Our feature: A 'how-to' guide for online travel services

One possibility I wanted to run by you is that maybe we could make the web feature a service in itself for travellers. Obviously there has to be an element of research etc, but we could possibly frame the whole thing around being a one-stop destination for travellers that want to know how to best utilise the Internet to make their travels better. For example, when discussing a site such as Couch Surfing we could write a 'how-to' guide for it instead of just writing a summary of it - and the same for how best to use Trip Advisor, Twitter etcetera. I think this way we would have a much better chance of engaging with our audience and actually getting people to visit and contribute to the site.  We could also interview people who have personally benefitted from all of these networks while travelling. For example, I have a cousin who runs a travel blog called Curious Cat on the Run and I think she would make a really good interview subject. I am sure we would all know other people who have used these kind of travel services or may have used them ourselves. I was also thinking it could be an interesting experiment to 'test out' some of these services. Obviously given the time constraints we won't be able to do any Couch Surfing overseas, but we could definitely give CoLunching a go. To that end, we could also analyse Trip Advisor in terms of what it says about Sydney.

For example, this screenshot of the 'Things To Do in Sydney' ranks Sydney Harbour as the number 1 thing to do, followed by The Opera House Walk, etcetera. One fun article could be to actually do the top ten/top five activities (time permitting) and discuss whether or not the voters on Trip Advisor have it right. We could easily incorporate video/photos into this piece as well.


The possibilities are endless really, I think the hard thing will be deciding what to cut out!