Last night when I went to sleep after a long day of work – I slept being a travel blogger. But this morning when I woke up yearning for the mountains all over again, the only thing I didn’t want to do for a while was to blog. This sudden flip of who I want to be has been itching my head all day long, making me feel restless about myself…
“Do I really want to be a Travel Blogger?”, is all I am asking my heart, again and again…
Maybe this thought has come into my mind too soon, as I am not even there yet in my blogging career. But then, yes, I am there enough to be wanting to make a decision now. After three years of rigorous blogging, today is when I have actually started to feel like a blogger, and certainly it wasn’t easy. But I hardly noticed the struggle because I was traveling my heart out. I was on the road, busy planning my trips and looking for the next memorable experiences of my life. The adrenaline rush to travel in my body was so high, that I didn’t even realize when all this time passed and suddenly, from a no one on the road, I became someone on the road.
After almost 100 posts, meticulous SEO, hard-disks full of pictures, and days and nights of logging each and every detail of my trips, people have finally started following my blog, and once in a while share and appreciate my work too. Slowly I have reached a point where I can pitch in for free travel offers, FAM trips and paid collaborations – things that are certainly the ultimate goals of every travel blogger, and naturally were mine too.
But somehow still, this morning I didn’t want to be a travel blogger, maybe because, all I wanted today, was to get lost in the mountains and do nothing at all. I didn’t want to log my itinerary, I didn’t want to write about the places I am going to or what I did there, because all I want is to kiss the wilderness, and be invisible.
And this very feeling makes me wonder – wasn’t this how it all started? Wasn’t this why my blog was conceptualized in the first place? Wasn’t my urge to travel, the only reason that made me into a travel blogger? So why am I fighting it…?
For a lot of new-age travel bloggers my age, it was the very need to travel that got them into blogging eventually. Lets be honest, it was a simple decision, based on a single thought ‘we are already doing the former, so why not do the latter too?’. And for most, this is how the journey started. But this story in no way is a disguise to urge you to do the same, and then promise you that you can follow our path to success. Trust me, you might end up hating it…
Fact is, that travel and blogging about your travels – are two different worlds all together, and if you think you are good at one of the two, doesn’t really mean you will enjoy the other too. Travel is an experience for your body and mind, which is highly personal to each individual engaging in it, but blogging about your experiences has to be an equally happy choice too. To be a good travel blogger, traveling is not enough, until you possess an urge to document it and share it with the world in a purposeful way.
Google it up, and you will see endless articles on how established travel bloggers have lost their thrill in travel, the moment it became their paid profession. Because sometimes when you are paid for it, you are on deadlines, minute to minute SM deliverables, and its no longer a vacation, as it is now a job. Therefore, its important to every once in a while, ask yourself, what you enjoy more – Travel? Or the blogging?
If blogging is your choice, then it won’t be that difficult. But for nomads like me, who yearn to travel as per our own strict bucket-lists – striking a balance is significant. And once again, #InMyOpinion, the rules to it are simple –
- Be clear about what you want to write about, your writing style, and how much are you willing to edit it for paid projects.
- Do not accept a project simply to promote, but be ethical about it. Write what you experienced.
- Do not accept a FAM trip, simply because its free, but wait for your most wanted one.
- Accept it, not every trip needs to be written about – keep your blogging profession separate from your personal passion to travel.
- Once in a while, a detox of social media on a vacation – helps!
- Do not travel to blog, but travel first, and then decide to blog about it or not.
No one asked you to not blog or not to travel, but do it because you enjoy it, and be conscious about when you are overdoing it. Be truthful to yourself as to why you are on a trip, and follow that truth. Because when I woke up today confused about being a travel blogger or not, it was because, it was my time to TRAVEL.
By Shraddha Gupta, Founder & COO of Streettrotter
*** DISCLAIMER ***
I the author of the content that can be found here within can assure you, the reader, that any of the opinions expressed here are my own and are a result of the way in which my highly disorganized and somewhat dysfunctional mind interprets a particular situation and or concept.
🙂 The confusion is always there.
I like to travel first and then blog. There are so many travels in my life I haven’t blogged about yet.
Same here. I have a whole bucket of backlogs. But I guess some of them are the ones I loved the most, but could never blog about too coz I think I can never put the experience in words and pictures.
Travel or blogging.. its the passion to do it that matters..
Your blog already shows how passionate you are about travels and your writing styles prove your passion to write too.. There’s nothing to be confused about. Those freebies come as a perk to being a blogger.. but it’s upto us to accept them or not. Just make your goals clear and accept only those collaborations you truely believe in ☺☺
Thanks for your appreciation and encouraging comment! I am sure to keep up with my passion at al time – be it for travel or for the blogging. I guess all we need to do for balance is to keep the two separate at times 🙂
I hear you. I wonder why sometimes I blog. I love travelling and have been doing it for years before I started blogging. I realise that I blog to keep the travel memories alive. Pre-blogging, a lot of the details slip away with time.
I agree. It’s a great and purposeful way of documenting out travels, although I hate it when it starts taking you over and your passion. I see that getting obsessed with it is pretty natural, if you don’t know when to stop.
Such a well articulated post Shraddha! Kudos
Thanks sweets! Glad you liked it. You will be soon wanting to make that choice too with your blog 🙂 all the best!
I think it is a very relevant question..travel vs travel blogging and the dilemma couldn’t be expressed in a better way. We should try to find the answer within that whether we are doing this because we like to do it or doing because everyone else doing it.
I like to travel first. There have been many times I haven’t felt like blogging or takings pictures. I just wanted to be in the moment. And I have been able to do that and just not document as much or anything about certain trips.
I feel when you start a travel blog and get really serious about it, you will make some trips just for your blog. That just shows how passionate you really are. I started traveling wayyyyy back before I started out my blog and sometimes I don’t even want to blog it all.
I often feel more of an obligation to continue my blog. I like writing but sometimes feel pressure to write. Once I started writing for myself, that all changed. There are definitely turning points when blogging and it is definitely more of a commitment than some people could ever imagine!
I like taking photos but sometimes I just leave the camera in the car and go on an adventure just for the sake of it. I think that’s really important not to lose touch in that way. So great rules across the board.
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