The one is going to be a rather long one. If you’re strapped for time, skip the intro and go straight to your preferred sections. If on the other hand, you have a coffee with you and are sitting comfortably; then you might want to consider the finer details.
I am definitely not the first foreigner living in Việt Nam or even Đà Nẵng to attempt to create a blog to document my experiences. Those who are better looking than me or care little for their dignity will get on YouTube and probably even do well enough with that ad revenue to quit their day jobs (or merely not have to teach English part-time). Yet, it remains that there are quite a few Đà Nẵng related websites or blogs that are effectively lying around dead. This for me is tragic, I was hoping for some nice articles to read that are not written by those who work for the tourism board or are foreign college students with large breasts, special dietary needs and a bad taste in jewellery, tattoos or hair colours.
The motivation behind this article is not to slander them or mock their demise, but consider the possible reasons for their struggles. Without direct access to those that have been here and have tried before, I can only make a few educated guesses about the difficulties that they have faced.
They simply aren’t needed anymore.
In the past, websites and blogs represented the main source of English language information for expat communities. Nowadays, a separate Facebook group can be formed for free. WhatsApp groups offer more of an intimate chat room experience among all a tighter knit group of people, such as long term residing English teachers.
Localised expat media used to be the exclusive place for expats to read reviews of restaurants, bars and other venues or look up a directory of them. Now, TripAdvisor provides this function for almost every city in the world.
Freeloaders and the quest for quick profits.
I’m not going to point the fingers at people that I do not even know in Đà Nẵng. However, almost every city in China that I had previously lived in had at least one expat blogger or journalist that would visit many a very average kind of foreign restaurant, give them a suspiciously good review and never get round to reviewing many a decent place that was already known by many in the local area.
It is an open, dirty secret that many of these writers were abusing their position to get free meals or kickbacks; they would usually target foreign restaurant managers who were almost entirely dependent on an expat clientele rather than locals. A never-ending stream of newbies dictated that there will be always be an audience waiting for them.
In a time and age when everybody is free to publicly publish their own review on TripAdvisor or comment in Facebook groups; the need to consult the opinions of an external food reviewer no longer remains. Some will continue to try their luck, but we can usually spot these cretins a mile off. The fact is that people probably love the authenticity of a genuine, short review that is absolutely riddled with typos than something flowery, poetic and edited by a professional author who is just grateful to get his belly filled.
Some of us may call ourselves ‘foodies’ and only trust the opinions of respected food authors and will often find ourselves nursing a semi at the very mention of the possibility that the late, great Anthony Bourdain apparently once briefly looked at a place for all of 5 seconds when he walked down that street one time, never mind actually even eating there and filming it. However, the rest of us probably just want to know three things: 1.) Does the food taste OK or is it just dogs**t?; 2.) Will they rip me off?; 3.) Will this give me a deadly incurable disease? It is here that the work of a professional writer is simply not required.
It can be hard work
Many people will state that writing is not a real job. If you’re writing poetry or some little known genre of erotic fan fiction to be self-published on Amazon; the more cynical amongst us may have a valid point. If you’re one of those smart people that can actually do such a thing and get paid; I take my hat off to you.
Those who do write write or involve themselves in activities such as web design, social media marketing, photography etc may understand that it can be really tough to keep up with a demanding work load. For those that are stupid enough to make a rather large website as a one man job (like I once tried to do a few years ago); you will find that the need to multi-task isn’t just some wonderful thing that enables you to develop skills. It will absolutely kill you and in the end, you’ll have to either give up or get others on board.
This is especially the case if your website or god forbid, printed publication actually needs to make money or fulfil a determined purpose that also usually leads to somebody else making money. Writing a blog post every day might not be such hard work; offering a decent, good one everyday without a team of writers to prevent monotony or burnout on the part of an individual author can be more challenging.
If you’re aiming to genuinely help expats by providing a directory list of establishments; adding every single place to that list is going to take A LOT of time and effort. If you’re running your blog for the sake of doing online marketing work, you’re going to have to do some sales work to get these establishments on board with your idea. Many of the establishments featured in such directories (in the hospitality business) have a ridiculously high rate of turnover; when you add a new venue, another one has probably just closed and it can be difficult to stay on top of the general goings on local F&B scene.
Believe me, I once tried to do that and failed. Nowadays, TripAdvisor or the likes of Dianping in China or Foody.vn in Việt Nam allow establishments to do all the work and submit the relevant information for them. They’ll have a superior, established, user friendly interface that your lower level local operation will struggle to match. You will have your website hosted on the servers of some generic hosting companies; while they’ll be able to invest millions in dedicated infrastructure to run their apps and websites faster and more reliably than a small local service could ever dream of doing.
You’re not helping anybody
We have already discussed those freeloaders who were out for a quick buck. We’ve also established that some websites are created with the intention of making money via advertising on their pages.
No grudges are held by myself towards the latter group of people when they are honest about what they do. We all need advertisements to be made, to be shown, to be viewed. Sometimes we even need to view advertisements ourselves to get vital information; especially about those all important happy hours. If you’re in it for the money, I actually respect you far more than some pseudo-hippy that claims to be saving the world.
Many bloggers or web designers don’t really make a huge profit on their sites but could be admired for wishing to help follow foreigners find their way around or settle in. They could be admired, but I’d rather show them empathy instead, as they are trying hard to deliver value to others; yet are ultimately wasting their time.
People get all their information from those previously mentioned big name apps or from word of mouth. Few people are going to make the effort required to search for a dedicated website about the city of Đà Nẵng. What’s more, it is often clear that you’re doing this not solely out of the goodness of your own heart, you’re usually expecting some kind of attention or admiration in return. Simply telling people where they can go to eat vegan sausage rolls, buy reusable toilet paper or drink craft beer made from the tears of abandoned orphans won’t deliver value when a simple enquiry on Google maps can lead the way.
Why I’ll still do it.
The whole blogging thing started out as a hobby for me and ultimately will remain that way, regardless of how its uses can be applied elsewhere. This blog is written by myself and possibly even for myself. While that may sound like literary masturbation, but it is better to express oneself on a blog like this with longer, meaningful posts than sharing a few selfies and memes on a typical lame social media website.
What I would rather share are my thoughts and opinions and if I can entertain a few people by triggering a few others with the way that I express my viewpoints, then so be it. Being a people pleaser can be rather lame; but if one can provoke thought and discussion from others, then it is not time that is totally wasted.
Meanwhile, I will keep my promise to not slander any of the rival websites regardless of whether they are still running or been inactive for a while. Instead, I shall occasionally discuss the relevant content from elsewhere that I actually like. Besides, I can’t write everything, can I?
Đà Nẵng Diaries 