My growing love of travel blogging – the first 100 posts for 501 Places and going strong

Typing out the first words was a real struggle: What shall I write? Who will care? Is this a sensible use of my time? When I wrote my first blog post less than three months ago, I was very self-conscious about how my words would be perceived and as a result over-analysed each paragraph and statement. That seems like a long time ago now, and I now really enjoy putting the stories I have held in my often distant memory; so much so that I have been known to wake up in the night with an idea that has come to me and that I just have to write down in case it’s forgotten in the morning. The self-consciousness has gone, and instead I have become something of an evangelist of the benefits of regular writing, not only from a business perspective but also for one’s personal well-being and development.

At first it was an unrewarding and lonely task. No responses and very few readers. It was a chore, but having committed to posting daily I managed to maintain the discipline even when it was tough to think of a story to tell. Then I signed up to Twitter, and this changed everything. It provided me with a way to announce my latest posts, and more importantly allowed me to connect with a group of like-minded people: those who love to travel and those who love to write about it. Not only did the number of visits to 501 Places start to rise rapidly, but I found friends online who were happy to share tips, stories and encouraging feedback on each others’ work. It is a real pleasure to receive comments on a blog post, to know that someone has found what you have written relevant enough to take the time to add their thoughts.

This exchange of travel stories in turn has led to more ideas. Having travelled to 70+ countries over the last 20 years and had so many adventures along the way, I know that the stories are in there, albeit locked away in the long-term memory; sometimes another person’s article just triggers a recollection that then inspires my next post.

It is especially pleasing when others ask you to write a guest article on their site, and for me perfectly illustrates the collaborative ethos of travel blogging. I have recently started a second site My Home Pride, featuring contributions from other travel writers and bloggers – it’s a pleasure to feature the talents of others and provide a additional platform for them to publish their work. I am excited about seeing this project develop.

For anyone thinking about writing a travel blog, or those who are just starting off, I can offer plenty of encouragement. Stick with it, share your travel passion with others by contributing to their sites and discussions, and keep adding fresh content to your site. If your experience is anything like mine, you will enjoy it and find it rewarding in more ways than you expected. Happy blogging!