Travel Blog Announcements: What’s in Store For 2013!

2013 travel blog, 2013 Indian travel bloggers

2013 has started on a high note for me professionally; my travel story about a small Himalayan town got published across four glossy pages of the January issue of the National Geographic Traveller India magazine, and New Woman India magazine ran a page-long feature on my journey from a cubicle to the road in their first issue of the new year! I haven’t yet set out of Delhi (for good reason, you’ll see in the updates below), but I shall soon be announcing my very first (and very exciting) travel adventure of the year, fingers crossed.

On the blogging front, I’m working on making my blog both more interactive and more informative, so we can continue the inspiration to embrace the road. I’d love to hear your thoughts on all the new things I have in store for you on The Shooting Star:

1. More of Delhi.

Most of us are notorious for ignoring the treasures in our own backyards, and I’m no exception. In 2012, I took every opportunity to get out of the city and explore the nooks and corners of India, returning only to bury myself in work till I could travel again. While I’ll continue to do the former this year, I’ll be getting out and about a lot more within Delhi itself, and I have the perfect motivation too – I’ve landed a gig as a Forbes Travel Guide Correspondent for New Delhi! I’ll be on a mission to uncover Delhi’s hidden treasures, and I’ll be looking for inputs and recommendations on Facebook and Twitter. If you’re an amateur photographer whose lens has captured the best of Delhi, we should talk.

Delhi photos, New Delhi photos, Delhi photo gallery
Photo credit: Pranav Bhasin.

2. Guest Posts on The Shooting Star.

This is me making peace with the fact that I can’t travel everywhere in this lifetime, and definitely can’t write about all of it (as much as I’d like to). I’m now accepting guest posts on The Shooting Star – travel stories and photo essays – that are likely to inspire fellow travellers and readers. These will typically be high-quality, captivating stories around destinations and themes not yet covered on this travel blog, and while there is no compensation for such posts, I will do my best to provide an engaging platform for you, and share your writing, links and profile on my social channels to drive greater readership and following for you. The guidelines will be up soon and updated here. This also means that you’ll get to read more varied experiences here from around the world, than just my own.

travel bloggers, Indian travel blogger, top travel bloggers India
Photo credit: Daniel Sandoval

3. Interviews With Fellow Travel Bloggers.

Towards the end of every month, starting January, I’ll be featuring a travel blogger who has inspired my own blogging journey in some way, with questions specific to destinations they’ve travelled to, challenges they’ve tackled while starting their blogs, and seeking advise for newbie travel bloggers and travel enthusiasts. Stay tuned!

travel blogging, travel bloggers
Photo credit: Michael Gil.

4. Ask Me Anything.

My first “Ask me anything” received a pretty overwhelming response, with questions pouring in on all kinds of topics related to travel; I still have pending questions that I couldn’t get to answering in December! Going forward, I shall make a conscious effort to address these questions in the first week of every month. You can continue to send me your questions with the subject ‘Ask me anything’ – via email at [email protected].

top travel blogs India
Photo by Marco Bellucci.

5. Crowd-sourced Posts.

In the spirit of making my travel blog more inclusive and interactive, I’ll be sourcing travel tips, recommendations and experiences through you, and compiling those to write crowd-sourced travel posts, with credit and links back to you. Look out for a chance to contribute to these through my Facebook and Twitter channels, and put together some great pieces for The Shooting Star!

indian blogs
Photo by Sherman Geronimo-Tan.

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What are your thoughts on the coming features on The Shooting Star travel blog?

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Join The Shooting Star’s travel adventures in 2013 on Facebook and Twitter.

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29 Comments

  1. Fantastic, Shivya!!! looking forward to all these as well as loads of posts from you this year!!!

  2. Congratulations on being published. This is very exciting! I look forward to your posts in 2013

  3. Congratulations on being chosen as Forbes Travel Guide Correspondent for New Delhi! Love your blogging plans for 2013.

    1. Thanks Nadia, I’m looking forward to discovering and writing more about Delhi 🙂

    1. It has been! Looking forward to your virtual company!

  4. Congrats Shivya on the new gig and the new adventures (virtual) in 2013 🙂 Have loved reading your blog for a couple of months now and will look forward to all the new stuff. I’ve already planned a holiday in wayanad/north kerala this year and my Excel holiday planner says “book thro india untravelled”:)

    1. Thanks Aparna, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed reading The Shooting Star so far! It’ll be great to see you explore India Untravelled too 🙂

      PS: Our North Kerala trail is currently the most popular and pretty much gets booked out on public holidays / long weekends, so if your dates fall in the busy time, please reserve it sooner than later!

  5. Boy you are famous now 😛 Congratulations on getting published ! I look forward to reading the shooting start in 2013 😛

    1. Haha, *blushes*, thanks Ruchira! Hope to run into you on the road sometime 🙂

  6. jennyshetty says:

    Great. looking forward to all the above!!! and congratulations on the great start of the year!

  7. anishajayadevan says:

    Awesomesocks!!! Congrats, shivya. I love the sound of crowd-sourced posts.

    1. Thanks Anisha! I’ll look forward to your participation in those 🙂

  8. congratulations for all the achievements, you really deserve! 🙂

    And, I am shifted here, in Delhi, few weeks before, & love photography; so thanks for this beautiful opportunity. Looking forward!

    1. Thanks Gayatri 🙂

      Great, if your photos are already uploaded somewhere, please send me a link at [email protected]; on the lookout for pictures already!

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