Posts tagged user trips

Hello Trazzlers—

Over the past weeks, we’ve received quite a few questions about the different types of trips on the site—and even more queries about who writes our trips—so I thought I’d take a minute to explain how it all comes together.

Most of the trips on Trazzler.com were written by freelancers based all around the world. We focused on weekend destinations around big cities and dream trips all over the globe.

Then, in September, we opened up trip publishing to writers who applied and looked to recruit a new crop of freelancers and community managers. (Speaking of which, we are on the verge of announcing another round of freelance writers… thanks for hanging in there—we finally received some of our initial funding, albeit a bit behind schedule.)

To be honest, we weren’t quite sure what kind of response we would get and whether users would embrace our (admittedly quirky) style and slant. You most certainly did—we still can’t believe how good your submissions are and how many places in the world that never make it into traditional travel publications are popping up on Trazzler every single day.

Back to the trips… When you sign up to write for Trazzler and submit a trip, it is by default published as a “user trip.” We then read through these trips and determine—one by one—which trips become Trazzler trips and go into the public tripstream. If necessary, we also find a photo for the trip at this time. Incidentally, when we make a trip a “Trazzler Trip,” we automatically have this writer on our radar for future freelance opportunities.

User Trips and Trazzler Trips: a breakdown

User trips appear in the user’s “My Trips” area and also at the bottom of the country and tag listings and search results. User trips are preceded by the username and either display the map of the location or the user’s photo.

Trazzler trips appear in the tripstream—the procession of trips that you can move through by clicking “add to wishlist” and “skip to next.” Trazzler trips display the writer’s full name and a photo credit. They are also displayed with a photo thumbnail in the country and tag listings and search results and always rise to the top of these lists.

We’re eager to get your feedback on this setup. What do you think?

What is our criteria for choosing Trazzler trips? First off, we believe that when someone takes the time to write about his favorite spot or a place that she can’t get out of her mind, it is meaningful and valuable—whether we choose it as a Trazzler trip or not. We’ve read countless user trips that we sincerely hope that people will find and read, but that for one reason or another (see below) we couldn’t make Trazzler trips.

Reasons a trip might not get published as a Trazzler Trip:

The place/activity:
—too similar to another Trazzler trip
—too broad or generic
—too conventional
—an event or place that might not stand the test of time

The style or writing:
—too long (over 120-140 words)
—too many exclamation points or superlatives
—too many hyperbolic adjectives: amazing, incredible, breathtaking, awesome
—rampant misspellings or questionable grammar
—chronically mixed metaphors
—run on sentences

The focus:
—smacks of shilling
—reads like a tourist brochure—no special angle, no hook
—includes extraneous info that is not related to the trip
—too many reasons not to go there/too negative
—too much first person (some is fine, too much biography make it harder to place the reader in the moment)
—offensive, exploitative, destructive, violent, or mean-spirited

See our writing guide and FAQ for more information and guidelines. And feel free to ignore the above guidelines if you prefer to just do your own thing and share your trips with friends, family, and fellow trazzlers.

More soon. In the meantime, why not check out some writing that will inspire you to dive into the falling autumn leaves (and add the tag “fall” to any of your own autumnal ruminations):

http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/fall

I, for one, plan to get outside this weekend (to the Sierra de Guadarrama—I promise to write a trip), change out my city air for pine-scented mountain air, play in the snow, and enjoy my first election-free moments in a long, long time.
—Megan