My impressions from Travel Blog Exchange #TBEX conference #TBEX11 Day 1

I will fully confess I’m not 100% a travel writer. I do a lot of travel writing but I don’t categorize my “niche” to be only travel. I write about food, theatre, dance, non-profits, and of course, travel. I found myself yesterday at the first day of the Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) 2011 conference (TBEX’11) both inspired and confused.

Inspired by Evelyn Hannon (Journey Woman), and really excited to meet so many people in the travel blogging world, both PR and fellow travel bloggers. But I found myself finding that the words “niche” and “monetization” didn’t really resonate with me. I write mostly because I’m passionate about it. I do find some sort of duty with my community and with my readers, but mostly I still write for myself. Not sure if then, I’m just my own niche.

Monetization – of course, I’d love it if blogging paid my bills, but I am not sure how it would change my own life. At least I’d like to let my own blog pay itself for contests, giveaways and time spent on content writing, photograph uploading, etc. But I find that the conference has paid a lot of attention to wanting to write a travel blog to monetize it, etc.

I don’t find that the conference themes and speakers are answering to questions about hybrid sites (e.g. sites like mine that aren’t solely about travel). But overall, what I am enjoying the most is just talking to fellow bloggers who do travel writing, and see how they see my beautiful city, Vancouver, in their own eyes.