blog it or slog it?

by **Shawnosaurus** » November 5th, 2009

Howdy folks! I am looking for practical advice from people who have done a long duration trip and tried to blog it. In the next 2 - 4 months I am packing in the career, possessions, etc and leaving to backpack randomly for an undetermined length of time. While I am out there I figured I might enjoy blogging it up. Specifically, from blogging about my travels I expect to:

1. Enjoy sharing my experiences publicly.
2. Brush off the old writing habits.
3. Feel the rare tinkle of joy that comes from inspiring someone else to travel.
4. Possibly earn some revenue to help me buy beer.
5. Help feed my internet addiction while traveling.

Now my main question is whether I will get a more satisfying experience out of running my own small blog, or trying to find an established travel blog to hitch my wagon to. Off the top of my head, I see the comparison between the two like this:

Small Personal Blog
Con 1. Setup and maintenance.
Con 2. Without traffic the blogging experience can be a bit uninspiring.
Con 3. Likely zero to very little revenue potential.

Pro 1. My creative expression is limited only by my attention span.
Pro 2. In the unlikely event of success, I would have sole revenue.
Pro 3. No content delivery commitments (although with self imposed expectations being what they are you could also call this a con).

Wagon Hitched to Legit Travel Blog
Con 1. Maybe no travel site wants me.
Con 2. Delivery commitments.
Con 3. Potentially low creative expression.
Con 4. Narcissus would disapprove.
Con 5. Likely zero to very little revenue potential.

Pro 1. Established with existing traffic.
Pro 2. No precious lounging time lost to maintenance and setup.
Pro 3. It's fun being part of a larger online community.

Or... maybe my answer is actually a combination of the two? Oh dear. So anyways, that is what I am thinking about today and trying to solve in the next few days. What do you think? What would you do? I would appreciate hearing your opinions and experience. Thank you!

ps: I hate the word "blogger"
pps: I love ordered lists.
ppps: Sometimes just by writing up a post like this you think up new insights.

by **minerguy** » November 5th, 2009

I'm not an insider to the blogging circles, but am looking at starting a long duration trip next spring or so and am planning on going with my own blog. You've broken down the pros and cons well. Although having not making money as a con for both makes that part a wash. If you were just doing a trip for a set time and wanted to stay it touch with friends and family then using one of the plug and play blogs, such as on BootsnAll or Travelpod would be the way to go.

Many of the Travel Blog sites and even other travelers with their own blogs are looking for guest posts which will be a good way to get your name out there and meet other bloggers who can give you some hints. Its not a quick process to build up your base or start bringing in dough so you need to be willing to do it for the long haul if that's what you want. Since you still have 2-4 months before your trip you'll have to squeeze in setting it up and trying to make it your own (along with all your other trip prep). Once the basics - format, pages, so on - are there updating doesn't seem to be much different if its your own site or a larger one.

Hopefully there will be some other comments, I'm interested as well.

by **RTW2010...** » November 6th, 2009

We are leaving on our trip mid-next year and have decided to use a blog to keep in touch with friends and family. I also hope to provide practical information (budgets, logistics, recommendations) to other travelers (I have learned so much from other people's blogs and feel I have a small debt to repay).

I have researched various options, and making money off our blog is not a priority. I have looked at the various canned blog sites (e.g. travelpod), but I don't find them very visually appealing. It seems to me that the most attractive "blogs" are websites created by folks that are computer savvy. Since I am not one of those folks I have decided on the mid-range option of creating my own blog using blogspot. I have found it pretty easy to use, it is customizable, and there are lots of bells and whistles that you can add. PM me if you would like to see our test site (it is not ready for "public" consumption yet).

I have seen some really cool sites made with wordpress, and played around with that for a bit. For me (I am no computer expert), it was a little too complicated and I got frustrated. Who knows, I may play with it a little more and fall in love.

For me, for now, the answer is blogspot.

Oh, and I may try a guest post or two on another site, if I think my posts are good enough.

Cheers!

by **sml1825** » November 7th, 2009

This is a really great thread. For me, the question isn't whether or not I should set up a blog and where, but a matter of keeping up with it.

I'm quite torn on whether or not I should bring my laptop. I have a 13" Macbook Pro that I just bought in July (before I decided on traveling instead of graduate school). I love it and it's a great tool to have, especially for writing, design and photography, but I'm worried about it getting roughed up, broken or even stolen on my trip.

Obviously if I plan on keeping a serious blog, bringing it along with me would be ideal because it allows me to update more frequently and on my own terms than an Internet cafe or spotty hostel computers would.

I'd be curious to hear how other travel bloggers handle this. Do you bring your laptop with you on your trips or do you rely on cafes? Or maybe you bought a Netbook. What are your thoughts on those guys?

by **RTW2010...** » November 8th, 2009

We bought a netbook and will be carrying it with us on our trip. The nice thing is that most travel insurance will cover the replacement cost (e.g. World Nomads covers up $500) if it gets stolen.

I consider having the netbook a good way for us to keep the blog updated. I personally hate sitting in internet cafes, and the netbook will allow us to chill out at night (in the hostel or anywhere else) and work on blog posts. Even if our hostel/guest house doesn't have wifi we can store the post of the text on a thumb drive and post it in a 5 min trip to the nearest net cafe.

I see working on our blog (beer in hand of course) as a great night time activity. We are a married couple so hitting the bars every night is not the focus of our trip, and the more time we can spend during the day seeing sites or chilling on the beach (and not in net cafes) the better.

by **Andromeda** » November 8th, 2009

I always do travel blogs because I like to write, simple as that. My first effort was called The Chocolate Fish and was done while studying abroad in NZ- hosted via Blogger and it was a pretty good format to use. My second blog for my rtw trip, Where is Yvette?, was hosted via Wordpress because I got to the point where I wanted to play around with having extra pages and stuff on the blog and I like the Wordpress look. What I really don't like about Wordpress though is how it seems to keep screwing up my images- uploading is a pain compared to Blogger and lately many people visiting the site have had issues with getting the images to load right and left and I haven't figured out the reason (they're there, I swear, you just need to reload the page).

For all of this work I carried a netbook around with me- EeePC for $400 off of Amazon (even cheaper now), definitely a great investment and I think I might have made a hefty chunk that money back by not having to spend money on wifi while in Europe! Plus it's nice to have someplace to dump and play around with photos or have the ability to watch a movie on long bus rides as an additional bonus.

by **Shannon080** » November 8th, 2009

I just got back from a RTW trip over the past year and blogged on my own site the whole time.

I think there are a couple other pros and cons that you have to take into consideration when you are looking at the possibility of hosting your own site and vying for money on the site - you have to keep up with it!

That could be easier said then done. If the blog is something that you truly want to customize and keep for the long term with possible money-making opportunities then self-hosting (on Wordpress) is the best idea, without a doubt.

On that same line of thought though, keeping up with a blog can be a whole lot of work in areas of the world where internet connections are terrible. Myself and a lot of the other bloggers I read spend hours every week in internet cafes to keep their blog going - time when they could be out exploring - but they love it and it shows in their posts.

If it's just for friends and family though I think that blogspot or something along that line is ideal. You can still customize some - you can still guestpost on other travel blogs and have them point to your site...And the biggie? You can fairly easily export your content if you decide to start your own site in the future!

To build a network within the community and get readers takes a good deal of time - in 2-4 months you can get the site up and really start networking but if you go the self-hosting route you are committing to a good deal of time on your trip as well!

A lap-top is a must if you are going to start a serious travel site. I took my 14 in PC and also took a pac-safe to lock it up. And if it didn't feel safe in the hostel, that meant carrying it around for the day - a small price to pay though since I chose to work from the road. But I always, for the entire trip, had $800 set aside to buy myself a replacement if mine did get stolen :-)

Hope these thoughts help!! Definitely let me know in the future if you go the blog route and I'll help in any way I can :-)

~S

by **vagabondette74** » November 12th, 2009

I would recommend a self-hosted wordpress blog. The problem with blogging on someone elses platform is that your blog can go poof at any time and you have no recourse. I've had it happen. My blog from Europe was on Blogger and one day I logged in an entire year of posts were gone.

Also, by hosting your own you can open up the revenue potential somewhat but don't anticipate making much.

You might be surprised about traffic. Google loves wordpress blogs and crawls them regularly so your stuff will show up in the SERPs pretty easily. I have do no promo besides a forum link and the pinging the wordpress automatically does and I get decent traffic - sometimes for random things. My Mexican Food Porn post gets interesting traffic.

Whatever you decide, keep something. I still have a written journal that I kept while I was hiking the Alpine Pass Route and it's great to look back through it. I was lucky that my mom kept the emails that I sent because with my blog gone I have no other record.

by **Shawnosaurus** » November 14th, 2009

Thanks for all the great advice! Between this forum and some chats with an experienced travel blogger, I opted to set up my own little blog. I'll plug away at it, and see how it goes. If you're curious what I am starting with, it's http://www.rerunaround.com

I'm also going to keep my eyes open for guest posting opportunities and the such. Especially once I get on the road in a month or so.

@vagabondette74 I think your point of keeping some form of record for my own purpose really hit home. My memory super sucks. So this blog, plus maybe some extra notes, pics etc will be really important for me.

Thanks folks!