how did you start your travel blog

[bobkatmsu]

Time is getting closer for retirement. March 31st we close on selling our business. We want to be on the road by the 1st of June. We plan on being gone for 6 months before returning to Fla for the winter. The second year we plan on heading for a summer in Alaska. I am considering writing some type of "travel blog" for my family and many of our customers that have requested it. What experiences have you had? How did you get started? Any things I need to stay away from?
Thanks in advance for your help.

[azdryheat]

Family and friends follow us via my Facebook posts.

[punomatic]

I use Blogger also. I have been blogging in various ways for several years. Unlike some of the others, I upload pictures directly from my computer. Maybe I am missing a bet by not using a photo hosting service.

Don't worry about the process. Blogger and,I imagine, other platforms are easy to use. Just log on, set up your blog in a few minutes with their easy to use apps. Then start pouring your heart out online! Check out some of the blogs of other forum members. You'll get the hang of it. We look forward to reading about your travels.

[2chiefsRus]

We also use blogger but we don't have anything that is uploading automatically. We select one by one which photos we want to upload. Feel free to take a look at the blogs in our signature.

[lizzie]

I have been very happy with blogger. I started about a month before our first RV trip to Alaska in 2013, continued with oue trip to the Gaspe Peninsula and the Atlantic Provinces in 2014 and our trip to Alaska last summer (2016). I only blog when we are traveling and am amazed at how many people follow it. I also scan other folks blogs about places that we plan to explore and have picked up so may good ideas. It is a great way to share your travels. lizzie

[Not_a_Clue]

I use blogger also, since google no longer supports Picasa I am using Google Photos. Works very well and google automatically transferred all my pictures. Link to blog in signature.

[n0arp]

I've been toying with the concept, but rarely take the time to detail our travels. I've found that most of the time I spend on the blog is detailing things I'm doing to the truck and/or RV at home, so it has turned more into a build log. I hope to blog more about the sites we visit in the future. My point is if you want to have good content, you probably need to allocate a specified amount of time each week to update it. I don't post on any schedule and it shows in both the quality and quantity of content.

That being said, I set up a quick Wordpress site for it. We host our own, but if you aren't technically inclined, I recommend the free or "Personal" accounts over at Wordpress.com. It's the most powerful platform, with lots of addons and even phone apps, which make it very easy to get photos you snap on your phone uploaded to the blog.

Edit: a lot of people use Blogger, which is personal preference. I don't want Google uploading photos from my phone, or having any more information than they already have or collect from my occasional searches with them. I avoid using their products in general. They are a big data company and their users are part of their product. But then again, that is one of the reasons I self-host.

[TripleE]

I started about a year before we left. This gave me time to practice posting and inserting pictures and video's. I use Blogger for my blog. I write mainly to keep family and friends updated with where we are. It is also nice to be able to go back and see what we have done. I was using Picasa for pictures but that has recently been unsupported so am now looking for a picture hosting site.