After 6 months of test and measuring with our first website (above), we are launching the new a4trip website, today! Yes, in the next couple hours! If you want to find out how we solve the problem of removing shopping cart, yet still allowing multiple orders - stay tuned!

The work will not stop here. We will continue adding more new languages, features and other fine-tuning… which would keep Weikiat busy for the coming days still. Weikiat, the very important peson behind this challenging revamp, is pushing our development to the next new high!

I did a quick search on Google.com with keyword ‘a4trip’ and it returned 8,170 results. Let’s see how much we can grow from here! It would be interesting to check this back in the future.

• Giggling at the Live Googling of Google?
• News Today - Fabien WANTED!
• Night Shift
• Once upon a time, there’s a little girl named Shirley…
• Improving a4trip for You

It was through the short article, we got to know Adline, working mum & freelance writer. Working on this project, it is great that we can meet wonderful friends out there.

• Hidden Museum - An Hour Expedition with Adline
• A story from Aida, writer of Manila Travel Guide
• Clarence meets friends here!
• Improving a4trip for You
• The Geographer Cafe Gathering

On May 28, I got an email in my VirtualTourist mailbox which I initially mistook for a spam. Curiosity got the better of me when 3 words on the subject caught my eyes: travel, guide, writer.

Intrigued, I read it and found out that the sender was asking if I’ll be interested to join their team as travel guide writer for Manila. A series of email exchanges followed over the next 2 weeks until I was asked to write a short paragraph about myself and a 1-page essay on Introduction to Manila’s History and Current Affair. The latter clinched it!

On the morning of June 16, I was pleasantly surprised to find 3 new email in my Yahoo inbox with the subject: Welcome Aida. Yes! I am now a part of the growing team of a4trip.

Modesty aside, I’m not after the money or the royalty fees. It’s the opportunity to share my city as well as my travel experiences that motivated me to be part of a4trip. And of course, the prestige! I’ll say, a4trip is my claim to fame ;)

I find a4friends much like my other Internet-based community — people are friendly, cheerful, and accommodating. At this point, I wish that I could also develop a “flesh & blood” friendship with the other members, instead of just virtual acquaintance.

As for the website itself, I have some suggestions:

• come up with a gallery of a4friends members grouped into writers, mappers, editors, translators, etc. with picture and brief description. This way, we can connect the name with the person virtually since not all of us can meet each other in person.
• separate blogs from information i.e. a page for a4trip guide announcements, a page for animal conservation, a page for miscellaneous/stories, etc.

• Clarence meets friends here!
• Once upon a time, there’s a little girl named Shirley…
• News Today - Fabien WANTED!
• Pin’s Bad Reading Habit
• Improving a4trip for You

Two months ago, I received an email invitation from Nicholas to be a travel guide writer for Melaka. My first question that pop through my mind was “Is this for real?” and the 2nd was “How this dude found me?”

Anyway, the email sounded decent and I don’t see any words such as “FREE” or “INVEST” or “MAKE TONNES ON $$” which 98% = “SCAM” . So, my first impression was probably some young group of poeple like myself trying to source talents from the internet for some project. The project turned out to be A4trip guidebook and I was rather impress with the a4trip’s official blog, a4trip is because I was actually looking for opportunities use the internet to earn some income. But, to do so, I need some experience and I think a4trip can be one of the best platform around to explore this field. With the flexibility they provide by doing it on a part time basis and the support from the team, I feel it’s suitable for many working adults who would like to contribute in writing a guidebook of their hometown, to participate in animal conservation project and generating some side income from their work.

But I believed many writers will have a feeling that can the guide book sells or doubt the a4trip team’s credibility. Of course even I feel the same thing at the beginning. But after meeting with Pin, ChinSeng and YC, I got pretty excited. Its the people behind it that actually inspires me to work together with a4trip. We shared stories ,experience , knowledge and make FRIENDS!

Why royalty income and not a one shot pay? Haha, this is a very interesting question. If you just get a one shot pay , wouldn’t it be no different than getting another part-time job? Try imagine going to 1.com office everyday just to complete the guidebook and leaving your present job and hometown. Because you have been paid to do so!

But with royalty income , things are more towards a win-win partnership. a4trip doesnt need to ‘employ’ any writers and writers don’t have any strict job like commitments. Writers are free to work according to agreed time lines and work pace. The beauty of royalty income is that it’s a one time work where writers generate incomes through sales of the guidebook. What if the guidebook that you write sells 500 copies worldwide for the first month? Thats 500 x USD 0.30. That’s USD 150! How about next month? If it has great responds thanks to the marketing team and sells for 1000 copies for the subsequent months? Thats USD 300/month by just writing a guidebook only once. But we need to give our best effort and be confident of our abiities if we wanted to achieve success.

I’m currently doing some background research on Melaka despite a tight schedule. Yes, the writing process can be a little troublesome when you don’t know where to start! Haha. But, you can see my writing progress in my blog. Thanks!

• Amy, the writer of Sydney Travel Guide is here!
• Writer’s Framework
• Improving a4trip for You
• Passion of Adrian, our proofreader
• The 3U’s- Unique, Updated and Useful

Fabien, our mapper for Malacca Travel Guide, doesn’t like to take photo of himself. He told us he was begging his friends for hours to send his picture taken by their camera for a4friends. Finally he found one for us, together with his sharing below!

Recently I’ve started working as a Marketing Executive. Still pondering about my future due to the petrol price hike :D I joined a4trip through my friend, Clarence the writer for Malacca Travel Guide English Version. He said my so called “skills” in photoshop would be useful for doing the map. Thus, he introduced me to the a4trip as a mapper.

Faith? If my friend have faith in a4trip, I’ll place my trust in them as well because I know my friend’s choice will not be wrong. v(*,*)v

Getting royalty would be rather profit-ful if the guide getting recognitions and sales in the future. This is long term planning. One-shot pay will not be very beneficial to a4trip. a4trip requires development, and by paying one-shot will burn holes in their pocket and hampers it from development.The amount of one-shot pay maybe little due to the a4trip’s current state.

a4friends? A bunch of crazy internet bloggers and etc… Just kidding. Appreciate the animal rights and environment awareness enthusiasm. By the way, with so many capable web developers.

• Amy, the writer of Sydney Travel Guide is here!
• Clarence meets friends here!
• A story from Aida, writer of Manila Travel Guide
• Animal Ambassador
• Featuring 2 Youngest a4friends

Since a4trip website was first launched 6 months ago, we have been listening and getting your feedbacks and comments on the website. With that, we are developing a better and improved new website which aimed to serve you better. After two months of hard work, finally the website is going to launch by end of the month.

In order to cater worldwide market, the new website is going to supports 25 languages. However, we don’t speak all the languages. Therefore, we are seeking for volunteer translator who could offer a helping hand in the translation of the English version into your language.

Translator need to know:
1. translation to be done in PO Edit (freeware & easy to use)
2. involving time will be 1-7 July 2008
3. leave a comment below with your Name, Email & Language you wish to translate

• Big Day
• New born member
• Night Shift
• The Crack Team
• Choi from Korea

In all true honesty, I’m just honoured that a4trip knocked on my door to enquire if I’m ok to do some writing for this website. I’ve been writing regularly on Virtualtourist, and that was how a4trip found me. I’m not here to make tons of money. Not in the case of a royalty fee offer, anyway. I’m here to write so that people can enjoy what I had the opportunity to enjoy. In truth, as travelling is my passion, nothing else matters. I take time to travel the world and have been trevassing this planet since I was 10 and ever since then, its a must to travel - to experience another culture, to partake the food consumed by the people in the country, to do things commonly done by the locals and not by the tourists.

So far, I see that the a4trip community has been pretty friendly and warm. Do continue to stay that way. As for me, I’m just looking for my next trip. Never liked those 20 in one country hopping type. Just one country at a time to get that opportunity to smell the flowers.

• Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown
• Clarence meets friends here!
• Amy, the writer of Sydney Travel Guide is here!
• Saving the Kopi 2-Happy ending?
• Once upon a time, there’s a little girl named Shirley…

Lingli joins a4trip few months back ago. Beside taking the role of proof reader for Siem Reap guidebook chinese version, Lingli also love animals like we do. She’d been to Elephant Sanctuary and Deerland which are located in Kuala Gandah, Pahang.

Here, she shares with us lovely animals posing in front of the camera. Snap snap…

So near yet so far. Uhh.. my neck.

Balance..don’t fall..make a pose to the camera.

We are camera shy..shoo shoo..go away

“Do you have food for me?”

*snoring* ZZzzzz…

Working under the hot sun…give me a break.

I’m cute, i’m mini, but don’t agitate me..you’ll regret till the last
drop of your tear..

“Do I look like a queen? Hmm?”

Cheers again to Lingli, lets continue the a4tripian spirit of sharing and caring. Sharing your experience and photos with us, we don’t mind if you want to share your properties as well. Just kidding =p . And caring for the animals around us. Not only must we help the endanger animals but also the street animals that we see day in day out when we eat at hawker/food stalls. They deserve a better life as well =)

• 16 to 76
• A day of “Hanoi” family and friends reunion
• Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown
• News Today - Fabien WANTED!
• Our Kumomo Cambodia Trip

What makes you hava faith in a4trip?
To be honest, I am still not sure how the guides will sell, however I know a company has to start from somewhere, even Lonely Planet a long time ago was just a small back office printing, so it’s in my best interest to try to make it work for everyone. In a sense, it’s my way to contributing to the guidebook community, having bought quite a few there are always ways to improve on traveller’s experiences with guidebooks. Being a travel agent means I get first hand customer feedback on their experiences travelling so it’s also a great “side” thing to do for me as a form of research!

Why you would accept the royalty fee offer, not a one-shot pay?
I figured that being a start up company a4trips are not going to have the money to pay their writers, just like all of us and how we started (having done a few ‘free’ jobs myself for my feature articles) and being writers we all know there isn’t that much money in writing anyway. If I (we) can create something different for the travellers in terms of our guidebook offerings and produce good quality product, the word will spread and eventually it’ll sell. It’ll take a while, but nothing comes easy in life.

How do you describe a4friends?
It certainly is full of cheery people! Understandably everyone is still learning, about the business and about the markets. The website has drastically improved since I joined so I am very please to see that! I’ll leave it in the hands of those developing the online communities. I’ll just keep to what I am good at: being a travel consultant and writing :)

How is your writing process?
I have been a little slack and not following my timeline. The framework is pretty flexible as explained to each writer in the beginning so I am happy with that. I just need to find time to dedicate myself to write!

• Clarence meets friends here!
• Passion of Adrian, our proofreader
• A story from Aida, writer of Manila Travel Guide
• Pin’s Bad Reading Habit
• Once upon a time, there’s a little girl named Shirley…

My name is Shirley. I’m 22 years old and I grew up in Langkawi. I’m currently a university student, doing Bachelor of Commerce with Deakin University, and I’m majoring in Marketing and Economics. I’m a food lover, enjoy reading, blogging, traveling and am passionate in photography.

One morning, I turned on my computer to check my emails, without expecting to receive any emails from anyone except those annoying junk mails which I would delete straight away with resentment.

Before opening my first email that day, I took a quick scan along the list of unread mails and that’s when my eyes stopped at an unfamiliar name ‘Nicholas’. “Who on earth is Nicholas? I don’t know any Nicholas. Can this be a scam?” I thought to myself. My instinct told me not to open it, but my guts told me otherwise. Without hesitation, I opened the email from a stranger out of curiosity. A friendly greeting of “Hi Shirley got me wanted to read further. “This guy even knows my name!”

Nicholas invited me to join a4trip as a writer of their guidebook for Pulau Langkawi. Before I made my decision, I visited the website that was provided by Nicholas, to check out what sort of company it was. Despite being uncertain whether it was a genuine invitation, I replied to Nicholas and agreed to his offer. People say that curiosity kills. But, not all the time. I’m glad that I made that reply and now here I am, a proud member of a4trip!

I believe that a great effort will bear a fruitful success. Although a4trip is a newly established company, I believe it will grow as time passes. It’s their sincerity, helpfulness, the love for animals, kindness and friendliness that made me fascinated with their attempt to maximize profits while maintaining the closeness between members.

I see a4friends as a group of nice and friendly people with passions, who are doing what they can to help the company move forward. Besides showing love to the endangered species, this community also devote their time and energy to charity such as donating money to the victims who suffer from the tragedy of Sichuan earthquake. I see a4friends as not only a team that strives for a goal, but also a big family consisting of members from every corner of the world.

Since a4trip is based online, I would suggest a4trip to be advertised in blogs of the members. In order to spread the word of a4trip, it can be done through sponsored blogs or voluntary blogs. Further, reviews from buyers who have used our guidebooks would be a valuable source to win over the hearts of other potential buyers.

It’s a great pleasure to be part of a4trip family. It feels like home…

• A story from Aida, writer of Manila Travel Guide
• Saving the Kopi 2-Happy ending?
• Passion of Adrian, our proofreader
• Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown
• Amy, the writer of Sydney Travel Guide is here!

Let’s cheer and applause to Amy, our Sydney writer! She have collected some booklets and newspaper as well as magazine cuttings about other destinations and send us by air mail. What a warm sharing from Amy (Although the magazines have been voilently torn but guess what? It is really a useful information)! We really appreciate it! Hope you guys may share generously to this big family as Amy did! [^_^]

• Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown
• Blog Tips for Your Guide Books
• Saving the Kopi 2-Happy ending?
• Getting stuck in writing?
• Elephant Sanctuary and Deerland

Tour to our french writer, Marie-Claude’s hometown, Nantes…

Nantes, old town center with streets for pedestrians, restaurants and bars, and a lot of boutiques…

Nantes, situated in the western part of France is also the sixth largest city in France. Here’s the pictures of Nantes that our dear Marie would like to share with us.:) Enjoy… …

This is the castle of the Dukes of Bretagne. 11th-15th century.

One of the oldests parts of the castle, protection against the ennemy.

At the top of the column, a statue of the king Louis XVI, who was condamned to death at the french revolution (1789). The buildings around the place where built in the 19th century.

The cathedral : its building began in 1434 and ended in 1891…

The river Erdre ( affluent of the Loire). François the 1rst ( King of France at the beginning of the 16th century)used to say that this river is the most beautiful in France.

Front door of the castle

This small part of the castle is now a restaurant.

This part of the castle is more recent, 15th century.

The thick walls where a defense against the ennemy. The bottom of the walls was usually under water, the only way to enter the castle was the front door, with the drawbridge.

• Mapper’s Framework
• Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown
• Pin’s Jungle Book
• Clarence meets friends here!
• Map layering in Illustrator

I remember it was back in the middle of December ‘07 that I briefed everyone on the idea of the “big ship” and why we should mobilize the entire team to work on the “500 Project”.

And now, we are entering the 6th months of the a4trip Project.

We have came up with 3 guidebooks (one in beta), and by the end of the year, 36 guidebooks will be on sale.

Along the way, we’ve learnt alot about the travel writing business. From the first writer to join the team to the current team size of 60 talented writers, translators and mappers across the globe, we’re moving closer to the “500″ target.

To keep the big ship’s momentum, we are going to be rollling a few things very soon.

Most of you might not have the courtesy to join us in our Daily Marketing Briefings, yes, you read that right. The briefing is a daily ritual in the mornings that usually last about 1-2 hours, every “business days”. While you’re busy writing your guide, or drawing icons for your map or looking up funny words in the translation websites, the Marketing team has been working over the clock to see that the Guidebooks is reaching out to the travelers. The interns that just joined us now are also performing much better than we expected.

After running the Daily Marketing Briefing for about a month, we are now moving to mini-campaigns. Each team member will design a marketing campaigns of their own and then track their own campaign effectiveness.

Next, we are also working on the a4trip.com Manager module. This will make it very simple for the Operation team to notify download stats, earning reports and facilitate payment related issues. We are looking to start using the new a4trip Manager by end of June. We will roll out a4trip.com Friends module too. It would be used by all of you to manage the progress of guidebook and sales of download.

And, leaving the best for last…the new a4trip.com Website! Believe me, you are going to be thrilled to see all the new features we’ve added and improvised. The underlying philosophy of the new site is to simplify the buying process and providing useful information to the travelers the moment they loaded the very first page in a4trip.com. The new site design is due end of June, to all dear writers, ensure your guide is ready for release by then.

The Marketing Team is ready to adopt any tactics that can help to increase the awareness of the a4Trip Guidebooks. If you have a good idea, share it with them!

The Development Team is constantly looking at modifying the a4trip infrastructure to improve the Guidebooks buying process. They could use a little help too if you have a great idea to contribute!

Meanwhile, fasten your seat belts and get ready for the upcoming features!

• The Crack Team
• Getting stuck in writing?
• Giggling at the Live Googling of Google?
• Pin’s Bad Reading Habit
• Clarence meets friends here!