Saying Goodbye to This, My Travel Blog

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Saying Goodbye to This, My Travel Blog


I revealed
my first submit on this weblog on January 29, 2010, eight months after we began
full-time RVing. Almost fifteen years later, I’m posting this 590

th
submit. It can also be my final.

The
End of Our Travels

2018, we bought
our RV and settled at Viewpoint in Phoenix, Arizona. We continued touring through different modes, so I modified the weblog title however retained the area
rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspost.com. 

These weblog
posts went viral (up to35,000 views) on this weblog:

  1. Debating the Pros and Cons of the RV Cruising
    Lifestyle
  2. Operationalizing Phase 2 of RVing in North Carolina
  3. Finding Christmas on Florida’s Treasure Island
  4. Going Up the East Coast
  5. Turning Wounds into Wisdom: Georgia
  6. Discovering More in New Mexico
  7. Reliving WWII within the Philippines
  8. Looking for a Base in Arizona
  9. Traveling Light in an RV?
  10. We RVed Fulltime for 8 Years. Here are the ten Things
    We Learned
  11. Leaving No Stone Unturned within the Canadian Rockies
  12. 10 New Landmarks in Charming Mazatlan

The weblog grew to become a wealthy supply of fabric for my two
journey books:
Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream and Cruising
Past 70: It’s Not Only About Outer Journeys. It’s Also About Inner Ones.

My husband and I returned from our final journey collectively
in May. He didn’t be part of me on a brief solo journey to the Philippines in August.
We additionally canceled our Sixteenth-anniversary journey to Leavenworth, Washington. Yes, we’ll
now not be the wanderers we as soon as have been.

The Beginning of the End

In mid-2021, in the course of the top of the COVID-19 pandemic, I used to be invited to put in writing as an knowledgeable contributor for Travel Awaits, a journey journal for the 50+ by the 50+. The journal was experiencing a progress spurt at a
time when nobody might journey, however retirement desires soared.

I wanted extra time to put in writing for 2 publications, however I didn’t have the guts to deactivate my weblog. Instead, I wrote articles for the journal and republished them on my weblog.

Of the 60+ articles I wrote, the next went viral (150,000+ clicks):

  1. 6 Quaint Small Towns to Visit North of Anchorage,
    Alaska
  2. 6 Charming Small Towns to Visit in Southern Alaska
  3. 5 Things My Husband and I Practice in Retirement to
    Keep Us Young

Under the journal’s management, my writing improved. However, I found that having
non-original content material negatively impacted my weblog. From 4,000 views per submit, it
dwindled to 1,000.

When journey returned,
the journal’s readership fell. It was purchased by new homeowners, who redefined the
content material with their writers. I’m nonetheless on the roster however now not actively
contribute. They republished a few of my articles, however all writers’ retirement
items have been eliminated.  

As journeys grew to become much less frequent, I started writing on my weblog about different subjects (retirement and renewal, well being and longevity). After my management award, I additionally wrote about management and administration. My views dropped to lower than 300 per submit. I’m now not true to my area of interest. My writing wants a brand new residence.

A New
Platform

While
writing for Travel Awaits, I used to be unaware that the running a blog world had additionally modified.
The plummeting views have been traced to frequent Google algorithm modifications, even
for the preferred blogs. It wasn’t simply that I wanted authentic content material
(though I’m positive that contributed). Bloggers turned to newer enterprise
platforms.

Two of the
hottest ones are Medium and Substack

Medium is a single membership mannequin with
over a million paid subscriptions. Editors suggest articles to their huge reader
base. The onus is to put in writing high quality articles about in-demand subjects.

On the opposite
hand, Substack has 4 million paid subscribers distributed amongst its 20,000
or so writers, a mean of 200 per author. Writers are chargeable for
selling their writing and signing up subscribers.

Gemini, Google’s AI, helped me slender my selection to at least one query: Should I spend my time writing high quality articles or selling my writing to subscribers? I haven’t got the time to do each, as I need to work on my two new ebook initiatives.

It is time to deactivate this weblog, even when I’ve but to resolve. Goodbye, Blogspot, Google’s running a blog platform. Thank you for being an excellent residence for my journey writing.

Thank you
all for sticking with me by way of the years. I hope to see you once more on my new
platform or when one in every of my books is revealed. I want you all a Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year!

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