Bye Bye Examiner, Hello Hmmm???

So after more than a year of frustration with The Examiner, the online site I was writing for, I decided to discontinue writing for it. The Examiner publishing tool and requirements were difficult and I haven't been paid in over a year. (They consistently lowered the pay and changed the criteria to get paid so that I was hopelessly confused at the end.)

The one advantage to having a constant outlet for travel writing was that I could write off any traveling we did that I posted something about. The disadvantage is that I was so busy trying to write something to keep up my requirements that I wasn't pursuing the bigger fish I wanted to. And if I'm going to write for free, I want to be able to have complete control. Which I didn't.

So now, I'm considering beginning my own travel blog. I would eventually like to make a little money, but I would like to be able to post links to other great articles and great deals and not make everything a full-length article. My biggest concern is that there are many other travel bloggers out there doing some amazing things. And I'm not finding myself wanting to specialize too much. But I do book travel for people on a regular basis, have traveled for business and pleasure, have children who love to travel, and read a lot about travel every day. So should I do this?

And if I do this, any recommendations on what host site to use?  I'm pretty sure I will avoid Tumblr but would love advice from anyone who knows anything on sites besides Blogger. I want ease of use, great design (though I may ask someone to design me something unique), and eventually I would want to include some ads.

I would love advice, encouragement, discouragement. Especially from those who read this blog, who would probably be my first audience on a travel blog.