Interview: Craig Martin, The Co-Host of Travel Podcast Blog

An interview with a Co-Host of an Award Wining Travel Podcast Blog “Indie Travel Podcast ” - Craig Martin. He and his wife Linda is running this blog since 2006. They share their tips to the travelers for better and less price traveling experiences, in their blog…

They traveled more than 40 countries and has far better experience in travelling… Here in this interview, i got to know many new things about how they started this online radio show blog and at end of the interview he also shared “traveling safety tips”… Don’t miss it!

The are featured in PC Magazine, Podfinder UK, Alltop's travel section, the final ten of travel section in the Podcast Peer Awards, top 10 for the Bloggers Choice Awards for Best Podcast and won the the Best Podcast category in Lonely Planet's travel blog awards. -Great!!!

The interview begins, Enjoy!

Why you thought of taking the blog platform to conduct your online radio show or online podcasting?
We started Indie Travel Podcast in 2006 after we had spent six months traveling around Europe. We considered starting a magazine site or a blog to share our tips and what we learned, but we decided to make it a podcast because not many people were making travel podcasts and it sounded interesting. We chose WordPress to create it because of some excellent podcasting plugins and integration options.

I found that you traveled many places... Did you traveled those places only for your blogs content or for spending Holidays?
It's not really work or holidays; it's our lifestyle. We have been traveling full-time for over four years now and visited over 40 countries. We're always taking photos and video, and using the internet to publish our stories and audio programmes. It's good fun.

Do you feel like a RJ, when you are talking in the internet radio show?
Not really. It's very lo-tech! We have a portable microphone and we often sit in a hostel room or sometimes outside and just talk about that day's topic. We also use Skype to interview other travelers and interesting people around the world.

What type of advertisement you mainly use on your blog to earn money? Any Voice ads?
We use banner ads, affiliate programmes and Adsense/Chitika as well as audio spots on the podcast. Since we won the Lonely Planet "Best Podcast" award, we have had lots more interest from new audience members and from worldwide travel advertisers.

You And Linda is running this blog... but who first got the idea of this "Travel" Blog Topic?
I think that was my idea, but Linda really helped bring it to life, along with another friend Paul. Paul created the first version of the website for us and provided free hosting for our first year or two. Now, I'm still the driving force, and Linda the balancing force.

Common Tips you like to give the readers about "traveling safely"... Traveling safely?
I think a little common sense plus research can be really helpful. We were recently "attacked" in La Paz, Bolivia, where a man threw a gel on my friends' bags then a man in a suit told them their bags were smelly and they should take them off. Because we had all read about this scam (the criminals would steal the bags when they took them off ) they were able to keep moving to a place of safety. In general, the world is quite a safe place: don't panic about leaving home! Go and explore! We try not to put ourselves in danger, and seldom have had any problems in over four years of travel.

http://www.indietravelpodcast.com
http://facebook.com/indietravel54
Craig Martin : http://twitter.com/craig_martin
Linda Martin : http://twitter.com/lindajmartin

I really had a great interview with Craig and i must appreciate that he has gave me the interview replies very fast. So, stay tuned with this blog for more expert interview. Arijit Das

Buy Revolution 2020–Chetan Bhagat

I’m luckier one to receive the copy of book “Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat” just after a day of its release. Believe me, it’s one of the best noble I ever read… I’m totally emotional attached with the lead character “Gopal” who struggle all the way to become rich.

If you’re a Die Hard fan of Chetan Bhagat, then I’m sure this book is going to be the “Best of Best” for you.

After 16 hours of my order placed at flipkart, I received my copy of the book in my Home. Such a Fast Home Delivery.. The retail price is Rs.140 (all India) but flipkart is giving discount of 40% . So, i brought it for Rs. 84 only. :-) That’z really Great!

My Friends are waiting for “Revolution 2020” availability at their local Book Stalls. Right now, its Demand is Very High but I’m lucky coz i already completed reading 63 pages of it. Actually, I’m a slow reader..  but its interesting start compelled me to complete the first 63 pages.

Thanks to Flipkart for its “Cash-On-Delivery” which helped me to receive the book without any requirement of Credit Card or other online payment. Cash purchase at discount is really a great deal..

Brief about the Story: “Revolution 2020” by Chetan Bhagat.

"Pages i read till now is about a guy name Gopal, Aarti & Raghav. Here Gopal is the lead character who's actually poor in the story but later he becomes rich.. 3 of them are friends but Gopal & Raghav both Loves Aarti. It also shows the real character of a girl, here Aarti is very caring toward Gopal but everytime he propose her, results nothing. Gopal is very obsessed about his career, but even of his full effort, he scores average marks in AIEEE & JEE. but Raghav is a topper who get chance in IIT but chooses his passion of journalism as his career. Rest you read from the book itself..

The Official Description about the Story:

"Once upon a time, in small-town India, there lived two intelligent boys. One wanted to use his intelligence to make money.
One wanted to use his intelligence to create a revolution.
The problem was, they both loved the same girl.”

You can Order your copy from Flipkart & be the first to receive it among your friends even at a great discount of 40%.  

I think “Cash-On-Delivery” will be a great option for you, if you don’t have any credit card.

Let me tell you the Process of Cash-On-Delivery to buy from FlipKart:

1. Sign Up or Register an account for Free over Flipkart.

2. Use the Button “Buy This Now” at the product page to process the Payment.

3. Give your appropriate Address, so that they can send your product.

4. Choose “Cash-on-Delivery” option to purchase.

5. All Done! Within 2-3 days, you’ll receive it at your home & you can pay them right there. I received it within 16 hours of my order. Luv you Flipkart.

Please note: If you purchase less than Rs. 100, then they’ll charge shipping cost of Rs. 30. So, instead buy another book with it for getting the proper discounts..

So Don’t wait… Quickly Order your Copy: Buy Revolution 2020 from Flipkart.com

Ragu Sir, Ranvijay & VJ Bani's Feedback about me! - Roadies 9

I had a great time with the Roadies king. Thanks to Ragu Sir, Ranvijay & VJ Bani for their lovely recommendation about me. :-)

I'm with Raghu Sir:


Ranvijay & Vj Bani talking about me:

Roadies Audition behind the scene

First of all thanks to BlogAdda and Gayatri (of @viacom) who had been our coordinator for a day to Roadies journey.

I’m feeling myself lucky for being a part of such a great event .i.e. MTV Roadies kolkata audition. I was among the 3 bloggers who were selected for the day.

The night before the audition was really the difficult one coz I couldn’t sleep out of excitement. Morning, we 3 selected bloggers reached Swabhumi where we met Gayatri, always smiling and she guided us to enter different gates. She was always attending us and kept rescuing us wherever we’re blocked by the guards.

Tough Security

Believe me, the security over the audition gates were very tough and I must appreciate those crew members and guards who were controlling the crowd.

Received a Press Pass..

We were continuously asking Gayatri for a Press Pass, the reason we gave her was quite different from what I was thinking. Actually, I wanted to show off the participants telling them that we are from “Press” and we need active replies from them.

Atlast we received 3 press passes and each of us hung it on our neck to show others that we’re from “PRESS”. We’re really feeling great that time…

New Technology “Finger print scanner connected to Facebook and Twitter.”

Finger print scanner present over there was something which took my attention. It was not a simple finger-print scanner but a tool to update your twitter or facebook status, which shares your current roadies position with your friends. Mean to say, if you’re on the desk filling the form and whenever you scan your finger, your friends knows that you’re in the roadies audition desk. And again when you’re entering the GD room, your friends are notified after a finger scan. Likewise, every levels of audition has such scanners working the same.

The Finger print Scanner.

Captured the Participants – Asked Question.

We guys wearing press cards looking good but feeling bit uncomfortable to reach the participants to ask them questions. But later Rakesh, Agnivo and I gained confidence and interviewed few of the participants. A common question “Why you want to be a Roadie?” ..

A participant faced our camera and we also gave him a small task to perform. Check the below video:

A participant named Vinay Jaiswal.

Here’s a Duplicate Raghu from Kharagpur:

Time for the Blast!

Ya, it was a time for blast when Gayarti told us that the two Indian Bulls are free sitting at producer’s room along with Ranvijay and vj Bani after the press release.

We rushed toward the producer’s room and it was the time I exclaimed …. OMG! they’re there. @# . I can’t believe my own eyes that they’re the roadie kings. 4 of them were discussing and I was standing back of Ranvijay and facing Raghu, Rajeev and vj Bani. I quickly hold my camera in one hand and kept the other hand over Ranvijay’s shoulder and suddenly he turned around and said me “Hello!” and I excitedly replied “Hi!” … and in a second Rajeev came forward with his hand for a shake, I did the same back.

We bloggers started getting friendly with them and were enjoying their company.

Ranvijay & Bani’s Laughed on my PJ’s.

We guys had a smiling pic.

Raghu told me to promise for supporting the show if I feel the guys are working hard… and I promised him.

Ya, From my point of view… Roadies is a show which can’t run without hard work and I feel the whole roadies team is working hard and I honestly support them.

And I had a friendly discussion with Rajeev about “blogging” … The conversation with him was in “Hindi” and I think it was the worst hindi I ever spoke- mixed with bengali. Hehehehe!!

And this is how the day came to an end and I reached my home .. called up my friends and told about my experience with MTV Roadies.

Happy to announce that I’m thinking to start an unofficial blog about “roadies”. Preparing for that!

BlogAdda is giving Bloggers access to Roadies 9 Audition

As I’m a big fan of Roadies, it’s a great opportunity for me to reach the door of roadies audition. This season, BlogAdda bloggers community is giving access to its selected bloggers to see the “behind the scenes” of the auditions.

I’m thinking to apply for roadies 9 kolkata audition passes because I already chosen roadies 9 as a special topic over my blog. And it’ll be an honorable job for me to write about the audition experiences.

Before applying for the Audition’s Special pass, I sent some queries to BlogAdda team. After getting reply from them, I’ll decide to cover the behind scenes of the audition.

Stay Tune…. Will keep you updated.

------ Update ---

I’m being selected to attend for the audition and to watch-out the behind scenes. Wait for my post about the audition 20’ Sept (Kolkata).

Related:

MTV Roadies 9 Auditions Dates - Different Cities