Part One: Where I Whine About Writing
About a year ago, maybe more, I fell into a hole with my writing and since then, I have been stalled and uninspired.
This doesn’t mean I can’t write, it’s not the classic writer’s block you see played up for dramatic effect in movies — I’m still able to meet my deadlines, to be a working writer for hire.
But the work where I let my mind go free range, the special alchemy of travel and writing, has been hard to create. My practice is broken. A great deal of writing is practice, the act of just sitting down to write for whatever time on whatever repeated schedule I create for myself. For a while now, I just don’t want to practice.
I have an inkling of why this is. I have been diverted by focusing on the virtual neighbors in my category — travel writing. Specifically travel blogging. Looking at how travel blogging works in 2014 is giving me a massive identity crisis and making me feel like a failure.
I have failed to:
- Say goodbye to the day job to travel the world
- Build lucrative relationships with brands and/or brand focused organizations
- Convince marketing companies that it is worth 300 dollars a day to have me rabbiting on about my personal experiences in their destination.
- Produce an eBook (or series of eBooks) that I sell via my website
- Start a tour company, get a book deal, aggregate bloggers into a marketing organization, get hired as a brand ambassador, sell my site wholesale to a content organization…
Now, admittedly, most of these things I do not want. So why do I think I’m a failure? It’s because all around me, voices are telling me how great it is to have those things. They are telling me that as a travel blogger, I must somehow straddle the line between lifestyle guru and online marketer.
There is so much noise in the virtual space where I live that I can’t hear myself think. That I can’t focus enough to just do my work.
Part Two: Where I Blame Social Media
I blame social media.
No, let me restate that, I blame my addiction to and use of social media.
There’s probably a direct correlation between the increase in my use of social media and the decline in my enchantment with blogging as my primary writing format. At some point, I hit a critical mass of exposure to social media show-offery. An overflow valve in my brain triggered and said, “If all these people are doing so well, you must be a failure. What’s wrong with you?”
It’s not a rational conclusion.
It’s a bit like the fashion industry. You’re not pretty if you don’t have this year’s shoes, you’re not cool if you’re not wearing the latest styles, this is what’s in this year, girls, and if you’re not wearing it, you’re not it.
That message is wrong. It’s a lie to sell you clothes. It’s a lie to make you spend money on things you don’t need. It’s a lie to make you feel like you’re failing if you don’t live abroad six months out of the year. It’s a lie to make you go on needlessly complicated routes to Philly because it allows you to stack up the miles to get the airline status to get on the list for a free upgrade for flight across the Atlantic which you may or may not get because 30 other people are ahead of you on the list, did you know that? It’s a lie to make you feel like you will be better happier taller prettier more interesting and therefore much more lovable and oh, smarter too if only you buy this idea.
And we do buy it. We buy it so completely that it permeates our social relationships. Our “friends” — and people who are literally our friends — are selling the lie now. “Your life would be as good as mine if you spent money doing the things I’m doing (for free).”
I need to turn that shit off. It’s ruining my morale. Literally.
Part Three: Where I’m Tempted to Point Out Specific Examples and Think Better of It and Instead I Just Post This Slide from a Conference and Say “I Don’t Even Know Where to Begin with the Reasons this is Completely Wrong.”
at a tourism event called “Digital innovation Asia.”
In case you can’t read the text:
Journalists versus Bloggers
- Journalists: Paid, unbiased, one core expertise, content limitations, “push” content, publishing schedules, mass audience, traditional core focus
- Bloggers: Passion, opinion based, multiple content skills, unlimited content, “responsive” content, immediate, niche audience, social media at core
Part Four: Where I Explain Why This is Hard
Social media is a critical part of what I do as a travel writer. I don’t sell social media placement, but I do post when I’m traveling. I know that my social “status” is a consideration when I am working on PR backed stories. Even when I’m on assignment for a third party publication, PR folks ask me for my statistics — Twitter followers, page views, all the usual analytics stuff.
It’s not quite a requirement for success, but it’s very much implied that regardless of your role in travel these days, you’re fluent in social media. I have the good fortune of having picked it all up early on. And I enjoyed it tremendously for years. It used to be fun — the opposite of depressing. So even while my virtual neighborhood gets gentrified with McMansions and chain stores and online marketers, I hold out because I remember having such a great time living here.
I was happy here once, I could be happy here again, right?
Yeah, right.
Part Five: Where I Say What I Want to Happen
- I want travel marketing companies to stop mistaking bloggers for online marketers. Some are, some aren’t. Know the difference.
- I want bloggers who engage in marketing initiatives to fully disclose to their readers, up front, what they’re doing. “I was paid a day rate plus expenses to travel to and write about this destination.”
- I want my “friends” and my friends to stop using their feeds to sell to me.
- I want people who equate travel writing with a “lifestyle” to disappear.
- I want anyone who says “I gotta make a living” as an excuse for sleazy web practices to talk with people who *really* “gotta make a living.”
- I want publishers to stand behind their sponsored content so completely that they’re not afraid to tell their readers exactly what it is.
Part Six: Where I Say What’s Really Going to Happen
- Unfollow.
- Unfriend.
- Goddammit, Mandel. You can’t control the whole web. I know you’re bummed out, but you don’t suck as a writer, could you focus on that, already?
- You shoot a decent photo, too.
- Now close down Twitter and work on your stuff.
- You heard me.
- Work. On. Your. Stuff.
So, who knew? You’ve been in the room with me this whole past year?!
Pam, I feel like I’ve read this same post on your site many times before…
I don’t know why you feel bad if you are doing what you want to do.
I also don’t understand why you care so much about what other people are doing.
Just because they do it doesn’t mean that anyone likes it, pay attention or cares.
Over the last several years you have very clearly established the Pam Mandel ethos when it comes to blogging and writing. If you are comfortable with it, nothing else really matters.
Right.
I feel bad when I pay too much attention to what other people are doing.
And I pay attention to it because it’s in my face, it’s on my playground.
And I care about it because it’s happening on what I’ve come to think of as my turf. I care when people are doing things I don’t like on my turf.
So I’m kind of telling myself what you said. I should care less and pay less attention to what other people are doing and work on my own stuff.
And you’ve read this before because I need to continually re-tell myself these things. Because I saw that slide and thought, “Fuck, really?”
Thank you for calling it an “ethos” not a brand. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J41iFYO0NQA
I hear you. It’s a hard place to be in–but one I visit regularly (sigh).
It sounds me to me as though this is a ‘branding issue’ i.e. you’re sick of doing it. Me too. Sick of the concept, sick of the necessity, sick of the misinterpretation of the term as it applies to writers.
My conclusion? That we’ve got it wrong. If we use social media as writers it should be to talk to our primary audience, our ‘target’ (so much of this marketspeak has the flavour of brutality…), that is, readers. Not other writers. Not editors or producers. Readers. That’s what we should do: talk to our real constituents, not each other.
Also, it’s how I avoid feeling competitive and jealous 🙂
Anyway, just my two cents.
It’s weird because I don’t think of myself on the whole as being competitive and jealous, but clearly, I’m letting this shit get to me. And because I’m a lit snob, that makes it worse — I’m all, “How is it a blogger who clearly can not compose a readable sentence or put a place in context is getting paid big money to travel when I have to scramble to sell a story?”
But I also realize it’s very *much* about what I’m paying attention to — which is where what you’re saying comes in. Eyes on your own work, Mandel.
Or, what you said.
From now on, I’m calling you “Brand Mandel”.
If you want to call names of the crazy person talking to themselves out loud in the town square… well, proceed at your own risk.
Gary, I think she wants us to call that “Brandel.”
((Hurls))
Another thought-provoking post, Pam. We’re aligned philosophically on most (not quite all) points here. But I do have to agree with Gary: Focusing on yourself and not worrying about what everyone else is doing is probably the best way to get where you want to go. The only person you can ultimately control is you.
Personally, I’ve used the blog to get better gigs in my freelance work, which has shifted from 20% travel to 80% travel over the past 3 years. It has led me to better assignments, better money, and better outlets (both print and online). I’d much rather have a higher freelance writing income bracket than a higher Klout score.
But that’s just what works for me.
You and Gary reiterate exactly what I’ve said I need to do, so I’m not sure if that’s good or if it means I didn’t write for comprehension.
There’s part of me that has a real desire to point out what’s wrong with what’s happening in our space. I didn’t post the individual examples because everyone hates a finger pointer, but I feel no such hesitation around posting a conference slide that’s displayed from the podium in a room full of people who are in the same industry where I work.
This information is wrong and I can ignore it, or I can say, “Hey, authorities are giving you bad information.” And I can also say, “Hey, you’re being pelted with advertorial that’s designed to serve sponsors and content creators. Readers are last on that hierarchy, don’t you think that’s messed up?” This way of thinking is a CRITICAL part of what I do on the web outside travel — “How is this helping users?” so it’s only natural I apply it to what’s happening around me in travel, too.
If all I do is be an editorial whistle blower, well, that’s a tedious gig. If I do it from time to time as a byproduct of thinking aloud through my process as a writer on the web, then it’s part of my work as a writer.
Know your enemy.
I know you didn’t write this to get advice but here goes.
First, Twitter has changed, it’s not just you, I think a lot of people feel it. FB too. The conversation I keep hearing is about scaling back and whether it’s worth the time we put into it.
Second. Okay this is a big one. I think you have a huge confirmation bias. You ignore the positive things and focus on the negative. That’s not to say that I haven’t myself completely blocked about a dozen travel bloggers who are so annoying and so successful that going online and seeing a single tweet or status update could threaten to derail my entire day.
However, that’s not all that’s happening.
I think you should make two lists. One is a list of everything you’ve gotten, at least in part, from your blog. Speaking gigs, writing assignments, free travel and so on. For someone who isn’t chasing those things, I know that you have gotten a lot of opportunities other people would kill for. Maybe on the top you write this: Gratitude. Then stick it in a drawer. When you feel like you haven’t measured up look at that list.
Second, I think you should make a list of bloggers who are doing good work and getting paid for it. Or at least have gotten opportunities from their blog. You should publish that on your blog, maybe that’s “people you should read”. Maybe it’s three people. Maybe it’s a dozen. But start there.
Then unfollow everyone not on that list. Or hide them. Or change how you use Twitter so you’re only looking at special lists instead of the main stream. Slowly seek out people you like and start over. I have made a point of using my Twitter and FB to discover people that inspire me. You should be reading social media and feeling like WOAH, people are doing some amazing work, I want to write! If you don’t feel that, then torch it. I literally unfollowed every single person and added them back one by one. You can manage your online space however you want.
Good luck.
Just because someone stood on a stage, poitnted to some ideas and expressed them to an audience doesn’t make it true.
Just because some of the folks who paint a photoshopped image of life as a blogger in social media, it doesn’t have to be believed.
A little over three years ago I walked away from blogging and removed over 1000 posts. I also walked away from the keynotes, conferences and consulting opportunities they brought me.
I have read more than a few poor blog posts, watched awful (if not downright dangerous) presentations and witnessed folks I once admired as consultants walk a path of self-indulgent profit seeking instead of client empowerment.
At the end of the day I determine my values and principles. I live my truth. I find my joy, usually quite far from from publishing that happens in social media.
When I disagree, I often find it better to walk away rather than indulge those walking a similar path with different values. Ain’t easy.
I miss you, Todd, and I’m flattered that you took the time to comment.
Walking away *isn’t* easy, and walking away from something I was part of building — well, I think that’s especially hard. About three times a year, I just lose it over this stuff, and today is that time, I guess. Living your principals quietly is admirable, I guess I’m just living mine with the occasional blast of the megaphone.
Hey Pam,
Yeah, you know where I am on all this and I think Christine is really on the right track here.
Here’s what I did, when around a year ago, I threw a complete hissy fit in response to similar themes to what you’re talking about above.
1) Go here http://xkcd.com/386/ print it off and stick it on your office/cafe/nomad-zone wall so that you can see it whenever you see something that starts to work up the blood pressure. I’ve found it to be extremely helpful.
2) Unfollow/block/assassinate everyone who annoys you through what they’re doing — they’ll probably reciprocate. This made the biggest difference for me — and I didn’t actually need to kill anyone. I did unfollow some people who I like personally, I just didn’t like what they were doing (again probably reciprocated), and again, this has been good, as next time we cross paths we hopefully won’t throw piles of steaming crap at each other.
3) Ask people who you do follow, who you’re in to, to suggest other people to follow who will, as Christine says, inspire you, or, as my kids say, fill your bucket rather than dip it.
Sure occasionally super-crappy stuff like the above mentioned mind-numbingly offensive conference will sear through all your barriers and evoke a rather strongly negative reaction — it certainly did to me — but compared to pre-steps 1,2 and 3, it should be an infrequent event.
This piece, by Phil Lees, I think really summed up some of the issues you’re touching on — you should follow him – he’s a smart guy.
http://www.lastappetite.com/journalist-in-the-streets-blogger-in-the-sheets-food-journalists-food-bloggers-food-marketers/
Lastly, there’s nothing wrong with having the occasional session of “Holy crap did you see this totally unethical piece of garbage by X over there” — that’s what the internet was invented for 😉
Cheers
Stuart
You’re all very kind to comment and I always appreciate that you’re universally thoughtful. Also, I’m not sure that this isn’t a case of TL:DR because I pretty much say “Dude, manage your exposure better.” to myself. I guess I made a classic writer foul and buried the lede.
Also, I’ve intentionally veered away from the personal, but Todd mentions it so I’ll try to elaborate without naming names.
It is a sad thing to find you have lost respect for people in your industry you once trusted and believed in.
To see those you (perhaps falsely) considered your friends demote you to the status of “potential customer” is insulting.
To see promising writers abdicate their skills in favor of vapid sponsor driven content is disappointing.
To see the great array of personal experience and opinion homogenized into a mass of indistinguishable sameness is depressing.
There’s a sizable helping of “What happened to you? You used to be so fun!” on this plate of angst. And because this is my sandbox, I get to sit in the middle of it and have a good cry.
Anyone old enough to remember when Ben and Jerry’s sold to Unilever?
Pam, you may not recall this, but I contacted you for advice on travel blogging last Fall. I’ve been blogging since October. But, based on your good advice, I went into it assuming it would lead to no income. I think carefully about each post and spend a lot of time editing each one, which means I only post about once a month. My readers are mainly friends, family, and coworkers. I’ve received some very nice compliments and had some great conversations. I’m really enjoying it.
I hardly ever read others’ blogs. I like yours, but I almost vomited when I saw Nomadic Matt’s post about how travel makes you awesome. First of all, who is he to say he’s awesome. Second, does that mean the millions of people without the means or physical ability to travel are not awesome?
All this is to suggest that, if finances allow, how about writing only when a topic inspires you and only for a handful of people or nobody at all? Pretend you’re like me, just starting out and doing this because you need a hobby that combines two things you like – writing and travelling?
Oh, I think the previous advice about reading only a few select blogs and writers is good advice. There’s a lot of crap out there that’s not worth the time.
I sure hope I gave you good advice. 🙂
I never blog unless I want to. I write for a living and sometimes I gotta dig to make that work, but I never post just for the hell of it. Ever. That’s how you end up writing stuff like “Travel makes you awesome.” What does that even mean?
I’m glad you don’t blog unless you want to. I’m also glad you’re with me on the “travel would make you awesome” bit (it occurred to me after I posted the comment that perhaps you know and adore that particular travel blogger).
Which travel writers are your top three favorites?
Hmmmm. Welp, I read everything on World Hum and tend to follow those writers around. But my top three? Jeez. I love Pico Iyer, Eric Weiner, Susan Orlean… um, uh… I just read something by Tim Egan which I really enjoyed, and I re-read Kerouac recently, so that was great. Um. There are so many great writers out there. So many.
Pam, I love these posts and frankly, I don’t care if you keep saying the same thing over and over (in different ways) because I have hope that other bloggers will wake up and listen at some point.
I especially love this “I want bloggers who engage in marketing initiatives to fully disclose to their readers, up front, what they’re doing. “I was paid a day rate plus expenses to travel to and write about this destination.”
Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease. Can’t we make this an official blogger’s law or something?
We’ll never get an official code of ethics for bloggers, we’re too disparate. Also, sometimes, the sponsor explicitly asks you not to disclose, which is sleazy and lots of people do it.
But I moved my disclaimers all the way up top and you know what it’s done for my traffic? Nothing, actually. Not a damn thing. Though I did get some notes saying, “Thanks for exposing the terms. I trust you anyway, but I’m grateful you are so transparent about that stuff.”
Journalists are unbiased? That right there discredits the slide.
((Snork.)) I actually thought it was discredited at “Paid” — clearly, someone’s never heard of The Huffington Post.
I read this post twice and then all the comments. Very interesting stuff. I have read several of these posts from you and I really don’t care how many you write. This IS your forum, after all. 🙂
Plus I agree with your premise. Marketing has made me a good living and still does, but JHC, what I want to say to some is : people are not stupid, so tell them up front because the way you are writing is a dead give away.
On this one, here’s what stands out the most for me:
“There’s a sizable helping of “What happened to you? You used to be so fun!” on this plate of angst. And because this is my sandbox, I get to sit in the middle of it and have a good cry.”
Disappointment is hard, but ultimately we cannot be disappointed in others: they have chosen their path, we choose ours.
Don’t worry, soon the next big thing will come along in marketing. It might even be truth.
This post really resonated with me, and is one of the reasons why I’m an avid follower of your work. I once explained my (similar) principles on travel blogging to someone. His reply? “Those are romantic ideals.”
What I really dislike most is how travel writing/blogging is being promoted as a “lifestyle”, because it’s demeaning to all the work we do (research, footwork, etc.) Unfortunately, most marketers seem to just want people to hear about a place and add it to their itinerary, period.
They are romantic ideals and so what? Why is that a problem? Romantic ideals are how we get both inventions and art.
It sounds to me that you’re unhappy with the income they’re making and you’re not making because in your view they’re breaking the “rules” and you’re not. As was said above, they chose their path. You chose yours. Every industry changes and you have to change with it. The way I see it, you’ll either have to bend your ethical rules and do some of what makes you more money or you’re going to have to find other sources of income. But beating yourself over the head is useless even if it’s therapeutic. It only harms you. No one else is going to stop doing what they’re doing. It’s working fine for them. Ask yourself this, would you care what they were doing if you were making more money doing what you’re doing? And, if the answer is yes as I think it will be, take it to one of the travel blogger associations. Push for an ethos, a code of conduct, or what have you. Be that respected blogger that got pissed off enough seeing the romantic and proper way of travel writing fucked up that you took it to the “establishment” (loosely used term) or member organization and asked for an informal code of conduct, or a rules of engagement, or whatever you want to call it that addresses exactly what you want it to address. It may seem too much to overcome but don’t all things start small?
I appreciate that you’ve asked if I’d care if I was making (more) money. The answer is yes, yes, and very much yes. Taking it to The Man is great advice, and I don’t have transcripts from the phone calls I’ve done with some of the people who set the agenda at those organizations. I’ve been called a bully for my outspoken cry for disclosure and quality. I’ve had speaker proposals rejected, and I’ve been told to “stop blogging about blogging” by people who teach blogging… Your assumption of my inaction is inaccurate — and mostly those folks build their business on the models I critique, they REALLY don’t want to talk about the ethical implications of pay for play editorial, or allowing a sponsor to set the tone of your content, or…
I also do have other channels for income, and some of those are great travel writing gigs. Look over there on the side bar and you’ll see places I’ve published that haven’t asked me to compromise my editorial values for pay. (Mind you, one must HAVE editorial values to compromise them.)
So what I’m left with is the occasional outburst of frustration. Isn’t one of the great things about being an independent voice that you get to voice your thoughts, independently? Sometimes, a person just wants to stand on a soap box in their own virtual town square and shout at the sky for a while to clear their head so they can Get Back to Work. Maybe you don’t feel that way, ever, and here’s to your sanity and mental stability if that’s the case.
I hadn’t assumed you didn’t take any action but my words weren’t clear. Good for you for doing that. There has to be some way to address your concerns? I know the blogosphere is huge and travel blogs are more than the number of stars up in the sky but there has to be some way. So let’s put some numbers behind this and take your point further. What percentage do you believe are not following ethical practices? Or what categories of changes would you want to put in place (ie be more detailed than in the post) and what percentage would you say are doing that from the blogs you read and just your being around and seeing things.
You’re making some good points. The majority of these travel bloggers who are taking freebies don’t realize that when they blog about their “amazing” and “life changing” trips to these places, they are legally required to disclose that they were compensated. It’s not about doing “the right” thing (which seems to matter less to people) but in cases like this, it’s a legal issue enforced by the FTC.
The whole travel blogging world has become obnoxious. They all use the same small vocabulary littered with cliches (“explore the world” “just do it” “find yourself through travel”). I’m all for traveling to enrich one’s life, but everything in moderation. The notion that you should stop being a productive member of society and instead wander around the world, living off the generosity of others (“talk to locals! They may invite you to eat/stay with them!”) is ridiculous. You haven’t failed by adopting this mentality – keep your day job and do this as a hobby. It’s a much more balanced life than overindulging in travel.
My day job is writing, so this isn’t *exactly* a hobby — it’s complicated.
A few things: The FTC isn’t a global entity, so I think a lot of folks who are living and working outside the US simply choose to ignore it. Some of them aren’t American, they don’t care what the FTC says. And I believe that disclosure is a recommended practice rather than one required by law, as well — though I could be wrong on this. Furthermore, the FTC has stated they’ll go after the companies engaging in payola rather than the publishers, so it’s pretty low risk for a blogger. I’m *NOT* defending the practices, but I am saying there’s little motivation beyond, “Dude, it is SO the right thing” to engage in transparency.
I’d love to over-indulge in travel, and how, but not at the expense of my reputation as a writer.