Since I’m in the travel blog state of mind, I decided I would go ahead and do a review that had been requested by DarrenC at V7N. According to the title of his blog, Darren is a self-proclaimed travel addict. After taking a look at his personal page, I have to say I agree with him. Although Darren is only thirty-three, he has done a lot of traveling.
Upon visiting the homepage, I was met with an attractive WordPress blog. I have to admit that I’m especially fond of the header animation. The man holding the phone and looking like he is about to snap reminds me of a few all too familiar situations in various airports. As far as the layout of the blog, it is very organized and free of ad clutter (I only noticed a few, unobtrusive ads throughout the site). At the top of the page is a navigation bar, which provides links to various pages, along with a travel forum. Although the forum is relatively small, it still has over two hundred and fifty members, along with a lot of good information. The only downside I see to the forum is the lack of comments on the blog (this goes back to Mike’s review of the Mark Joyner blog, however, Darren’s blog does not pressure visitors to go to the forum).
I didn’t take the time to find out exactly how old the blog was (there was no monthly or yearly archive link), but it does contain over one hundred and fifty posts. It seems like Darren does a very good job of posting fresh content on a regular basis. Although there is a link that allows visitors to submit travel articles, it looks like Darren does the majority (if not all) of the writing and posting.
I have decided to give this blog a four because of the nice template and extensive content. Although I wasn’t overall interested in the content (mainly because my travel opportunities at this point are slim), Darren has created a very useful blog for travellers (especially international). The posts and categories range from advice to news, and everything in between. This was the aspect of the blog that I liked most. Although the blog relates to travel, Darren varies his post by addressing many different areas of travel. On the homepage alone, his posts vary from “Wine Tours in New Zealand” to “Be Healthy During the Heatwave.”
As long as Darren continues to post regularly (and maybe even step up the pace a little bit), I see nothing but good things in the future for his blog.