The idea of traveling the world and blogging about it has a strong allure and many cannot resist. Vacationers, casual day-trippers, and full-time experts are growing in numbers every day. It seems that everyone is traveling, writing about it, and then are blogging about it. Some are simply capturing their memories to share with friends and family, yet some are making a living while trekking. Want your piece of that pie? Read on.
Whatever your goals are for touring and starting your blogging adventure, here are five tips for writing and sharing about your ventures:
Take A Lot of Photos On Outings
People are visual. There is no way around it. People want to see pictures and videos of what you are talking about. They want to live vicariously through you and what you are seeing. They want to see the edge of the cliff you were standing on. They want to see the five-star meal you are about to devour. They want to see it all. So, show them!
Take pictures or videos of everything: your food, your transportation, your accommodations, your scenery, your acquaintances. Take selfies. Capture pictures of street vendors and the public markets. Record video of the sun slipping down over the horizon wherever you are. Get snaps of the wildlife, the street signs, and restaurant menus. It is all fabulous fodder for your blog.
Sure, you can use two exclamation points at the end of a sentence when you talk about how fun your experience of riding a mountain rail was or you can show a picture of your beaming face and hands thrown in the air. The old adage is still so very true: a picture really is worth a thousand words and extra exclamation points.
Write About It All
In addition to taking copious amounts of photos and videos, journal about everything. Make it a point to write about all your fleeting thoughts and emotions, the ways your senses pick up on things around you. It does not have to be perfect by any means. Just get it out of your head and on to paper or in your digital notes.
You can make lists, jot down keywords, create full paragraphs, or fill pages. Just write about it all. You can always refer back to this when you begin to prepare your blogs. Words will trigger emotions. Emotions will trigger memories and those memories are what you share.
Combining great writing with photos and video will have a one-two punch that will keep readers intrigued and entertained. They will come back for more. Give it to them!
Make Time To Work On The Blog
It will take clear and focused intention to keep your blog going. It will require a serious time commitment to edit the photos and videos you capture, to write about the adventures you are experiencing, and to promote the blog. Social media posting, boosting, and audience building will take work and finesse.
Consider doing these things while you are eating that fabulous dinner you just snapped a pic of, while you are sunning yourself on the beach with a mai tai, or while commuting from one location to the next (trains are great for this, just be sure to get pictures or video of the trip too). If you can find some way to make it fun, it will not be such a monumental challenge at the end of a long day of seeing sights and creating memories.
Keep An Open Mind
While you may enjoy focusing on a specific genre of travel writing (local cuisine, museums, or extreme activities) keep your eyes and mind open to new ideas, new friends, new foods, new animals, new flora, and a plethora of other “new-to-you” things that you may not even know were out there.
Having a particular focus is a great place to start each and every journey, however, as events unfold, be flexible enough to embrace each thing that comes your way. Perhaps you will be in just the right place to capture the moment when something newsworthy happens and you can give your perspective as a reporter-on-site. Staying alert to the local culture and events around you can offer an amazing variety of topics to blog about.
Feeling Stuck? Want to Quit? How To Move Forward
Sometimes the incoming information will cause sensory overload and become overwhelming, you will feel like you are in a writing rut or like you want to quit altogether. This is the best time to reach out. It may not feel like it, but it is. Your travel blogging community is there for you. Ask for ideas, inspiration, or assistance. They have your back, so lean into them and get back on the proverbial horse.
Globe trekking can take a lot out of a person. Living on the go, out of a suitcase or backpack, and being a constant state of flux can get to you. The good news is that many others have been there before you and will have suggestions and can provide hope for you. All you will have to do is ask. Let them support you!
As with any job, being a travel blogger is work, but it can come with huge benefits that you can choose for yourself for the most part. At the end of the day, you can incorporate a variety of creative endeavors into a profitable business venture. Why wait?
Hi Andi, just came across your excellent post and had an aha moment.
For some reason, I have stopped taking photos of my travels and I’m not sure if this is due to laziness or I have just got out of the habit?
Yet photos and collecting priceless moments have never been easier to collect.
Thanks for a kick in the bum reminder.