Community Forums

RogueRVer · 04-23-2012, 11:06 PM

For those of you RVers out there who maintain an RV blog, and link to it in your 'signature', I’m curious to know why you do it…aka “blog”…?

Is it because you love to write and you’re just looking for a way to keep an online journal of your rv lifestyle, regardless if you anyone ever follows and/or reads your blog...or do you do it because you’re looking for a way to give back to the RV community and in the process, establish a healthy following of fellow RVers?

Thanks for any and all feedback!

UFO Pilot · 04-23-2012, 11:15 PM

My wife does ours to keep our family and friends informed when we are traveling.

paz · 04-24-2012, 05:52 AM

We originally started our blog to keep our family and friends up to date with our travels like UFO Pilot; but after almost 7 years of full-timing, we now have several hundred subscribers, average 400-500 page hits a day, and have almost 400,000 total page hits.

I have found I like writing and doing the research that goes into the history and background of the places we visit. Photography is also a favorite hobby of mine, and we always feature plenty of photos.

Another side benefit of having a blog is that we have made several new friends from it. Some of the people we have never met in person, but we correspond with them regularly by email, and we feel we know each other very well from our respective blogs. We have become fairly close friends with a few others through our blog, and we often cross paths with them in our travels and spend time together when we do.

vermilye · 04-24-2012, 09:24 AM

I write the blog section of my website so that friends & family can keep up with my travels, and as a way to look back at some of my trips years later.

I also have a section where I collect links to other blogs and information for RVers. It started out as a way to keep track of the information for myself, but judging from the number of views, has become useful to others.

Lindsay Richards · 04-24-2012, 12:49 PM

I started our website to keep our daughter informed of our travels. I had done our own website in our previous business, so it was not that difficult. My wife loves to take photos and we now have about 10,000 on our website. We enjoy looking at it when we get back and frequently talk of a particular spot and then go look it up. I can now bring it all up on my smart phone. We were recently talking to some folks about a rattlesnake my wife took some photos of in Custer State Park. I quickly brought it up on my Android and showed them the photo. It is a great way to expand your trip. We have expanded it well beyond RV'ing. Look at it from the link in my signature.

SVTotem · 04-24-2012, 06:05 PM

I keep the blog updated when we travel to keep friends and family informed about where we are and what we are doing. We use SPOT Messenger to show where we are on the map.

BpK9Miami · 04-25-2012, 06:52 AM

I started a RV Mods specific blog (as a supplement to my "regular" blog) to have a place where I could share with other Outlaw owners some of my modifications or changes. It was the best way to share things we all had in common without them having to sort through the routine, and boring, trash talk on the other one.

WheelingIt · 04-25-2012, 08:14 AM

Started the blog for friends and family, but it evolved into a mini-community and I now look at it as a way to promote and share the RV lifestyle. Met a ton of friends through the blog too, so it's become a social thing for us as well. Plus I've found I love taking pics and writing. Goodness all round really!

DriVer · 04-25-2012, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RogueRVer

Thanks for any and all feedback!

Please also consider posting your Blogs here on iRV2.com. This is the place for all things related to RV'ing. Internet search engines are keyed into our Blog content and the global tag cloud will show the key words that are being searched for.

JimM68 · 04-25-2012, 12:22 PM

Boy, where is the honesty here?

A blog is a revenuie source, once people start reading and following it. Even a google adsense ad can reap a hundred or more a month in real income.

My wifes favorite blog is pioneerwoman she is a city lady who married a rancher and moved to the middle of nowhere. We knew her when she first started. Today, she is a gadzillionaire who hires people to write her blog, publishes best selling cookbooks, and generally has it made in the shade.

I see a blog only as a potential revenue source. Facebook is for keeping your friends and family up to date.
As for irv2, i love it but doubt they would let me run my own ads on thier blogs, this is after all, a corporate owned, for profit website. (Not that i have a problem with that, i am very much a capitolist)

WheelingIt · 04-25-2012, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimM68

Boy, where is the honesty here?

I see a blog only as a potential revenue source. Facebook is for keeping your friends and family up to date.
As for irv2, i love it but doubt they would let me run my own ads on thier blogs, this is after all, a corporate owned, for profit website. (Not that i have a problem with that, i am very much a capitolist)

I don't necessarily agree with this. The vast majority of RV blogs that I follow have no ads or revenue income (mine included). Not saying they don't exist (and i'm perfectly fine with those that do), but I think the majority of RV bloggers don't start out with that idea. Typical readership is simply not that high unless you put a lot of effort into it. Just my 2 cents...

SVTotem · 04-25-2012, 07:23 PM

I am with wheelingit.

While Facebook is very popular I am against the data mining they encourage.

UFO Pilot · 04-25-2012, 08:40 PM

I never dreamed of making money with my wife's blog and wouldn't know how anyway! My wife folows a log of RVer's blogs and none of them make money at it?

JimM68 · 04-25-2012, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WheelingIt

I don't necessarily agree with this. The vast majority of RV blogs that I follow have no ads or revenue income (mine included). Not saying they don't exist (and i'm perfectly fine with those that do), but I think the majority of RV bloggers don't start out with that idea. Typical readership is simply not that high unless you put a lot of effort into it. Just my 2 cents...

hmm... I follow your blog. You have ads. Several. They don't look like ones wordpress has put there either, though I guess they could be.

Check pioneerwoman. She's the ultimate blogmonster.

Not that I have a problem with anyone turning an honest buck...