# Blogging



## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

How many people blog? I have started a travel blog since many people have asked me to start it. I guess I see my traveling as normal from an ENTP Type 7 perspective but most people think it's crazy or something. Right now I'm learning the ropes of Wordpress while trying to juggle everything else. Does anyone else blog and if so, how successful are you with it? How long did it take for you to get the hang of things before you felt comfortable? Right now I'm focused on generating content and fixing things. I took Leo Babula's Zenhabits minimalist theme for the time being just so I could focus mainly on content.

My blog is Home - The Impulsive Traveler Guy

Criticize it tell me how I can improve. Also, share your blogs if you have one and let's bounce ideas off each other and hopefully improve our craft.


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## bigstupidgrin (Sep 26, 2014)

I've been blogging privately for the last five years as a means to learn through reflection. It has also been amazing to look back 3-5 years and look at the person I was back then. 

I started a public blog last September based on my teaching career. It's partially a means to help me work on my writing, but I also wanted to share my experiences. It can be found here: bigstupidgrin's teaching blog

Funny, I'm a 7 too. I'm trying to reconcile the 7 type with being INFP. I'm very outwardly a 7 in the classroom (enthusiast+generalist), but Introverted in that I need a break from too many public interactions. 

I'm enjoying the Canada post, I'm planning on visiting Vancouver in the summer. WTF is a McBistro?!? :laughing:


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

bigstupidgrin said:


> I started a public blog last September based on my teaching career. It's partially a means to help me work on my writing, but I also wanted to share my experiences. It can be found here: bigstupidgrin's teaching blog


Cool. I'll have to check it out. It is interesting reading about stuff like common core and other stuff that affects how kids learn.



> I'm enjoying the Canada post, I'm planning on visiting Vancouver in the summer. WTF is a McBistro?!? :laughing:


I said the same thing until I tried it. It's a chicken sandwich on a bistro bun. It's actually really good. I know McDonalds is as American and generic as it gets so I had to order one of the one things that wasn't on the US menu.


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## nonnaci (Sep 25, 2011)

Wordpress should have plenty of free templates/themes to spruce up that white background.

I started mine last year during the downtime between graduating and getting a job as an experiment to organize various fields of philosophy/psychology whilst improving my art/design skills. Philosophy mind maps!


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

nonnaci said:


> Wordpress should have plenty of free templates/themes to spruce up that white background.
> 
> I started mine last year during the downtime between graduating and getting a job as an experiment to organize various fields of philosophy/psychology whilst improving my art/design skills. Philosophy mind maps!


What kind of background would you recommend. I chose white since it was simplistic and focused on content. Since I'm doing a travel blog, what do you think would work well?


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## nonnaci (Sep 25, 2011)

PowerShell said:


> What kind of background would you recommend. I chose white since it was simplistic and focused on content. Since I'm doing a travel blog, what do you think would work well?


I'd be curious if there was some script for making an auto-collage of all the photos/media that you upload onto the site which would keep updating as the background. There's also typical sunset/exotic landscape templates but that would also depart from the minimalist theme. Maybe turn the links on the main page into a map with all the places that you visited and have some option for "random tours".


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

nonnaci said:


> I'd be curious if there was some script for making an auto-collage of all the photos/media that you upload onto the site which would keep updating as the background. There's also typical sunset/exotic landscape templates but that would also depart from the minimalist theme. Maybe turn the links on the main page into a map with all the places that you visited and have some option for "random tours".


The map is a good idea once I do build up some more content. I could see once I have more posts how a map would be a cool idea and you could click on points on the map and it will show you stories and pictures.


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

Start writing blogs on PerC, a blog area exists. I just never use it.


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## nonnaci (Sep 25, 2011)

PowerShell said:


> The map is a good idea once I do build up some more content. I could see once I have more posts how a map would be a cool idea and you could click on points on the map and it will show you stories and pictures.


Maybe even have a way to auto-upload pictures that you've taken with GPS info onto that map with short descriptions. String those landmarks together in a sequence and you'll have a virtual-tour narrative.


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## AriesLilith (Jan 6, 2013)

Hmm your template does not seem to have any style, at least as I'm viewing it on my iPad? One advice: would be great if your template is responsive, adaptive to different devices like smartphones and tablets. Personally I use blogspot and got a free template made by someone else which is minimalist and responsive, then tweaked a few details to adjust. Due to privacy reasons I can only share it by PM if you are interested, thought there are many free templates with minimalist designs around so if you know some basics about coding then you will be able to have a decent looking blog without too much effort.
Personally I have not worked with Wordpress, but blogspot is easy to manage and basically just copy past or upload templates.


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## Impavida (Dec 29, 2011)

Welcome to the world of travel blogging. Could this thread also be a "Type 7's Unite" kinda thing? 

Your content is good so far. It can sometimes be a real beyotch to change your theme once you get a lot of content, so don't leave it too long to choose one. Make sure to choose a responsive theme, because most people browse on tablets and smartphones rather than laptops and PCs these days. You definitely want something with a bit more flash to grab people's attention and keep them on your page. However, you don't want it so busy that it makes people's brains explode either. It's a balancing act.

My travel blog: Tales from the Backpack - I'm doing some upgrades to both the blog and my photo gallery so there are a lot of missing photos and some outdated tags and links at the moment.

I've been using Wordpress since I started and have been happy with it. I've had to learn a bit of CSS coding to make tweaks here and there, but generally I just use the free themes.

I earn a couple bucks per month off the ad revenue with around 2000 unique visitors per month. I don't blog for the income though. When I first started travelling, first-hand accounts were hard to find, so I started the blog to inform/inspire others.


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## Snakecharmer (Oct 26, 2010)

I'm not sure this really counts as a blog, but I own this site with two other women:

Nutritional Anarchy


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## justcritic (Mar 26, 2011)

I used to have a blog but strangers who I didn't even know on a personal level kept intruding on my privacy.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

One interesting thing is I'm finding that I'm traveling so much I don't have much time to travel blog lol


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## Impavida (Dec 29, 2011)

^^^ Lol. Yeah, that tends to happen. That's why I still haven't finished updating mine. Too busy doing,to spend time telling. It's not a bad problem to have!


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## cinnabun (Apr 11, 2011)

I started my own blog in January, it's a great way to relieve stress! I use it as my own personal online diary .


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## Nein (Oct 15, 2014)

I've been blogging since 2004 and have settled my blog under a particular domain name since 2006. A few years ago, I've deleted all the posts because they were not about me anymore. Now it is a personal photo blog that I haven't updated in about a year. There are a few posts with pictures of places I've travelled to, other posts have pictures of my cats.

Wordpress is a great platform and having your own host gives you priceless freedom to customize your blog. I've learned to code this way and ended up working as a web designer and developer for quite awhile.

If you want a tip, it is important to have the posts more easily accessible and diminish the number of clicks to view your content. Also, if you care, page hits and interaction depend more on networking than on the quality of your posts.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Impavidus said:


> ^^^ Lol. Yeah, that tends to happen. That's why I still haven't finished updating mine. Too busy doing,to spend time telling. It's not a bad problem to have!


Yeah I traveled about 400 miles from Austin to Lubbock for work on Monday. Came back Wednesday and drove 400 miles back to Austin. Then my brother and I traveled 1300 miles to Wisconsin, where I am at now. Definitely been busy and have to write on my Lubbock experiences and eventually my Wisconsin experiences. Between work and personal travel when next week is said and done in the past month I'll have drive over 7000 miles.


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## chanteuse (May 30, 2014)

@PowerShell
I checked out your blog. It's a travelogue, right? If so, I think the photos deserve an upgrade. They looked like cellphone photos (is it an iPhone? doesn't look like iphone photos).


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## Notus Asphodelus (Jan 20, 2015)

I have an art blog. No words but just art. It's where I archive things that I create, so that when I die I can bequeath it to my nearest next-of-kin without the personal woes and unnecessary stuffs to remember me by.


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

I had a blog for my travel.

I eventually got bored and deleted all the content, then turned it into a book instead.

It was a lot more fun.

Blogging requires a computer, internet connection and this annoying, distracting and continual connection back to the life you're supposed to leave behind when yo go travelling.

I was all hipster and kept a hand-written journal instead. I then typed it up, added photos and had splodged it all into a PDF to get it printed by one of those personal publishing websites

I'm actually very pleased with the results. Not that it's super super special, but most (not just close family and friends) have said it reads quite well and has good pictures (I'll admit I'm pleased with my photos). If you want to see it, let me know and I'll link it on here. Not now though as I'll have to flick over to my VPN to access google docs (in China right now) so I can paste a download link.

Oh, also....

I know a guy who got properly into the travel blogging thing. He now tries to make money from it, goes to blogging events, conventions, and other _fucking bullshit_. In my opinion he has totally ripped the heart out of travel. He's made it all generic and boring-as-fuck. Fair play, he's trying to make a life of it, but... what more is there to travelling than one's own personal experience?

Ok I'm rambling on now.

Conclusion: Travel blogs are fun but eventually you'll drift away from it. Make a book instead!


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

chanteuse said:


> @_PowerShell_
> I checked out your blog. It's a travelogue, right? If so, I think the photos deserve an upgrade. They looked like cellphone photos (is it an iPhone? doesn't look like iphone photos).


They are cell phone pictures with my Motorola Moto G. That's kind of the point of the blog though. I just get up and go and take really fast paced adventures as I do stuff and don't really carry extra stuff along so I used my cell phone since I carry it with me anyway. Another big thing is basically encouraging people if I can travel with this limited schedule, they can too.


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## xForgottenOne (Mar 7, 2015)

I love blogging! I blog about a lot of stuff, mostly fun, creative tutorials. Also, I always keep a diary when travelling, and post it online later. I'd love to post a link to my blog here, but it's in Dutch, and I think most of you won't understand.


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## Impavida (Dec 29, 2011)

HAL said:


> Blogging requires a computer, internet connection and this annoying, distracting and continual connection back to the life you're supposed to leave behind when yo go travelling.


No, it doesn't. Nothing needed but a smartphone.

There's no rule that says you have to blog while you're on the road though. Most successful travel bloggers I know are old school. They do handwritten journals/notes and then type everything up when they come home. Unless they are a full-time blogger, in which case the road IS their home.

Also, there's no such thing as "supposed to" when it comes to travel. There are no rules, and not everyone does it for the same reasons.



> Travel blogs are fun but eventually you'll drift away from it. Make a book instead!


No, you won't  If it's just a hobby, then yes, you'll probably get bored and move on. As long as you have a strong purpose for doing it, it's easy to stay with it. 

PS There's no reason you can't do both a blog AND a book(s).


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

So like 3700 miles of traveling in a week and maximizing hang out time as much as possible definitely makes it hard to blog. I need to figure out how to blog as I go.


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