An Analysis of Self-Branding Practices and Blogging Tools in Travel Blogosphere

(1)

!

AN ANALYSIS OF SELF-BRANDING PRACTICES AND

BLOGGING TOOLS IN TRAVEL BLOGOSPHERE

Author: Agnieszka Walewinder Student number: 10848290

E-mail: agnieszka.walewinder@gmail.com Blog: http://etramping.com

Date: June 22, 2015 Supervisor: Anne Helmond Secondary reader: Carolin Gerlitz Institution: University of Amsterdam

(2)

ABSTRACT

Travel blogosphere has undergone a transformation during its relatively short life-span. From amateur travel journals to viable travel business, this transformation has been shaped through the practice of self-branding and the use of blogging tools. The symbiotic relationship between the bloggers, blog software and search engines pathed the way for the development of new ways in which travel bloggers produce and promote blog content, find their audience and generate income.

This thesis is a journey into the world of travel blogs. Through the lenses of software analysis, autoethnographical research based on the experiences with author’s personal travel blog named Etramping, and a questionnaire that gathered 194 qualifying responses from active travel bloggers, it analyses travel blogosphere in terms of self-branding practices and blogging tools. It also provides new insights that update and add to the current academic research.

KEYWORDS

Blog Software, Software Studies, Travel Blogs, Web 2.0, Self-Branding, Blogging Practices, Auto-Ethnography 

(3)

FOREWORD

In August 2011, together with Cezary Król, I have created a website called Etramping . Initially, the website was a meeting place for travellers from around the 1 globe, who used it as a place to connect with other people and widen their horizons. They were able to access a public forum to share travel experiences and exchange budget tips, find travel companion by browsing other users' "next destination" in members list, upload photos and communicate to others via chat.

By using WayBack Machine of the Internet Archive, I was able to see crawled 2 snapshots of my homepage taken in October 1, 2011 (see Figure 1).

!

Figure 1: A snapshot of Etramping from October 1, 2011 crawled by WayBack Machine. Source: Etramping Web Archive October 1, 2011 (accessed June 5, 2015 )

http://etramping.com - the word Etramping consists of three morphemes: prefix “e” which means 1

electronic, “tramp” which means a person who leaves his/her comfort zone to travel cheaply and suffix “ing” emphasizing the continuity of the state of being a tramp (accessed June 1, 2015).

WayBack Machine is a tool used for browsing a Web Archive that stores archived pages and 2

screengrabs, which does not require users to know the exact URL for the website to be found (accessed June 5, 2015). The ideas of the WayBack Machine was formed soon after the Internet Archive began archiving the Web in 1996 (Masanès 2006, 147).

(4)

The site was originally built with Joomla , where I taught myself HTML. It lacked 3 social media buttons, the layout was very simple and had to be automatically adjusted to all pages.

After many weeks of struggles with Joomla and lack of interest in Etramping, neither from visitors nor within travel blogosphere, I decided to go one step further and educate myself in the field of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and online marketing. I purchased and read eBooks written by Matthew Kepnes , one of the first 4 and most successful travel bloggers, called How to Build a Travel Blog (Nomadic Matt, n.d.a) and How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog (Nomadic Matt, n.d.b). After reading the mentioned above eBooks, I realized how important it is to create a catchy name and pick a good design. Moreover, I learnt how to get traffic from other blogs, maximize my social media channels (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+), write guest posts , create viral content, get media attention 5 and be mentioned in the press. All these are the key factors Google uses to determine website rankings.

In 2012, I decided to switch to self-hosted WordPress and changed the 6 direction of my website. Etramping was no longer a forum for travelers, but a budget travel blog with a very specific niche (budget travel - to be more specific: “travelling around the world for less than $25 a day”). The layout of the website also changed to more professional (see Figure 2). It also featured RSS feeds, permalinks, social media buttons, subscription boxes, interactive widgets and blogroll (see Figure 3). The thematic and design change from generic travel to extreme budget travel significantly accelerated interest of the readers.

Joomla - a content management system (CMS), which enables users to build Web sites and 3

powerful online applications (accessed June 5, 2015). https://www.nomadicmatt.com (accessed June 7, 2015) 4

Guest post is an article published on someone else’s website which one can write and which links 5

back to one’s own blog. A list of guest posts written by me can be found on Etramping’s portfolio page: http://etramping.com/guest-posts (accessed June 5, 2015).

https://wordpress.org (accessed June 5, 2015) 6

(5)

!

Figure 2: A snapshot of Etramping from December 11, 2012 crawled by WayBack Machine. Source: Etramping Web Archive December 11, 2012 (accessed June 5, 2015)

!

Figure 3: A snapshot of Etramping from December 11, 2012 crawled by WayBack Machine. Source: Etramping Web Archive December 11, 2012 (accessed June 5, 2015)

Once I installed and configured WordPress on my server, I realized how practical and beneficial it was for my blog. WordPress could be further enhanced with different plugins (discussed further in my thesis), had user-friendly administration interface (therefore there is no need for coding knowledge) and allowed visitors to comment on my articles and subscribe to my newsletter. The longer I used it, the more efficiently Etramping has been maintained. My thesis supervisor, Anne Helmond, describes her WordPress experience in Blogging for Engines: Blogs under the Influence of Software-Engine Relations as follows:

“It seems that once you have installed and configured WordPress on your server it hasn't even quite begun. The process of building and shaping your blog never seems to end.” (Helmond 2008, iii)

(6)

The WordPress software not only enabled me to easily update my Etramping, but also add new content in the form of blog posts which are automatically time-stamped and organized in reverse-chronological order. The latest content is always visible at the top. My blog revolves around blog posts that mainly deal with the subject of new media travel. The blog posts contain a large number of links to other relevant blog posts and websites and are open for commentary.

Blogging software (further examined in the thesis) and different blogging practices influenced my blogging routine in many different ways. I could easily update my travel blog by adding content that was automatically organized in reverse-chronological order. My content has been created accordingly to SEO standards, thus symbiotic relation between me as a blogger and search engine has been created (Helmond 2008). Etramping also started to focus more on my audience (e-mail and feed subscribers) and climbing up the ladder in various rankings by commenting on other blogs/websites, answering comments, writing guest posts and exchanging links between fellow travel blogs.

The main benefits of these practices and the use of blogging software benefited my blog enormously. The traffic has significantly increased, rankings such as Google Page Rank , Page Authority and Domain Authority were higher and my 7 8 9 name became recognizable in the travel blogosphere. This growth allowed Etramping to be listed on Nomadic Samuel’s Top 100 Travel Blogs and the 10 Expeditioner’s Top 50 Travel Blogs list. 11

Apart from being recognizable, one of the positive results of using different blogging practices and tools in content promotion was generation of an income that

Google Page Rank (PR) - a measure of a site’s authority not updated anymore by Google that 7

indicates a blog’s success on a scale of scale 0-10 (Walewinder and Krol 2014).

Page Authority shows how much of an authority a blog is that differs from one article to another on a 8

scale of 0-100 (Walewinder and Krol 2014).

Domain Authority judges how much of an authority a blog is and it is the same for all blog posts on a 9

scale of 0-100 (Walewinder and Krol 2014).

http://nomadicsamuel.com/top100travelblogs - a list of top travel blogs updated quarterly based on 10

metrics such as Alexa Ranking, Domain Authority and Page Authority (accessed June 9, 2015). http://www.theexpeditioner.com/the-top-50-travel-blogs - a list of most visited travel blogs based on 11

(7)

allowed me to blog full-time between 2013 and 2014. Despite starting this blog as a simple unpaid hobby, my website became a serious business.

I am still maintaining Etramping whilst writing this thesis that was born of my personal travel blogging experience since 2011. The technical and marketing aspects of blogging and their relationship to search engines such as Google have always been a topic of my interest that I am eager to share with readers of this thesis.

(8)

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to those who have supported me along the way during this challenging journey, which was writing this thesis. I am thankful to my mom Barbara Walewinder for being so inspiring and my best friend Cezary Król, who has been the most supportive person and provided me with a friendly and supportive working environment.

I express my warm thanks to my partner Rutger de Waardt and work colleagues at Gamesys, especially Joanna Jaoudie, for believing in me, sharing their ideas for my project and giving me a lot of positive energy when needed the most.

I also want to thank fellow travel bloggers who I conducted the interview with for responding quickly and being extremely involved in this master’s project. Dear travel bloggers, this paper would never be completed without your contribution.

Last but not least, best regards to my supervisor Anne Helmond, who provided me with invaluable help, knowledge and guidance.

(9)

INTRODUCTION

The practice of blogging, defined as “frequently updated, reverse-chronological entries on a single Web page” (Blood 2004, 53), or as it was initially named “web logging”, was introduced at the end of 1990s (Rettberg 2013). The term “blogging” is accredited to Merholz, who in 1999, first used the phrase “we blog” on the site Petreme.com (Cox et al. 2008). In the beginning and before blogging became widely available as we know it today, there were no tools that could help potential bloggers create their weblogs; websites were hand-coded (Blood 2004). Since then, however, blogging has grown exponentially and is now a cherished mainstream activity among internet users, according to Siles (2012).

In a way, this new way of communicating online developed to become a language on its own amongst web users, who 15 years back, were not too familiar with the notion of a “weblog”, reports Bruns (2008). Though the term itself remained ubiquitous for many (Blood 2004), it takes on the same meaning as its more popular synonym: blogging.

There are multiple reasons why blogging became such an internet sensation. As Lenarcic and Sarkar (2008, 429) point out: the ease of creation, use and maintenance of weblogs (or simply put: ‘blogs’) make blogging an attractive activity to pick up. It is no wonder that blogging has grown to become one of the quickest and most efficiently evolved forms of media (Siles 2012), creating a “public space for distributed knowledge-building” (Brady 2005, 7). It is a “powerful tool for establishing and maintaining an online community” (Cayzer 2004, 48). From simple online personal diaries to a huge “killer app” (Williams and Jacobs 2004), blogging has awarded people with the power to connect and share knowledge in a diverse number of ways and across multiple genres of interest. Over the relatively short period of 12 its existence, blogging transformed into a phenomenon and space most bloggers like

Any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment, e.g. music, whether written or 12

(12)

to call “the blogosphere”, culminating into the mix of blogs readers encounter today (Bruns 2008).

Thanks to the tools and development of blogging software that aid in its ease of use, nowadays any individual who possesses a certain set of unique skills and talents can run a successful blog, according to Marwick (2010). It is believed that even people without these qualities can join the blogosphere by starting a blog (Dainton 2009), and their success is dictated by their ability to promote their content and online image (Bassett 2014). It is all about self-expression, sharing one’s opinion and knowledge on a regular basis for their readers in very much the same way the press manages the information people read or watch, albeit without rigorous guidelines or an obligation to report on fact (Marwick 2010; Müller et al. 2011). Bloggers do not need to be certified by any licensing institution in order to publish content, and hence do not have to adhere to journalistic standards.

Today, blogging has made it possible for everyone to “own a press, so to speak”, says Albrechtslund (2009, 187). We have the tools for creation, but what about promotion? With so many blogs available on the internet, bloggers need to seek ways to be found and heard. With the rise of a new marketing phenomenon called self-branding, that mainly aims to describe practices to promote, monetize and sell the product (Marwick 2010; Hearn 2008), bloggers are allowed to start promoting their blog content as well as their personas (Labrecque et al. 2011; Sørensen 2009; Deckers and Kyle 2012). Through social media promotion and other marketing strategies, they are able to self-brand (Marwick 2010; Ndubisi et al. 2008). In consequence, they can build their own brand, which is their online image represented by the blog (Marwick 2010; Hearn 2008). To accomplish this, they created self-branding practices, which in turn changed the perception of the blog for more professional and frequent bloggers. The potential to monetize as you blog became an option and reality for many bloggers, and it is interesting to note how this affected blogging and in particular travel blogging.

The current rise of travel blogging that can be monetized by using various self-branding practices is overwhelming. Due to the relative novelty and a significant growth of travel blogosphere, it is an attractive area for research. Especially because the research on the topic up to date is limited. Therefore, knowing what self-branding

(13)

methods are adapted and what blogging tools are used to monetize a travel blog, seems to be important and relevant for the development of New Media studies.

Furthermore, most research on travel blogging was conducted between 2005 and 2011 (Lin and Huang 2006; Pudliner 2007; Enoch and Grossman 2010; Månsson 2011; Bosangit et al. 2012). Only a handful of new studies have been conducted more recently (Week 2012; Azariah 2012; Magasic 2014) and although different scholars have studied the impact of self-branding, advertising practices, social media and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in the context of general blogging (Page 2012; Marwick 2010; Ndubisi et al. 2008; Schawbel 2009), travel blogging as a particular center of attention has received less attention.

Travel blogging, in the context of promotion via self-branding, has been increasingly attracting bloggers and scholars alike, thanks to the increasing popularity of this phenomenon. Nevertheless, this interest in travel blogging still has not garnered enough empirical research. Until now, only few autoethnographic 13 studies about travel bloggers have been conducted (Magasic 2014), and a further research into more narrowly defined practices in smaller niches can be extremely relevant for the understanding of New Media development and evolution. For these reasons, this study aims to add onto the academic research on travel blogging, branding and New Media studies. It will provide an autoethnographic analysis of self-branding practices in travel blogging, in addition to conducting a qualitative study with a representative sample, based on the example of my own personal budget travel blog, Etramping. This study will allow a deeper understanding of common practices and behaviours of active content creators on the internet, knowledge that may benefit both corporate managers in advertising and travel industries, as well as scholars in similar fields of study.

RESEARCH SCOPE AND QUESTION

A form of self-reflection and writing that explores the researcher's personal experience. Source: 13

(14)

Schmidt, in Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework (2007, 1410-1411), already established that writing about blogs, blogging or bloggers in general is as broad a term as writing about television in general without specifying a genre, context or audience. Therefore, this thesis focuses on explaining and specifying the subject of study as there are different genres of blogs and different self-branding strategies that vary depending on the type of a blog. In order for this study to provide meaningful addition to existing research, the main objective of this research will be travel blogs, travel blogging and travel bloggers.

Travel blogging has evolved from a simple online personal diary to a huge technology and the “killer app” that now has the power to connect people and share knowledge in no time (Williams and Jacobs 2004). Easy access to user-friendly and scalable blog creation tools, such as WordPress and Google’s Blogger platforms (Ferdig and Kaye 2004), together with widespread and cheap internet access around the globe, make it easy to maintain a travel blog. As mentioned before, no experience, qualifications or technical knowledge is necessary to build a blog. However, certain skills, strategies and tactics are needed for the promotion of it, which is necessary for the blog to be successful (Stone 2002; Holtz and Demopoulos 2006; Lee et al. 2006; Du and Wagner 2006; Cass 2007; Cox et al. 2008).

Du and Wagner (2006) argue that a blog success depends mainly on a weblog’s value that can be indicated and measured by three elements: content, technology and social involvement (see Figure 4).

(15)

Figure 4: A value-based conceptual model of weblog success (Du and Wagner 2006: 11)

Figure 4 illustrates that the crucial part of successful blogging is the ability to combine all these three elements and be able to showcase them to the audience in a way they can be attracted to the blog. This model is in line with self-branding in the context of travel blogging, for which:

● content value represents the individual’s online image,

● technology value represents the skill of the person in efficiently using available tools for self-promotion,

● and social value represents the ability of self to interact with other internet users.

As Search Engine Optimization (SEO) together with advertising and social media management are believed to be a part of self-branding practices (Marwick 2010), the main research question is: How does self-branding shape the way travel bloggers

produce and promote blog content, find their audience and generate income? To

answer this question, the primarily focus will be on exploring the impact of self-branding on travel bloggers and their revenue based on the questionnaire conducted for this research as well as autoethnography analysis of Etramping. The next section reviews relevant literature in blogging as well as self-branding in order to provide a conceptual basis for the discussion on travel blogs and the relevant research methodology.

1. LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 The blogosphere

The term “blog” gained official recognition and a definition in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003. It has been defined as:

(16)

“a frequently updated web site consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person, and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online journal or diary.” (OED 2003, n.pag.)

However, this definitive definition has been criticized by boyd (2006), who argues that this interpretation limits the full conceptualization of blogs. Instead of defining blogs in terms of genres such as diaries, she considers them to be a medium. Therefore, in her paper she encourages scholars to conceptualize blogging as:

“a diverse set of practices that result in the production of diverse content on top of a medium that we call blogs.” (boyd 2006, 1)

Despite its placement in the Oxford English Dictionary, several parties and influential scholars were and are still are engaged in defining what a blog is (boyd 2006). Thus, variations of the definition exist. For instance, Guadagno et al. describe a blog as:

“one of the newest forms of online self-presentation and self-expression that has been facilitated by the age of the Internet.” (Guadagno et al. 2008, 2)

However, some like Lin, Hsien and Shyan (2006) find it harder to agree on having a specific definition of blogging. They point out that there has never really been an official agreed-upon definition. Thus, they describe a blog in simpler terms: as a platform of learning and reflective journalism. Moreover, blog is also portrayed as a web page that does not require external editing, allows for comments from its readers or followers, is regularly updated and presented in reverse chronological order, and usually includes in-text hyperlinks to direct users to other social sources (Farrell and Drezner 2008; Boulos et al. 2006). It may function, as these scholars point out, as a personal diary for travel, fashion, lifestyle advice, sport chat or celebrity gossip.

According to Miller and Dawn (2004), the first weblogs were reported to have been launched in early 1999 by web designers and programmers. Back then, and for the first few years when blogging platforms and the software used to drive them were still in infancy, maintaining a blog required programming knowledge that was difficult to attain for those who did not already possess web design skills. The range of available programming language tutorials were also limited, so the number of self-taught web designers was significantly smaller than what it is today. The initial growth of blogging as both a profession and hobby was furthermore stunted by the

(17)

substantially higher fees charged by IT professionals, who could build weblogs, outweighing the potential income blogs could generate at the time. This consequently limited the number of new up and coming bloggers who were interested in joining the blogosphere. However, not too soon after these factors became a recognised hurdle, the big buy-out of Blogger.com by Google marked a new era for weblogs (Sullivan 2008). Blood (2004) mentions the significance of introducing Blogger to a weblog culture:

“Blogger epitomized the dot-com era [...]. “Push-button publishing for the people” promised to revolutionize the Web. Blogger really was easy to use. When news stories began defining Weblogs as “a Web site made with Blogger,” it quickly became the most widely used blogging tool—and changed Weblog culture. “ (Blood 2004, 54)

At this point free resources for easier and more user-friendly blog building and maintenance tools became more publicly available (Gillmor 2003). Also worth noting is the development and launch of WordPress, platform which would eventually become one of the most widely used blogging tools by the online community (Patel et al. 2011; Brazell 2011). This online community - the entire network of blogs that have come to be - is called the blogosphere (Mead 2000), and it has grown at an astronomical rate (Ducate and Lomicka 2005; Aschenbrenner and Rauber 2006; Barlow 2007; Bloch 2007; Wyld 2008; Corey 2011; Rettberg 2013; Miller and Dawn 2014; Nardi et al. 2014). Corey (2011), based on Sifry’s Alerts: State of the Blogosphere Statistics, shows that the blogosphere peaked in growth between March 2003 and April 2006 (see Figure 5) when it grew over 60 times more than what it was at its inception.

(18)

!

Figure 5: The growth of the blogosphere between March 2003 and April 2006. Main source: Sifry’s Alerts: State of the Blogosphere Statistics (Corey 2011)

The number of page views for blogs hosted both on subdomains and unique domains across WordPress.com (no date), considered one of the most popular blogging platforms (Patel et al. 2011; Barnes and Lescault 2011; Williams et al. 2011), showcases the incremental rise of the blogosphere even clearer (see Figure 6 and Figure 7). Page views increased to 16,110,128,025 within six years.

!

Figure 6: The number of pageviews both on subdomains and their own domains across blogs hosted on WordPress.com in June 2009 (WordPress n.d.)

(19)

!

Figure 7: The number of pageviews both on subdomains and their own domains across blogs hosted on WordPress.com in April 2015 (WordPress n.d.)

According to Aleksander (2006, n. pag.), blogging has become “the signature item of social software, being a form of digital writing that has grown rapidly into an influential force in many venues, both on- and off-line.” They are journals that provide additional insights, often subjective in nature, to anything that happens online and/or offline (Mortensen and Jill 2002, 249). Moreover, they include features of Web 2.0 such as RSS feeds, permalinks, social media integrations, subscription boxes, interactive widgets, etc., which were absent from initial weblogs (Alexander 2006; Andersen 2007; McLean et al. 2007; Murugesan 2007; Cormode and Balachander 2008; Ip et al. 2008).

Web 2.0 is the concept, business model and a set of principles introduced by Tim O´Reilly. In his paper, O’Reilly (2007) describes the main differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 (see Figure 8), being “the power of the web to harness collective intelligence” (O´Reilly 2007, 22).

(20)

!

Figure 8: The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 that triggered a major change in the ways of using the internet (O'Reilly 2007, 17)

The concept of Web 2.0 emerged so as to encompass the new collaborative networking features of the internet, paving the way for platforms such as WordPress or Facebook to be born and maintained mostly by user-generated content (see Figure 9) (O'Reilly 2007).

(21)

Figure 9: The Web 2.0 Meme map. Source: Mediaedu (accessed June 8, 2015)

The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 (see Figure 8) has seemingly made the internet a collective digital space where users can actively participate in. One could argue that it opened new ways for mobilization, organization and discussion as travel bloggers were able to reach out to individuals to self-brand and self-promote.

Despite its growth and popularity discussed previously, blogging as a practice has been declared dead multiple times over the past years (NiemanLab 2013). In particular, there have been numerous claims that social media has killed blogging. For example, Boutine (2008) argues that:

“The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. [...] The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.” (Boutin 2008, n. pag.)

Nevertheless, the article The Blog is Dead, Long Live the Blog (NiemanLab 2013) suggests that blogs have been replaced by a growing number of social media channels that may function as blogs, but they are decidedly not blogs. Instead of blogging, internet users keep tweeting, posting to Reddit or Instagramming whilst companies build mobile apps instead of launching blogs (NiemanLab 2013). However, one could argue that blogs, defined as online diaries that allow interaction with its audience, never died, but matured instead and its phenomenon is growing, but the nature is changing (Cellan-Jones 2008). Just like before the social media became mainstream, blogging still serves its function of allowing amateurs and professionals alike to share their thoughts and have discussion with their readers. What changed is that with much bigger number of blogs and social media profiles, it is much harder to be heard unless one has something meaningful to offer (Cellan-Jones 2008). Besides, search engines need fresh and updated results that are provided by blogs and users, thus the art of blogging is still not obsolete (Chan 2010).

Since blogging is not dead, and features of blogs are not limited to those of Web 2.0, this study aims at expanding scholar research into blogging tools and

(22)

practices. Thus, further understanding of classification and features of blogs is required before we proceed.

1.1.1 Classification and features of blogs

Weblogs are written and maintained by individuals that use written text, images and embedded video to communicate with the audience (Lomborg 2009). Weblogs are also persistent since all messages and documented text is produced and stored online (Miller and Shepherd 2004; Lomborg 2009). Another important feature of weblogs is how simple they are to create and maintain, in addition to the ease of communication that takes place between author and reader via RSS feeds and comments, regardless of the blog’s topic which is a crucial factor in blog creation (Lomborg 2009).

Nowadays, blogs can literally be about anything. The blogosphere offers a great variety of topics and information that bring people together, open room for debate and the exchange of opinion. Since the blogosphere is so diverse (Lomborg 2009; Rettberg 2006), weblogs are classified based on the genre, content, reader-author relationship and stylistic elements.

1.1.1.1 Genre classification

Weblogs may be considered to be a genre of writing in their own right (Kirkup 2010) and they are classified into genres as they focus on specific subjects. For example: political blogs, health blogs, travel blogs or music blogs. Genres are very dynamic and can co-relate with other forms of computer-mediated communication (see Figure 10). Performing a genre analysis of a blog is necessary to answer such questions as what kind of audience does a blogger wish to address, who reads this blogs and why is this particular blog read and followed (Miller and Shepherd 2004). Answering these questions is crucial to determine the type of blog, what its performance motives are, who its target audience is or should be and what makes a blog functional and recognizable within the blogosphere (Miller and Shepherd 2004).

(23)

!

Figure 10: The dynamics of the weblog genre by Lomborg (2009)

1.1.1.2 Content classification

Weblogs can be also classified based on their content. Here we can distinguish personal journals and diaries, notebooks and filters (classification by Blood 2002) 14 or personal, individual, community and topical (classification by Krishnamurthy 2002, see Figure 11). This type of classification allows the reader to see what sort of content he or she can find on a particular blog. For instance:

“Personal blogs, [...] are written as a personal newsletter for the benefit of family, friends, and random strangers. Topical blogs have clearly delineated topics, because the audience expects the blogger to be on topic. By contrast, personal bloggers are not confined to one topic. Personal blogs tend to meander across a range of topics, which has implications for content classification.” (Qu et al. 2006, 1)

Notebooks are considered much longer and less personal than diaries, whereas filters consist of

14

various links to different sources across the internet that help the reader expand their search on the topic at hand (Lomborg 2009).

(24)

!

Figure 11: Blog classification according to Krishnamurthy (2002). Source: Herring et al. (2005)

1.1.1.3 Reader-author relationship classification

Further to the aforementioned classifications, weblogs are also defined based on reader-author relationship. Here we distinguish personal/private blogs (one-to-few ), 15 professional blogs (one-to-many/many-to-many ) and communicative blogs used for 16 self-therapy (Baoill 2000; Brake 2007; Lomborg 2009).

1.1.1.4 Stylistic elements classification

Stylistic elements may also be an important factor in weblog classification, where the main focus is on how content is presented (Lomborg 2009). There are, for example, autobiographical weblogs where emphasis is placed on the “I” or self-therapeutic weblogs that have an introspective narrative style (Herring et al. 2005; Lomborg 2009).

Those written and maintained privately by individuals.

15

Usually used to represent and support companies and corporations with content that is more official

16

(25)

To sum up, classification of blogs is paramount to the blogosphere just as much as the classification of literary compilations, academic text books, fiction novels and non-fiction work is important in navigating a reader around a physical library. It both separate and amalgamate the world of bloggers and makes it easy to distinguish certain blogs from other types that exist on the internet. Thus, we can see how varied and rich the blogosphere is.

By delineating the elements of each blog such that they fit into a classified system, it enables both users and other bloggers to find what they are looking for with greater ease. Not only that, this makes collaborative efforts between bloggers easier. Therefore, the bloggers can directly influence and learn from each other because of the classified system. While there are various systems for classifying blogs as was described above, each approach is both different and similar to the others. A multi-faceted classification system based on design, authorship, readership, and content allows for more specific niches to be formed in the blogosphere, allowing for further specialization.

In this light and in this current literary investigation, I wish to pursue in more depth the sub-genre of travel blogs, the main focus of this study, which is going to be analysed in the next section.

1.1.2 Defining travel blogs and their genre

Travel enthusiasts and tourists around the world can communicate their travel experiences in a variety of ways. One of the most important and most effective of them is via the internet and weblogs (Dellarocas 2003). Once considered a luxury for the wealthy and those who were paid/sponsored to travel and write, travelling and sharing quickly became a mainstream activity thanks to the internet and cheap means of long-distance transportation (Pudliner 2007; Jang 2005).

Within the last few decades, the affordability of air travel shifted from individuals in the upper class to those who earn minimum wage in most Western countries (Agredano et al. 2006). This shift allowed more frequent travel to most regions around the world become a mainstream activity for the average working

(26)

and communicate one’s journeys was another hurdle that the technological advancement of recent years made possible through the advancement of more lightweight and durable portable electronic devices that are easier to transport during travel (Brown and Chalmers 2003; Dickerson et al. 2007). The low cost of travel, light portable computers, together with free internet instant communication programs such as Skype, MSN, or Facebook chat, allow younger generations of travellers to explore the world while staying in touch with their families. This change in the travellers’ demographics led to changes in the travelling patterns, as younger generations are typically skilled in using new technologies and more likely to follow latest trends (Bennett and Maton 2010). As a result, today, reading and sharing travel experiences, be it on social media or a travel blog, has become a part of the travel experience in itself (Huang et al. 2011; Bosangit et al. 2009; Molz 2012).

However, looking at the history of travel writing, travel blogs evolved from online diaries and logs, where people could keep a record of their personal lives (Siles 2011). Although weblogs were officially introduced in 1997 (Du and Wagner 2006), travel literature dates back to the 2nd century AD , when the first travelers’ 17 experiences were written down in travel journals, logs and diaries (Percy 2012). One of the first, and thus most significant travel journals, is Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides by James Boswell from 1786, where the author describes his journey across Scotland and the islands of the Inner Hebrides (Milne 2013). This centuries-old practice of writing a journal and diary has been extended to the Web after 1995 (Siles 2011). However, online diarists did not write just for themselves as it was practiced before the 19th century, but “online diarists used the Web as a means to participate in the public sphere through the description of their own daily lives and thoughts” (Siles 2011, 5).

From the academic perspective, travel blogs have been an object of study since 2005 (Lin and Huang 2006; Pudliner 2007; Enoch and Grossman 2010; Månsson 2011; Bosangit et al. 2012). They were mostly analysed based on the content and narratives (Pudliner 2007, Enoch and Grossman 2010) or by using qualitative methods (Månsson 2011; Pan et al. 2007). They have been defined as “individual entries which relate to planned, current or past travel” and they are seen

Source: Wikipedia(accessed June 14, 2015). 17

(27)

as “the equivalent of personal online diaries” (Puhringer and Taylor 2008, 179). What distinguishes them from any other blogs is the fact they are meant to “provide information and engage the reader in the travel experience” (Banyai and Glover 2012, 268). They also consist of individual entries that focus on travel-related topics, written by an individual called tourist (Puhringer and Taylor 2008).

One of the characteristics of travel blogging genre is narrative style (Tussyadiah and Fesenmaier 2008; Bosangit et al. 2009). The narratives analysis of travel blogs is crucial to see travellers’ experiences and emotions, analyse the meaning of consumption experiences and observe the relationship between a traveler and a reader (Banyai and Glover 2012). Based on the research conducted on travel blogs (Bosangit et al. 2009), it has been observed that the narrative approach of travel bloggers towards a reader is informal (frequent use of “you”). Moreover, travel bloggers aim to communicate with an audience insofar and they want to keep a close relationship with a reader (Banyai and Glover 2012). “It is a reasonable assumption to suggest that the majority of travel bloggers are interested in sharing their travel narrative with a wide audience”, explains Magasic (2014). It has been also observed that “bloggers imbued their experiences with meaning based on previous occurrences and expectations” and deliver the content in a chronological order as their narrative starts from the beginning of their travel experience and finishes at the end of it (Banyai and Glover 2012, 270).

One of the main motivations to start a travel blog are keeping the family and friends updated on recent travels by individuals (Puhringer and Taylor 2008). It has been discovered that personal weblogs written by travellers help dealing with the stress of family at home, staying in contact with people met on the trip as well as recording memories (Axup and Viller 2005). Moreover, the research into blogging motives, behaviors and social outcomes, conducted by Tian (2009), shows that the majority of bloggers consider blogging as a life-changing experience. Moreover, the main blogging motives include documenting new experiences, expanding social interaction, improving writing and photography skills as well as having a social support and discovering new identity and personal abilities (Zehrer 2011). Although one of the most important grounds for travel bloggers are social networking, entertainment, identity construction and rewards (Bosangit et al. 2009; Bosangit et

(28)

al. 2012), the potential financial benefits of owning a blog should not be overlooked. As many scholars report, travel blogs can provide effective marketing space for the companies in the travel industry, as well as those in other industries (Pan et al. 2007; Mack et al. 2008).

Travel blogs generally differ from other types of blogs in that they mainly consist of tourists’ and travellers’ experiences in the form of narratives, images and videos of their journeys (Bosangit et al. 2012). Based on Lomborg’s (2009) content classification, they can be defined as specific-interest blogs and they belong to one-to-few reader-author relationship classification. Moreover, the majority of them are autobiographical weblogs where emphasis is placed on the “I” (Herring et al. 2005; 18 Lomborg 2009). Etramping can be an example of an autobiographical blog.

Many scholars have conducted content analysis on different groups of travel bloggers (Wenger 2008; Carson 2008; Pan et al. 2007; Choi et al. 2007; Law and Cheung 2010) with a main focus on destination choice, individual perception of different places visited, activities done, services used and mean of transport taken (Banyai and Glover 2012). Most of the previous studies aimed to gain “access to every aspect of a visitor’s trip” (from packing to arriving at the destination), experiencing “involved kaleidoscopic perception and sense of the destination” and “gaining access to the demographic profile of their visitors, specifically the Internet-savvy traveler” (Banyai and Glover 2012, 269). This study, however, will approach travel blogging from a different perspective, i.e. autoethnographical research based on Etramping. The aim of this approach is to show how travel bloggers, including me, produce and promote their content, find audience, generate income and evaluate statistics.

Additionally, based on mentioned above studies, it has been found that in the majority of cases, the main theme of travel blogs is related to different travel destinations and their images, main activities to do, services used and modes of transport (Wenger 2008; Carson 2008; Banyai and Glover 2012). Moreover, they share their positive as well as negative perception of visited places in terms of transportation, food, accommodation and hospitality (Pan et al. 2007). Other

Examples: http://www.driftingtraveller.me, http://thatbackpacker.com, http://annaeverywhere.com 18

(29)

research, conducted by Wenger (2008), revealed that the majority of content creators of travel blogs are women (65%), thus the blog posts are more reflective and descriptive (Bosangit 2011). In general, as Banyai and Glover (2012) summarize, travel blogs are more likely to express their complaints on such things as high prices, low quality of food or the weather (Wenger 2008; Carson 2008; Law and Cheung 2010).

Moreover, travel bloggers, apart from portraying their journeys, very often review and recommend products and services they used or were paid to write about (Mack et al. 2008; Huang et al. 2010; Law and Cheung 2010). In this way, they provide valuable information for the travel industry, which influences and often shapes the way other people travel (Litvin et al. 2008; Schmallegger and Carson 2008). Wegner highlights that:

“Travel blogs are becoming an increasingly important mechanism for exchanging information among tourists, and for destinations and businesses to learn about the attitudes of their markets.” (Wegner 2008)

Most of scholars see blogs as capable of influencing consumer purchase decisions in a similar way that word-of-mouth works in the offline world (Choi et al. 2007, Wenger 2008, Crotts et al. 2009). They also claim that a new way of influencing a consumer’s choice of destination or certain travel services or products is provided by travel bloggers. Thus, the tangible value of travel blogs to the travel industry comes from the trust enjoyed by the travel bloggers (Wegner 2008).

Unlike the other media outlets, blogging is perceived more as an electronic personal connection. Visitors of a particular blog may see certain personality traits they share with, or can relate to, the blog’s author. If that’s the case, it builds the confidence that if the blogger enjoyed the trip to a given destination, then the reader would likely find it enjoyable (Wenger 2008).

On the other hand, blogs’ influence is less powerful than that of an immediate friend (Volo 2010) and for the greater power of influence, more characteristics and demographics have to be shared by the visitor and an author of the blog (Wegner 2008). To measure the overall influence a particular blogger can exercise, a company should look at the number of loyal subscribers and followers. This is an

(30)

indicator of the number of people that enjoy the content produced by the blogger and deem it credible (Wegner 2008).

Travel blogs also tell stories, thus travel bloggers are often considered by some scholars as storytellers (Magasic 2014; Pudliner 2007; Banyai 2012). Every story provided by them delivers:

“an interpretive viewpoint of each traveler and their journey into the open spaces of our world.” (Pudlinger 2007, 47)

Thus,

“the duties of this role include posting regularly to maintain one’s presence, and the blogger’s imperative to frame their personal events in a way that conforms to typical travel blog discourse so as to appease audience expectations.” (Magasic 2014, n.pag.)

The process of creating content for travel blogs involves gathering both textual and visual information in the field and afterwards editing them and uploading online to the weblog with photo or videos included. However, blog’s influence and reach depends not only on the quality of the created content, but also on the way it is promoted (Stone 2002; Du and Wagner 2006; Cass 2007; Cox et al. 2008). Therefore, it is important for this study to look closer at the ways travel bloggers promote their blogs, content and their own image, through the use of self-branding practices, which are going to be discussed in the next section.

1.2 Self-branding

1.2.1 Definition of self-branding

The term self-branding and the practices of self-branding have been subjects of studies by various scholars over the last few years (Lair et al. 2005; Marwick 2010; Bassett 2014; Labrecque et al. 2011; Page 2012). However, researchers’ definitions

(31)

of self-branding vary and their understanding of self-branding is not the same due to a broad definition of a brand itself. For instance, Olins defines a brand as:

“a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service (Olins 2003),

whereas Hearn describes it as:

“a function of an image economy, where attention is monetized and notoriety, or fame, is capital.” (Hearn 2010, 42)

While their definitions are not contradictory the difference in them is crucial in defining the process of self-branding. As a result, Hearn describes self-branding as:

“the product of an economy and culture in the West intent on constant innovation and flexibility in which attention can be monetized and fame equals capital.” (Hearn 2008)

Other researchers added that it is also believed that everyone is a brand in its own right (Wee and Brooks 2010) and if individuals do not manage their own brand, someone else will do it for them, with a chance of unwanted results (Peters 1997). Thus, researchers observe that a brand is not an option anymore, but a necessity for everyone to “represent themselves as a brand” (Vaynerchuk, 2009, 9).

1.1.2 The practices of self-branding

The phenomenon of self-branding is claimed to be as old as the human race (Page 2012), but the term was first used by Tom Peters in a publication for Fast Company, and the idea of self-branding grew and spread across the blogosphere (Bassett 2014). Initially, only white-collar consulting and technology employees adopted the ideas of self-branding and self-promotion, but things changed in 2008, when this idea of promoting themselves was spread to workers from all industries as a popular career strategy (Marwick 2010). Nowadays, however, not only exclusive group of people using self-branding practices are celebrities (Hearn 2008), but in fact, everyone can create a brand and expose their skills online. There is no need to be qualified and educated to start self-branding by using one’s skills and experiences. Anyone can do that with certain strategies and practices. The only thing that an

(32)

individual needs is a unique passion or hobby that the audience may find interesting (Bassett 2014; Marwick 2010).

As self-branding practices are so accessible to everyone, social media channels are a crucial part of contemporary self-branding strategy (Ndubisi et al. 2008; Marwick 2010). The usage of social media became a new practice and phenomenon across different blogospheres including travel bloggers (Vasalou and Joinson 2009; Marwick 2010). In fact, self-branding is a very common practice among many travel bloggers seeking opportunities for their blog to expand, generate more traffic and even make blogging their full-time job (Page 2012). At first, the audience of a travel blog is usually the closest circle of a blogger such as friends and family members, but throughout the time a blog gets exposed to a broader audience and random readers as the blog's brand grows (Nardi et al. 2004b). Self-branding through social media channels gives bloggers confidence to implement and internalize different marketing practices and methods to tactically form a self-representation created for their audience (Marwick 2010). It has been observed that in case of bloggers self-branding is about strategically creating one’s identity for the purpose of promotion and acquisition of desired benefits. However, it can be portrayed as a certain way of thinking about yourself as a salable commodity, according to Marwick (2010). It is more a mindset and ideology that allows you to be part of enterprise culture in free-market mentality, than only a set of different marketing strategies to sell the product (Marwick 2010). Therefore, looking at different self-branding practices is important to discover why and how individuals self-brand and identify with their blogs (McGee 2015).

As for the question “why” bloggers want to become a recognizable public figure through the development of their brand, the urge to become popular and recognizable in order to receive financial reward seems to be the most common (Senft 2013, Marwick 2010). Marwick notices that:

“There's a lot of people out there are trying to get attention and trying to be famous. And that's just what's happening as technology enters the mainstream and now it's become a worldwide thing where the brand matters. Actually, that‘s what blogging has done. In general it is brand identity and people are paying for your brand now.” (Marwick 2010, 317)

(33)

Although for many bloggers gaining fame and money through self-branding is the main target (Deckers 2012), it can be argued that some bloggers also do it also for human and social capital , understood as becoming a respectable expert in a 19 certain field, in this case a particular travel style, destination etc. It gives them self-confidence and engagement with various communities they would like to be a part of (Khedher 2013).

The question “how can they become recognizable” was discussed by a number of researchers, and their conclusions are similar. Gall (2012) explains self-branding practices elementarily. Firstly, individuals need to understand what their brand is all about – what they are good at, what passions and skills they can brand. Secondly, individuals must learn how to express their strengths. They can do this by attending self-branding trainings as well as doing an online research. Llopis (2013) also adds that knowing your audience as well as interacting with them, is important in order to build relationships and trust. It is also believed that a properly managed and successful personal brand reflects the value this particular person is able to consistently deliver to their audience (Llopis 2013).

Overall, researchers agree that one of the main self-branding practices is creating an online space with a distinct name such as website or blog for one’s constantly updated portfolio, joining social media, producing real and reliable content while promoting it through social media channels (Marwick 2010; Khedher 2013). Marketing language that includes, but is not restricted to, catchy names and coning slogans is the key feature of self-branding (Page 2012). Various travel bloggers started to use the language of personal branding in order to describe themselves. For instance, Matthew Kepnes of Nomadic Matt (2015), one of the first travel bloggers in the industry, describes himself as a “digital nomad” because apart from travelling and blogging, he is an online entrepreneur. Another example of well-known bloggers in travel industry is a couple Dave and Deb of the Planet D (2015) who call themselves “real life potentialists” and “adventure hunters.” This kind of language is

By human capital it is meant to educate and train yourself in order to be recognized as experts in a 19

certain field, establish credibility and reputation as well as build self-confidence. By social capital is meant to incorporate broader contacts with friends, family members, work and different communities (Khedher 2013).

(34)

mainly used in advertising and marketing in order to illustrate and portray certain skills and tasks in a very appealing way so it can be easily sold or monetized (Marwick 2010).

As managing a successful brand is being a role model and a mentor as well as the voice that their followers can rely on (Llopis 2013), content creation is also an important self-branding tactic. The majority of travel blog posts are very informative and usually express a balanced perception of visited places (Pan et al. 2007). However a growing number of controversial blog posts have been reported (Banyai 20 and Glover 2012). It shows that self-branding is the product of an economy and culture where attention can be monetized (Hearn 2008).

According to many scholars, attention economy is an important aspect of the blogosphere and one of the most common self-branding practices. For instance, Mason and Rennie state that:

“We live in an attention economy. At this point in history, capital, labor and information are all in plentiful supply.” Mason and Rennie (2007, 199)

Attention economy not only allows bloggers to grow in terms of popularity and increase their position in blog rankings, but it also connects them with their audience. Active blog communities cannot be built without driving readers’ attention as the web is driven by attention economy, especially in the blogosphere (Yardi et al. 2009). Blogging is marked by competition in an attention economy, as well as generous sharing on social media channels (Cox and Blake 2011), which increases demand for high quality content from the blogger and therefore asks the blogger for more articles (Yardi et al. 2009). As the attracting attention is one of the reasons for blogging, it is considered one of the most important factors and has strategic value (Huwe 2003). Through blogs, and opinions expressed on them, people feel connected and have a chance to communicate with one another by posting a comment under the blog post. If users are not attracted to the blog, the user-generated content will never be successful as there will be no interactions between

Examples: http://annaeverywhere.com/11-misconceptions-about-mexico, http:// 20

www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-ill-never-return-to-vietnam, http://etramping.com/rather-go-hungry-eat-filipino-food-again (accessed April 9, 2015).

(35)

the readers and the author of the blog. Therefore, attention is sometimes the currency of the Internet, not the information (Mason and Rennie 2007).

Another common self-branding practice is selecting dominant features and attributes that can be exposed to audience and promoted via social media channels. Self-branding is not only about creating the content, but also about making it accessible to others, thus social media plays a major role in this process (Hearn 2011). Moreover, the majority of individuals participate in the act of self-branding via social media interactions unconsciously (Khedher 2013). Hearn (2008) argues that practices and the logic of self-branding are inflected differently on social media platforms, giving an example of Facebook. These forms of self-branding, she claims, show the erosion of any meaningful distinction between notions of the “self” and capitalist processes of production and consumption. Hearn points out that social media platform produce:

“inventories of branded selves; their logic encourages users to see themselves and others as commodity-signs to be collected and consumed in the social marketplace.” (Hearn 2008, 211)

By creating a profile on Facebook, sharing their pictures and stories, actively liking and disliking certain profiles, users reveal details that are going to be used by Facebook as an advertisement target (Hearn 2008). An individual may use branding strategies used by large firms and corporations even without realising it (Kietzmann et al. 2011), through the act of creation and maintenance of at least one social media profile. Although these self-branding practices are mainly connected to marketing, they are strongly criticized in media and cultural studies (Marwick 2010).

For instance, Lair et al. examine personal branding with a critical eye to both its affects on individuals and the control relations it instantiates on the basis of social categories such as class, gender or age and race:

“Personal-branding is unethical [...] it distorts social relations.” (Lair et al. 2005, 335)

It not only transcends class or gender, but also closes its eyes to inequalities in work environments.

(36)

publish a lot of sponsored posts, promote products and activities, thus they lost their veracity. Moreover, they are directed into consumption and attention, no longer into sharing their travel stories (Sørensen 2009; Fuller et al. 2011).

It has been also pointed out that self-branding practices limit the freedom of expression of travel bloggers (Magasic 2012). Ever since self-branding practices started to spread across the blogosphere, bloggers have been focused more on their content quality, advertising opportunities and social interactions. The impact of receiving benefits for advertising over a prolonged period of time may change the way the bloggers approaches their journeys, readers and/or blogs (Banyai 2012). While a sporadic reward for mentioning a brand would have a limited impact on the perception of the product or service in question, a regular occurrence may change this perception. Moreover, if the regularity of sponsored content becomes predictable, the blog author may develop dependency on the financial incentives it provides. For instance, a blogger would not express his/her negative opinion about an airline as it could block his/her opportunities to earn a potential sponsorship from them in the future. Some travel bloggers even claim that blogging has become their full-time job, and as such depend on the income from advertisement to pay for their living and travelling expenses (Huang et al. 2010). Thus, a lot of changes in content writing have been observed (Sloan and Kaihla 2006).

Nowadays, bloggers are told that the content of their blog must be “SEO friendly” (Basta 2011), thus the chances of their posts being found via Google search are much higher (Council 2003). Therefore, many different tactics and tools are used by bloggers in order to come up to Google’s expectations which influences their freedom of writing and expressing themselves (Jones 2008).

Another consequence of practicing self-branding is bloggers' obsession with statistics and numbers. The danger of blogging is that “some go too far into crude advocacy to other way” and as a result “the blogosphere is obsessed with measuring, counting, and feeding” (Lovink 2013, 30). Maintaining the consistent level of traffic as well as monitoring statistics seem to be one of the most important blogging aspects for the majority of bloggers (Miller and Shepherd 2004). It allows the authors to see their blogging progress and readers’ response to their content. Lectrice (2002) and Nardi et al. (2004b) also highlight that bloggers become more

(37)

aware of the fact that they do indeed have audience who they write for, thus the interest in their statistics arises. While many bloggers focus too much on statistics and numbers, some individuals may struggle with self-branding as they are not able to define their main focus and set of skills they can promote (Deckers 2012).

To sum up, the use of self-branding practices has become very common in the blogosphere for the past few years allowing travel bloggers to expand their blogs’ reach and generate both traffic and income.

To further the existing research, elaborated on in the literature review part of this thesis, I am going to conduct a further research based on the question How does

self-branding shape the way travel bloggers produce and promote blog content, find their audience and generate income? The next section will introduce the research

methods used in this thesis.

2. METHODOLOGY

Banyai and Glover (2012) indicate that in order to analyse and understand fully the travel blogosphere, different research methods should be applied. For this reason, this study will use three research methods to further the scholarly debate on self-branding practices in the travel blogosphere, i.e. software analysis, autoethnographic study of Etramping, and questionnaire.

2.1 Software analysis

This thesis aims to create a new starting point into the research on travel blogging by analysing self-branding and blogging practices in the travel blogosphere. “The path

(38)

to understanding blogs” is software analysis, claims Lovink (2007). Helmond 21 (2008) adds that:

“An understanding of blogs and the blogosphere should start and not end with an analysis of how blog software has helped to shape blogs and the blogosphere and vice versa. The understanding of blogs, blogging and the blogosphere lies in the recognition of the amalgamation of the blogger, the blog software and the blog engines.” [...] The blogosphere, as a society, is defined by its amalgamates and requires an analysis of the paths, boundaries and correlations of the blogger, the blog software and the blog engines. (Helmond 2008, 13)

It is also believed that blogging software reshapes the online community by helping weblogs, bloggers and their readers connect together (Blood 2004). For reasons mentioned above, the blog software needs to be addressed and analysed in this thesis.

2.2 Autoethnographic study of Etramping

In order to gain insights into different tools and self-branding practices used by travel bloggers, the autoethnographic method based on my own travel blog named 22 Etramping has been conducted.

Autoethnography gives the reader an opportunity to access author’s private world and provides rich data that is easy to collect and achieve since the source is researcher’s own experience (Pavlenko 2007; Plummer 2001; Ellis 2011, Méndez 2013). Moreover, this research method contribute to author’s as well as readers’ lives by making both reflect on narratives presented (Ellis 2011; Méndez 2013).

By software it is meant any set of machine-readable instructions directing a computer's processor in 21

order proceed specific operations. Source: Wikipedia (accessed June 16, 2015).

Autoethnography is one of the genres of writing and qualitative research methods aiming to 22

analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) of the author in order to understand a societal phenomenon (ethno) (Reed-Danahay 1997; Wall 2008; Ellis et al. 2011). As a genre of writing, it is characterized by first person narrative featuring emotion and dialogue (Ellis and Bochner 2000; Holt 2008). As a research method, it combines the main characteristics of ethnography (study of cultural and socio-cultural behaviours) (Akins and Beschner 1980) and autobiography (life writing) (Smith and Watson 2010) (Ellis and Bochner 2000) that is personal focus on emotions, actions and thoughts.

(39)

Thus, autoethnography is considered as a valuable form of inquiry by scholars (Pavlenko 2007; Plummer 2001; Ellis 2011, Méndez 2013).

Moreover, it is believed that any piece of research should have a beneficial or practical goal for both - the reader and the author (Méndez 2013). Since I am a travel blogger myself and there has been a close connection between between me and blog space, that the reader can experience and reflect on, conducting an autoethnographic research is an appropriate method of study. By observing and practicing different self-branding strategies with a constant use of blogging software for over 3 years, Etramping is a good example to be studied and analysed. I am trying to to look from my own analytical and self-reflective standpoint to be more aware of self-branding practices and methods used in today’s travel blogosphere. Thus, the reader is allowed to have a detailed insight into the technicality and commodification of travel blogs that would be limited by analyzing only a literature or conducting a quantitative research - the online questionnaire.

2.3 Questionnaire

Various studies of online communities and populations have increased the number and the use of online surveys and questionnaires (Andrews et al. 2003; Witmer et al.; 1999 and Yun and Trumbo 2000). Thus, they have been presented with new ideas and opportunities to apply when studying online behaviours. Nowadays, number of scholars find the Internet an excellent way to conduct questionnaires and interviews (Wright 2005).

One of the reasons for using the online questionnaire in this research was the ability to access a large group of travel bloggers simultaneously. Unlike face-to-face interviews, where researchers may struggle with meeting their target community in one specific location (Bachmann et al. 1996). Since travel bloggers are located in various places around the globe, conducting face-to-face interviews would be very challenging and it would be difficult to achieve good results using other communication channels (Preece and Maloney-Krichmar 2005). However, since all

An Analysis of Self-Branding Practices and Blogging Tools in Travel Blogosphere