In Ten Lessons Learned From Writing About Travel, I talked about takeaways that stand out to me after 20-some years of travel blogging. Basically, I was trying to scare you off of that idea. Still, you’re back, reading this, signaling a hunger for more. Ok, fine. Let’s back this up to the actual writing part and three categories of reality to consider, what I call the three P’s of Travel Blogging: Patience, Purpose and Paper.

Patience

The rules are about as simple as it gets: there are none. Still, one element of the process that surprises new travel bloggers is how long some parts take. While being in the right place at the right time does happen, counting on that luck for success is about as good of an idea as buying a lottery ticket. Actually, the lottery ticket probably brings better odds for success.

Editors can be perceived as brutal to what you consider to be ‘your work’. Back it up there a bit cowboy, lets not get too full of ourselves here. Readers will indeed peruse your words as well as detect the tone with which they were written in a more-personal-anyway travel blog. Give them some time for those words to sink in, or not.

Purpose

Highly suggested: A fluid mission statement that is always an accurate summary of all you do or hope, dream and plan on doing.

Mine is simple:

Chris Owen is a travel writer from Florida who believes travel by ship is a great way to experience, understand then change our world in a safe, positive way.

That patience mentioned above? You’ll need plenty of it to be around long enough to realize long term goals. Years or decades are not uncommon periods of time needed to establish purpose AND get feedback indicating/documenting your efforts as valuable.

Paper

Here, I am not referring to the paper upon which to write your fabulous blog post. You’ll no doubt do that online anyway. This is paper as in cash, resources to support your efforts for a certain period of time that you decide upon. Your blogging efforts will bring the immediate benefit of being able to express your thoughts on any subject you choose. That feel good moment as well as most other moments of short term gain cost more than your time, as inexpensive as you may believe that time is.

No good paper plan would be good without a realistic business plan. This is probably the most skipped critical step in the process.

“See The World” was my original travel goal. I did that, traveling far more than I ever dreamed I would. The only way that worked for me was to adjust my focus and not consider blogging an income source. It was Lisa’s idea really, suggesting after a particularly difficult travel event “just do the part you like” if that doesn’t include monetization, so be it.

Yours is a new business so many of the numbers are difficult to estimate. The amount of time you will spend doing this, where and when it will be done and other personal choices should be far easier to estimate. The point is to have a plan and refer to it on a regular basis. Five or ten years from now, you will be glad you did.

As far as resources needed to start a travel blog, that will probably be your time initially. Time you could spend doing something else.

In my case, I began as a dad who had been on one cruise with his wife and two kids when few other people had, a few weeks before the tragic events of 9-11.

We thought that quick 4-night sailing to Cozumel and Key West was our best ever vacation by the end of the first day. By the time it was over, the only regret was that it did not last longer.

My favorite part: watching the looks on the faces of passengers on deck at sailaway. As the great big ship those passengers have been saving up for and dreaming about for months if not years starts to move. I watched their land-based cares and woes melt away. This was unique.

We came back home and within a month I had a travel agency up and running, selling only cruises. Remember, this was just after 9/11: about the worst possible time to open a travel agency. That travel agency brought the resources needed for travel blogging which seemed to be the next logical step.

At a time when the world had been shaken and was looking for safety, cruising did just that. My favorite part: Cruising also opened up the world of travel to many who might not have experienced it otherwise.

Experienced travelers know the world is not really a totally ugly place and most people are just trying to lead a happy life, wherever they live. Cruising has been an Experienced Traveler Factory in that respect. What’s not to like about that?

This idea of being a travel blogger brings as many experts as there are bloggers. It’s difficult to know which one to choose for guidance or an example of what someone else did that worked for someone else. I suggest starting and aligning with this source. Or maybe this one. The thoughts and guidance are similar, something I did not know until I traveled.