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Travex Travels header since May 2016 - present |
Maintaining a blog isn’t really that easy. It takes time to nurture this entity and let it grow with several knowledge honed with the articles the writer fed up on the URL. It takes years of life experiences before you can say, “Wow, this blog has already grown up.” Well, that is just my point of view of somebody who is not even a writer by profession, not even a traveler by default and not even an IT or webmaster specialist by passion. BUT—I love writing, discovering, learning and living. These four words are enough to put up an online journal that crosses borders between travel stories and experiences; life learning and information; and reality and imagination.
THE LONG SEMI-HIATUS YEARS OF BLOGGING
I have had a few years of semi-hiatus in posting articles on this site. For one, I was interrupted by the lifestyle my previous work jobs have given me. I was working and I am working 8 hours per day, even up to 6 days a week—that’s a given. Sometimes, I even work over time that even cooking my own food is hard enough to balance my life. In previous jobs, visiting my Blogger account and updating travel stories are just exhausting activities that add up to my exhausting work life. I can’t be blogging and at the same time doing a stressful job.
But I was lucky enough to have my new life today. 2017 is a good year for me, for I have grown so much in knowledge, not only the technical ones, but also the philosophical ones. Not much has changed with my previous jobs either, I still work for up to 8 hours a day in almost 6 days a week BUT I am now able to slice my life into several activities I can’t do in my previous times of my life. I have a working programme to update this article as often as I can do, study and learn technical knowledge in my chosen field, acquire knowledge in other fields I want to discover and be lazy at bed and do some chores or explore cooking and stuffs.
I am actually already running out of travel articles based in the Philippines, since unlike before where I usually travel with friends in college, having a job even makes it harder to explore the different islands in the country. The articles I am posting this season and will be posting in the next few months are back logs of all the places I have visited this year and in the previous years.
I would want to travel more. As long as there will be times to travel, hence, the additional years of this blog. I wasn’t even able to notice before that Travex Travels has already been five years in the business of disseminating travel information and presenting travel experiences to the readers. Wow, it is almost 2,000 days since I started this crazy idea of putting up a blog like a pro.
FROM ZERO TO 1.5 MILLION VIEWS
At first, I was skeptical of the answer to this statement, “Will people ever read this online journal in a world where there are billions of people with millions of them owning also a blog?” But that was not my focus. I created this blog because I think there are still information not yet available online in some of the best travel spots in the country. Other than that, it is one of my ways to counteract dreary boredom and as funnel to channel my dreams, forget the sad parts and remember the best times.
So basically, I won’t even care if there are that tantamount number of visitors on this site. What’s important to me, I have this medium to resort to my right side part of my brain, with the help of the left side of course. If you ever go to start a blog, focus on the feelings and subjective rewards it can give rather than the technical and statistics aspect of the journal. That can keep you going and going, and just like me, you won’t even notice it was already more than 5 years since Travex Travels was born.
The funny thing is, other than myself who is reading the blog in the beginning, it was my subconscious who does next. Bwahahaha. Nobody is reading. But it was only in the beginning. Now, it has garnered more than 1.5 million views with less than 300 articles uploaded as of posting time. I know it’s a small number compared with the other online writers out there, but the thing here is, “I am sure I did not view this blog for more than a million times!” I probably have viewed this for less than 10,000 times so there might somebody else other than me who has viewed the blog for 1.5 million times. To that other guy who has viewed my non-sense meaningful articles, thank you! If only I could encash though haha.
THE EARNINGS
Speaking of the earnings, I made it a goal before to have this blog pay for its own bills. Luckily, Travex Travels heeded my advice and it did pay for the hosting fee for 5 years—it even gave me a few bucks so I can have some coffee mornings in Starbucks once or twice a month. No, I don’t drink coffee, and I don’t go to Starbucks.
If Travex Travels won’t be able to pay for its own expenses, I would have already reverted it to the free hosting—the blogspot version. But luckily, up until now, it can support itself as a website. There are more advantages of doing an online journal if you own your domain name in a “.com” address rather than a subdomain.
Travex Travels header from February 2012 to May 2012 |
Of course, I would want Travex Travels to earn more for itself, however it only comes second. For as long as it can sustain its own existence, I will continue letting it grow up by posting articles. Right now, I am able to do updates on this blog. I might not know of the situation in the future, but for now, I’ll do my best to have this blog updated.
FUTURE PLANS
I want this blog to exist for the next 5 years. In the coming months, I am planning to widen the spectrum of this blog by introducing travel fiction stories of different genres. In short, I want to explore my writing capabilities and ignite my skills, if ever I have these. Actually, I’m having a bit hard time writing stuffs in English as I am not that aware in the rules of grammar (and sometimes spelling). So maybe in the future, you might be able to read some stories here both in Tagalog and English.
Travex Travels banner from August 2012 to April 2016 |
The laptop that gave birth to this website is also already dying. It has served me for more than eight (8) good years since college times. I have had the laptop checked by specialist several times already. Today, the laptop is working if it is in Safe Mode. Once it totally dies, I’m not sure if I can ever get back quickly to blogging. Hopefully, by that time, I have had enough earnings to cover the expenses of buying a new one.
Nobody really knows what happens next in the future. But one thing I know, I’m learning this vision and finding out to materialize it. I have several wonderful dreams for my future and as long as I stand to live so thus the continuity of Travex Travels, a blog that for once in your life has given you some tips and stories, crazy ideas and statements, and a bunch of words that molded intellect in you. Or maybe it made you digest phrases that don’t need to exist at all! :) ^__^
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Joven!!! Travex Travels is updated! Hurray! Hehehhe
ReplyDeleteI'm with you in wishing and hoping that TT will exist in the next 5 years and beyond. God Bless you on your life journeys, and writing explorations!
~Cille | Penfires
Thanks Cille!
ReplyDeleteWishing you all the best din sa life and blog mo.
Grabe after almost 3 years, ngayon lang ulit ako talaga nakapag-update at hopefully regular na hehe. Medyo maluwag lang sa work ngayon kaya nababalance ko pa. :)
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