Why do people read Travel Blogs? Why do Travel Bloggers even waste their time writing articles?
When I decided to start this blog I did it because I thought it would be fun, thought I might encourage others to visit places I have been and give others an insight to places, travel tips and other useful and useless tidbits of information.
I have noticed one thing though. A lot of Travel bloggers write for other travel bloggers. Instead of providing tips, travel info, destination guides or trip reports they instead write to impress each other. A lot worry about how many twitter users they have, what their Klout score is or how they can impress each other. They talk about the sad state of affairs in the travel blogging industry. They talk about how some pander to advertisers and how they are not being true to the industry. It seems that a lot of bloggers have lost track of why they began their blogs.
Look back at the first few posts then look at the latest. Are they close to being the same or has the focus changed? Have they moved from being an informative, entertaining blog to one that talks about SEO, Marketing and utilizing social media?
Don’t get me wrong I advertise, I think I have made about $30.00 since inception. I am not very good at marketing. I have about 200 twitter followers and at the time of this post I am on Klout with a very impressive score of 28. I follow people on Twitter that I like and I don’t follow everyone back, I know sacrilege right? I write about places and things that I would normally tell my friends about. I advertise products and services that I use and I would not hesitate to tell my best friend to buy.
I don’t begrudge anyone making a living. Especially those that travel and blog full time. God bless you. I also don’t really care how much advertising you do, whether the posts are paid advertisements or you sell e books. I have thought about a few e books myself, though not regarding travel. I just don’t like those that feel they are above the rest, look down on others and are condescending. In fact I have followed a few on twitter or subscribed to their feeds only to unsubscribe later.
That’s why I write the articles I do, just like I would tell my buddy about a place or about what a great time I had. I don’t worry to much about SEO, key word placement or whether I impress other bloggers. Maybe that’s why I only made $30.00.
If you want to read other quality travel blogs and bloggers that write for their readers then check out my links page. Some you will recognize and some you may not. And as time goes on I will be adding others, there are a lot of really good bloggers out there.
Interesting (and quite valid) point that a lot of travel bloggers write to impress other travel bloggers. When I started my blog (6+ years ago) I didn’t know any other travel blogs and basically wrote it for myself and my friends/family, and I hope it’s pretty much stayed that way (except that my notion of friends/family has extended to all kinds of random people who read it). I think your “telling your buddy” approach is the best way in the long term (and a lot more fun to do).
Thanks for stopping by. Yeah I find that approach works for me. Maybe because I haven’t taken any writing courses. But I also find those are the type of blogs i like to read whether they are travel blogs or other. By the way I like your blog
For me, it’s simply because I want to know about others’ experiences on travelling, and looking for any references if I’m about to go somewhere that isn’t familiar with me at all.
Thanks for stopping by. I am the same way I, also like to check out blogs that may not be travel related but related to the area. Sometimes the smaller blogs have some great information also. I started giving a quick overview and list 2-3 blogs a week that I add to the Links page. Some are well known and some may not be.
Great post and you bring up some valid points. For me, I know most of the people who comment on my post are other bloggers, but I’m sure nonbloggers are also reading my posts as well. I have information about advertising and such, but it’s on a specific advertising page. I’d never want to bore nonbloggers by writing indepth posts about SEO and marketing (not that I know anything about that).
Hi Alouise, thanks for visiting and commenting. I actually wrote this article after reading several posts from bloggers that were down on others about the amount of advertising they do and how they were not being true travel bloggers. There are those that gear themselves and their articles towards being the bastions of the industry and tend to admonish those that are writing and having fun doing it. I read some blogs that are heavily slanted to advertising. and that doesn’t bother me. There are marketing specific blogs that I read but they don’t portray themselves as travel bloggers and there are those that talk about the business of travel blogging that I read. But there are also those that think everyone should fit into a certain mold and conduct business in a certain way. I think there is room for everyone and like anything else if you are keeping your readers entertained and providing good information then that is what is most important. Since the original article I have quit Klout and my $30.00 in earnings have skyrocketed to a total of $180.00. I am looking into trying to monetize the blog so at least it helps pay some of the expenses.
I agree that the best travel blogs are the ones like yours – those that are written by travellers for travellers about the things they discover and love. The sad reality is that if you want to become successful you need to spend more time on marketing than on travelling and writing… and then the site suffers.
If only there were more hours in the day to do everything 🙂
That’s true, it starts out as a fun thing to do then turns into a business. Nothing wrong in making a business out of it but just like any thing else if your not careful it quits being fun. It reminds me of a guy I met that owned a bar. He said he bought the bar because he had so much fun going there as a patron. Now that he owned the bar it wasn’t fun anymore.
Well done! great points, good sense of humor, and great to get to know you a bit better!
Interesting comments, I’ve also just started a travel blog which I do as a part-time hobby. The promotion does become all-consuming and your article is a good reminder of what’s really important. Thanks for sharing.