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Hey Laurie - I think overall there is plenty of interest - but of course coming into a blog in the middle of the trip leaves me unsure why you are out there ( I know of course, but expressing the views of the casual reader...)

I'd watch assumptions - when reading it I know what you mean in some sentences because I'm an Aussie, but others might be left high and dry. Maybe spare a thought for the international reader.

I'd also look at rereading the work after you have written it. There are some odd short sentences mixed in there and no shortage of typo's.

Now these trips are for photography....let the cat out of the bag there eh....so why not have a link to a small gallery of pictures - which can be bought either as prints or high res digital - I think your work would sell really well, especially if delivered nicely framed. You may need to find framers around the world who you could send your special prints to. Sorry, the commercialisation man in me coming out again!

Of course there are google maps you can incorporate as well, while on the road I mean - uploading on the move - I remember seeing them on Google maps mania some time ago

It seems that to sell on the web, it needs to be made as simple as possible, with an easy shopping cart and payment method. "E-mail me to purchase" won't cut it.

My view is you are partly right BUT by engaging with your customers via the blog - even if it is only one way with your writings then a page of display, a price and email me might just be the best method. The hurdle is payment - and then it is just being able to either get a merchant account with a bank, or via paypal etc.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking it complicated. Its just another sales channel.

Think about what you can sell.....high quality photographic artworks that will likely sell at  low volume but high 'profit'. Think about your reasons for taking the photos.....maybe to sell them holds no interest which is your choice.

Hello Laurie,

Just spent about 45 minutes on your site (again) I enjoy reading your stories. You have a way with words that really brings out the wondering adventurer in me.

I get stuck between being too wordy and insuficient content (too sketchy).

I don't know how much time you spend writing these articles or if it is just natural for you. To me you seem to have a good balance going on. You give enough to feed me and yet leave me wanting more.

I'll go with Matte;

Now these trips are for photography....let the cat out of the bag there eh....so why not have a link to a small gallery of pictures...

Hi Laurie,
I really enjoy reading about your trips .. Only complaint... they are too short lol..     
P.S Decided to leave you to enjoy your trip . Will catch up with you again once your back home.I will have some questions  ill dump on you then.
Cheers Jan.

a few initial thoughts

> top Adsense > your top adsense probably does well as people see it as the menu? Just curious :-) In the event i'm wrong and it doesn't I would consider moving it elsewhere as it is intrusive there (but if i'm right it's probably worth leaving ;-)

> not sure about the 4 quotes at the top > personally i could do with 1 good one centered and highlighted and then move onto the posts

> seems like you have 2 titles: "Wilderness travel; compulsive..." and "Australia Travel: accommodations..." > i realize the Australia opart is a banner to your other blog but seems kind of confusing

> You have lots of great pics, anyway to add a thumbnail to the post summaries on the homepage for each one?

> also it could be really nice if you used a pic you really liked and incorporated it into the header

> you have pica going horizontally at the top and bottom but have a lot of blank space on the sides > perhaps moving them there would be nice?

> worth adding a link to australia travel in your nav box?

Well Fellas, I'm home again from the outback and I've done a bit of work on the Wilderness Travel site.

In fact I've combined two WP blogs. The other one that used to be called Australia Accommodation, has affiliate, accommodation links, and wasn't getting any traffic, accommodation and anything related to it being very competitive terms.

So I have the two blogs skinned alike and linked at the top nav.

So:

1)  SEO implications of joining the two blogs? They're on the same domain.

2)  Does the nav make sense, with the split down the middle?

3)  I'm counting on the stories and the terms targeted in the stories bringing some traffic, though maybe not targeted to the affiliate links. The affiliate site has articles and reviews targeting a spending audience. What do you reckon?

4)  Looking at WP, it looks like it may not be all that hard to create two or more data bases on the one installation. For someone with a little more php expertise than I, that is. Comments?

Thanks,
Laurie.

Ah! Thanks Barry! Glad you like the site.

Yes, it is a WP site. But then a blog is just what I want for this purpose. And what better way to go than WP, huh?

Of course, I do have several other sites that are all my own creation from the bottom up; XHTML, CSS. And I recently built my first PHP site from scratch.

I do believe that every web builder needs to build several sites from scratch in order to understand the craft basics. But it's just not going to happen that way in every case. We have a saying in Australia that sums up freedom: "This is Australia, Mate."

The same goes for photography in my view. Every photographer needs to build several pinhole cameras and work in a black and white darkroom, in order to get a grasp of the basics behind their craft. But again, it just isn't going to happen that way. That's one of the reasons why the web is flooded with poor quality digital colour images and digital black and white images that are nothing more than colour photos with the colour removed.

The photo stories that I'm currently publishing are from outback South Australia. Guess you would have worked that out. Six inch rainfall country. Known as the arid region. Some of the country I traveled hasn't had rain to make the creeks run for 16 months. January 2007 was the last rain. Only a few showers since.

So I travel on the bike and camp on site for the best light at dawn and sunrise, then sunset and dusk. After dark can be pretty good too, out in that country.

I'll exhaust the images taken on my spare camera, the photos I'm currently publishing with the stories, and then see about building a new PHP site for the arty images taken with the SLR.

Of course, it's one thing to produce strong images; it's another to market them.

Thanks for the link to your photo site. I'm not so keen on flash slide shows, though. I really prefer the old style thumbnail page and links to the image pages. Opportunity for some good SEO. See: http://www.southimage.net/atvcamptrip/f … bition.htm I reckon I can do a good bit better, design wise, now, but that's the general principal that I'll stick too.

Regards,
Laurie.