Things You Should Know Before Starting A Travel Blog

After publishing the article explaining how I self-fund my travels as a student, I received a lot of positive feedback along with a decent number of messages asking me to elaborate about my part-time career as a travel blogger. A lot of people wanna know how to start their own travel blog, hence I will be covering this topic later this week on the blog. Today, let's talk about the perks and mindset, as well as clearing some doubts about travel blogging.    

Being a part-time travel blogger got me lots of perks, apart from the ones that I've already mentioned too many times on Facebook (my partnerships with hotels, tourism boards, and travel companies), I get paid for writing review articles for websites, companies, products, events, and apps, and most importantly I get to host some pretty cool exclusive giveaways for my blog subscribers! 
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Travel blogging brings me to places I've never even dreamt of, giving me the opportunities to experience things without the need to worry about money, meets me up with groups of people who share the same passion for traveling and writing… the list goes on and on. Although I am nowhere near the big names in the industry, as an aspiring travel blogger, I am quite happy with the things I've achieved so far.  

I always encourage my friends and readers to take up travel blogging. I even opened up a writing group for those who would like to dip their toes in travel writing. I made it a point to feature articles from these new writers every now and then, and gives out tips on how to push their articles towards maximum post reach. All because I think blogging is not a competition, it's about building each other up. Aspiring bloggers, do remember this.   

I believe anyone can do this. Well, if I can do it, so can you! 

Once I received a message with some screenshots attached, showing that a young writer was cyber-bullied for making grammar mistakes. The harshest comment I’ve seen has to be this “You shouldn’t even write because your English sucks! ” 

Well guys, don’t bother. This logic is crooked as if this person is saying to a Pneumonia patient “You shouldn’t breath because your lungs are not in good condition.” In fact, we should continue writing because our English isn’t good enough, because practice makes perfect, because if we stop creating rooms for improvements, our English will never get better. We do not do things because we are good at it, we do things because we WANT to be good at it. 

Another message I got from a reader from Indonesia reads "Although I really want to do this (blogging), I have no content to write about. I've never traveled to interesting places abroad..."

Too often that when we are pursuing big dreams, we tend to forget that every big thing starts from a single footstep, let it be small as long as you take the first step. It is always a good idea to explore your own backyard. Malaysia and Indonesia are beautiful countries with cascading waterfalls, crystal clear lakes, mysterious mountains, spectacular skyline, towering skyscrapers... we have it all, why not we do our parts in promoting the gems in our own countries instead? Thailand is currently the top destination in South East Asia, she is getting all the love. I believe with a little more effort done, we can be there too in few years time. 

Okay now back to the topic. You can register your site on Free platforms like WordPress or blogger (I am using .blogspot.com if you notice.) But if you are serious about making travel blogging your career, consider self-hosting. Starting a blog is pretty easy, but here comes the difficult part-- maintaining one. To maintain a blog you have to be consistant: I update my blog every 2 days (at least), some bloggers I look up to update their blogs daily. 

Now to the question I answered too many times: "How do you find time to write your blog posts? Do you even go to class?" 

I would like to answer this question with a well-known idiom-- "If there is a will, there is a way." Normally, I write my blog posts on the road, at the end of the day while lying on the hostel bed. However, I can't edit them so I store them as drafts and as soon as I get back in my office (which is my room), I include photos and schedule them up every 2 days. Why do you need to write down the draft on that day itself? Because the experience is still fresh in your mind! Don't wait until it is stored away in your memory bank, then you'll have to take the time to recall and it makes your progress much much slower.   
Other than that, if I suddenly thought of a cool topic to write about, I note down the possible title on my phone and I'd write the post during lunch break. Well, actually I am writing this post now in the class with my groupmates talking about cupcakes in the background.  

My lovely group mates, la crème de la crème of the country. 

Next, your writing should be full of character, YOUR character. You don't have to sound professional because that would be pretentious. Try to read more articles from successful travel bloggers and learn how to produce a good blog post but never try to imitate (well it is understandable if you sound a bit similar to your favorite blogger(s), because well, we human get influenced easily, but try to be as original as possible). My writing style changes from time to time. If you are an avid reader of the blog, you would discover this by now. The reason behind this, is I often write straight out from my mind which can be heavily influenced by my mood of the day. For example, now, I am feeling rather stressed because of a test coming right up. 

Now enough typing, I would like to join in the conversation about cupcake so Bye! If you have any more questions, feel free to drop me a message on my Facebook page or post the question directly on the visitors' wall! 

Be sure to check out the Step by Step Tutorial On Creating A Travel Blog if you are inspired to start your own blog!  

Thank You for Reading! This post is based solely on my honest opinion or personal experience. 

 If you have a different opinion, feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below!