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I squandered the better part of my weekend launching a new blog. See, my Hawaii project -- which I loved -- was mothballed a few months back and I had been missing it. A lot. After wrapping up a million things, including trips to BlogHer, getting my head screwed on at work, doing laundry, and oh, you know, generally figuring out where I stand on the whole "do I need another blog" issues, I decided to go for it. [Shameless link diversion: Holoholo Wale.]
This is a thing that is true: Not everyone needs to have a travel blog. I realize it sounds like blasphemy from such an addicted blogger, but it's true, it's true. I've chosen to dive into a destination niche but hey, what's your goal? I didn't even think about it when I started my first site, but my intentions were really different -- I was an expat blogger before I focused on travel and I still think of myself as more of an essayist than a blogger, plus, my "home" blog, Nerd's Eye View, isn't travel only, nor was it launched with that intention. It wasn't really launched with ANY intention.
That sense of intention is why I liked Christine Gilbert's Should You Start a Travelblog post. It's easy to assume, by default, that yeah, you should totally blog your trip. But should you? Really? Have you considered the alternatives?
When you take a peek at the Travel Sketchbooks pool on Flickr, you might consider getting a glue stick and some colored pencils and leaving your laptop at home. Oh. My. God.
There's also the crazy idea of writing letters or sending postcards. I'm a huge fan of postcards -- I still send them -- and hey, I suppose you could hand write letters to yourself back home while you're away. (Sidebar: "I'm not having that much fun but I can see how when I get home, this is going to make a great story" would totally end up in one of mine.)I still handle the letters I've received from traveling friends as though they were rare valuables, which I suppose they are.
My most recent adventure -- the road trip to Chicago and back for BlogHer and more -- taught me a lot about setting up a blog specifically for one trip. It was a lot of work to keep it updated regularly -- and there were three of us! It was hard for me to write without time to process my experiences -- I don't write the "I'm here now and going there next" type of posts because I'm not updating readers on my whereabouts. Sorting pictures at camp was tedious, internet access was sporadic, and hey, why was I blogging instead of trying to catch fireflies?
My mind wandered back to Christine's post as I hit publish on a my new blog. Why was I doing this. I know the answer for myself, but I ask you, why are you travelblogging. Did you make the best choice for your trip and can you articulate why?
Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View. Her new Hawaii blog is at Holoholo Wale.
