Back

Want to tell everyone about your locum tenens job (and adventures) overseas? Here’s how to start a free blog.

Adventures of a lifetime can be rare. Sometimes they come up unexpected. Other times you’re planning your departure for months – like with a locum tenens assignment overseas. And once you arrive if everything is going swimmingly, complete with adventures and unique medical stories galore, you’ll probably have the urge to tell everyone you know about it regardless of where you or they are.

We understand the desire to want to share all your experiences with a friend or family member immediately. But being on a locum tenens adventure overseas it’s not always easy to talk to all your loved ones right away. And let’s be honest sometimes social media by itself can fall short. For that matter you might want your own space dedicated solely to your experience abroad, to be able to post tons of pictures and tell all your stories in one place.

What’s the answer then? Start a free, personalized blog. You can flex your writing muscles a bit all while you tell the world all about your experiences on your locum tenens assignment in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean or the Pacific Islands. Trust us with locations like that – between working your locum tenens job and your excursions throughout it all – you’ll have a captive audience.

Before we dive into the sites that offer free blogging services let’s talk a bit about the etiquette of physician blogging, some hard and fast rules so to speak. (In fact, KevinMD.com posted a great piece about this actually. You can check out the full article here.)

  1. Be judicious and respectful both when writing your blog post as well as when responding to comments on your blog. You’ll want to maintain a positive online presence as a practicing physician.
  2. Be mindful to keep proper boundaries within the physician-patient relationship. Simply put that means respecting privacy in regards to patients and medical cases.
  3. Lastly, if it ever comes up don’t give medical advice over the web. Instead refer those inquiring to seek treatment with their doctor in person or with the nearest medical center if necessary.

If your intention is to create a travel blog only for your locum tenens adventures overseas then we understand that the latter two points won’t matter as much. Still it’s important to be mindful of your role as a healthcare provider when creating a social presence online. Now that you know to be cautious in your writings let’s check out the sites that allow you to create your very own free blog.

Wix

Wix is undeniably easy to use. If you’re looking for something simple to navigate at the end of a long week full of travel and work then this is the site for you. It utilizes a drag-and-drop editor so there’s little confusion on what goes where. Plus you’re free to choose from a variety of blog templates, literally. And as long as you don’t need a custom domain name and don’t mind ads on your blog then you’re good to go. Premium services do cost extra.

WordPress

There’s not a name that says it all other than WordPress. You’ve probably heard of it by now. It does exactly what you want – blogging – and it does it well. Actually you have to do the writing yourself but WordPress does the rest. Again, along with the other blogging platforms, if you want extra features you have to buy them (custom domain name, priority support, plugins, etc.) Other than that though you can create your very own blog site relatively quickly and easily. The tools are straightforward and starting your own blog is a few clicks away.

Weebly

Weebly has been around for a while. That’s due to its ease of use just as much as its free services. As with Wix and WordPress above things like custom domain names do require a fee. But if you’re just fine with something free and easy to use then Weebly has got you covered. It’s intuitive to say the least, perhaps more intuitive than the rest of the free blog sites. You can drag and drop elements including pictures, videos, buttons, maps and contact forms to name a few.

Remember not only is the fact that you took a locum tenens job overseas unique, your perspective is unique, too. Your travel stories, your knowledge and your medical expertise will all aid in making your blog shine. Get out there and start sharing.