According to statistics posted on Wikipedia, as of September 2007 the blog search engine, Technorati, was tracking more than 106 million blogs.
That’s an awful lot of blogs to be read and let’s face it, if you write on a blog, you do so because you would like people to read what you write. Those of you who have your own travel (or other) blog, will already know how hard it is to build a decent subscriber base of loyal readers. If you’re on the road, you would probably far rather be off gallavanting around than sitting in an internet cafe blogging to the world.
So if you don’t blog, then here’s why I think you should…
- If nothing else, it’s a permanent record of what you did for your own personal memories – my very first blog recording a 3 month trip around Australia and New Zealand is still floating around the blogosphere somewhere and is a nice trip down memory lane when I read it!
- It’s a great way to share your experiences with friends and family whilst on the road and keep them up-to-date with your movements.
- Posting your photos to a blog means that people will actually get to enjoy your artistic efforts instead of being buried away in a shoebox somewhere and never seeing the light of day.
- It can be a fantastic way of connecting with people who share the same views and experiences as you do and initiating conversations, dialogue and discussion.
- It can open all sorts of unexpected doors and opportunities for you.
- It can earn you some pocket money for your travels.
So my question is this: Do you blog about your travel experiences? And if so, why?
December 20th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Of course I blog about my travels. Travels are one of the main blogging themes around, and personally it saves me the hazzle of having to write e-mails to each of the century of people expecting to hear from me. And as you say, it saves me time at the internet café and gives me time to see what I came to see.
My main reason thought, is that it help me in my reflection both during and after my trips.
December 20th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
106 million blogs…does this make the creators of WordPress more powerful than Jesus?
Time saving is definitely a huge plus–mom always gets a personal email but my other gaggle of friends (2) get blog updates.
Of course, blogs seem to be a slippery slope. What starts as a simple way to keep others informed takes on a life of its owns as I become obsessed with Widgets, slideshows, and formatting.
December 21st, 2007 at 10:58 pm
I just recently started my travel blog. Family and friends kept asking for pictures and stories of my adventures and found putting them in a blog was a great way to keep in touch and share my experiences.
It does get addicting.
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:09 am
As a dutch couple we met in Siquijor said last week, “Lonely Planet’s” kinda incomplete–it’s good to find blogs like yours which can supply current and detailed info on places we want to visit.”
So yes, each trip we make is chronicled in traveljournal.com.ph –but really, there’s so much to say and so much photos to upload and make collages of–there’s hardly any time to do them all! ARGH!.
Geir, travel reflections eh? That’s something to think about.
Hey Rolf, when do I see your book in the Philippines?
Jomar
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:11 am
As a dutch couple we met in Siquijor said last week, “Lonely Planet’s” kinda incomplete–it’s good to find blogs like yours which can supply current and detailed info on places we want to visit.”
So yes, each trip we make is chronicled in traveljournal.com.ph –but really, there’s so much to say and so much photos to upload and make collages of–there’s hardly any time to do them all! ARGH!.
Geir, travel reflections eh? That’s something to think about.
Hey Rolf, when do I see your book in the Philippines?
Jomar
December 23rd, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Yes. I do it because I love to write and express myself with words – I’ve actually run across this blog tonight, because I’m creating an addition to my regular blog – a travel blog. I’ve seen lots of recommendations for this place!
December 28th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
My husband and I started writing when we took our first extended trip (6 months) back in 2001 (well before it was called “blogging”). It was a great way to keep contact with everyone back home & share what we were up to.
Now that we have a family, I also include tips and recommendations because it can be so difficult to find information about what to do with kids in different places (even on the web). I also hope that reading about our trips will help inspire other families not to feel “stuck at home” just because they have kids.
May 10th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
We started seriously blogging about our travels during our cycling trip to Africa. We had been traveling extensively for 10 years and could never truly share our experience with people once we came home. The raw emotions were difficult to reproduce when telling our stories. People weren’t interested in looking at 100′s of photos at once and we felt overwhelmed trying to tell so many stories at once. Now that we blog, friends and family can stay up to date at their own pace and share the experience with us while we are in the moment.