An open letter to our Readers:
Hello! My name is Andy. I’m the owner/operator of this website. Plus, I work as a design professional in the RV industry, and I’m an avid traveler.
I want to make you a promise: Everything you read at Changing Gears is written by a real person.
Because blogging is under assault.
THE ROBOTS HAVE COME
In recent years, advances in software technology have allowed unscrupulous webmasters to scrape, plagiarize, spin, and re-word content from around the internet. Google has estimated up to 30% of the Internet is made of duplicate content!
The latest crop of software is AI Writing Tools like Jasper, Rytr, and WriteSonic. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with an AI Writing Tool, many webmasters are using these tools to auto-generate blog posts that can pass a plagiarism check, but they’re really just regurgitations of what someone else has already written. It’s just a fancier form of copy-and-paste.
INFILTRATION OF “FAKE” RV BLOGS
As RVing and nomadic travel have grown in popularity, I’ve seen explosive growth in new RV lifestyle and how-to websites. Many of these websites do not write their own content. They publish hundreds, even thousands, of AI-generated blog posts. Many more websites may not use AI Writing Tools, but they pay college students and foreign writers a pittance to re-write popular content from other sites.
By flooding the internet with mediocre content that piggybacks off someone else’s hard work, these fake RV sites attract web traffic. They then monetize this traffic with display ads and affiliate sales, such as Amazon product recommendations.
Unfortunately, this is kept hidden from you. In fact, many of these websites are disguised as a personal blog, supposedly written by an RVer traveling around the country!
OUR PROMISE AT CHANGING GEARS
Changing Gears is an AI-free website.
- We don’t use any AI Writing Tools whatsoever.
- We don’t accept any suspect submissions from our Contributors.
- We do not spin or duplicate content from around the web.
Instead, we accept submissions from real humans with real experiences. We hire RV owners, vanlifers, digital nomads, and campers. We invite them to share their real-life experiences and advice. In fact, Changing Gears was founded by Charlie and Landra Kerekes, two full-time RVers who just wanted to share their knowledge and passion with the nomadic community.
So I thank you for stopping by. I hope you’ve gleaned some useful knowledge from those that have come before! Even though Changing Gears is small, we take our mission seriously: For nomads, by nomads.
Enjoy the open road!
Andy Herrick is a blogging nerd, #8 Enneagram, wannabe bread baker, INTJ, RV industry professional, and small business entrepreneur. He can be found hanging out with his lovely wife and family, skiing, cycling, climbing, hiking, and convincing anyone who will listen why dogs aren’t really that great of pets. Also, he runs this website.