Today.Az - Travel blog marketing: From setting up to promoting

The first thing you have to do is decide what it really is you want. Is it a place to purely talk about your own travels and where you are planning to go next? Somewhere to give advice to others who are going to be going to the same – or similar – regions? Maybe a platform for inspiring others to try their own hand at traveling by showing them how wondrous it can all be?

Having a very specific plan in mind is a necessity, as it will keep you on point as you build your blog. That doesn’t mean you will always be that format as change is natural and being adaptable is important.Â But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least know where you are starting from so you can move on from that point.

If you have a special niche involved, make sure it fits in with a more general format. After all, you don’t want to start out too ambitiously before you have any foundation built. For example, if you want a blog based on travel humor, put it leaning more towards the travel and inject the humor as you go along. Build on the original concept before you start to build out, and leave the humor to the tone of the posts before you go too far.

There are a couple of things you should keep in mind when you first start out, however.

Helpful plugins

As I said, I am going to assume from here on that you are using WordPress. Below are three fantastic plugins that can make things a little easier for both you and your readers, not to mention more interesting. Each one is free, easy to install and has a specific purpose for the travel blogger.

Travel Map – A great plugin to show where you have been or where you are going. It allows you to map a route and embed that map in any post on specifically onto a page. One great way I have seen this used was by a travel blogger who actually kept the embedded map on the welcome page with a constant update of where he was while he traveled. When he was back home he would still map a route but through his own city, showing how he still incorporated travel into his day to day. By the way, each location can be linked up to a UROL, such as to blog posts you have written that relate. Very nifty.
SlickrFlickr – If you are like me and a large majority of modern day travelers, you use Flickr. It is a fantastic photo sharing program, and it offers a copyright until the site, as well as licensing for public domain works. But it can be a pain to copy/paste over and over again for each photo. Inserting is also annoying. With SlickrFlickr you can put in a large number at once, insert individually or create a gallery or slideshow. You can also create a gallery for the sides of pages rather than just in posts, so you can have scrolling photos on the main page in the sidebar.
Editorial Editor – This is a great scheduler for anyone who needs their posts to be spaced. Most travel bloggers write both while on the road and when home. Having a list of posts written up when you have time to post when you don’t is a great option. But the WordPress standard calender doesn’t always work very well. Try this one out, as it is much more effective and can schedule for dates far into the future.

Promote yourself

Promotion isn’t as hard as it seems. Of course you have the usual basics of marketing, but here are a few ways to really give you a boost from the beginning.

Social media. We already spoke about this in getting started, but you should remember how important it really is. From Facebook to Twitter to Youtube and Foursquare, finding creative ways to utilize social networking and media sites will increase your visibility in profound ways. Especially since things are shared so openly through those formats, so if one person sees you then everyone on their list will, too.
Go with a niche. As I said, you shouldn’t start out with a niche. But once you have that foundation set and know what you want you can start to play more to your specialty. Have something that will make you different from others and word will get around.
Guest blogging. Whether you are writing for another blog or someone else is writing for yours, guest posting is a quick way to gain new followers by taping into someone else’s readers. Exchanging posts is popular when it comes to bloggers, and since so many travelers have blogs you should try to keep those connections you make while on the road.
Work for a site. There are a lot of freelancing opportunities with websites looking for writers.
Use an RSS feed. Allowing readers to subscribe to your RSS will make them more likely to visit you on a regular basis. Great for site loyalty.
Network offline! Here is a why you may want to visit blogging event and conferences and also a Blog World Discount Code as an added bonus.

/Search Engine Journal/