I've Bean Travelling

I was happy to learn today that I’ve Bean Travelling was nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award!

To start off, thank you to The Travel Architect for the nomination. I’ve referenced her blog in the past and it remains one of my top reads on WordPress. Check it out to read more about her travel adventures, the most recent of which was her first visit to Asia on a trip to Laos and Cambodia. 👍

The origins of I’ve Bean Travelling

As I’ve said before, this blog was started on a whim and as a bit of an inside joke. I think the very initial inspiration actually came from my sister when I was telling her about my new camera, and she jokingly suggested that I become a vlogger on Youtube. My lack of on-camera charisma means video blogging is ruled out, but the thought occurred to me that writing a blog would be right up my alley. Back in my angsty teenage days, I used to maintain a page on Livejournal (remember that website??) and would write about the most mundane happenings of my life. Now that I am a fully grown adult with more worldly exposure, I have much more interesting material to share! As for the blog’s title and my pseudonym, those come from my nicknames which have a backstory that I won’t bother getting into.

I wrote my first few blog entries with the primary intention to just share them with friends and family, who have been interested in following along on our travels. My audience has expanded a lot more than I expected and it has been a lot of fun fine tuning and broadening the scope of the blog over the past few months, while establishing a place for me to record my memories and reflect on my experiences.

Tips for new bloggers

Engage with other bloggers.

The most common piece of advice that I’ve come across while building this blog is to actively engage with readers and fellow bloggers. Comment, like, share – make those connections! I have been making a point to do this more over the last couple months and it has really enhanced the whole process. Yes, it has definitely increased my site traffic and follow count, but I think the greatest benefit of engaging with other bloggers is that you get to form more meaningful connections amongst a community of people with whom you can share and learn.

Integrate with social media.

This blog has now fully embraced social media, having been connected to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and most recently Twitter. The main benefit of doing this is that it allows you to promote your blog across platforms and hopefully increase your readership, especially since many people do not use WordPress reader. It’s also a great avenue to discover other blogs of interest, as there are a lot of them out there beyond the WordPress community.

My nominations for the Blogger Recognition Award

Here are my picks for a few blogs that I have enjoyed reading lately, in no particular order. They are all really well done and some of them may have already been nominated for this award, so take this as another thumbs up and an endorsement from me to go check them out!

• An Orcadian Abroad
• View From This Spot
• Wandering Together
• Jason Likes to Travel
• Travel for One
• Mrs. Wayfarer Living Free and Making a Difference
• Living the Q Life
• There Dan Was
• ESL Ventures
• Quarter Life Crisis Travels
• The Roaming Noodle

Happy blogging!