Reflection on keeping a blog
The adventure within the adventure (85)
This isn’t our first go round with a blog.
In 2005, we lived in Connecticut. One day, we decided we needed to see more of the United States. We hopped in our car with the well-formed goal of “heading west.” We made it to the Black Hills of South Dakota before turning around. In doing so, we discovered we: 1) do ok on a car trip together and 2) like camping. Which was good, since pitching a tent is the cheapest way we’ve found to travel. We also were fortunate enough to have people who wanted to know how the trip was going, so we wrote about our travels (relying heavily on public libraries for wi-fi). This led to interesting conversations with fellow campers who – remember, this was 2005 – were startled to see us hunting and pecking away at a laptop on pockmarked campground picnic tables.
That and subsequent blogs were confined to our annual trips to explore the country, which ceased shortly after we moved to St. Louis in 2010.
We had not intended to resume a blog – they are a lot of work, after all – until circumstances pushed us that way. When we decided to move to Portugal we had a lot of people to tell – and, since we had a short runway, little time to give to the task. So we resorted to email, as wrong as that felt. Naturally there were many questions. We tried to answer those, and to keep people abreast of the rapid developments, with regular messages.
We were startled when we got our first request to add someone we didn’t know to the email list. As similar requests trickled in, it was time to reassess if email was the right format. After we’d been in Portugal a few weeks, we finally had time to research a free (ideally for both us and our readers), less labor-intensive way for people to stay in touch and follow along if they wanted and quickly landed on Substack. We’ve since been quite surprised by the number of people who’ve signed on for updates.
Several things have happened lately to take this surprise to the next level.
The first was when
subscribed to our Substack. We’d been reading her work since before we left the United States; we loved how she wrote so honestly and clearly about what it was like to move to and live in Portugal. As she’d been here for years already, she was a phenomenal resource for us. That she was now following our journey was A Very Big Deal. After we picked our jaws up off the floor, there may have been high-fives. Since that time, she has actually recommended us. Talk about shivers (and an influx of new subscribers)! If you are interested in solid information about moving to a part of the country we don’t talk about, try . Ever had the bug to fix up a place in a country where you don’t speak the native language? Follow along with their experiences here.Our second Big Moment was coming back from lunch from friends. We’d just put in an offer on what would become our new home and were excitedly floating across a busy intersection near our local Metro station Rato when we heard Scott? Amy? We looked around. No one we knew. Turns out, we’d just been recognized! The wonderful
and her husband, Pete, were en route to the airport at the close of a visit to Portugal. We had a lovely chat on the sidewalk, wishing we had more time with this delightful couple. Jen has written some great posts about their extensive travel adventures (and, enjoyably for her readers, their misadventures). If you’re interested in travel writing, give a read. Our favorite is her recounting of their hair-raising ride on the famed Lisbon trolley Tram 28.Around this same time, we received a curious notice from Substack. Someone had pledged a donation to us. Um, what? That was possible? After the initial shock was some soul searching: Was that what we wanted? While y’all know we are frugal as all get out and pick up stray coins on the street, that was not the goal in starting this. Once we switched from email to a blog, we’d identified our primary purpose as relating our experiences in a way that prioritizes honesty over rose-colored glasses: our nitty-gritty, down-and-dirty truth. We saw it as a way to pay it forward since we’d benefitted so much from the wisdom of others. We sussed out how the pledge happened: Turns out Substack had implemented a Make a Pledge button that we weren’t aware of. We turned that option off, and - deeply flattered - declined the donation.
The most-recent surprise was an unsolicited offer by a well-known service provider to partner with them. As in mention them in a blog post with a link. If someone clicks on the link they get a discount on the service and we get a cut of the final sale. We’ve seen other blogs use a variety of affiliate language when suggesting products, services, companies, and organizations. Since we didn’t use this one ourselves and it seemed unlikely we’d need to moving forward it didn’t fit our goal of relating our experiences. Also, the thought of having to report what seemed unlikely to be more than a few euros of income on tax forms in two different countries was … off-putting.
Oh, hey, did we forget the interview? Yep, we saved the best for last.
is moving , and is blogging about her experiences along the way. Much more savvy and tech-oriented than we are, she emailed us a couple of weeks ago out of the blue and asked if she could interview us for a new podcast series she was starting. Erk, you sure you have the right folks? But, why not?! So one day we overcame the time difference and she (somehow) conquered the tech issues and if you’ve ever wanted to hear what we sound like have at it! Many thanks to Janelle for a fun experience!So there you have our adventures within an adventure. Thanks for helping make our move to Portugal that much more exciting.
That’s all for now.
Love from Lisbon,
Amy & Scott
You Are very kind to mention my Substack...like you it started at the urging of friends, and has grown with time. Glad you enjoy it .... like you I only recommend those that I personally read regularly.
I am still so pleased that we got to meet you both in March.