As I don´t want to overwhelm you with a mighty post, I am going to seperate the subject into three parts. The first part “What blogging and tweeting has done for me” comes right now, “Models for monetising blogs” and “What journalists, bloggers and marketers can learn from each other’” will follow in due time.
Dollars from a dwarf
My blog “Grumpy Traveller” started about 18 – 24 months ago. I wanted to describe not-so-great situations I encountered while travelling.
The thing, I am usually not asked to write about in may daily work. To my astonishement I was invited to give a speech at the Travel Blog Camp.
My blog seemed to me hardly worth mentioning. It is a dwarf, it has small traffic and even less mony derived from it.
I still make a living from writing, 70% of my work being destined for online publication of all sorts. But by now I am aware that I have been benefitting from blogging (and then tweeting) in ways, I never thought of.
Not that it means much money, but by being known and being listened to, I have been able to obtain considerable work.
Nice talking to you
What´s more to me, it offers me opportunities to get into dscussions (via the blog) with people I hold in high regard, even continue the talk via Twitter.
I don´t see any other way for me to get into contact with these people but via my online presence.
I however don´t think, every a travel journalist should have a blog at all costs. You can very well do your own thing without being the carnival barker.