Learn how to make the best use of technology to capture your travel experiences, blog, engage and grow your audience.

Travel Blogging on Mobile

Brendalynn's Stories

une belle histoire qui commence dès aujourd'hui le 22.08.2019 ;)

Musa Mawanda, Ph. D

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Context: The most gratifying travel experiences engage all your senses. Sometimes, words can't just describe that sound or sounds you heard. The hushed tones of the waterfall against a backdrop of chirping house sparrows. A video recording wouldn't do justice as it moves the focus to the visual rather than the audio you want to capture.&nbsp;

Why it matters: Most times we focus on the sights of the travel experience and forget about the sounds of that experience as well. Enrich your blog audience even more deeply by engaging even more of their senses.

Action: Select the Audio option when creating your next blog post on Lugelo

Result: Converts the sights but also the sounds of your next travel experience and captivate your blog audience.

Travel Blog

Convert the sounds of your trip too into blog posts

Context: You have just returned from your latest travel escapade with your travel partner. Its time to start converting your travel experiences into a blog post. But guess what? Your partner may remember something you missed or have a different more interesting take on a moment you had on the trip.&nbsp;

Why it matters: As the saying goes, Two heads are better than one (at least most times), so work together to convert your shared experience into a more engaging blog post.

Action: Give your travel partner contribute or edit permissions on your blog post

Result: Just as you travelled together, you can blog about that shared experience together.

Travel together and then blog together

Context: How many times has this happened to you? You are touring a completely new place and your guide is telling you all about the sights and sounds of the place and the little nuances that make the place special. You guide tells you a local story that you find fascinating and want to include in your next blog post. Problem is you can't type as fast as they talk so right now you rely on your memory of the story to re-tell the story.


Why it matters: While you can't type as fast as your guide speaks the Lugelo App on your phone can.&nbsp;


Action: Turn on the Speech to Text feature in Lugelo

Result: Convert those amazing tidbits you hear into your next blog post.

Convert those amazing local stories you are told about into blog posts

Context: You are on your latest travel adventure and next on your To-Do list is to attend the local carnival and fair in the afternoon. As usual you expect to take a bunch of pictures and videos.&nbsp;


Why it matters: Get a head start and capture the experience in words while it is still freshest in your mind.


Action: Turn on the Events feature in Lugelo App and set the Start and End Times.


Result: Convert your photos and videos automatically into blog posts.

Convert your photos and video into blog posts automatically

What's the best mobile blogging platform for a travel blogger. In this post we'll compare the most useful features between the well-known Medium platform and the up and coming Lugelo platform with a specific focus on the pros and cons for travel blogging using mobile.


Signup/Onboarding
<ul>
<li>Medium</li>
<ul>
<li>Good:&nbsp;</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Offers Facebook, Google and Email signup. Email signup requires email verification before one can use the App. Also, offers the option to connect social media account to a Medium account.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li>2- Offers a 'live' onboarding experience showing what features are available</li>
</ul>
<li>Weak: If you signup on mobile and click the verification link on the web your email is not verified. You have to click the verification link on mobile as well.</li>
</ul>
<li>Lugelo</li>
<ul>
<li>Good: - Offers Facebook, Google, Email and Phone signup. On signup you can use the App with limited functionality (Read-only) until you verify email or phone both done via 6 digit codes rather clicking links.</li>
<li>Fair: The get started screens on initial login describe the key features but there is no 'live' demo of usage of the App.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
</ul>
Winner: Lugelo is the hands down winner as it offers more signup options but crucially allows you to use the App (Read-only mode) before you verify your email or phone if not using social signup.



Create Stories/Posts
<ul>
<li>Medium - Stories on Medium equate to Moments on Lugelo while Series on Medium equate to Stories on Lugelo.</li>
<ul>
<li>Good:</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Text editor that supports larger font sizes, inline images and lists</li>
<li>2- Full screen editing i.e adding text, images</li>
<li>3- Stories can be saved as drafts or posted and made public</li>
</ul>
<li>Weak</li>
<ul>
<li>1- No support for other media like videos, audio or documents like PDFs</li>
<li>2- No support for collaboration i.e you cannot enable friends or others to add content to your posts</li>
</ul>
<li>Fair</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Selection of multiple images adds them inline in a grid (two per row ) to the post.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li>Lugelo - Stories on Medium equate to Moments on Lugelo while Series on Medium equate to Stories on Lugelo.</li>
<ul>
<li>Good</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Supports adding mulitple media types including video, audio and document formats like PDF to moments</li>
<li>2- Speech to text, titles and descriptions can be entered via speech and auto converted to text. Useful for those times when typing may not be possible or convenient.</li>
<li>3- Employs the idea of permissions on stories which enables you to allow collaboration on your stories, i.e Friends can add moments to your story</li>
<li>4- Supports a powerful Events feature which you can enable on a story so that any photos, videos you can capture on your smartphone within a pre-specified window are automatically converted to moments in the story. Essentially you create moments/posts without even opening the App.</li>
</ul>
<li>Weak</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Does not support adding inline photos or other media so they are always placed in a fixed position in posts/moments.</li>
</ul>
<li>Fair</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Text only but for the tech-savvy it supports HTML content for the moment/story descriptions.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
Winner: Although Medium's user experience built around full-screen and inline editing is superior, Lugelo still wins due to the breadth of features and editing options. In particular, the speech-to-text and the events features are extremely powerful for the mobile travel blogger.



Search/Discovery - Recent Stories/Posts
<ul>
<li>Medium</li>
<ul>
<li>Good:</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Robust search by query, by topics, by people etc.</li>
<li>2- Explore or browse by topic</li>
<li>3- Follow topics, people</li>
<li>4- Stories grouped by topic and popularity</li>
<li>5- Bookmarks with archived, saved, highlighted and recently viewed stories</li>
<li>6- Supports offline viewing of saved stories</li>
<li>7- Use your 'interests' to surface what you may like to read</li>
</ul>
<li>Weak</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Your own stories are 'hidden' under the profile tab</li>
<li>2- Focus is on getting you to read other people's content (supports Medium's business model)</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li>Lugelo</li>
<ul>
<li>Good:</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Robust search by query</li>
<li>2- Stories are grouped by type and audience e.g Friends, Public, Blogs etc.</li>
<li>3- Follow people</li>
<li>4- Opening a story automatically makes it available in offline mode and does not require a 'Save'.</li>
<li>5- Focus is on your content rather than discovering other content.</li>
</ul>
<li>Fair</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Supports browsing blogs by categories/topics but does not try to surface or highlight what might be of interest based on past viewing behaviors.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>

Winner: Close call but this is a tie, Medium offers more search options and also tries to use some intelligence to show you what might be of interest to you. However, Medium is clearly reader-oriented (due to their business model) while Lugelo is writer-oriented.



Sharing/Distribution
<ul>
<li>Medium</li>
<ul>
<li>Good:</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Share via other apps like Facebook etc</li>
<li>2- Share via a generated link for the story</li>
<li>3- Medium curates and promotes content i.e they can help build an audience for you</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li>Lugelo</li>
<ul>
<li>Good:</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Share stories with friends from your contacts</li>
<li>2- Share via other apps like Facebook etc.</li>
<li>3- Generates links for stories but also allows you to create an alias which you can share so others can see all your stories on Lugelo</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>

Winner: This is another tie. Both Medium and Lugelo offer robust sharing options.



Costs
<ul>
<li>Medium</li>
<ul>
<li>1- Charges readers a monthly subscription although offers a few free stories</li>
<li>2- Writers can join the member program and get a revenue share from readers of their stories</li>
</ul>
<li>Lugelo</li>
<ul>
<li>Free in all respects</li>
</ul>
</ul>
Winner: Lugelo is free so wins this one. 



Overall Winner: Lugelo
Because of their business model, Medium is reader-oriented and their key features reflect this. Lugelo is writer-oriented and their key features such as speech-to-text and Events show this. Lugelo is feature-rich and free which is a huge plus. For the mobile travel blogger who relies on their smartphone, our assessment is that Lugelo will deliver more value than Medium on the dimensions above.

Mobile Blogging - Medium vs Lugelo

Get a good camera. Pack a suitcase. Fly to that exotic location. Find an internet connection and blog away. If that is your view of what it takes to blog about your travels, prepare to get astonished at how much more is involved and how much technology can make your travel blogging so much more effective and enjoyable.

Below are links to some great resources online that can get you started with the basics. Look out for deep dives into each of the categories below in future posts.

The Camera
1- Expert Vagabond - <a href="https://expertvagabond.com/best-travel-camera/" target="_self">https://expertvagabond.com/best-travel-camera/</a> - one of the best resources online on how to select a camera for your travel blogging journey.

Wi-Fi/VPN
1- Comparitech - <a href="https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/best-vpn-traveling-abroad/" target="_self">https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/best-vpn-traveling-abroad/</a> - a detailed how-to covering all things travel and VPNs. VPNs allow you communicate with better security over public wi-fi connections.

Travel Apps/Planners
1- Dan Flying Solo - <a href="https://www.danflyingsolo.com/best-apps-for-travel-2019/" target="_self">https://www.danflyingsolo.com/best-apps-for-travel-2019/</a> - provides a recent and comprehensive review of some of the top Travel Apps around. It covers both IPhone and Android and is compiled by a top-rated travel blogger.

Blogging Platforms
1- SmartBlogger - <a href="https://smartblogger.com/blogging-platforms/" target="_self">https://smartblogger.com/blogging-platforms/</a> - an in-depth review of the features of the top blogging platforms available.&nbsp;

Video/Photo Editing
1- Mandagies - <a href="https://www.themandagies.com/photo-editing-apps-travel-photographers/" target="_self">https://www.themandagies.com/photo-editing-apps-travel-photographers/</a> - a broad review of photo-editing apps including smartphone and desktop options.