Why go to all this trouble? Travel blogs…
Posted on 31. Mar, 2010 by Kirsty in Blog
So what’s the point in having a travel blog?
We first started looking at Travel blogs in general just for reference, we were in the very early planning stages of our trip and we were picking out places we thought might be interesting to visit. Travel blogs were a way to find out what other travellers thought of these places, were they disappointed? Were there places they would recommend instead? The main purpose of this was to see if places described in the travel guides and various websites really were as described when visited by ‘real’ people.
Poi checking out blog sites
Travel blogs become addictive quickly…..
We found ourselves reading blogs by the same people on hosted blog sites such as TravelPod, rather than just looking for the places, we became interested in the story, the actual travels of the person and how they were getting on. We also noticed how people were improving their writing skills all the time as their journeys went on. This new found interest had us both scanning through loads of travel blogs and eventually led to us reading self hosted travel blogs.
I was going to give a few examples but have so many favourites it would be wrong to chose between them, Hopefully I will get a links page up describing them all soon.
Seeing a blog on a website that has been developed by the blogger gives it such a more personal feel that you sometimes don’t get on a hosted blog, of course there are some exceptions. Obviously there are costs involved with setting up and maintaining a self hosted blog and this is what will often make the decision between the two for a blogger.
We decided to go with a self hosted blog as it gives us complete freedom to make the site we want and try to put our own spin on it.
So after reading all of these blogs what direction should we take it?
Plenty to work with
Our Blog:
The aim of our blog is to clearly show anyone who gives a damn, what we are doing with ourselves and try and get our personality across along the way. It’s also a place to record all of our highs and lows on what will hopefully be an amazing trip. I don’t know why I say hopefully? It is going to be amazing!
Of course the blog will also be used to keep friends and family updated on what we get up to when we get too caught up in the moment and forget to make that all important call, everyone back home will still be able to keep an eye on us. Who are we kidding really? It will also give both of us something to do when we fall out with each other.
So far it has been both fun and frustrating setting up this website. It’s been great learning how to do it all but there have been days where it has driven us both mad, it’s all we talk about at the moment and it has definitely been keeping us both busy.
We are looking forward to developing our website and hopefully getting better and better at writing, we’re both still addicted to reading other peoples sites and look forward to seeing their sites grow as well.
Finally a big thanks to our friend James Hoy for creating our header for us, we love it.
Poi.
An English couple travelling China and South East Asia since August 2010. 
Jason of Two Backpackers
01. Apr, 2010
Your story sounds very familiar to us, extremely familiar. Our original intentions were to backpack around the world for a year. Then we started researching rtw blogs and before we knew it we were addicted too. I have always spent time on the Internet and wanted to learn web design. Aracely and I bought some books and started learning. We spent more time on our blog than planning our actual trip. Pretty funny. Now we struggle to balance both travel and running a business (that’s what it has become). But, honestly, we love it. Our fan base has FINALLY expanded past family and yours will too. As you shape your travel behaviors on the road you will also be shaping your website. Let it change as you change. It’s not work if you enjoy what you are doing.
Be flexible with your travels and with each other. What started off as a 1 year rtw adventure for us has become 1 year in Latin America. We didn’t like traveling too fast. We still consider ourselves on a rtw adventure, it just may take more than a year. We look forward to your great adventure and reading about it on your blog.
Poi & Kirsty
02. Apr, 2010
We can definately relate to spending all our time working on the blog rather than planning the trip, it’s become our main hobby and all we ever talk about, even on good friday we’re sitting in bed checking everything. We’re loving doing it though, we get so excited over the smallest things like comments! so thanks.
We decided right back at the start that we didn’t want to fly around everywhere and not get a chance to take anything in so I think we will be following a similar approach to you guys, we’re planning to spend nearly a year in South East Asia alone. Thanks for visiting the site
Adam
01. Apr, 2010
Glad to see your site is up. Great idea to list out your reasons for deciding on doing your own travel blog. Obviously, I think it’s a good investment and probably a pretty good souvenir, too.
Poi & Kirsty
02. Apr, 2010
The souvenir is definately a big plus too. Thanks for checking out the site.
Federico
04. Apr, 2010
Hey there!
I know very well how the story goes…it is addicitive and sometimes it feels a bit too time consuming, specially when you are on the road. In fact it happenned that i would not write anything for several days, too busy visiting places and meeting people. But it all goes into a notebook, and eventually finds itself on my blog.
I am sure you will have a blast…remember to take it slow and enjoy your destinations!
Federico
maitravelsite dot com
Poi & Kirsty
04. Apr, 2010
Thanks for checking out the site. It’s amazing how much time one blog can take up and even just reading other peoples, but we are really enjoying it though.
Scott
04. Apr, 2010
We found having ourcorner of the Internet a great motivator before and during, forcing us to take notes and remember. Plus in 40 years it’ll be great to look back on.
You made a good choice with hosting your own blog, it’s your own little corner of the intrawebs
.-= Scott´s last blog ..Furry Friday 14 – Aren’t you a little too old for that? =-.
Poi & Kirsty
04. Apr, 2010
Definately, it makes you think about travelling and what we want to accomplish so much more. You never know in 40 years we still may have somehting to write about, even if it’s more arm chair travels.
Joel
04. Apr, 2010
For me, I’m a big showoff, though I’m a bit socially shy. A blog is a great way to say “look at me” without having to do something embarrassing in front of people. Of course, I plan to conquer the shyness and do a lot of embarrassing things on my trip, as well.
.-= Joel´s last blog ..Packing List Episode II: Attack of the Clothes =-.
Poi & Kirsty
04. Apr, 2010
We’ll hold you to that! If there’s no photo it didn’t happen! (that’s for the good and the bad things…..)
ayngelina
22. Jun, 2010
I love your header too, I wish I had a nice one.
Balancing the blog on the road does seem to be my greatest challenge. This isn’t a business for me and the money I make is just a bonus, my priority is travel first. But that doesn’t mean one hour doesn’t slip into two along the way
Poi & Kirsty
23. Jun, 2010
Thanks! – Our header still isn’t quite finished, waiting on the last little bit of detail.
I think we might have to drag ourselves away from the computer a few times on our trip, it’s easy to get a bit carried away with this blogging business.