Happy 1st Birthday to the FeetDoTravel website!
On 8 May 2016, we launched FeetDoTravel.com, it also happened to be David Attenborough’s 90th birthday but that’s a different matter!
When I decided to start blogging, I didn’t realise it would turn my world upside down... in an amazing way! I thought it would be a way to document all my travels both past and future, but I didn’t expect it to envelope my life and take over it! It’s been my choice to allow this to happen to me, I’m not saying everyone becomes this excited and obsessed by it, I just think that maybe I have finally found my calling!
At last, I have found what makes me happy and I can put the skills I have gained my entire life into what I love the most... travelling, and talking about it!
So, what have I learnt a year into the blogosphere?
On 8 May 2016, we launched FeetDoTravel.com, it also happened to be David Attenborough’s 90th birthday but that’s a different matter!
When I decided to start blogging, I didn’t realise it would turn my world upside down... in an amazing way! I thought it would be a way to document all my travels both past and future, but I didn’t expect it to envelope my life and take over it! It’s been my choice to allow this to happen to me, I’m not saying everyone becomes this excited and obsessed by it, I just think that maybe I have finally found my calling!
At last, I have found what makes me happy and I can put the skills I have gained my entire life into what I love the most... travelling, and talking about it!
So, what have I learnt a year into the blogosphere?
1. It eats up so much of my time!
Blogging takes up a serious amount of time!! If you do it for fun or to keep family/friends informed of what you are doing whilst on your travels then you don’t have to put quite as much time into it, but as we would like to make a business out of this in some way, there is so much more behind the scenes than I initially thought! I don’t just write the blog, I have to come up with the idea, carry out research, write and re-write, choose photos ready for Sy to edit the blog and photos, watermark and re-size and produce a Pinterest picture... and that’s all before we actually uploaded it to our website. Then there are the “add-ons” such as our newsletter, our subscriber list needs to be managed and the fortnightly newsletter compiled and sent, general website maintenance and improvements… not to mention Social Media… FeetDoTravel is a real team effort between the two of us.
2. Social Media has become a daily part of my life
Social Media is where it is at! Whether you like it or not, there is more to blogging that just blogging! We have a few Social Media accounts to help promote our website so I have to put in the time to keep this going. I post consistently, answer emails, follow people, comment/like posts, share bloggers’ work and thank others for sharing my work... etc etc. Sometimes I plan to log in quickly to do something and the next time I look at the clock, hours have passed – “where did that time go?” I often wonder.
3. It’s a massive community
Since joining a plethora of Facebook groups, running our own Facebook Community and following others on Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest, I have accepted that it’s not just something people do, it is actually a community filled with passionate people – especially in the travelling world! I have had so much fun interacting with others since I started blogging – and we all have the same thing in common – we love to talk about travelling!! It’s the best community to be a part of and I love it!
4. You can make real online friends and meet people who are very loyal
Now I know this sounds a bit “yeah right” but I genuinely feel I have made real friends online, and thankfully these people have said the same to me! We started talking to one another and when life events were mentioned, we would remember to contact one other to see how things were going. As I run my own Facebook Travel community, I found a team of people who are loyal to one another every week; they endorse one another’s blog posts on social media go out of their way to help one another. I asked for a reference recently for our Media Kit and within hours, I had so many genuinely lovely comments, I was very touched!
5. I've been influenced on the different things to see and do around the world
Part of the travelling community is to support one another which includes reading blogs, so naturally, I end up learning things all the time and I have been influenced by many other people’s blogs. I love reading about other people’s adventures and finding out new things, I have now fallen in love with finding street art which is purely down to seeing blogger’s posts. This is where Pinterest comes in handy; I am saving all these amazing stories of things I can do in the future and I often refer to them. A classic example of how I have been influenced by others was visiting a cat café; I had never even heard of one before I read a blog then afterwards, I actively sought one out to visit for my birthday! Now I am visiting them all around the world as I seek them out in new countries I visit!
6. I do things... just so I can blog about it!
Maybe it’s just me because I’m super excited about blogging, but I do confess to seeing something and thinking “I’m going to blog about that”. One example is the painted pianos I saw around the centre of my hometown, I wasn’t content with just looking and enjoying – I made it my mission to find them all, photograph and write about my experience! I have now resigned myself to permanently carrying a camera and notepad with me because of all the potential opportunities! I am constantly writing up blog thoughts; when I’m travelling on a boat/plane/train/bus, laying on a beach or simply walking down the street, which is just as well, I have a lot going on up there in my noggin and I need to get these thoughts on paper.
7. My travel list of destinations just keeps on growing
As if I didn’t have enough on my “bucket list”! Due to the amazing blogs I read, I now find myself going places and doing new things I had never even heard of! Japan is now top of my bucket list of countries to visit due to the many amazing blogs I have read recently. Adding to my list isn’t a bad thing – on the contrary, it means I have more to write about! The ideas just keep on coming and I am having such a fun time.
8. I end up saying “I’ve written a blog on that” during every day conversation
Oh yes, I have turned into one of “those” people! If I read on Facebook that one of my friends has booked a holiday to a particular place I have visited, I will say “I’ve written a blog on that, I will send it to you” or, if a topic of conversation in everyday life is broached and I have written a blog post, I find myself saying sharing ideas from the blog then saying “check out my blog, all this information is on there”.
Simon and I do, however, have to thank you, our audience for keeping us going and for believing in FeetDoTravel. Without your support, who knows how long we would have lasted. So thank you for subscribing to our Newsletter, for reading our stories, for commenting on our adventures and sharing them with other people… but most of all, thank you for being a part of the FeetDoTravel community!
Happy 1st Birthday to the FeetDoTravel website … I wonder what will happen during the next year … watch this space!
Has blogging changed your world in any way? Do you feel it has influenced your life? Please let me know in the comments below, I want to know!
Happy 1st Birthday to the FeetDoTravel website … I wonder what will happen during the next year … watch this space!
Has blogging changed your world in any way? Do you feel it has influenced your life? Please let me know in the comments below, I want to know!
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The #FeetDoTravel blog link-up!
We are proud to host the #FollowMeFriday blog Linkup. If you have a blog post you would like to share, feel free to click on the picture below which will take you through to our Facebook Community and drop your link there. The link-up is open from 3am Friday morning (UK time) and will close 8pm UK time Sunday. We are a fun and loyal group who are more than happy to comment, share and reciprocate! Happy Travelling Feet Fans!
