Travel Blogging is a crowded field and it gets more crowded by the day. After all, the idea of “getting paid to Travel the world” seems like an amazing thing to try to do. You get to visit wonderful places around the world on someone else’s dime!
A Travel Blogger is a freelance writer who maintains their own Blog site and attempts to derive income from the value in their written articles and features. The Travel Blogger must Travel to a destination country in order to obtain exciting, informative experiences which he or she will then host on their Blog site. They will also usually be required to upload good quality photography to illustrate the pieces.
Well, first, running a successful Travel Blog or any Blog in any industry is hard work and time-consuming. Putting posts up is not going to result in money falling like rain. You have to work for it. Blogging takes persistence. unless you hit the Internet “viral” lottery, you should expect to plug away for a least a year before you start to see sustainable income coming in. Building a Blog is like building any other business: success takes time, patience, and dedication.
Think of Travel Blogging like E.g.: - The restaurant business, just because there are a lot of restaurants doesn’t mean that they are all good or that you shouldn’t open one of your own. Instead, people who open a restaurant or desire to be a world-class chef look around and say, “I can do this better.” That’s the mindset you should have about your Travel Blog. Just because someone can Travel and write doesn’t mean they can write well or become a good Travel writer. No, most Travel Blogs are terrible so don’t worry about the number of Blogs out there. Worry about the quality of Blogs out there. It’s not a crowded field when you look at it that way.
Here are few steps you can do to succeed in Travel Blogging and jump ahead of the crowd in future whether its in India or outside.
1. Read a Lot of Books: - Few Travel Bloggers develop their skills by reading. Very few read any marketing, strategy, business, or self-development books. Running a Blog is like running a business, and if you don’t go to “school” and constantly learn, you’re going to fall behind. Every successful person there is a voracious reader. They constantly try to improve their skills and knowledge. Always be a student & learn.
2. Think Different: - Whatever you are going to write about, try to present that subject in a way that hasn’t been done before. If everyone is sharing sponsored content, don’t. If everyone is writing text, make a video. If everyone is serious, be funny. If everyone has complex designs, go simple and visual. If everyone is doing one-off Blog posts, create a story through a series of posts that keep people coming back for more. Always innovate — do something different and unique. One thing here that makes you different is that you put (what you think) a level of detail into your posts that no one else does. you make posts the ultimate guides on destinations. You add photos, charts, and maps when you can. you add video. Contact information. Many Bloggers just provide a light dusting of information. You go deep
3. Invest in Your Blog: - You avoid spending any money on the website. you’ll just create a crappier design yourself. Pay for designers, SEO auditors, conferences, video and audio editors, copy editors, and much more. This allows you to improve the reader experience, develop useful products, work on other projects, and free up time to write. But if that conference results in one strong business connection that leads to new sales or a guest posting opportunity, then the conference is worth it.
4. Be Niche: - You could cover a wide range of Travel topics and face little competition. but there was only a handful of Bloggers. Now, there are too many long-established Blogs and websites to do that. So, being as narrow and focused in your topic is possible. In fact, being niche now is better than trying to be a more general resource site. Moreover, focusing lets you become an expert. You can be the person to whom readers always turn for information on this subject or that destination, which allows you to cultivate a bigger presence online. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Go narrow. Go deep.
5. Create Products: - Businesses sell something and so should you. Whether it’s a course, a book, t-shirts, tours, or just other people’s products via affiliate marketing, give your audience an opportunity to support your website. Offering products for sale allows you to be independent from sponsors and brand deals and not compete with other Travel Bloggers for spots on press trips. It allows you to scale your website and your revenue. Many products offer value to your readers and viewers by going more in-depth and in detail than a Blog post usually allows. There are very few Travel Bloggers that produce products. Most of the time, Travel Bloggers end up making money by creating sponsored content and getting paid to go on trips., but that is time-consuming and requires you to be constantly working. Products allow you to create something once and earn revenue while sleeping, sightseeing, or getting a suntan on a beach! They give you ownership of your income and a chance for your readers and viewers to buy something from you and give back. Your viewers want to support your hard effort and that is just you need to give them a way.
6. Work with Brands: - Sometimes people won’t care and will follow your adventures no matter what, but a larger majority of people will feel that you can’t relate to their experience and will seek to find information elsewhere. Consumers want relatable and independent Travel content because they want to learn that they can make it happen too. Sponsored trips, Blog posts, and one-off brand deals will help you Travel and provide eye candy for your readers but it won’t create the expertise and relatable experiences that will have them coming back to you over and over for concrete advice or product purchases. A pure Travel Blog gets huge by only taking sponsored trips. The most successful Bloggers in many niches avoid one-off partnerships and sponsored content because it dilutes their authenticity.
7. Network Outside of Travel: - Networking with other Travel Bloggers can help you become better known in the industry, but by reaching outside of the industry, you can be the Travel person everyone else turns to for quotes, interviews, and advice. And that is going to pay more dividends than just sticking to Travel conferences. Find where your expertise overlaps with other industries and meet the successful leaders in those industries. Then you can find people, who know nothing about Travel and be their Travel expert on their websites. It’s how you can connect with so many finance, entrepreneurship, and tech experts. Here are some good conferences to attend:
SxSW (Tech)
FinCon (Tech)
VidCon (YouTube)
WDS (Entrepreneurship)
BlogHer (Women’s Blogging conference)
Craft and Commerce (Entrepreneurship)
TravelCon (The best Travel conference ever)
8. Stop Talking About Yourself: - While running a Blog means you are going to say “I” a lot more than in magazine or newspaper writing, that doesn’t mean you should write only about yourself. If your Blog is solely a journal or trip down memory lane, write about anything you want. But if you’re looking to run a professional Blog that creates a sustainable business, remember that it’s not all about you. It is and always will be, about the people reading your website. Whether that is by providing practical advice, telling them a good story, or making them laugh, remember that it’s all about how you can be in service to them. If you are going to write about yourself, do so sparingly or relate it to the bigger picture of Travel on the road. Don’t write about your new shoes, what food you ate, your thoughts on whatever, or the mundane details about your life. Few people really care about that. But at time when you read writers, because they connect with us on an emotional level, tell good stories, and allow them to visualize themselves in the places they talk about it. Far too many Travel Blogs are a glorified personal diary but the most successful ones tell stories of places and better their reader’s Travel experience.
9. Be Persistent: - E.g. Home wasn’t built in a day — and your Blog won’t build itself overnight either. Maintain realistic expectations about your Blog. Don’t expect anything but hard work for the first year. Don’t rush. Build something that will last. The light is always at the end of the tunnel, but too many people give up right before the end.
Go back to you early work, when you start something for the first to do something realistic, or for learning some bit, then you realize that you literally suck in it that is mean god-awful. There is a big difference between the content you produced then and the content you produce now. Sucking at first is part of the journey. You aren’t going to be great out of the gate. And a lot of Bloggers, expecting instant fame and success, give up. They never do. You can see it all the time. The reason most Bloggers fail is not because they have bad content but because they give up. They don’t want to put in the time to succeed. Part of success is just outlasting everyone else. Be patient. Put in the time. And you’ll reach your goals.
Rasika Kokare (BMM)
Wilson college
Email address: rasikakokare5184@gmail.com
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