Learn from Bloggers: Meet Allenie Caccam of Travel Anyway

If you want to learn more about blogging, the best way is to learn from others. In this series of articles, “portrait of a blogger”, I am choosing an advanced Filipino blogger to tell you about their tips, mistakes and own insights about their blogging journey. And this to help yours. As they took the time to answer those questions, I am thanking them in advance, and I am inviting you to check their website and work.

Today, we are with….

Who are you?

My name is Allenie Caccam. I have been working in the aviation industry for the last 5 years, focusing on destination marketing and route development. In between work, I travel, surf, dive and write.

What is your blog about?

The website is called Travel-Anyway, a repository of my travel itineraries and travel writings. Most of the time my travels are focused more on do-it-yourself trips since I like to do my own research and customize my travels based on my interests and passion. Aside from the travel tips, people can also read some of the poems and essays I wrote during my travels as my way of capturing the place, a memory, a moment, or an experience.

The website link is www.travel-anyway.com and my Instagram is @travelanyway.

When and why did you start this blog?

I created my website last 2015 since most of the places I visited are not popular tourist destinations. Then, most of my friends and some random people would always ask me for the itinerary.

So, I figured creating the website is a way for me to help share my passion for traveling. I named it Travel Anyway to inspire people that everyone can travel despite the excuses they give themselves. Through my travel musings, I am able to create poems and essays showing how travel can help a person’s journey towards self-awareness.   

Technical question: what hosting service and what blogging platform do you use?

I use WordPress Premium Plan and Go Daddy as host.

Some stats about your blog & social media

The top 5 viewers of the website are from the Philippines, United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and Canada. It has an average of 400-500 monthly viewers with an average stay of 1.30 minutes per visitor. Most of the traffic comes from organic search, Facebook, and Instagram.

These are all organic searches and views as I have not tried doing paid advertisements but I have tried to use more keywords.

My Instagram @travelanyway has 1.3k organic followers. I use it as a channel to share my passion for traveling and writing.  

What is your greatest achievement since the beginning of your blogging journey?

I was able to publish a book containing all the poems, essays and photos I collected over the years. I will be releasing it in my website soon!

Aside from that, I was invited as a speaker in different travel campaigns and events where I was able to share my passion for traveling.

What is your greatest failure (or worst experience) as well?

I wouldn’t say it’s a failure but more of a challenge. I am currently trying to add a shop page in my website to sell my e-book and so far it hasn’t been going according to the timeline because of payment set-up delays and website configurations.

It has been challenging but I was able to get a few friends to help me work on it in the next few weeks. I think this a challenge especially since my website functions are growing and evolving.

What would your advice to people who want to start blogging or who are new into blogging?

I’ve never thought of myself as a blogger and until now I am still battling with the concept; however, I am sure that I am into traveling and writing. The website allowed me to share my passion and my art and that is important to think about for any person who wishes to be part of this culture or community.

A clear drive or reason why you want to blog is important as it is a full-time job and it’s not always easy. It can be time-consuming but as long as you have a strong drive and a clear goal, it is worth doing. I never thought of it as a revenue-generating endeavor (though that would be good if it will be in the future), I see it as having a platform where you can show your voice, your art, and your passion.

Who are the bloggers you follow and why?

I follow mostly travel blogs that focuses on off-beaten path itineraries and has a passion to travel for the sake of traveling. What I like is that they do their own itineraries, research about the place, and are interested to interact with the locals versus the celebrity-type and organized tours. I also follow poets as they serve as inspiration to my travel writings.

Blogs / Vlogs / Instagram: Pinoy Travel Freak, The Poor Traveler, Patrick Martin, Janne Robinson, Rupi Kaur, PSImonmyway to name a few.

Most of my travel inspirations come from the people I meet during my travels. They usually tell me where they have been and I get ideas from it.

Any last word to say to the readers? 

Writing is a full-time job and blogging is an entirely different business. For whatever reason you have just make sure your heart is in it and that you’re doing it for the right reasons. Also, don’t forget to have fun doing it!

If you want to know more about this travel blogger, feel free to visit their website. And leave a comment if you like that article 🙂