Blogging is not as simple as writing a few paragraphs, clicking ‘publish/post,’ and watching the likes/shares/comments roll on in; well not travel blogging at least.

Just like many other hobbies, running a travel blog takes a lot of time, effort and money to do successfully. There is so much more than just the writing process that goes into a travel blog such as;

↠ creating the website, designing the layout/theme, choosing a suitable brand name, designing a logo,

↠ creating content – finding things to write articles about, taking and creating photographs to go with the articles,

↠ simultaneously running social media platforms to boost viewer/reader count,

These are just a few of the things that go on behind the scenes.

For a lot of people, blogging is purely a passion, however, for me it is more than that. Travel writing is, at this stage, what I want to do as a career therefore Kaihora acts as an online portfolio of my work for future employees. As a result, there is a higher level of pressure to make sure that Kaihora is an appealing blog, this has meant spending a fair bit of money to buy a domain in order to look more professional. Add this to the fact that travelling is not a cheap hobby; travel blogging therefore becomes an expensive hobby/career path to go down.

Aside from this there are other things to take into consideration when running a blog. Motivation and finding the time to do it being big ones.

For me, travel blogging is not all lazy days spent on the beach or chasing after adventures day after day. Although I want travel blogging to become more of a full time thing eventually right now I do a lot more than just sit at my computer writing these articles. Here’s an idea of just how much I currently have on my plate:

↠ I’m in full time tertiary studies (although I’m currently on holidays until the end of February next year when I will start my third and final year of my Bachelor of Journalism),

↠ I currently work two jobs with a third one due to start within the next few weeks,

↠ I’m studying for my Studio Pilates Matwork Course,

↠ I am in the process of planning a baby shower for early next year,

↠ Whilst trying to do all of the above I also have to find the time to have a social life in order to hang out with friends, spend time with my family and boyfriend, work out and look after myself.

I guess I’ve never really been the type of person to only do one thing at a time. During my first year of university I decided to also complete my Diploma of Fitness, work, and plan my sisters’ wedding. Then second year came around and although I had finished my Diploma, there was still the finishing touches for the wedding to complete, and I created Kaihora so I had to some how find the time for adventures too!

The biggest problem I find myself facing when it comes  to running a travel blog is trying to find the time and motivation to actually do it. It wouldn’t be fair for me to write articles about things/places that I’ve never experienced first hand, therefore a lot of time (and money) goes into planning adventures so I have content to write about. Occasionally when I find myself with a week off work and university these adventures are big scale international ones, and other times the only adventures I have time to fit in are day outings. Either way, more than experiencing the adventure goes on as behind the scenes I’m having to think about what type of angle I’m going to take for the article, therefore my brain is constantly questioning what content do I need to produce (photos, videos, etc), what information from this adventure is the most appropriate for the article, what information needs to be included?

Like many things in life, there are also ups and downs to running a travel blog.

Ups:

The fact that I get to share my adventures and document them with you all is a massive up for me.

I don’t do this for the likes/shares/freebies, I do it in the hope that I can inspire each and every one of you to get out there and EXPLORE. Do things you’ve never thought possible, see things you once thought you’d only see via the internet/books/movies, create memories that will last a life time.

Even if Kaihora doesn’t launch as big as other travel blogs, at least I have a place to document my memories, so in a way Kaihora acts as an online scrapbook for me. Looking back on how lucky I have been to do the things I have done and the experiences I have had, that’s what it is all about for me.

Downs:

There are so many bloggers out there, especially travel bloggers, that one of the hardest things is trying to get noticed. I am still trying to figure out how to do this and be successful at it. I recently created a Facebook page for Kaihora in the hope that it would boost the number of visitors I got to the website, granted the number has increased slightly it is no where near as high as I thought it would be.

One of the biggest things that really knocks my motivation is seeing other bloggers get collaborations with big brands/companies and having countless freebies thrown their way. It can be a massive demotivation and impacts me, perhaps in a jealous sense, because here I am studying this industry full time and getting no where near as successful as they are. At the end of the day, I just remind myself that it hasn’t even been a year since Kaihora went live and I am in very different circumstances to those successful bloggers who have time 24/7 to dedicate to their blog whilst I am juggling a bucket load.