Travel Rants is a great little community
By Darren Cronian on Monday, October 13th, 2008

It is great sitting back and looking at how far this blog has come in the last three years and today I realised what a great little community we have here, with travel agencies helping consumers, and consumers being able to voice their opinions and experiences.

Travel Rants is a great little community

Helpful travel agencies

This morning I was talking to a researcher for ITV about the XL Leisure Group saga and he commented how helpful travel agencies and consumers were on this blog, at a very difficult time. The Times even picked up quotes from the post and published it online.

Travel industry and consumers coming together

It makes me feel proud that people from within the travel industry and consumers are finally coming together online, and I would like to thank you all for helping each other out, and discussing the topics I write about.

A lot of lessons learnt

When I look back at my earlier blog posts, I cringe, I have learnt a lot about the travel industry, and to be honest I am still learning. Why am I writing this? Well, I felt we all deserved a pat on the back and I wanted to show my appreciation for all of your input, be it emails or comments.

Long may that continue.


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16 responses to “Travel Rants is a great little community”

Garri | 14 October, 2008 at 8:44 am

Good on yer Darren! Just goes to show how far determination and hard work can get you.

Have you considered running a forum? It might be a better platform, I dunno. Popular blogs, are notoriously hard to navigate, you’ve forsaken the sidebar navigation for a big ad. This seems to be the order of play with big blogs where the banners push the navigation down below the fold.

Then, you could feed recent forum activity into the blog.

Just some thoughts.

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Darren Cronian | 14 October, 2008 at 10:48 am

@Garri

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, as much as I would love the blog to be ad free I have to see something for the amount of time and effort I put into this blog. I am re-looking at the ad situation during the winter, so will bear your comments in mind.

Does anyone else think that the navigation is an issue?

As for a forum, I do think that would be a good addition, but my worry is the amount of time it’ll take to moderate, believe it or not but the blog itself takes up some time for moderation. You won’t believe the number of companies that try and advertise on here in the comments.

I am thinking about the forum, especially a private area where companies and consumers can talk about online booking experiences / issues.

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Anil | 14 October, 2008 at 12:46 pm

I personally like the blog format of exchange and comments. Forums take much longer to navigate, required registration, and often get overloaded with off-topic or useless comments.

I’d be more reluctant to check and keep up with a forum. But if you do decide to do it, I’d recommend replicating at least some of the major topics and best comments that come up here on the blog as well.

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Karen Bryan | 14 October, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Yes Darren that’s a good point you make about having to see some financial reward for the time and effort spend in maintaining a blog. It’s a difficult balance as you don’t want your blog to be plastered with garish ads but you meed some way to generate income from the blog.

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Alex Bainbridge | 14 October, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Can I tell you about an amazing product that will help increase your size (of your readership)? Ooops – sorry, you don’t like advertising in comments!

The thing about navigation is the difference between timeless and time sensitive blog posts. I have the same issue on my blog. Timeless ones don’t get read enough because they are off the homepage…….. but they are still valid.

Forums are hard work to get up and running. An empty forum looks a lot worse than a blog without comments!

Virtual pat on the back to you.

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Simon | 14 October, 2008 at 2:06 pm

I think a private forum would be a good thing, as it would allow me to get feedback on ideas in a closed environment.

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Mark Evans | 14 October, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Darren,

You’re hard work and passion has helped ignite TR’s vibrant community. Congrats!

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Darren Cronian | 14 October, 2008 at 2:41 pm

@ Mark

Thanks, but I can’t take all the credit – if it wasn’t for people like you, readers/commenter’s, they wouldn’t be a community.

@ Simon

I’ve had a lot of people email me with the same request, so even if I don’t provide a full (open and private) forum, a private only forum for those interested in joining in could be an easier thing to archive.

Are you London based? It would be great to meet you at the Travel BlogCamp, if you could attend. If you need more info let me know and I’ll drop you an email.

@ Karen

Yep, we’ve talked about this a few times haven’t we? Lately I have come across some horrendous blogs where Google ads are all over the place. I think our ads are away from the content in general, so aren’t obtrusive, but the challenge for most independent blogs is making good revenue from them.

Actually I am sure it’s a challenge for any site that has content but does not provide a service or offer a product.

@ Alex

I would love to hear about your amazing product, please email me :p

Good point about the timeless ones, that’s why I have added the popular posts on the sidebar, so people can read them, but I find that a lot of the older blogs are ranking really well in Google and still generate a lot of traffic,. There are a dozen or so posts that still generate a few hundred visitors every week.

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Garri | 14 October, 2008 at 2:42 pm

@Darren, point taken about moderating a forum but I think you’ve enough hardcore fans that would help you with this. Am I right people?

I also think TR wouldn’t have an empty forum and a forum may actually encourage more people to ‘join’ than would perhaps post comments on the blog, since it offers them a chance to ask something specific which may not be covered by a blog post.

Of course it needs to be carefully planned and thought through and perhaps just for a specific purpose which wouldn’t be appropriate in a blog format, such as asking specific questions, seeking advice, etc.

I like how Extravigator.com has treated their forum.

By and large, the navigation on popular blogs (i.e. those with tons of content and widely read) is often really poor. For example, most of them seem to lack breadcrumbs and navigation further up the sidebar, although the former is becoming more widespread as people realise the usability and SEO benefits.

I know, I know, my own site leaves a lot to be desired on the navigation front but I am redesigning with increased usability as the main objective.

I also wonder if you should explore a newspaper/magazine style format to your front page which will promote your content more effectively?

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Darren Cronian | 14 October, 2008 at 2:55 pm

@ Garri

I can see many benefits to a forum, but I am such a perfectionist (it took me 8 mths to finally stop playing with the design on the blog) that getting a public forum off the ground will be a lot of work, considering I do all this in my spare time. I too love how Extravigator have gone with their forum, and I would be looking at doing something similar.

Within an open forum you can have private areas where you give certain people access, so that’s certainly possible. There’s only four travel forums that I have think have really perfected it well and get tons of holidaymakers/consumers, and I would want to give them some competition. ;)

Getting something like that done with my limited skills will need funds, but it’s something I am seriously thinking about.

Cheeky plug; any potential sponsors? :)

As for blog navigation, I’ll give this some thought.

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Garri | 14 October, 2008 at 3:04 pm

@Darren, I know what you mean about perfectionism ;-)

It will indeed be a lot of work but planning is the key and I don’t think you’ll need a ton of funds, there’s some cheap talent out there if you know where to look ;-)

I also think there’s a potential upside that would pay off in the long run, but if you have limited time that’s obviously something you need to think about.

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Pete Meyers | 14 October, 2008 at 3:46 pm

Hey Darren -

I’d say stick with the current format and table the forum idea for the time being. You’re carving out a great niche and developing your brand well, no need to run the risk of distraction. You could consider adding more WP plugins to include more functionality? I think the tiered commenting view works well, and also am a fan of Snap.

Maybe try and move forward instead with the podcast / videocasting ideas you’ve mentioned in the past?

One other thing – I think it’d be very interesting to hear the top 5 or so lessons you’ve learned in the last 3 years. In what ways have your posts changed the most?

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Simon | 14 October, 2008 at 3:56 pm

Darren, drop me the info on the Travel BlogCamp and I’ll see if I can make an appearance :)

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Jeremy Head | 14 October, 2008 at 10:25 pm

Yes… when is the Travel Blog Bootcamp? I know I’ve read about it already somewhere but can’t remember the details! Thanks Jeremy

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Darren Cronian | 14 October, 2008 at 11:35 pm

@ Pete

I think you are probably right, especially since time is limited as it is. The podcast will come soon, it’s days away from being launched. I’d like to get a basic private forum up and running because I think alot of people could find that useful, and then build on launching a ‘open’ forum in the new year.

@ Simon & Jeremy

Email sent :)

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Nick | 15 October, 2008 at 10:39 am

Darren

You have done well and kept an open mind all the way though. Instead of being an industry bashing site it has now become a resource.

As for income I agree you need with the amount of work you put into this.

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