Tips for an Aspiring Travel Blogger

Disclosure: This comes from the "do as I say" department, not the "do as I do" :) Travelling and blogging is difficult, finding time, making time to write a good blog is tough, uploading photos takes time, choosing and captioning them takes even more. I try my best to maintain my blog while I'm travelling but I often get behind. So what makes a good travel blog and what tips can we share to help out those just starting. Here are some tips - based on trying and looking at those blogs that I think are the most successful. These observations are based on what I feel are the most interesting to a random visitor, rather than friends or family. A few Tips Set your goal to something achievable - setting an aim of a blog entry a week, or even a month will be much more achievable than daily updates, and probably more interesting as you can focus on the most exciting events of the period. Keep a paper based journal - it really helps and gives an outlet for all those personal statements that you don't want the world knowing! Write down the names of places, people, where you are, this information is invaluable later when writing up a blog entry. Set the scene - don't assume that the reader has read all your entries up to this point, so use the opening paragraph to describe where you are, why you are there, just a few lines can make all the difference - supply some context. Choose your best "impersonal" photos to be first - the power of a good first photo is really important - check out le_flow or Cumberland Sausage - loads more examples, but what they do is choose the strongest image, it may not be the best technically but sets the tone for the rest of the blog. Describe a moment, focus - focusing on a moment or period and detailing it rather than trying to capture everything works. Each of your blog entries is like an article, the latest entry by AspiringNomad is a perfect example of this - Streets of Hate - a harrowing tale of one event. Most of the time your experiences won't be as extreme as this one, but written in the right way - they can be as powerful. Who is your audience? - if it is friends and family and not the random visitors that will find your blog - then it's OK to have a verbose blog lots of "we did this, then we went here". Other visitors are not so interested in this style of journal. Keep your secrets secret! - if you do something that you wouldn't want your future (or current) boss to know about - don't write about! If it's something for your friends - then email them! but remember that you have to trust them as well :) - it's so easy to forward an email. You never know who is reading your blog - there are many journalists and other professionals reading the entries here. If you have an interest in becoming a journalist or writer, or even just demonstrating the power of your communication skills - your travel blog can become as good as a resume... Please discuss, agree, disagree, add as much as you can or care to :) [Edited: 18:15 - Ali ]
BlackManx Amy Hall Post Count: 23	Msg: #2 750 days ago, November 28th 2006
	I second point 3, as I often stumble on people blogs in the middle of their travels and feel like im missing something. Will start doing it for my blogs too. Any more tips on blogging while actually travelling (im pretty stationary at the moment) would be great as Im starting the nomadic part of my travels soon!! Woohoo bring on Europe! [Edited: 10:52 - BlackManx ]
M C Mark & Cath Post Count: 37	Msg: #3 749 days ago, November 28th 2006
	I offer the following as a vicarious traveller and not (as my own blogs will surely testify) as a blogger... A good title will generally encourage me to read further, especially when browsing the list of newest journals. I usually assume that a title which simply repeats the location to be a friends and family update rather than a more interesting general read. The only purpose of the opening paragraph I'm sure must be to get the casual reader to click on View Full Entry. I'm not sure this is necessarily done by setting the scene, although I agree that it is wrong to assume that the reader is familiar with your other blogs. Break up text into small paragraphs (in other words lots of white space). Nothing puts me off more than being confronted by a single big block of text. Wherever possible keep individual blog entries short, spreading over multiple entries if necessary. Lengthy tomes are fine on the printed page but I have given up on some very good journals simply because reading from a screen quickly gets uncomfortable. Finally, I found having a laptop with me significantly assisted my ability to blog, being able to start an entry, review and edit it whenever I needed, rather than in the half hour or so of ticking clock at the internet cafe. Rarely was I not permitted by the internet cafe to transfer text and pictures from the CD I had cut my latest literary and photographic efforts to.