In this modern age, with a computer under every palm tree and internet access as prevalent as malaria, there’s no reason to be out of touch even in the armpit of the Arctic. To make sure your mates can follow your every move, follow our guide for the six best ways to make use of the net while you’re away.

1. Start a Blog – It seems as though every man and his canine has a blog these days, but chances are that, on your travels, you’ll experience more in six months than most people would in six years. And a blog, an online journal, is the perfect way to record the events in your own words.

To kick-start a free blog simply sign up at Wordpress.com or Blogger.com. Both are pretty good, with customisable looks so you can make your site as personal as you want. Of course, you can also use STA Travel’s own Travel Blogs – which is a network of blogs designed for travellers. While not nearly as customisable as the options above, this does have the advantage of ease of use and sticks you in the midst of a whole host of fellow wanderers.

2. Start a Micro-blog – An excellent alternative to full-fledged blogging for those of fewer words is the latest darling of the internet, Twitter. In 160 characters or less (the same number as a text message) you are asked to answer the simple question: what are you doing? That’s it.

The beauty of Twitter is that you don’t even need internet access to post your messages – you can SMS text what you’re doing from your phone. Easy, convenient and surprisingly addictive!

Hit the link to read the next four tips…

3. Geo-tag yourself up! – Adding a little bit extra to the Twitter idea are the geo-tagging sites that shows you friends both what you’re up to and your geographical location. The most well-known of these types of sites is arguably Plazes. Like Twitter, you can update your profile by using either a computer or a mobile phone. Using a phone, all you have to do is text something like “shopping at the local market @ Antigua, Guatemala” to the number provided and Plazes will update your page.

While Plazes isn’t nearly as intuitive as Twitter, if you like the idea of people knowing exactly where you are in the world at any given moment you can’t go far wrong! Another interesting feature is that Plazes will show you other users within 50km of your latest position.

4. Stop poking and make social networks work! – Setting up a group dedicated to your travels may appear self-indulgent, but you’ll be surprised how many people are keen to see what you get up to. Arguably, however, you’ll want to keep your involvement in sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo to a minimum as it’s too easy to get caught up chatting to your friends and reading other people’s profiles!

If you want to sign-up to some dedicated travellers social networks, check out My Life of Travel and Go Wander. Granted, your mates aren’t likely to be hanging around here (yet), but these sites come packaged with a whole bunch of features geared towards to lone wanderer…

5. Share all your pics and vids – Although most blogging platforms and venues like Facebook and Bebo let you upload photos from your trips, if you’re determined to engage in some heavy-duty photography-action you can’t go wrong with Flickr – a versatile online gallery.

For videos…yes, there’s YouTube which does the job well, but if you want to offer your friend and family something a little extra, try UStream! With UStream, you can broadcast live video for free – allowing your faithful following to not only hear about all the awesome stuff you’ve been up to but also get to see your tan develop along your journey.

6. Finally, if you really need a casual chat… I know, I kicked up quite a fuss earlier talking about keeping the conversation one-way but I’ll admit that sometimes you need to get chatting with people from home – if only to ask for more money…

Skype lets you call any other computer across the world for free. Unfortunately, this requires both the computer you’re using and the computer of the person you’re phoning to have Skype on it. But if you’re not carrying a laptop and are using a local internet café, you can’t rely on them having the software you need – that’s where Meebo comes in.

Meebo is an online instant messaging application. There’s no need to download anything and you can chat using your existing MSN, Windows Live, Yahoo Messenger, AIM and GTalk accounts. You can’t do much with Meebo other than text chat, but after all the other, great resources I’ve given you above, that’ll be all you’ll need it for.