With blogs becoming increasingly simple to set up and run, the amount of travel blogs online has become simply overwhelming. Starting one yourself can be a good idea, or it could be a huge waste of your time. This is the first of two articles on the subject running your own travel blog.
First of all, there are several different types of travel blogs out there. Which one are you going to set up?
1) The Travel Journal
The travel journal is by far the most popular type of travel blog out there. Travelers set up a blog, typically on a free blog hosting site such as WordPress or Blogspot, and chronicle their travels with writing and photography.
Let’s be honest. Typically, nobody cares about these unless they are the writer’s friends and family. And that’s OK. They’re usually who they are set up for anyway. When traveling for any extended period of time, you find yourself with not enough time in the day to sit and email every single person you know so setting up a free travel blog is an easy way to keep everybody notified of your whereabouts, experiences, and most importantly, safety.
What the potential writer must realize though is that hardly anybody outside of their social circle gives a darn about their blog. That’s not to say they shouldn’t spend time working on it, but they need to know their audience. I spent years writing about many of my travels only to notice that not a single person whom I didn’t already know in person would take the time to care about my experiences.
A few days ago I emailed a friend who is spending several months traveling through South America and told him that I was following his blog. He responded that he wasn’t much of a blogger but that wasn’t the point of his blog. It was a place for his friends and family to keep in touch and follow along while he enjoys this amazing experience.
2) The Travel News Source
Some travel blogs out there focus on all the news happening in the world of travel. The writer follows what is going on around the world and links to it, occasionally offering an opinion or perspective on the topic. It’s hard for these types of blogs to gain a significant readership since news is already so easy to find. Chances are that they aren’t the only person linking and writing about these topics so the content is duplicated all over the ‘net making far from unique.
3) The Advertising Billboard
While it may seem like I’m pointing out the negative about all of these so far, it doesn’t mean that I am against them by any means. That is, until now. Some travel blogs are simply online advertising billboards overflowing with advertisements disguised as news or other forms of travel blogging. These types of sites are about one thing: making money. They’ll promote tour packages, resorts and hotels, flight deals, etc. It’s rare that anything they publish is actually useful or a good deal. Take what they say with a grain of salt and do your own research about anything you find on their sites that might be interested in.
Lately I’ve seen a few of these sites (and their twitter counterparts) advertising “amazing” hotel rates to places like Hawaii. Several of the ones I checked out had hotel rates at $300 a night. Maybe these are a significant discount over their normal advertised rates but that is hardly what I would consider a good deal. They’re all hype.
4) The Informational Travel Blog
Finally, my favorite type of travel blog! I am biased, of course, seeing as I write and publish Have Pack, Will Travel which I feel is becoming a great source of information on independent and budget travel. Not to toot my own horn or anything, so I’ll also use The Expeditioner as an example. I found Matt Stabile’s wonderful site after he linked to my 10 Must Have Items for the Independent Traveler list. These types of travel blogs attempt to provide plenty of useful information for their readers. Occasionally they’ll feature travel stories, but most often you’ll find How To articles with the focus on helping out other travelers with information they may not have had, or simply overlooked.
So what kind of travel blog is yours? It’s probably worth your while to consider these types of blogs before you get started.
How Will You Get Started?
The good thing about starting a blog is that it has become extremely easy to set up. There are countless ways to start your own for free with places like Wordpress and Blogspot. If you are going to communicate any type of professional tone though, these may not be the best options as it’s difficult for most people to take a free blog seriously. If all you are doing is keeping a travel journal though, they are a quick and easy.
It’s not much more difficult if you want to set up your own dot com domain name and run your blog that way, although it’s not free. You’ll need to buy your own domain name and hosting service from a company like GoDaddy or xEdgeHosting (yes, that’s my small, personally run company and this is the first time I’ve felt it appropriate to suggest it). There are TONS of hosting companies out there so feel free to do your own research. Wordpress.Org will help you get the software installed in about 5 minutes or often, the hosting company offers a way to install it with only one click.
Can You Make Money?
Yes, you can, but that doesn’t mean you will. Whatever you do, don’t start your blog thinking you will be making money with advertising because it’s extremely difficult to do. I have a few ads set up here and while I won’t get into specifics, I will say that they make very little money. I (and you should as well) do this because I love it, not because I’m looking to strike it rich.
Sounds Easy. I’ll Start Today!
Good! I truly hope you do, but don’t think that all of this is easy. If you are a capable writer, maybe you will have an easy time getting started writing content, but it takes dedication. For a site like this I am constantly writing to keep content fresh and enjoyable. I love it, but it does get difficult sometimes. Blogs that are successful require frequent updates and the ones that go weeks without any new content are obvious signs of the writers lack of dedication.
If you have. or are planning on starting a travel blog, I hope these ideas have you thinking a bit. If you have your own travel blog please feel free to share it by posting a link in the comments.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting analysis, but I think there are other options… I’m type-one-ish but only 2 of my readers are people I know (I get ~1000 unique visitors per month), I suspect it’s because I go to odd places and take lots of photos! :)
pretty interesting classification. What about collaborative-informational blogs where different authors share their views/tips on the same destination for example. This is what I am trying to do on my blog but I do admit I haven’t figured out yet how to balance between guest-posters (interviewee) and regular authors.
Thanks for an insightful article.
I’d love your feedback on my blog.
I strive to be #4. I’m a newbie, so pls be gentle. I appreciate your feedback.
www. enchanted-traveler.com
Sorry for the typos, can’t type on my iPhone!
Mary Ann http://www.enchanted-traveler.com
Jeff,
Good article, and based in reality. My blog, which is now just about 6 months old, is definitely “Type 1-ish” per the above breakdown. It’s really a variant of Type 1, as it’s pretty niche (“Greek cats?… you gotta be kidding, right?”), and not really targeted at friends and family.
In the end, I think the kind of travel blog you’re doing is the most useful of the bunch. Keep up the good work!
Dave
Good article. Ours is a mix of a little blogging and a little information. We tend to get quite a bit of traffic, but we focus writing about our adventures as a couple. People seem to be interested in Extreme travel eg. Racing through Africa on bicycles, climbing Kilimanjaro and trekking. I think having a niche helps a lot.
Thanks for all of your comments. I have a lot of things to say so instead of replying to each question/comment/concern/criticism (yes I received some hate mail on this topic as well) I’ll be posting a follow up article next week. Make sure you come back to check it out :)
Best,
Jeff
I set up a travelblog while I was backpacking, and I really enjoyed it. I definitely spent too much time doing it (one of the pitfalls), but I think it really helped me keep track of what I’ve done — and it’s a great trip diary to look back on later.
I built mine on Wordpress, which I really recommend, at http://evangoldin.com/travelblog
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