What if you can convert your travel blog into an itinerary. If your stories get converted to someone else’s plans? And someone chooses to undertake the path you chose to venture on…the path less chosen. Incidentally, I always wanted that I get a tool or medium which could help me to create a journey planner out of my blog itself. Interestingly, I came across Tripoto last month.
So what is Tripoto all about?
Tripoto is a forum website connecting travelers and travel bloggers from across the globe, sharing their travel experiences, updates, stories and information in a unique manner. The uniqueness lies in the fact that as you write your story, you can put across the choices such as the kind of travel experience (Adventure, Backpacking, Beach….) along with the details of your trip plans. Just keep answering the questions while you are writing details of your story. Once you click Publish, the trip goes live for the other members to view.
Once you sign up, all you need to do is Submit your Blog.Upon approval, your profile is available for you to submit links to your blog posts, or submit a post directly. The readers will be able to share their views, ask questions to you, follow your trips and profile and if required, book your trip after they understand the bits and pieces of your trip convincingly.
How does the system Work?
Simple! You get an option of Publish trip on your Dashboard once you are in your account. There are four steps in this section and each section asks you questions intended to design your travel itinerary as you write. So, be deliberate as you type in the story. Read the basics of how the system works here.
Step-1:Basic Information
The basic information of course asks you about your destination, date and time. It also comes up with a tab to upload your photos which form the cover carousel of the Published Trip. You can select the best of your travel photos for publishing on the carousel; alternatively, you also have the option to include photos in between your text as you type your story on the type pad. Here’s what the basic information tab looks like:
Step-2:Classify and Tag
This part is the most interesting as you will start seeing your story taking its shape into a travel itinerary. You will need to classify what kind of a trip it was, adventure, backpacking, Culture, city etc. You also have a tag option which allows you to tag your Social Media Connections and invite them to view your expeditions. The most interesting part: Money!! Here you can mention your approximate expenditure for the trip, in EUR, USD and INR. And finally, you can individually select and indicate on what all you have made your expenses. Once entered, it becomes easier for the reader to understand and make a fair decision based on your personal experiences. The selections you make automatically get highlighted in colors and the expenditure becomes clear.
Step-3: Share your itinerary
In this section, you can share information such as the hotels you stayed in, places you ventured during your travel such as street, national parks, museums, landmarks, beaches, hills, view points, food-joints, markets etc. As you keep adding your sequence of points, the information gets updated on your travel map automatically and the readers are able to view your sequence of travel itinerary.
Step-4: Trip Overview
Here’s where you can pour your heart out and write to your length and breadth, as this is your story and it is about to get even more interesting. The text editor is as good as any other blog and allows you to insert text, images, videos and links. There is also a you tube button 
to allow you to insert your videos directly from You-Tube. Once you are done with your writing part, you can preview your post and check how a Published Blog Itinerary will look like. As the readers read your posts, they not only get information, but also an immediate tool to make their travel choices. If the choices you made suits that of the your readers, they will definitely make a decision to take their trip, your way!!!!
Before you publish, you can always preview/save your work and take a glimpse of your post. A published trip will include all the features that are required for the readers to make their choices after they have taken the relevant information from your blog.
What happens after that?
Once public, your posts are available for reading, wishlisting, and choosing for travel. Also, it goes much beyond this point. As the readers visit your posts, they will be able to see the maps, photos, itinerary and story all at one place. An author box at the bottom helps to add the final touches to the blog. 
What else is in store for me?
Well, you did all that stuff and still wondering what the big deal is. So here I go. Every time your trip is published on Tripoto, you are eligible for some credits which can then be used for booking trips on Tripoto. There are two ways of earning credits, one by inviting your friends and second by publishing your real-time stories. You get 5 credits for every friend joining Tripoto through you and 50 credits for every new story you post. The higher the credits, the higher you are featured. Collect more credits to redeem Travel Vouchers for your trips. Learn more
Conclusion
Tripoto is a fantastic platform not only for the new travel bloggers but also for the veteran bloggers. It is a great way to monetize your blog as you convert more of your travel experiences into exciting journeys for others. And as you do that, you create your brand as a Travel Expert in the travel community.
Pack-'Ur'-Bags 