Oct 2007

This article has been moved to our wiki travel guide for easier updating and reference: How to use Google Feedburner on your Travel Blog.

This "How to" guide gives a rundown of the steps needed to create a Feedburner feed and how to use it together with your Travellerspoint blog.

Create Your Feed
1. On the Feedburner homepage enter your blog's web address in the big input box in the middle of the page right under "Start Burning Now". In our case, as indicated in the below screenshot, we will be 'burning' the Travellerspoint blog feed.

Don't check the "I am a podcaster" box as this functionality is not offered on Travellerspoint blogs.

2. On the next page (should start with "Welcome!"), make sure the Feed Title and Feed Address are values that you like. You can change these here if you like.

3. Right underneath the Feed Address you will see the option to create an account or sign in if you already have one. Assuming you don't have a Feedburner account, enter a Username, Password and supply your Email Address here. For convenience sake you might consider choosing the same details as you have on Travellerspoint, but it can be anything you like.

When you've supplied all the required information on this page, click Activate Feed ». A "Congrats!" page should appear.

4. Read all of the information on this "Congrats!" page, then click Next » to continue with the setup process. Configuration options for FeedBurner stats services should appear.

5. On the stats configuration page, select the level of feed stats detail you want. We're stat nuts and considering these extras are free (thanks to the purchase of Feedburner by Google), we're going to tick all of them.

Click Next » to finish the setup process and enter the feed management interface. You're now ready to make your FeedBurner feed available on your Travellerspoint blog!

Redirecting Your Travellerspoint Feed to Your FeedBurner Feed
Because you are already using Travellerspoint's excellent travel blogging system, you will already have an XML feed (full or snippets only) for your blog by default. Travellerspoint can make sure all feed traffic for your blog content automatically starts going to your FeedBurner feed. This helps make sure your FeedBurner stats are much more comprehensive and accurate; even subscribers to your original Travellerspoint feed are routed through FeedBurner!

To redirect your feed:

1. In a new browser window or tab, sign in to your Travellerspoint account.
2. From the "My Blogs" area, choose the "Settings" link for the blog you wish to promote and redirect the feed for.

The Settings page for your selected blog should appear. Underneath the main blog settings area, there are a number of optional settings you can choose from.

3. Type your complete FeedBurner feed address into the "Feed redirect URL" text field. Make sure you type in your entire feed address including the "http://" portion. If you forgot the exact feed URL, you can find it under "My Feeds" or by clicking the "Edit Feed Details" links on Feedburner.

4. Click "Update Settings". You should see the message "Your settings have been updated".

5. Travellerspoint will now redirect all feed traffic for your blog to your FeedBurner feed. Just like that. Log in to Feedburner to check out your subscribers and see how many readers are clicking through, amongst others.

Enjoy!

We've always had basic stats for every Travellerspoint blog by default, so it's always been possible for bloggers using our travel blog system to see how many visits and page views their blogs have been generating, or which entries have been most popular. Today we're introducing the option to really get an in depth understanding of who visits your blog, how they end up there and where they are coming from. Heck, you can even see the percentage of users using Firefox to visit your blog if that tickles your fancy!!

The solution: Google Analytics (and yes, it's free!)

I'll be doing a step by step guide here with some screenshots essentially aimed at 1. setting up a Google account 2. setting up your Analytics account and 3. adding Analytics to your Travellerspoint blog. It's pretty easy, so don't be too worried!

Setting up a Google account

First, we'll need to register with Google Analytics. From their front page you'll see a link to "Sign Up Now".

On the signup page, you'll see two options. The second option allows you to sign in with an existing Google account, which if you have gmail or use other Google services is the option you should use (once you are signed in, skip down a few steps in this guide to the "setting up your Analytics account" heading). I'll go through this guide as if you do not yet have a Google account, so we'll be choosing the first of the two options:

Choosing this option leads us to a page where we have to enter some basic details to create our account. Fill in the details (email address, password, tick or untick the checkboxes where preferred) and hit the "I Accept. Create My Account" button if you are okay with the terms and conditions (if you aren't, then we're sorry but you can't get those extra cool stats...). Now you'll find yourself on the confirmation page awaiting an email from Google.

You can click on the "Click here to continue" link or just wait until the email from Google has arrived (check your junk inbox if it doesn't arrive within 5 minutes). The email will contain a link that you click on and voila, your account is verified:

Click on the click here to manage your account profile and you will find yourself on your Google accounts home page.

Setting up your Analytics account

Right at the top there should be a bold heading saying "My Services" with Analytics listed under it. If Analytics isn't listed there (those that already had a Google account), then locate it under the Try something new header. You might have to click on the More >> link to locate it.

Once you click on the Analytics link you will find yourself on the Getting Started page.

Interestingly enough, this requires yet another click on a "Sign Up" button (can you tell yet that Google is run by folks that think mathematically instead of about how users use their stuff?!) but once you click on that, we're really getting close! You'll now find yourself on the first of four pages where you need to enter some details about your blog. Enter your blog URL and choose an account name (can be whatever you like) as well as country where you are located, and then hit Continue.

Fill in your details on the next page and hit Continue again.

You'll find yourself on page 3 of 4, accepting yet more terms and conditions.

Once you have accepted these and click on the 'Create New Account' link, you will be directed to a page with a block of tracking code included and some instructions on how to include this on your site.

Adding Analytics to your Travellerspoint blog

Now, unfortunately Google makes you select the entire box because we really only need a tiny bit of this code given. You also don't have to worry about their instructions, since we've simplified the process on our blogs. You'll see some code looking like this:

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "UA-2719553-1";
urchinTracker();
</script>

What is needed to get Analytics working on your Travellerspoint blog is the Analytics account number, in bold in the example above. You can either manually copy this from the bit of code you see or copy and paste the entire code they give you into a text document and then copy only the code from this. Note that this code is different for every account, so you can't copy the one above or it won't work.

This image also shows you exactly what part of the code you need to copy:

Copy this little bit of code (formatted UA-XXXXXXX-X) into the "Google Analytics account" input field on the Settings page of your blog and hit the "Update Settings" button.

Kick back for a day or two while stats start to stream into your Google Analytics account. Now you'll find a whole pile of cool features you have access to including custom reports, who is visiting your blog, map overlays, where visitors finding your blog or how they are using it and much much more!

Enjoy, and as always, please feel free to ask questions or leave comments on this feature!

Recently, the Australian government has been running some insipid (taxpayer funded.. grr..) ads promoting their "action" on climate change (which includes being one of 2 countries NOT to ratify the Kyoto accord .. ahem).

This ad aired during the AFL grand final this past weekend, which is the largest TV event of the year in Australia. It was funded by a people movement called Getup!

It's amazing (and very refreshing) to me to see the public really driving this issue much, much more than politicians. They just seem to constantly be catching up with the general population's opinions on the matter.

Have a look.. even if you haven't seen the original, it's pretty funny

Travel blogs can be short-lived affairs, about as transitory as travel itself. Or they can end up becoming a long-term journal, covering everything from quick day trips to frequent business trips.

We launched TravelBlogs about three weeks ago with 13 blogs. One of those, Paul Willis' account of a journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway, has come to an end. But luckily, we've come across another handful of great blogs to add to our collection:

• Rambling Traveler
  Most of Stacy's trips are close to her Minnesota home, and her colourful blog brings her journeys alive.

• Slow Travel
  A round the world trip without flying! Employing every mode of transport available and revelling in the slow movement through landscape, culture, people and language rather than just passing over it all in an aluminium sausage! This blog is all about the joy of slow and low carbon travel...

• Travis on Tour
  The adventures of a young traveller teaching English in South Korea.

• Reason to Wander
  Amy and Sloan are two young travellers from Oregon on a "big crazy world adventure".
  

The bloggers featured on TravelBlogs last month produced some great writing. Check out the best in the September archives.

One particular highlight was an interview with Sean Aiken, who is on a year-long mission to find a career he can be passionate about.

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