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Blogging is popular as both a hobby and a business, so should you start one? Below are four great reasons to start a blog, along with a fifth reason that isn't as great as many people think.
1. It's a Great Way to Remember Your Travels
Blogging about your RV travels is like keeping a journal or scrapbook, with the added bonus that since it's all online it's not something you have to find a place to store. Years from now you can look back and remember details of your experience that you might otherwise forget, and you can see how you've changed and how your experiences have shaped your life since.
2. It Can Help You Stay Connected to Friends and Family
Blogging about your personal adventures allows people who care about you to follow and share in your adventures, and can help you feel less lonely when you're far away from loved ones. When you publish a new blog post, you can share it on your Facebook page, in a private Facebook group, a family Slack channel, or you can just email it to people.
3. It Can Be a Fun Hobby
Many people start blogging as a hobby, or as a way to enjoy one of their other hobbies. And your blog doesn't have to be about RVing. It can be about anything you're interested in or think others might be interested in reading about!
4. It Can Help You Make New Friends
Regularly blogging about your RV life can plug you into the vast RV community as lots of people are seeking out information about RVing and are eager to read about and learn from other people's experiences. You may meet RVers in person at RV parks and campgrounds that you want to keep in touch with, and having an RV blog that they can follow is a good way to do that.
And blogging about interests or hobbies other than RVing can be a good way to meet and connect with other people who share your interests, no matter where you or they are located.
You'll also have a way to connect and share ideas with other RVers who enjoy blogging as a hobby or as a business. I've met RVers through blogging who I now have spent time with in person and consider real friends. I also have blogger friends who are friends with each other. Case in point: at the time I'm writing this, one of my full-time RVing blogger friends is currently parked on some land she and her husband bought in Florida, and another full-time RVing blogger I know is parked there with her family. How do they know each other? Because they both blog about RVing!
(If you have an RV blog, the Bloggers On the Road Facebook group, which I am an admin for, is a great place to meet other RV bloggers!).
5. You Can Make Money With It
I bet you've heard this one before. Lots of people, even bloggers, encourage others to start a blog as a way to make money. And you absolutely CAN make money with a blog – I do myself! However, it's my experience that if you're starting a blog because you want to make money, you'll probably end up disappointed with how difficult it is to monetize your blog and may never even make much money.
It's true that in the early 2000's many people, including RVers, started personal blogs that sort of “accidentally” exploded and started getting tons of traffic and making lots of money, but that was before everyone and their mom was trying to get rich by blogging and the internet became flooded with personal blogs.
From what I've observed, people who are currently successful at making money with blogging fit one or more of these descriptions:
- They saw a need for a certain type of information that didn't exist and decided to create a blog or recreate an existing blog to publish information that would fill that need.
- They are doing a LOT of things BESIDES just writing blog posts, including regularly posting to social media, regularly emailing subscribers and interacting online with followers, pitching and building relationships with sponsors, shooting and editing video content, designing graphics and promoting their blog content across social media, etc., etc. In short, their blog is full-time business, not just a hobby that brings in passive income.
- They already had a successful product or business and started blogging as a way to market it (this is called content marketing and is really quite different from personal blogging).
Even when approaching blogging as a business, it's normal for it to take months or years before it's bringing significant income–just like with any business.
Still want to start a blog?
If I haven't scared you off from blogging, I would be happy to help you start a blog! I've put together some resources below that can get you started, and if you subscribe to my email list through the form at the bottom of this article, I'll send even more help your way and would be happy to answer your direct questions as well.
If you're already on my email list and want me to send you more information about blogging, just reply to any of my emails to let me know!
How to start a simple RV / travel blog
If you just want to blog about your RV travels as a way to remember them later and let friends and family follow your adventures, there are many easy ways to start a simple blog. I've written a detailed blog post about how to set up a travel blog using Wix, which you can read here: The Easiest Way to Create a Travel Blog
How to start any other type of blog
My advice for starting any type of blog other than the most basic travel blog requires a bit longer to explain than I want to put into this blog post, because it depends on
- how much money you're willing to pay for your blog (price ranges from free to around $30/month)
- the purpose of your blog
- how good you are at Googling and learning to use new technology
I've formed my advice based on my own personal experience with having helped multiple people of varying levels of experience with technology set up websites through different platforms.
I explain everything and lay out what I believe are the best options in a free online course I wrote about how to start a blog, which you can sign up for here: “Start a Blog” online course
How to start blogging as a business
If you are interested in business blogging advice, I would love to help you with that as well.
If you don't have a blog yet, my Start a Blog course mentioned above is a great place to start. If you already have a blog and are in need of advice, I have a couple of ways I can help:
Troubleshoot Your Blog – an online course
Blogging Business Review – a personalized plan of action
Also check out my blog TheBloggingAboutBloggingBlog.com for topical advice on things like social media management and email marketing.
Here's a link to an article I published there where I answer some of the questions I'm most frequently asked about blogging: My Answers to 11 FAQ's About Blogging As a Business
And be sure to join my email list (below) so I can send you tips and you can ask me any questions you have!
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