generating ongoing publicity to encourage continuing donations
• Showing thanks to sponsors
• Using as a platform for paid writing - either resyndicating material you've written for other publications or referring people to those publications

When I did my first adventure blog in 2003 whilst travelling around Europe in a Citroen C15D doing lots of adventure sports, I created a website then had to find internet cafes to create a new blog page and upload the text. I had the technical skills to do this but 11 years later the world has changed a lot, so the first question I would ask you to pose yourself is...

Do you really need a website?
Social media platforms provide great communication platforms and best of all, you can get apps for your smartphone that allow you to upload photos, videos, comment and get involved discuss on the road over 3G or Wifi. Leave the laptop at home - harder to charge - and take your iPhone or iPad.

Once you're clear on your communication goals and your audience, then see if one of these are for you.

Here are my suggestions based on who you want to communicate to and the style of that communication:

• Only family & friends - setup a Facebook group set to secret
• Mainly family & friends but they're not all on Facebook and it's not that private - setup a public Facebook page (even non-FB users can view)
• I use Facebook for private so don't want my trip on - Setup a Google+ profile or Google+ page
• I don't like writing much but want to post short updates and pictures for a wide audience - Setup a Twitter profile
• I just want to do a photo diary - Setup a Pinterest or Flickr account
• I just want to do a video diary - Setup a YouTube account
• I want to display sponsor logos prominent or have banners for my charity - consider a website
• I want to write long articles and have pages about my trip - consider a website

Notes

• Both Facebook and Google+ have individual profiles and "pages" - on the Apple iOS Google+ app you can only edit individual profiles
• If you use a social media account as your platform you can still have your own website domain (e.g. www.jaspersmotorbiketrip.com) to help with publicity as when you buy it, most domain registrars will allow you to setup redirection. Just add the URL (web address) of your social media account.
• You may want a combination of networks - for example, you may publicise updates on your Facebook page via Twitter.

HOT TIP
When travelling, I take a ruggedised rechargable battery pack with solar charger. You can charge its battery to about 70% with solar -
Power Monkey Explorer

For a website to support your adventure blogging you need 3x things:

1. A domain (e.g. www.awebsiteaddressjustforyourtrip.co.uk)
2. A host - where the files site
3. A content management system (CMS) - to make page editing easy

1. A domain
Your website's domain is essentially its "address" - how people find you. Traditionally, there have been country-based domain options like .CO.UK for the UK and .COM for US companies but there has been the recent introduction of generic top-level domain (gTLD)s around subjects - for example, I own (http://overland.bike). A good summary of all the new ones you can buy can be found here: https://gtld.123-reg.co.uk/

2. A host
If a domain is like a postal address, then the host is like the ground under your bricks and mortar. There are lots of hosting companies worldwide (Domain Names | The World's Largest Domain Name Registrar - GoDaddy, Professional Web Hosting from Just Host, Web Hosting, Domains, VPS, Dedicated and WordPress Hosting - DreamHost etc.) and many provide a domain registration free of charge and an email account specific to your domain (e.g. email@jaspersbiketrip.com).

3. A content management system (CMS)
A CMS allows you to update pages and create posts with a Microsoft Word style interface and most allow you to apply a "theme". My recommendation is the popular Wordpress platform - which I'll go into detail in the next post...

-- RANDOM PICTURE INSERTION --
I was struggling with accompanying pictures for this bit! :-)

Worried about not being able to pack in all you need for your overland trip? Well in my 03-05 trip around Europe in a car-van, I managed to fit in: a paraglider, a snowboard, a mountain bike, climbing gear (ropes + rack), Scuba gear (fins, mask) along with the usual selection of stove, food, clothes etc.

Wordpress is a CMS that is used by about 50% of all websites worldwide that use a CMS. It provides a really simple interface that anyone familiar with Microsoft Word or Open Office will be able to use:



As it's so widely used, the platform provides a lot of online help materials and you can get a huge amount of free and premium (paid) "themes" - that give your website a unique look and feel.

Your choices essentially boil down to:

• Self-host: I want more control
• Hosted on Wordpress.com - easier to setup but less control

All my recommendations are from personal experience in terms of build quality/support etc. *** Get in touch if you want any more info! ***

1. Self-host
If you are of a technical mindset, then you might want to setup Wordpress yourself. You will need to find a host (e.g. Dreamhost.com) then install Wordpress then add the theme and customise it yourself. Whilst you can download Wordpress yourself from WordPress.org, many hosts offer "one-click-installs" - this is much quicker and then they will automatically update it for you when security patches or updates are released. For hosts, I would recommend Professional Web Hosting from Just Host if you have one site only, if you want more configuration options and are more technical, then Web hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS hosting, webhosting by DreamHost is good.

There are lots of suppliers of Wordpress themes (just Google "premium wordpress themes") but I would recommend www.eleganthemes.com, www.woothemes.com/ and any of the themes on ThemeForest.net with good reviews and high sales.


Here are a couple of great aspects for self-host Wordpress for adventure blogging:

1. Post by email plugin
2. You can buy and add some great themes like this one!

2. Hosted on Wordpress.com
If you don't have the confidence to setup your own self-host version of Wordpress, the platform also provides a "hosted" version. The free version has adverts but the premium version allows you to use your own website address and doesn't have adverts:
https://signup.wordpress.com/signup/

Here are a couple of great aspects of Wordpress.com for adventure blogging:

1. App to upload content (iPhone + Android)
2. Post by Voice

You can't upload premium themes you've purchased elsewhere but there are 275 themes you can use (32 tagged as travel, 221 tagged as blog)

The extract below is from the now-expired blog I kept when I travelled around Europe in my minivan which used to appear under the address: (www.buyashitcaranddriveituntilitdies.co.uk).

As you might have guessed from the address, the style was irreverant and full of humour. Whilst it was publicly accessible, I had no sponsors or commercial activity, I didn't promote it widely and it was mainly aimed at keeping my friends up-to-date with my wanderings. Many of them are mountaineers and climbers so you can see, I included some specific information such as the peak heights which would be irrelevant to most people.

When starting to blog consider:

• Tone of voice - What's appropriate - professional? use of humour? language?
• Length of posts - Is the audience dedicated enough to read 2,000 words (e.g. your Mum) or would shorter updates fit better?
• Who might be reading - Everything on the Internet is here for ever. When you get back from your trip, do you think it'll cause an issue if your account of busting out of a Bolivian jail is available for all to see!?

-- Extract from my (www.buyashitcaranddriveituntilitdies.co.uk) adventure, May 2004. --

After my friend reluctantly got on a plane, my thoughts turned to GR20, the hardest trek in Europe which spans Corsica's mountain range. Slightly early in the season, it was going to be hard and wintry, but my 30kg sack contained axes and crampons and I felt ready. I dispatched the hardest northern sections with ease, finding time to climb Corsica's highest peak, Monte Cinto (2706m) and its third highest, Paglia Orba (2525m). However, as I got nearer to the one remaining hard stage, a freak, unseasonal storm hit. After a day resting in a refuge from a torrential rain, hail and snow storm, it looked like the storm had a break in it. Below is my diary entry for Friday 7th May, describing my last day on the GR20 for the time being. As the stormy weather continues, I shall be found resting on the sunny (but windy) coast with a . It was rather different a few days ago!!...

Guagno: Not exactly on the GR20, but its Gite d'etape (hostel) was a welcome end point yesterday after the execution of my personal GR20 variant - "escape from storm and potential epic". It panned out like this:

Got up yesterday at 5am to the dawning of a cloudy sky with sunny patches. It looked like the storm had passed, so I decided to make a break for it. A breakfast of oats someone had left in the refuge saw me ready about half six. This was about the time Arne and Stef got up so I was able to say goodbye to them. I really enjoyed chatting to Arne the day before and agreed with him that I felt a bit of sadness that our temporary refuge community was coming to an end. I also said goodbye to Yan and Clara, but hadn't really bonded that much with them. Still I have Arne's address in Berlin and will definately call in at some point - he said the invitation was open, if only for a shower after months of van living!! I left them admiring the dawn and strided up into the snow. With the orangey light, the still panorama of the frozen landscape was particularly beautiful and I stopped several times to take photos. As I climbed higher, the clouds drew in and the beauty receded slightly to be replaced by light snow showers. The snow also became hard work - a 3inch hard crust lay over 1ft of powder on a frozen base. Every step involved an irritating and energy-consuming break-through-the-crust-and-sink movement. I tried to balance myself on the crust using my trekking poles but this had limited success. To add to my frustrations, my slightly too cheap and already partially-knackered gaiters decided to completely give up the ghost. As straps and velco disintegrated, I had to duck-tape them to my boots before I could continue to the Breche de Capitellu (2225m). I got there for about 10:30am, only an hour over guidebook time. I thought this not bad going considering the conditions. The wind had picked up and the visability had dropped, but it was no worse than some of the conditions I've enjoyed Scottish winter climbing in. So, with 10hrs of daylight remaining, I decided to continue rather than turn back. I had to traverse a valley to join a ridge after Punta alle Porta (2313m) and, after digging an avalanche pit to check the slopes, I set off.

The traverse was south verring to southeast in a sort of quarter-circle. Unfortunately, in the low visability I ended up traversing over a rounded part of the ridge onto its back and began to have doubts about the surrounding terrain. I checked my map and GPS and used that information to regain the ridge just before midday. I even spotted some of the summer route markings so continued as a happier bunny. However, as I picked my way along the 2042m ridge, I noticed the visability was dropping and the winds were getting stronger, probably gusting 40-50mph. Still, I've been in worse and knew that there would be respite ahead - the route breaks off the ridge down to 1300m before cresting the ridge later on during the final stage. This loop off the ridge was marked on the map and in the guidebook as an almost 90 degree swing to the left. I found the last markers on the ridge, but kept ending up descending a spur on the other side of the ridge. Navigation was hampered by my compass which had - probably altitude related - gained a huge air bubble and the action of an epileptic at a disco!! Still, ever the resourceful mountaineer, I decided to use the compass built into my GPS. Unfortunately, this can't be used very effectively whilst moving, so I had to keep stopping as the horizontal and vertical hail onslaught began. After another recce and subsequent ending up on the wrong side of the ridge, I stopped to take stock of the situation: It was almost 4pm, I was alone at just under 2000m, 75% along the route and the weather conditions were worsening.

I decided my new priority was not GR20, but a quick and safe descent to a lower altitude where, if needs be, I would bivvy for the night. Since I was on that side of the ridge I decided to descend towards the Domaniale de Libio area. From the map, the slopes looked reasonably gentle and there didn't seem to be any major rocky features. This was true, but I still had a tricky plod through some dense, catchy juniper patches with several streams and gullies to cross or downclimb. However, keeping my progress downwards steady and constant, I reached the treeline within an hour or so. I began to notice and follow tracks which I thought might be human as there was a bergerie (summer hill farm) marked on the map. This was soon disregarded as I noticed dung that only someone with a cruel and rare bowel complaint would be capable of producing!! I then had my first wild encounter with a sanglier - a wild boar. I had met one before as a plat du jour, but this time, would the tables be turned? Getting ready to use my trekking poles against any charging swine, I found that, in fact, the sight of a 5ft10 orange hiker was enough to scare them shitless! Encounter over, I headed towards the raging torrent of the river Grossu. After a bit of searching, I spotted a boulder hopping sequence which, whilst tricky and marginal, was my only viable option. Having skillfully negotiated this, I mantleshelfed onto the final boulder only to be attacked by brambles! Trial by snow, wind, hail, pig, water, brambles and what else...?

I very much doubted fire and as I gained the footpath running next to the river, the 5mm diameter hail agreed! I walked up the path to the "Bergeries de Bassitone" at 1200m and decided to again analyse my situation. It was now 6pm and I was on a path which led to the refuge de Pietra Piana, my original destination. However, it's at 1842m and it was still hailing in biblical proportions at 1200m. I decided a more sensible option would be to descend along the path to Guagno. This lowland route was 7-8km as the crow flies but in reality, over 10km. Running on Ditton reserve power and Twix's, I finally arrived at Guagno as it got dark at 9pm. After a 14½hr exercise binge, I needed shelter, food and rest, but it took several conversations with Corsican old timers before I could find and let myself into the deserted Gite. The heaters didn't work but there was a small amount of wood left near the fireplace. Not enough to dry anything, but enough to warm my digits as I ate my pasta and sauce with some sausage Stef kindly gave me. At around 11pm I fell into the sort of coma you can't even dream in!

I decided to stay in the Gite today so this morning I laid my kit out to dry and sawed up a piece of 2x4 I found by a bin. This should warm my cockles as I consume the sausage butty feast I procurred at the village grocers. Tomorrow, I've decided to walk a variant of the Mare a Mare trek to the refuge de l'Onda on the GR20. If the weather's improved - at the moment (4pm), there's still horizontal drizzle - I can then rejoin GR20. Alternatively, I can continue to rejoin civilisation at Tattone, perhaps taking the toy-style railway northwards to Bernard. As another sub-adventure within my shit car adventure is laid to paper, I can only hope my next demanding situation involves 2 bisexual lesbians who need assistance. However, who knows?

Dodgy, Reclining Mountaineer Pose

There may be a commercial aspect to your trip; perhaps you are raising money for charity and have persuaded companies to loan or donate equipment. Perhaps they have contributed a lot of their time and have offered ongoing support?

In each case, your blogging can give you an opportunity to say thanks and create an ongoing relationship with the supplier than may last over many trips.

My tips are:

• Equipment photos - suppliers often struggle for "in use" shots. As well as scene photos, take some closeups of their products in use. You don't have to post them all but when you get back with a bank of imagery for your suppliers to use in their marketing, I'm sure they will thank you for it!
• Consider an advert linking back to the sponsor's website
• Perhaps do a talk for their employees after you get back
• Feed back any product ideas or suggestions you have after you use them

To give you an example, I think the best boots for adventure motorcycling are the Hogg All Weather boots from Altberg.



I bought my first pair in 2002 and when I motorbiked through Morocco in 2003, I wore them all day on the bike, washed off the sand in the shower, then wore them all night. I have since hiked up mountains, rode C90s in Thailand and done all sorts. I needed a new pair this year after 12 years of good use so when I purchased Overland.bike is for sale! A great domain for adventure motorcyclists or businesses that sell to them! with the purpose of selling it to the adventure biking community (to fund a new adventure bike), they agreed to place an advert in exchange for a discount on my new pair: we worked out the value for both parties



Chatting to them when I got measured for the boots, they also mentioned that a group of riders said they too loved the Hogg All Weather Boots but they were planning to go to the desert and they needed more ventilation. Altberg produced a special version for desert riding on their request - highlighting my point about feeding back product information:

I hope it helps you get started with your blogging.

Feel free to post a comment with any queries and I'll do my best to answer!

Jasper

Very useful! Thanks.

__________________
Tucson, Arizona, USA
http://wearesane.wix.com/wearesane

Just looking at the extract from the "buyashitcar"etc blog. For me it's not the length but the layout that determines whether I'll read it or not. Solid blocks of text that are ok to read on the printed page or even on a Kindle just cause my eyes to skate over it on a screen.

It may of course just be me - dodgy eyes. semi senile brain etc, but I tend to approach screen based layout differently from print, breaking it up into short blocks. What do you think?

Other than that thanks for posting those articles. I can't believe I haven't come across them before now.

Hi backofbeyond,

Yes I think in my next travel blog, I would certainly stay away from large blocks of text and use images and embedded video to make the content more digestible.

I should point out - that was written in 2003/4 beginning in re-YouTube days and as I was writing for an engaged audience (friends and family), I knew they would be motivated to read it all.

If your blog has a wider audience then you've definitely got to consider what they would be motivated to read and consider a waterfall format: snippet of information/summary with a click-through to the article in detail.

Yes, remember the sponsor but please stay somehow, at least, close to the truth! I´ve red tons of posts specially of one tire which everybody is using, at least at the beginning of the trip, just because the manufacturer is giving them away for free, just write them a mail and you can pick two or three pairs up from the factory in Germany. And then: “We made about 40.000 – 60.000km with these tires and they would last another 30.000 without problems, unbelievable!” Yes unbelievable; indeed it is (my dear yedi!). And then when you read the travel post in detail they tell stories of how hard it was to find a tire replacement again and again (but the whole leg of the trip was only about 30.000 km and they “had to find new tires in all kind of places”?).
BTW, I got these tires and they lasted just 5.000km before they dissolved in the middle of the jungle, and when I contacted the guys they told me “Sorry, but this tires were not made for the kind of adventure you use them for, get lost…”.
So if you are “sponsored” there is nothing bad about it, just stay with the truth and don´t bullshit around as it will come back to you anyhow!

Just my 5 cent

__________________
Round the world by bike. www.RTWbyBIKE.com

Thank you so much for this explanation. Your post#4 was what I needed to get me going. I've done plenty of searches on the web and Youtube trying to break the code of the essential items needed to be put into place to start a travel blog. I could not find anywhere a concise, yet complete list of what I needed and why.
From my research I was piecing it together but I wasn't confident that something essential was missing. So, within an hour of reading your post, I had a domain name, web hosting site (Bluehost), a picture hosting site (SmugMug) and a content management tool (wordpress.org). I also found your other posts on the subject to be important and useful.

Hi Hardmat

Just wondering a couple of years on how this went for you, do you have a website link?

__________________
Newbie ADV rider hungry to learn,