So, you love to write and you want to travel. You think you’d like to start a travel blog, but wait! How exactly do you start a travel blog? Writer/blogger Mari Kane will explain how to get your blog together and take it on the road. The BACTW Communication Director blogs on BCATW.org as well as managing and contributing to numerous blogs, many of which she has built. On one of her blogs, Blogsite Studio, she gives weekly advice on how to blog with WordPress and she has authored two ebooks about blogging on WordPress, Create a WordPress Website in Ten Easy Steps and Escalate Your WordPress Website: Twelve Ways to Take Your Blog to a Higher Level. At a BCATW Meetup on July 8, Mari showed travel writers: • How to choose a niche and domain name • The blogging ecosystem • How to create a beautiful design • What to write for your blog • The importance of images • How traffic = monetization • Why be a joiner Subscribe to Mari's blog at http://blogsitestudio and follow her @blogsitestudio Visit BC Association of Travel Writers at http://bcatw.org

1. ROAD BLOG:
Becoming a Travel Blogger for Fun or Profit

2. for BCATW Meetup – July 8, 2015
PRESENTED BY MARI KANE

3. ABOUT MARI KANE
Writer and Blogger
Designer of WordPress blogsites
Tutor of WordPress users
Follow @blogsitestudio
Like on Facebook at Blogsite Studio

4. blogsitestudio.com
tastingroomconfidential.com
My Blogs

5. bcatw.org
bcatw.org/directory
My BCATW Sites

6. My Blogging Ebooks

7. HOW DO I START A
TRAVEL BLOG?

8. HEATHER GREENWOOD
globetrottingmama.com
Including tips from these travel bloggers

9. MARIE-EVE VALLIÈRES
ToEuropeAndBeyond.com

10. JANICE MUCALOV
SandinmySuitcase.com

11. JODI ETTENBERG
LegalNomads.com

12. DECIDE ON YOUR MISSION
• Blogging as promotion
for print writing, to post
unsold material
• Blogging to promote
travel-related business
• Pure travel blogging

13. FIND A NICHE
AND DOMAIN NAME

14. GET A NICHE
• Budget
• Luxury
• Adventure
• Culinary
• Cruising
• Family
• Under 30
• Over 50
• Solo Women
• Backpacking
• Road Trip
• YOLO

15. CHOOSE YOUR DOMAIN NAME
LIKE AN IDENTITY
• evocative
• easy and fun to say
• hard to mispronounce
• keyword inclusive
• humorous or clever
• use rhymes, alliterations,
portmanteaus
• no cliches!

16. MIX UP TRAVEL
DESCRIPTORS
• Stub
• Tales
• River
• Arrivals
• Departures
• Counter
• Gate
• Boarding
• Lounge
• Sunny
• Backpack
• Journey
• Expedition
• Hike
• Quest
• Route
• Trek
• Wandering
• Nomad/Nomadic
• Roaming
• Maps
• Atlas
• Road
• Traveler
• Letters
• Wanderlust
• Navigating
• Compass
• Uncharted
• Cartography

17. Marie-Eve Vallières of
ToEuropeAndBeyond.c
om
“I wanted a name that
felt real and that
people could easily
remember.
It may not be SEO-
friendly and it may not
be super niche-
oriented but I think
having a name that
resonates with
yourself and with your
readers is what
matters the most in
the end.”

18. Heather Greenwood -
globetrottingmama.com
“Keep it simple and
watch for double letters
that may confuse people.
If you want something
confusing – like using a
number instead of word
(way2go.com) – consider
buying the most likely
mix up and re-direct it.”

19. DESIGN A BEAUTIFUL SITE

20. TOURISTS EXPECT BEAUTY -
BOTH IN TRAVEL AND IN BLOGS
• DIY - cost effective but time
intensive. Learn web design when
you could be writing. Good if you
plan to build more sites.
• Designer - costly but allows for
more time to write. While
designer is designing, you are
writing posts for your first 3
months. Think of it as an
investment.
• Design styles- fortunately, the
current style in vogue is a
minimalistic, flatastically clean
style that’s easy to create and
work with.

21. Janice Mucalov-
SandinmySuitcase.com
“Choosing a WordPress
theme was the most
difficult task – and
perhaps the most
important decision.
If you can, hire someone
to set up your
WordPress blog for you
– they should be able to
recommend a good
theme.”

22. “I AM A FREELANCE
TRAVEL WRITER AND
CAN'T BE BOTHERED
TO LEARN CSS, HTML
AND PHP. FIND
SOMEONE WHO'S
GOOD AT IT AND
DEDICATE YOUR TIME
TO THINGS YOU ARE
ALREADY GOOD AT
INSTEAD.”
Marie-Eve Vallières of
ToEuropeAndBeyond.c
om

23. IMMERSE YOURSELF IN
THE BLOGOSPHERE

24. WORDPRESS THINGS TO LEARN
• Posting and the difference
between posts and pages
• Using Categories and Tags
• Working with Images
• Using Plugins and Widgets
• Working with SEO and Keywords
• Maintenance - updates, backups,
speedups
• Comment management
• Mobile theme management
• Security !
• Other services connected
through APIs (application
program interface)

25. WHERE TO LEARN
WORDPRESS?

26. STRUCTURED LEARNING
• Hire a WordPress Tutor
• Subscribe to
Lynda.com
• Tutorial plugins
• Enroll in a college
course
• WordPress.org Codex

27. UNSTRUCTURED LEARNING
• Blogsitestudio.com
• wpmu.org
• smashingmagazine.com
• business2community.com
• Youtube Videos
• WordCamp - Aug 15!
• Vancouver WordPress
Meetup

28. I would have
started out on
Wordpress.org
initially, instead
of doing what I
did (start on
Blogger). Jodi Ettenberg
LegalNomads.com

29. “Be prepared for a
lot of hard work
and a steep
learning curve!
You have to learn a
lot about
WordPress (or
other), images, etc.”
Janice Mucalov-
SandinmySuitcase.com

30. “You’ll become
better at blogging
the more you do it.
Write often. Don’t
worry, hit publish.
Be open to making
changes and stop
thinking it has to be
perfect from the
start.”
Heather Greenwood -
globetrottingmama.com

31. ALL THINGS GOOGLE
• Google Analytics
• Webmaster Tools - (now
Search Console)
• Pagespeed Insights
• Keyword Finder for SEO
• Google Trends
• Also: Register with Yahoo
and Bing

32. WHERE TO LEARN GOOGLE
TOOLS?
Google:
“Webmaster Academy”
“Analytics Academy”
“Google Apps Learning”

33. EMAIL LISTS
• Email lists are your loyal
footsoldiers who’ll read
and share your posts
• Entice subscribers with a
Free gift, like an ebook
• Use a 3rd party service
like Mail Chimp, Constant
Contact, AWeber, to
manage lists and alerts

34. WHERE TO LEARN EMAIL
LIST MANAGEMENT?
• Tutorials and blogs on
each service’s site.
• Hubspot.com blog
• wpmu.org
• smashingmagazine.co
m
• business2community.c
om

35. USE SOCIAL MEDIA
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google +
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Flickr
• Snapchat
• YouTube or Vimeo
• Tumblr

36. • tourists
• publications
• tourism bureaus
• airlines
• hotels
• agents
• event managers, etc
Build travel-related followings

37. “If you want to grow
traffic know that
you’ll have to spend
considerable time
on social media
promoting your
blog. Setting up a
travel blog and
writing posts is one
thing. Getting others
to read your blog is
another.”
Janice Mucalov-
SandinmySuitcase.com

38. WHERE TO LEARN SOCIAL
MEDIA?
• Lynda.com
• Goodwill Community
Foundation - Learn
Free
GCRlearnfree.org/
• Alison Free Certified
Learning alison.com/
• BCIT

39. KNOW WEB HOSTING
• Types of hosting - Shared,
Virtual Private, Dedicated,
Cloud servers
• Control Panel (Cpanel)
• Directories
• Stats
• Webmail
• Security

40. WHERE TO LEARN ABOUT
WEB HOSTING?
• Web Hosting Secret
Revealed
webhostingsecretrevealed.n
et/
• Who is Hosting This
whoishostingthis.com
• Google it

41. WRITE AMAZING TRAVEL
STORIES

42. TRAVEL BLOGGING
• Research before traveling
• Practice describing 5 senses
• Develop a unique, consistent
style
• Use dialogue and vivid language
• Start with impact, end with
personal insight
• Entertain, inform and inspire
• Employ blog formatting - header
tags, pullquotes, links…
• Write bloggy - listicles, how-to’s,
photo essays…
• Go longform style

43. “Whether you like lists or
photo essays or narratives
doesn't matter, as long as
you can get behind every
single blog post you write.
It's ok to throw in some
advertorials here and there,
but always ensure good
taste and proportion.
Tweaking certain words to
make your site SEO-
friendly is good too. Just
don't make it difficult to
read.”
Marie-Eve Vallières of
ToEuropeAndBeyond.c
om

44. HOW TO LEARN TRAVEL
BLOGGING ?
• MatadorU.com
• American Writers and
Artists - awaionline.net/
• Travelblogsuccess.co
m
• Ruth Kozak courses

45. DEVELOP PHOTOGRAPHY
AND VIDEO SKILLS

46. BECOME A CAMERA NINJA
• Buy usable equipment
• Learn how to use that
equipment
• Have a must-shoot list for every
situation
• Photograph people
• Master the art of editing and
uploading images
• Know how to source copyright-
free images
• Upload images to hard drive in
case camera is lost or stolen
• Use Alt tags in WordPress

47. “Never underestimate
the importance of
visuals
on a blog.
Make your images
big, bright and
memorable.
Have them tell the
story you can't write.
And add keywords in
the alt tags too.”
Marie-Eve Vallières of
ToEuropeAndBeyond.c
om

48. HOW TO LEARN TRAVEL
PHOTOGRAPHY
• Matadoru.com
• NationalGeographicEx
peditions.com
• Take David Smith’s
online course, at
interfaceimages.com

49. “Make sure your
images are always
under 100kb in size.
Know how to
reduce/compress
images via
PhotoShop
Elements or other
image processing
programs.”
Janice Mucalov-
SandinmySuitcase.com

50. MONETIZE YOUR
TRAVEL BLOG

51. FIRST, GET MASSIVE TRAFFIC
Don’t worry about monetizing until you get 50 -100k hits /mo

52. ACTIVE SALES
SALES YOU SOLICIT, NEGOTIATE AND
FULFILL• Sponsored
posts
• Product
placement
• Services
offered
• Online store
• Contests

53. PASSIVE SALES
SALES THAT RUN ON AUTO-PILOT
• Affiliates
• Pay-Per-Click (Adsense)
• Lead Generation
• Advertising
• Directory
• Subscriptions
• Membership
• Sales of Digital
Merchandise

54. “Don’t take cheap
monetization
strategies because
building a
sustainable
business should be
the goal. Look to
readers first and
respect them before
a quick buck.”
Jodi Ettenberg
LegalNomads.com

55. “My blog represents
only 10% of my overall
income, but it has
earned me dozens of
freelance gigs – for
translating,
ghostwriting, copy
editing and social media
consulting.
You don't want to
alienate your readers
with sponsored posts
and banner ads.
All in good taste.”
Marie-Eve Vallières of
ToEuropeAndBeyond.c
om

56. “For me the blog has
never been a way to
monetize directly. It’s
my resume and
through it I’ve built my
credentials and
developed an
audience that allows
me to work through
spokesperson roles
and other media for
pay.”
Heather Greenwood -
globetrottingmama.com

57. BE A JOINER

58. GROUPS TO JOIN
• Professional Travel
Bloggers Association
(PTBA)
• Travel Media Association
of Canada (TMAC)
• British Columbia
Association of Travel
Writers (BCATW)
• Meetup – travel blogging
groups
• Facebook – travel groups
• Attend travel/blogging-
related conferences

59. “[Groups] are a support
system.
You’ll keep your
knowledge high and
build relationships
with people who will
support you (and you
them) throughout your
career.
It’s an investment that
pays out in ways you
might never expect
over time.
Heather Greenwood -
globetrottingmama.com

60. ENJOY YOUR BLOG!
Follow Mari @blogsitestudio
Subscribe at blogsitestudio.com
Come to WordPress Workshop Meetups!
Join BCATW at bcatw.org
Follow @bctravelwriters