Why did you start your travel blog?

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Permalink Reply by Carrie Williams, Community Manager on January 14, 2009 at 7:02pm

My blog was partly inspired by the food blog of one of my co-workers, who also happens to be my boss. She knows I love tourist/travel writing, and that it is something I want to do for a living. She suggested that I start a blog to 1. keep a diary of my travels for myself, 2. share my experiences with others and 3. create my own "relevant experience" and have something to show for myself when I apply to freelance gigs or hot-shot job opportunities.

It is my baby, and I'm very proud of it. I hope to mess with the layout a bit more in the near future and totally revamp the site to look a little more professional. Any tips you guys have would be amaaaazingly appreciated!

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Permalink Reply by Craig Martin on January 16, 2009 at 6:34am

Our first travel blog was simply an online journal to keep family and friends up to date with our wanderings. We've really invested time into our second blog, the Indie Travel Podcast, as that had the scope to be useful and build community bigger than ourselves. There was (and is) a real gap in the market when it comes to useful advice for independent travellers and that's something we're trying to change.

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Permalink Reply by Christine on January 16, 2009 at 7:50am

I started Miss Expatria for two reasons. One was to write about what travel means to me and to talk about my experiences; the other was to promote a book I self-published. But as I worked on the blog and started discovering the sheer size of the travel blogging community I began to try to emulate the vibe out there, with travel newsy things and such. But, I recently took a bit of a hiatus from posting every day simply to post, and I traveled for a whole month, and it kind of made me remember what I want my blog to be - more inspirational, less informational. I've also become quite the shutterbug, so I'm enjoying doing photo-only posts as well!

I think once you start you'll find that the "why" evolves over time as you find your voice, as you discover what truly inspires you and as you see what your readers respond to the most.

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Permalink Reply by Peter West Carey on January 16, 2009 at 2:51pm

I started blogging just to keep in touch with family. But this last summer it began to grow as *gasp* people I didn't know found things I wrote to be interesting or useful. Readership grew and I put more effort into it until life got in the way.
But thanks to some travels to Nepal and Peru in the Fall I've got a backlog of logs (har har)to get out and on the web. I now have way more people I don't know than I know looking at my blog daily, including a Photo Of The Day feed with readership that has tripled in the last 3 weeks. I've also refocused the blog to Travel, Photography and Travel Technology. While it's lost some of the it's 'keep family connected' origins, I've enjoyed writing for a broader audience. And now I call my Mom rather than ask if my Dad printed out the latest blog post for her to read. :)

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Permalink Reply by Christine Gilbert on January 16, 2009 at 3:31pm

My very first blog was in 1999 and it was pretty cool. It had animated gifs, and hotlinked images and I basically just talked about what I had for lunch. I started it because I was teaching myself HTML and I thought it was pretty bad ass to have a blog.

My current blog, I started 8 years later in 2008, to document my process from being a corporate manager to full time traveler, writer and lay about. I always said I wanted to write a blog as a way to transition into a writing career-- daily practice couldn't hurt, right? Well since then the blog has taken on a life of it's own, and what was once a daily writing exercise has now become my online home base. I think I'll always have a blog, but these days my *other* writing has been taking priority.

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Permalink Reply by Susan Forshner on January 16, 2009 at 3:54pm

I started my blog because I am an aspiring traveler trapped in the body of a workaholic. I tremendously admire individuals that make it a point to travel full time and while at times I wish I could do that- I do love what I do full time and I don't want to give it up. The day I started my blog was the day I realized that, to not be truly restless was to master balancing my two urges/personalities.

I try to find travel, new experiences in everything and I only ever take time off from work when I have plans to travel.

Blogging about my travels, near and far is extremely rewarding because it reminds me that what I am choosing to do each day, can be fullfilling. I am not, not traveling or not, not choosing to build my career - I am making the best of both the best way I can through my blog.

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Permalink Reply by Paulistinha on January 16, 2009 at 5:08pm

When I started traveling I used to record my thoughts and experiences and shoot them off via email to friends and family. I was just multi-tasking at the time; letting the family know I was alive, creating a journal of archived emails for myself, and (given that I always traveled solo) using the outlet as a way to internalize what I was seeing/learning.

Sometimes friends and colleagues would forward them and I’d get emails from people asking to be added to the distribution. This list got a little...long... over the years. As I embarked on my current and rather loosely-defined journey, I thought creating a blog and letting people come to me just made more sense. Plus, given my aspirations to earn a living through writing, it allows for exposure.

The blog itself and its content is certainly subject to change, much like I am.

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Permalink Reply by Angela K. Nickerson on January 16, 2009 at 8:44pm

I stared Just Go! as a place to promote my book last spring. But it has turned into sooo much more than that. And I love having a place to write every day. And now it's my readers. They are so fun, too!

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Permalink Reply by Vera Marie Badertscher on January 16, 2009 at 9:21pm

I started the blog, A Traveler's Library to justify the shelves and shelves of books I have accumulated that relate to people and places. Well, and of course to learn from readers about MORE books that I can add to my shelves. After fifteen years of travel writing, and watching magazines crumble and blow away, I needed to do something else. And finally, I wanted to learn how to do it.

This site is a great idea. Congratulations.

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Permalink Reply by kimba on January 17, 2009 at 10:49am

The idea for artist-at-large.com actually started as a paper publishing idea in the late 80s right after my first long trip to Europe and right before I got the office job at LP. When I first started traveling there was no such thing as the internet and I used an artist's sketchbook and my camera to record my travels.

I worked in a couple of local publishing houses to learn the business backwards and forwards. Back then there were no real niche travel markets. It was all just travel. I realized at the time that people really didn't travel much like I did or for the reasons I did, so I wanted to write about it. I made a proposal or two to LP but they didn't fly, so I went off on my own. My only problem was that I had no financing. Enter 1995 when the Internet opened up. I then took to learning all about internet and web technologies, backwards and forwards. That learning process is still going on ... Enter 2000 and the big bust. Got laid off and fell through the cracks. Decided that artist-at-large publishing should become artist-at-large.com.

artist-at-large.com didn't start out as a blog. It was a static site for seven years. It wasn't until last year that I started moving it onto a blog platform. Although I have other blogs about other subjects, I kinda resisted moving artist-at-large because a static site gave me more control over content, but there were many more possibilities for getting eyeballs with a blog format. I'm glad I switched - I wouldn't be participating in as many online groups and learning about so many other people if I hadn't.

I started the site because I love to tell stories and share experiences. When friends will sit through slide shows, and say 'is that everything?' when it's over, you know you've got something. I love meeting people, trying new things, and revisiting places and people I've met before. I love taking photographs. I love the instantaneous nature of the web, and the sometimes spontaneity of the blog format. I love that I'm not wasting paper. I love that I have many more readers around the world than I would have if I was a paper magazine publisher - and my stories don't get thrown in the recycling bin.

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Permalink Reply by Benny Lewis on January 17, 2009 at 12:52pm

Fascinating stories everyone!! :)
Unlike most of you, I am actually a very bad writer and probably always will be! Even my own family wouldn't read my emails home they were so badly written... That kept me out of the blogging game for 5 years of interesting travels until I finally saw a way to create content; video blogging! I always loved making videos and I do it in 7 languages so that I can keep my level up and keep in touch with a wider audience. I've learned so much about the other side of the Internet in 2008 and look forward to learning more in 2009! It's amazing how many opportunities have come up because of my blog and the interesting contacts I've gotten.

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Permalink Reply by Edna on January 17, 2009 at 1:07pm

I decided to start a blog in January 08 because I was going away for a study abroad semester to China. At 18, most of my friends had never been out of the country, so I thought it would be a cool way for them to experience going abroad.

I ended up taking a leave of absence from school to stay for a whole year, but I didn't post as much as I would've liked because I was so busy traveling and in some ways 'growing up' as an expat (being only 19 now).

However, I definitely got bitten by the travel bug and hope to move to Europe after I graduate college next year. So in the meantime I'll use my blog to catch up on the experiences I backlogged and never got to post, then hopefully in a year start it back up again, but on a completely different continent.

I also became quite camera-happy in China, so I'm looking into what would be the best way to showcase all the shots I've taken. Flickr I find a bit cumbersome and my facebook albums are only available for a small circle of people in the world, so I may turn my blog into a 'photo of the day' of the places I've been. [Also because I take forever to write posts!]

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