HOW TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL TRAVEL BLOGGER – STEP 3
WRITING
Hey, good to see you again. Now that you have an attractive blog (STEP 1 ; STEP 2), it is time to talk about something really important. Writing. To be honest, this is my personal horror Why? Because I am not a good writer at all, but that’s the idea of a blog, right? Luckily I have been following other travel blogs for some years and I am sure I have a few tips for you. Let’s start…
IT’S ALL ABOUT PASSION
You want to know the truth? Of course you want… Most of the travel blogs out there don’t survive for long. I have already seen soooo many travel blogs coming and going. But why?
I think, because it is so hard to keep up with something, if it is not rewarding right from the beginning. When you start your blog, you will realize that your family and friends will read the first 3-5 posts (when you are lucky). You feel like the “Master of travel blogging” – You wonder why this idiot Lars (that’s me) said it is hard to get traffic to your site. And then – suddenly – BAMM – you realize that nobody reads your travel blog anymore and almost no one likes your facebook posts. That’s tough. All the work you put in your blog is for nothing. Why should you keep going? See, here comes in your passion.
If you’re passionate about something, you will always find a way to keep doing it. You don’t care, if others like it or not. Most travel bloggers give up because they are not writing about what they are passioned about. They just want to be as cool and hip as others. They try to copy other travel bloggers writing styles, their niches, their topics BUT they can’t copy their passion. So, please always remember:
CREATE GREAT CONTENT
High quality content is, in my personal opinion, responsible for creating a loyal audience. Of course you can’t be good in everything. That’s why I recommend to have a closer look on the travel blogging niches (Step1).
If you aren’t a superb writer, nor a great photographer, focus on something else. But no matter what you do, make the best out of it! Don’t publish a new post just because it is on your schedule. Every post, every photo, every video, whatever content you share, make it YOUR best! If you put high quality content in your blog, your readers will come back and stay.
Just a short example: Our Galapagos on a budget post is still our most successful one and I think for a good reason. We needed 2 weeks to write it and it consists of 4 posts in total. We put all our effort into it and made it our best.
DO’S AND DONT’S OF WRITING
But what does that exactly mean? High quality content? What is high quality and what is bullshit? To make this clear, I’ll give you some do’s and dont’s.
Do write consistently, and well
If you have followed our blog in the past, you definitely noticed that we are non-native English speakers. That makes it a little bit harder for us to write, but at least we always double check twice… … our grammar etc. If you want to be recognized as a professional travel blogger, avoid careless mistakes.
In terms of regulary writing, I can give you the following advice. YOU decide how often you want to write. You shouldn’t overstretch yourself and commit to post every day, but also keep it to at least 3 times a week. Most successful travel blogs have a new post coming out 5 times a week. There are, of course, exceptions but the most important is to post consistently. If you just post 3 times a week, but EVERY week, it is totally fine and it will definitely help you building up an audience.
Do be honest and authentic
We are not that fancy, cool and hip like maaaaany other travel bloggers…sorry. We don’t like to write words like “shit” and “fuck” all the time, because we don’t use them in our normal (maybe boring) everyday life. But hey, that’s how we are and you should also be as authentic as possible.
Your audience will find out very quickly, if you just try to copy someone. So, don’t do it!
Be yourself, always!
And don’t talk bullshit It should be clear but I have met a few travel bloggers who make promises to the moon and back. Do you know the saying: “I would rather be honest than impressive!” I agree a 100%. Write about facts and not how it might could be.
Do write easy and comprehensively
The whole world is your potential audience. We write our blog in English to reach as many people as possible. But I am not just talking about people from the US, UK or Australia. We also have readers from Germany, India or Brazil. They all have one thing in common: They are non-native English speakers.
Make it easy for them to understand your posts, otherwise you will loose them. Write in basic English. You don’t need to impress English professors from Haward.
Don’t let SEO destroy your post
We all know that SEO is super important to get traffic to your blog (STEP 4) but in terms of writing it very often just looks ridiculous. Don’t focus too much on placing your SEO keyword twenty times in a post. Google is very clever Let it do its job and concentrate on your writing. You should write for human beings and not for machines!
Don’t write too much about yourself
I know this sounds ridiculous as it is your blog right? Your mom loves it and your friends like it as well, so why shouldn’t you write about yourself?… Are you ready for the truth? Okay, sit down and listen. You might not be as cool and interesting as you think. WHAT??? I know this sounds harsh, but believe me, every travel blogger has to face this fact at one point.
We tend to believe that we are the only ones who travel around the world but the fact is that thousands of other people (and travel blogger) do so as well. There will always be someone who is cooler, more adventoures or better looking. …Bastards…
Don’t get me wrong, of course you can write about yourself and you should post pictures of you etc. but don’t exaggerate it. Instead, give more tips and advices. Most of your readers will come to your blog and stay on your blog because they find interesting information for their next trip. You should focus on that!
YES, there are exceptions though. Some professional travel bloggers are successful because of their personality. Good for them
Well, this is it. I hope I could give you at least a few tips. I promise to keep this post updated and to include more tips about writing styles etc. in the future. I really have to work on that topic. Shame on me.
If you don’t want to miss any updates, sign up for our newsletter and PLEASE leave a comment when you think these tips were useful. In Step 4 I show you how you get your blog noticed. Hope to see you there!
Cheers
Lars