New bloggers who don’t write about gadgets, technology, or their personal lives tend to gravitate toward writing about travel. Many blogs begin as a journal of one or two trips and then quietly fade off into the night. Many of us however trudge on, aiming to write our wisdom gathered during trips, research common questions, and connect with other vagaboonds long after that.
Travel blogging isn’t easy to keep up with, since most of the people who do it have full-time day jobs and spend their free time traveling. (Not to mention having families and a life.)
I recently wrote about a transition that has helped me in my writing and posted a comment in response on one of Problogger’s posts on the subject.
Set hours for work and define your objectives. Ever since I began doing this a few months ago I??ve produced better quality posts.
The extra free time also made my relationships with other people and commitments smoother??
Lea Woodward agrees with me that treating your writing like a profession and your traveling like a hobby will help to reduce stress, keep your writing interesting, and keep your love of travel and blogging alive.
While At Home
I used to write everyday which could work out great. I could write a few little stories and knock out a few days worth of posts. What tended to happen though was that I’d simply write summaries about news stories and overload myself. The quantity was high, but the quality was low and I didn’t offer any good original content.
It also made it difficult for my family and friends to know when I’d be busy and became difficult to make plans with them. My wife convinced me to set aside a few hours on set days of the week (about 3) to write and take the rest off. Doing this forced my writing to be better by:
- Forcing me to write original content which flows better than searching for article after article.
- Gave me some free time to come up with ideas while surfing the web. If I’m online and get an idea I email it to myself and write about it on my ‘working days’.
- Established consistency in my habits leading to creative thought.
- Let me have more time with family and friends. A relaxed writer is a better one and it’ll show through your writing.
- Allowed my brain to focus on networking ideas since I wasn’t spending mental time trying to think of news stories to write about.
- Less frequent posts that were a bit longer. Less quantity, higher quality.
I was quite resistant to this change at first and it took me a while to get used to it. While you’re not traveling, treat your travel blog like a business and set a weekly schedule. You’ll start liking writing better and other will enjoy reading more.
While Traveling
Use the time you travel to take a break in your posting frequency. Write from the road if you can which changes the pace and keeps your readers interested.
- Be more personal.
- Take notes as your see things and write longer advice-oriented posts after your trip.
- Take and upload lots of pictures.
- Enjoy yourself!
I’d recommend not to force your writing and don’t be scared to take a break when you feel you need one. Create a series, run a contest, or enter one when things slow down. Above all never forget why your started writing in the first place!
[photo by: KE-TA]
