IgoUgo is a travel-focused websites where registered members can post their travel articles and travel photos. It’s owned by the travel company Travelocity and based in the USA. However it’s open to people around the world.

Sign Up:

It’s easy and free to join. You can sign up by visiting www.igougo.com and clicking “Register” button on the top right corner. Then you need create a member name and a password as well as provide your email address, location and age to create an account. Once registered, you will automatically receive an activation email with a link to confirm your membership.

Once you click on the link, you can log on your account to start. The webpage of igougo.com is very user friendly. You can easily get travel information by exploring destination, comparing rates across different travel sites and getting ideas from other travellers. Last but not least you can write your own travel experience and share with other members.

Things to do as an IgoUgo member:

The first item is named Plan a trip in which you can find any information about your next travel as well as to compare the flight, car rent and hotel prices.

The second item is called Share your travels where you can post your travel reviews and travel pictures. You can also write down stories which happened during your trips and even make your trip journals.

The third item is about community activities where you can exchange any information or idea about travel and know more about other members. It includes travel forum, community blog and Member hall of frame etc.

The last item is about your stuff. You can write any statement about you and check your activities on the site. Last but definitely not least you can know how many Go Points you have earned for your contributions to the site.

Earn Go Points:

Go Points is an incentive scheme set up by IgoUgo for submission of reviews and photos. However only submissions assessed by the editors of the site as 'Best of IgoUgo' get paid. You can collect Go Points on the basis of the following Contributions: 250 GO Points for Registration, First Review and First Photo; 250 GO Points for Best of IgoUgo Review or Story plus 50 GO Points for one photo attached to your Review or Story; If the photo is awarded to Best of IgoUgo Photo you can get extra 50 GO Points. When you have a minimum of five reviews or stories, including at least three that have been awarded Best of IgoUgo status you can make a Best of IgoUgo Journal then you will get another 1500 GO Points.

Redeem Go Points:

When you add up at least 6000 Go Points you can claim IgoUgo rewards which is equal to $25. Your options depend on where you live. Currently IgoUgo has 6 rewards sites for members based in different countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and United States. Mainly the rewards are either frequent flyer miles with American Airlines or with Lufthansa. Or you can request e-vouchers for Amazon or other retailers and stores.

My opinion:

I joined IgoUgo websites in 2009 and really like it. It’s simple and easy to find any information about travel. I like travelling and have a blog about my travel experiences. So I’m glad to find a space to exchange my opinions about travel and make some extra money. In the beginning I did worry about the quality standard so I was very careful when submitting my articles. Luckily most of them were rated as Best of IgoUgo. It really helped me to build up my confidence particularly when one day they sent me an email of appreciation for one of my submissions.

However I have two minor criticisms. One is about Best of IgoUgo status. One day I found one of my articles was not judged as Best of IgoUgo so I sent an email of enquiry to the site. Before too long I received a reply from an editor who apologised for overlooking my article. This was due to another editor’s personal judgement. The error was corrected. A similar thing happened with a journal I submitted. So I had to send another email and eventually got it resolved. IgoUgo said this was due to a system design fault. My other criticism is about the size of the articles and photos. There is a limit of 1500 words for an article and photos must be sized between 10KB and 2,048KB. Every time I have to resize my photos before I attach them to my articles and sometimes I also have to cut off words when I find my articles are over the limit.

Despite these minor criticisms from a positive point of view I am very impressed with the payment efficiency of IgoUgo. I have always received my Amazon e-voucher within one week of redeeming it.

Conclusion:

I would be more than happy to recommend igougo.com to anybody who is interested in making money for writing and likes to share their travel experiences with others. 

For more travel reviews please visit my articles below:

York Castle Museum - social history brought to life

The Tower of London-Kings, Queens and Queues

I found I'm a Viking!