Why not start your own blog? Boak & Bailey claim that you can, and I believe they are right!

Here’s an interesting challenge for you all, because veteran bloggers, Boak & Bailey have made it their mission to encourage people to write about beer – get them blogging for want of a better description! The pair claim, quite rightly in my opinion, that anyone can decide to write about beer. The couple say that posting on your own blog, that you own and manage, is the best approach, and very much an antidote to the problems of social media and platforms “run by arseholes” (their words, rather than mine, although I whole heartedly agree with the sentiments expressed.)

The duo advise starting your blog quietly, and then building up gradually, which is what I did, when I started my own site, back in November 2008. I’d been writing my own material for quite some time, prior to starting Paul Bailey’s Beer Blog – the rather unimaginative original title for Paul’s Beer & Travel Blog. I had also edited two local CAMRA branch publications, a task that involved, in both cases, writing most of the copy. 

For the record, those publications were “Draught Copy” – the Newsletter of Maidstone & Mid-Kent CAMRA, and “Inn View” the branch magazine of West Kent CAMRA. Both publications were successful, in their own right, although the Maidstone newsletter had been around for quite a few years, before I took over the reins. Inn View, started as a branch effort, but the mantle of chief copywriter soon fell to me. In both cases the services of a friendly and sympathetic printer, were essential, as was the army of volunteers responsible for delivering the publications to CAMRA – sympathetic pubs.

Blogging is obviously a lot easier, and involves little in the way of physical effort, as apart from the necessary research, nothing could be easier that sitting in front of your PC, in the comfort of your own home, bashing out a post or two. Spicing it up with a few, photos to illustrate the post, add further depth and interest to your blog, although to avoid falling foul of the UK’s strict copyright laws, make sure they’re your own snaps, rather than lifting one straight off the web.

Before going any further I want to make special mention of a former blogger, called Paul Garrard. Paul was the person responsible for getting me interested in blogging in the first place, via his excellent, but now sadly long defunct Real Ale Blog. Paul hosted this blog for a number of years, and it was in response to a request on the site for guest writers to contribute articles, that led to me becoming involved. As mentioned earlier, I had been writing articles on beer and pubs, for a number of years, with the aim of eventually getting them published, so it wasn’t a massive leap of faith to get one published, online.

Spurred on by Paul’s request, I emailed him, one of these articles, and a day or two later, was delighted to see it posted on the Real Ale Blog. I followed this original post with a couple of other articles, one of which was freshly written, and on a topical subject. I hadn't at the time, intended to start my own blog, but after looking into it, and discovering how easy it was to open a Google account, I took the plunge and set up a blog of my own. I chose Google’s Blogger as the platform to host my new creation, primarily because that was the one Paul Garrard was using. In addition, I wasn’t even aware of alternatives, such as Word Press.

Those initial posts were fairly basic, as it took me a while to discover how to upload photos, but the platform was easy to use, as well as being free, so I bashed out a few more posts, and the rest, they say, is history. With small steps to begin with, plus a few very welcome words of encouragement in the Comments Section, I was raring to go. One of the first commentators, was Paul Garrard, congratulating me for taking the plunge. Another was veteran blogger, Tandleman, a real character and one of the few writers from those early days, who is still posting today.

I only made eight posts in that first year (2008), although in defence, I didn’t start writing articles until November of that year. The following year saw 80 posts, followed by 90 in 2010.  I hit a rough patch in 2011, before bouncing back in 2013, when I passed the magic 100 posts, in a year. That figure has remained at around the 110 – 130 mark, with my highest total for a single year, hitting 150 in 2017.

Going back to those early days, for a moment, I’m not sure what happened to Paul Garrard. I’m assuming that he just lost interest. Online searches reveal very little about him, but despite is disappearance this was an individual who deserves credit for his early efforts, and boundless enthusiasm. I met up with Paul, in Maidstone, back in 2009, at the Rifle Volunteer, an unspoiled back street pub, owned by Goacher’s Brewery.

Despite his relatively young age, Matthew insisted on coming with me, after all meeting up with someone, I’d only chatted to online was fraught with all kinds of danger – or so he thought! Talk about a vivid imagination, even though he had my best interests at heart. Like Eileen and I, Paul Garrard had run his own beer shop for a while, although by the time we met, he had moved on to something else. I’m fairly certain that Paul’s shop was located in Norwich, although I never found the time to ask him.

Coming back to the “now”, blogging is much more than a numbers game though, and my prime aims remain to inform, and entertain those who call by and click on the blog.  I find it quite relaxing to write, and whilst there are the odd lean patches, it’s not often that I find myself “lost for words.” I’ve also met some really nice and interesting people, and have enjoyed shared experiences with them, days out – usually to classic pub towns, plus the occasional night away from home. As a “hobby”, if that’s what you wish to call it, then I can thoroughly recommend it, but blogging is far more than that, and in ways that are often difficult to describe. My blog is as much a part of me as I am of it, and long may it continue!

Footnote: Clicking on this link will take you to the very first post on Paul’s Beer Travels – or Paul Bailey’s Beer Blog as it was formerly known. Looking back, that initial article seems a little amateurish, which it almost certainly was, but everyone one has to start somewhere, and that represented my first tentative steps along the road to where I find myself today.