I always loved to write and so I became a journalist. I wrote for a newspaper, I wrote for a magazine, and when life wanted to move me away from writing, I found in blogs a way to continue to fiddle with letters, to turn ideas and thoughts into text.
After a few attempts to find my identity online, at the beginning of last year the idea came to me without great difficulty: what are the things that I like the most? Which would I most enjoy writing about?
Travel and Surf.
Simple.
And so Surfer Girl On The Move was born. The surfer girl who never stops, with an incredible desire to know the world. Me!
Lessons learned in 1 year of blog
It seems simple to have a blog. When we start, we think that it’s going to be easy to write everything that comes to mind, everything we’ve been doing. But having a blog is a complex adventure that requires time, study, sometimes even some money and … have I mention time? …
After a year of blogging there are several lessons learned. Some positive, some negative. Was it worth it? Of course! All of them have led me to evolve and the blog has become a product of which I am very proud.
And what were these teachings?
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Writing a blog is not the same as writing a diary.
In a diary we’re writing for ourselves. In a blog we’re addressing an audience, readers who chose to read our texts, because what we wrote generated interest and meet the information they seek. We are talking to YOU!
Taking this reality, we can’t continue to write as if what we say is closed in the lines of a notebook.
Now, to reach a balance between writing for others, without losing our Self, that’s the real challenge.
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If we are writing, we want to be read
If we didn’t want to, we wouldn’t be writing on a public platform. We begin to be read by those close to us, by our friends or by our social media followers.
But when we start to see in the site statistics that there’s a person on the other side of the world who has found us and is reading one of our posts, then the responsibility with what we are writing grows.
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Growth is a snail that keeps walking
Over the course of this year I have read a lot about blogging and the amount of people who drop out of this form of communication because the results and the visualizations insists on not showing up.
And as much as we think that what we write is spectacular, we can’t always reach the amount of readers we would like.
That’s why we do a series of marketing strategies to make the blog and our interesting posts known to the world.
Of course, contrary to what I thought, this process takes time. Persistence and the passion for what I do is what drives me to continue.
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Traveling is different when you have a blog
When we say that we have a travel blog, that we write about destinations, everyone thinks “what a spectacular job!, “You are always walking”… but traveling having in mind what we are going to produce for the blog is very different from simply going on vacation.
When we get to the hotel, the first thing we do is take some pictures before the bed is undone or the clothes are scattered around the room.
When we sit in the restaurant, images of the dishes are recorded immediately, regardless of the fact that we are starving and, deep down, we don’ t care about the best angle to capture the brightness of the salad.
And any monument or museum is intensely studied, so that later we can tell its history and show it in detailed photographs.
Not to mention go on nurturing social networks.
But I love it and, frankly, it’s a better way to get to know each place I visit.
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The travel blogger community is amazing!
During this year I had the opportunity to get in touch with countless travel bloggers. Whether they’re Portuguese, Brazilian or from other parts of the world.
And I have to say that it’s an extraordinary community! In the various Facebook groups that I’m in, bloggers get in the way of sharing information and sharing each other’s work.
In these last 12 months I have learned a lot from them and I hope to continue to grow with their experiences.
And now?
Now, comes another year! And another, and another, and another… comes many more full of travel, stories, people and of many waves!
And I hope to count on you to read, comment and suggest.
Let’s continue this journey together!
13 COMMENTS
Mike Cotton
7 years agoCongrats on your one-year blogversary! I agree with your point about the travel blogger community, I’ve made some great friends since I started blogging seven years ago.
Rhiannon
7 years ago100% agree with you on all 5 of these lessons! Especially #4! I’ve found that since taking my blog more seriously, it’s definitely enriched the travel experience as a whole. Whereas before I’d be more than happy to laze about in my hotel all day, nowadays I’m up before the crack of dawn with a list the size of my arm of things I want to see! Not only so I can educate myself, but share what I learn with my readers too. I’m a lot more “switched on” now I have my blog to keep up with, it’s fantastic!
Congratulations on making the one year mark, here’s hoping you have many more to come!
Marlene Marques
7 years ago AUTHORThanks, Rhiannon. You’re so right. Having a blog makes us pay more attention to details and want to see everything there is to see when we visit a place. Good luck with your blog!
Tatum Skipper
7 years ago“Now, to reach a balance between writing for others, without losing our Self, that’s the real challenge.”- Absolutely love this!! It is so true, and having my blog for about 7 months now, the whole post really hits home. Traveling when you are a blogger is so much extra work and responsibility, I am the worst at taking lots of “instagram” worthy pictures too! Congrats on your first year!!
Marlene Marques
7 years ago AUTHORThank you so much for your comment, Tatum. And good luck for you too and your blogging adventure!
Sanne - Spend Life Traveling
7 years agoCongratulations on your one year anniversary! And as a fellow travel blogger I agree with all your lessons learned 🙂 It can feel like hard work sometimes but it’s also very rewarding to be able to share your experiences. Keep sharing your incredible experiences!
Marlene Marques
7 years ago AUTHORThanks, Sanne!
Joan Torres
7 years agoI totally agree with everything what you are saying, especially the fact that blogging changes the way you travel! In addition to what you said, one of the things I hate the most when I travel and blog is that very often, I can’t enjoy the moment because I am thinking too much on how to find the story and get extremely frustrated because I didn’t get the pictures I wanted!
Marlene Marques
7 years ago AUTHORHi, Joan. You’re not alone on that. Sometimes I feel exactly the same. But sometimes I just stop and try to enjoy the moment… Even if I’m dying to grab the camera again 😉
Harsh Gupta
7 years agoCongrats on completing one year of blogging. I love all the lessons you shared and relate to them as I am new to blogging as well. 🙂
Marlene Marques
7 years ago AUTHORThanks, Harsh Gupta. Good luck with your blogging adventure.
Archana Singh
7 years agoFirst of all congratulations for completing an year of blogging. It’s a wonderful feeling. No? The lessons you shared are so apt and I feel the same even after doing it for an year. Looking forward to more posts from you. Keep traveling. Keep writing.
Marlene Marques
7 years ago AUTHORHi! Thank you so much for your comment! It’s a constant learning but I’m very happy with this project. 🙂