Basic Travel Blogging

Travel writing has always consisted of written personal experiences of visited places around the world. For some examples a travel writer journals about participating in a cultural festival, describes a visit to a public monument, or relays an experience they found in nature. These journals not only included the writer’s experiences but perceptions about the local hotel accommodations, travel expenses, and restaurants. Often, in the past, these journals edited into articles would become part of travel guides or travel magazines. This type of authoring came from well established writers as a higher end achievement for years of success.

This is not true anymore!

With the development of internet sites aimed at helping individuals gain access to web hosting and domains, the public has better access for the individual who is interested in creating a blog site of their own on travel experiences. Despite interest …..not everyone has the ability to be a successful travel blogger. To be successful you must be able to engage people in the moment and be flexible to changes in new experiences that involve people, culture, and places. You must be able to bring this ability and match it with capable writing skill. It is a talent to be able to evoke a place, encounter, or experience in a sensate way to another individual.

Basic Travel Blogging

A travel blogger is focused locally not globally. This has two meanings. The first is when you first start travel blogging you should pick local spots to write about. Second and in a much broader sense, the focus of your blog should be on a particular destination, event, or topic. This will later help in developing an angle on what the blog is to be about. For example, it is not reasonable to blog on all of Paris but to focus on its museums is. The key is to keep the topic narrow and specific.

A good idea is to start your blog in the middle of your experience. This does not mean as you hit the airport but as the experiences are fresh in your mind. Waiting too long takes away from the smelling, hearing,and seeing aspects that enhance the experience for the reader. A quick tip is to use current tense as it encourages the reader to feel part of the experience as if it is currently happening. This verbiage intertwines with the descriptors of your senses to pull the reader’s interest into what you are presenting.

The addition of dialogue that is engaging can also enhance the reader’s experience. Readers love to hear about interacts you have had with others you meet but remember it has a purpose. The dialogue should communicate an effort to invoke a feeling in the reader. For example, a humorous exchange can entertain or make the reader laugh. The importance in selecting to include or exclude of a set dialogue should depend on how you want the reader to feel during and after they have read your blog.

You should include sidebars when you can. Sidebars are areas separate from the blog itself that give additional information more specific to a certain area within the blog. Often, these sidebars are composed of factual, graphic, or marketing points. We see sidebar areas that are hyperlinked and highlighted, normally in blue, for easier knowledge access as the reader is reading the blog. For example with a blog on comparing different forms of travel in Europe, a sidebar may include more specifics on discount travel destinations and rates.

Planning is needed to construct a blog that is reader friendly. In the first stages of planning, brainstorming is a wise step. Brainstorming consists of making a list of topics your blog could cover. You can assign a number to each of the topics to create hierarchal list addressing importance, relevance, and content you have available to
present. It is relevant to research both known information and other blogs similar to your topic of discussion. This will increase your knowledge base and enhance your blog content.

After you have written your blog, revisit it a few times prior to publishing. Each time you look at it you will be viewing it from a different perspective, add and delete as you go. An excellent idea is to read it out loud to friend or someone else. Does it have a logical flow? Could you use more descriptors? Lastly, submit on time. Make it as close to the time you had the experience you are writing about as possible. Readers want to hear about events close to the time they occurred and it encourages them to Travel!

Please visit Barnes & Noble or any other local bookstore for more information on travel writing and/or travel blogging.