Being a content writer for a destination marketing organisation may seem glamorous to some but it’s not all safaris, spas and free trips. Sometimes, despite experiencing all that this beautiful country has to offer, at the end of the day we still have to sit down and put the experience into coherent words that not only read well but sell the destination or activity. You then have to promote it via various social networking platforms.
So how do you get your blog noticed? How do you ensure that your link is clicked on and that people keep coming back for more? Also if it’s a private blog, how do you earn revenue from it and will it be sustainable income? All these questions filled my mind as I awoke early on Saturday morning to attend the second Getaway Travel Blog Conference (GTBC) in Cape Town.
Skipping my planned early morning rugby viewing, I joined more than 100 other tourism, travel bloggers and marketers to hear just how to become a successful travel blogger. I was not disappointed.
Tips to becoming a travel blogger
1. The travel blogging community is fairly young but informed and friendly.
Although it may seem a bit daunting, the travel industry is no longer made up of old fogies reporting on the best wine regions or pensioners writing for National Geographic in their spare time. It’s all about the modern age and knowledge of technology is key. It’s also a fairly close-knit community which freely exchanges ideas and insights.
2. Blogging should be personal and reflect your personality. It’s not about making money but that is a plus.
When writing a blog it is important to allow your own voice to come out said WildJunket’s Nellie Huang. William Price of South African Tourism also echoed this sentiment when he said: “Technology is amazing but it’s how we connect with other person on other side of screen that’s important.” Using characters in your blog posts helps humanise stories. Use all the senses and always show, don’t tell.
3. Be inspired. Be descriptive. Be creative.
Multimedia drives content and interest. Photos and videos are key. Be entertaining. Good visuals are important, be descriptive.
4. Create sharable content, make sharing easy and proactively share content. Reward engagement and give people opportunities to participate.
If someone visits your blog page and loves your content (as they inherently will) you need to provide options for them to share it with their friends. By having social plug-ins, share buttons and even subscribe buttons in a visible and easy-to-find place will make your genius content easier to share.
5. Retweets are not repetition. They’re amplification.
If you are challenged in the social networking arena and you have no idea what Twitter is (Flow does offer a twitter course) an easy way to share content and show you like something is to retweet. I’ve been accused of being a serial retweeter. Anything I like or agree and sometimes disagree with I often retweet. And according to Dave Duarte, it’s not a crime. While some may think it’s just repeating what others have said, it’s actually amplication; exposing your or other people’s content to the public.
8. Blogging should be fun. Be passionate. Find your niche market.
Whether you are writing about food, travel, adventure or tourism you should provide content that you are truly passionate about. It’s no use producing content that you would not read yourself or that you think others would enjoy but personally would not participate in that particular acitivity yourself (adventure blogging aside).
9. Be informed. Stay up to date with the latest in information technology gathering.
10. Nothing is simple. One model does not fit all. Do what works for you.
11. Your blog vision should be simple, concrete, credible, emotional and phrased in the form of a story.
12. Get involved in what you believe in. Bloggers are truly travel influencers.
Sharing is caring
Because I Iearnt that “sharing is caring”, check out the presentations from some of the speakers by clicking the links below:
Travel in the digital space – Mariette du-Toit Helmbold
How to make your blog awesome – Dave Duarte
Writing that drives traffic – Nellie Huang