Q&A With TravelPod’s Community Manager Louise Brown

I recently had the chance to talk with Louise Brown, one of many travel enthusiasts who work for travel blog site, TravelPod.com — the Web’s first site that let its members create online travel blogs.

Lousie, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. First, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Well, I’m a complicated person! Right now, I’m working for TravelPod.com, as the Community Manager. I love vegetarian cooking, reading, writing, painting, piano music, traveling and couchsurfing, not in that particular order. My travel philosophy is that the long way is always the better way.

So, I try to travel along the ground, using rideshare, trains and buses as often as I can. Traveling independently, and just getting along on your own wits is the most fulfilling way to travel.

When did you get the idea to Travel Blog Sites.com and what is the site all about?

Actually it came up at a meeting last summer. We had this idea to start a network of independent writers doing cool things.

At TravelPod, we really encourage travelers to get out there and travel on their own, so we wanted to find as many “one-man-travel-blog-shows” as possible and highlight the cream of the crop.

We weren’t sure what it would look like, so I guess it sort of stewed over in our brains for a while.

Finally, we decided to make it happen in 2010. So I wrote profiles for a few people that I met at TBEX in Chicago last year and then we created this list of the top 100 travel blogs based on Alexa and Compete.com rankings.

It’s been growing ever since!

If any travel bloggers reading this would like to be featured/interviewed on TravelBlogSites.com (or give suggestions), can they get in touch with you?

Absolutely, just email me (louiseb@travelpod.com) two paragraphs justifying your blog’s existence and a photo of yourself that I can use on TravelBlogSites.com

What is the most rewarding aspect of working for TravelPod? Who is TravelPod for?

The best part of working for TravelPod are the connections we make as travelers. No matter if we are newbies or RTW veterans, we’re all in the same boat. We all give each other inspiration.

The coolest thing is watching someone’s trip morph from a little question in the forums like, “Where should I go next?” into a concrete plan. After asking more questions and sharing advice and getting to know them they say goodbye for a bit, go on their trip, come back and write a blog that we can read.

Then the whole process starts all over again for the next trip.

I think watching that whole story unfold from conception to execution is pretty magical.

Montreal Skyline

Favorite travel destination so far?

Whoah tough one. I definitely cannot pick one.

As a kid, I was really involved in Girl Guides, and I traveled to the Yukon and Mexico City. My parents also took me on countless camping trips including a train ride across Canada. Those were the trips that sparked my love for travel.

As for my favourite independent travel destinations, I gotta say I love Boston, Chicago, Halifax, Denver and Montreal. Really interesting and culturally unique places.

Market in Pisac in the Andes of Peru.

If time and money were no object, were in the world would you travel?

Probably South America, the South Pacific and Africa. It would be extremely interesting to just immerse myself in these three very different cultures for a while. These parts of the world get very little mainstream media attention, so it’s these parts of the world that I am most interested in.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Just come on down and check out Travelblogsites.com. Get inspired and get out and see the world!

If you have a travel blog, submit yours to the site, and if you don’t have a travel blog yet, consider starting one on TravelPod.com. It’s free and insanely easy.