This chat was broadcast live on April 24, 2014.

This is an archived chat – so sorry, you can’t ask us live questions as prompted in the video 🙂  If you are on limited bandwidth, you can also watch the lower res archive of this video.

We offer these chats for free — it’s our gift and we really enjoy doing them.

If you’d like to say thanks we welcome tips & contributions (as well as words of gratitude):

 

General Outline for tonight’s chat:

To blog.. or not to blog? There seems to be RVers starting blogs all the time, but is starting one right for you? We’ll discuss the various motivations behind blogging:

• Keeping family & friends up to date
• Keeping a record of your adventures
• Generating an income

We’ll share some of the rewards of blogging and some of the challenges – from privacy concerns to keeping up with a blogging schedule. We’ll also briefly discuss the various blogging platforms out there — and how to choose what is right for your motivations and technical skill sets. As always, a general Q&A to follow. Please keep in mind:

• We are usually broadcasting via cellular data — video & audio quality can vary.
• All of our video chats are archived to YouTube, and will be available on our Video Cast Center

“We blog to remember… we drink to forget.” – Sean Welsh / Our Odyssey

Further Resources & Notes:

Primary Blogging Platforms:

Blogger (formerly Blogspot) – Owned by Google, and a great platform for basic blogging. Some template options, but not as much flexibility.  You can integrate in Google Adsense into your blog however, so some monetization options are available. WordPress.com – The ‘free’ hosting option by WordPress – where they host and maintain your site for you. Limited options for plug-ins and customizations. They have a lot of restrictions on monetization, so not ideal for those with aspirations of earning some income.. but a great solid option for a free resource for basic blogging. WordPress.org (self hosted) – The go-to choice for serious bloggers. If you have aspirations of growing your blog, making a little to a lot of blogging income, want a more professional online presence or want the greatest flexibility in customizing your blog and features – this is our top recommendation (and what our blog is on). You will pay for a domain name, hosting (as cheap as a few bucks a month, to as expensive as a few hundred for high traffic blogs) and updating and maintaining your blog is up to you.  Hosting options include: DreamHost (our host), BlueHost, HostGator, GoDaddy, WPEngine and many others.

Articles about various blogging platforms:

5 Tips To Creating & Growing An RV Blog – by Nina Fussing of WheelingIt.us

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org – by Team Agreda (aka. Jim & Rene of LiveWorkDream.com)

Using Blogger to Keep your Journal – by GeeksonTour

New Blogging Platforms – Medium, Roon, Ghost, etc. 

The Best Places to Blog (WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc.)  – By DearBlogger

Monetizing your blog Resources:

These are communities and courses that are highly regarded for those wanting the monetize their blogs.

ProBlogger -Long time and highly regarded resource.

BlogBrillantly – run by Christine Gilbert of AlmostFearless.com, with a focus on pro-blogging for creatives and artists.

Fellow RVers who are WordPress Gurus:

Want to hire someone to help you setup a fabulous professional looking blog? We highly recommend both these folks:

Boondock Marketing (they did the design of our current WordPress blog and help us with our own unique style of blogging)

Motorhome Office of Design & Technology  (they’ve done a lot of our graphic design work – such as our app icons, and are also WordPress gurus)

And these folks offer free WordPress.com based blogs at:

RVBlogz.com – Jim & Rene of LiveWorkDream offer up free WordPress based blogs at RVblogz.com. Use it to give WP a spin, or set up a free blog there.

Places to list & promote your RVing Blog:

HitchItch.com

RVillage Blogging Group

RV Blogs Facebook Group

Update your RV Forum signatures to include a link to your blog

And of course, engage with other bloggers – many keep blogrolls and link lists of their favorite RV bloggers. The best way to become a favorite blogger? Create great content, and be active on other blogs you enjoy.