Myself and Bub 1 in China

I came to travel blogging via an unusual path. I had written a collection of travel health pieces for families with young kids that I thought may be book worthy so I approached publishers. None were interested with the most common reply being that though they liked the material, I wasn’t famous so there wouldn’t be a market for it. Fame being neither appealing nor impending I sought suggestions for what else I should do with my travel health collection. Friends suggested that I put the material on a blog (I was a blog virgin, never having read one) and figuring at least the material would be out there for those that were interested I gave it a go. A whole lot of fumbling, plenty of mistakes, a few attacks by horrid hackers, and here I am. But where exactly am I?

A false start

It soon became apparent that I should leave my travel health advice to my patients because almost nobody on the web is vaguely interested. The feedback I received from friends and family was alone the lines of “You do so many things with your kids, just write about that.” And so I did.

How on earth am I going to do this?

Forget the hackers – here’s where things got tricky. I have plenty of experience writing academic articles but blogs are personal. Learning to share my personality on the blog doesn’t come easily. I am in awe of other travel bloggers that do so with humor and warmth. I would say I am somewhere near the beginning of the learning curve in regards to this.

Good grief now they want photos

As a visually challenged, non-creative lass I had never taken photos tending to hand the camera over to hubby if I wanted a shot of a special occasion. Early on in my travel blogging I had a, some would say obvious epiphany – “Aha people want photos” – so I began taking them. Photos are still not my strongpoint however the blog has acted as a focus to encourage me to capture our family memories visually.

Finding my pace

I found that I loved blogging – I could work on an article in the small snaps of time my kids give me, when they are asleep or at kindy. I don’t use an editor and my professional reputation doesn’t hinge on each post. I can have my say and move on. Occasionally my sister will alert me to a typo (thanks Sis), which I correct, and I do apologize for the many errors I’m sure my regular readers pick up but so be it. I try not to reread past posts lest I cringe or am tempted to delete. In contrast I have been working on an academic article for two years, it has been shuttling between reviewers and myself with various reanalysis and adjustments required and the pressure is on for perfection. The blog is not perfect and it doesn’t matter.

Someone is reading

I am very, very happy that my blog is a hobby and that I didn’t create it as a business. I know that plenty of travel bloggers either blog to generate an income or aspire to and I suspect it is a rough gig. Fortunately I have a job that I love and that I am eagerly anticipating returning to part time when I finish my maternity leave.

Travel bloggers mark their success through a variety of ways: monthly unique visitors, invitations to press trips, income generated. It still comes as a bit of a shock to me that people read my blog. I have a love/hate relationship with my email inbox. On the positive side it brings me news about interesting activities that are occurring and that I’d love to take the kids to.   It also brings me opportunities to write some sponsored posts that allow us to still travel while I am off work. We do get invitations to events and weekends away which is always nice. My inbox also brings me aggressive emails from folk wanting me to link to their sites for free. I received repeated emails from a guy wondering why I hadn’t published his infographic on the “Best Beer Trips.” Another guy based in the USA couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t accept a sponsored post from an online gambling company. My absolute favourite PR pitch though was from a company producing a product called “Happy Sacs” that according to it’s website exists for “One purpose and one purpose only. To keep your scrotum comfortable.” While I am not a fan of what the pitch described as “PDA or public displays of adjustment” it does not and never will induce me to ask anyone associated with this blog to review their product. I am going to take a guess and say that the PR didn’t know my backstory – that I have worked in sexual health and am therefore more familiar with problems of the male genitalia than most travel bloggers. Why they thought my travel blog may be an appropriate niche for that market is however beyond me.

That brings me to now

I titled this post “Behind the scenes on a moderately successful travel blog.” Moderately successful because, on the indicators used by companies, and other travel bloggers I am in the middle somewhere. I could have titled it “Behind the scenes on a unsuccessful travel blog” because I still struggle with sharing my personality on the blog, with my writing, and the technical side of blogging.   As for photos, well, let’s just say my portfolio is a work in progress. From my perspective though I am happy with where this cyberspace journey has taken me and look forward to seeing where it leads in the future.  Now I know it is unlikely there are other doctors out there with a travel health collection that is looking for a home.  I suspect there are plenty of other people that are toying with the idea of starting a travel blog.  I don’t have advice for those that want to make travel blogging a career.  For those of you that want to find a creative outlet, to focus your thoughts about your life and travel experiences or to share what you learn out in the field to encourage others to get out there  –  travel blogging might just be a good fit.

Bubs on the Move provides tips and advice for parents traveling with small children including attraction and accommodation reviews. You can join us on Facebook or Twitter to receive updates to your news feed.

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