3 Lessons About WordPress I Learned While I Travel

I have been doing a lot of traveling lately – more than I usually do. This means I have been spending more time in airports as I go all over the country. My recent trips include Salt Lake City, Dallas, Cedar Rapids, Orlando, Atlanta, and Chicago.

Do you like to travel? Some people do. Some people do not. Some see it as exotic and exciting Some folks think it is a time killer waiting in airports, delayed flights, waiting for shuttle, and all the snags you encounter. I can see their point.

As for me, I do not mind it. I am used to it. Sometimes, I even enjoy it.

What does this have to do with maintaining a WordPress website? Well, there are a lot of similarities to traveling and having your own site. Here are my musing about Travel vs. WordPress.

1. Both are on the go. Clearly when you travel, you are on the go; there are time schedules that you have to meet, connections, planning, things don’t always go as planned.

• Come to think of it, the same apply to WordPress! Seeing that WordPress is hosted on a remote server (using HostGator or another service), you can access your site anywhere! As long as you have an internet connection, you are good to go! And if you do not have an internet connection, you can still create your content to upload when you have the connection (I am actually writing this post 36,000 feet above Nebraska)!

• You should have a time schedule of when you are going to write and create new posts for your site. The more consistent you are, the better it is for your readers and followers! Are you blogging consistently?

• With regards to connections, you might not be connecting flights with WP, but you are (or you should) be making connections with people. Are you meeting people in your niche? How about other bloggers? Are you going to NAMS this coming August?

• Planning goes along with logging consistently as well as having a blog calendar, an affiliate marketing schedule, a conference/workshop plan for the year, and a strategy for moving ahead. Which of these do you have (or not have)?

2. There are different ways to get to where you want to go. My travels have been via planes, but you can certainly drive a car, take a train, or maybe even a bus. You get to evaluate where you want to go and determine your appetite for the mode of transportation. Many times, the cost and time may be determining factors when deciding if you are go to fly vs. take a car.

• You are in control of your site and where you want to take it. You get to decide what you want your site to do for you – maybe it is to market you as an expert in your field, maybe it is to meant to be a list building tool. Some sites are used to provide information only. You get to decide where it fit into your overall plan.
• As there are many ways to travel, there are many ways to build your site. You may opt to use all free plugins on your site because you cannot afford premium plugins yet. Maybe you have to wait and travel to local events because your travel budget cannot handle across the country travel (yet). There is nothing wrong with starting (or even working on) a shoe string budget. In fact, it is better to go low cost than throwing money at something that you are not sure will work.

3. I remember ‘back in the day’ if you wanted to travel, you had to either contact the airlines directly, or consult with a travel agent. These days, everything can be done online. When traveling on vacation, you can either do it yourself, or you can join a tour group.

• When you are developing your own website, you can do it yourself and get a book on WordPress, scouring the web for free videos and get a sense of accomplishment by trial and error.
• With a tour group, you gain the expertise of a guide to show you the way. You can eliminate a lot of wandering around trying to find the sites, or even missing some of the best spots altogether because you did not know about them! By the way, if you want to get an awesome WordPress Guide, come Master WordPress (there is an early bird special currently in effect!)

The next time you travel, take a moment and make a correlation or two about aspects you see and how they are reflected in your business and your website.