This weekend is The Travelblog Exchange (TBEX). I’m jetting off to New York where I’ll share a HomeAway sponsored apartment in the East Village, walking distance from the conference site (Thank you, HomeAway!) with fellow bloggers Lauren Braden of NW Cheap Sleeps and Kelly Goodman of Travellious.
I’m excited about visiting New York again — the last time I was there, everyone I encountered treated me like an old friend who’d been away. Tough looking guys in late night delis, taxi drivers, service people at my hotel, anyone I had cause to talk with approached me with a “Why have you been away so long!?” tone in their voice. I could make a case for New York being my ancestral home, as I am the offspring of Bronx Jews, but I was born in California. Never mind. I loved New York because New York, it seemed, loved me. And I’m thrilled to be going back.
At TBEX, I’m sitting on a panel about bloggers and PR. I’m convinced that my role there is to answer the question “How come YOU, little blogger with unimpressive traffic, get to do [x] and I don’t?” though it will be phrased much more elegantly. I like to sit on panels and talk blogging, it’s fun and I’m so happy to share my experience with others. Go ahead, ask me anything.
I’m also part of the TBEX community keynote, a reading of the best of the travelblogs as submitted by — well, I ain’t saying, come to the session. I’ve been working with the funny and sharp Mike Barish. Our goal for the reading is to remind folks that yeah, travelblogging is lots of things, but what makes it magical and worth coming back to is good writing.
Over the past few days I’ve been asking my Twitter pals what’s the big draw about TBEX? Why are you shelling out for three days in NYC? The overwhelming answer? Meet other bloggers. It’s a big social event.
I’m going to participate in the sessions I mention above. I’m also going to solicit your engagement in Passports with Purpose 2010, to learn who’s paying writers these days and to see about getting a piece of that. But I’m also going to meet other bloggers because I’m curious. Why are you blogging and how do you manage? I have questions.My answers are in italics.
- Who’s your favorite travel writer? Pico Iyer. Swoon.
- What’s your favorite blog for reading about travel? World Hum. Though it’s not really a blog, per se.
- How much do you earn blogging? About 200/month. I used to earn more, but I was canceled from World Hum (sniff) and quit my BlogHer gig.
- What percentage of your travel is sponsored trips? Maybe half.
- Do you have a day job, supporter, other source of income? I work as a freelance technical writer. I’m currently the breadwinner at our home. You can tell when I’m on a tech project because my blogging slows way down.
- What’s the last travel book you read? Best American Travel Writing 2009. I’m not done yet.
- Where do you come down on Eat Pray Love? ARGH!
- Do you think blogging and writing are the same thing? No. I used to, but I’ve changed my mind. There are lots of bloggers who aren’t really writers out there. REVISION: Upon further noodling, I think if you write on your blog, or anyone else’s, you’re a writer. That doesn’t mean I think you’re any good. And no, that’s not personalized. There are good writers and bad writers and BOTH types have blogs.
- Why are you blogging? I love to write and share stories about travel. With no money in writing, blogging seems the best way for me to do both those things.
- Who have you met at TBEX that surprised you and why? [TBD]
- What have you learned while at TBEX? [TBD]
If you wanted to fess up in the comments, we could go straight to less serious topics. If you wanted to poach my list of questions and post your answers on your own site, then you could share with everyone. If you wanted to run when you see me coming because what the hell, why am I getting all up in your business, you could do that, too.
See you in New York.
Ooh! I’m not making it to TBEX (sigh), but can I play anyhow? Here goes…
# Who’s your favorite travel writer? Tough call. Probably Jan Morris, I just can’t get over the precision of her impressions of the real character of a place. She never misses.
# What’s your favorite blog for reading about travel? World Hum. (Yeah, yeah, I’m biased. But it was my favorite site for more than a year before I ever started blogging for them – we’re talking back to 2006, people.)
# How much do you earn blogging? Well I guess I get paid to edit now, but when I was purely blogging I was up to about $1100-$1200/month between my various gigs.
# What percentage of your travel is sponsored trips? I’ve been on two sponsored trips in the last three years. Nothing against them, I just rarely find the right fit for me.
# Do you have a day job, supporter, other source of income? I’m a full-time freelance writer/editor – editing at World Hum is my real focus these days, though. Still on the hunt for a patron/sugar daddy.
# What’s the last travel book you read? I got partway through Blue Highways last month, before it was due back at the library. Loved it. I also re-read Eat, Pray, Love recently to see how it had aged for me.
# Where do you come down on Eat Pray Love? Loved it when I first read it a few years back, was less wowed the second time around. I think what impresses me about the book, rather than the travel aspect, is the honest tackling of Gilbert’s emotional state. I have sort of an axe to grind on the subject, as anyone who’s ever dismissed clinical depression as “whining” in my presence probably already knows.
# Do you think blogging and writing are the same thing? No, assuming we’re talking writing as a craft rather than the basic act stringing words together – eg, writing a letter, writing a grocery list, and so on. There are some great blogs out there, but there are also a lot that, well, have all the art of a grocery list.
# Why are you blogging? Truth? My heart is in the print world. I’ve come to appreciate blogging for the interactive factor, the speed, the linking and the sense of community, but I got into it because it was the easiest access for a brand-new writer. To be given the time and resources to put together a long-form narrative feature that appears in print? That’s my big dream.
My answers are on my blog: http://www.roamingtales.com/2010/06/23/travel-blogger-tbex-qa/
# Who’s your favorite travel writer? Well other than me?! Bill Bryson
# What’s your favorite blog for reading about travel? Gadling
# How much do you earn blogging? $700/month
# What percentage of your travel is sponsored trips? 50%
# Do you have a day job, supporter, other source of income? I do PR for a child advocacy agency
# What’s the last travel book you read? Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
Where do you come down on Eat Pray Love? I don’t miss a meal. I pray. And love didn’t work out for me the first time around. Wait…were we talking about the book?
Do you think blogging and writing are the same thing? No. There’s quite a gap when I sit down to write a feature article or travel content, compared to when I blog.
Why are you blogging? It’s an extension of my writing. To be cliche, I feel like it’s more of a window to my soul for readers, as compared to my other writing. I like the interaction that’s a result of it.
I’ll give you the written portion now so we can talk about other stuff when we meet. You know, like where to get the best bagel in NYC (I’m clueless about anything NY-related), and those last two questions you posed.
# Who’s your favorite travel writer? I enjoy reading Paul Theroux and Peter Hessler, though I don’t actively seek out their books. I really just pick up any travel-related books and jump in.
# What’s your favorite blog for reading about travel? I’m going to choose not to answer this one. Too many conflicting interests, and it would be unfair to toot my own horn.
# How much do you earn blogging? On my own blog, about $200-$300/month. Blogging for others, definitely a little more than that, but it’s not all travel related.
# What percentage of your travel is sponsored trips? Domestically, it’s minimal. International, more than it used to be, but I just can’t afford to go on my own.
# Do you have a day job, supporter, other source of income? My husband brings in the big bucks in the family. Thank God he has health insurance too. But in addition to travel writing, I do write and edit other stuff to bring in cash.
# What’s the last travel book you read? Currently reading Currency, a fictional but travel-related book by Zoe Zolbrod. Before that, The Lost Girls.
# Where do you come down on Eat Pray Love? I liked it. A lot. (Here’s where you stop talking to me.)
# Do you think blogging and writing are the same thing? Nope. You write to blog, but the purposes, voice and audience are different, so writing commercially or for other kinds of publications is not akin to blogging.
# Why are you blogging? I enjoy it. I’ve met people through my blog I wouldn’t have otherwise been introduced to. It gives me an incentive to keep exploring. I didn’t even know a person could make money off of a blog when I started.
Can’t wait to meet you at TBEX!
Here are my answers! : http://www.artist-at-large.com/kimba/2010/06/23/tbex-qa/
# Who’s your favorite travel writer? You, of course.
# What’s your favorite blog for reading about travel? Am I allowed to say UpTake?
# How much do you earn blogging? When I was working for multiple blogs (not all travel) I was making about 5k per month. Now I blog less and edit more and feel pretty happy if I make half that.
# What percentage of your travel is sponsored trips? Not even enough to do the math.
# Do you have a day job, supporter, other source of income? Blogging, editing and writer management are the day job(s), but I’m also involved with some TV stuff in various stages of development.
# What’s the last travel book you read? We’re taking the family to Walt Disney World next month, so I’m currently reading the Unofficial Guide to it.
# Where do you come down on Eat Pray Love? From the director of “The Notebook” and… I have no idea. I thought it was a romance novel.
# Do you think blogging and writing are the same thing? Not even close.
# Why are you blogging? It started as an outlet and a source of fun, then it became a job and a source of income. For the most part it bounces back and forth between the two.
#1 To be honest, I haven’t read a ton of travel books, BUT…I’ll go with William Least Heat-Moon, mainly because I love the variety of methods he uses to convey a sense of place, from historical info to interviews to prose to poems to photos to lists to geological info, etc. Very creative.
#2 That’s a tough one. I don’t think I can answer it. I love a lot of blogs equally.
#3 Wow, I’m feeling very insecure about this one. I can’t even measure income in terms of “per month” yet. Less than $50/month, for sure. I’ve done a terrible job with monetizing my blog. That’s one of the things I need to get a handle on this weekend.
#4 I’m going on my 1st press trip next weekend. So a miniscule amount so far, but I’m hoping for more. Usually, my trips are funded out of pocket.
#5 Good God, yes, if I didn’t, I’d have starved a long time ago. I work at the University of VT.
#6 I just started Zoe Zolbrod’s Currency.
#7 EPL – haven’t read it. Given the mixed reviews, I can’t decide if I want to.
#8 No. It can be, but it isn’t always.
#9 I needed a creative outlet, because my job isn’t at all creative, and I was losing my mind from it.
#10 & #11 Remain to be seen. 🙂
Pam, I am curious about your comment re: “no money in writing.” Very much disagree. Blogging for pay = small percentage of my freelance travel writing income.
Granted largest chunk is for copy writing or custom pub writing – not strict editorial, for sure. But commissions for non-blog content are my bread and butter.
@Kara: I should have been more specific, exacting. It’s really hard to find good gigs doing the kind of travel writing I like to do. I make good money doing tech writing, so it’s incorrect and disingenuous of me to say there’s no money in writing seeing as it’s how I make my living. Your point is not only valid, but taken, and voila, I stand corrected. Or amended, at least.
I love this Q and A! Nice to read what inspires other people to share their experiences with the world.
I wrote mine up on my blog. Looking forward to seeing everyone when I arrive on Saturday morning!
http://caroundtheworld.com/2010/06/24/tbex-bound-travel-blog-exchange-conference-q-and-a/
At TBEX, when the question was asked “who earns real money from their blog”, I couldn’t see the show of hands…but I’m guessing it’s not many. (Doesn’t include me, certainly. Well, not yet).
And ditto with travel writing generally, I’ll guess. Which for me is a little ironic. I jumped ship from academic archaeology because there was relatively little money to be had even if you obsessively loved the subject…and now I’m trying my hand at travel writing, where there’s relatively little money to be had etc etc.
However – and I feel this strongly, in my bones – blogging and journalism and everything in between (right now it’s all one big fuzzy Venn diagram if you ask me, although I’d be burnt at the stake in some quarters for saying it) is so in flux at the moment that there are trails to be blazed here. There’s room for narrative travel writing components in a successful writing career that’s the modern workplace in microcosm – ever-shifting, opportunistic, non-sedentary, as opposed to the old one-job, one-career path through life. We’re lighter on our feet, thanks to recessions, Information Revolutions and all sorts of other factors that have knocked us clean out of our foundations. And the upshot is, the rules are getting rewritten, here and there.
Scary. But kinda exciting.
Personally, and god willing, I’m in it for the long haul, whatever lengths I go to to finance it. Maybe I’ve got goldrush fever (YEE-HAW).
But there are people rewriting the rules for successful writing careers out there…and I want to be part of that. 😉
I think the haul is long and heavy and potentially not rewarding in a financial sense, unless we’re willing to do some soul selling. But I love your optimism and I REALLY hope you’re right and I’m wrong.
North, to Alaska! Or wherever those riches are.
Oh, and my monstrously inflated ego can’t resist. Sorry.
# “Who’s your favorite travel writer?” Jonathan Raban and Eric Newby are duking it out. I’ll get back to you when the dust has cleared.
# “What’s your favorite blog for reading about travel?” World Hum. Always has been.
# “How much do you earn blogging?” As a professional p/t blogger, between $200-$500/mth, but that wasn’t travel-writing and I’ve taken a financial hit by shifting my focus, so, less than that now.
# “What percentage of your travel is sponsored trips?” Zero. Fully independent, I am. Or, a social pariah. One of them.
# “Do you have a day job, supporter, other source of income?” I do. I currently work 25 hours a week at the local University, and that just about clears my thankfully modest bills, with any writing income tackling my student debt.
# “What’s the last travel book you read?” Reading ‘Dinner with Persephone’ by Patricia Storace, about travels around Greece. It’s beautiful, dense and difficult. I’m loving it.
# Where do you come down on Eat Pray Love? Nicely written in places, pretty funny, quite engaging. *Not* travel writing, at all. I get annoyed when I hear it described as such. It’s a self-obsessed self-help book, which isn’t damning it as such, but *is* pigeonholing it. It’s not a book about places – it’s about E. Gilbert. I lost interest and didn’t finish it, because I wanted to read some travel writing and felt cheated. I may go back some day. The end.
# “Do you think blogging and writing are the same thing?” They should be, but often aren’t.
# “Why are you blogging?” Back in 2004, when I first started, it was to make myself write, to strong-arm myself into a wordcount commitment every day that I’d divert elsewhere when I had a good head of pressure. But then I became addicted. And that’s partly why I’s still blogging – but the other reason is that blogging is part of my career now, it’s on my CV, it’s given me money and it’s made me contacts. Good functionalist reasons, but with the driving force being simply that I still love it. 🙂