This post is primarily aimed at those who blog about travel and want to become a better travel blogger. We received so many great tips from knowledgeable travel bloggers during the Matka fair and Nordic Bloggers Experience in Helsinki that we feel we have to share them! We briefly present the content of five of the conference's lectures for travel bloggers.
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Blogging as entrepreneurship
Is travel blogging always just a hobby or can it also be a business? Sarah & Terry from Live Share Travel talked about how to take blogging to another level. Their advice to anyone who wants to make money from their travel blog is not to work for free for clients, even at the beginning of your career. "If companies get used to you working for free, it's hard to suddenly change your mind and start charging.
A week's blogging trip often requires three weeks of work to review and edit photos, write articles and report back to the client. Sarah & Terry emphasised the importance of seeing yourself as a "business person" (which they said most bloggers don't!) and the importance of working on your confidence. Concrete tips were to make sure you have a media kit and to be very clear when negotiating - what is included in your offer and what is the price for it.
Successful co-operation with companies
Angelika Schwaff from the German travel blog fellow travellers talked about how to succeed in your co-operation with companies. According to her, you can start a co-operation with a company by following three steps: 1) research, 2) negotiate and 3) implement.
The first step is important and involves finding out the facts about the company and identifying weaknesses where they may need your help as a travel blogger. Then when you pitch the company, keep it short, have a sensible introduction and give the company a reason to want to work with you.
To be able to partner with companies, you need to have either an established blog with a large readership or a niche blog that reaches a specifically defined readership. Not there yet? Work on it! It's never a good idea to cheat with numbers and statistics, according to Angelika who says "Karma is a bitch".
How to make your blog grow
Erik van Erp from Around the Globe talked about how travel bloggers can use SEO (search engine optimisation) to increase traffic to their blog. To begin with, he said that you should be careful to find a good web host.
He also emphasised the importance of a logical structure on the page - which he said most travel bloggers fail to achieve! Categories and labels should be logically organised, and a category can be never have the same name as a label.
Other tips were about avoiding duplicate content (the same text being on several different addresses), and this applies both to your own site - and if someone else steals your content! It's also important to make sure that your site's speed is high enough and that you allow indexing on Google. To keep track of the statistics, you can use Google Analytics and to check for errors on the page you can use the Google Webmaster Tools.
The persuasive power of digital influencers
At the NBE Keynote speak, UK-based Abigail King from Inside the Travel Lab, Japanese Kei Shibata from Travel.jp and the South African Mariette du Toit-Hembold from Destinate.co.za. We heard various examples of the incredible power of digital influencers - whether for positive purposes or to recruit new members to IS forces.
As far as the travel market is concerned, the Asian market will overtake all the other markets and in Asia it is primarily mobile phones, not computers.
Social media for travel marketing
During Friday's NBE Talk, we heard from Catherine Fischer from Germany's future of tourism, Anni Aarni from Tui Nordic, Norwegian Jannicke Hansen from Nordic Travel Bloggers Collective and Finnish Konsta Punkka from @kpunkka.
There was talk of new social media, which Periscope and Snapchat, and Tui Nordic talked about how they started using Snapchat to reach the younger generation with their messages. Konsta Punkka, who has 635,000 followers on Instagram and makes a living out of it, talked about how important it is to maintain high quality throughout and only collaborate with companies that you want to be associated with.
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Ann-Charlotte - The World is Waiting says:
Great tips, thank you! Even though I have a long way to go, it's always good to have valuable information in the back of your mind. Avoid mines.
25 January 2016 - 8:26
Linnea says:
Wow what a lot of good you must have listened to! Thanks for the summary 🙂 I have an overview of the situation I feel, now it's just to work on getting up a few levels in traffic and maybe it will start to roll on 😉 .
25 January 2016 - 9:28
Untangling says:
Super exciting reading 🙂 Thank you for sharing it with the rest of us.
25 January 2016 - 9:28
Renate's travels says:
Many good tips here. Thank you very much for sharing with us who did not have the opportunity to go 🙂 .
25 January 2016 - 9:44
Lennart says:
Thanks for the tips!
25 January 2016 - 9:46
Emelie says:
Interesting reading, sounds like you had a rewarding time here in Finland! 🙂
25 January 2016 - 9:57
Hallin on the Resia blog says:
Great tips! And what an interesting conference you have been to!
25 January 2016 - 11:13
Ama de casa says:
I'm waiting for the tips for nonsense blogs to arrive 🙂 .
25 January 2016 - 11:14
Jennifer - Swedish globetrotter in Helsinki says:
Nicely summarised!
25 January 2016 - 11:26
nils-åke hansson says:
Great tips, thanks! Although as a blogger I probably won't develop this. But you're probably right, you shouldn't advertise without getting something in return. I have probably already gone there and been nice and written about something that can be derived in that direction.
25 January 2016 - 11:38
Ditte says:
What an interesting read! I understand that you have heard, seen and learnt a lot from being at the fair. It's great that you share it with us.
And I particularly believe in charging for a job you do and not marketing things "just because"...
(I think it is important that it is then stated that a post is sponsored and you have been very clear about this when it has happened. )
I can understand that Asia will increase its share of the travel market, because how much is there?
25 January 2016 - 11:53
Marina says:
I understand that these must have been very rewarding and interesting days!
25 January 2016 - 12:51
Alexandra says:
How nice that you share your tips. 🙂 Must have been exciting and instructive for you to listen to these lectures!
25 January 2016 - 12:35
admin says:
Ann-Charlotte, a lot of what the "big bloggers" say can be valuable to think about even if you have a smaller blog!
Linnea, that was really interesting! Yes, some traffic is after all important if you want to be able to negotiate. And then it's fun too 😉
Ontripdk, we believe that we travel bloggers should share and help each other!
Renates Reiser, as I said, we believe it's good that we travel bloggers try to help each other in different ways!
Emelie, we had an incredibly interesting, intense and fun week in Finland! 🙂
Hallin, an incredibly interesting conference. We have learnt so much!
Ama de casa, haha, I'm looking forward to reading reports from upcoming blogging conferences! 😉
Nils-Åke, it is very easy to do that! It doesn't always have to be wrong, but we have learnt now to think a little more carefully before answering yes.
Ditte, yes, if you are sponsored it should be stated in some way. Often, the deals can be a little fuzzy. For example, you may be invited to a restaurant dinner. There may be no explicit agreement to write about it, but under the surface there is of course an expectation of it. If you write an honest review of the restaurant, is it advertising? Perhaps not directly, but perhaps indirectly, and then it should be clear to readers that you have been sponsored in some way. At the same time, you want to be clear that you are writing real opinions. You can be sponsored to try a hotel, restaurant, destination, etc. but no one can decide what or how you write on your own blog.
Alexandra, it was very informative! Of course, we also hope that it is valuable for others to read about! 🙂
Marina, intense and instructive! 🙂
25 January 2016 - 13:44
BP says:
You must have recorded the seminars! Or you have a memory I could die for;-)
Very interesting and instructive reading, reminiscent of a company hiring an advertising agency to get their message/products out and how best to sell them. I have to say that I am almost glad that I - like AMA - "only" have a nonsense blog. I mean, if I were to follow all these tips, I would lose all the spontaneity and joy of blogging. But like I said, I'm not at your level of ambition either. I wonder if there will ever be a nonsense blog conference. I wouldn't think so;-)
25 January 2016 - 16:28
Mary of Rövarhamn says:
Thank you nice ones who share with us who could not be there. Hugs, Linda
25 January 2016 - 18:36
Discovering The Planet says:
What a great and useful post. And thank you for taking the time to share it with us.
to those of us who were not there. Thumbs up 🙂
25 January 2016 - 20:04
Across the board says:
Thanks for the info. Very interesting, although now I don't have the time required. The job takes so much time that I hardly have time for anything else right now ....
25 January 2016 - 21:24
Cat's Considerations says:
Thank you for the good and concrete tips. Generously. By the way, hope to meet you live on Thursday after so many years of blog acquaintance. Is it since 2008?
25 January 2016 - 21:25
admin says:
BP, haha, we use these traditional tools called paper and pencil 😉 Great comment by the way! We can imagine using the knowledge in collaboration with companies, but in between we want to blog because it's fun. I also want to keep the joy of blogging, I know what you mean!
Mary af Rövarhamn, glad you appreciate it! I think we travel bloggers should help each other!
Discovering the planet, glad it is appreciated! 🙂
Across the board, I absolutely understand what you mean! The tips came from very professional travel bloggers, who probably also put in a lot of time. The rest of us can choose which parts we want to take and not.
Katta's observations, oh how nice that you come on Thursday! We started blogging in 2009 and I've probably been reading your blog since then 🙂.
25 January 2016 - 21:59
Elisabeth says:
What an interesting meeting you had. I wish you good luck. You have good prospects. I don't have those ambitions myself. I want to write what I feel like, and if I don't want to one day, I want to be able to stop. In other words, just for fun. But I wish you good luck in every way!
25 January 2016 - 22:07
admin says:
Elisabeth, it was a very interesting meeting! We will probably try to use some of the lessons learnt, but not in all situations. It is also important for us that the blog continues to be fun 🙂 I absolutely understand your thought!
25 January 2016 - 23:46
Elin says:
Thanks for the great tips!
26 January 2016 - 14:04
Imelda says:
Thank you for always sharing your experiences. I write mostly for myself to remember but of course also for those who want to follow us on the journey when we are away. In the winter, not much happens here in the house so then there will be some recipes and the finest grandchild who will take place instead. Here you will constantly find new blogs to follow and to read too! So thank you to everyone who comments here too 🙂
26 January 2016 - 19:11
Dryden - Traveller's Edition says:
Great feedback and good info there! Thank you!
26 January 2016 - 21:46
admin says:
Elin, just glad to be able to share!
Imelda, how nice that you also find new blogs here! 🙂
Dryden, just glad we could share!
26 January 2016 - 22:44
Fantasy travel says:
You have summarised everything so well! Even I who was there learn things I had already forgotten 😉 Difficult to top your posts from the conference, although I had also intended to make some kind of summary. Will see if there is something I can supplement with, otherwise it may be a direct link here only 🙂.
26 January 2016 - 22:45
Maria says:
What great tips! Will save the post and delve more into the points later 🙂 .
26 January 2016 - 23:12
admin says:
Fantasy travel, haha, it's easy to forget! That's why I always try to write quickly afterwards. Then it kind of disappears 😉
Maria, great if we could contribute something 🙂 .
27 January 2016 - 7:29
Ann-Mari says:
Great! I didn't get to attend all the seminars, so great summary 🙂 .
27 January 2016 - 13:20
admin says:
Ann-Mari, glad it is appreciated! 🙂
27 January 2016 - 15:12
Caroline King says:
Great tips! Right now my blog is http://www.denandraresan.com just a hobby, although we've been out for a year now and that changes the perspective, of course. It could be an idea to go one step further when I get time with it. I'll think about what you wrote when I improve it 🙂.
02 February 2016 - 11:50