Transform your content into a mobile travel guide ...and make money out of it!

[Pietro Ferraris]

Creating and publishing mobile travel guides gets easy with the website Map2app. Here are 5 (good) reasons to try it.

But first: What exactly is Map2app? Imagine a website that allows you to create travel apps for iPhone and Android with no tech knowledge, no need to purchase expensive software and/or hire an expert to do the job for you. In fact, imagine the app-version of WordPress. Map2app does for mobile apps what WordPress does for blogs: It makes content publishing easy, intuitive and free.

If you’re a travel blogger willing to make your debut in the mobile app arena, what you need to do is: Register for free on Map2app, open the AppCreator dashboard – from which you can insert and manage the content of your app – upload all the media you need and, when all the places, photos, videos and content are in place, access the Apps Section to request the publication of your app. Now that you have an idea of how Map2app works, here are 5 good reasons to use it:

1. It’s free:  There’s one catch, though: It’s free for independent authors (aka travel bloggers) while public institutions and travel publishers are required to pay to have their app published. The good news is that, probably, most of you who are reading this post are travel bloggers and can go ahead and publish your travel app. The app will then be distributed by Map2app either for free or at a set price and, in this case, the revenues will be shared with Map2app.
2. It’s easy: Remember the first time you logged in to WordPress? Remember the old days when you didn’t have a clue about blogging? The first time you log in to your Map2app AppCreator, that feeling could come back, but only to disappear as you browse around. The interface is easy to understand: You start by creating the desired categories that will be the main menu of your app such as restaurants , hotels, outdoor spaces, shops, museums etc, you then insert the places of interests and, at this point, you can also add comments to each place of interest, as well as photos, audios and videos. When you are done, you can request the publication of your content.
3. No need for notebooks: Map2app comes with its own travel app, called PlaceGrabber, which helps you collect and record places of interest while you’re travelling. To do so, you don’t need to be online, PlaceGrabber works offline: You can upload your content to your AppCreator dashboard as soon as a wi-fi is available – an extremely useful tool especially when you’re abroad – and you can then edit and add your content to your own travel app.
4. It’s the future present: “Mobile traffic was only 1% of the Internet at the close of 2009. It has grown 10 times in  2 1/2 years” – as reported by Forbes’ editor Robert Lenzner recently. It is important to have up-to-date and quality content on your blog, but if you want to take it to a more professional level, a travel app could do the trick, making your activity as a travel blogger visible not only to your readers and followers but, hypothetically, to any mobile user looking for up-to-date mobile travel guides.
5. It’s cool: As a travel blogger and journalist, I found Map2app to be a great idea, developed by a team of young Italians willing to make the design and distribution of a travel app easy and accessible literally to anyone.

If you want to start creating your app now visit www.map2app.com

[Michael Holland]

With Map2app taking 50% of the sales, this doesn't seem like that good a deal. Most other app builders out there take 35% or less.

[Pietro Ferraris]

Hi Michael, you misunderstood.

We take 50% AFTER Apple and Google royalties

They keep 30% of each app sold, the remaining 70% is split between the author and us. 

We also take (and give) 35%. See our FAQs for more.

Watch this video (5min) where I show, in pretty bad english, how the platform works and what it can do and you will see how specific for travel apps map2app is compared to other platforms:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLLIVvKKa6A

Cheers,

Pietro