typhoons, the business of blogging, and the definition of success

we had another typhoon this week. thankfully the damage was less than the last one that rolled through Taipei, but my apartment still suffered four leaks and a brief power outage. coincidentally, our cable and internet were shut off a few days before the storm. not because of it - in fact we couldn't seem to determine the reason why at all - but we had to rely on spotty cell phone internet for nearly a week.

so I haven't been very present online. I've been focusing on the things I need, rather than the things I think I need to do. Ive been taking time to tend to the things that call to my heart and fill me with joy (which is certainly not checking Facebook.) I've been reading and journaling, visiting friends and taking scooter adventures, playing video games and drinking wine, shooting photos of raindrops while the typhoon blew by.

and you know what? the world didn't fall apart.

being forced to take a break made me realize how much I've been struggling to find balance. not just in time spent working vs not, but in how I spend that work time. meaning: for every hour I spend writing it feels like I spend four hours tweeting, creating pinterest graphics, optimizing for SEO, reading other people's content, and trying to come up with witty and interesting yet original hooks to get someone to click. if you're a blogger, I'm sure you understand this struggle.

I want to share my work, but I don't want the sharing to become more important than the work itself. but even more, I don't want the outcome of my work to become more important than the work itself.

part of this realization comes on the heels of reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. she argues that there's merit in creating something, just for the sake of creating. that completion itself is an achievement, and a rare one at that. and you have to believe you are worthy, regardless of the outcome. [can you tell she's friends with Brené Brown?]

that seems to go against all the advice I see out there on the internet right now. create great content, promote it ruthlessly, build community and gain popularity. saturate the market to gain brand recognition, stay focused and on-message in everything you do, share other's content to be useful and position yourself as an expert. these are the things I've been hearing, over and over. that - and the promise that if you do these things you will achieve xyz.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that method. I mean, last month I wrote about how art cannot exist in a vacuum. and as a business model, it makes sense. but my blog is not a business, and I never intended it to be. I'm not getting paid, guys, I'm here because I like it.

now that blogging is a valid career choice, it seems like the expectation is that all bloggers must be professionals. I'm not here to say you shouldn't take your work seriously. if you want to treat your blog like a business - you can. and in fact, if blogging is your legitimate job and page views keep food on your plate then you probably should.

but though your blog can be a business, it doesn't have to be. you don't have to analyze every post and spin yourself into a frenzy over comments and page views. it is one hundred percent ok to simply write because you love to write, to take photos and share your life because you enjoy doing it.

which brings me to this: you can be serious about what you do, without having to live and die by the results.

for example: though it's been up for a week, I don't have any comments on my last post about hiking Mt Qixing. on the flip side, somehow my post on the Nugget Point Lighthouse in New Zealand has almost 5,000 page views in just two weeks. so what happened with my hiking post that made it such a dud? there's a few ways this train of thought could go...

maybe I shouldn't have posted about another hike so soon after my last hiking post. maybe no one actually cares about me climbing mountains. maybe my pictures suck. maybe I didn't promote it enough on social media. maybe I posted at the wrong times and people just didn't see this piece existed. maybe my hook wasn't interesting or my pinterest graphics are lame. maybe I gave too much information and sounded like a guide book. maybe all my readers have abandoned me because my blog has been so sporadic this year and my 15 minutes of mediocre popularity are over.

or.

no one commented on my last post. that sucks, I thought the photos were beautiful and I really enjoyed that hike. oh well. time to edit photos from last weekend's adventure and write about that.

maybe one of these reactions [and subsequent corrections] will get me more pageviews in the future, but I can tell you which is better for my metal health. and I think the distinction comes down to this: how do you define success? if you measure it by external standards, there's no guarantee that you'll ever achieve anything. I don't care how many formulas you follow - you can't control the actions of others.

but if you say success is simply making the best work that you can in that moment, and being brave enough to put it out in the world? you can do that. you can do that every damn day.

the point is, the choice is yours.

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this blogging thing

starting this new chapter in Taipei has me drawing all kinds of comparisons to our first arrival in Taiwan. one thing I've really noticed [thanks mostly, I think, to the three years of experience abroad] is that I'm not nearly so panicked when meeting new people. when we first arrived, I had no plan and no idea what to say when I was asked the inevitable "so what do you do?"

I've had three years to figure out how to answer that question. and I consider it a major personal accomplishment that now - instead of just shrugging and mumbling "I don't know" - I can confidently respond that I am a writer, a travel blogger, and am working on a book manuscript. and every time I say it, it gets easier.

but of course, saying that this blogging thing is what I "do" probably means I should be taking this seriously, right? I should stay on topic and relentlessly market myself on social media. I should pay close attention to my follower counts and bloglovin rankings. but I should also be myself - honest, authentic, original, relatable. am I the only one who finds that sometimes these things are at cross purposes?

as I've been trying to ease back in to regular-ish posting after a crazy summer, I've been considering this and other existential blog questions. it seems like everyone is doling out advice on how to grow your blog and gain more followers across social media these days. you don't want to be wrapped up in numbers, but some level of marketing is necessary if you want to attract readers.

the internet is so saturated that just being a good writer or having great content isn't enough anymore. sometimes it feels like self-promotion is really self-preservation, because you can't just write and expect people to show up and read it. [as many great but largely unknown writers can attest.]

and it IS important that someone shows up to read it. deny it all you want. say you write only for yourself. but the real reason we write is to show our truth to others. in the words of one of my favorite literary heroines, Amelia Peabody: art cannot exist in a vacuum. the creative spirit must possess an audience. it is impossible for a writer to do herself justice if she is only talking to herself.

maybe some days it's only one person reading [hi, mom!] but it's a bit like that tree in the woods. we write to be heard, and we write to be seen. we write because we crave community. we need interaction - and sometimes though we might not want to admit it - validation.

who we are and what we share doesn't have to always fit into a molded niche, because we are real people. multi-dimensional and often contradictory. I'm going to give you awesome list-y informational posts, and I'm also going to give you posts like this. guys: that's just me being me, and trying to share it in the most honest ways I know how. some days it's empowering and some days it's terrifying - but for me at least - there is a visceral need to share my story either way.

even when my story is just me sitting in a coffee shop, writing a little ramble about this blogging thing.

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wandering blogger, wild heart

ink + adventure had its third anniversary this week, and I completely missed it.

I think part of the trouble is that my "blogiversary" comes so close on the tail of my own birthday. and the other part is that I feel I've been wandering as of late.

whenever I'm in a transitional period of life, my blog undergoes a bit of an identity crisis. and right now I'm heading in a dozen different directions. somewhere between recovering from New Zealand and planning for the move to Taipei, determining our travels to the US this summer and trying to commit more seriously to writing my book. instead of buckling down and checking off my to-do list, I find myself letting my creativity run wild. I can't even tell you how many kinds of markers and half-finished projects are sprawled across my office. I'm not sure whether to call it distraction, multi-tasking... or to simply admit that I'm aimless.

it is inevitable, for me at least, that this will leak over into my blog. I've always been terrible at hiding my feelings. we all have a right [even as bloggers] to keep certain things personal, but I can't stand when people are dishonest - when they pretend to be other than they are. so I wear my heart on my sleeve, and on my blog.

I tell myself that's why I will never be a mega-blogger, or at least maybe why I don't want to be. because I can't force myself to stick to a particular niche, not completely. I will always have this inner battle between "give them what they want" and "give them what's real." because at heart, I am a wild and passionate creature. I need adventure, and challenge, and the freedom to express my creativity in whatever manner it decides to manifest.

posting about travel gives this blog a place to belong. and I do love traveling. it's a big part of my life and I enjoy sharing it. but my life is more than that. I am more than that. I'm doing the best I can to be myself, authentically and unapologetically. and who I am right now is a woman in the midst of transition, searching for answers about herself and what the future holds.

sometimes I think I should start a personal blog - or revive my old one. but I've done the dueling blogs dance before. it ended in over-compartmentalization and lack of enthusiasm. and I think I can trust my readers to be decision-making adults and skip over any posts that they just don't want to read.

that's not to say I'm going to gush my feelings at you all the time. some of the posts I have scheduled on our New Zealand travels will likely seem dry in comparison. but I'm also not going to apologize for being a complicated and messy person. that's just who I am.

this blog has never truly been strictly travel, or even strictly expat. I went through a few interesting phases before falling into those categories almost by default. over the course of these past 3 years I've shared nail art, DIY projects, handwritten fonts and recipes. [some of these posts still continue to draw the most page views, much as I've tried to focus my wandering ways.]

we've come a long way since my very first post. we meaning both the blog and myself. but looking back at some of those initial thoughts I shared in regards to our move abroad, there are still some words that resonate so strongly I could have written them today. before we even moved to Taiwan,  I wrote about how I was learning that it was ok to not have a plan. that I was excited to embrace the joy of possibility. heck, I even mentioned I might write a book. I haven't crossed everything off my maybe-I-will-do-this list, but that really wasn't what it was ever about.

those posts from my early expat days are so dear to my heart. back before I started keeping a paper journal, this blog was all I had. it's my way to remember my early thoughts on scooting and the first time I tried to write a travel post that didn't sound like a guidebook.  a few things I completely glossed over - the scooter crash hardly gets a paragraph - but for the most part I was writing with as much honesty as I could stomach.

the reason why I started this blog in the first place, was because I wanted a space where I could be myself, wholly and completely. compartmentalizing my life into two URLs just didn't feel right to me, and so I gave both my old blogs up in hopes of creating something that could merge all the aspects of who I was, and give me room to grow into who I would become.

maybe this seems like a strange "anniversary post." or maybe, if you've been reading this blog long enough, it seems eminently appropriate. either way: thanks for sticking along for the ride.

despite the wandering, I think I've kept true to my intentions over the years. which were mostly: to share my life and share it honestly. every day it looks a little different, but that's just because change and growth are part of life. it's all brought me to the place I am today - which is a place I am happy to be. and thanks to the wandering, my wild heart has had the chance to experience so many adventures along the way.

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a new design for ink + adventure

I've been itching for a new blog design for months now - the previous version having been around since last July when I taught myself some CSS basics. every time I go to redesign my blog I have the "hire someone or learn to do it myself" struggle. obviously, I want it to look professional. and I know at least ten blogger friends who do beautiful design work. but I love the idea that this space is something I've created - my words, my art, my voice.

this new design is probably the most labor intensive I've ever attempted. from hand painting the elements to coding research and all the photoshop... I've been busy.

I am not exaggerating when I say that I spent HOURS practicing my brush lettering. I tried seven different brushes/pens before settling on the Pentel Aquash brush. [and started 4 designs with script I ended up NOT using.] I probably could have kept writing until I found something a little more perfect. but at some point you have to call it good and dive into the actual designing.

given the number of branding boards I scoured through on pinterest, I felt the need to make one of my own. you can tell I'm not a pro since I forgot to label the pantone colors and the font [Lato 300.]

my initial color scheme was green and black and gold. I started playing with foil on the lettering. then I swapped out the green for a coral color. and then I went crazy and added little dots that looked like confetti. but the brush lettering plus gold plus confetti was just too much. so I swapped the confetti for some paint splats and nixed the gold foil.

I've also added some brush lettering elements to my travel page, Taiwan page, and about page. [though the about page is still in need of a content update!] I haven't come up will a full set of badges and buttons just yet, but at the moment I'm rethinking my sponsorship strategies so not in a rush.

I feel like there's still something not quite there but I can't put my finger on it. maybe that this design doesn't really say "travel"? though it's tough to get that across without the obvious airplanes, suitcases, globes or maps. maybe next time around? but it's time for this labor of love to be implemented [if only so I will stop making changes!] there will probably be a few tweaks left to make, so let me know if you have any issues with links or with elements displaying funny.

what so you think of the new design? do you design your own blog or hire a professional?

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best search terms of 2014

from time to time, I like to take a peek at the search terms people are using to find this blog. while I appreciate all and any traffic that comes my way, some of these terms are a little unexpected. I've compiled a list of the best [and most hilarious] terms I've spotted over the past year.

if you are someone who has discovered this blog through a search engine and have stuck around long enough to be reading this post, then awesome. I don't mean you any offense by listing your search term below, and hope I was able to help you find what you were looking for. those of you who arrived here by other means and are just here to be entertained... well, enjoy!

since I fall under the umbrella of "travel blog" you can probably guess I receive a lot of traffic from travel-related searches. many of them have been standard: things to eat in Taiwan, travel essentials, Bali packing list, etc. the entertaining ones are more specific, and sometimes a little strange... though I feel I've answered most of these questions:

dress code for Wat Arun
giant spider
do most hotels provide hairdryers in Bali? [not the one I stayed at!]
where to spot monkeys in Railay
buddha in tree
sound system of lotus temple
cycling Ubud calligraphy [huh?]
Taiwan strange things
Tokyo Disneyland popcorn bucket
a golden giant in Thailand
hidden lagoon Railay
why don't Taiwanese people use soap [um, most I know DO use soap!]

another big category for terms was cats. not what I was expecting. but... it's no secret that I love cats. leaving my fuzzballs behind was one of the hardest things about becoming an expat. one said fuzzball is pictured above, on the night I adopted him in 2008. I haven't shared much about my cats on this blog since they are back in Michigan, but I've obviously posted enough about other cats to draw several feline-related searches. most notably: temple cats and Thailand, cat crazy tours Ayutthaya, cat looks like zebra, and are there a lot of cats in Thailand?  [in case you are wondering... the answer is yes.]

this may or may not be due to series of posts I titled: cats of Thailand + parts two + three. and maybe also a post on the cats of Bali. and um, and a cat cafe in Taipei.

there have also been some slightly scandalous search terms. I have no idea how they led here, I just know that they did. unlike the travel and cat-related inquiries, I'm pretty sure I did not answer any of these questions. but somehow they still led here. some of the best [?] of these terms have been:

fantasy image dusk when his lonely shore alone
how to find a husband while teaching overseas
bras to wear while swimming
my teacher's wife hot scene
how to make love like newlyweds
making out on country road

and then, we have a collection of completely random terms. these are the ones that made me giggle [or just scratch my head.] I'm sure if I dug deep enough I could find where these led to, but perhaps it's better to just enjoy these phrases completely out of context:

god of the internet
all the oreo flavors ever made
how to decorate a roof with an unnecessary thing
hot doritos
sword in lions hand stamps
oozing brick walls
I don't care because I love myself
pavilion half shirts
stinky feet in face
boiled egg wrapped in pork wrapped dumpling
thing you put in your headphone socket
how do you say do you mind if i take my tablet down stairs
reclining chair and a half
keep out room signs
love sitting on balloons
mnhvk!m

have you ever looked at the search terms leading people to your blog? what has the craziest one been?

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behind the blog: my writing process

I always love taking a peek into the behind-the-scenes of people's blogs. I find it interesting that while so many of us share this hobby [or profession] we all approach it in different ways. everyone shares different pieces of their lives [and themselves] on their blogs, and getting to see something other than the usual always intrigues me. a while ago, Christina tagged me in a post to share my writing process. I've finally gotten around to answering this prompt - enjoy!

what am I currently working on/writing?

as far as the blog goes, I'm still catching up on travels from as early as April. Japan, Taroko, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Taipei... and bits of Michigan summer. part of this is just the sheer volume of photos I have. but mostly, I like to write about what I'm feeling that day. and my emotions don't always work in chronological order. so the older travel posts are mixed in with newer adventures and bits of daily life. I also want to incorporate some changes based on the feedback I've received from my blog survey, but with the holiday season upon us that may not be until next year.

and then we have the book. for the past year, I've been working on a travel memoir. something that reads more like a novel, a comprehensive narrative, and not a blog. currently I'm in the midst of my first edit/rewrite, making all the changes I marked up this summer. I'm about 2/3 through with that, but I still need to write a healthy portion of the ending. I've been struggling to make time for this lately... but I swear one day it will be published. [for the sake of not turning this post into a novel, I'm only going to talk about writing for the blog from here on out.]

how does my work/writing differ from others of its genre?

I suppose my genre would be "travel blog" or "expat lifestyle blog" if I had to pin it down. on the surface of things, I think I am living a different life from many other expats in Asia. or at least I don't fit into the "twenty-something ESL teacher who spends their weekends backpacking" stereotype. I'm almost-thirty, a trailing spouse, and didn't particularly enjoy my first solo travel experience. not that any of this makes me better or worse - just different from much of what I've encountered.

but I think I'm getting off the real question here.

what really makes my blog different, is that it's me. I don't just want to show you location X, I want to show you my version of it. some days it may not shine through as much, but I try to weave in my personality and personal experiences. I've worked hard [and still am] to develop my voice as a writer, but I have more practice showing than telling. photography is something important to me, and to my blog. someone recently left me a comment that really made me feel awesome: "I think if someone gave me a random set of blogger photos, I could pick out yours every time." I'd like to think the sharing of my experience, voice, and photography on this blog offers a unique perspective - but then again wouldn't we all?

why do I write what I do?

I sortof fell into travel blogging unintentionally. for years I kept a personal blog, just writing about whatever. as my love of photography and food grew, I started a baking blog. then I moved to Taiwan and decided to start a new blog from scratch, not really intending it to be anything other than about my life. but the nature of expat life [and the travel opportunities available to me] sent my work in that direction. then one day I discovered that travel and expat blogs were actually a thing. and I started to connect with that community, and my content shifted to fit more into that genre because it gave me a place to belong.

I could write about nail art or recipes or any of a million things I enjoy. but travel and expat life are the broadest, most flexible [and most photogenic] topics I have right now in my life. honestly, I just love telling stories.

how does my writing process work?

as I mentioned above, I like to write what I'm feeling. what that actually means is - if I'm not "feeling" a topic that day, I won't write about it. I think readers know when your heart isn't in your writing, or even when your interest isn't there. planning out what to post which day never really works for me. some days I have a specific topic or [usually] set of photos I am eager to share, and that's what you get. and some days I have to draw from the well of draft posts and stockpiled photos and just make it work.

when I'm composing a post, I almost always start with the pictures. I cull through shots from a certain day or event and choose which ones will help me form a story. when I'm struggling with what to write, the photos help me. sometimes though I just have something I need to say, or a specific thing I want to write and that will drive the photos. like this post- I had the topic and so created images to go along. but I shot and edited the photos first, then did the writing.

it takes me a while to write my posts because I always like to walk away from it for a bit, then come back and proofread with perspective. [and thankfully my Mom likes to email me when a typeo gets through.] sometimes I start with a vague idea and spend days or weeks pulling things together from a string of photos or phrases, tweaking it into something I feel is worthy of publishing. and sometimes the words just fly out of my fingertips.

either way, coffee is almost always involved.

what's your writing/blogging process like? do you stick to an editorial calendar or just let yourself write? feel free to "tag yourself" and answer these prompts - leave a link to your post in the comments below so I can check it out!

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a little blogging heart

this is a blog named ink and adventure.

sometimes I forget what I intended [subconsciously or not] to be at the heart of this blog. over time, I've come to realize that most readers here aren't interested in my nail polish obsession. they don't come here for the random art projects, and certainly not for the gluten free pizza. not that people out there don't like those things... I mean, I like them. and this blog is MY blog and I should feel free to write about whatever I please. but sharing these random things doesn't necessarily mean I'm sharing me - just my interests.

this week in the blog class I've been teaching, we talked about defining your blog's niche. picking one main, overarching topic, and coming up with related subtopics that will help you support your theme.

and I hate to admit that I don't always follow this formula.

once upon a time, I had a personal blog [one of many, actually] where I used to just sit and write about whatever. I would pour my heart out and just let the words flow in their own direction. it was cathartic. and no one really read it.

in 2010 [which seems eons ago in internet years] I started a baking blog. I love cooking, and I love food photography, and it just seemed like a natural step. I had no idea how to promote myself or build a community, but I churned out 2 years worth of solid work and gained a respectable following. had I known then what I know now about blogging, I probably could have been internet famous. or so I'd like to think.

on my food blog, I was always careful to avoid getting too personal. I think that actually was a major thing in holding me back. so when I began this blog in 2012 before moving to Taiwan, I decided that I wouldn't hold back any aspect of my life. I wanted my blog to be ALL of me, a true representation of the wild and varied interests that compose my personality.

but I've realized maybe that's a bit to much. I can put myself into my posts without writing about topics all over the map. being gluten-free and loving nail polish and struggling to run and everything else that is a part of my life doesn't have to be here in order for ME to be here.

I'm not writing this post to apologize, because if you were bothered by what I've written you wouldn't still be here reading. I'm not writing this post to promise I won't ever post another recipe or craft project. I'm writing it to tell you [and myself] that I want to re-dedicate this blog to what it was always intended to be.

blogs, like people, grow and evolve over time. if you've been around for a while [or since the beginning] you'll know that it's true of both myself and of my blog. and I've been heading in this direction ever since I started. even before I started. when I came up with the name for this blog - riding back to Princeton from Boston after the insane experience of the job fair that determined we would move to Taiwan - I had no idea what an insight into myself it truly was.

ink and adventure.

my brain somehow dug deep into my heart and found the words to express desires I had buried so far I didn't even know they existed. I could barely even admit to myself what this meant: I wanted to be a writer. and I wanted to travel, to experience the world, and to live something beyond the ordinary.

here I am now, doing those things. I am a travel blog. and an expat blog. even an expat lifestyle blog, I suppose. in theory I could post nothing but travel photos and that would keep me properly niched. but I'm also a writer. and these spill-my-guts-out posts are just as crucial to my blog as the pretty pictures of mountains and dragons.

I think there's a balance between being personal and vulnerable, informative and entertaining. some days I'm right on the money and some days I'm in left field. that's just being human. it might be a struggle but I'll keep trying. I want to share my adventures with you, and I want to also share myself with you.

because I think the best blogs are the ones with a little bit of heart.

linking up with Nicole for TYSThursday

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