Sharing Your Travels

When travelling, whether on short escapes or longer journeys, you naturally want to share your experiences with those that are close to you. It is a way to bring them with you, understand with you, be amazed with you, and maybe also to make them a little jealous of you.

Facebook is an easy option. You are probably already a member and have your instant audience waiting for you, but we believe that the extra effort of creating a blog will pay big dividends as your travels continue. The question is fundamentally one of control - will you take control of your own publishing or trust to Facebook to do their best effort?

The advantages of Blogging

1. Do your best writing

A stunning travel photo can truly inspire but can your own photos do more than your average postcard or promo shot? Do you wish to make your readers jealous or are you trying to share your experiences?

We say: be personal; write long; express yourself. Expressing yourself requires more time from both yourself and your readers so put your writing in a place where time can be dedicated, not in a stream. Both reading and writing a decent, lengthy blog article is far more intentional than Facebook updates.

2. Present your content in your own style

Your writing and photos are the heart and soul of your blog - it is important that you be able to present them in a cohesive way. Don’t be forced into the limited presentation or structure of a Facebook update.

With a blog, your writing will be presented in full and not be truncated. You can add as many photos as you wish into the body of the post, without consigning them to a gallery. You will be free to mix your text and photos in any order so that they flow and make sense.

3. Multiple authors

3. Everyone can see your blog, all the time

Your blog will be published publicly so that anyone can visit it at any time. Yes, even your old aunt who refuses to have a Facebook account!

You are not dependent on Facebook’s algorithms in order for your readers to discover new posts. Your posts stand alone and are not mixed into reader’s everyday stream. In addition, readers can browse the archives, dive back into older posts or indeed read the posts in whichever order they fancy. It is easy to come back and read more. With the blogs’ Category and Tagging systems, readers can easily follow the topics that interest them.

3. Custom themes and plugins

With a blog, you can choose from any number of themes to present

4. Set your own terms of service

On Facebook you are bound by Facebook’s unnegotiable terms of service. If you want to post sensational photos of yourself enjoying a traditional Japanese rice husk bath in your birthday suit then go ahead without fear of banning or delisting. It’s your choice. You may want to warn your aunt.

5. Marketability

• monetized
• proper linking/anchors
• searchable SEO
• categorise

6. Own your content

• easily export and backup your content
• can make a book

You can still cross-post to Facebook

What next?

Sign up to Wordpress or Blogger to create your own blog. It’s free and super easy. Get publishing right away - don’t worry about all of the plugins and themes and tweaking - that can come later.