What are Travel Bloggers? As the two words suggests, travel bloggers are people – families (like us), couples, single adventurers, that travel and blog about it. A blog is another word for an online journal or an informational website, and a ‘blogger’ is someone who puts the content onto the page.

 

Travel bloggers are people who travel – be it the world or their own city, and then write about it on a website.This post may contain affiliate links. They cost you nothing but we make a small commission.

Most people start travel blogging to help others, to give fellow travellers knowledge about a certain destination, others blog so that they can document their journey for their family back home, and then there are those very dedicated, hardworking clever bloggers who do it because they have made it their job. They have built the website, done their homework, worked a million hours a week and now they are making a very nice living from it thank you very much for asking.

Anyone who has dabbled in blogging will know how incessantly addictive it is. Especially when you start to make a little money out of it; but that’s a different story and not something I’ll speak about right now.

I have been blogging for almost ten months and in that time have surrounded myself with other travel bloggers. I started blogging because I longed to reach out and talk to people. Grown-ups. Adults – other than the sheep shearer.

 

 

 

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So, Why Did You Decide To Start Travel Blogging?

 

 

I homeschool my teenagers and last year I started a theatre in education project with a group of teenage actors. I won’t go into all the details, but to cut a long story short, I wrote a play, directed my students and took the production to local high schools around the region where I live in New Zealand.

It was hugely successful and for a while, I was considered very cool by my kids. Until I crashed the props trailer into the back of the van on the dual carriageway and had to phone Brian to come and rescue me.

I’ve always dreamed of being one of those women who breeze through life. Throwing my daughter the latest Jane Austen novel to dissect while I threw a Thai noodle soup together for dinner before donning my black footless dance tights to go and direct a bunch of drama students; wearing[easyazon_link identifier=”B00DNK5UR2″ locale=”US” tag=”itsadrama-20″ localize=”y”]my black khol eyeliner[/easyazon_link] and looking gorgeous of course.

But no.

Instead, I cry. Worry myself senseless that my daughter doesn’t even know who wrote Pride and Prejudice, cry again.  Wish I hadn’t left Bath in England and Marks and Spenser’s where I could buy a ready meal, cry some more, (louder and much more dramatically this time), then put my grey pyjama bottoms on and drink some wine. Waiting for Brian to come in from work so he can witness his wife looking like a hormonal panda.

 

It’s All About The Writing…

 

In short, while the theatre company was a wonderful experience, the main takeaway for me was the writing. Writing the play. I could do that at home and still keep one eye on the dog when she tried to bite her stitches off.

And that’s why I started the blog. Because I love to write. Firstly, I blogged about why everyone else seemed to be so much better at parenting than me, and then, when I had my midlife crisis that led to me and Brian taking the kids backpacking around the world for a year I blogged about that.

But I couldn’t do it alone.

 

 

What Do You Love About Blogging And How Did you Meet Your Hero?

 

Blogging is therapeutic, it also makes you feel as though you have more friends than you actually have. Perfect for antisocial women like me. I have made some amazing blogging friends over the past year, including Gillian from Little Den and Sophie from Old House in the Shires. We chat online, support each other and leave comments on each other’s blogs.

But.

I’m an all or nothing kind of girl. I can’t be bothered doing things by half and it didn’t take me long to realise that if I was to take blogging seriously I’d need some help. So I looked online to see who could support me on this journey. Hold my hand and tell me how to do complicated stuff. And I found Alyson.

Alyson Long from World travel family is the queen of all family travel bloggers. There is nothing this woman doesn’t know about family travel and blogging. The reason I love her so much is that not only is she incredibly knowledgeable and talented, she is so damn blunt and straight up.

Unlike me who faffs about writing long stories and tries her hardest not to upset anyone.

 

Why You Should Join a Group And Not Be So Antisocial Like Me.

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Surrounding yourself with like-minded people when you are setting out to achieve something, be it travel blogging or anything else is incredibly important. Other people just won’t get what you are doing and this can end up being extremely frustrating. I joined Alyson’s private group,’ let’s get started‘, about a year ago and it was the best thing I could have ever done.

For the past ten months, this fabulous woman has been mentoring, babying and guiding me through my first year of blogging. The small amount that she charges to be part of this group is worth ten times as much.

God knows how she managed to do it. I couldn’t have taught me. I. Knew. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. This time last year I thought that a laptop was called a laptop. My reasoning for this being that a mobile computer was something that scientists probably used in a science lab.

I know. And I’m homeschooling my kids. Scary isn’t it?

 

And Then Today I met Her in Real Life.

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We are currently in England visiting family and on realising this Alyson, very kindly, invited me up to her place in London, to eat her food, drink her wine, sleep on her couch (because as you might remember, sleeping on couches is my favourite way to travel) and pick her brains.

Now you know me. All bras, knickers and funny talk. Easy when you’re sitting behind a computer on the other side of the world or taking a sleeper bus in India. But when it comes to real life? Like, proper real life, well. I’m actually a very boring, unfunny, terribly erratic dimwit, who likes to cry a lot and blame the reason for her feet sweating on midlife hormones.

It’s a bit weird when you know someone on the net and then you finally go to meet them. I was reminded of Sonny and his cyber online You Tuby friends.

The number of times my teenage son has tried to tell me that he has very good friends who he games with, living in Australia or wherever. Me, the every caring parent dissing him by spouting off about how the person he is talking to is probably the Texas chainsaw murderer, scrutinizing his IP address so he can come and murder us all in our sleep and steel our sheep.

And now I found myself whizzing up the M3 to meet my cyber friend.

I won’t lie, I was worried. Panicking I was. I couldn’t even finish my egg mayonnaise sandwich at the service station I was that nervous – and it cost me three quid. Brian was going to call for a doctor and everything.

 

 

Will she like me? Or will she think ‘bloody hell, what’s this lunatic all about?. She hasn’t even got a clean pair of pants on, and why are her feet sweating so much?’

 

Finally Meeting My Online Blogging Super Hero.

 

I knew we were going to get on within the first three minutes.

Alyson asked me if I wanted a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Me, not wanting to come across as a wine-swilling alcoholic, politely said “I’ll have a nice cup of tea please” then watched as she poured herself a large glass of red. My kind of girl.

I pushed the earl grey to one side, and so the night began.

 

 

No kids, wine, and my travel blogging hero, trapped in my presence. Unable to go offline. I had her all to myself. Perfect.

We had such a wonderful time. We talked about blogging and Google and money and travel and more blogging. I loved it – so much so that I had to share it with you.

So, just a quickie, If you take up travel blogging, don’t do it alone. Get yourself on the internet and join a small group. Surround yourself with as many friends as possible. I’ll be your friend. Pick me. Pick me.

If you would like to keep up with how my fabulous travel blogging career is taking off, sign up for my weekly emails and we can be friends forever x

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