5 Steps to Becoming a Travel Blogger

my name is Nikki and I'm a full-time

travel blogger behind the pin the map

project which was voted a top 100 travel

blog of 2015 I started the pin theat

project 2 years ago and since then have

been on assignment in various countries

from Colombia to France worked with

various Brands and bloggers and I'm soon

headed to Morocco in Vietnam for

aspiring travel bloggers out there the

following tips will help get you started

with your very own

blog the first step is choosing your

passion it seem seems pretty obvious but

you'd be surprised to know that before I

started the pin the map project I had a

fashion blog a restaurant vog and a

postgraduate vog to just kind of talk

about Life After College and all three

vogs are gone why because although I

enjoyed writing about those things and I

did enjoy you know the world of fashion

the world of food and just kind of

documenting Life After College it wasn't

enough to keep keep my interest and

blogging has to keep your

interest step two so you know what to

blog about but now what the next step is

where do you begin well there's a couple

different blogging platforms you have

WordPress you have blogger you have

Squarespace those are the main players I

like to use WordPress I think it's an

amazing blogging platform wordpress.com

is the free version and wordpress.org or

is the more complicated kind of elevated

version of Wordpress I started out on

wordpress.com and my URL used to be the

pin theat project.

wordpress.com once I started my blog I

just started writing and decided to give

myself 3 to four months to see if I

would really stick to the project I knew

I had kind of started and stop blogs in

the past so before I invested in it I

decided to just give give it time I

waited 3 months and every day I wrote

and every day my passion for the project

just flared and I decided I was going to

invest so I purchased my domain I hired

a website designer who is responsible

for the beautiful layout I'm obsessed

with today on a thin theat project and

she also helped me transfer my blog from

wordpress.com to wordpress.org which

allows for a lot more customization and

just freedom to kind of tweak your and

make it however you envision it

being step three also known as one of

the trickier steps is building your

following there's going to be a whole

separate video dedicated to building

your blog following and it's going to

look at organic ways to build it from

social media to Word of Mouth to ways

that are kind of not organic but you

know paying for advertising and other

ways to drive traffic to your blog I

used to work in advertising for some

major clients so this is going to be a

really good follow-up video on how to

build your blog following but for the

purpose of today let's look at building

your social media following so you

started the blog you know what you're

blogging about and you invested in it

and you want to get people to read your

content of course so what do you do you

start building yourself up on social

media social media is key Twitter

Facebook Instagram YouTube get all the

social media channels you can and pour

your time into it if you're going into

travel blogging Instagram is so

important because travel blogging is all

about transporting your readers to a

different destination and photos and

videos are incredible for that so

definitely Embrace Instagram it's one of

the easiest ways to gain a following

quickly and to drive people to your

website and definitely look at Twitter

and Facebook as well to share your posts

whenever you post something and to

engage your audience the rule here is

that think of social media like a dinner

party if you're at dinner with your

friends and they're only talking abouts

and not asking you about your life for

the latest girl or guy you're dating the

conversation's kind of boring but if

it's a dialogue and they're asking you

questions just like you're asking them

all of a sudden you're interested that's

what social media should be

like number four is by far the most

important tip which is put yourself out

there and don't be afraid of rejection

if I hadn't approached top deck travel

in hopes of partnering with them I

wouldn't be going to Morocco in 3 weeks

if I hadn't approached Ki I wouldn't be

going to Vietnam in September if I

hadn't approached mode media I wouldn't

be part of their blogger Network which

which reaches 406 million readers

worldwide if I hadn't pitch the story to

Vice I wouldn't have been on assignment

in Colombia the list goes on but the

only reason I have gotten many of the

opportunities I've gotten with both the

pin the mat project and my travel

writing is because I dare to ask for it

the final step is being consistent in

your blogging and evolving your blog

pretty straightforward but if you want

to keep your readers you have to turn

out new content every day preferably or

at least three times a week think about

it this way if a reader discovers your

blog and loves what they see and they

check your blog on Monday read a brand

new story they check it back on Tuesday

and nothing's new and then check back

the next seven days and nothing is new

you might lose that reader and you can't

fault them there's a whole world of

talented bloggers some of them traveling

at this very minute sharing amazing

posts and stories and fresh content and

if you're not turning out anything new

you're losing those readers so always

always always post and if you run out of

ideas because let's be honest we're not

vending machines of stories look to

refresh some of your old content ideas

for example I had a post on where to eat

in New York City that I wrote a year ago

I updated the photos added a few more

places and then reran it as a fresh post

and there we go that was a new post on a

new day and I didn't have to come think

of brand new ideas cuz sometimes the

inspiration isn't there especially if

you're in between trips the other thing

is to keep evolving your blog if you

haven't discovered blog Lovin absolutely

go visit it now it's a great way to

discover other bloggers that are

successful in the fields and to take

note of what they're doing for their

sites that work for them if you notice

they're using a widget that is really

great at capturing newsletter uh

subscriptions you can download it if you

notice they have a travel shop and you

love the way it's designed and you love

the concept create a travel shop and

make it your own on your own blog

look at what other bloggers are doing

and look at ideas that work for them and

you'll start to learn and create those

ideas for yourself if you guys like this

video make sure to subscribe to my

YouTube channel in the button below and

make sure to stay tuned for future

blogging tip videos where I'll share

things such as building a Blog following

approaching Brands how to get free

travel perks and all that jazz I hope

you guys enjoyed this and share any

questions and comments below