There are a lot of travelers in this world.
There are a lot of bloggers in this world.
There are not so many travel bloggers!
I won’t go into why you might be a Travel Blogger: to share, to remember, to synthesize, and more. Instead I’ll just presume you are or are thinking about travel blogging, and offer a few tips on making it work as easily as possible for you.
Two Hats
Your two hats: Traveler and Blogger go really well together! But in a way they can also be at odds. Travelers are often people who deeply enjoy the road, activity, interaction, experiences and encounters. Some travelers can never see enough!
Bloggers sit in front of screens and play with words and images, with sounds and videos.
I’m pretty sure that guy is blogfading. He hasn’t posted in over a month. I guess I have to go back to reading Perez Hilton.
— Urban Dictionary
Blogfading is so common it almost seems inevitable! I think the best defense against blogfading is to set up a realistic and regular plan for your Travel Blog. Most of the wonderful travel bloggers I’ve met so far are months behind in their posts. Some carry around hard drives with 500gb of unedited video interviews.
Affluent Westerners who don’t travel so much often have the burden of homes so filled with stuff that it strangles them. Travelers frequently don’t have this problem. They learn to be much more minimal and efficient with the world of objects. But 500gb of video or 6 months of back posts are just as big a mental burden, and just as big a hurdle to ever getting your blog back on track, as ridiculous pounds or kilograms of objects can be.
Let’s get ruthless!
Let’s trash some stuff!
Let’s trash a lot of stuff!!!
Ruthless Rules 4 Travel Blogging
- Never Edit Video. Of course your video could be better if you spend hours messing around with it. But you’ll never finish. And you’ll miss so much other experience. Plan to shoot your videos, whether they’re scenics, interviews, or whatever, in short, complete chunks. Shoot. Upload to YouTube. Repeat.
- Never Edit Photos. You shot 5,000 pix on your Phone or DSLR? Great! If you edit those, as in rule out all the bad or less good ones, it will take you forever. Don’t do it. Just rule in the 5 awesomest pix and post them already. Today!
- Never Edit Text. Of course you’ll sound smarter if you fix all the awkward turns of phrase. But you’ll never finish. And you won’t do it. So if you have a cool experience then just write a few sentences, or a few paragraphs and publish it already.
- Never Include Links. Links are the lifeblood of the web. They’re what make it a magical place. And it’s great to give credit to useful websites. But it’s another time drain. And if I’m reading your blog, then I have access to Google anyway. Google already has all the links. You don’t have to worry about them.
- Never Blog About Old Stuff. Trying to work off that 6 weeks, or 6 months, of back-posts that you’ve been waiting on is a surefire way to guarantee that you’ll never post about the amazing experience you had today. Forget about the past stuff you didn’t blog. It’s over. Move on! Did you have a cool experience today? Blog it tonight! Or tomorrow morning! Don’t make a big production about it, just spend 15 minutes uploading 2 pix and 2 paragraphs and hit the PUBLISH button already!
- Never Worry About What You Don’t Have. No “real” camera? Who cares! Shoot with your phone. No WiFi connection? Who cares! WordPress and other apps can backup locally for you till you have a connection. There are a million reasons why you really can’t post today. You can defeat them all by simply taking 15 minutes and posting today!
- Never Write on Paper. Some people keep journals or notes of their experiences. WTF!? Why record it one way, so you can later record it another way. You’ve got a phone, right? Maybe a laptop? Just blog it already!
Simple, Fast & Easy
There are probably plenty more “never’s” out there, but you get the point already. In a way it really boils down to just one tip: make your travel blogging simple, fast, and easy. Anything else and sooner or later you’re going to blogfade. Probably sooner.
Posting the awesomest post in the history of blogging is not the point.
Posting consistently is.
Whoever your expanding audience might be — your mom, your friends, peeps you’ve met on the road, other travelers, anyone interested in your experiences or ideas — when you fail to post you deny them the opportunity to share in your experiences and to interact in quasi-real-time with your ongoing adventures.
I’ve had plenty of travelers lay in a sleeping bag in my living room and spend 15 minutes checking their social media at night, or in the morning. In that amount of time you could have done your blog post for the day already.
15 Minutes
I guess my “tips” really boil down to 1 tip:
- 2 Pictures
- 2 Paragraphs
- 15 Minutes
- Hit the publish button already!
I think this is a realistic, easy strategy, that can keep you blogging for a long time. Don’t be a pathetic blogfader! Rise up and be the awesome travel blogger you were meant to be!
