The latest issue of my travel magazine Shoestring is now online! Check out the entire magazine on Shoestring Travel Magazine

The second issue of my travel magazine Shoestring is finally online!
Read it here, enjoy it, be inspired and please leave feedback!

SHOESTRING Travel Magazine now has its own internet home and can be found at http://www.shoestring-magazine.com/.

The website is hosted by Blogger, which means that anyone with a GoogleID (including Twitter, Yahoo, Blogger etc.) can become a follower of SHOESTRING Travel Magazine in seconds and get all the latest travel news directly to their dashboard as soon as the site is updated!

Shoestring-magazine.com has been designed to host news and reviews to keep travellers up-to-date. As the magazine is going to be published quarterly (Issue #2 is due out in October!), news that happen between publications would not get a mention otherwise.

The new site also hosts a forum called "Community" which is free to sign up to. Here, travellers and readers can share and exchange experiences and tips and maybe even find travel buddies! You can even share travel photos and videos, and who knows, maybe you'll even inspire a SHOESTRING feature or get to write for the magazine yourself!

The Tips & Tricks section contains the advice pages from the magazine, such as "How do you plan a Gap Year?" This valuable advice is always accessible, and even if you can't open the link the see the full issue of SHOESTRING, as this section will conatin the pages in jpg format. This means, that for most of your travel queries, this section will become a one-stop-shop and the pages can be printed out so that you can take them away and refer to them whenever you need them.

Next to all this, the website will also be where the next issue of SHOESTRING will be published! The issues will be downloadable and printable and you can bookmark and share the site on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, Technorati and Google.

The little red sign on the left of the website shows how many visitors are online at the moment, while the map on the right shows where SHOESTRING's readers are from.

Please become a follower on shoestring-magazine.com and on Facebook (search for Group SHOESTRING Travel Magazine), and help turn SHOESTRING into an international backpacker magazine!!

I have a favour to ask.

As you might know, I'm busy planning my travel magazine Shoestring, and I am still looking for contributors.

I have designed for Shoestring and would really appreciate it if you could print them and distribute them around university notice boards, halls, student bars or community centres. One of the flyers is in English (below), the other is in German (above). Although the magazine is based in the UK (due to me living here), the authors can come from around the world and talk about every country on earth.

To promote Shoestring magazine, I have set up a Facebook group at SHOESTRING Travel Magazine

I'm looking for writers and readers, and want to give everyone the chance to discuss story ideas with like-minded people and get published.

So join me on Facebook if you think that Shoestring sounds like your kind of magazine, want to find out more or even contribute to it!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

If you have read this blog before, chances are you've heard about my final project, travel magazine Shoestring.

I have decided to continue it as a proper online magazine, bigger, better and for a wider audience.

To achieve this, I am currently looking for travel savvy writers who would like to contribute.

Shoestring is a travel magazine aimed at the 18-30 year old student and gap year travel market. Next to experiences and suggestions for the next trip, I want it to cover advice as well. This can include everything from photo tipps to the best backpacks.

I want to introduce an "as the locals see it" section, where twenty-somethings introduce their hometowns and suggest hip places to hang out, cheap thrills, beauty spots, the coolest new bars - that sort of thing. So if you want to introduce a city that you know well, get in touch! At the moment I'm looking for such places like Barcelona, Milan, Rome, New York, London, Sydney, Cape Town and Auckland but I'm open to suggestions. I'm also always looking for simple (and I mean fool-proof), tasty recipes from around the world.

Shoestring should also feature outdoor stories, active stories, including extreme sports - but on a travelling angle. This could for example include travelling to New Zealand to bungee jump from the bridge where the sport was invented or crossing China on a pushbike. There are no real limits, as long as it has to do with travelling and is of interest to the target readership. Stories exploring different cultures are also welcome!

Have you recently read a really good (factual) travel book? Seen a great documentary? Tried a new travel app on your phone? If so, I'm looking for short reviews.

As you see, Shoestring is still in the planning stage, but I want it to be a one-stop kind of magazine, that offers all the info relevant and of interest to the readers.

So if you have stories you want to share with like-minded travellers, please get in touch with me at Kaufmann.cornelia@gmail.com or leave a comment on this blog. I can't offer any money but your story will be published under your own name, so this could be a great way to extend your portfolio. If you know anyone who might also be interested in contributing, please spread the word any way you see fit!

My Final Project SHOESTRING MAGAZINE went to print today!!



Shoestring is a magzine for backpackers aged 18 - 30, who enjoy outdoor activities, exploring cultures and might even be thinking or taking a Gap Year or Sabbatical to volunteer or work somewhere. Exploring the world on a budget - it's exactly what it says on the tin. Students with itchy feet might not know about all the possibilities open to them, and I'd like to help there. My motto is: "Where you have been is not half as important as where you are going! Meet you there!" and I mean it.

Just like Mark Twain once said "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." I do believe that you should take your chance to travel while you can, and even though the world has been explored many times over, there are still so many hidden gems and experiences to discover!

For now, Shoestring is a 12-page magazine, but if I get enough encouraging feedback, I will turn it into a regular online publication, with more sections (i.e. city breaks, what gear, etc.) and more pages. As this issue of Shoestring is an assessment and counts towards my degree, there will only be a limited number of hard copies, mainly for those who contributed to it (printing is expensive, if you don't print in bulk). But the good news is: you can read it online either here on Conny's Corner or on issuu.com, download it, print it and hopefully in the future even subscribe to it.

Click on the magazine above, and it will open in full screen modus. If you click on the page then, it will zoom in, so you can read it properly. I only ask you not to distribute it further once you downloaded it and not to pass it off as your own.

Last but not least I want to thank David Simister, Laura Heisig, Skye Macdonald, Luise Görlitz, all the photographers and everyone I interviewed for their big help!

Now that I'm in my third year of my B.A. (Hons) Travel Journalism degree, I have to create a Final Project.

What do you think? Please help in the design by leaving feedback :)