Welcome to the official relaunch of Living the Dream; coinciding with our 300th post! Over the years, Living the Dream has evolved from a simple long term travel blog for our personal adventures, to an extensive guide to extended travel and adventures throughout the world.
With this, the site has been redesigned and completely overhauled. So for new and old readers alike, the format has changed some. This navigation menu will help you get the most out of the site, and connect you with some of the best content in the travel blogging industry.
Upper Navigation Bar and Header
The Upper Navigation Bar relates to general blog topics, such as Site Information, how to Contact Us, Advertising information, the Travel Blog Directory - one of the largest collections of travel blog links on the web, a quick link to get back to this Navigation Page, and more.
The Site Header has our tag line and is clickable to bring you to the home page. More importantly, to the right of this header image is a teaser to our new sister site, The International Food Project. If you like travel, international food, and making them at home, check it out!
Main Navigation Menu
The Main Navigation Menu includes items such as the Long Term Planning Guide, which features posts designated to help you plan your own adventures throughout each part of the planning and execution process. We are currently fast at work overhauling these posts to be the industry-best planning tools for your upcoming adventure! Other topics can be sorted by Destination, separated by Continent and Country choice. Or if you are looking to get more into our personal side of the internet, check out our Other Projects! You can also find a number ways to Contact Us as well to get your burning travel questions answered (and we do answer every single email!).
New Sidebar Content: Sorted Categories and Subscriptions!
The Category Sorting features have been added to reduce clutter and allow you greater options when searching through topics. The three sorting methods available presently are Categories, Archive, and Popular. Click each to display Categories of All Posts, Post Archive by Date, and the Popular Posts of the last 30 days, respectively.
Subscription Buttons are now displayed proudly for you to join your favorite ways of following our content online! Subscribe to the Blog RSS Reader, Follow Us on Twitter, or Join the Facebook Fan Page for special content, discussions, and previews of coming posts! Join all 3 to maximize your travel content!
Unchanged Sidebar Content: Planning Tools!
This blog is designed purely to be the best resource on the internet for long term travel planning and first hand advice from our travels on the road. The planning tools of Useful Planning Links and Selection of Travel Blogs will always remain on this site. The links and blogs listed may change as our personal reading tastes and leading resources change over time. If you want to read more blogs, click the link below the blog selection to be taken to the Travel Blog Directory!
New Posting Features and Extra Sidebar Material
Sharing Your Favorite Posts has now become easier than ever! Each post now has large Twitter, StumbleUpon, and Facebook Share buttons (with counters!) so you can share your favorite posts with followers and friends. If you really like a post you read, we always appreciate a good comment, Retweet or even a Stumble if you're feeling generous! All questions and comments made on a post will be personally replied to by either Angie or Jeremy!
The Facebook Community is rapidly growing for Living the Dream! The sidebar box shows our growth and gives one last opportunity to join the community at the end of our page. Head on over to Facebook and follow, as we are often sharing great stories, getting reader feedback on hot travel topics, and giving sneak previews of coming features!
Regarding Advertising on the site: You might occasionally see some advertisements on this site, either on the sidebar or linked inside posts. From time to time we are contacted by travel companies that offer compensation for hosting various forms of content. This helps offset some travel expenses that allow us to continue seeing the world and earn a modest living while running this site. Advertisements are placed in such a way as to not detract from the overall reading experience, unlike many other sites on the web. We do encourage you, however, to check out some of our sponsors if you are interested in the content they provide, as they might help you save some money in your future travels.
Our Posting Schedule Has Changed!
Finally, our posting schedule has now changed. With our growth and exploration into all travel topics relating to short and long-term travel, we are now posting nearly seven days a week! We've been torn on whether or not to create a set schedule for posts each week, however have opted to only have a few dedicated days of the week for certain topics and the rest be random for the most variety.
The post series Where You Should Be has taken off quite substantially in the last few weeks, and will now be featured every Thursday to highlight some of the top spots around the world we are researching for our next long-term adventure. If there is one thing we like to do it is plan future trips, and this feature will serve to highlight some of the best spots in the places we research for why you should be there also.
We've introduced a Photo Friday feature every Friday to start the weekend off right by showing off some of our best photos from around the world, one at a time. We will still continue to post more in-depth photo essays and photography guides for your enjoyment from time to time, but this will highlight some of the tens of thousands of photos we have that may not be featured in those styles of sets.
The rest of the post topics that will be appearing periodically are the following:
Traveler Spotlight - Interviews of other travelers with advice and tips from the road is making a triumphant return! All topics are open to be discussed, so be prepared for some interesting responses!
Product and Website Reviews - In our goal to be a major planning site for your short and long-term travel needs, we will be checking out new travel products and websites and giving our take with frequent reviews!
Asia, Asia, Asia - Just because Jeremy ended his travels in Asia early does not mean he covered all the intended topics. One of the best ways to plan your upcoming trip is by reading first hand accounts of other traveler's adventures on the road, and we intend to publish all of ours for your enjoyment. There are still 60 unpublished posts ready to go, and ideas for more generating every day.
Europe, Caribbean, North America too! - Asia only reflects 9 of the 34 countries that Jeremy or Angie have visited. Do the math, and you can see that we have a lot of topics to cover still from previous adventures!
Long Term Planning Guide - The long-term planning guide is expanding, and topics from all levels of travel planning to being on the road and returning home are receiving a revamp and new topics. Want to know how long a pair of shoes last on the road? The real cost and logistics to ship items home? How to pick a dorm room? Or even the amount of paper you're going to accumulate on the road? We have over 30 topics already written that are ready to be incorporated into our new flagship feature. We are quickly underway turning this feature into something even more wonderful, and should be ready to go near the end of 2011.
Media Trips, New Locations, and More Contests - Increasing our already extensive content with more travel destinations!
2013 RTW Adventure - Coming soon, now as a duo! :)
So with that, welcome to the newly improved Living the Dream. Have any feedback on the site redesign? Requests for topics to be featured? Or even just want to be a featured blogger in the Traveler Spotlight series? Comment below and let your voice be heard! We want to help make your next trip as you always dreamed it would be, so if there is any topic we can post that will help answer your burning questions, we'll do it!
8 comments:
Great new layout! Thanks for the navigational post! Hope all goes well for you and the new website! Live the Dream! :)
Way to go Jeremy! It looks great; all your hard work paid off...looking forward to hearing more from you! Cheers!
Haha I feel far less intelligent than before I read this for some reason.
Thanks everyone! I'm really excited to start getting on the new content for the new scope I'm taking on for the site!
@Lindsay - Thanks... I think? I'm not sure if that is a compliment or not but I'll go with yes.
Sounds like a good plan, Jeremy! Like the variety of topics you're planning to cover!
Thanks! Getting a lot of them written now so I can publish them quicker once I actually have a job. Now the challenge will be juggling them in the proper frequency as to not over run the blog with any one :)
It looks great, very clean and organized.
Thanks Kim!
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