Travel blogs are a highly oversaturated niche; everyone wants to have one nowadays. Publishing a few blog posts a week, sharing some neat pictures with your readers, and going to all these cool places won’t boost your follower numbers high enough to demand stays at 5-star hotels and presidential suites.
In the past, when the competition wasn’t as fierce, you could probably get away with it — but not today.
To become a successful travel blogger in 2020, you need to do the following:
Become a Proficient Photographer
With the rise of Instagram and Pinterest, photography is now the name of the game. This is particularly true for travel blogs; the vast majority of people go there for one thing and one thing only — to see pretty pictures of places they haven’t been to before.
Hence, to really grab their attention and increase the overall reputation of your blog, you need to up your photography game. That way people will not only eagerly await your new content but will also share your existing content with the rest of the world. Once they decide that they do want to take that trip to Bali next year, they’ll remember your travel blog and come back for a few travel tips and everything you have to offer.
So, get out there and get your photography skills (and equipment) up to date if you want to have a chance at building a travel blog empire; use some free online tools and guides if you need to.
Video Mastery
If content is king, then video is queen. At the moment, travel blogs that offer a good blend of story-telling and some quality editing reign supreme. In fact, we humans have always been fascinated with story-telling; it’s how we passed down information from one generation to the next for millennia. Now, video content is just the latest form of story-telling, as well as the most visually engaging by far. Not only that, but video content actually has the potential of going viral on the Internet, allowing you to get somewhat famous overnight. This, of course, calls for some superb technical skills; that is, if you don’t want your videos and your blog to become a laughing stock on the Internet.
If you don’t know how to create compelling video content, now’s a good time as any to start!
Get the Right Equipment
Naturally, when you’re a travel blogger, you’re expected to be in the field — a lot. This warrants some exceptional gadgets and apparatus on your part. For instance, a portable hard drive for storing all those breath-taking visuals you plan on posting on your blog; a Canon SC-200 Deluxe Soft Carrying Case for safely transporting your camcorder from one place to another; a DJI Mavic Air Drone for those memorable bird’s-eye view moments, and so on. You can get all of this — and more — in one place through the Winc online store, for example, allowing you to set up shop in a matter of days.
Technical Aspects
We now move on to the more technical aspects of your travel blog; for instance, hosting. If you don’t plan on monetizing your blog, you can choose any one of the more popular blogging platforms, such as Blogger, Tumblr, etc. However, if you do want to make money off of your blog, then you want to create a self-hosted WordPress blog. This will not only allow you to place your own ads but also to customize the site any way you want.
To do this you must first choose a reliable web host. After that you can let your inner artist pick a suitable theme and also design your blog’s main header to instantly grab the attention of your readers; use Canva, it’s free and easy to use. In addition, you want to get some essential plugins for your blog to make it more secure and SEO-friendly.
Social Media
Now that your blog is finally up and running, you need to find yourself a suitable audience — try social media. Here you can find all sorts of platforms ranging from classics such as Facebook and Twitter to the more image-centric Instagram and Pinterest; pick whichever floats your boat. Technically, you can try engaging on all of these platforms (at the same time) but you’ll just end up being a jack-of-all-trades (and master of none).
To really connect with your target audience you need to funnel all of your efforts into one or two of these platforms to learn all the ins and outs of each (and how to get the best results); more than this would simply be too time-consuming.
At the end of the day, network with your fellow bloggers to always stay in the loop and follow all the latest trends to stay relevant.
