Nov
What Travelling The Globe Teaches You About Blogging
Is your head spinning with advice from all the probloggers out there? Do you know what you should be doing, it’s just putting that advice into action that you struggle with?
If so, this post is for you!
It contains 3 simple lessons that I’ve learned from our travels around the globe that are helping me to become a better blogger…here’s hoping they can help you too:
Simple communication is everything
Not speaking the language when we first arrived in Panama and having to take a crash-course in Spanish just to be able to say the basics, highlighted the importance of simple but effective communication. Speaking to the friends we made there, whose English was infinitely more advanced than our Spanish, also reminded me of the need to keep your choice of language simple.
Usually, the best way to say something is to just say it - no fluff, no waffle, just plain and simply saying what you mean.
Do you over-complicate things or have you mastered the art of simple communication on your blog?
People all around the world really do want the same things
Health, wealth and happiness - that’s it - the holy trinity. If you can address at least one of these things in each post you write for your readers (however loosely), you won’t go too far off track.
Look at some of the most successful bloggers and deconstruct what they do and how they do it and you’ll notice one common theme - most add exceptional value to the lives of their readers. Not only that, they typically address one or more of the trinity. Problogger helps you become a better blogger to attract more readers, often to help you attract more clients/customers and make more money; Zen Habits helps you in all three areas; and Freelance Switch helps you ultimately make more money by being a better freelancer.
What’s this blog about? It’s mostly about helping you to achieve happiness, with a bit about helping you make more money to do this and sometimes advice on how to stay healthy thrown in so you can enjoy your LIP life even more.
Which of the three does your blog address?
Building relationships and making friends enriches your life
Moving around from country to country as we do, it’s hard at times to build relationships and make friends and yet the times we’ve managed it, have been some of the most rewarding experiences we’ve had on our journey so far.
When it comes to blogging, it’s no different. It’s not fun talking to yourself (unless you write on a blog as an outlet in which case it’s perfect - nobody to answer you back!) and building relationships with your blog readers is a great way to start conversation and make some new friends.
This is something I’m still learning to do - but so far I’m beating the days of zero comments I had on my personal blog for the first few months!
How do you set about actively building the strongest community you can around your blog?
And if you’re in the process of becoming a LIP and are wondering whether to start your own blog about it? I can wholeheartedly recommend it…but it does require some effort - and may take up valuable time when you could be sunning yourself on a beach…on second thoughts, you could be blogging at the beach 
P.S. I’m currently considering a number of ways to build a stronger, more active and more collaborative community around the LIP blog. If you have any ideas to throw into the pot, please do suggest them in the comments…
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Related posts:
- 5 Ways To Make Your Money Stretch Further Whilst Travelling
- Challenges Of Travelling The World
- How To Maintain Focus On Your Business Whilst Travelling The World…
- How To Find Ideas For Businesses That You Can Run Whilst Travelling
- LIP Travelling the Eco Way
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Hi Lea, you’ve got some great insights here - in fact I can see a whole series of blog posts spinning off from the ideas you’ve thrown into the mix
On building a community - maybe get some guest authors in, especially those who are already living the LIP values?
Joanna
Looks to me like your right own track. Continue to make posts like this and engage your readers and you will have a solid base before you know it. Best of luck to you!
You could starta LIP network, with only a name and a way of contacting a fellow LIP when you travel around the world. That way you know that you have someone you can get in touch in each place you go… just an idea
@Joanna - Great idea for guest bloggers, am working on it. Is that an offer?!?
@Bradley - Thanks for the feedback and good wishes, will endeavour to keep writing posts that add value.
@Santiago - I like the idea of a global LIP network - would be great if it also consisted of people who owned gorgeous villas in exotic locations that they’d let us stay in
I’ve just come across your blog so I figured I should leave a comment. I like your point about health, wealth and happiness a lot. I try to blog about a lot of subjects but the best-received stuff is always in one of those three categories. Not most of the time, but ALWAYS.
On building a community, I think a forum is usually the best way to go, but it really requires a massive amount of time. I’ve been thinking of starting something like that, but it is time intensive and that’s intimidating. I’m a consultant, not location independent, but I’m headed that way - and I think a forum to support people like me who are “on the way” would be well received. I need all the support I can get!
Hello!
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and leave a comment. I like the idea of a forum but not so much the idea of all that time needed to run it!! I’ve considered it and I think it’s definitely one for the (hopefully near) future as this blog continues to grow - there’s nothing worse than a quiet forum. I’ve got a couple of other smaller ideas to try out first which I hope readers will like and find useful - and if they go well and we can grow the community together, then a forum will be next….
Do you plan to travel when you’re location independent or is it just the freedom to do so if you wish that you’re aiming for?
Oh, sure, I don’t think a forum would be a good short-term idea… but long-term it’s probably the best way to build a community on the ‘net.
I do plan to travel once I’m location independent. I’m already doing contract consulting so the possibility is there. My wife and I are planning on living a flexible schedule with our two kids starting in a couple of years. We have other couples-with-kids friends who have done this; I have lived overseas twice and my wife was born and lived most of her childhood in Uzbekistan so we aren’t too nervous about bringing children with us around the world. We plan on using a combination of homeschooling and heavily utilizing summer breaks to go live “somewhere else” at least a couple of times per year. At first it will just be US-local (Mexico, Canada) but we’ll follow other friends further out after that (Kazakhstan, Portugal, etc.)
My biggest challenge is getting my consulting unhooked from an office. Freedom to take a contract consulting job (I’m an auditor/finance manager) might let us travel overseas, but it still keeps me attached to a desk, just one in an overseas office. I’m working on ways to generate enough alternative income to support us overseas (writing, primarily) so that I can do contract work when we are “home” in the States during the school year (when we’re not doing a homeschool semester somewhere else).
Sorry for the dissertation in the comments!
That’s ok! It’s great to hear other peoples’ stories and what their plans are…I’d love to hear how it goes with kids. I believe it can definitely be done with home schooling etc. (we don’t have kids) but I know many of our family/friends think we’d be crazy to even try.
Having seen a lot of yachties here in Grenada with kids and many other well-travelled kids on our journey, I think it is one of the most fantastic ways for children to learn, grow up, become more sociable and worldly-wise. It’s a great lifestyle for kids and many of the drawbacks and arguments against it that people put forward don’t make sense - they’re just based on “normal social” conventions.
So after my mini rant (sorry!)…I’ll be checking out your blog to see how you’re getting on! Do let me know back here too…
I would like to see a forum on your site that people can exchange ideas on how to travel, where to go, and how to earn a living on it. I think it is a great way to build a community.
If it’s a community forum…well, the community will maintain it so no worries there…
If you need advise on how to set it up or technical questions I can help you to get the idea going
Some interesting points here - I have been living in Spain for the last 15 years and although this is a dream for many, it has its local difficulties. My 5 year old son speaks 3 languages (Catalan, Spanish & English) and for him that’s completely normal.
However I would say from experience that it if you don’t work in a place and know the language it’s very hard to have anything besides a superficial relationship with a country or its people. It takes a really long time to get under the skin of a place and as an outsider you may never truly understand where you are. Most Brits in Spain certainly have never got beyond the stereotypes and I’m not knocking that if that’s all a person wants, but the majority of them are in Southend del Mar.
As I said I’ve been living this “dream” but I am still trying to become location independent.
@Coach Kip - if too many people more suggest a forum, I can see I’m seriously going to have to do it…
@Santiago - that’s a good point about the community! Thank you so much for the offer of help. I may well get in touch when the time comes.
@Chris - You are so right about the difficulty in creating deeper relationships with a country or people. We were extremely lucky on this front in Panama and made some great local friends who totally showed us a different side to the place. Do you find that having a child there has helped you integrate any more easily?
Hi Lea,
Having kids in a country like Spain will literally open every door and force integration upon you. My wife is from Barcelona so I have my Spanish “family” but I really started to integrate before I met her when I started a band in BCN. I don’t think there’s any point trying to artificially create friends but you really have to get out of the ex-pat scene if you want to know the truth about where you are.
Many years ago I worked moving furniture for a dodgy outfit in Chicago and I learnt more about the Windy City in a few months than any number of years living in a nice neighbourhood would have taught me.
If your readers are interested in bringing bilingual kids there’s a lot of information here http://spanish-podcast.com/category/becoming-bilingual/
(it’s not shameless publicity BTW - it’s not muypodcast)
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the resource - being brought up bilingual is such an advantage these days. I suspected that in a country like Spain, having kids is a great way to integrate (even if you don’t want to!). It seems to be the same in most places. Kids somehow break down all those barriers that we adults put up.
Are you planning to stay in Spain for a lot longer?
My long term ambition is to be a LIP. To that aim I have started some educational podcasts - one is Spanish for advanced learners and the other is Spanish classical guitar and in the New Year I will be starting two new projects - an “online” course for advanced English learners and a basic English podcast aimed at Spanish/Catalan speakers.
I have been an English teacher for 15 years now so I’m basing my immediate projects in education. I wanted to do the “Teaching Sells” course but frankly don’t have the money after renovating my old village house (which if we move may become a Casa Rural - a rural house for rent to holiday- makers). I’ve been following the 30 Day Challenge and also checking out your business site for ideas.
If any of your readers have any questions about life/work in Spain they can contact me at http://slowspain.wordpress.com/contact/
and if you are interested in me writing an article about living in Spain and its advantages and possible pitfalls, I’ll be happy to do so.
@Chris, writing about life/work in Spain is a good idea and I think since this blog has readers from all over the world we can do some sort of review of many countries to help decide each LIP where they want to go next… I can do one of Argentina…
@Chris - your ideas sound excellent..in fact I’m going to email you as I have a post coming up that I need your help on!
@Santiago - another good idea. How about this…if both you and Chris would like to write a post about your countries, then I’ll happily put them up on the blog. Greg (my fellow writer) is also thinking about doing one on Rio/Brazil so if you’d like we can start to feature more destination-type info?
Sounds great! If you want you can send me a mail with the aspects you want me to write about Argentina… I’ll start drafting the article
hey
its very point of view.
Nice post.
realy good post
thx