This seems like an appropriate time to introspect seeing how another year is about to end. Like other years, 2014 had its share of ups and downs. I am writing this post in three parts to understand how exactly I spent the year and what I could have done better. Expect a lot of self-pity and self flagellation ahead. However, I am also going to write out a roadmap for this blog for the year ahead so that I do not lose focus and can depend on you to ask me tough questions if I don’t live up to them. Before we begin, here are a few stats –
Blog began – Mid-2012*
Blog stats in 2012 – Not much. I was trying to figure out how I can use the site and spent most of my time reading up other blogs and teaching myself about travel. Did not put all the information gathered in the blog.
Blog stats in 2013 – I saw miniscule traffic as I began writing content. However, I was still not satisfied with the site and was struggling to find my voice. I also could not commit my time to this for many reasons but mostly because I was lazy.
Blog stats in 2014 – With just a day to go for 2015, I can share that Constant Traveller had a dull first half but things began looking up in the latter half with the revamp of the site. I scheduled my first meeting with a tourism agency (Think Strawberries) for my Jordan trip but that fizzled out. I attended a few travel marts to understand what they were about. I also attended travel meetups hosted by Shivya of The Shooting Star fame and the wildly popular Come, Plan, Go meetup run by Ansoo Gupta. As a result, I found a few hundred readers on my site every month these past four months.
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1. Write more frequently – This has been a bugbear with me for the longest time. I began this blog thinking that it would be the easiest thing for me to write since I do it professionally already. Little did I know that the opposite would happen. After deliberating on ideas for work all day, my enthusiasm for doing the same work and research for my own blog just vanishes. This is a major flaw and no one except I can fix this problem. One of the foremost things I need to do in the year ahead is write more and write frequently. God knows I have enough ideas and captivating stories to make it happen. Now’s the time to look at my passion passionately.
2. Optimise the site – While I am comfortable with writing and can even manage the WordPress CMS after tinkering with it all year now, I know that I need help optimising my site. I sorely miss a slider on my homepage for example. I also need help with optimising images, working on YouTube videos so they look slightly more professional and ensuring my site has a good balance of different types of posts (slideshows, videos, Twitter and FB embeds etc). I will use a dual approach to overcome this. I will enrol in an online course and also work with freelancers either online or offline.
3. Introduce long-form travel narratives – One of my favourite travel writers is Paul Theroux. I love the details and observations he can make from his travels. In the end, many of us travel to a place and come back to our lives. I want to write travel narratives that give the experience of the places I have been to inspire many more of you to get out to these places. I am targeting at lease one long-form every month to start off with.
4. Share travel ideas to develop – When I conceptualised this blog, my main idea was to share my travel experiences with you. I wanted to tell you why you should travel and why it’s a great idea. Along with that are also plans to take you guys travelling with me so you can experience first-hand what travelling with me is like. (Hint – Lots of activities on all days and tons of memories at the end of the journey). By mid-2015, I want to share the first of many Travels With Me sections on this blog so we can take one trip together by the end of 2015. More details and more ideas coming soon.
5. Release at least one e-book – Another aim is to build a community of like-minded readers like you and share some of the stories I put together in the form of an e-book. I need to learn how to do this one as well but I am determined to publish at least one e-book on travel by the time next year’s review piece is written.
Now, I know that it is easy to be sceptical about New Year plans considering how often we all break them. But I have actually worked towards these goals all this year and am confident I can pull it off. The most important factor in my favour is that I do not have much more time. I will turn 30 in a few days and need to use my time optimally to make all my travel plans – and that includes this blog – work from this point on. The time for faffing and being lazy and making excuses. Quite literally then, it’s now or never. Either I will be back writing how I made all of the above possible next year or I will be writing nothing at all.
Onwards and ahead!
And to all readers, Happy New Year to you. May your year be filled with travel plans and exciting discoveries 🙂
– Priyanko Sarkar aka Constant Traveller
