cycling blog help

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
robing
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cycling blog help

Post by robing »

I'm in the process of setting up a cycling blog, can anyone recommend a good blog website, or are they all pretty similar?
andrew549
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by andrew549 »

I'm currently using blogger/blogspot as it free fairly simple to set up and get going, I had a look at wordpress which seems a bit more customisable but it seemed like most things were an extra that you had to pay for as well as some of the features you couldn't seem to do very easily or at all like integrating maps into the post/page.

My fairly basic blog is linked to in my signature to give an idea of what is possible fairly easily.
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by Vorpal »

previous thread...
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=87364
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maxcherry
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by maxcherry »

WordPress is pretty good, alot of themes are free and it is app friendly for people on the move :)
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theDaveB
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by theDaveB »

The problem with Wordpress etc... Is if I come across your blog at a later date it's in the wrong order and navigating can be a pain depending what theme you choose. Crazy guy on a bike is much easier to read in the right order.

Dave
maxcherry
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by maxcherry »

theDaveB wrote:The problem with Wordpress etc... Is if I come across your blog at a later date it's in the wrong order and navigating can be a pain depending what theme you choose. Crazy guy on a bike is much easier to read in the right order.

Dave



But if the OP uses a theme that helps.readers (tags,dates,titles etc) that are provided
for free, than it's easy to navigate.

Or you can just click the title page/home and it takes you to a list of recent posts.

OP can use whatever they feel comfortable with :)
Honestly chaps, I'm a female!
theDaveB
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by theDaveB »

maxcherry wrote:Or you can just click the title page/home and it takes you to a list of recent posts.


Yes but thats the problem, you don't want "recent" posts, you want the oldest posts.

https://farewellburt.wordpress.com

Is a good example of hard to follow tour. I eventually found the first post of the tour but after reading it, there was no way to go to the next post.

Dave
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shane
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by shane »

I've tried various blogs over the years, starting with a very crappy MSN one around 2006. There are plenty of free ones out there, some better than others.

In 2009 I tried a Free website hoster and came up with this for my my America trip : http://coast2country.webs.com Its fairly simple to set up and use. Downside is random advertising you have no control over (i.e things like thaibrides.whatever if you happen to have been in Thailand...normal google adds stuff) also found myself wanting to customise more.

Around 2011 I bought my own domain (only costs about 25 quid a year including hosting) so I could customise things more, downside I spent way to many hours trying to make a nice site with Joomla.

Just before Africa in 2011 I converted my site to wordpress (http://www.shanecycles.com/africa/) and wondered why I'd messed around so much before hand, the basic site and themes(website templates/layouts) are pretty, paid fancy themes are quite affordable too, and most problems you bump into there's a plugin to fix it(try not to use too many). Downside, its very popular so you need a good spam filter, settings and regular updates to keep yourself spam and hack free. You do need to put a little time into a wordpress site to get a non standard site but its do-able.

Wordpress do have free website hosting, but I prefer to have my own domain(website) so that its my property and choices, the downside of this of course is that you might need an IT geek friend in the unlikely even it all goes wrong ( needed one when I transferred from Joomla to Wordpress, and also one when I got hacked).

I've just changed the layout of my main site and now I'm limited by some automatic features of wordpress that are p3ssing me off(embedded photos are only 500px), but there is a way around, I just have to change the way I show photo's(upload rather than link to my flickr account). I'm sadly not geeky enough to start messing around with code. Current version: http://www.shanecycles.com

Blogging is fun, especially if travelling alone it is a way of sharing your story when there's no one to talk to, the interaction with trip followers is also often fun. Don't get distracted by trying to make money from a blog, its not really worth the effort or you have a sh3t looking site full of crappy adds or articles that have nothing to do with your trips 8). Keep it slick looking and easy to navigate.

If you're just planning one trip then crazyguyonabike is probably a good choice as its part of a cycling community, or a Facebook fan page with open privacy settings. If you're planning lots more I'd consider getting your own domain.

Good luck and don't get too stressed about it, better to cycle more and blog less in the end 8)
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shane
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by shane »

theDaveB wrote:
https://farewellburt.wordpress.com

Is a good example of hard to follow tour. I eventually found the first post of the tour but after reading it, there was no way to go to the next post.

Dave


Easily fixed with an "Sticky" intro post along the lines of " To follow the journey from the start click >Here<" 8) and better navigation buttons :wink:
khain
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by khain »

It can depend what you're planning to blog with.

Wordpress has an app which works pretty well on most smartphones. You can also post by email, though this isn't too easy to set up.

Blogger is a bit easier to customise the look and feel of but Wordpress has more functionality and flexibility.

Crazy guy on a bike looks like something from 1997 (though that might not be a bad thing on tour) and the ads annoy me. Travellers Point is pretty good though I don't know how mobile-friendly it is. Using an existing site means you'll get more page views but there'll be ads on the site.

Keeping a blog on tour can be a bit of a nuisance I've found, particularly if you use a dedicated camera. If you've got a good smartphone and take photos on that the Wordpress app shouldn't be too much hassle.
dandru
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by dandru »

khain wrote:It can depend what you're planning to blog with.

Crazy guy on a bike looks like something from 1997

Keeping a blog on tour can be a bit of a nuisance I've found


The way I look at is, what exposure do you want, if you want your blog to be read by family, friends and a few lurkers then use one of the blogging sites, on Crazyguy I often see bloggers posting links/pumping there blogs.

The good things about site's that have app's, it's easy to add updates, whereas crazyguy is harder, but it's built as a low bandwidth site.

Keeping a Journal/blog is hard work, but for me it's about sharing information, I'm always collecting stuff so providing a journal of my trip is giving back.
robing
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by robing »

andrew549 wrote:I'm currently using blogger/blogspot as it free fairly simple to set up and get going, I had a look at wordpress which seems a bit more customisable but it seemed like most things were an extra that you had to pay for as well as some of the features you couldn't seem to do very easily or at all like integrating maps into the post/page.

My fairly basic blog is linked to in my signature to give an idea of what is possible fairly easily.


Thanks Andrew, I went for this one in the end as it seemed simple to set up from my Google account. Now on my signature ;)
theDaveB
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by theDaveB »

robing wrote:Thanks Andrew, I went for this one in the end as it seemed simple to set up from my Google account. Now on my signature ;)


Looks a fantastic trip, subscribed to your blog.

Dave
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b1ke
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by b1ke »

Yes but thats the problem, you don't want "recent" posts, you want the oldest posts.

https://farewellburt.wordpress.com

Is a good example of hard to follow tour. I eventually found the first post of the tour but after reading it, there was no way to go to the next post.


Thanks for plugging my blog :-).

It's a fair point about Wordpress blogs. And it reflects in the most visited posts when I check the stats. That said, it's possible to lay out a Wordpress site with pages, which can be set up in any order you like. Overall I'm happy with Wordpress - good support and great templates.
http://www.farewellburt.wordpress.com - Europe on a Tandem....
http://www.thespokeandwords.wordpress.com - West Africa on a Tandem....
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mjr
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Re: cycling blog help

Post by mjr »

b1ke wrote:It's a fair point about Wordpress blogs. And it reflects in the most visited posts when I check the stats. That said, it's possible to lay out a Wordpress site with pages, which can be set up in any order you like. Overall I'm happy with Wordpress - good support and great templates.

Sorry but it's not a fair point. On https://farewellburt.wordpress.com/, it seems like the archives-by-date have been disabled/removed/unlinked (which is one common way of finding the start), there's no sticky post or menu link or anything to the start of the tour and pages are used where posts probably should have been used, thereby breaking the next/prev navigation links which would help people to follow through a tour.

Wordpress is a good tool - far better than blogspot. It's like how a multitool is useful, but you can still wreck a bike with it.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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