The Bong Trippers take a brief and make it their own

Naming themselves The Bong Trippers helped the duo depict their place of origin as well as the stories weaved into their journey of life.

A regular day for The Bong Trippers duo includes a full day in office, followed by events and meetings. On weekends, they plan ahead, schedule posts, plan content, discuss collaborations and edit photographs. The love and support they get from their followers and friends ensure they keep going despite the lack of time. In the beginning, they only wrote about food but have over time expanded the blog's scope to lifestyle, corporate and travel, among other things.

Looking back, where did it all begin? 

The origin is difficult to trace for I have been writing about food for a long time now, across food platforms. But the need for a blog, the awakening, and the locating took some time. If we’re counting from the birth date for our blog, it would be over 3 years!

What's in the name? 

Since our origin was a food base, we had a very food-centric name. The shift happened once we made up our minds for the kind of work our blog would project. The variety we would showcase. Today, our name depicts our place of origin, Kolkata, and our stories weaved into our journey of life — The Bong Trippers.

What is your USP in this cluttered space? How does your content give you an edge?

That’s for our followers/readers/friends to decide! We are here because we’re creating edged content, and they are enjoying it! And, the content is getting better. Today, we’ve forayed onto lifestyle, corporate, travel, budgeted things etc. and the response has been more than overwhelming!

Please take us through your content creation process. How do you stay relevant and relatable?

No dedicated process as such. But we make it a point to pass on something relevant, every day! It could be a piece of news from our daily life, a project we worked on, a trip we took, a brand we worked with. Posting across our social media channels every day is quite important to constantly stay connected with your followers. This is a direct feedback channel; the more you work hard, the more love, and motivation you receive!

How do you make moolah with your efforts?

The profession we’ve chosen involves a lot of hard work, time, planning, and dedication. It is only fair to earn while pursuing it! Paid brand collaborations and consulting are our main sources of making the m-word!

Also Read: Don’t start blogging just because others are doing it: Sharadh, Manchibaba

How do you maintain editorial objectivity with the influx of brand briefs?

Thankfully, money doesn’t make us sell our blog! We take a brief, and understanding from them, and create our own. Sometimes, we also depict as per the said requirements, but only if it makes sense aesthetically. If we are open to hearing the brand out, the brand also respectfully hears us out. This has not been a problem until now.

One instance/experience that made it all worthwhile

Quite a few! As we said, it’s the direct feedback. The response we get is our biggest earning! I love how people say “We followed your write up/post, and went with family. We had a great experience” etc.

Weirdest brand brief/request ever

I remember about this detergent collaboration. They were like, we cannot send you the product, do not have a budget, but you’ll be required to post 10 pictures cleaning clothes.

If not blogging, you would be?

We’re both into a 10-6 job, working with MNCs. Hence, juggling between both is a real challenge. 

A day in your life...

We are in the office since till evening. Post that, there are events. We generally try and close consulting meetings on weekdays, which leaves the weekend for events, and the real work — scheduling posts, planning content, discussing collaborations, editing photographs etc. 

Message/tips for upcoming bloggers

A DM almost every day comes in, asking how can they have a life like ours! It scares me because they only see the glitz, and glamour, and not the struggle behind it. They think it’s easy.

Our advice would be, this a job where you’re the boss as well as the employee. Work hard, be honest, and respect people. Choose this as a career only if you’re serious about pursuing it.

Your Favorite Influencer

Quite a few, actually! 

The Future you foresee for your Personal Brand

So far, we’re blessed that our graph has been rising in the upward direction. We hope to grow the team, and yes, YouTube is our plan, next!