You’ve probably fantasized about quitting your nine-to-five office job, roaming the globe and making a living as a travel blogger. For a lot of us, it’s the dream, and there are many bloggers on the Internet who claim to be living it. Yet before you book that round-the-world plant ticket and set off with just your laptop and a backpack, it’s worth doing some research into what makes a travel blog great. There’s a lot of info out there, but here are some starting points. Whether you’re a self-employed travel blogger or working for a company, these tips should help you to craft a high-quality travel blog.
Read Travel Writing
As any dedicated writer will tell you, in order to write well you have to read widely. Luckily if you have any interest in travel writing there’s a lot of interesting material out there, from books to blogs to in-flight magazines. You can read books by famous travel memoirists like Bill Bryson or Anthony Bourdain, the travel section of your favourite weekend newspaper or the results on the first page of Google (after all, that’s where you want to end up). Read as much as you can, because even the worst travel writing has lessons to teach you about how to write effectively.
Decide on Your Story
When you’re on the road or in a different country, all kinds of things will happen to you. Some will be interesting, most probably won’t be. But unless you have a clear goal in mind for what kind of story you’re going to tell, all you have is a string of occurrences. The best travel blogs have a clear subject in mind, whether it’s a how-to guide for traveling South America on the cheap or a terrifying tale of a close encounter with a shark at a famous beach. Even better if you’re providing readers with useful information such as how THEY can travel for less (and also avoid sharks).
Write a List
There are reasons that listicles are so popular. Our brains are wired to love lists. The information is arranged neatly into categories and often each one features its own image, making it visually pleasing as well as easy to read. A headline like ‘Ten Free Things to do on the Gold Coast for Families’ lets readers know not only what kind of information they’re getting, but roughly how long the article is. Doing most of the hard work for readers, listicles are increasingly popular in an age when people are time-poor and scrolling through Facebook on their phones on the train during peak hour.
Provide Value to the Reader
This tip is true across the board no matter what you’re writing about. Readers want to get something out of your blog. No matter how much you enjoyed it, a walk around a faraway city where nothing much happened is unlikely to be of much interest to anyone else. Emphasize the things you found especially unique and remarkable, such as cultural differences. Describe the setting and the story in such a way that the reader feels like a part of it. Even better, include some practical advice on how they can have the same adventure. After all, travel blogs always seem to feature a section about starting your own travel blog. People want to know how they can live the dream as well.
Use Images Effectively
If you can take your own photos or get a pro to do it, even better. Online content – including social media posts – with images see more engagement than content without them. There are beautiful places all over the world and one of the reasons people travel is to see them. Give your readers a sneak peak of what to expect when they travel and make them want more – until they’re booking that big trip for themselves.
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