Being an app that helps you find a travel buddy, GAFFL focused its questions on intentions and methods of traveling alone but also asked about the social life such type of traveling can produce and the associated travel costs.

Ivan admitted that “most people approach traveling as a luxury, something one needs to sacrifice valuable time and money for, which most of us never have enough of, so we get stuck in the endless circle of workplace/commuting/home.”

Then again, those who do have a surplus of resources, can go anywhere, but risk staying lonely in their pursuit.

“For instance, the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is financing the first human mission around the Moon, and yet he wants to share it with other people. What is the most spectacular view of Earth, if it takes only your breath away?”, asked Ivan in the interview.

Traveling to another part of the planet, and staying there longer, is not the same feat as in the times of Magellan or ColumbusIvan Kralj

The world shrinks as we age

Pipeaway blogger shared his theory of a shrinking world with GAFFL readers: “As babies, we are limited to our mothers’ breasts and attention. As children, we start exploring our neighborhood. As teenagers, we step into the unknown parts of the city. After a certain amount of traveling in the region, even exploring other parts of our continent doesn’t seem to be so far away. In my today’s perspective, traveling to another part of the planet, and staying there longer, is not the same feat as in the times of Magellan or Columbus.”

Indeed, the world is possibly becoming “smaller” with the progress of our civilization and ourselves. Technology and the way of life allowed us to cover more space and have more time to do it.

“Even the cost of such a flight ticket, if we stay longer at the final destination, becomes equal to the cost of a tram ticket that a non-traveler buys every day while commuting to work in their home city”, Ivan compared.

Postponing dreams will not make them a reality

As someone who “swapped a piece of the Mediterranean with the vastness of the world” in 2017, Ivan advocated for living in the “now”.

“There have been many articles on the fact that people at the end of their life always regret the things they didn’t do. We might be imagining our dedicated work will result in a happy retirement, when we will finally afford the life we want to live. But that’s a big loan from the future. We might end up being not just retired, but also tired, and our goals might change. (…) We are planning the life of a person we are yet to become, instead of following the plan of the person we are at this very moment”, he said.

If we put the world pandemic, wars, and similar crises on the side, as well as the political control of the world through the visa regimes, there are not many things stopping you from following your path and passions today. “Prolonging our dreams indefinitely does not equal making them more realistic”, Ivan concluded.

Priceless experiences

In this interview, Ivan shared how his love for minimalism and packing light evolved through the years of traveling. From someone who has put a hairdryer in his first long-term traveling suitcase (hardly a necessary item), he described maturing into a person who can spend a month in Greece with hand luggage only.

“Of course, I try to travel to warm destinations, which is my personal preference, but it also means less clothing. It’s unbelievable how much space we can save in our bags if we kick out some sleeves!”, Ivan jokingly said.

Besides the climate, the variety of content affects Ivan’s traveling choices: “from natural beauty to cultural richness, societies that can blend urban and traditional, and just anything extraordinary, be it a well-known attraction, or a well-kept secret.”

When asked about his craziest travel experiences, Ivan could only pick questions out of his eclectic cocktail of adventures.

“Feeding elephants in a Cambodian jungle by mouth, or petting wild hyenas in Ethiopia? Standing on some scary Norwegian cliffs, or exploring an abandoned amusement park in Vietnam? Falling off a motorbike on some terrible road in Laos, or having breathing equipment problems while scuba diving in Greece? Following penitents who pierce their cheeks in Malaysia, or those who prove their faith in the Philippines by being nailed on the cross? Spending fantastic days in Turkish baths in Hungary, or entire nights in South Korean spas? Having a great night out in the infamous Berlin club Berghain, or chilling with hundreds of deer while watching cherry blossoms in Japanese temples?”

There is no unison answer to this question, just glimpses one can find on Pipeaway.com.

For the rest of Ivan’s views on traveling, read the full interview on GAFFL, the online tool that enables travelers and adventurers to plan trips together.

What is your perspective on solo travel? Leave your comments below!

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The post Solo Travel: What Is a Spectacular View, if It Takes Only Your Breath Away? appeared first on Pipeaway.

I recall it was different four years ago. I was in Kyoto, Sakura season had just started, and together with the pink cherry blossoms waking up all over Japan, this blog came to life too.

Of course, it could have all been just a matter of perspective. As when I paid a visit to Kegon Falls, I did find out that Japanese spring can also come in a winter coat.

In the world of raging climate change, the product of our own hands dipped in all sorts of pollution, which was only shortly replaced by a seemingly more urgent crisis of COVID-19 pandemic, blog birthdays do not seem important enough to celebrate.

Yet, on March 28, 2017, in a small Airbnb flat in Japan’s cultural capital, Pipeaway.com started searching for its spot in a tsunami of travel blogs hitting the internet shores.

Four years later in that oversaturated market, I try to look back on the year that passed by, hoping to find some valuable lessons in achievements and mistakes I made.

Is this a road to success? What have I learned in my fourth year of blogging?

If you want to read my earlier reflections on lessons I took away from this adventure, check what I’ve learned in my first blogging year, second blogging year, and third blogging year.

Surviving to 4, without blogging lessons

“Travel blogging experts estimate that it takes at least 4 years to build up a website enough to start making any substantial amount of money. And that’s just for the ones that make it that long. Most blogs don’t even come close.”

The travel writing guru Roy Stevenson stated this in his report “Are Travel Blogs and Websites Becoming Irrelevant?”.

Travel blogging experts estimate that it takes at least 4 years to build up a website enough to start making any substantial amount of moneyRoy Stevenson

The four-year threshold has actually been updated from an earlier estimation which was – three.

Income might not be the only nor the most important way of measuring success. But I was already satisfied with an insight that I persisted for four years. That Pipeaway came into a circle of “the ones that made it that long”.

However, Roy’s ominous question remained: is travel blogging becoming irrelevant?

Without spoiling his analysis (please, read for yourself), he is clearly not painting a pretty picture. Stevenson suggests looking for other sources of income that seem sturdier, such as paying print magazines.

If you’ve just started your travel blogging journey, I’d avoid killing your optimism. You should be able to chase your creative endeavors!

On the other hand, if you launched your blog hooked by luxurious lifestyles projected by Instagram personalities, and you hoped to earn big bucks overnight, maybe you should indeed consider Roy’s advice.

Traveling and travel blogging changed a lot. In the pandemic year, I’ve managed to step on the territories of only (?) six countries. The same happened with other travelers; we all slowed down. Fewer travelers equal less demand for travel blog consumption.

But then again, with many writers giving up on the idea of blogging, once overflooded space becomes a bit less crowded. And maybe, just maybe, this is the perfect time to start a travel blog. Remember, stocks are bought when their price is down!

5 blogging lessons from Pipeaway’s fourth year

1. We are all stronger than we think!

Over the past year, I managed to interview some extraordinary people. There is something common to all of these inspiring individuals: obstacles did not make them divert. They persisted against all odds and became forces to reckon with.

Slaven Škrobot is a Croatian quadriplegic who didn’t allow physical immobility to stop him from seeing the world. He might be forced to invest more energy, finances, and goodwill of others to fulfill his dreams, but aren’t we all pushing the same way when following our path?

Bert terHart, a Canadian in his 60s, fell off a 17-meter high mast, fractured his ribs, and had other internal injuries, and a month later he still left for an epic adventure: solo sailing around the world! He even got injured during the dangerous boat trip itself but fulfilled his plan no matter what.

Jessica Rambo is an American Marine that retired as an artist, traveling the States in her converted school bus/art studio. Many of us find traveling as curative for mental health issues. With a history of physical, sexual, and emotional traumas, this veteran found therapy in nomadic life.

Read the interviews with these unstoppable travelers, and take a look at your own doubts with a new perspective! We all felt handicapped when exiting the comfort zone and entering a zone we know nothing about. Whether you take these examples as a motivational talk for your blogging struggles or for your larger life dilemmas, remind yourself that giving up on challenges takes away all the fruit of labor which arrives once you overcome the obstacles.

2. Do not delay!

In January 2021, after thirteen years of living with cancer, my father passed away. I know we cannot control everything that happens with our bodies or our lives. But for a great part of the outcome, we do hold some responsibility.

Often we become our own saboteurs, spreading unstoppably and swallowing our healthy parts like cancer. I’m like that sometimes (even my horoscope sign is Cancer!). We surrender to the malignant influence coming from within.

Every time a person I knew dies, I get reminded of the fragility of life. We cannot live under a glass bell. We don’t know what the future holds, and we certainly cannot find answers in a horoscope. Dwelling on the past is dysfunctional too. ‘Now’ is what we certainly have.

As Marcus Kane in “The 100” would say: “You turn the page and you don’t look back. You do better today than you did yesterday. Before you know it, you’ll deserve to survive.”

Life on Earth is a product of billions of years of evolution. But it’s not a slow process anymore. Radical changes occur daily, mostly as a product of humankind’s actions. Trusting in ‘tomorrow’ could hit you like a boomerang.

Seeing Egypt, just a flight away, remained my 78-year-old father’s never-realized dream.

Take Myanmar! Just a few years ago, it was yet another backpacker magnet in Southeast Asia. Today, wrapped behind the COVID-19 fog, the horrible regime unbuckled in killing its own people.

Ethiopia, the African country I had the privilege to visit a couple of years ago, is back to instability too.

We are a civilization of conflicts. With other people, with nature, with the future. Whenever you get an opportunity to seize the day and feed your exploring spirit, do it! Do it before the dystopian world fully comes to life!

This doesn’t mean traveling against the epidemiological measures in effect! Behave responsibly, and do not add to dystopia yourself!

3. Mean criticism is water off a duck’s back!

I had similar advice in the last year’s reflection: “Don’t let superficial judging bother you”. Lame people could try to belittle you just because you stayed at some luxury hotel as part of your job (or even your private holiday).

There is something extremely provoking in nice furniture and scenic swimming pools when simple-minded people look at them. They might try to downgrade you, thinking that your reporting on such places is a special form of bragging, something that deserves their poorly informed lecture on your “vanity”.

Last year, I experienced such criticism brought up (or down?) to a new level. A friend’s friend, someone I was willing to interact with, in a moment of pique, brought up a rather nasty comment. It was suggestive and expressed in gloves, but still clearly connected my photograph in a Santorini pool on my private Instagram account with the oldest profession in the world.

 

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A post shared by Ivan Kralj (@ovolicki)

I do not get easily offended, but the way that was delivered felt as if prostitution was the only convincing lifestyle his little mind could imagine behind my travels. It was an insult to me, but if we want to be serious, also to prostitution, as I do believe sex workers engage in difficult work too.

Of course, I could have just tolerated this derogation, but figured out – why should I? I stopped answering messages and refrained from any contact. It was not just seeing it like water off a duck’s back, but I also swam far, far away.

And that was me, someone who has heard a variety of silly comments from evil tongues in my career. This reminded me how hard it must be if you are a female, especially if they consider you an attractive woman. Fight off sexism by not giving it space to flourish!

4. Replant!

The year of the pandemic motivated many of us to experiment with new hobbies. Cooking and home gardening are probably the most popular ones.

I found some comfort in getting my hands dirty myself. I’d make myself a smoothie, and then, instead of throwing away the avocado pit, I would decide to plant it. In the end, I had a home forest of some 30 young avocado trees!

I’m just imagining if there would be kittens in place of avocados, you would probably consider me a crazy version of a cat lady. Well, maybe you already see the craziness in becoming an avocado man!

But this was a fun way to observe how life can be easily nourished out of “waste”. To make my recycling efforts complete, I was planting the seeds in discarded plastic yogurt containers. The process was minimizing my trash, and maximizing the potential of new growth.

The idea of replanting can easily be transferred to travel blogging. In the pandemic year, with no travels and limited resources, the concept of recycling offers a solution to the problem. Indeed, maybe you cannot fly away somewhere exotic, but you can surely dig into some older trips of yours, as I did with some soil and seeds, and plant a completely new story.

Look, this very article is doing exactly that! I am displaying tips from my fourth year of blogging while recalling articles I published earlier.

I employ the same technique every now and then. The 2020 Year in Review or International Travel Predictions 2021 are examples of such posts in which I try to boost older writing once again, possibly with a new perspective.

Interlinking your articles is an important process in helping Google understand your content. It also helps your readers engage in a natural flow of exploring your blog.

5. Stay patient!

Travel blogs’ traffic has plummeted down severely in the pandemic. If I would compare Pipeaway’s page views in March 2019 and March 2020, the difference is radical – it fell to 18 percent! That’s a scary drop if you decided to carry all your eggs in a travel blog basket.

As soon as the pandemic decimated traffic, I decided to turn off ads on my website. I know, cutting the income stream when the income is in jeopardy sounds counter-intuitive. But I felt that earning cents through advertising didn’t make sense. Ads lower the quality of user experience and negatively affect the website speed, which in turn affects SEO traffic, and causes getting even less audience to the site. Earning ad money became digging one’s own grave.

The travel blogging niche is a puddle crowded with crocodiles. When the competition leaves to find a better swamp, more opportunities open for your content!

I decided I would turn the ads back on when traffic recovers substantially. At the same time, I focused on continuing to deliver content. In March 2021, Pipeaway’s traffic is 2,4 times higher than in March 2020, but there’s still a long way to getting out of the mud.

In the travel blogging world, the pandemic was a perfect moment for quitting. But as we said earlier, overnight success is rare. This race is a marathon. It takes time for your content to be recognized by Google and to start ranking. If you used the era of dispiritedness in the market to continue nurturing and improving the relationship with your readers, you might be on the path to success.

Remember, the travel blogging niche is a puddle full of crocodiles. Hereby, I refer to one Croatian proverb, not insinuating that travel bloggers are bad people. But they share a very crowded space. When your competition leaves to find a better swamp, it opens more opportunities to establish your content and your voice. With water rising back again, the lake will be yours!

My newest blogging lessons – Summary

These are special times, and travel blogging became less sexy than before. One would think that people who cannot travel would focus on consuming travel content the other way. But that’s just not the case. With fewer people traveling, travel blogs became obsolete. Which doesn’t mean that the pandemic put the final nail in their coffin.

While the European Union did not show efficiency in vaccinating its citizens, being in this part of the world during the pandemic did provide some privileges. Besides Croatia, where I reside, I was able to visit Greece, Hungary, and Germany. I even managed to get to the non-EU parts of Europe such as Serbia and Switzerland. But 83 days abroad in a year is definitely a new reality for a nomadic spirit.

Same like me, other travelers kept closer to their homes, to the health systems they are familiar with. World Tourism Organization reported that international traffic fell by 74 percent.

In more than just one way, the year of the pandemic was the year of survival. Everyone tries to stay healthy, and hopefully not die of hunger in this process.

These are very challenging times to focus one’s work energy on planting seeds of the trees that will bear fruits in the future.

But we are a resilient species. I truly believe that those who persist with growing optimism, presence, confidence, creativity and patience, can count on success in travel blogging even in the years to come.

Pipe away and blog on!

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This Travel Style series, brought to you by Alexa Meisler, the editor of 52 Perfect Days, presents a range of aspiring and established travel writers, bloggers and photographers from all around the world.

All authors’ presentations include their short biographies, travel and travel blogging journeys, with memories from the past and wishes for the future, as well as tips and tricks for other writers and travelers.

As in the “Truman’s Show”, young Ivan’s conviction was that the world had a physical end to it. As unusual as it can sound, he believed the world’s shape came in the form of the Croatian territory.

In Ivan Kralj’s profile, learn how he left the stressful work of a cultural producer! Pipeaway’s editor embraced  long-term traveling as a therapy, but also a new type of lifestyle and work style.

You can also read about Ivan’s earliest travel memories! He reveals he didn’t believe in the concept of other world countries beyond the borders of his homeland. As in the “Truman’s Show”, young Ivan’s conviction was that the world had a physical end to it. As unusual as it can sound, he believed the world’s shape came in the form of the Croatian territory. This childhood anecdote is the closest Ivan got in relation to the theories of Flat Earthers!

If you want to break into travel writing, find the whole Q&A with Pipeaway’s editor on this link.

If you want to know more, read what I’ve learned in my third year of blogging on Pipeaway!

The post Break into Travel Writing: Why I can Relate to the Flat Earthers appeared first on Pipeaway.

The same question bothered me the other day, when Alexa Meisler from Break Into Travel Writing blog and podcast interviewed me. I felt stuck when I needed to provide tips for aspiring travel writers and bloggers. The world as we knew it seemed to be collapsing! Has the teaching about how to conquer it become obsolete?

On Facebook, I still bump into “how you can travel the world for free too” advertisements. I truly wonder what all of that is about. In times of worldwide quarantine, when the majority of airlines have been grounded, someone still tries to sell the success story about getting rid of a 9-to-5 job and realizing one’s dreams through traveling the world! Is this a joke? Or is it just another proof that the world of travel blogging is a business of faking reality?

If you want to read what I’ve learned in my first blogging year, click here, and if you want to know what I’ve learned a year later, click here!

Traveling in crisis

At the beginning of 2020, before anyone really knew about the coronavirus breakout, I asked a slightly prophetic question: Does exploring the world in crisis make any sense?  I thought my answer was positive! But little did I know that the fire inferno in Australia, the escalating safety situation in the Middle East or the global plastic pollution problem could be topped by an even larger piece of shit!

True, airlines and hotels might be giving tempting offers at the moment. All of us could gamble on the date everything would get back to normal. But it is NOT normal! We already look at strangers as potential enemies. Many countries are locking up completely, euthanizing tourism and willingly endangering their own economy.

Travel blogs might be about traveling, but I would hope they’re also here to inspire us to do amazing things in general, change our lives, and hug each other more!

No, it’s not the perfect time to leave your 9–to-5 job (if you still have it?), and be delusional! The year 2020 definitely doesn’t seem to be the year of traveling! One cannot run away from the worldwide health crisis! Actually, each and every running away has direct effects on the enlargement of the crisis! Every irresponsible travel plan execution delays the era when traveling will again become normality.

In the About section of this website, I wrote about my inspiration for traveling. Three years ago, the rapid and radical change of the world bothered me, and I wanted to see it “before it’s gone”. The number of 48 countries on six continents, 11 of them in the past twelve months (Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Malta), reminded me that I did experience true luxury and privilege.

I still believe in the essence of what I wrote in 2017! Travel blogs might be about traveling, but I would hope they’re also here to inspire us to do amazing things in general, change our lives, and hug each other more!

5 blogging advice in the no-travel year

1. Distinguish important from less important!

In February 2019, I fell off the motorbike in Laos. It happened on my return trip from Kuang Si Waterfalls to Luang Prabang. Even when I wrote about Kuang Si, these were the only falls I wrote about. I didn’t exploit my motorbike fall. I did publish the warning about the potholes and bumps on the road, but I did not speak about my personal accident.

Also, I never told my parents about the accident. I thought that worrying about your son choosing to live a nomadic life miles away from ‘home’ has enough reasoning even without the fine details. When I came back to Croatia four months later, my still visible wounds on my arms and legs were presented as “just a scratch”. Only a year later, I do not feel like hiding my scars is necessary. Only the trained eye can notice them now.

However, the lesson of the Laos accident was truly about the things that matter in life. Laying down on that hard asphalt in the middle of nowhere, with ripped trousers and rushing blood, makes you hit the reality. That moment of being alone in not so bright circumstances. Almost immediately and then even more, when I continued the drive towards the town, after some girls generously stopped by and provided first aid, my mind had the movie of its own. People I remembered, flashes on what is important, on who and what is irreplaceable…

One doesn’t need to experience the accident to reflect on these questions. If you’re heading for an adventure, go without guilt! Say what you need to say to others! Apologize to those whose contacts you even forgot! Say ‘thank you’ to people who need to hear it! Hug more!

2. Don’t let superficial judging bother you!

Travel blogging will probably bring you to places many people dream about visiting. If you jump into this business head first, you will definitely get to very exotic destinations. If you document it (and you should!), these images, videos and thoughts might be a trigger for judgment by some people around you.

I could have shot thousands of mountains, deserts, rainforests or archeological sites, but none of them would outshine the effect of the images from luxurious swimming pools. To some people, this type of photographs screams ‘vanity’. Especially in the selfie culture of today (and I’ve witnessed some extreme examples of selfie tourism last year!), your shot in some boutique resort at a tropical location can hit all the wrong spots with certain observers. You could be a down-to-earth person and understand that #poolporn pics are nothing but a part of the job, yet some will always read your work from their own perspective.

In some discussions on completely different topics, I’ve been put down through the context of pool pics. “Shouldn’t you be at some pool now?”, the naughty commenter would aim, trying to disarm my freedom of speech. They might even pejoratively shoot at you like an “influencer”, apostrophes included, even if you might not consider yourself as such.

Don’t let other people’s insecurities or misjudgements drown you in these pools! Travel blogging is journalism. Stay strong in respecting its ethical postulates, and let no superficial armchair know-it-all put you down!

People who confuse your social media images with your true self are those who hardly invested enough time to get to know you. If they’re bothered by someone who they don’t even know, it truly speaks more about their psychological profile than about yours!

3. Reflect on love and traveling!

Unless you’re already a romantic couple that travels, finding love on the road has its limits. Rushing through places, visa limitations, the siren call of adventure… For singles, these are all enemies of experiencing relationships that would be deeper than a one-night-stand or a love affair with a fast approaching expiry date.

Surely, finding true love while traveling could happen to some, and if it did, it would certainly raise questions of whether it would transform into couple-traveling or couple-anchoring. I guess relationships of this type work out when two people align in expectations and openness towards the less formal life choices.

After a long time, I fell in love in autumn 2019, in Croatia. And my world stumbled. Who am I from now on? How can I travel for months if my partner’s work is based locally? Can one really be a long-term traveling blogger and a long-term lover at the same time? Suddenly, I felt incredibly secure, but also extremely vulnerable.

My three-week solo trip to the Canary Islands showed that we functioned well on a long distance. But I knew long calls and chats were not the solution. I was ready to calm down my traveling spirit for a while (even if we went for shorter trips together).

However, after three months, our dreamy ship started cracking. We broke up in February. Our relationship sunk after 5 months, and the reasons were not connected with traveling dilemmas.

Every break up of a couple necessarily breaks something in you as a person too. The outcome is that I’m healing myself in Croatia, closer to members of my family that would need help during the lockdown, which I wouldn’t be able to provide if stuck in Vietnam. So I comfort myself with the idea that one can always find a positive argument for a certain choice.

This was an intense episode of mine. But it was also a valuable lesson. I think that long-term travelers and non-travelers can indeed find love together, as long as both are willing to talk, (ex)change, adapt, invest. Or shortly: if they are the right fit.

4. Blog during the lockdown!

Private love insights from the previous point take us to the general situation we all experience at the moment. Travel is not happening. We are all stuck here or there, hopefully in places where we feel OK.

Many travel bloggers report on the decline in their traffic (proportional to airline traffic plummeting). At the same time, they cannot travel to look for more new content either. Is that a wake-up call to look for other sources of income/obligations?

The quarantine is the perfect time to deliver your content from the past trips on the baggage belt. Sure, readers might not collect it immediately, but it will roll and roll! Once people return to traveling, your content will be waiting to be picked up!

I think the quarantine is a perfect time to dig into your past experiences, old photographs, and unpublished stories. Maybe now you can post content you had ‘on hold’ while preoccupied with traveling.

All of us have this content baggage from past trips! Now is the moment to deliver it on the baggage belt of your readers! Sure, they might not collect it immediately, but it will roll and roll and roll… Once people return to traveling, your content will be waiting to be picked up!

Go through your old albums and notes, find what was waiting in those times when the material overwhelmed you, and you never found the time to organize it all under a deserving spotlight!

If you can’t find unpublished material, go through the material you’ve already published! Repurpose it! Take a look from another angle! Find a common thread and connect ideas from different articles in a new post!

5. Be useful beyond your blog!

In his bestseller book “The 4-Hour Workweek”, Timothy Ferris explains how the Pareto principle changed his life. This law of the factor sparsity, introduced by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, says that 80 % of effects come from 20 % of causes.

Even before the quarantine, which provided more time to finally get my hands on this book that teaches you how to live more and work less, I was questioning my own work investment. As a workaholic cultural producer in Croatia (I wrote some of the reasoning behind my decisions in the articles such as Affording a getaway: Traveling saved me from going crazy and We are not cats: Why following your path matters – today), I was desperate to find a more meaningful use of my time!

And then in Ethiopia, I figured out that I could use much less energy of my own and produce much greater results than my Croatian experience was telling me. With zero budget, I’ve launched Circus of Postcards, the fundraising project for Arba Minch Circus, the social circus project that works with street children teaching them acrobatics and right values.

While I still try to find donors to the project (you are more than welcome to join our family of heroes), the fact that I’ve learned is that motivating people to adopt their own 80/20 rule is not always easy. With such a small input, we can provide a great outcome!

Even if at this moment we barely found half of the resources needed to build a proper training hall for this inspiring African project, I’ve learned I shouldn’t despair. Because even this half, that I could see as a “failure”, is a 100% success in the eyes of those who need this support.

Be useful beyond your blog! This will fill your heart even in the times when you double-question your doings.

Things I’ve learned in my third year of blogging – Summary

Among all bloggers, the year 2020 will definitely hit hard those in the travel niche. However, there is no reason to despair! One can still produce good quality content during the lockdown. Focus attention towards the things that matter, ignore the lame troll saboteurs, and keep your head up! Open up to your readers, ask them what they need, answer to those needs! Even if you have no partner to support you in these strange times, you can still provide love to – your blog!

In these times, when people are locked down in their houses, their need for the freedom of movement is growing stronger and stronger, day by day. If there was ever a better moment to write a travel blog – it’s now! In time, readers will be swallowing your content, join the dream and make travel a reality again.

Let me know how your blog is doing in the comments! Are there any lessons you’d like to share?

Pipe away and blog on!

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The post Candle Number Three: 5 Things I’ve Learned in My Third Year of Blogging appeared first on Pipeaway.

In a lack of fear of tomorrow, reducing the curiosity for the world was never an option

Interviewed by an experienced TV journalist Nensi Profaca, Ivan revealed that there WAS life beyond the national journalist career and organizing successful local events such as Festival Novog Cirkusa (the New Circus Festival). The report emphasized gathering courage for life-changing decisions, such as abandoning the security of a permanent job and fixed place of residence. But also – decades of growing stress.

“Pipeaway.com is the website where Ivan records his travel adventures. It started as a place for noting one’s memories, but today he writes for everyone interested in traveling. Travelholics from all sides of the globe read about his, at first uncertain, adventure into the unknown”, the reporter said.

Good experiences and even better causes

Experiences, such as climbing daunting Norwegian cliffs, surfing in Bali, feeding hyenas in Ethiopia, hanging out with elephants in Cambodia, diving in the Philippines, or hiking the toxic volcano in Indonesia, ennobled Ivan’s life, the reporter explained, and “today, he is a true master of traveling”.

In a lack of fear of tomorrow, reducing the curiosity for the world was never an option for Pipeaway’s editor. The coverage further discussed the economy of traveling and its hardships, but also enriching experiences.

One such was building connections with Arba Minch Circus, a social circus project aiming to save African kids from the dangers of the street and return them to schools. Ivan Kralj launched the Circus of Postcards, a project to raise funds for this circus group. “When you see that you can use the same kind of effort that you invested for something else before, and truly change someone’s world there, I see no argument to work any other way”, Ivan concluded.

Croatian National Television (HRT1) published this report in the frame of the daily lifestyle show “Kod nas doma”, on December 17th, 2019. The report is in Croatian language and you can access it at the top of this post or on Pipeaway’s YouTube channel.

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Having Earth is a privilege

“The Earth is what we have in common.” The message written in the directory booklet of Treeline Urban Resort, the hotel I’m staying in at the moment, made me think twice. This Cambodian enterprise is at the forefront of the travel industry players who extend their services to protect the environment. Comparable to Jaya House RiverPark, also in Siem Reap, just two kilometers North, Treeline is a 5-star hotel with a noble mission. There can be no profit in the world that destroys its resources, so protecting the environment means defending one’s own business!

I’ll undoubtedly write more about these resorts that eliminate single-use plastic and opt for green solutions. The Earth as a common possession is an interesting ecological point of view, but it is also a romantic idea. I do understand that I’m privileged to travel the world! I know I’m in this particular position to check “our common possession”, when so many cannot leave their corner of the planet, due to economic, political or other restrictions.

17 countries per year. Will I stop?

Only in the past twelve months, I’ve been calling home countries such as Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Croatia, Ethiopia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, and Thailand. Seventeen! It’s a lot, especially when we know that five of these I visited more than once in this period!

Some people ask me did I not have enough of it. It. As if we are talking about an extraordinary feat, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It’s a planet, it’s round, and I’m not a plant. For me, these are the only relevant criteria for justifying traveling

I’m not trying to exoticize my nomadic life. I can count these countries only because of the political organization of the world.

While obtaining visas and crossing borders is a pain-in-the-ass process, the rest of it is enjoyable everyday. You work, you eat, you drink, you enjoy the company of the people, you sleep. Throw some other ordinary activities in between!

I’d be happy if there would be no borders, and then it would seem harder to say I “left home”. It’s a planet, it’s round, and I’m not a plant. For me, these are the only relevant criteria for justifying traveling.

In 2018, I published 5 Things I’ve Learned in My First Year of Blogging. Even if one of the lessons clearly stated “Slow down your traveling!”, the score of countries I visited shows that I ignored my own prescription.

Frankly, I feel that in blogging year number two I’ve unlearned most of the things I’ve learned in year one. That doesn’t necessarily make me smarter. Maybe I’m just learning how to make mistakes. Ask me in ten years, please!

Without further ado, if you are about to start your travel blogging adventure, these would be the advice I’d give you!

Five tips for navigating through the world of travel blogging

1. Blog at your own pace!

The key to blogging success is being present. Publishing posts in regular intervals eventually pays off.

That is more easily being said than done. If you hop on an around-the-world adventure with no return ticket planned, your writing could eventually be slowed down by traveling and consuming the experiences. If you start your travel blog from home, some other daily chores could interfere with the rhythm of your publishing.

While I advocated for more frequent post publishing in the article a year ago, now I’d say that blogging journey is a marathon. Take it at your own pace! Don’t frustrate yourself over a few days (or even weeks) of being behind with your editorial plan (I know, some more experienced bloggers will tear their hair when they read this!). While it may be an enemy of the speed you will succeed with, it doesn’t mean you should put that priority in front of your peace of mind. The world will not disappear tomorrow. Take care of yourself!

2. Don’t procrastinate!

With the previous tip in mind, it doesn’t mean one should procrastinate. Getting the frustration out of the equation does not entitle laziness. Do as much as you can when you can! But if you never can, maybe you should admit to yourself that this is not a job for you.

You shouldn’t procrastinate in other walks of life either. You may be in the phase when you are asking yourself should you even start traveling, or start that blogging thing, but then you find a gazillion of excuses why the moment is not right. Moments are rarely right at the point of time when they happen. Only with a historical distance, we can measure how significant they – were. So don’t wait for the right moment! The right moment was yesterday!

If you have an urge to travel, do it! If you have an urge to do something else with your life, try something else! The lesson of not delaying one’s fulfillment plans came to me from the animal kingdom. Cats taught me that following one’s path matters – today!

3. Google love takes time!

Success doesn’t come overnight. So be patient! As long as you are doing well in optimizing your blog posts for search engines, Google will eventually pick up your articles! And then the number of visits will rise, as well as a potential of monetizing your blog.

My most read article on Pipeaway was published on 28^th March 2017, on the day of the launching of the blog. Every month, it stays on the top of the posts people visit and significantly contributes to the overall traffic. It’s the article on the best airplane seats. While I felt I wrote it mainly to fill up space on the launching day of the blog, it turned out it is the information readers were looking for. When some high domain authority sites started linking to the post, it helped its popularity even more.

In any case, I would always advocate for doing fewer articles that are properly researched, prepared and optimized, than flooding your website with low-value posts, only to build up the traffic volume.

Do not lose your patience, do it well, and search engines will follow!

4. No free resort stay can replace the Me-time!

Travel blogging comes with perks which sometimes present a prime attraction to many who wish to break into the world of travel writing. Free hotels, complimentary dinners, unpaid tours… For the outside eye, it may look like a traveler’s dream come true!

While establishing your name in the field may bring many opportunities, have in mind that your blog is a business that should concentrate on journalism. It’s not a marketing panel for anyone who has the means to pay for it. Well, technically, it could be (that could bring you additional income), but always be aware of your responsibility towards your readers! Choose your partnerships wisely! Readers who trust you will stay your readers.

On the other hand, even if you find many interesting and interested partners, try to keep a balance. All “free stays” come with the expectations of the content you will deliver! For instance, at this very moment, I have ten Cambodian hotels lined-up, practically back-to-back. While this enables me to spend more time on the location and discover many local stories, it also demands a lot of work that I’ll need to invest in the upcoming months. It will generally take me much more time to deliver the articles, than the length of each stay. Which means that “free stays” are eating your additional “free time” as well. In this tempo of changing hotels so frequently that one may even get confused in which country one is, it is essential to save time for yourself!

Speaking of “free hotels”, be aware that hotel management may be getting a dozen of requests similar to yours every single day! Make sure you can provide something that will differentiate you from the mass, and that partnerships you want to build make sense.

5. Forget journaling!

While my last tip in 5 things I’ve learned in my first year of blogging was “Write a journal!”, I must admit I stopped doing it.

I still believe it could be a great tool to remember all the fine details of your experiences. This means it is not just your book of personal memory, but a reference book you can consult every time you write a new story.

However, I replaced the physical journal with writing notes into Google’s Keep Notes application. I like it because it saves space in my traveling bag (that I would otherwise reserve for the writing book). Also, I can write it on my mobile phone, but access it later over my laptop, so it’s convenient.

Before, I was writing the journal at the end of the day, usually when I’d be struggling with keeping awake. Now I choose to invest some of that time in the social media or actual sleep.

Sure, my notes on the phone are usually not personal at all. They are just thrown details I may forget with time, and will hopefully help me reconstruct the memory once the story writing time comes. So while it’s not as romantic as creating a scrapbook of one’s travels, at least I can count on its informational potential.

Not dragging a physical writing book around also potentially “saves a tree”, and in the world that is increasingly being deforested to make space for quick-money-earning development projects, that is a noble cause.

Things I’ve learned in my second year of blogging – Summary

The development of the world’s travel industry shows no sign of slowing down. Temptations are everywhere around you, but if you want to enter the business of travel blogging, keep in mind that it is still your very own journey! Consider the advice of others, but create the rhythm of your work by yourself!

This doesn’t mean you should procrastinate; your website’s readers still expect new content coming up. Otherwise, they stop being your readers!

Have patience as, if you invest more time in SEO now, the benefits will eventually come!

Beware of the “free stays” benefits, however! Everyone needs time to recharge! While your friends may consider you are having a vacation of a lifetime, you know it’s a job, and treat its stress accordingly!

You may keep a physical journal of your experiences to track the little details that will help you when you’ll write an article, but I changed that into a digital version, as I found it more practical, even if less personal.

If you’ve started a blog, please feel free to leave a comment under this article. I’d love to know how your blogging journey is going! Also, feel free to inform me when your blog anniversary arrives! If there’ll be some delicious cake around, I may travel just to congratulate you personally!

Pipe away and blog on!

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“It is better this way. If there is no Facebook, the protests cannot be organized easily, and fewer people die”, tells me one older man in Harar. It might be a wise conclusion for saving young Ethiopian lives. But it was definitely excessively optimistic to think that blogging from Oromia would be the same as blogging from anywhere else.

Life beyond the Internet

For more than 10 days, all Pipeaway’s social media accounts (and my personal ones) went silent. I know, first world problems, right? But it did make me think about how we often take luxurious things (such as access to information or electricity) for granted in the West. Yet, life goes on even when offline. And it’s hard enough without the Internet.

The rhythm of Pipeaway’s online presence in the first year of its existence was very variable. I would try to post content on the website every week (and daily on social networks), but sometimes, like now in Ethiopia, life would dictate differently.

I don’t know what that meant for the consistency of my traffic. To be frank, I am scared to even look at the statistics (once I get a decent Internet connection). But the growth goal is certainly not a priority at the moment.

While I obviously did not master all fine layers of online omnipresence, the first year of piping away into the world of travel blogging did teach me a few things. Here are some of my most precious lessons – blogging tips for first-year bloggers:

1. Blog more often!

I know, this contradicts the limitations I just wrote about. But even if it cannot beat with political governments, natural disasters, Mark Zuckerberg’s feelings when he gets out of bed, or the plain apocalypse that can start at any moment, the idea is still worthy. If we do not set our own rules, nobody else will. Or everybody will! So it’s better we do it ourselves! Competing with our own limits is the healthiest competition anyway!

Since March 2017, my nomadic life led me (by alphabetical order) to Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, Vatican and Vietnam. I took thousands of photographs and videos, and probably experienced hundreds of stories worth blogging about. It almost feels I could retire now, and still have content to publish for the decades to come. So, don’t procrastinate with your content! Blog it out! Fear that travel writing ideas will disappear is superfluous.

Want to read more about my first-year travel blogging adventure? Check out this compilation of Pipeaway’s top articles in 2017!

2. Slow down your traveling!

At one moment in Vietnam, my pants started to fall down in the most embarrassing way. It was not that gangsta hipster look where seeing one’s underwear is a rad fashion statement! My pants were falling down because I was losing volume. I say volume, as my weight did not change. But I guess constant walking, running, biking, climbing or, shortly, moving my ass around, did make those tiny bits of fat (if they ever existed) burn out.

At that moment of time, I was changing towns every few days. While I still struggle with affording myself some downtime, I now understand that constant moving is the enemy number one of my blogging. If one envisions only the time for traveling, staying somewhere, experiencing the destination or the event, and then moving on – where is the time for reflecting, organizing one’s thoughts, writing and editing them, editing photographs or videos, publishing them, promoting them? With the constant rush, a blogger surely works against oneself and is always left behind.

3. Limit friends-time!

Being away from one’s homeland, from the people, food, bed and customs you are used to, makes you generally more accepting to invite friends over to join your travel adventures. Speaking in a mother’s tongue reconfirms that you still belong somewhere, that not all your anchors are broken. Yet, I am not so sure I belong to Croatia anymore. I cannot say I belong somewhere else either. But my feet do not value artificial political organization of the world anymore.

I feel more as a homeless person than as a traveler. Traveling for holidays and traveling for days is not the same

This means that I feel more like a homeless person than like a traveler. What I’ve learned on several occasions some Croatian friends joined me in Southeast Asia, or just by meeting other typical travelers, is that traveling for holidays and traveling for days is not the same.

People take vacations from their work, they leave somewhere exotic, and then they are ready to exhaust themselves from experiences in the offer. Their bodies decide NOT to feel the jet lag, they are immediately ready to go out and party on, and there is no attraction they could miss.

I’ve learned I cannot always cope with such tempo. First of all, I am not on constant holidays. Sometimes it feels I am actually in constant work mode. I have things to do. I cannot just switch off. I need more breaks than other travelers. Often I need to not do anything, like we all need when we are at home.

In this state of my life, I guess I am not the best travel companion. It sounds a bit sad saying that while I sit alone, next to the Awash River Falls, observing the crocodiles in the river and being observed by a monkey on the terrace. But being human can be mentally really hard.

4. You don’t have to see everything!

This continues on the previous point, with friends or without them. I had to learn to save my sanity by NOT visiting every single attraction in the destination. Just because I have more time to spend in the country, it doesn’t mean I need to do everything. Actually, I feel better if I leave some reasons to come back to the place I am visiting.

I knew that since long ago – visiting Paris for a dozen times before I even saw the glimpse of Eiffel Tower was such a lesson. Yet, I needed to spend a month in Cambodia and learn to be OK with missing out on Angkor Wat, spend two weeks on Java and be ok with missing Borobudur, or gallivant Vietnam for a month and not even approach Ha Long Bay. You get what I mean! Now I have so many reasons to return to Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam or even Paris for that matter!

5. Write a journal!

Being exposed to constant experiences can be overwhelming. Keeping some track of your whereabouts is a really helpful tool to recall your memories once you will finally write and publish that article! You might be young, but our memory capacity is quite fragile. All the nuances of colors, sounds, smells, textures and all other senses we experience while traveling, fade away with our brains constantly making space for new experiences.

I’ve learned that writing a diary helps my sense of orientation through this constant “on the move” sensation. I cannot tell you how many times I wake up in the middle of the night, not being really sure where I am. Usually, I dream of waking up on some lone and dark mountain, and I need quite some time to calm down (taking anti-malaria pills doesn’t help!). So if our brain wires are ready to get totally confused by our whereabouts, what keeps all other details in our skulls? It is a very, very fragile system we carry on our shoulders.

So besides writing texts on my laptop, I also try to write a daily journal (by hand, yes), for personal use. It is a general scrapbook of things I did, garnished with possible drawings, a ticket for some museum or photograph of people I meet on the road. I write this in my mother tongue. That way, I feel freer when writing it in public. Also, it does feel more like I am talking to myself.

Pipe away and blog on!

There you are! These are the five things I have learned in the first year of running Pipeaway blog from the road. I bet I have learned more, but decided to stop this list here and head down to the river for some crocodile encounter. The monkey left already.

Ethiopia did get its new prime minister, by the way. This time, he is from Oromia. Which means people from this region might get fully operating Internet again. The life will hopefully get better. And being online will not be considered a dangerous act of forging a conspiracy. Nobody should die because he or she managed to connect on Facebook. Nobody should get imprisoned for blogging. Nobody should be afraid of the freedom of speech. Pipe away and blog on!

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Yet, the journalist Elizabet Škrobo reported on Ivan’s Asian travels, particularly putting an accent on climbing Koh Ker pyramid or bathing with elephants in Cambodia, hiking Ijen Volcano in Indonesia, sleeping in Book and Bed hostel in Japan, or just plain traffic excitement in Vietnam where people use their motorbikes to transfer everything from trees and chickens to entire families.

The interview was published on the First Channel of Croatian National Television (HRT1), as a part of the youth TV show Daj pet(ak), on January 12th, 2018. The report is in Croatian language, and you can access it here or on Pipeaway’s Youtube channel.

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