For quite a few months, I’ve been toying with starting a travel blog. I’ve thus far resisted, for a few reasons. They really aren’t important though I’m sure other blog-lurkers might connect with some of them.Time: While I certainly have time to spare, I’m not particularly blog or HTML-savvy and realized this would take some time. I finally decided that the long-term benefits would outweigh my frustration and the initial time-suck involving non-writing activities. I’ve opted for some non-recommended easy-ways-out (read Weebly, not WordPress), so I can reduce my time investment on the tech side. Should I need to upgrade in the future, so be it, but I’ll probably be paying someone to do it for me.
Privacy: I’m an incredibly private person. I don’t like being the center of attention. I don’t really enjoy talking about myself. I don’t want my entire life on display. I’ve decided I can balance this…but particularly at first, I’ll be sharing a little about us, not a lot. Random tidbits? Of course. Life story, current employer, etc.? Probably not. Except about our dog, whose privacy doesn’t concern me as much…we’re totally cool with her becoming a celebrity. She is very photogenic.
Value Added: What could I possibly have to say that my favorite travel bloggers haven’t already covered? But I realized that, when looking for trip advice, I often found that there weren’t a lot of travelers blogging that traveled primarily for vacation and worked full-time (I use traveler loosely…if you prefer vacationer, so be it). I find that traveling for vacation changes your priorities: it’s more of a hobby and less of a lifestyle. Without a doubt, I appreciate and respect all the full-time traveler’s advice and recommendations, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not quite the same when all you have is maybe 2 weeks (and usually a whole lot less).
Perspective: I wanted to provide a perspective on using and accruing miles/points in a manner I term “normal-person use”. Again, nothing against the people who collect like crazy, eat/sleep/dream earning strategies, and do mileage runs, as I’ve learned a ton from them. I’m in between the “do-nothing” crowd (for the record: you should do something when it comes to miles/points) and the professional hackers. I.e. average. It’s one of the few areas in which I’m perfectly content to call myself such (husband can attest to my overly competitive nature, even about things like spelling and folding towels).
Ultimately, I actually really enjoy writing and talking about traveling…with other people that actually travel, so the scale was tipped in the direction of trying this out. I’m prepared if it goes down in flames, though I hope to eventually add to the community where I’ve been lurking for quite a while.
So, welcome. Thanks for visiting. Maybe something on TravelingSaurus will be useful to you in planning future trips, and if not, maybe you can provide useful tips to me or share your experiences (please comment or point me to your blog!).
