The Best Comments Of The Month: September 2008
Every insightful comment you leave on a post enhances foXnoMad more than I could with even the best travel article. I appreciate every comment, hope you’ll leave more, and encourage you to do so if you never have.
In case you don’t get a chance to follow the latest comments in the sidebar, or read through a viewer, here are some of the best comments of the month.
- Steve updates us on the drinking age in Thailand, it’s now 20.
- Peekvid, one the best places to watch TV and movies for free online, has been shut down, Misty informs us.
- You can’t bring electronic equipment into Akshardham Temple. Taylor Davidson says he even had a hard time getting by security with pen and paper.
- The Swedes write joke books about Norwegians, according to Erica – according to my wife, those books should be about the Danes.
- Cuckoo lets us in on two more Indian airport scams.
- Print your Google satellite mashup maps, Big Travel Web says they’re a great way to find undiscovered beaches.
- triton’s friend met some bedbugs in New York and brought them home with him.
- The beef between Ecuador and Peru isn’t so bad and Zuri agrees that the Galapagos Islands are “must” sees in the region.
At the end of every month I’ll be posting my favorite comments. There are several new commenters on the list this month and several more not on the list from September. Thank you – I enjoy what comments bring to each post and how they foster lively discussions.
Never left a comment before? – Leave one right now and just say hi!
[photo by: Doug Sparks]
How To Make Money With Your Travel Blog
Travel blogs are a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, post pictures, and meet other vagabonds as you wander around the world. A travel blog can also be a way to generate a few bucks towards your next trip. The amount you can generate varies, but without the best tools to use you won’t be making more than a few dollars a month.
While in most cases you won’t be leaving your job or paying your plane tickets, here’s how to use your travel blog to help finance a few meals and small portion of your simple travel budget.
1. Content - Let me start by saying that “content is king”; the better and more frequently you write, the more people that will be attracted to your blog increasing your advertising revenues. On the flip-side, if you’re only writing a travel blog for money and forget about the travel writing itself, you’re likely to turn away your audience.
2. Google Adsense - Arguably the first place to begin is this free service that generates ads on your blog based on the content of a particular page. Every time someone clicks on one of the ads, you’ll get paid and Google passes along the money directly to your bank account each $100 you earn.
Some Tips:
- Blend the ads by matching their background and font colors with your website.
- Put them in places that don’t distract from your content.
- Don’t write asking people to click on the ads, Google may suspend your account.
Post Highlights: [9/27/2008]
My Trip To Delhi (Part 4 of 8): Akshardham Temple
It had been a long time since I was overwhelmed by such an impressive piece of architecture.
Call For Conferences To Get Hotel Discounts
Next time you’re going to book a hotel in a large city save some money by looking for local conferences beforehand.
Different Ways To Read foXnoMad
Aside from visiting the homepage foxnomad.com everyday, there are a number of convenient ways to read the latest posts from this site.
My Trip To Delhi (Part 6 of 8): The Road To Agra
Any trip to Delhi for the first time isn’t complete without a stop at one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. To get there though you’ll need to travel to Agra, a city approximately 203km (123 miles) south of Delhi.
Expand Your Horizons and Save Money with “Frenemy” Boat Trips
You can easily add to the number of countries you’ve visited for a low price by traveling to national rivals over water.
My Trip to Delhi (Part 7 of 8): The Taj Mahal and Agra
September 26, 2008 by Anil P.
Filed under Pictures and Video, Travel Journal
The road to Agra lead me to the highlight of my travel plans to Delhi, India. It seems as though everyone who visits the Taj Mahal has similar pictures and I’m not bringing much new to the table with mine.
Don’t let that discourage you however, the Taj Mahal was one of the most spectacular sights I’ve ever seen. Follow the jump to see a few more Taj Mahal pictures as well from the city of Agra itself.
foXnoMad in the Family Travel Logue Carnival of Cities
My post on Chandni Chowk made its way into the Family Travel Logue’s Carnival of Cities yesterday. The carnival highlights posts from a variety of travel blogs writing about a specific aspect of given city. Although all of the entries were enjoyable, here are some of my favorite ones.
- The Traveling Mamas give us another reason to love Kansas City.
- This Is How You Do It shares some of his pictures from Bikini Beach in Punta Del Este, Uruguay.
- Like sushi but worried about eating endangered species? Intelligent Travel brings you sustainable sushi in San Fransisco.
- Travel Savvy Mom says although Stockholm is overpriced, it’s an ideal spot for a family vacation.
- Bas Bas Bas is making friends in his search for a vegetarian sandwich in Istanbul.
- Wildlife photos from the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary at Admirable India.
A few other posts of mine have been featured in different blog carnivals, including my flier ettiquitte tips, and advice on keeping your online accounts safe at Internet cafes. You can read all of the Carnival of Cities posts, which I’ll be hosting here on October 22.
3 Useful Google Mashups for Travelers
There are many Google Maps mashups (customizations) that can help you get a feel for you next trip. Begin your travel planning with street views, videos, and 360 looks around using the follow Google Maps mashups for travelers
- Virtual Video Map - A world map with markers dotted all over the planet with a video from each location.
- Satellite-Sightseer - Ariel views from Google maps of many interesting places around the world, including Bill Gate’s house, the Grand Canyon, and the Pyramids at Giza.
- Virtual Tourism - Not the most intuitive website, but if you click around you’ll discover travel videos, and specialized Google Maps of music events, festivals, sporting events.
Google Maps mania has an extensive list of travel mashups if you haven’t gotten enough. After your plans go from virtual to real, display them by creating your own travel map, calculate distances, and get around traffic jams.
[photo by: webg33k]
Expand Your Horizons and Save Money with “Frenemy” Boat Trips
Often when making travel plans, backpackers especially, tend to select highly contrasting locales and miss out on subtle regional differences. You can easily add to the number of countries you’ve visited for a low price by traveling to national rivals over water.
Last week I asked you, who does your country love to hate, and several of you responded in the comments and via email.
Here are some “frenemy” boat trips to add to your 8 minute travel plans to the following countries.
- Sweden – Norway (or Denmark and maybe Finland) - Who would have thought the friendly Swedes and Norwegians would be publishing joke books about each other as Erica tells us. Scandinavians enjoy high standards of living as well as strong currencies, not so good if you’re traveling on a weak dollar.
- Save yourself on hotel and food expenditures by taking one of the many two-night cruises from Stockholm to Oslo, Copenhagen, or Helsinki which will cost you around $300. You can get a window cabin, all-you-can-eat buffets (at additional cost), and see another city without having to pay a full night’s hotel rate.
- Remember to keep all of your receipts since you may be able to reclaim your taxes at the airport.
- Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) – Peru - Hop a flight down to Lima and make your way to the Peruvian coast for a tour of the Galapagos Islands. Not the cheapest option, but these packages usually run you around $3,000 for 2 weeks; equivalent to the same amount of time in London or Rome. Again, usually food and lodging are covered in the price.
My Trip To Delhi (Part 6 of 8): The Road To Agra
September 23, 2008 by Anil P.
Filed under Pictures and Video, Travel Journal
Missed the first set of posts from my trip to Delhi? Here they are – part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.
Any trip to Delhi for the first time isn’t complete without a stop at one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. To get there though you’ll need to travel to Agra, a city approximately 203km (123 miles) south of Delhi. You can get there by plane, train, or as I did, car. The road to Agra is an interesting one and you’ll see monkeys, ‘hookers’, and a lot of Indian countryside and towns during the 4 hour trek.
Car isn’t the only way to get to Agra, so is on top of a lorry.
Different Ways To Read foXnoMad
Aside from visiting the homepage foxnomad.com everyday, there are a number of convenient ways to read the latest posts from this site. I’d like to take time today to introduce you to some of them.
RSS
RSS stands for ‘really simple syndication’ and makes it easy for you to read the latest content from all of your favorite websites in one place. Instead of ‘bookmarking’ your favorite websites like in the old days, free services like Google Reader subscribe you to news feeds. You just have to click on the RSS logo of any website to get updates in your RSS reader (like Google Reader).
Standard RSS logo: 
The foXnoMad RSS logo is the chubby little orange guy on the right reading the newspaper. Click him and you’ll get updates of the latest posts in your RSS reader.
Still confused? Video Jug has a a great explanation, in plain English.
Email Updates
Those of you with more traditional tastes, can sign up for email updates using the form below. You’ll get a daily email of each new post and you won’t have to leave your inbox to read it or see the pictures. I update foXnoMad 5-6 days per week and will never distribute your email to anyone else, use it for anything else, or spam you with anything else. All you get is 5 updates per week of each new post.
About Page Updated
I’ve updated the About Page. It had been over a year and I thought it needed a refresh. You’ll now find more information about me, Anil, why I created foXnoMad, and a number of ways you can keep updated with the site.
I had been hiding in the shadows a bit and want to be more accessible to all of you. Let me know what you think about the new About Page.
Have anymore questions about me? Feel free to ask me in the comments below.
My name is Anil, a traveler and travel enthusiast. I created foXnoMad to connect with other travelers, discover their world, and share what I’ve learned about mine.
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