Firstly, I’d like to thank those of you who frequent this website for your interest and words of encouragement. I enjoy the map-making process immensely and I’m grateful to be able to share it with you.
For those of you who are new to the site, and to those of you who come back often just by remembering the website address, I’d like to suggest you subscribe to the blog. Subscribing means you don’t have to come back every day to see if there’s a new map yet because the maps are sent to you. There’s no spam because you can turn off your subscription any time you like. There are two easy ways to subscribe – RSS and Email.
Subscribe by RSS
RSS is a technology which allows you to receive updates without actually coming to the website. If you read a lot of blogs, RSS is a life saver. Just sign up with a blog reader (my favorite is Google Reader) and then click on the “Subscribe via RSS” button in the sidebar. You may also see a similar orange RSS icon in the URL bar at the top of your browser – you could also just press that button.
Once you subscribe to the RSS feed, my maps will be delivered to your blog reader every time I post a new one. The nice thing about the feed reader is that you can track unlimited amounts of blogs from one location instead of trying to visit each site every day, which would take forever. I track a couple hundred blogs and the blog reader is the only way to make that possible.
If you’d like to learn more about RSS, I have a whole page devoted to it! Read more about RSS.
Subscribe by Email
If you’re not quite ready to adopt that newfangled RSS nonsense, email may be more your speed.
Just put your email address in the “Subscribe by Email” form in the sidebar and press the Subscribe button. Then, check your email for a message from us and click on the link in that email to confirm your subscription. From now on, you’ll get each new map sent directly to your email. How’s that for service?!
Just like with RSS, there’s no spam. If you decide that my maps suck or that I’m a deplorable wretch and not worth your attention, you can easily unsubscribe and never be bothered by me again.
Bookmarking Options
Another option is to bookmark this website. You could just bookmark it in your browser favorites, but there is a better way.
Online bookmarking services let you keep all your bookmarks in one location that you can access from anywhere with an Internet connection, which is handy if you’re traveling or spending an excruciatingly painful weekend with the in-laws. My favorite online bookmarking service is Delicious.
Other services, like StumbleUpon, combine bookmarking with community, so you can share what you discover with like-minded people.
At the bottom of each of my posts you’ll see icons for a few of these bookmarking sites. If you like the map, just click on one of those icons, sign up for the service (it’s free of course) and bookmark away.
If you have any questions about RSS, email subscriptions or bookmarking, please ask them in the comments section below. And thanks again for reading!
Thank you
I’m interested in creating a map for a novel I am writing for an English paper I am completing. Any ideas how I can do that. I have the guts of a story – new 28 hour day and segmented times of day and new names – and a new gender system. I need a map to add to my assignment portfolio.
Maybe a world, area of world and a city. I would like to create.
Thanks
Alistair – the easiest way to get started is just with pencil and paper and your imagination. Look around this website and other cartography sites to get some inspiration.
I mostly use Campaign Cartographer and Photoshop to make my maps, but there are plenty of free programs out there (like Gimp) that will work just as well.
HOW DID U AMDE THAT MAP