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The Tools and Services I use to Operate my Travel Blog

Tools Services to run a Travel Blog

As I mentioned in my 12th-anniversary post last week, there have been a lot of changes to travel blogging in the last decade. In that article, I focused mainly on the cultural and business aspects of running a travel blog. As with the business side of things, there have been huge changes on the technical side as well. In this post, I’m going to go through the technical side of how I operate my website.

Web Hosting

When I first started my website, I was hosting on a server that was run by “a guy” that I met online. He had been hosting my personal website, and his server was good enough for what I was doing at the time. Eventually, I was getting hit with StumbleUpon requests that were literally (ok, not quite literally) melting his server. The processor was overheating and I was ruining it for the rest of his customers.

I had to move, so I moved to a big company. It was better in some respects, but there was little service and I had to manage everything on my own. WordPress hosting was just one thing they did out of many.
Continue reading “The Tools and Services I use to Operate my Travel Blog”

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12 Years of Travel Blogging: A Look Back and A Look Ahead

12 Years of Travel Blogging

October 14 marks the 12th anniversary of my very first blog post on this website. I mark this date as the start of my travel blog.

My first post came almost a year and a half after registering the domain name for the website and 5 months before I actually turned over the keys to my house to begin traveling.

The last dozen years have seen a lot of change in the world of travel blogging. It has gone from a 100% amateur activity done for the love of traveling and sharing stories, to a highly professional activity complete with conferences, professional organizations, and support organizations.

The changes in travel blogging since 2006 have been incredible and I think the changes over the next 12 years will be even greater. In this article, I’m going to reflect back on where travel blogging has been and what the future holds for this still, relatively new, medium.
Continue reading “12 Years of Travel Blogging: A Look Back and A Look Ahead”

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The Business of running a Popular Travel Blog

I don’t like talking about business on my blog.

Honestly, the business part of what I do isn’t really that interesting compared to the traveling. I don’t travel to have a business, I have a business so I can travel. Nonetheless, about once a year I allow myself the indulgence to write about the business side of what I do. It is a frequent question I get from people who I meet on the road and from people who discover my site.

Earning a living online is so different from what people are used to, they often don’t know what to make of it. So, if you are curious, here is a peek behind the scenes at how I deal with the non-traveling side of things… Continue reading “The Business of running a Popular Travel Blog”

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2010 State of the Travel Blogosphere

NOTE: I don’t usually dive into issues of blogging, but occasionally I do. This is pretty inside baseball sort of stuff, so if it doesn’t interest you, feel free to skip it.

Overview

We are in the second inning of a nine inning game in the creation of a new form of travel media. If anyone, myself included, thinks they know how this is all going to end up, they are lying. (not that it will stop me from offering my opinion)

Old institutions are falling apart faster than new institutions are being created. Ask 10 different bloggers how they are trying to make money and you will get 10 different answers.

Freelance writers and seasoned pros are trying to figure out social media and what it is good for, while at the same time new travel blogs are sprouting every day, all trying to vie for limited attention.

Laste year at TBEX I expected about 20 people to show up. 120 actually did. This year the size of the conference tripled and next year it will probably double in size again.

We are in the early phase of a transition period in travel media which is going to probably last the better part of this decade. Continue reading “2010 State of the Travel Blogosphere”

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Bloggers Take Heed, Tablet World Is Coming

As a blogger, and a very opinionated one at that, I’ve been pretty bullish on the future of blogging. However, a series of events in the last few months have gotten me on edge about the future of blogging as we know it. I think changes will take place in 2010 which has the potential to give a second wind to traditional publishers and could threaten some blogs.

The thing which really got me thinking was the following video which was released by Sports Illustrated. Please watch it all: Continue reading “Bloggers Take Heed, Tablet World Is Coming”