It’s been a while since Travel Blog Exchange ‘11 in Vancouver this past June so I’m a bit late on the guest-post writing bandwagon. However, I know many TravelBlogs readers will be interested in some of the take-away items from the event. This post is mainly for those wanting to take their blog to the next level – be it audience, revenue, marketing, tech and so forth. You might have been blogging for a while and are now considering ways to monetise. Or you might want to promote your freelance writing abilities through your blog. It could be that you just want to focus on better content. So, without further ado, here are some tips straight from some of the TBEX speakers.
Well-known travel blogger and industry commentator, Gary Arndt from Everything Everywhere, got straight into it and said: “Advertising doesn’t work” in relation to travel blogs. He suggested looking at sponsorship opportunities from the beginning and focusing on developing your own product and personality. He even stated: “Content is not king, personality is king”. If you take this approach, you can leverage your blog to make money elsewhere instead of having to make money directly from it. For instance, Gary does a lot of public speaking engagements and believes companies sponsor him for who he is and his broader communication channels – not his site. Other tidbits included the recommendation to start an email list right away and to not forget travel is a trillion-dollar industry so there are lots of opportunities to go around.
Amanda Pressner from The Lost Girls spoke about knowledge as a value construct. She, along with her cofounders, wrote a book that was inspired by their travel blog and then went on to sell the movie rights. She thinks publications are a great way to establish oneself as a writer and editor. Like Gary, she also stressed the importance of growing yourself as a personality first while looking at sponsorship and consulting deals with companies. Amanda has gone on to join an internet start-up and recommends all travel writers take web programming classes to help navigate the digital landscape.
He holds voice, sense of humour, niches and personality (yet, another mention) as the main contenders for success.
Things got a little more philosophical when Mike Barish of Gadling, Cruzerati and freelance fame got to the crux of it by saying: “You need to figure out who you are”. He believes there is no simple way to unlock the path to monetisation but differentiation from other travel bloggers helps. He holds voice, sense of humour, niches and personality (yet, another mention) as the main contenders for success. He also pulled out the oft-quoted jokes of: “If you want to make one million dollars in travel writing, start with two million dollars” and “If you want to make it in travel writing, marry rich”. This aside, he suggested partnering with other people and taking a collaborative outlook. After all, as John F. Kennedy said, “A rising tide lifts all boats”.
Other quick tips for growth from a plethora of too-many-to-mention bloggers included gathering research using Google Surveys, Facebook Polls, Bit.ly analytics, BuzzFeed dashboards, social media outreach and more. Use the data to look at what time of the day people are sharing your stuff, and adapt to suit. Run competitions to engage your community. Above all, be aware of what you’re trying to achieve at the end of the day. You don’t have to be all things to all people, and can occupy a niche within a niche.
There might come a time when you want to take your blog content to the broader travel media. When dealing with the press, popular travel journalists and writers dished out their fair share of tips to the eager TBEX crowd. Michael Yessis from World Hum highlighted the significance of personalisation and professionalism when doing an email pitch. “Don’t scrape all of the email addresses and send through to every address at a masthead – the same journalist often receives it again and again.” He suggested sending through items that are really targeted and mention something specific. Formulaic press releases are less likely to be used than quotes from another blogger or writer.
“Converse rather than just listening”…
Jen Leo from the Los Angeles Times, who authors the Web Buzz column, recommends reading the work of the people you’re pitching too before sending something through. If you’re trying to get press for your brand, product or site – build a relationship with the journalist first and follow what they’re up too via their writings and social media updates. “Converse rather than just listening”, she affirmed. When sending files through to journalists, try using a file-sharing program or storage service like Dropbox so you don’t clog inboxes up.
Anne Taylor-Hartzell likes to search for something new, that hasn’t been covered before or of a certain angle, to feature on her luxury and family travel site Hip Travel Mama. She looks for unique items and exclusives. She suggests telling journalists why their readers should care (about what is being pitched) and to put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. Include factual information – such as links and stats in succinct paragraphs and bullet points. Don’t say: “Can you cover this?”
“When you’re on the ground, you want to document as much as you can…”
To finish, Robert Reid from Lonely Planet went through some of his travel writing tips. He always researches well and believes travel writing isn’t the same as travelling. He composes his posts and guide pieces using research about a place, quotes from locals, descriptive observations and what you do during a visit somewhere. “When you’re on the ground, you want to document as much as you can,” Reid mused. He also spoke about making cubicle travel pieces better by including people in them.
Overall, there were many gold nuggets to come out of TBEX – and only a few snippets included here. If you’d like to hear what the travel blogging industry has to say next year in Keystone, Colorado, visit: http://www.travelblogexchange.com/
About the Author:
Kate Kendall is a digital marketing and community strategist who’s currently travelling around the world. She works with Travellerspoint and also on The Fetch – what’s on city guides for the business, creative and digital communities. You can follow her on Twitter or <a href="email her here.
Editor’s Note: All photographs used for this piece are the property of the author.
© Gretchen for TravelBlogs, 2011. |
Taking Your Blog to the Next Level |
One comment |
Post categories: Tips for bloggers
Post tags: Conference, TBEX11, Travel Blog Exchange, travel blogging, travel writing, Vancouver
- Seaching for Condors in the Andes - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Visiting "The Mayor" again - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The fantasy boot in my dream of childhood - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Day 53 54 55 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- www.acb.my - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- day 22 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Hoover Dam Grand Canyon Byrce Canyon and another little incident... - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Amazing first week - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- It's Been Awhile - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Busan - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Existential Migration: Feeling at Home as the Foreigner - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Passport Chop - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Travel Photography with a Disposable Camera (it’s NOT an oxymoron) - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Miss Travel Girl - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Cape to Cairo - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Alison Travels - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- True Nomads - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- How the Economy Affected 16 Travellers in 2009 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Do Travel Disasters Make the Best Travel Stories? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Mother of All Trips - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A story by Kudra Ricketts - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Auckland City - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Another Published Article Penny - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- A Sparkling Xmas Surprise Penny - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Sandboarding - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Way Of Make Money In Runescape - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Highway 1 California - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- cancun on thanksgiven - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- On tour with Louise and Zane 46 students - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Hvad vi har lavet siden Gili - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Thailand Check. Laos here we come. - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Team America - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Tour Operator of Bangladesh Sundarbans Adventure Tour Package - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Last Leg - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Dec 13 2009 - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Latest Border News - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Wandering Soul’s Wander Tales - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Adventure Rob - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Golden Papaya - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Support Passports with Purpose 2009 - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Vagabonding at 60 - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Books that Inspired Us to Travel in 2009 - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Zululand drakensberg Lesotho and the wild coast - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- The Beautiful Higlands - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Loch Ness to Inverness and Culloden - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Aqaba The Little Merman - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Royal Deeside and the Castle Trail - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Southward in the Rain to Glamis Castle and Crail - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Iguassu Falls - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Stirling Castle and Edinburgh - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Edinburgh Old Town - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Galapagos II - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- El Chalten and Fitz Roy Massif - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Semuc Champey - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Mechanical Problems in Flight - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- "ACDC Tour Budapest without a satnav" - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Liat Airlines Stay Away - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Bariloche - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Lundi Macon - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Planning Australia Tour in Best way - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Family Fun In Breckenridge Colorado - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- 5 Weeks in Australia - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- The Movies and Music that Inspired Us to Travel in 2009 - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- A wonderful Japanes experience - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- So traveling again to a new part of the world - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Kangaroo roo roo a pinapple shake a tree.... - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Cutting wedding cost in the depression - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Pineapple Farm - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- South India Chennai Pondicherry Auroville... - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Back to Amarpurkashi Village Life... - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- MIA - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- The most northern of Thailand - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Photo's - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Trip to Marleshwar - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Season's Greetings from Berkeley - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Small hiccup - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Thailand Laos and Vietnam in Three Weeks - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- On the road again - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Part Two The Map Part Way in Cabal - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Heading Back North - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]