Travel Tips Archives • Page 5 of 12 • Andrew Crusoe

Today, I’m announcing something brand-new: the Byteful Travel Newsletter.

What’s your favorite newsletter? My goal is not to merely rival your favorite email newsletter. In time, I want the Byteful Travel Newsletter to take its place as your favorite.

I realize I probably won’t be to achieve the title of your favorite newsletter for a while, but this is my long-term goal. (On the other hand, if you enjoy Byteful Travel but you don’t currently subscribe to any email newsletters, I hope the Byteful Travel Newsletter will be your first, because it will contain the same kind of breathtaking photography and inspirational content that this site does; and more. More on that in a minute.)

A Newsletter Designed for You, The Adventurer

In order to achieve this goal, I’ve decided to build this free newsletter around your needs; including serving as a continual reminder that you are an adventurer, that it’s up to you (and only you) to create the adventure your life was meant to be.

And as it says in the right-hand sidebar, this newsletter is going to relay “pure adventuristic joy”, which means that this newsletter will convey the same vibrance and energy that the articles here on Byteful Travel do.

The focus of the newsletter will always be enlightenment through travel, but the way it’s presented and the frequency of new issues is largely up to you guys, my adventuresome readers. So this means that anyone who signs up for the newsletter and sends me feedback will have a direct effect on what the newsletter becomes. I very much value and expect feedback on what you want out of this newsletter.

What can you expect?

Let me be super clear here. As I said above, you will have a direct affect on how the newsletter changes over time, so I can’t predict what the newsletter will evolve into. However, although the newsletter will adapt to the needs of the subscribers over time, I do have a vision for what I will initially include.

So you can get a better idea what to expect, I plan to include:

Travel Insights and Tips which aren’t published anywhere on the site
(some bits of advice that don’t necessarily warrant their own articles)
First Impressions if I’m currently on assignment when a newsletter is sent
(this will give you a sneak peak of what’s to come to Byteful Travel before it’s ever published to the web)
A Short Recap of any articles published since the last newsletter
(so you’ll never miss out on any of the adventure or photography)

So in exchange for signing up for the newsletter, you’ll be receiving insights, tips, and first impressions that will be exclusive to the newsletter and not available anywhere else on the web, all free of charge. And keep in mind that the list above isn’t set in stone, either. I’m going to let the newsletter improve and evolve over time into whatever form serves its purpose best.

The bottom line is, I want this newsletter to be the most fascinating, exciting thing in your inbox when it arrives, which means making it vibrant, inspiring, and exceptional. I realize I may not hit that mark first time out of the gate, but it’s my goal to get there eventually. And I will.

How often will it arrive?

I expect that it will be sent out every other month, but the frequency of new issues will depend on how much extra time this requires, the reaction that the newsletter receives from readers, and the feedback I get on the first few issues.

I won’t send out the first issue until there’s a decent amount of subscribers to actually send the first issue out to. (And keep in mind that it’s super easy to unsubscribe if for some reason you decide later that you’d rather not receive the Byteful Travel Newsletter.)

And in case you were curious, your email address will be kept completely confidential and never sold for any amount of money (unlike some sites), you can unsubscribe easily any time, and I’ll never play silly marketing games with you because I hate spam as much as you do. Seriously, “hate” is a mild word for how I feel about spam. The last time I checked, spam never inspired or helped anyone, so it has no place anywhere near the Byteful Travel Newsletter.

That being said, I’m really looking forward to communicating with you all in a new medium (for me), sharing the my best travel sights and insights, and doing what I can to help you embrace enlightened adventures.

Basically, if you enjoy reading Byteful Travel, you’ll love the Byteful Travel Newsletter. Do you have any thoughts on what should be included or left out? Let me know below or on the Contact page! I’m listening, and I’m looking forward to sharing what’s in store.

If you watch the navigation bar on this site like a hawk, you’ve probably noticed that the “Byteful Video” tab has been replaced by a “Byteful Shop” tab.

The Byteful Shop is a pretty big deal, but I didn’t want it to crowd the existing layout of the site. So instead of adding yet another button to the navigation bar of the site, I decided to keep things clean and move the Byteful Video page off of the main navigation bar altogether. So on the rare chance that you find yourself wanting to go to that page, it can now be accessed from the main Archives page, or from the “Videos” category in the category menu in the sidebar.

But let’s get to the point.
What’s the Byteful Shop all about? Why is it important?

Hand-Picked Recommendations

The Byteful Shop is a valuable collection of time-tested products that I’ve hand-picked for you all. It includes all the products I’ve ever recommended on Byteful Travel thus far, as well as some excellent new additions. None of the items have been added by any computer program, and rest assured no outside interest (or gelatinous cube) forced me to add any particular product. Each item basically represents me saying either “Hey, I highly recommend you look into this.” or “This seriously rocks.”

And by using the Byteful Shop, a small portion of your purchase goes to supporting Byteful Travel which allows me to continue to provide all of the articles, high-resolution photography, and videos to you completely free of charge. And isn’t free awesome? Let’s keep it that way.

What makes Byteful Shop special?

The Byteful Shop is an “aStore”, which is basically a special Amazon.com store that’s really easy to setup and customize. It’s a free service provided by Amazon that allows Amazon Associates to create their own custom stores, and it’s absurdly easy to setup and use.

If you have a site of your own and you’re interested, instructions on how to join Amazon Associates for free is at their Affiliate Program page, and once you’ve signed up just click on the “aStore” tab on the top. (And you can use your existing Amazon account to sign up for Amazon Associates.) Did I mention how absurdly easy it is to create one?

The great thing about creating an aStore is that you can create separate sections to your shop, which is exactly what I’ve done. I’ve spent a good deal of time over the past few days creating, tweaking, writing mini-reviews, and optimizing each of the four sections of the shop. Currently they are:

UPDATE: After about 6 years, Amazon has since discontinued the Astore feature. If you want to know what I travel with, your best bet is my latest article: My Transparent Travel Inventory

Remember, each product is hand-picked by me; and although I’ve recommended products and books in the past, this is the first time I’m presenting my complete list of Life-Changing books. It’s not easy for a book to make it into my “Life-Changing books” list, which is why only 8 are currently in that section of the shop.

And in the “What I Bring on Every Trip” section of the store, I’ve taken time to write a personalized description under each of the items in that section to explain why I recommend them so highly. This section represents a lot of experimentation as well as personal trial and error.

A Disclaimer of Transparency

To be perfectly clear, none of these products have been given to me as part of a promotion. I believe in being transparent about promotion, so if any were given to me, I would have put a note in the item’s description. And if, in the future, I review any products or add any products that were given to me free of charge, I will be sure to disclose that, as well.

Thanks again for your support!

I created this shop for three main reasons: to give you all a better idea of what I personally use when travelling, to expose you to some amazing books that have changed my life forever, and to make it easier for you to support Byteful Travel going forward. I’ve put a lot of time into creating and designing this stop, and if there’s anything I can do to make it more useful to you, I’m open to suggestions in the comments.

As I’ve said before, a small percentage of any purchase you make in the Byteful Shop goes directly to supporting Byteful Travel and allows me to continue to give away all of the articles, high-resolution photography, and videos free of charge. So once again, thank you for your support!

Andrew Crusoe

Tropical Sci-Fi & True Hawaii Adventure

Category: Travel Tips