Damn amigo, you got that one right.:thumbup1: After seeing that movie in high school, I was ablaze to ride into the sunset. A fever that never ends.

Another little point
 

Another little point is that when you see a trip with an interesting title and you click on it and get a link it instantly pisses you off.Kind of like all the other people went to the time and trouble to post here and now this guy who didn,t even bother to post a few photos wants me to click his link.Nah I won,t bother I,ll just get straight back to one with photos.
If you check into other places with Ride Reports see how long the ones with links last.Not very long I can assure you.
Al theturtleshead

As someone who started with that process and then changed to posting direct, I can't possibly stress how accurate this information is. Although my photo gallery averages a half million page views a month, not so for the section with text--but that is likely for those pictures, WOMEN OF THE WORLD. My thread on advrider, STRIKING VIKING BUMMIN THE WORLD is currently just under two million hits which because new hits only record when a browser is closed and re-opened, that count is likely double.

Hi Alex
I have nothing to sell.
cheers
Chris

Yes you do!
 

You are in fact Sir selling yourself to the general readership!
If you aren,t the why the big link to your web page.
If you want to get attention,you,ll have to try harder!!
Photos for example.
The Viking can do it! You,re starting to look like you,re to good for us average types!!!
Al theturtleshead

Chris, I feel you may be a bit out of touch with how people read on line and how this whole Bulletin Board thing works. Personal Web sites are dead. There, I've said it.

Not only instant gratification but a choice of hundreds of ride reports all on one page. Also, when you find one you like and post something, you get INSTANT email notifications when it is updated.
This is one of the genius aspects of Vbulletin. So yes, interactivity is good but there is much more to it.

HUBB already HAS this capability ... as a Super Mod I'm surprised you didn't know this :innocent: And Grant has recently created the Ride Tales forum just for Ride Reports. Why do double or triple the work doing your own site and a Blog? Just post your trip report here and forget the rest. I guarantee your hit count will be 20 times what it would be on your individual web site.

IMHO, Web sites are a pain in the Arse ... here I totally agree with Albert (Jesus ... now that's a rare thing! :thumbup1:)
Why?
If I were following 15 ride reports on 15 different Web sites I'd have to navigate to visit each one and deal with each ones idiosyncratic set up.
With V-Bulletin it's all in one spot, looks great and is easy to post. So many web sites I see (especially Euro or UK based) use these little tiny pics. Why is that? They suck. Photos should be B I G.

My only advice to posters is to EDIT your pics and don't give us the whole lot unless it's exceptional. On ADV about 90% of the pics are just awful .... and guys post thousand and thousands. Finding the rare gem is not easy.

I disagree. You've already seen an example of WHY words and pics go together ... you know, like a magazine??:welcome:
Pics are OK but good writing, to me, is where the real value lies.

Like seeing Helge Pederson in person compared to Ted Simon. Helge puts everyone to sleep. Low key Ted had 'em all cheering, laughing and have a ball.

Cheers,

Patrick :scooter:

Spot frickin' on Albert.

I like the interactivity also but I also like the rule they have on ADV where
they don't allow someone to take the report off track or "Hi-Jack" the thread. The report should be the primary domain of the poster but it's always nice to see related comments, info and inspiration.

Patrick :scooter:

Different strokes for different folks
 

Well I have to swim against the stream here and say I love the different smells, textures and feel of an individual website. It feels much more like you are having a one to one conversation, rather than a bar room shout of a bulletin board. After all how often does someone come onto your website and accuse you of being lazy? Never, but on here seems that a perfect stranger will say that because they can't be bothered to follow a link to your site? The madness of the modern world .........!!

I think I like the idiosyncrasies of an individual’s website (I also prefer a homemade website, no matter how 'crap' to one from a template). Just like if I am in a pub and there are twenty loud women, all dressed the same, and one quiet one in the corner, looking a little quirky, she’s the one for me!

But saying that, of course having ride (or drive!!) reports is a good idea. But I don't think as Mollydog has said that personal websites are dead. Not for me, and I read enough each day to keep them going :)

Anyone with a personal website - please keep them going, they are so much more a personal thing for us voyeurs!

Personal websites
 

Personal Websites are by no means dead.A fine example of this was Sgt Martys thread and website.
Marty put enough stuff on his thread to keep it interesting and tempted me to click his link,from then on his writing and photos kept my interest going! I
would keep going back to his thread to find out when his next installment would appear on his website.
Marty,s work is a rare and exellent example of getting both things right.
SgtMarty wandering around Earth,is the thread on ADV and the link is on his thread.
Well Done Marty!
Al theturtleshead

Hope this is OK, but I was PM'd by someone who didn't really understand how to link images from photobucket to the forums so I will elaborate on that (can't reply via PM, not enough posts yet :().

Anyway, assuming that you have uploaded your images to photobucket your first step to getting the images onto the forum is to log on to photobucket, once logged on select albums and upload from the my albums menu.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...o/linking2.jpg

From the list of albums on the left, select the album that contains the images you want to link to, you should see the images in that album being displayed on the web page.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...o/linking3.jpg

Lets assume that I want to display the second image (my transalp with Ben Nevis in the background) within the forums.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...o/linking4.jpg

I simply move my mouse so that it is pointing to the image and you should see a menu drop down below it like this.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...o/linking5.jpg

The section I need is the IMG code (highlighted in red),
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...o/linking6.jpg
All I do is click on the highlighted text with the left mouse button, right click in it and select copy (depending on the browser you are using you may not need to do that). That copies the following text into my clipboard
In the forum all I need do is paste that text (right click and select paste) and by the power of modern technology everyone can then look at the image and ask, why did he not park further to the right so as not to get the wall in the shot?

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...%20To/demo.jpg

Oh and I mean this in no way as a bad thing, but you kind of do

http://www.thebrightstuff.com/images/AM5cover.jpg

don't you?

I think we've seen something here, different strokes for different folks. But I do feel Albert's hit the nail on the head, even if you do do your trip report on your own site, or a blog, or whatever and don't want to do a full RR on here, it's still not that hard to do a taster on here to draw people in further, and once they're in, they could well stay and read more.

Knickers ina twist
 

A lot of people seem to be getting their knickers in a twist here. Wrong Chris Alex!

I think it's less, getting knickers in a twist and more an appeal to those people who might write a blog, might even do RRs on ADVRider to consider putting something here.

It's also about helping people get more traffic to their blogs/sites, especially anyone who's been given some support and wants to thank their supporters, or equally people who've decided to raise cash or awareness for a cause.

We have loads of stuff about writing books/magazine articles, better photos, getting sponsorship etc, this is the flipside of it, marketing yourself.

Not that important for some, interesting for others.

And I don't know which Chris it is but that Chris has a link to that book on his website, so it's nice to be able to draw traffic.

It seems like some very valuable advice, backed by verifiable statistics that would help Grant as well as individual bloggers, is being disputed without foundation. That's a shame.

I've been reading, and have had a few E-Zine headline entries posted since 2001, so I have participated in the standard manner. Yet never once did I click on any of those other front page teaser-paragraphs with links to blogs, so I assume that few followed through on mine either.

After extensive trial and error, I determined the same on advrider. IMHO, given the overwhelming success of advrider RRs, the E-Zine format should be abandoned, substituting a Star Rated RR section. This encourages people to polish their work and pursue photography. Nothing like competition to raise the bar.

Bottom line, if you think that it will help this site, post some RRs, if not, don't. Let the chips fall.

His name is Scott. My name is Bright. He writes books and guides people. I teach in a school. I'm on the cover of the book, not that you can tell, because of the shades and the wooly hat. I sold him the picture for a 1-off fee. I repeat, on my website I'm not selling anything, unless you include a 2002 Suzuki DRZ400S that's standing in the garage (This has nothing to do with the discussion though :offtopic: and isn't advertised on the site, but can be seen here: Iceland TBSdotCom One careful lady owner, never been off road, mint condition etc).

Having a link to a website (either from HU to mine, or from mine to Adventure Motorcycling ~ the website of the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook ) can hardly be construed as "selling". Just ran a google search on "define selling" and the top hit was "the exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money". I pay no money to Grant, Chris Scott pays no money to me for any links or book sales.

My own opinion on the whole RR vs blog vs website thing is "whatever floats your boat". My own boat is floated by good (IMO) websites in general and the labour of love that is my site. Some RRs are good (e.g Striking Viking, Moto Syberia). Most however are complete and utter boll*cks (Badly composed images, boring subjects, even worse words with horrendous vocabulary and grammar: The teacher in me coming out). Most blogs I read are mind numbing as sh*t (I got up at 9, had breakfast at 10, rode my bike at 11, took a dump at 12 etc etc). Hence I don't read them any more. But, each to their own.

I take on board the comments about putting up a few taster pictures/words before a link to a website. Next time I get round to it, I'll do that.

cheers
Chris
PS. You can tell me and Mr Scott apart. I'm more handsome than him. At least, that's what the wife says. She's blind and walks with a limp and has a hairy chin:rolleyes2: