Being an innovator can be difficult, you’re in a tight niche with a few people you can relate to and you tend to be an ambassador for the product or service you champion.

At first it can seem great as early adopters are slowly starting to agree with your choice, it reaffirms what you thought all along.

To begin with you are a little unsure of the early majority that come along, but by the time the technology starts to become embraced by the late majority it’s time to look for a new innovation.

When the technology becomes main stream you lose interest, it’s no longer the quirky, tight knit community that you and a few other savvy users used to love so much, but a mainstream product being abused by the masses. By the time your parents start to use the technology (the laggards) you know it’s time to move on to something new and you probably already have.

Instagram Innovators

It happened recently with Instagram. Innovators and early adopters disillusioned with the product they once championed as the majority begin to use the product. It’s a well trodden phenomenon that happens with the diffusion of innovations. There is a sense that the work of early adopters was somehow superior and now being swamped by the noise being made by the masses.

This cycle is nothing new it’s something that happens to most successful products and platforms.

Innovators and Early adopters

For me, it was strikingly similar to that of the travel blogging community where I was a innovator or early adopter. At the time blogging wasn’t particularly cool and there certainly wasn’t any financial gain or blog trips to be invited on. People did it to innovate, to try something new, to experiment, we didn’t really know if anyone would even read it. Now as travel blogging is seemingly beyond the early adopter phase and the motivations for blogging have radically changed.

I’m sometimes found boring people to death at blogging events with tales of how it used to be when I first started out (2006 and 2007 with TravMonkey.com). Although this really isn’t particularly early.

At times I’ve been disillusioned with the travel blogging landscape changing so much. Bloggers following bloggers, producing the same old articles that have been produced numerous times before. It would be easy to have given up a long time ago but I believe in evolving, innovating and creating beyond that of a standard blog post is the way to be innovative. Blogging is changing.

So where are we in this curve?

I think travel blogging is crossing the early adopter to early majority stage in the cycle where innovators and true early adopters are held up as leaders.

Obsession with early adopters

Obviously as an innovator/early adopter they have more experience and a head start in terms of content, domain authority and following.

But why is there so much kudos around innovators and early adopters? Surely all that matters is the quality of what you produce in the here and now?

Yet many new travel bloggers hang on every word that those who are innovators and early adopters. Not only that but many make money off the fact that they are early adopters.

A week ago I saw first hand how comparisons to other bloggers and top bloggers are a bit of an obsession for the travel blogger. I publish a list of top travel sites in Google and made the mistake of mentioning it on a travel blogging group on Facebook. The thread and my inbox grew with requests to be included in the monthly list. Whilst a few people highlighted that bloggers should concentrate on creating something useful rather than obsessing over other bloggers most bloggers just wanted to get their request in.

For me, this is stifling. It’s killing creativity and innovation in that new bloggers copy what those did before them, no one seems to be innovating, producing something new and unique. Every day I see an article that’s been written ten times before or a new photo post, because one of the innovators/early adopters they follow so studiously do exactly that.

It’s time to innovate again

I spoke to a few bloggers in an attempt to find recent examples of an article, resource or anything from a few travel bloggers that they had seen that had that “wow” factor. Neither of the them could provide any examples. For me this spoke volumes.

Emulating those innovators and early adopters is likely to bring you limited success because every other travel blogger is doing the same. It’s a saturated market where you increasingly need something different to stand out.

Take note of what innovators and early adopters did to achieve success but it’s too late to replicate and expect to succeed, the market is saturated.

Think for yourself; create something of real value because as blogging evolves and changes, those people who will be successful are the ones that take the risk. These innovative risk takers may even leave those innovators/early adopters of the travel blogging world behind if they themselves don’t adapt to the change. So stop obsessing and start thinking. Don’t follow the herd, produce something brilliant and be a true innovator.

Photo by MrB-MMX