How can I be a professional travel blogger? Do I need to rush to new places every other week for content? These are pretty common questions when a regular content writer plunges from a mundane job to the more sophisticated and professional travel blogging career.
And the answer to your question is, no you don’t have travel to different places for getting the right exposure for your travel blogs. Learn the secrets to becoming a professional travel blogger; information sourced from experienced travel bloggers.
However, understand this….
Starting a freelance blogging career in travel niche is not very difficult but it is not pretty simple either. Unlike a hobby, you will be considered a professional writer who would give out authentic and correct travel information. However hard it may seem in the initial days, give yourself a couple of weeks and you will be as good as a pro.
9 Secrets to Becoming a Professional Travel Blogger
Let us unveil the secrets one by one now..
1. You Need a Good Site
Find a unique URL for your blog site that should be easy to remember, yet intriguing. You cannot change your blog name in the future. Don’t go with fancy and trendy creations. Think for the longer run. If you are a guest writer, then blog title and content should be your target.
2. Connect With People Who Travel a Lot
Although travelling plays a very important role in writing travel blogs, it is not possible for you to spend on expensive trips.
However, you can connect with people (friends, their friends, relatives etc.) who travel a lot or who live or have been to those particular destinations you are writing about. Don’t be sloppy about your information.
If you have very limited information about a place, make sure you limit your word count and present the place in such a way that it gets easily sold to your readers.
3. A Content Can Take You to Places without Travelling
See, writing as a hobby is quite different from being a professional blogger. Travel diaries with friends and family need not be accurate. But such blogs are meant for friends and family alone; no one else will care to read.
How can you make strangers read your content? – By selling information; you need to provide something that is useful, which will help them in planning their travel itineraries.
First step is finding out what people are searching for? Do a little bit of research; check Quora or Reddit to find out what questions related to travel are being asked.
Lifestyle and Travel blogging is all about giving people what they want but in a gluing way.
Some of the common things you need to include in your blogs are
- Budget travel tips
- Food recommendation
- Places to visit
- Where to stay and eat
- Photography
- Entertainment
- Adventurous things to do
- Romantic lookouts
- Kids things to do
- Travel accessories required
- Weather and climate
- Transportation
You can also write an entire travel story with tips, anecdotes and things you found interesting apart from the must visit places.
4. Start by Guest Posting
Guest posting on other popular blog sites with large audience is a great way to get your name out there. If you write an engaging content for someone else, you will likely get good recommendation and credibility. Through guest posting, you are more likely to reach target audience in jiffy and create your own brand.
Remember, when you start your own blog, do ask other guest writers to fill in for you. Different writing styles build a better site and add more subscriptions.
5. Know What’s SEO
SEO and blogging or web content writingare inseparable. You may be a good writer with great content but if it doesn’t reach the right audience then what’s the use?
You need to make your blog popular amongst the overflowing information on the internet. Either you learn how to do the SEO bit or hire an SEO specialist. SEO is basically tweaking your content to optimise it for search engines.
However, some of the things that you can do by yourself is researching on keywords and acquiring bank links.
For example if your target keyword is “freelance travel blogger”, include the keyword in five different places in the blog – the title, the URL, the first para, sub headings and meta description etc.
6. Be a Social Media Rocker
The ultimate place to promote your blog site is the effervescent social media platforms. Staying active on social media is important to earn a living. However, don’t waste hours on it.
Schedule posts on social media early in the morning and later in the evening, the two best times to post on social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Limit to only 2 posts for FB, 2- 4 for Twitter per day and only one post every other day for Instagram.
For travel bloggers, Instagram is one of the interesting platforms to talk about a location through photos. Use hashtags and tag the locations.
7. Include Great Quality Photos
To make your blog appealing and most wanted, add photos. You have to be a good photographer for your personal travel blogs. Master your skills in photography and editing; use tools such as Photoshop and PhotoEditor. Add beautiful and colourful pics.
If it’s for someone else, then research and upload the best photograph related to your destination subject. Make sure your audience is able to relate the content to your pics.
8. Advertise Your Blog
Go for paid advertisements, if you can,to attract genuine readers; most professional bloggers do. If you have the money, spend a little to reach large and targeted audience. You can also sell products and become customers of other bloggers.
Even non – profit organizations advertise. Treat your travel blogs like a business and it will definitely give you returns.
9. Network – Don’t Hesitate to Talk about your Brand
To be a successful travel blogger, networking with powerful people is the key. Conferences, business meets, online forums are pretty easy sources to meet potential business partners, clients, and colleagues. Online communities are also great places for collaborations and teaming up.
