Where did I get my inspiration?

I didn’t get any inspiration… I’m the inventor of travel blogs. In fact, I’m the inventor of blogging!

Now I have to tell you something that’ll blow your mind, so maybe you better sit down first.
Sitting down?
ready?
Okay, here we go: The first sentence of this post is a big lie, I didn’t really invent blogging…
You can’t believe it, do you? I KNOW! It sounds strange but it’s the truth…

I have been reading several blogs in the past, mostly because Google came up with them when I was searching for something. I wasn’t really following any, I just read the information I was looking for, and if it was very interesting, I also read some other articles on the blog.

At that time I thought blogging was something for people with too much time.
Why would anyone want to write technical articles? Most of the information can be found in books or on professional websites.
And why would someone want to write personal stuff? An online diary… wasn’t the purpose of a diary that it’s personal? Something you hide in a box with a lock under your bed?

Don’t worry, in the meantime I’ve changed my opinion! Bloggers are people who have something to say which might interest other people. And even if it helps only one person in the whole wide world, that’s one more than if he kept his idea for himself.

But back to the topic. You need to know that I really like travel stories. I regularly buy books from Peter Moore http://www.petermoore.net/ >, Michael Palin http://www.palinstravels.co.uk/ >, Brian Thacker http://www.brianthacker.tv/blog/home/> and many others, and it’s always been a dream of me to become a travel writer myself.
But next to the “real” travel writers, there are thousands of “amateur” writers who post their stories for free on the internet. Some of them do this on websites like BootsnAll http://www.bootsnall.com>, and others have their own website or blog.

That’s how one day I stumbled upon the websites of Marc Moxon http://www.moxon.net/> and Nomadic Matt .
The website of Marc consists of stories he has written about his travels, and Matt mostly writes blog posts about his is travels together with travel tips. But the thing they have in common is that they love travelling and they love writing. It’s not their purpose to earn big money with it (and honestly, I don’t think they are), but I’m quite sure they’ve been helpful to one or two persons.
Well this is where I got my mustard. This is what I wanted to do too!

So I started reading about blogging and bloggers. This is how I got to know the Art of Nonconformity http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/>. After I’d read the manifesto, I was sold. I’ve read the whole site…
Another inspiring blog is In the Hot Spot http://inthehotspot.wordpress.com/>. Anabel (the blogger) is someone who tries to live of blogging. She tells about her (very interesting) life, her travels, her migration from UK to New Zealand to Panama to Australia and so on.

The last blog I want to show you is Men with Pens http://menwithpens.ca/>. It’s a great blog about blogging, very interesting and the blogger is damn funny!

Now to finish, I’ll let you in to a little secret. I know I’ve let you down in the beginning of this post, but I’ll try to make it up to you.
I may not be the inventor of blogging, I even may not be the inventor of travel blogging, but the idea of writing a blog about the creation of a website is totally MINE! Maybe someone else has done it before me, I don’t know, but I promise that I came up with it all by myself!

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