Random Traveller #35

Welcome to round 35 of ‘Meet a Random Traveller’. The series dedicated to bring attention to fantastic people all around the world doing their thing.

Random Traveller 35

Who are you?
My name is Amanda Williams, and I’m a 24-year-old journalist and blogger with a big passion for travel. I’ve lived in rural Ohio for most of my life, growing up on a Christmas tree farm next door to a mobster (I promise, it sounds much, much cooler on paper than it was in reality).

The travel bug bit in high school, and I went on my first major trip right after graduation – 2 weeks in New Zealand. Through college, I traveled as much as I could, going to places like Italy, Ireland and even China. I studied abroad in New Zealand my senior year, and seriously considered never coming back. But here I am, still in Ohio, working as an editor at a small newspaper. It turns out that the whole steady-paying job thing is sort of important…

I plan to go back to school this fall to get my master’s degree in hospitality and tourism, which hopefully will help me realize my dream of making travel a more permanent fixture in my life.

Amanda

What’s the deal?
I, like many travelers before me, began blogging when I studied abroad in college as a way to keep my friends and family at home up-to-date on my adventures. My blog entries were your typical, “here’s what I did today” posts, and it wasn’t until February 2010 that I decided I wanted to give a different sort of travel blogging a go. I started my site, A Dangerous Business (http://www.dangerous-business.com), on WordPress, and spent the first few months struggling with how to turn my travel experiences into writing that people would want to read.

In May 2010, after posting infrequently and having virtually no readers, I got inspired. I began reading a lot of other travel blogs, and started to realize that people were turning travel blogging into careers, and not just hobbies. In July, I purchased my own domain name and took the leap into self-hosted blogging. It was definitely the best decision I could have made.

Today, my blog is like a child – growing, evolving, and at times making me both incredibly frustrated and ridiculously proud. Since I’m not currently traveling, I write about my past travels all over the world. My site consists of travel stories, tips, photos, a few videos, and plenty more. I also do weekly blog and news round-ups, and interviews with travelers – kind of like this! The community aspect of blogging is my favorite part, and I love connecting with my fellow travel bloggers.

Alaska

What’s your most memorable travel experience?
What kind of question is this? An impossible one! So many experiences come to mind. Like the time I performed in a marching band concert on the Great Wall of China. Or the time I lost my tour group in Rome and ended up being the designated guide for some friends all around the city. Or maybe that plane flight I took over the snow-covered Southern Alps in New Zealand on a perfectly clear day. I can’t possibly pick just one!

Lonely Planet has hired you to move away and write a guide book for a single country – New Zealand was taken – which do you chose? (and why)
New Zealand was taken?? Bastards. Well, if I couldn’t claim New Zealand, I would probably want to pick a country I’ve never been to, but that I have a keen interest in visiting. Maybe someplace like Turkey or Croatia or South Africa. I think it would be great to experience a country as a first-time traveler myself, and then write about it from that perspective. I think everything would be much more authentic that way. Plus, it would be great to get paid to explore some of those places!

You’ve been bungy jumping twice, any plans to jump out of a plane?
Definitely. I actually really wanted to go sky-diving in New Zealand, but I simply ran out of money. I could easily find someplace in Ohio that would help me jump out of a plane, but I feel like I should hold onto my sky-diving virginity, and lose it in a truly epic place.

Sydney

What’s the plan for 2011 and beyond (if you can look that far ahead)
I’m in Hawaii for the beginning of February, where I’ll be visiting a friend and exploring the island of Oahu for a week. I’m hoping to use this trip to take my blogging to a whole new level – I want to post a lot, and do some serious video work on this trip.

March will hopefully bring a weekend trip to Chicago with an old college roommate, and then I’ll be heading to the TBEX conference in Vancouver in June. I’m really, really excited to meet some of my fellow travel bloggers, and hopefully network my butt off.

Then, before grad school takes over my life this fall, my sister and I are taking a massive road trip across the U.S. in August, going from Ohio to California and back in a couple of weeks. The details are still vague at this point, but we plan to see and do as much as we can possibly pack in.

As for my blog, I hope to continue improving it, both in content and reader interaction. I want to really take advantage of social media, and beef up my Facebook page a bit more (come be a fan!) in order to reach out to more people and hopefully inspire them to travel, too. And, if I can make a little extra money in the process, well, then that’s just icing on the cake.

A big thanks to Amanda for taking part, great to have you.

Be sure to check them out:
Blog: A Dangerous Business
Twitter: @dangerousbiz
Facebook:/adangerousbusiness

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