Nobody wants to read some guy’s personal blog.
I learned that lesson quickly when I started writing in Fall of 2009. Having just bought my first house in Baltimore, my career was taking off. I was spending half my time sailing around the world on merchant ships. My circle of friends was still young enough that marriage, kids and responsibility was not a concern for most of us. We were already seven years into running our own art and music collective. Most of my nights were taken up with punk rock shows, gallery openings, author readings and various other cultural events. I thought it was all pretty interesting.
I tried blogging as a way to share the exciting things that were happening around me. After about a week I realized it doesn’t matter how cool or interesting you are. Nobody wants to read your personal blog.
Did you ever read David Byrne’s blog? He’s one of the coolest and most interesting people in America. His life is fascinating but his blog has always been a giant snooze. Personal blogs are just kinda boring by nature.
After that first week at the keyboard The Baltimore Chop started in earnest. It turns out that when you write about your own life through the frame of the city, people do take notice and want to read about it. You get complete editorial control and you can slide in some of your personal opinions around the edges but mostly people want to know what’s going on around town.
The Next Chapter
The Chop was successful and I enjoyed writing a city blog about my hometown. Eventually I stopped enjoying life in Baltimore for reasons that are detailed on that site. It is difficult to keep making positive posts when you’re surrounded by so much negativity. I sold my house and moved to Nashville in 2019.
Nashville is nice but it still doesn’t feel like home. What it does feel like is a great place to be based for travel. I’m out of town now more than I am in Tennessee. Eventually I figured if I’m going to do the traveling anyway I might as well post about it.
That’s what you’ll get on this site. The posts are about cities, hotels and attractions throughout the country and around the world. But they are posts about places I have visited. I’m only going to places I want to visit, and only writing about places I’ve been. In that sense, it’s personal.
Where’s the Ice Machine is a hobby for me. I’m not depending on it for income so I’m not compelled to make content for content’s sake. I’m not being paid by hotel brands or given free trips for review. The travel blogging niche is overcrowded but I do believe there’s always room for more honest and unfiltered voices describing interesting places. I’m glad you’re here and I hope you’ll follow along.
When you’re striking out on your own every click, share and social media connection makes a difference.
