Once you have logged into the site you can add new blogs on your global travel experiences.

Making a blog post

Our blogging system allows you access to advanced features such as uploading your own photos, audio, media or embedding videos.

1. Login to the site and click on the ‘Dashboard link’. Once into the dashboard, click ‘Add New’ under Posts.
2. In the first text box, please add a title for your post.
3. Then in the main section you can add your blog post text as well as images, audio, media or videos. Please see below for details on adding images, audio, media or videos. This section allows you to format your post in a similar way to popular Word processors, e.g. making text bold, adding bullet points and so on. Good formatting can make your post more interesting and easy to read.
4. From the tick box section to the right of your screen marked ‘Categories’ you must select the country to which your blog relates. You can also type in tags that relate to your blog. Tags allow people to quickly find all posts relating to similar topics.
5. You can also add to your blog posts- images, audio, media or videos plus a rating if you wish. See below for information on how to do this.
6. If you don’t get time to finish your blog in one go you can hit the ’save draft’ option and return at anytime to complete the blog. If you save as a draft your blog will not be shown on the website.
7. Once you are happy with your post you can click the ‘publish post’ button and your blog will be saved and shown on the website.

Advanced Options

Adding Images, Audio & Media

Photos really bring your travel experiences to life and we encourage you to add interesting images, audio or media to your blog posts.  When you are writing or editing  posts, here is how to add any image, audio or media content.

• Click the ‘Add image’ icon as shown to the left. The same instruction applys for audio or media, though click on the audio or media icon.
• You will then be given the options to select an image from your computer or from a URL. The same instruction applys for audio or media.
• To add an image, audio or media file that is saved on your computer click the ‘Select Files’ button and you can then select the photo, audio or media file that you wish to upload. For an image that is already on the Internet, select ‘from URL’, enter in the image ‘URL’ details as requested, then insert into post. For audio or media that is already on the Internet, select ‘from URL’. For audio, enter in the audio file ‘URL’ details, title, then insert into post. For media, enter in the media ‘URL’ details, title, then insert into post.

Here is some instruction on how to add some details of an image and choose it’s size and alignment within your post. You will be presented with a screen of options such as the one below.

Image Options:

Title: When you see the screen such as that shown above you need to provide the image with a title that relates to the image.

Caption: This is optional if you want to display a caption by the image.

Description: Another optional field that can be left blank. If you do complete this field it will be displayed in the media library but is not shown on the main site.

Link URL: This should be left blank.

Alignment: This relates to how the image will be aligned with the text and position on the page. ‘None’ means the image will be added to the page and text will not wrap around image, text will only go above or below your image. If you wish text to wrap around your image then you should choose left, right or center.

Size: This allows you to choose how large you want your image to be displayed in the blog post.

Insert into Post: Once you are done you must select the ‘Insert into Post’ button to add the image into your post. This is very important and the image will not be displayed unless you click this button.

Adding Videos

You can add videos that relate to any of your blog posts. Videos must be hosted already on a video sharing site such as YouTube (*see instructions below).

By clicking on the ‘Add video’ icon you can achieve the following:

-Add a video file that is saved on your computer. To do this, click on the video icon, click the “Select Files’ button and you can then select the video file you wish to upload.

-Select the video ‘URL’ option, by which you will be able to create a link to a video on another site such as Youtube.  To do this, enter in the video ‘URL’ details, title, then insert into post.

*The instructions below relate to adding a video from YouTube but should work for most video sharing services.

• Find the video you want to add to your post on the video sharing site such as YouTube.
• Look for the ‘Embed’ option next to the video and copy the code (CRTL+C).
• Back on this site while adding your post do the following:
• In the top right hand side of the post writing section you will see a tab that says Visual and HTML. You will currently be writing your post in Visual mode, select the ‘HTML’ tab. See below for image of tab.

• Once in HTML mode move you cursor to where you wish to insert the video.
• Copy the embedded video code into the window (CTRL+V).
• Now click back on the ‘Visual’ tab to resume editing or writing your post. You should see an area marked out where you video will appear. You’re all done adding your video.

Editing a Post

If you have an existing post you wish to edit you can edit all the details at any time including the text, images, audio, media, videos and ratings. Simply click the ‘Edit Existing Posts‘ link from here or the ‘Add or Edit Blog Post‘ page.

Making a Comment

If you find an interesting post that someone else has written and want to add your comments, feedback or experiences then you can add a comment directly at the bottom of that post. Make sure any comments are useful and constructive. Don’t put anything offensive in the comments.

To make a comment:

• Make sure you are logged in to the site.
• Type your comment into the comments box below the blog post of your choice and then click ‘Submit comment‘ button.
• We may moderate blog comments before they go live on the site.